Jeremy A Perron's multiple year mission to complete an interesting and witty review for every Star Trek series, every movie, and maybe branch out into my novel collection. Spoilers! Spoilers! Spoilers beware!
Cast of Characters: Rear Admiral James T. KirkCaptain
Spock Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
AKA “Bones”Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”Commander Hikaru
SuluCommander Nyota
UhuraCommander Pavel ChekovCommander Max Arrunja Lieutenant Commander
Kyle Dr. Christine ChapelLieutenant Janice RandLieutenant (Junior Grade)
SaavikLieutenant (Junior
Grade) CroyCaptain Clark
TerrellCommander Ralston "Stoney"
BeachCaptain Mandala Flynn Khan Noonien SinghJoachimDr. Carol MarcusDr. David Marcus Dr. Jedda Adzhin-DallDr. Vance MadisonDr. Delwin March
Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, USS
Reliant NCC-1864, Space Station Regula I, unnamed shuttlecraft, SS Botany
Bay
Planets:Earth,
Ceti Alpha V, and Regulas I
My Spoiler filled summary and review: Since this is a
review of the book version to the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, there
is no need to provide a summary of the story as I already did that in my last review.So, I am just going to focus on the
differences between the book and the movie.
1.In the Kobayashi Maru test the other cadets have
a larger role. They are the ones manning
the helm and stations with the regular crew overseeing them.This takes away a bit of the misdirection of
the opening.There is also more detail
to the debriefing.Kirk challenges the
cadets with other possible scenarios.Saavik takes it all a little too seriously.
2.More information is given about the crew of the Reliant.The
book mentions that they all hate this assignment for the sheer boredom it
creates.There is a good explanation why
finding an ideal planet is hard. “Lifeless planet in the goldilocks zone” is a
lot harder than just lifeless planet.Chekov
and Terrell’s idea about removing the potential life makes more sense here than
in the film.In the book they argue that
the life signs they find may be the end of an evolutionary line not the
beginning of one. If this were true, they would be rescuing it anyway.This is what gets Carol to agree.
3.Dialogue throughout the book is different.Not too different but enough that it
sometimes annoys me.Throughout the
entire book the Ceti Alpha system and planets get referred to as “Alpha
Ceti.”My head, however, always goes for
the former.Some things are good
additions like when Terrell proclaims that he doesn’t know Kirk it’s in
response to Khan asking if he ever had a conversation with him.
4.According to the book Chekov was working the
night shift during in “Space Seed.” We also find out he had a crush on Lt.
McGivers and it adds to the reason he doesn’t like Khan.
5.Sulu has just been promoted to captain and has
this rank for the entire book. Also, Sulu is never at the helm, instead Saavik
is.Where in the movie Saavik manned the
navigator station.
6.Peter Preston is a much larger character in this
book than he was in the movie.He is
Scotty’s nephew and lot of pages are devoted to him and his past before he is
killed off. He is said to be only
fourteen years old.
7.In the book, Carol Marcus’s Genesis presentation
includes the possibility of using large amounts of matter that is not a planet
to make a world and solar system that we actually see after the battle of the
Mutara Nebula.This closes my largest
plot hole.
8.Saavik is established as both Vulcan and
Romulan.She has no contact with either
family and was raised and orphaned.She
tries her best to be Vulcan but fails at times.She is not even a vegetarian.
9.We see
Khan invade Regula I where he tortures and kills the scientists there.There were no real surprises or interesting
things to learn as I didn’t care about any of these one-shot characters.
10.There is still no indication of what regulation
Kirk was ignoring. I assume it was the
process that later began such as raising the additional force fields around the
bridge.
11.McCoy tries to shield Kirk and Saavik from
seeing what has been done to the scientists of Regula 1.It doesn’t make any sense considering
everything Kirk has seen and Saavik is a professional Starfleet officer.
12.McCoy apparently served with Captain Terrell and
considers him a friend.When he did this
is not clear, but he is upset by his death.
13.David is a much better fighter than he is in the
movie.Also, in the book Kirk doesn’t
know that David is his son.Both Kirk
and David find out at the exact same moment.
14.Both Dr. Christine Chapel and Lieutenant Janice
Rand are in the book but not in the movie.
15.The Genesis cave is bigger in the book.While in the cave David and Saavik make a
connection that is not seen in the movie.
16.In that battle of the Mutara Nebula Sulu is
seriously injured and it is David who performs CPR to save his life long enough
for Dr. Chapel to put him back together.Sulu is the person who Chekov replaces at the weapons station.
17.Kirk and David get in disagreement on the bridge
in the middle of the battle.
