Truth OR Myth? Error, Error, Mistakes! Star Trek III: The Search For Spock

Hello and Welcome to Truth Or Myth, in Today’s episode we take a fun and fast look at the mistakes made in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock. Please note, there have been MANY versions of this movie released, the one I’m picking apart is the version most recently released on BluRay, Also this series looks at only in-universe CANON explanations for answers, so novels, comics or games aren’t valid sources to explain away the mistakes. So with that, Let us begin,

(Paramount) The Enterprise returns to Earth spacedock with battle damage – “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock”

At the beginning of the movie, Kirk makes a log entry as to how empty the Enterprise feels, stating the Enterprise is like a house with all the children gone. That’s a strange simile for an unmarried, never having children that lived him Starship Captain to use don’t you think?

What happened between the 2nd and the 3rd movie? When we last left the Enterprise in Star Trek 2 she had major hull damage to her port side only. But now suddenly both sides of the ship, the warp engines and the saucer section shows a large amount of battle damage.

And speaking of things that have changed since Star Trek 2, suddenly there’s a huge burn mark on the turbolift, those no smoking signs we discussed in Star Trek 2, as well as a panel to the side of the turbolift are simply gone.

And I guess turbolifts are a huge priority in the repair schedule, suddenly their interior has ALSO changed. They now have schematics of the Enterprise’s turbolift system on the wall. Would upgrading the turbolifts really be a priority?

Is Kruge about to cry when forced to kill Valkris? I thought Klingons had no tear ducts?

Someone needs to update the computer displays on the Enterprise. The ship itself is STILL represented on displays by the original series Constitution class graphics.

When did the Enterprise restock it’s Phaser Supply? Suddenly in this movie, the Phasers have changed to resemble, more closely, those seen in the original series.

(Paramount) The Enterprise trying to escape, the Excelsior in pursuit – “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock”

Kirk and crew are to get commendations for their recent actions in Star Trek 2. What? Did everyone forget the events of Star Trek 2? In that movie, Kirk ignores regulations and doesn’t raise the shields of the ship causing many deaths. Remember the TOS episode court martial? The full weight of Starfleet command was to come down on Kirk because they believed his not following regulations had caused the death of a single crewman. Guess they’ve lightened up a LOT since then.

Starfleet Commander Morrow really needs to look up the history of the Enterprise. At the time of Star Trek 3 she was actually almost 40 years old, not 20!

While reviewing the flight recorder visuals of Spock’s death the Stardate on the monitor says 8128.78, the problem is the Stardate given for the Wrath of Khan is Stardate 8130.3. Also didn’t the computer edit together the flight recorder visuals really well? Seems almost like they’re watching a movie…

Wow, Starfleet seems to have taken a HUGE step back on the IDIC philosophy in this movie, when Kirk wants to take the Enterprise back to Genesis to retrieve Spock’s body, a highly decorated and respected Starfleet Officer, Morrow gives a line about not understanding Vulcan Mumbo Jumbo. Isn’t Vulcan a founding member of the Federation? Is it really appropriate for him to refer to them in that disrespectful manner?

How big IS Earth Spacedock? After all, Kirk orders 1/4 Impulse power and it still takes the Enterprise 1 minute to reach open Space. If you do the math, that means that space dock is about 1,060,000 kilometres in diameter or approximately 100 times the size of Earth’s diameter, does this seem right?

And I guess the laws of physics around space dock also don’t apply in Sector 001. When the Enterprise goes to warp after Kirk steals her, the Excelsior prepares to engage its fantastic new Transwarp Drive to catch her. Fortunately, thanks to Scotty’s sabotage, all of the Excelsior’s engine systems fail and Excelsior slows and comes to a stop. Why? Shouldn’t she continue to drift forward at impulse speed?

In my last mistakes review on Star Trek 2, we discussed how it seemed that the producers had originally intended to use the Romulans in that movie during the Kobayashi Maru test. In Star Trek 2 Kirk tells Savaak to pray, that the Klingons don’t take Prisoners. Well someone needs to tell Kruge that, since he does, in fact, want Prisoners in this movie…

During this movie Spock is ageing from a young child to the adult Spock we know and love, my question is 2 fold, did Saavik have sex with Spock to alleviate his Ponn Farrs? And who was shaving and cutting Spock’s hair?

(Paramount) The Enterprise Self Destructs above Genesis – “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock”

When the Enterprise arrives at Genesis, why doesn’t anyone detect the debris of the Grissom? Kirk does order a short range scan after all…

Why do Kruges men use the Enterprise’s transporters to beam over? Couldn’t Kirk have beamed them right to the brig or into space? Doesn’t Kruge know what happened in the TOS episode the Day of the Dove?

And speaking of weird transporter decisions, why didn’t Kirk beam his crew over to the practically empty Bird of Prey and take her over and then just beam up the 2 Vulcans from the planet’s surface? He knew the planet was dying and that he’d need some way to get off that dying world. Wouldn’t THAT have been more logical?

Klingon Bird’s of Prey seems to be very resilient! After Kirk and Crew take her over, having taken 2 direct photon torpedo hits, Sulu reports the ship has full power, who exactly repaired the battle damage?

Thanks for watching today’s episode of Truth or Myth. See something we forgot? Leave a comment in the section below! And don’t forget to like and subscribe to the channel! Thanks again for watching, live long and prosper.

Watch episode 17


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