You had a lot more humor in it that you had in the past. Leonard Nimoy: "... (mentioning the episode The Trouble With Tribbles) ... we had not anything like that in the first three movies. ... a lot of people dying, Sturm and Drang as they say, it was tie to have a good time."

To say you directed it and starred in it is one thing, you also wrote this? "I co-wrote the story with Harve Bennett, ja."

So, it was a planned intention, not to have much violence in this one at all? "Absolutely. I've said I don't want a black-hat heavy, we've had to bad guys in the last two pictures, people either killed or got killed or whatever, I didn't want to do that again, I don't want people shooting each other, I don't want people punching each other. There was a scene, a moment written in the final script where Bill Shatner is supposed to judo-chop a fellow who he has to get out of the way and I say, he's not going to do that and we locked him in a room to get rid of him and it worked fine."

Very realistic this time. "We rocked the set. ... hundreds of tons were built .. the set was lifted on a big crane... so the set would be totally vibrated. I felt it much better for the actors to have a sense of reality."

Amongst other things I noticed was the restructuring of the character of Spock. It's a whole new bargain for Spock, isn't it? "In Star Trek III when Spock was ‘resurrected', was back on his feet, there wasn't a hack of gray matter operating in his brain. He was looking around at the people and starring at Bill Shatner and finally manages to say: 'Your name is Jim', a perfect accomplishment. So, in this picture we have the opportunity to watch the character kind of grow up again and re-identify himself which was fun to play."

Plus you're directing yourself. ... What is it like to work on such a massive project? ... "... It is physically very tough to do. Many hours and going home being very, very tired at night. But I enjoyed doing both."

... from Spock to Leonard Nimoy ... "I tell you one thing: playing Spock is like an old glove. It fits very well and it's worn very well. And I am totally comfortable doing him. .. about the tough time in the 70s when the wrong perception was going on he would reject the character. It was all over after the first movie had been done.