"Star Trek The Search For Spock" : Behind the Scenes

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TSFS was Leonard Nimoy's feature film directorial debut.
   
Originally the bar scene with McCoy was to end with a bar fight, but this was cut.
   
The janitor shown on the station looking through the window when the Enterprise is being stolen was played by Charles Karrel, a cinematographer.
   
The Klingon bridge in the movie was redressed from a set made from another movie (not Star Trek).
   
Robin Curtis was not allowed to wear her Vulcan ears at home, unlike Kirstie Alley.
   
9 cameras were set up to capture the scenes of the Genesis planet breaking up.
   
The staircase for the entrance to the Vulcan "altar" was shot at Occidental College.
   
The villains of the film were originally intended to be Romulans, but upper studio management wanted Klingons to be used since they were better-known enemies. By the time the decision was made, the Romulan ship was already made and they didn't want the expense of replacing it. Fortunately, the TV show had already established that the Klingons and Romulans had shared technologies and ships in the past (for exactly the same real-world cost-cutting reasons) so the idea of Klingons using a Romulan-style vessel was not a problem.
   
Production was endangered by the great fire at Paramount. William Shatner helped fight the fire before firefighter reinforcements arrived.
   
When the Enterprise enters space dock at the beginning of the movie, just before Uhura comments on the Excelsior's appearance ("Would you look at that!"), another docked ship can be seen, in shadow, at the upper left corner of the screen. This ship is one of the alternative models that was considered for use as the Excelsior. This alternate model also makes several appearances in Star Trek: The Next Generation , usually as a wrecked ship or piece of space junk.
   
The Excelsior was supposed to debut in Star Trek II and be identified as newly-promoted Capt. Sulu's first command. This plotline was dropped and Excelsior saved for this film. Sulu would finally take command of her in Star Trek VI. The ship design would be reused for the USS Enterprise-B in Star Trek Generations.
   
Originally the Enterprise was to be totally destroyed in the self-destruct (if you look carefully, you can see the stardrive exploding just before the saucer does). In the following scene, the crew were observing smaller pieces of debris entering the atmosphere. However, Harve Bennett didn't think the scene was dramatic enough, so the sequence was changed to the saucer exploding, and the stardrive entering and burning up.
   
The U.S.S. Grissom bridge was the U.S.S. Enterprise bridge rearranged with pink chairs, and the Bar where McCoy tries to charter the spaceflight is the Enterprise sickbay redressed.
   
The USS Excelsior's computer voice (heard in the turbolift when Scotty mutters "Up your shaft") was supplied by director Leonard Nimoy.