18.We get Spock’s thought process when making the
decision to sacrifice himself on behalf of the ship. There is no “remember”
moment with Dr. McCoy.Also, the
description is more vivid as Spock describes his hands bleeding as he repairs
the ship.In the movie Spock was burnt
but he didn’t bleed at all.
Additional thoughts: Reading this book made me
curious to how the whole thing was put together to begin with.It is just that there are many contradictions
between the book version and the film that naturally makes one wonder about the
cause.The book came out a month after
the movie premiered, given I have rough idea of what it takes to get books
published it is safe to say that the novelization was probably written around
the same time the movie was being made.So,
was the author just handed the script?Was there any active collaboration?Is the book closer to the original script than the movie? The author
takes time to update us on her original character Mandala Flynn from The Entropy Effect.We can safely say
that part is completely original.
So, let’s look at the changes to
Sulu.McIntyre, the author, clearly
cares for Sulu as she was the one who gave him the name “Hikaru” that the rest
of the franchise.Now I know George
Takei has stated that they filmed a scene that was at end of film where Sulu
was promoted to captain, but they scratched it.However, this scene doesn’t see Sulu promoted, he is in fact already a
captain. He is referred to as “Captain
Sulu” throughout the story.Sulu even
remarks that the new rank insignia is strange because of the “extra
braid.”This indicates that Sulu is
wearing a captain’s uniform, and the author is still under the belief that the
costumes would still be the Starfleet uniforms from The Motion Picture that
still had the braid rank.In the movie,
Sulu wears a commander’s uniform, and the Enterprise crew all dressed in
the best monster maroons. The author has
Sulu state to his fellow officers that his command is slated to be the USS
Excelsior. At the time the only USS
Excelsior in the franchise’s existence was the constitution-class NCC-1718
from the Technical Manual.The later one
would not be invented until the next film.Sulu is never at the helm in this one, Saavik is.Sulu operates the weapons station and has to
leave the bridge part way through the battle.
At no point is what the Reliant
looks like explained to the viewer.If
you have never seen the movie, you would have no idea what it meant to be a
Miranda-class starship.Indeed, that
term isn’t even used in the book.Khan
mentions that the ship is like the Enterprise.
Not described in book
Peter Preston is a far more
important character in the book than he is in the film.Where in the movie he is a two-scene
character, the book gives large parts of early chapters to his point of view
and even establishes that Saavik is tutoring him in math where he develops a
schoolboy crush on her.This is all to
make his death more tragic.Some things
they establish about him are ridiculous, such as him being only fourteen years
old.This makes him the age of an older
8th grader or high school freshmen, yet he is a first-class cadet,
so he is supposed to be a senior in college.The actor in the movie was twenty at the time. He is Scotty’s nephew which is fine, but they
also say he has an older sister who for some reason is so awesome that she is
already a commander—the same rank as Scotty—and yet always one step away from
being kicked out of Starfleet.
Peter Preston, not 14
Joachim is also given more
attention but at least he was still important in the film.The book draws out his dilemma between his
loyalty to Khan yet clearly realizing that Khan is insane and will lead them to
destruction.He is a weak and failed
character because he never overcomes this challenge, instead, he just follows
Khan to oblivion.
Joachim
The author also tries to explain
why they didn’t notice Ceti Alpha V was V and not VI.As I explained in my last review this never
bothered me. In here the book explained
that Ceti Alpha V had a large moon that turns out was unstable.When Ceti Alpha VI exploded and altered their
orbit, it caused the moon to break up altering the climate.
The book also dives into Saavik’s
past as a Vulcan/Romulan hybrid who is claimed by neither.Saavik heavily implies that she is most
likely the product of rape.That Romulan
on Vulcan sexual assaults are common.Her Romulan family threw her away and her Vulcan family doesn’t know she
exists. This is why her name doesn’t start with a “T” like most Vulcan
women.She also has problems with
conforming to Vulcan culture as she is not a vegetarian.She is enraged when David mistakes her for
Spock’s daughter as she sees such a statement as insulting to Mr. Spock.
Saavik and Spock
The big David issue: his
relationship to Admiral Kirk.In the
movie David is horrible at fighting and his paternal history has been hidden
from him.It is presented as a crime that
both his parents have committed against him.They agreed to separate, and that David would be better with Carol.Kirk is disappointed that Carol never told
David, but he never bothered to reach out himself.In the book its very different not only is
David a much better fighter but neither man knew of Kirk’s paternity.The two of them were equally shocked to
learn.In other words, Carol decided by
herself that she didn’t want dad around and decided to deny both father and son
the right to know each other.Again, I
wonder if that was part of the original script because someone had to change
something.Did the author not like the of
Kirk being a deadbeat dad and since Carol Marcus didn’t exist before the author
didn’t care about pushing her character under the bus?Or when making the movie did Nicholas Meyer
say “no, they’ll hate her if that’s the backstory” and he changed it?David was also told someone else, who is
dead, was his father.The book seems to
imply that David and Saavik have an attraction to one another.
