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The film industry is not a particularly profitable area. In fact, most movies lose money after their theatrical runs, and film financers have to wait for home video and television showings in order to see their money reports turn from red to black. The DVD boom has helped the major studios pad their coffers during these financially repressed times.
The storage capacity of DVDs, as well as the fact that a DVD can be watched just about anywhere, has turned many people into collectors and connoisseurs of special editions. A company risks the wrath of millions if a popular title arrives on DVD without bonus features, so we have entered the era of special editions designed for the masses, not just a handful that can afford pricy laserdiscs or lavish box sets. Consumers scratch studios´ backs by purchasing loads of DVDs, and studios scratch consumers' backs by making available materials that furthers appreciation of the work done to create a film.
Paramount´s "Special Collector´s Edition" DVDs show how a wealth of well-organized and substantive extras can provide hours of interactive entertainment. Originally, the studio released "Star Trek II" through "Star Trek: Insurrection" in reverse order, and the movie-only discs disappointed many a fan. (Also, in some cases, the video and audio presentations could only be described as "lackluster".) When the time came for the DVD release of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", the studio decided that an about-face was in order--Paramount would create a special edition to inaugurate a revamped philosophy towards its flagship series. The studio is now working its way through the movie series again, this time in theatrical release order, with 2-disc sets offering a plethora of extras. (Every episode of "Star Trek--The Original Series" is on DVD, and every season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" will be on DVD by the end of 2002. "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" will be released in 2003, presumably to be followed by "Star Trek: Voyager" in 2004.)
9 months separated the DVD releases of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" and "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan--The Director´s Edition". Now, less than 2 months later, "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" Special Collector´s Edition joins the lineup of revamped "Star Trek" movie DVDs. Whereas both "The Motion Picture" and "The Wrath of Khan" went back to the cutting room, "The Search for Spock" has remained unchanged since its theatrical release.
The third "Trek" movie takes place immediately following the events of "Trek II". Spock dies while saving the Enterprise from destruction at the end of "Khan", so the Enterprise is now without a science officer. Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and his crew take the heavily-damaged Enterprise back to Earth. Kirk and Co. assume that Starfleet will repair the ship and re-enter it into active service. However, Starfleet actually wants to decommission the Enterprise and slowly ease her senior officers into desk jobs. Meanwhile, ship doctor "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley) begins to act strangely, as if he were suffering from a split personality disorder. Ambassador Sarek (Mark Lenard) of Vulcan reveals that Spock might have transferred his katra (or non-corporeal essence) to McCoy, and the ambassador solicits Kirk´s help in reuniting Spock´s katra and his body.
I won´t reveal any other plot details because the movie needs a healthy lack of knowledge in order to be engrossing. Once you know everything, the pacing seems to suffer appreciably. In fact, for a film where not all that much happens, "The Search for Spock" moves a bit slowly for my tastes. Suffice it to say that Christopher Lloyd appears as Kruge, a Klingon who wants the Genesis device for its destructive capabilities, and Kirk´s son (played by Merritt Butrick) also appears in order to lend "Trek III" with some emotional heft. Robin Curtis replaces Kirstie Alley as Saavik. Curtis does not project the kind of presence that Alley does, so the once-promising character seems to have shrunk to an afterthought.
You´ve probably heard of the "Evens good, odds not so god" rule when it comes to "Star Trek" movies. Well, "The Search for Spock" does lend some credibility to that adage. As Kevin Kaup noted in his review of the movie-only disc, "Star Trek III" is the only one in the series to begin with footage from the previous film and to end with the equivalent of the words "To Be Continued..." The film depends very much on the existence of "The Wrath of Khan" and "The Voyage Home", so it feels like a child afraid to let go of his/her parents´ hands. This attitude saddles the project with the "can´t-stand-by-itself" factor, making it an important contribution to "Star Trek" lore but slightly inaccessible to newbies. Since there is a lack of independence and a lack of urgency, the movie ends up being slightly less than the sum of its parts.
Video:
Alas, the lack of any editing changes to "Star Trek III" seemed to give Paramount the excuse to take it easy with the video transfer. Though I haven´t seen the original movie-only DVD, I would venture a guess that the same 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen elements were used for that DVD and this new issue. Shockingly, the scenes from "Star Trek II" that were used in Star Trek III" look woeful and generally used-and-abused, marred by grain, scratches, dust, and lighting and color errors. I use the word "shockingly" because the same scenes look much better when played from the 2-disc "Wrath of Khan" set.
The rest of the footage fares much better. Scenes shot expressly for "The Search for Spock" appear consistently smooth and film-like, if not always free of debris. Once again, the DVD handles the extensive use of reds much better than VHS or LD copies of the film, though the transfer is also softer than recent Paramount offerings like "We Were Soldiers".
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[release]10611[/release]