14 Dumbest Things In Star Trek III: The Search For Spock
11. Dereliction Of Duty
Saavik suffers character assassination in this film because she is depicted as passive in ways that renders her an incompetent Starfleet officer.
DAVID: (reacting to tricorder) Whoever they are, they're getting closer.
SAAVIK: I'll go.
DAVID: No. ...I'll do it. Give me your phaser.
And she hands it over.
The Starfleet officer hands their only weapon to a civilian scientist.
Sure, Saavik is worried about mindless teen-Spock, but as Starfleet she’s the only "logical" choice to deal with “whoever they are,” given she must have gone through weapons and self-defense training. Furthermore, one would assume it’s her sworn duty to defend civilians assigned to her. Instead, she lets an untrained scientist wander off with their only means of defense to get bonk bonked on the head while she plays finger sex with a hormonal teen. Yes, said teen is also at risk, but we doubt a court martial would see it that way.
Worse, when Kruge orders the two remaining Klingons left with them to “kill one of the prisoners” she just stands there, waiting to see who gets it. David conveniently sacrifices himself while she stands still. She doesn’t even try. Heck, she doesn’t even look.
No wonder she stayed on Vulcan in the next movie and disappeared. This Saavik was not Starfleet material.