Star Trek: In Search Of Spock

The fact that I haven't watched "The Search for Spock" in years helped me approach this edit with fresh eyes. While watching it, I couldn't remember what was cut or tell where it had been cut, and upon checking the original movie, I found that my attempts to guess which parts were rescored were inaccurate. The video and audio edits were seamless, and someone who has never seen the original cut (or hasn't seen it recently and forgotten much of it as a result) would probably not realize that anything has been changed.

As I skipped through the original movie for comparison purposes after watching this edit, I came to feel that it was unnecessarily padded in places, and that the final Kirk/Kruge fight scene didn't feel as climactic without a score. The pacing and additional scoring in this edit are an improvement, in my opinion. The only cut that I'm conflicted about is the Pon Farr subplot. While cutting it did speed up the pacing, it is logical that Spock would go through Pon Farr as he matures, and the Spock/Saavik Pon Farr scene was rather poignant. I also liked the Klingon dog bits from the original cut that were removed in this version, but losing those isn't a big deal.

The only thing that detracted from the experience for me as I watched the edit was the visual quality, which I found rather poor. There were a myriad tiny compression artefact blocks ruining the appearance of the grain in every shot, and there was even occasional banding in some shots. The 9.98 GB file size, while not capable of matching full Blu-ray quality, should be sufficient to avoid this level of poor compression if the encoding is done well. The audio, on the other hand, sounded clear and free of any issues that I could hear.

Well color me IMPRESSED!

Frankly, I don't dislike STTSFS, but, it always felt a touch off to me...I could not quite put my finger on what it was, and I didn't really spend time thinking much about it either....since I keep going back to KHAN and UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY when I need a TOS MOVIE FIX...

The along come "YOU KNOW WHO"....

"We can rebuild him..."

Sure enough, BionicBob has done just that. Taken the time to look at what was off, and jumped in and resolved it...ALL.

I can't fault this on any level. I know this movie inside out, and I spotted only one of the score enhancements...IT'S THAT GOOD...and they are ALL James Horner to boot.

The re-arranged first 50 mins, the removed off-kilter moments, the judicious trimming and care taken has made what was a decent movie into a throughly enjoyable and satisfying conslusion to KHAN..

What can I say other than HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
This is THE GO-TO VERSION

Another great work by BionicBob. This mostly addresses pacing issues in the first act of the movie, by re-editing scenes in a more modern way, with parallel storylines that evolve together. This makes the movie more dynamic and enjoyable. Several moments have been quite masterfully re-scored for a greater emotional impact.

As a minor note, the part I liked the least was the new prologue. I think the scene is too dialogue heavy and does not mix well with the re-scoring. It may also anticipate too much the 'revelation' of the first act and make the subsequent scene of Kirk's introspection a little bit redundant.

In any case, greatly recommended!

While obviously not as a strong a film as Wrath of Khan or Voyage Home, I never had any issues with the original Search for Spock so I watched this mostly out of curiousity for what choices BionicBob had made with his edit. His restructuring of the scenes made perfect sense and I can totally understand the logic behind many of his deletions, even if I quite enjoyed the comedy of those McCoy scenes.

The two biggest improvements in my view are the addition of Horner music to the death of David and the Kirk vs Kruge brawl. Those scenes are definitely given more oomph from Horner's bombastic score.

If you had issues with Search for Spock, I suspect this edit will go a long way towards making the film go down easier for you. Looking forward to seeing what BionicBob does with Final Frontier, another maligned Trek entry that I never thought was as bad as its reputation,

Bionic Bob is doing greeat work once again. I wouldn't have changed the original but now I see the error of my ways. This may become my preferred version.

Bob takes out the uneven tone of the story and it flows much better. The rescoring of the music results in even more heart. I wouldn't have thought it could be better but it is!

I miss some of the comedy that didn't serve the final narrative but the best scenes are made better.