Star Trek III: The Search for Spock Star Trek III: The Search for Spock Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is a 1984 American science fiction film directed by Leonard Nimoy and based on the created by Gene Roddenberry. It is the third film in the "Star Trek" film series, and is the second part of a three-film story arc that begins with "" (1982) and concludes with "" (1986). After the death of Spock (Nimoy), the crew of the USS "Enterprise" returns to Earth. When James T. Kirk (William Shatner) learns that Spock's spirit, or katra, is held in the mind of Dr. Leonard "Bones"
Star Trek: The Original Series show. "Star Trek"s first-season ratings would in earlier years likely have caused NBC to cancel the show. The network had pioneered research into viewers' demographic profiles in the early 1960s, however, and, by 1967, it and other networks increasingly considered such data when making decisions; for example, CBS temporarily cancelled "Gunsmoke" that year because it had too many older and too few younger viewers. Although Roddenberry later claimed that NBC was unaware of "Star Trek"s favorable demographics, awareness of "Star Trek"s "quality" audience is what likely caused the network to retain the show after the first and second seasons. NBC