As I collected the films in their various home video incarnations, my disdain for The Search for Spock grew while I began to be more forgiving of the lightweight The Voyage Home, since it thankfully hadn't dictated the tone of the subsequent Kirk films, both of which steadily restored my faith in "Trek" as intriguing science fiction. It was with great surprise, then, that in viewing Paramount's recently released DVD editions of ST III and IV I came away with opposite estimations of the films; love/hate indeed.

Among other things, ST II is a treatise on the notion that "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one." In concluding with the death of Mr. Spock (Nimoy), the result of a sacrificial gesture which saved the Enterprise and its crew, the film seemed to signal a proper summation of all the best tendencies with which creator Gene Roddenberry had infused the television series.

Yet all of that nobility goes out the window in The Search for Spock as Kirk (Shatner) brazenly defies Starfleet orders to rescue Spock's lost soul, putting the needs of the one well ahead of that of the many. While this affront to the sensibilities which propelled ST II has always offended me, I can't deny that when I finally set these objections aside, I was able to enjoy The Search for Spock for what it is: a highly entertaining adventure with great special effects, mostly fine performances, and a few emotional highlights of its own.

The Search for Spock begins where The Wrath of Kahn left off, with Spock's body entombed on Genesis (a once-dead planet impregnated with a life-bringing device) and Kirk piloting a crippled Enterprise back to Earth. In a cleverly set-up series of sequences, we learn that Dr. McCoy (Kelley) has been inhabited by Spock's 'essence', and that his body and soul must undergo a Vulcan ritual lest his spirit remain tormented and his wisdom forever lost.

Genesis, however, has become a forbidden area whilst the Federation withstands the controversy of the project, and the Enterprise has been decommissioned in favor of the gleaming new Excelsior. Never one to let rules get in the way (reprising a theme from ST II), Kirk enlists his officers in a clandestine mission to break McCoy out of a Starfleet holding cell (his Spock persona had been speaking too openly of Genesis while trying to charter a ride there), steal the Enterprise, and deliver Spock's body and McCoy to Vulcan. Of course, to complicate things, there's the matter of Kruge (Lloyd), a renegade Klingon also headed toward Genesis with the intention of stealing the device.

In resolving its many plot threads, The Search for Spock is a rapidly paced, genuinely humorous (mostly thanks to McCoy's 'possession' by Spock), often exciting and surprisingly touching space opera which, negative comparisons to ST II aside, always remains true to its characters. Among the many highlights are Scotty's (Doohan) sabotage of the Excelsior, Kirk's confrontation with Kruge (infinitely better than a similar subplot in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier), and the eventual collapse of Genesis. Most notably, however, depth is brought to the material when Kirk is forced to make sacrifices of his own for Spock's sake, in an admittedly interesting variation on the aforementioned philosophy which informed the second picture (ie. the needs of the one (Spock outweigh the needs of the one (Kirk)).

First, Kirk must endure Kruge's murder of his son, David (Butrick), who had designed Genesis and was surveying the planet when the Klingons arrived. (In his book Star Trek: Movie Memories, Shatner rightfully claims that the reaction to David's death is his finest moment as Kirk.) What's more, in a sequence which always brings a tear to my eye (I'm such a geek!), Kirk intentionally destroys the Enterprise while escaping Kruge' s clutches. While the film is not without its problems (Robin Curtis, as Lt. Saavik, turns in the second most annoying performance in "Trek" movie history, and the banter between Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) and a cadet during the theft of the Enterprise is ludicrous at best), these moments alone are enough to prompt my reconsideration of the film and award it a strong recommendation.

The same cannot be said of Star Trek IV. For many Trekkers, The Voyage Home is the most beloved "Trek" film, and it was undeniably the most successful: its box office take soared as even non-Trekkers took took the film under their wing. Unfortunately, I find that the film obeys two of Hollywood' s most stringent conventions. The first is that blockbusters must appeal to the lowest common denominator which, in this case, means that much of what gives "Trek" its flavor is diluted, if not entirely absent. The second is that, as sequels tend to progress, they eventually reach the state of self-parody, an impulse which can sometimes be fun (take the Scream and Lethal Weapon series, for example) but which, more often than not, is to the detriment of the integrity of the original and poses a threat to the proper continuation of the series.

