Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Plot

The Federation starship Enterprise limps back to Earth following a battle with the superhuman Khan Noonien Singh, who tried to destroy the Enterprise by detonating an experimental terraforming device known as Genesis. The casualties of the fight include Admiral James T. Kirk's Vulcan friend, Spock, whose casket has unexpectedly landed onto the surface of the planet created by the Genesis Device. Upon arriving at Earth Spacedock, Doctor Leonard McCoy begins to act strangely and is arrested. Starfleet Admiral Morrow visits Enterprise and informs the crew the ship is to be decommissioned; the crew is ordered not to speak about Genesis due to political fallout over the device.

David Marcus—Kirk's son, a key scientist in Genesis' development—and the Vulcan Saavik are investigating the Genesis planet from the science vessel USS Grissom. Discovering an unexpected life form on the surface, Marcus and Saavik transport to the planet. They find that the Genesis Device has resurrected Spock in the form of a child, although his mind is not present. Marcus, pressed by Saavik, admits that he used unstable "protomatter" in constructing the Genesis Device, meaning that Spock is rapidly aging, and the planet will be destroyed within hours. Meanwhile, commander Kruge, a member of the alien Klingon race, intercepts information about Genesis. Believing the device to be a potent weapon, he takes his cloaked ship to the Genesis planet, destroys Grissom, and captures Marcus, Saavik, and Spock.

Spock's father, Sarek, meets with Kirk about his son's death. The pair learn that before he died, Spock transferred his katra, or living spirit, to McCoy. Spock's katra and body are needed to lay him to rest on the Vulcan homeworld, and without help, McCoy will die from carrying the katra. Disobeying orders, Kirk and his officers spring McCoy from detention, disable the USS Excelsior, and steal Enterprise from Spacedock to return to the Genesis planet.

In orbit, Enterprise is attacked and disabled by Kruge. In the standoff that follows, Kruge orders that one of the hostages on the surface be executed; David is killed defending Saavik. Kirk and company feign surrender and activate Enterprise's self-destruct sequence. The ship explodes, killing the Klingon boarding party while the Enterprise crew beams down to the planet's surface. Kirk lures Kruge to the planet by promising the secret of Genesis and has him beam his crew to the Klingon vessel. As the Genesis planet disintegrates, Kirk and Kruge engage in hand-to-hand combat; Kirk emerges victorious after kicking the Klingon off a cliff. Overwhelming the last member of the Klingon crew, Kirk and his officers set course for Vulcan.

Cast

William Shatner as Admiral James T. Kirk: Shatner stated that being directed by Leonard Nimoy, his longtime co-star and friend, was initially awkward, although as the shoot went on, it became easier as he realized how confident Nimoy was. To reduce weight, Shatner dieted before the start of production, but as filming continued, he tended to "slip"; the costume department had to make 12 shirts for him.

DeForest Kelley as Leonard McCoy: doctor and the carrier of Spock's living spirit. Kelley has the majority of the film's memorable scenes, but admitted to occasional difficulties in acting with and being directed by his longtime co-star. However, he has declared that he had no doubts about Nimoy's ability to direct the film.

James Doohan, as Montgomery Scott: Enterprise's chief engineer

George Takei as Hikaru Sulu: Enterprise's helmsman. Takei was dismayed to hear that his character was called "Tiny" by a guard at McCoy's cell during the film and argued with the film's producer to have the line cut. When Takei saw the first screening of the film, he changed his mind and promptly apologized.

Walter Koenig, as Pavel Chekov: Enterprise's navigation and acting science officer

Nichelle Nichols as Uhura: Enterprise's communications officer. Nichols had always insisted on wearing a skirt; although the standard female uniform used trousers, the costume designer created a skirted version specifically for her.

Dame Judith Anderson as T'Lar: A Vulcan high priestess who restores Spock's katra to his body. At age 87, and, at her nephew's urging, Anderson accepted the role. Nimoy wanted someone with "power and magic" for the ethereal role. Anderson claimed to be 5 feet 2 inches (1.57 m) tall, but her true height was closer to 4 feet 8 inches (1.42 m), which presented a problem when the designers needed to make her look appropriately regal. The solution was to dress her with an overlong hem and built-up shoes which, combined with a crown, added 6 inches (15 cm) to her height.

