How Star Trek’s Most Sexually Charged Movie Scene Was Nearly Lost

Star Trek III: The Search For Spock continued the original feature film’s loose trilogy started by Nicholas Meyer with Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan (1982), and while it’s not as critically praised, it’s a landmark in Trek canon for several compelling reasons. Much is made over Spock’s ‘resurrection’ - after Leonard Nimoy was lured back to Trek’s fold with directing his first major motion picture –– but there’s an underlying texture of sexuality which nearly overshadows Spock returning to life. Indeed, the racy moment was initially deemed so risqué or plain silly, that Paramount Pictures executives nearly kept the sexually charged scene on the cutting room floor.

The film is one of Trek’s more spiritually oriented outings; a metaphysical journey into reclaiming a Vulcan’s katra or soul. What’s often forgotten is that it’s also a showcase for an iconic race’s alien sexuality. And if it wasn’t for the man who helped create and shape the Vulcan culture on TV and in movies, a key scene bristling with sexuality may have ended up lost on the cutting room floor.

Amok Time - Pon Farr Introduces Vulcan Sexuality To America

“Captain, there is a thing that happens to Vulcans at this time, almost an insanity which you would no doubt find distasteful.” ––Spock from 'Amok Time'

Spock is, of course, alluding to his race’s time of mating –– the Vulcan Pon farr. Fans (Trekker or Trekkie) know this aspect of Trek lore, just as well as Klingons are the bad guys –– usually anyway –– or Dr. McCoy’s just an old fashioned, country doctor or that Engineer Scotty would multiply his repair estimations by a factor of four to effectively keep his reputation as a miracle worker intact.

Hardcore Trekkers know every seven years Vulcans get kinda horny. OK, they get really horny. They get so dang horny nothing stops them from pursuing their mate. The ultimate booty call? If Vulcans had a dating app like Tinder, it'd probably be called Smolder or Volcano, or just plain Vulcan, since it’s emblematic of the Roman God of Fire.

In Star Trek’s second season, the American public was treated to alien sex education. "Amok Time," an episode which introduces us to how Vulcans get busy to make adorable tiny Vulcans, opened up the second season. Although harmless by modern TV standards, Gene Roddenberry’s sci-fi vehicle dealt compellingly with the tremendously strong impulse to procreate. It took a hold of Spock so mercilessly, he nearly kills his beloved Captain while wooing his duplicitous mate.

Searching For Spock Means Finding His Libido

Wrath Of Khan dazzled audiences with its action, special FX, and outright shocked and even enraged fans with an ending nobody could want or predict. Though Captain Kirk maintained the dashing hero and savior of his starship Enterprise and crew, Spock put himself in danger more than a few times, and he always lived to rankle his main foil, Bones, for another day.

Not this time. This time a hero had fallen. Jim, Spock is dead.

There was no doubt about this fatal fact. He wasn’t killed offscreen, nor whisked away by a weird disease soap opera/telenovela style. He wasn’t taken over by a mysterious alien intent on studying him or communing with his superior intellect for the good of both species, then returning him ‘changed’ at a later date. This was a lethal Starfleet Academy simulation we saw in ST:TWOK, the Kobayashi Maru, made all too tragically real. First Commander of the Enterprise and its Science Officer had taken the test. He paid for its solution with his life.

Kirk quips to a subordinate in ST III, after the man asks if there would be an official Starfleet celebration for their latest adventure in defeating the rampaging Khan, played by the incomparable Ricardo Montalban, "A hero's welcome, son? Is that what you'd like? Well, God knows there should be. This time we paid for the party with our dearest blood."

Right before the film’s closing credits, there’s a rousing coda featuring Nimoy speaking the classic TV show intro, Space, the final frontier… It gave hope to the hopeless. Would Spock return? Can he? How?!

Well, there were clues, like the photon torpedo tube –– a makeshift burial coffin –– lying on the beautiful, though weirdly embryonic Genesis planet. Doing the sci-fi mathematics wasn’t terribly difficult, still, no one was quite prepared to see the rebirth and re emergence of a character they’d admired for nearly two decades.