Having resurrected Spock in the previous film (Genesis had regenerated the cells in his body and the Vulcan ritual made him whole), Kirk and company are returning home to face the consequences of their actions when a probe with which Starfleet cannot communicate begins to wreak aquatic havoc on Earth. Spock (thank goodness he'd been saved!) determines that the probe's language is whale song, and that the extinct humpback whale needed to satisfactorily answer the probe must be retrieved by going back in time to 1986, the year of the film' s release; how convenient!

The Voyage Home is a lot of things, none of which I find particularly appealing. First and foremost, it's a comedy. Almost all of the film' s humor derives from the 'fish out of water' placement of the starshipmates in our era. This may have lent considerably to the film' s appeal, but most of the jokes are forced and dated, and director Nimoy (whose novice direction was so sure handed in The Search for Spock) lethargically lurches from one gag to the next.

The film is also an ecologically-minded tale and, while I don' t necessarily mind such fables (Soylent Green is a similarly themed masterpiece), the narrative wears its less-than-original "save the whales" mantra on its sleeve. Again, this seems calculated to increase the film' s appeal at the expense of subtlety and daring. Lastly, and most disappointingly, there' s very little genuine (or, at least, interesting) science fiction in The Voyage Home. What better way to attract an audience of non-Trekkers than make the film light on the sci-fi and heavy on the laughs, while delivering a message upon which everyone can agree? Therein lies my continuing displeasure with the film, which only increases as it becomes more badly dated.

To be sure, there are some things to like about The Voyage Home. The humor does, at least, derive from a knowledge of the characters, occasionally making the payoffs richer for followers of the series. And, although I grow misty-eyed at the loss of the Enterprise in The Search for Spock , it's intriguing to see the crew spend all but the last moments of the film in Kruge's Bird of Prey.

However, these attributes are offset by the single worst "Trek" performance, given by Hicks as Dr. Gillian Taylor, keeper of the whales targeted by Kirk for time-travel to the 23rd Century. At every turn her dialogue is badly stilted and delivered even more poorly. (For a good laugh, played seriously, check out her final line in the film.) Ultimately, thanks to our familiarity with the characters and their seeming delight in not having to spend too much time running around in space, The Voyage Home is entertaining, but it just rubs me the wrong way.

Surprisingly, Paramount seems to have lavished more care on the DVD of The Search for Spock than on the more popular The Voyage Home. Both films sport anamorphic transfers and remixed 5.1 soundtracks, but in every department The Search for Spock comes out the clear winner. Both discs have moments of remarkable clarity and breathtaking color rendition (in particular, the mint green Bird of Prey in The Voyage Home looks gorgeous), but the more recent film oddly suffers from frequently faded images and an overall softness not at all present in The Search for Spock. In fact, The Search for Spock has the distinction of being the best looking DVD of all the "Trek" films through Generations. (Since it was the most recently mastered, I' m hoping that Paramount has hit their stride in working with the elements of the older "Trek" films in time to do justice to ST II, which is next on their DVD slate.)

The same comparison can be drawn between these new soundtracks. While neither is particularly bad, The Search for Spock employs a more consistently rich and full soundfield, and LFE channel really kicks in at times while remaining virtually silent on its counterpart. (To further underscore the sonic differences, Leonard Rosenman' s often lampoonish score for The Voyage Home is occasionally shrill, while James Horner' s grand compositions for The Search for Spock are perfectly balanced.) Heck, Paramount has even gone the extra mile in providing an anamorphic trailer for The Search for Spock while the trailer on The Voyage Home is letterboxed but flat; both, however, are rather worn and feature 2.0 stereo tracks.

The only edge the The Voyage Home disc has is its inclusion of the 25 minute 'featurette' which previously appeared on Paramount's 'Director's Series' videocassette and LaserDisc releases of the film. The supplement is a mildly interesting walk with Nimoy through Paramount' s backlot as he discusses the making of the film and how he essentially blackmailed Paramount into letting him direct The Search for Spock after they asked him to return as Spock following the character' s demise in ST II. How logical!-Vincent Suarez