Production

Development

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was a critical and commercial success, so Paramount Pictures quickly prepared for a third Star Trek film. The Wrath of Khan's director Nicholas Meyer would not return; he had disagreed with changes made to his film's ending without his consent. Upon seeing The Wrath of Khan, Leonard Nimoy became "excited" about playing Spock again. When asked by Paramount if he wanted to reprise the role for the third feature, Nimoy agreed and told them "You're damned right, I want to direct that picture!" Studio chief Michael Eisner was reluctant to hire Nimoy because he mistakenly believed that the actor hated Star Trek and had demanded in his contract that Spock be killed. Nimoy was given the job after he persuaded Eisner that this was not the case. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's first reaction to the news was that producer Harve Bennett had "hired a director you can't fire".

Paramount gave Bennett the green light to write Star Trek III the day after The Wrath of Khan opened, the fastest go-ahead the producer had received. He began writing the screenplay, noting that "seventeen other people could have written [it]" after the hints at Spock's resurrection in the previous film. Bennett and Nimoy used the open thread of Spock mind melding with McCoy at the end of The Wrath of Khan as a way to explain Spock's restoration. The idea and name of the Vulcan "katra" came from Bennett's discussions with Nimoy. The actor referred the producer to an episode of the television series, "Amok Time", that suggested to Bennett a high level of "spiritual transference" among the Vulcans. Bennett admitted that the idea of Kirk and company going back to the Genesis planet to recover Kirk's "noble self" stemmed from a poem he read in a Star Trek fan magazine. The film's production acknowledged certain expectations from fans—Nimoy remarked that if Spock had not been resurrected and, instead, "Captain Kirk turn[ed] to the camera and [said] 'Sorry, we didn't find him,' people would throw rocks at the screen." A major issue Bennett wrestled with was how to introduce the story for people who had not seen The Wrath of Khan. Bennett said that his television producer mentality "won out"; he added a "previously in Star Trek ..." film device, and had Kirk narrate a captain's log, describing his feelings and sense of loss. Aware of the story's predictability, Bennett decided to have the USS Enterprise destroyed, and intended this plot element be kept a secret.

Nimoy wanted The Search for Spock to be "operatic" in scope; "I wanted the emotions to be very large, very broad, life and death themes [...] and the [look of the film] and everything about it derives everything from sizable characters playing out a large story on a large canvas," he said. In addition, he wanted the characters to have significant scenes, however small, that made them grounded and real. Bennett started writing the script with the ending, where Spock says, "Your name is... Jim", and worked backwards from that point. Elements such as Kruge killing his lover were added to establish context and add drama and intrigue. Originally, the Romulans were the villains, but Nimoy preferred the more "theatrical" Klingons, feeling that their pursuit of Genesis was analogous to the Soviet race for nuclear weaponry. Bennett took the opportunity to flesh out the alien race, who he felt were ill-defined in the television series. The name of the class of the antagonists' ship, Bird of Prey, remained unchanged.

Design

Nimoy and Bennett worked with effects company Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to produce special effects, models, and live-action scenes. ILM received a two-page story treatment in November 1982, titled "Return to Genesis". Production supervisor Warren Franklin said that the script they received in early 1983 was "one of the best scripts we read" out of the submissions that arrived weekly. Although ILM had provided the effects work for The Wrath of Khan, they had only been approached after effects storyboards had been completed. For The Search for Spock, ILM were brought in much earlier, meaning that visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston and his team were involved from the planning stages. Nimoy credited this early involvement with increasing the amount of creative input into the film's design and execution.

It became apparent to ILM that The Search for Spock's script required more design and model work than had been necessary for The Wrath of Khan. A merchant ship destroyed by Kruge early in the film was a kitbash—a design made of combined model pieces. Effects cameraman Don Dow reasoned that since the ship was destroyed so quickly it did not make sense to spend a large amount of time building it. The USS Grissom was named for astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom; the same model would be used to depict other science vessels in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The Excelsior was a new design that ILM felt was a better rendition of a Federation starship—sleeker and more modern than the Enterprise. The art department created concept sketches to show to Paramount, and at an art director's urging model maker Bill George submitted another design, based on what he thought the Enterprise would look like if designed by the Japanese. Nimoy picked George's angular and simplified take for production. While in the film, the Excelsior is supposed to be larger than its predecessor, the physical model was 12 inches (30 cm) smaller than the Enterprise.

