Star Trek III: The Search For Spock is not generally considered one of the franchise's best films, but it's actually an underrated gem. After Star Trek: The Motion Picture was met with middling reviews and lower than expected box office returns, Paramount demoted Star Trek: The Original Series creator Gene Roddenberry and gave the film franchise over to producer Harve Bennett and director Nicholas Meyer. The result was Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, a tremendously successful film both with critics and audiences; it's still widely considered the best Star Trek film.
Following up The Wrath Of Khan was never going to be easy, especially considering the film ended with the heroic death of franchise icon Captain Spock (Leonard Nimoy). It was decided early in the development of the third film that Spock would be revived, much to the chagrin of Meyer, who refused to take part in the production. Nimoy himself was ultimately chosen to direct The Search For Spock, who also had significant creative input with Bennett on the story. The film performed well at the box office and garnered mostly positive reviews, though it failed to match the wild success of the previous film. Despite its mild underperformance, The Search For Spock remains a Star Trek classic.
