12: Star Trek III: The Search For Spock

Published on Jan 24, 2009

12: Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (1984)
Kirk had used the Enterprise's self-destruct sequence to curtail Frank Gorshin's tyrannical take-over of the ship in the TOS episode Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, but here he actually went through with it, in order to trap invading Klingons whilst he beamed onto their nearby ship. The self-destruct codes used are the same as in Battlefield. Harve Bennett had the effects sequence re-worked after reasoning that the original 'antimatter explosion' resulting from a warp-core build-up would probably take out the needed Klingon vessel as well, and this amendment gave us the very poetic shot of the partially-destroyed Enterprise burning up in Regula's atmosphere. Ken Ralston supervised the VFX for ILM, and his hatred of the difficult original model-design gave him some pleasure in destroying it. The smaller 12" model is the one seen burning up in the atmosphere, whilst the saucer-section is a larger hero model. The hull damage was simulated with acetone on styrene plastic, an effect any amateur modeller will have tried at least once.

Impact: They blew up the Enterprise. The Enterprise! NCC-1701! If you don't care, you were reluctantly dragged to the movie by your Trek-obsessed partner at the time.

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