MovieChat Forums > Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) Discussion > Was Saavik's role reduced to a cameo due...

Was Saavik's role reduced to a cameo due to the criticism of Robin Curtis' performance in "The Search for Spock"?

posted 7 years ago by TMC-4 (20123)
4 replies | jump to latest

https://moviechat.org/tt0088170/Star-Trek-III-The-Search-for-Spock/58c7427c6b51e905f66f4aad/Kirstie-Alley-should-have-returned-as-Savvik

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Narm/StarTrek

Star Trek III: Robin Curtis' performance as Lt. Saavik is total Narm. Curtis' attempts at playing an emotionless Vulcan often come off as wooden and forced, and thus unintentionally funny. The most notorious example of this:
Admiral... David is dead.
What was even worse than her Narmtastic performance was her 1980s bouffant perm. Kirstie Alley's updo was more Vulcan than Curtis's borderline Afro. And Alley was much better at pulling off a Vulcan.

http://whatculture.com/film/12-least-successful-recastings-of-iconic-f ilm-characters.php/2

https://moviechat.org/tt0088170/Star-Trek-III-The-Search-for-Spock/58c7427d6b51e905f66f4b3a/Robin-Curtis-today-and-on-the-death-of-Leonard-Nimoy

https://www.google.com/search?q=trekbbs+robin+curtis+site:www.trekbbs.com&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjDlYHh7cLYAhUM_IMKHbrMAasQrQIINSgEMAA&biw=1600&bih=794

[–] Otter (24464) 7 years ago

None of the Trekkies I knew liked her as Saavik, they all preferred Kirstie Alley (back when she was cool).

But really, there was no real call for her to be in the script, it was about the crew going on an adventure together. Saavik would have seemed like a third wheel, and would have gotten in the way of Spock's re-bonding with his old crewmates.

[–] TMC-4 (20123) 7 years ago

https://www.quora.com/Was-Saaviks-role-reduced-to-a-cameo-in-Star-Trek-IV-The-Voyage-Home-due-to-the-criticism-of-Robin-Curtis-performance-in-The-Search-for-Spock

[–] TMC-4 (20123) 4 years ago

Oliver Harper is probably the one notable exception of somebody who actually preferred Robin Curtis as Saavik:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkgeZVTaGjQ (go to the 25:05 mark)

[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

I actually liked her better than Kirstie Alley in the role, but I wasn't part of target audiences when they made this movie. Part of me thinks that Leonard Nimoy & Co. just wanted to keep the classic seven actors from the TV series together instead of adding the baggage of new characters to the movie.