The Earth Spacedock was a design intended to expand the scope of Star Trek. After approving a small three-dimensional maquette of the final design, the effects team created an exterior Spacedock model measuring 6 feet (1.8 m) tall. Rather than painstakingly wiring thousands of small lights, ILM made the model out of clear Plexiglass and painted it; scratching off the finish created windows, and an inner core of neon lights illuminated the resulting holes. The inside of the dock was simulated by an additional model, 20 feet (6.1 m) long, with a removable center section. The interior illumination was generated by outside fiber optics and 2,000- to 5,000-watt lights.

Costumes and makeup

Robert Fletcher, costume designer for the previous Star Trek films, was responsible for The Search for Spock's wardrobe. Fletcher's job was to sketch outfits, choose the necessary fabrics, and complete the fittings for principal characters. He collaborated with costumer Jim Linn, who clothed extras and managed the logistics of cleaning, repairing, and tracking costumes. Most of the Starfleet uniforms had already been designed for the previous film, but Fletcher wanted to dress the main characters in civilian clothes. Fletcher developed a mythology behind each outfit; the stone ornaments on Sarek's robe, for instance, were intended to be representative of a Vulcan's level of consciousness. The costumer had the advantage of access to Paramount's store rooms, which contained literal tons of expensive fabrics.

The designer and production staff were satisfied with the Klingon costume designs inspired by feudal Japanese dress, made by Fletcher for The Motion Picture, but they had to make new versions; of 12 original costumes, half had been destroyed during publicity tours. The remaining six were loaned out for an episode of Mork & Mindy and badly damaged; Fletcher spent three months salvaging what remained. Additions to established clothing included an officer's vest for Kruge, and jewelry.

In addition to his costume chores, Fletcher designed the Klingon and Vulcan makeup. Makeup artist Thomas R. Burman suggested that Fletcher was asked to help because the studio neglected to contract the work out; Burman received a contract only three weeks before the start of photography. Burman's bid of $160,000 was much higher than Paramount's $50,000 budget, but he secured the job when his competitor dropped out close to the start of production. "It didn't come down to money in the end but to who could do it quickly [...] we had a [reputation] for working fast and doing quality work," Burman explained. Fletcher and Burman agreed that the cragged foreheads of the Klingons in The Motion Picture were too prominent, obscuring the individuals' faces. "It was just too cartoonish, and I didn't want a Star Wars look in [the] movie. There had never been a good marriage between the forehead appliance and the actor's faces. We tried to keep them in character rather than have these obtrusive things on their heads," Burman said. The resulting Klingon makeup took two hours to apply.

Filming

To guard against leaks that had prefigured Spock's death during production of The Wrath of Khan, Paramount took precautions to secure the sets. Set designer Cameron Birnie noted that the production's security was highly unusual; sets were built out of sequence and the crew given only as many pages as they needed to fabricate each locale. Security guards checked the picture identification cards of production staff. Any mention of the production was removed from stationery and documents, and "Trois" (three, in French) was written as a code word. Offices and workshops were bereft of identifying signage, with doors double-locked for extra protection. The Search for Spock's scripts were chemically treated so that copies could be traced to the original; as a further canary trap, subtle changes in wording distinguished each copy. Nimoy's name never appeared on call sheets, and Spock was referred to in the script as "Nacluv" (Vulcan spelled backwards). Despite the precautions, word of the Enterprise's destruction leaked out before the film's release.

Principal photography commenced on August 15, 1983. All but two days of production were filmed on Paramount soundstages, by cinematographer Charles Correll. The Search for Spock was one of the first major feature films to use Eastman 5294, a color high speed negative film stock. The film allowed Correll latitude in choosing a broad range of exposure indexes. Since The Search for Spock was shot with anamorphic lenses and many theatergoers would see widescreen 70 mm prints, Correll needed to produce a crisp depth of field, a difficult task on many sets. For scenes on the bridge, Correll pushed the exposure index above the Eastman recommendation to keep the image crisp at less than 50 foot-candles.

