Leonard Nimoy Directs The Search for Spock

BY NICK OTTENS ON MAY 22, 2013

(...) Nimoy recalled in an interview with Starlog 106 (May 1986) that there was some trepidation on the part of the executives, however. They weren’t sure about the story ending on Vulcan. “I felt very, very strongly about that final sequence,” said Nimoy. “I wanted to end the film by bringing Spock to Vulcan and going through the ritual.”

Not being so familiar with Star Trek, the executives didn’t understand what that sequence would mean to the audience. They were worried about it and tried to convince me to substitute a different ending. They wanted to end with the dramatic escape from the Genesis planet, getting Kirk and Spock on board the KlingonBird of Prey, reviving Spock in the sickbay, doing a little tag scene and going home.

Nimoy argued — “vehemently” — against the notion and got his way. “I didn’t discuss the film with them again until I showed them my first cut.”

Reception to Nimoy’s directing abilities was largely positive although some fans were appalled by the death of Kirk’s son and, perhaps more so, the destruction of the Enterprise. Nimoy defended both decisions in the same Starlog interview.

The death of David Marcus has its roots in all of the classic tragic forms. It is the vengeance of fate wreaked upon the flawed person who created the problem. David is the character who must pay the price for whatever wrongs he has done and for whatever pain and suffering he has inflicted — internationally or not — on others. He put the Genesis device into operation prematurely.

The Enterprise‘s demise, said Nimoy, was equally justifiable. “We didn’t destroy the Enterprise for cheap or inflammatory reasons but because therein lay drama.”

As Nicholas Meyer said about killing Spock in Star Trek II, “We’re not playing games here. This isn’t a red herring, like they do on TV. Spock is really dead.” Destroying the Enterprise was the same.

Indeed it was! Like Spock returned from the dead, so would the Enterprise, at the end of the next movie.

Source: Forgotten Trek