This was Spock as we’d never seen him before. As Planet Genesis wheels out of control, as its unstable matrix boils up like over cooked salsa, Spock grows up. But is it really him after all? Is this truly the Vulcan we’ve all admired for so long?

Of course, as is with the best of Trek’s speculative tales, we were awe inspired. After all, even in humanity’s many belief systems, the spirit or soul can be interpreted as being able to travel on a journey –– to heaven, hell or the weird netherworld known as J.J. Abram’s LOST. Bottom line: Here was Spock bereft of things that made him, well, Spock. And since Spock mind melds with Dr. McCoy, Bones had the honor and responsibility of safekeeping the Vulcan’s katra or soul.

But what’s a half Vulcan, half human Starfleet officer without his libido?

The Landmark Scene Nearly Scrapped

Star Trek, unlike much popular, mainstream science fiction, never shied away from physical relationships. From early, formative days of the green skinned Orion girls first showcased in Trek’s pilot, "The Cage," to a mature look –– more adult than most anything on TV at the time –– at alien race’s ‘needs for procreation’, Gene Roddenberry’s "Wagon Train To The Stars" never shied away from sexuality. Still, you can get so much past ever vigilant censors. With ST:III, there was finally a chance to actually see alien sex by focusing on an alien we knew and loved.

"Search For Spock" deftly balances the sci-fi adventure of the Genesis Planet being dangerously unbalanced, with the big bad of Klingon Kruge –– played with scene smashing gusto by actor Christopher Lloyd. It’s never been proven Reverend Jim from Taxi and Kruge were related, but I’d sure buy that for a dollar!

Actress Robin Curtis takes over for Kirstie Alley (Cheers), who originated the Lt. Saavik role in TWOK. As a U.S.S. Grissom landing party encounters a pre-pubescent Spock, who quickly morphs smack dab into raging puberty, Saavik must play a kind of surrogate Vulcan mom, then serve as mate to gently shepherd a Pon farr crazed Spock into some semblance of normalcy.

Planet Genesis rapidly decays around them; this new world is growing up, maturing from its Genesis Device origins too quickly, something also affecting teenage Spock, played by actor Stephen Manley. When looking at the scene now, watching Curtis as Saavik cradle Manley’s Spock, then joining fingers to seal a sexual deal, it’s intriguing and entertaining, but pretty tame. Studio executives back in the day disagreed. From Stephen Manley’s Wikipedia entry: “His Pon farr scene with Saavik at first raised some eyebrows before the studio released the film, almost cut for being too racy for a Star Trek film. Luckily, the scene remained in the film thanks to Leonard Nimoy.”

Here’s how Nimoy remembered it: “... I said to the writers and producers we’ve got to have a scene where Spock is going through this Pon farr experience for the first time… It’s foreplay. We’re watching foreplay here. The studio was very nervous about this scene. They said ah, people are going to be laughing. And I said, No they won’t –– they’ll be very curious about what this is all about, where is it going.”

Leonard Nimoy was well known to be an uncompromising artist with an eye ever focused on excellence, so it’s no surprise he fought for such a substantive scene central to the character he spent a lifetime and career establishing and fleshing out. The Pon farr scene didn’t last long; in content it's somewhat tame, but it’s one of the most important highlights of the classic film, and contributes to the ongoing fabric of our fascination with the Vulcan race, and the never ending quest for diversity in Star Trek.

Star Trek Sex deals tastefully in the romantically loaded tales of Gene Roddenberry's landmark TV show. And though William Shatner's Kirk is a front and center player, his crew, Spock, Scotty, Uhura, McCoy, Sulu and Chekov, also get a piece of the action. To explore strange new worlds... To seek out new life... Star Trek Sex covers the iconic classic, then warps beyond to Star Trek: Into Darkness and the hip satire of Saturday Night Live, Family Guy and the legendary Howard Stern.