Many of The Search for Spock's dialogue sequences feature tight close-up shots. During Kirk and Sarek's mind meld, Nimoy chose cuts that focused on accentuating the dialogue; "Instead of watching people's faces, all you see is the mouth or the eyes and you have the tendency to hear better," Correll explained. Correll was unhappy that every scene save one was filmed on a soundstage. Feeling that recreating everything on set resulted in a fake look, the cinematographer suggested that Genesis be filmed on Kauai in Hawaii, and that Red Rock Canyon stand in for Vulcan. The production did not have the money to shoot on location, meaning that Nimoy was preoccupied with making sure the various outdoor settings felt believable. While the various vessel exteriors were handled by ILM, Correll was responsible for the look of the interior sets. He preferred to treat these as actual locations inside the ships; although the sets' ceilings were designed to be removed so that lights could be rigged in the rafters, Correll used other lighting methods. In the Bird of Prey, he used fluorescent tubes to pick up the walls' metallic paints and kept the set smoky to convey a dirty atmosphere.

Visual effects

As with previous Star Trek films, time and money were major constraints for visual effects. The effects artists were concerned about producing the right look no matter the time involved. While effects cameraman Scott Farrar and his assistants constantly traversed the 400 miles (640 km) separating ILM from Paramount, teams at the effects house organized post-production effects and photography. The constant travel took a toll on Ralston, who began to forget which airlines he was taking and what city he was in. As a pause in work meant wasted time, effects editors Bill Kimberlin and Jay Ignaszewski produced usable effects shots for the live-action editors at Paramount; these half-finished, monochromatic composites gave the editors an idea of scene pacing. ILM contributed 120 shots to the film. Like Correll, Ralston used Eastman 94 for all shots that did not require bluescreen.

ILM filmed starships using motion control for timed and computer-assisted model movement. The ship models required multiple camera passes because different parts of the ship and its lights were filmed at different exposure levels. The Excelsior required eight passes to supplement the main "beauty pass", the Enterprise six. ILM could have combined passes with multiple exposures, but not without risk; "If anything got out of synch, or somehow we dropped a frame, we would have to reshoot—and then you're stuck. You've ruined two pieces, two elements," Farrar said.

The Klingon Bird of Prey's cloaking device required a new effect. The original concept featured the layers of the ship forming up from the inside out, requiring a series of overlaid elements filmed with an Oxberry animation camera. ILM decided the effect appeared too "animated-looking", and defied common sense: "if there was a fanfare to decloaking, everyone would know the Klingons were coming and blow them out of the sky before they could even finish materializing," Ralston said. The supervisor decided on subtlety, throwing color separations out of sync to create a blurry ripple effect. While simple, the sequence was more effective than the elaborate planned scene. Effects such as the destruction of the merchant ship were created using projected explosions, a technique perfected during the production of Return of the Jedi. Simulated zero-gravity explosions were filmed and reflected onto a card using the same motion control program used for the models. The result was an explosion that moved with the model.

The most laborious effects sequences took place inside Spacedock; months were spent completing the station's interior shots. The effects crew tested different looks to make sure the dock interior seemed appropriately vast. "We found the interior demanded some degree of atmospheric haze, even though there probably wouldn't be any in space," Farrar said. To create a slightly degraded look, the crew used blue color gels for lights and shot through smoke for fill shots. They switched to diffusion filters for light passes, as using smoke for longer shots would have required time-consuming smoke level monitoring. Due to difference in the scales of the dock and ship models, it was impossible to film the Excelsior and Enterprise inside the set. Opening the dock's space doors was problematic because the lights illuminating the inside of the dock from the exterior had to be hidden from the camera to prevent lens flares. Massive fans were used to keep equipment cool and prevent the lights from melting or warping the dock's interior artwork. The realism of the dock scenes was heightened by live-action footage of a cafeteria, with windows overlooking the dock interior. The cafeteria was a set built at ILM and filled with 40 extras in front of a bluescreen so that the dock and Enterprise could be composited in later; matte paintings extended the ceiling of the set.

Music

Composer James Horner returned to score The Search for Spock, fulfilling a promise he had made to Bennett on The Wrath of Khan. While Nimoy considered hiring his friend Leonard Rosenman for the score, he was persuaded that Horner's return would grant continuity between The Wrath of Khan and the new film. Much like the content of the film, Horner's music was a direct continuation of the score he wrote for the previous film. When writing music for The Wrath of Khan, Horner was aware he would reuse certain cues for an impending sequel; two major themes he reworked were for Genesis and Spock. While the Genesis theme supplants the title music Horner wrote for The Wrath of Khan, the end credits were quoted "almost verbatim".

