Jill Sherwin suggested that the aging "Enterprise" in "The Search for Spock" served as a metaphor for the aging "Star Trek" franchise. The ship's destruction has been described as "truly iconic" and "a good way to go", though David Gerrold wrote that it "casts a pall" over "The Search for Spock" that even Spock's resurrection does not displace. David C. Fein, who produced the director's cut of "The Motion Picture", described the "Enterprise" as Kirk's lover, and said destroying the ship meant Kirk "killed the woman that he loves more than any existing being in the world." "Popular Mechanics" ranked the ship's destruction the 32nd greatest scene in science fiction.