David
I did like knowing Spock’s thought
process.The time to Genesis detonation,
time to engine room decontamination, his abilities as a Vulcan, his pride and
Saavik, and his thoughts about how Jim Kirk was the only true captain of the Enterprise,
and that he held that position only in trust. We also are told by the book that Spock’s
space funeral was his own request, and all the other bodies were being taken
home to their families.
Last moments
Should it be canon: I prefer to think of what we saw
on screen as the canon version of events and the book is just a clever “what
if?”.
Cover Art: The cover art has Admiral Kirk and Captain
Spock standing side by side in their monster maroons with Spock on the viewers
left and Kirk on the right. Khan’s face
is centered between them with streaks shooting out at the viewer as if Khan
head was itself a ship that was leaving at warp speed.
Cast: William Shatner as Rear Admiral James T. KirkLeonard Nimoy as Captain SpockDeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H.
McCoy AKA “Bones”James
Doohanas Commander Montgomery Scott AKA
“Scotty”George Takeias Commander Hikaru SuluNichelle Nichols as Commander Nyota UhuraWalter Koenig as Commander Pavel
ChekovKirstie Alley as Lieutenant
(junior grade) SaavikIke Eisenmann
as Cadet First Class Peter PrestonPaul Winfield as Captain Clark TerrellJohn Winston as Lieutenant Commander KylePaul Kent as Commander Ralston
"Stoney" BeachJoel
Marston as unnamed Chief Petty OfficerBill Baker as unnamed CadetSteve Blalock as unnamed CadetBobby Burns as unnamed CadetGilbert B. Combs as unnamed
CadetRichard Forinash as unnamed CadetJim Painter as unnamed CadetKimberly L. Ryusaki as unnamed CadetGeorge Sasaki as unnamed CadetPhilip Weyland as unnamed CadetRicardo Montalban as Khan Noonien
SinghJudson Scott as JoachimLaura Banks as Khan's unnamed NavigatorSteve Bond as Khan’s unnamed
crewmemberFletcher Bryant as Khan’s
unnamed crewmemberAnn Chatterton as Khan’s unnamed
crewmemberBrett Baxter Clark as
Khan’s unnamed crewmemberTim
Culbertsonas Khan’s unnamed
crewmemberJohn Gibsonas Khan’s unnamed crewmemberDennis Landry as Khan’s unnamed
crewmemberCristian Letelier as Khan’s unnamed
crewmemberJeff McBride as Khan’s unnamed crewmemberRoger
Menache as Khan’s unnamed crewmemberNanci Rogers as Khan’s unnamed crewmemberDeney
Terrio as Khan’s unnamed crewmemberBibi Besch as Dr. Carol MarcusMerritt Butrick as Dr. David
MarcusJohn Vargas as Dr. Jedda
Adzhin-DallRussell Takaki as Dr.
Vance MadisonKevin Rodney
Sullivan as Dr. Delwin MarchEddy Donno
as unnamed Regula I CookAnthony
Gordonas Regula I Steward
Ships and Space
Stations: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, USS Reliant NCC-1864, Space Station
Regula I, unnamed shuttlecraft, SS Botany Bay
Planets: Earth, Ceti Alpha V, and Regulas I
My Spoiler filled
summary and review: The adventure
begins on the bridge of the Enterprise.Where we see Starfleet officers who dressed better than Starfleet
officer has before.Although the bridge
crew is familiar, we see not Captain Kirk but a young Vulcan woman in the
center seat who wears the rank insignia of a lieutenant (j.g.).The Enterprise receives a distress
call from the freighter Kobayashi Maru.
The ship is stuck in the Klingon Neutral Zone, she orders a rescue but when
they arrive three Klingon K't'inga-class cruisers show up and blow them to
bits.It is at this point that we see
this just a simulation. Lt. Saavik is a graduate student who is becoming a
command focused officer.Admiral Kirk is
overseeing the simulation.He has brief
conversations with Saavik about the importance of facing death.
The Admiral mentoring the young Lieutenant
Kirk talks to Spock thanking him
for the birthday present, a hard copy classic edition of The Tale of Two Cities.Kirk reads its famous first line.They discuss the Kobayashi Maru test, and
Spock points out that Kirk took the test three times with a unique result.Later, McCoy stops by to give Kirk some Romulan
Ale for his birthday along with a set of old-fashioned glasses since Kirk is
allergic to the normal 23rd century treatment.McCoy urges Kirk to try to get command of a
starship again.