In hours-long discussions with Bennett and Nimoy, Horner agreed with the director that the "romantic and more sensitive" cues were more important than the "bombastic" ones. Horner had written Spock's theme to give the character more dimension: "By putting a theme over Spock, it warms him and he becomes three-dimensional rather than a collection of schticks," he said. The theme was expanded in The Search for Spock to represent the ancient alien mysticism and culture of Spock and Vulcan.

Among the new cues Horner wrote was a "percussive and atonal" theme for the Klingons which is represented heavily in the film. Music author Jeff Bond described the cue as a compromise between music from Horner's earlier film Wolfen, Khan's motif from The Wrath of Khan, and Jerry Goldsmith's Klingon music from The Motion Picture. Horner also adapted music from Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet for part of the Enterprise theft sequence and its destruction, while the scoring to Spock's resurrection on Vulcan was lifted from Horner's Brainstorm ending.

Themes

Nimoy wrote that The Search for Spock's major theme is that of friendship. "What should a person do to help a friend? How deeply should a friendship commitment go? ... And what sacrifices, what obstacles, will these people endure? That's the emotion line of the film [and] its reason for existence," he recalled. While Spock's bodily resurrection was complete, his mind was a blank slate—The Search for Spock, Michele and Duncan Barrett argue, says that the important question is whether an individual's mind functions, as this is the key to a meaningful existence.

Brown University professor Ross S. Kraemer argues that The Search for Spock "became Star Trek's first and most obvious exploration of Christian themes of sacrificial, salvific death and resurrection". According to Larry J. Kreitzer, The Wrath of Khan provided "its own versions of Good Friday and a hint of the Easter Sunday to come", with the hints fulfilled by Spock's bodily restoration in The Search for Spock. David and Saavik's discovery of Spock's empty coffin and burial robes parallels the evidence the Apostles found that pointed to Jesus' resurrection in the Gospel of Luke, asserts Kraemer. Spock's resurrection not only proves the Vulcan's belief in the existence of the katra, but also affirms these are not just a belief system but a certainty. Barrett points to the Star Trek feature films in general and The Search for Spock in particular as a turn away from the irreligious television series. In more practical terms, Jeffery A. Smith pointed to The Search for Spock as one of many Hollywood films culminating in a 1990s trend where death has little permanence (Ghost, Defending Your Life, What Dreams May Come, Meet Joe Black).

The Genesis planet became a doomed experiment partly for dramatic reasons; having a time limit for the characters to save Spock added tension. Nimoy was also interested in scientific ethics—how quickly can science move and what are the dangers of that movement. University of Houston professor John Hansen notes that while Spock's sacrifice in The Wrath of Khan is the "archetype of reason and rationality manifesting the archetype of human virtue", a selfless and freely-made choice, the death of Valkris (who has learned too much about the Genesis Device) in The Search for Spock is far different: the Klingon willingly accepts her death for the "common good" as determined by the state, relinquishing her liberty and life. Hansen contends that the issues of personal liberty and the exploitation of technology, in this case Genesis, are "intertwined". The Genesis Device was intended as a liberating technology, creating life from lifelessness, but in the Klingon view it is a tool for dominion (contrasting the contemporary views of how technology can promote or constrain liberty).

Release

The Search for Spock was not heavily marketed. Among the promotional merchandise created for the film's release were Search for Spock–branded calendars and glasses sold at Taco Bell. A novelization (ISBN 0-671-49500-3) was also released, and reached second place on The New York Times paperback bestsellers list. President Ronald Reagan screened the film for friends during a weekend away from the White House in 1984, spent with White House staff chief Mike Deaver and the president's own close friend Senator Paul Laxalt. Reagan wrote of the film: "It wasn't too good."

The Search for Spock opened June 1 in a record-breaking 1,996 theaters across North America; with competing films Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Gremlins, Ghostbusters and Top Secret! released at the same time, more than half of the nation's screens were filled by summer blockbusters. The Search for Spock grossed over $16 million in its opening weekend. In its second weekend the film's gross dropped 42 percent. The box office strength of The Search for Spock and Indiana Jones led Paramount to dominate early summer film business. The film made $76.5 million in North America, for a total of $87 million worldwide.

