Fails the Bechdel test
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
1984. Directed by Leonard Nimoy, written by Harve Bennett and Gene Roddenberry.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
6 women characters. 2 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
Women do talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Every conversation between women that our parser found mentions a man.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
In the wake of Spock's ultimate deed of sacrifice, Admiral Kirk and the Enterprise crew return to Earth for some essential repairs to their ship. When they arrive at Spacedock, they are shocked to discover that the Enterprise is to be decommissioned. Even worse, Dr. McCoy begins acting strangely and Scotty has been reassigned to another ship. Kirk is forced to steal back the Enterprise and head across space to the Genesis Planet to save Spock and bring him to Vulcan. Unbeknownst to them, the Klingons are planning to steal the secrets of the Genesis Device for their own deadly purpose.
- Released
- 01 Jun 1984
- Genres
- Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
- Rated
- PG
- IMDb
- 6.7 / 10
- Metascore
- 58 / 100
- Awards
- 1 win & 11 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Kirk 224 lines, man
- Kruge 75 lines, man
- Saavik 72 lines, woman
- Mccoy 49 lines, man
- David 47 lines, man
- Sulu 35 lines, man
- Scotty 30 lines, man
- Esteban 27 lines, man
- Chekov 26 lines, man
- Sarek 26 lines, man
Full cast, 30 people
- William Shatner as Admiral James T. Kirk
- DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy
- James Doohan as Captain Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott
- George Takei as Cmdr. Hikaru Sulu
- Walter Koenig as Cmdr. Pavel Chekov
- Nichelle Nichols as Cmdr. Uhura
- Christopher Lloyd as Cmdr. Kruge
- Robin Curtis as Lt. Saavik
- Mark Lenard as Ambassador Sarek
- Merritt Butrick as Dr. David Marcus
- Judith Anderson as Vulcan High Priestess
- James B. Sikking as Captain Styles
- Phillip R. Allen as Capt. Esteban
- Robert Hooks as Admiral Morrow
- John Larroquette as Maltz
- Carl Steven as Spock...Age 9
- Vadia Potenza as Spock...Age 13
- Stephen Manley as Spock...Age 17
- Joe W. Davis as Spock at age 25
- Leonard Nimoy as Captain Spock / Elevator Voice
- Miguel Ferrer as First Officer
- Branscombe Richmond as Klingon Gunner #2
- Frank Welker as Spock's Screams
- Scott McGinnis as Starfleet Cadet "Mr. Adventure"
- Phil Morris as Trainee Foster
- Jeanne Mori as Helm Officer
- Grace Lee Whitney as Commander Janice Rand (Woman in Cafeteria)
- Nanci Rogers as Bar Waitress (uncredited)
- Paul Sorensen as Captain
- Danny Rogers as Merchantman First Officer (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 7% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 145
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | 9 | 38 |
| 5 to 8 | 3 | 23 |
| 9 to 12 | 3 | 5 |
| 13 to 16 | 0 | 4 |
| 17 to 20 | 8 | 19 |
| 21 to 24 | 1 | 14 |
| 25 to 28 | 1 | 28 |
| 29 to 32 | 4 | 19 |
| 33 to 36 | 4 | 47 |
| 37 to 40 | 4 | 17 |
| 41 to 44 | 7 | 50 |
| 45 to 48 | 16 | 28 |
| 49 to 52 | 0 | 25 |
| 53 to 56 | 12 | 13 |
| 57 to 60 | 0 | 8 |
| 61 to 64 | 0 | 12 |
| 65 to 68 | 0 | 6 |
| 69 to 72 | 0 | 10 |
| 73 to 76 | 0 | 9 |
| 77 to 80 | 6 | 8 |
| 81 to 84 | 5 | 16 |
| 85 to 88 | 2 | 18 |
| 89 to 92 | 0 | 10 |
| 93 to 96 | 0 | 10 |
| 97 to 100 | 0 | 17 |
| 101 to 104 | 0 | 4 |
| 105 to 108 | 0 | 10 |
| 109 to 112 | 0 | 3 |
| 113 to 116 | 0 | 20 |
| 117 to 120 | 4 | 33 |
| 121 to 124 | 0 | 8 |
| 125 to 128 | 0 | 19 |
| 129 to 132 | 9 | 60 |
| 133 to 136 | 1 | 3 |
| 137 to 140 | 2 | 4 |
| 141 to 144 | 7 | 5 |
| 145 to 145 | 0 | 19 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 14 are women's.
108 lines from women, 642 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
6 women and 23 men in the cast. 2 women and 18 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 5 of 805.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 81 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 15% of the words (1,010), men 85% (5,789). Women have 14% of the lines, so their lines run longer than men's.
Exhibit D: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
1
Two men
72
Exhibit E: behind the camera
1 of the 10 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 9% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Leonard Nimoy (man)
- Written by
- Harve Bennett (man)
- Produced by
- Harve Bennett (man)
- Shot by
- Charles Correll (man)
- Edited by
- Robert F. Shugrue (man)
- Music by
- James Horner (man)
- Costumes by
- Robert Fletcher (man)
- Cast by
- Elza Bergeron (gender not listed), Mary Ann Barton (woman), Stuart Jensen (gender not listed)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
1 women, 18 men, 2 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 7 men
-
Production
1 women, 3 men, 3 not listed
-
Sound
1 women, 5 men
-
Art
0 women, 2 men
-
Directing
0 women, 2 men
-
Writing
0 women, 2 men
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 39 on average. Men: 50 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Robin Curtis 27, Nichelle Nichols 51
Men
Merritt Butrick 24, Christopher Lloyd 45, George Takei 47, Walter Koenig 47, William Shatner 53, Mark Lenard 59, DeForest Kelley 64, James Doohan 64
Exhibit G: the money
It made 4.8 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $18 million
- Box office
- $87 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 145 scenes and 805 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
