Robin Curtis returns to perform a lost scene from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Directed by Leonard Nimoy, Star Trek IV is affectionately known as “the one with the whales,” and the 1986 comedic romp was the highest-grossing Star Trek movie until J.J. Abrams’ 2009 reboot.
Star Trek IV was Robin Curtis’ second outing as Lieutenant Saavik after she replaced Kirstie Alley in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Unfortunately, Saavik was only briefly in Star Trek IV’s first act, and she was left behind on Vulcan when the former crew of the USS Enterprise returned to Earth.
Also left behind from Star Trek IV was a scene in which Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) asks Saavik about her being pregnant with Captain Spock’s (Leonard Nimoy) baby. On Roddenberry podcasts’ The Trek Files hosted by Larry Nemecek, Robin Curtis recreates her Star Trek IV lost scene, with John Champion as Kirk. Watch it below:
Excised from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home were details that Lt. Saavik became pregnant after having pon faar with a young Spock to save his life on the doomed Genesis Planet in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Saavik and Kirk’s Star Trek IV scene was part of the first two script drafts but was left out of the shooting script and was never filmed.
Director Leonard Nimoy was reportedly uncomfortable with the subplot of Saavik carrying Spock’s baby. By leaving it out of Star Trek IV, Spock and Saavik’s child didn’t become canon. Indeed, that subplot was not pursued in any further Star Trek film or in Leonard Nimoy’s later appearances as Spock in Star Trek: The Next Generation or J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movies.
In 2024, Roddenberry Archives and OTOY produced 765874 – Unification, which reunites Captain Kirk and Spock. Directed by Carlos Baena, Unification allowed Robin Curtis to play Saavik once more, her adult son with Spock, Sorak (Mark Chinnery). Although not official canon, Unification gives Kirk, Spock, and Star Trek fans a sense of spiritual closure.
Saavik’s final canonical appearance was in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, but Star Trek: Picard season 3 named a shuttlecraft “Saavik,” and ancillary materials revealed that Saavik became Captain of the USS Titan. The Trek Files gives a glimpse of a powerful lost moment between Saavik and Kirk that tells more of the Vulcan Lieutenant’s missing story.
Release Date
November 27, 1986
Runtime
118 Minutes
Admiral/Captain James T. Kirk
Catherine Hicks
Dr. Gillian Taylor