James Horner's soundtrack to the film was released on a 43-minute LP record by Capitol Records in 1984, and also contained a 12" single titled "The Search for Spock", composed by Horner and performed by Group 87, a band featuring composer Mark Isham and Missing Persons drummer Terry Bozzio. It was re-released on compact disc in 1989 by GNP Crescendo. Film Score Monthly released an expanded two-compact disc score June 1, 2010. The Expanded Edition included both the original Capitol Records release from 1984 and an all-new version which featured the complete soundtrack as heard in the film, including alternate versions as well as many cues heard for the first time outside of the film.

Critical response

The Search for Spock received generally positive reviews from critics. Richard Schickel of Time praised the film as "perhaps the first space opera to deserve that term in its grandest sense". Janet Maslin of The New York Times and Newsweek wrote that while the film felt weighed down by the increasingly aged actors and television tropes, it was leavened by its dedication. Roger Ebert called the film "good, but not great" and a compromise between the special effects-dependent The Motion Picture and the character-driven The Wrath of Khan. Conversely, USA Today praised the film as the best of the three and the closest to the original spirit of the television series. An overwhelmingly negative view of the film was offered by The Globe and Mail's Susan Ferrier Mackay, who summed the film up as "ba-a-a-d". In a 2010 retrospective of the film franchise, author Jill Sherwin suggests the aging Enterprise served as a metaphor for the aging Star Trek franchise. On Metacritic the film has a score of 56 out of 100 based on reviews from 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an approval rating of 78% based on reviews from 49 critics.

Critics praised Nimoy's direction, to which USA Today attributed the film's success in capturing the essence of the television show. Newsweek wrote that due to Nimoy the film was the best-paced Trek film, and that his familiarity with these actors enabled him to bring out the best from them. Newsweek, and David Sterritt of the Christian Science Monitor, appreciated how the film slowed the action down to allow moments of reflection, comparing this with the focus of most contemporary action films on effects rather than actors. The Washington Post's Rita Kempley wrote that Nimoy's direction was competent, but his background in television showed—"the film feels made-for-TV", she summarized. Fellow Post critic Gary Arnold concurred with Kempley's television film assessment, but also wrote that Nimoy was smart to focus on the essentials of each scene; he "[concentrates] on the actors in ways that flatter and enhance their work."

The Search for Spock's plot often received negative reviews. Schickel called the film "overplotted" and filled with "heavy expository burdens", comparing it to real opera. Sterritt said that the script occasionally veered in "arbitrary" directions and contained missteps, such as how the Grissom and its crew are suddenly lost, but the plot disregards their fate. Arnold wrote that Shatner missed an opportunity to act on par with The Wrath of Khan's revelation that Kirk was David's father. The critic considered David's death an attempt at a similar shock, but felt it was not a success. Harry M. Geduld, writing for The Humanist, criticized the film for what he called "contradictions and implausibilities", such as Scott's sabotage of the Excelsior and Spock's regeneration. Pauline Kael wrote that "this new film seems to take a churlish attitude toward its light-hearted, delicately self-mocking predecessor: almost vindictively, the new film requires that Genesis disintegrate."

Home media

The Search for Spock was released on home video in the United States in February 1985. The initial retail offerings included VHS, Betamax, LaserDisc and CED formats with closed captioning. As part of a plan to support its push of 8mm video cassette, Sony partnered with Paramount Home Video to bring titles like The Search for Spock to the platform in 1986.

The film was given a "bare bones" DVD release on May 11, 2000, with no extra features—the release was several months earlier than the release of The Wrath of Khan. Two years later, a two-disc "Collector's Edition" was released with supplemental material and the same video transfer as the original DVD release. It featured a text commentary by Michael Okuda and audio commentary from Nimoy, Bennett, Correll, and Curtis.

The film was released on high-definition Blu-ray Disc in May 2009 to coincide with the new Star Trek feature, along with the other five films featuring the original crew in Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection. The Search for Spock was remastered in 1080p high-definition from the 2000 DVD transfer. All six films in the set have new 7.1 Dolby TrueHD audio. The disc features a new commentary track by former Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager television writers Ronald D. Moore and Michael Taylor.

On July 7, 2021, it was announced that the first four films in the Star Trek franchise were to be remastered from original elements and would be released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on September 7 to commemorate the franchise's 55th anniversary, alongside individual Blu-rays of the same films.

The film was briefly removed from Netflix in July 2013 because of missing English subtitles for the Klingon and Vulcan dialogue.