Yes, a very good movie. Vastly underrated, and the best of the odd-numbered Treks, as another user said.
The big problem with this movie is in the editing. The most important plot point, Kirk's stealing of the Enterprise, makes no sense.
Why does Kirk steal the Enterprise, anyway? Well, to recover Spock so that his marbles can be taken out of McCoy's head and put back into his own, right? Well yes, but just one problem. How did Kirk know that Spock's body (sans marbles) was alive on Genesis at all? He didn't, and had no reason to even suspect it when he stole the ship. And there's no obvious reason why Spock's *dead* body should be needed to flush out McCoy's head.
Earlier drafts of the movie, used in the making of the novelization and comic book version get around this problem by changing the order of events. In the earlier drafts, the scene where Spock's empty tube is discovered on Genesis happens first. In these drafts, the scene that became the movie's opening scene, with Kirk on the bridge, shows him already aware of the discovery of the empty tube and pondering its meaning, something he didn't know at the time in the movie, and never found out at all until he reached Genesis.
So, that brings up another question. Why do Vulcans stick their marbles into someone else's head when they're about to die, anyway? On the off chance that the body will be brought back to life by a magic torpedo later on? No, the movie tells us that this re-fusion ceremony hasn't been tried in ages. According to the novelization, the normal use of this Katra stashing process is so that the host body can take the Katra back to the Vulcan Hall of Records, where it can be stored as disembodied information.
Nice, but you shouldn't need the dead body to do that. Lots of times the dead body might not be available. The only reason for stealing the Enterprise and going to Genesis is if they have some good reason for thinking that Spock's body might be alive there, something they don't have in the movie the way it was eventually put together. It would have been easy to fix. Simply change the order of a few scenes and add a line or two between Kirk and Sarek. As it is, we just have to imagine that somebody somewhere heard something off-screen that gave them a reason for what they're doing.
The big problem with this movie is in the editing. The most important plot point, Kirk's stealing of the Enterprise, makes no sense.
Why does Kirk steal the Enterprise, anyway? Well, to recover Spock so that his marbles can be taken out of McCoy's head and put back into his own, right? Well yes, but just one problem. How did Kirk know that Spock's body (sans marbles) was alive on Genesis at all? He didn't, and had no reason to even suspect it when he stole the ship. And there's no obvious reason why Spock's *dead* body should be needed to flush out McCoy's head.
Earlier drafts of the movie, used in the making of the novelization and comic book version get around this problem by changing the order of events. In the earlier drafts, the scene where Spock's empty tube is discovered on Genesis happens first. In these drafts, the scene that became the movie's opening scene, with Kirk on the bridge, shows him already aware of the discovery of the empty tube and pondering its meaning, something he didn't know at the time in the movie, and never found out at all until he reached Genesis.
So, that brings up another question. Why do Vulcans stick their marbles into someone else's head when they're about to die, anyway? On the off chance that the body will be brought back to life by a magic torpedo later on? No, the movie tells us that this re-fusion ceremony hasn't been tried in ages. According to the novelization, the normal use of this Katra stashing process is so that the host body can take the Katra back to the Vulcan Hall of Records, where it can be stored as disembodied information.
Nice, but you shouldn't need the dead body to do that. Lots of times the dead body might not be available. The only reason for stealing the Enterprise and going to Genesis is if they have some good reason for thinking that Spock's body might be alive there, something they don't have in the movie the way it was eventually put together. It would have been easy to fix. Simply change the order of a few scenes and add a line or two between Kirk and Sarek. As it is, we just have to imagine that somebody somewhere heard something off-screen that gave them a reason for what they're doing.
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