Elsewhere the USS Reliant
is searching for an uninhabitable planet to conduct a scientific experiment
on.The commanding officer is Captain
Clark Terrell, and the first officer is none other than our favorite Russian,
Commander Pavel Chekov.He has come a
long way since he was an ensign on the Enterprise. The planet they are
exploring is Ceti Alpha VI, it is almost perfect except for one little thing
that they noticed on a small sensor scan.Terrell and Chekov contact Dr. Carol Marcus who is the lead scientist on
the project.Carol gives them permission
to check out, but if it is so much of an indigenous microbe then it is
over.As the communication is cut the
focus turns to Space Station Regula I, where the main research is being
done.Carol turns to her co-scientist
and son, Dr. David Marcus.He is
concerned with what they are building, being perverted into an awful weapon.Carol points out that not all Starfleet is
bad, and Marcus makes a joke about her old boyfriend, Jim Kirk.
Terrell, like Kirk, is very much
a hands-on captain.He beams down to the
planet itself with only his first officer to accompany him.They are in spacesuits, which is a good thing
because the environment is not something they could survive without one.They are about to give up their search when
they come across what appears to be a crashed derelict vessel, which Terrell
remarks looks like cargo carriers.As
they enter, they discover that it was clearly made for humanoids at least.As Chekov looks at some books on the shelf
titles such as King Lear, Moby Dick, Paradise Lost, and
the Holy Bible.He then sees a belt with
the name SS Botany Bay.Chekov then realizes what ship’s remains this
is.He tells the Captain they need to
leave, but as they walk out they are captured.
This is not going well for the Captain and his First Officer
The leader is the last to
unmask.He is Khan Noonien Singh, the 20th
century tyrant who at one point controlled a quarter of the Earth.Khan recognizes Mr. Chekov and is a bit
surprised that the Russian has failed to tell his new captain on what must have
been one of his greatest adventures.When the Enterprise found him and his fellow augments in
cryo-freeze since 1996.Khan goes on
about being marooned by Kirk, briefly stopping to get over the shock that Kirk
became an admiral. Chekov interrupts him pointing out that Kirk was his host
and Khan tried to steal his ship and murder him.He also challenged that Kirk had marooned
them here, he points out that on Ceti Alpha V there was life and a chance.That is when Khan shouts, “This IS Ceti Alpha
V!”He pointed out that six months after
Kirk left them here Ceti Alpha VI exploded like Krypton.However, unlike Krypton, that had a scientist
place his only child in rocket to land on Earth and become Superman, Ceti Alpha
VI’s explosion gave off a shockwave that altered the orbit of Ceti Alpha V.
After explaining, it suddenly occurs to Khan, that they aren’t there for
him.He tells them this and demands to
know the reason.When they don’t cooperate, Khan decides to
introduce them to Ceti Alpha V’s only remaining indigenous life from.It was responsible for killing over twenty of
his people including his wife.A nasty
sand burrowing creature whose young enter the ears of larger animals and wrap
themselves up in the cerebral cortex making them extremely sensitive to
suggestion.After putting one in each
officers’ helmet.They put helmets back
on and watch the creatures do their work.
Back in Earth’s orbit, Admiral Kirk and his party that consist of most of
his former command staffers, are heading back to the Enterprise.The old ship, instead of exploring new worlds,
is in service as Starfleet Academy’s training vessel under the command of
Captain Spock. Kirk’s job is to inspect and evaluate them.Kirk has spent the whole previous day mourning
about turning 50 and now he is about to embark on the same ship that he
commanded through two five-year-missions, but now he is just a passenger
getting ready to write a review.
As they board Kirk is introduced to young Peter Preston, a cadet who is
also Scotty’s nephew.(Although that is
never mentioned on screen.)He admires
Scotty’s drill of the student to have such a spotless inspection.Kirk then heads to the bridge where he sees
Captain Spock give Lt. Saavik the opportunity to lead the ship out of space
dock.She does well, it is as if we are
watching the same scene from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. This time they get
into warp drive without encountering an artificial wormhole.That’s a good thing because this movie
doesn’t need one of those.
Back on Space Station Regula I they receive a message from Commander
Chekov on the Reliant. Chekov, under Khan’s control, tells them they
need to be ready to transfer all Genesis materials to Reliant, when
questioned who ordered it Chekov replied, “Admiral James T. Kirk.”The researchers are infuriated Carol decides
to reach out to Kirk.However, the
signal is blocked, Kirk can barely hear Carol and she can’t hear him at
all.She demands to know who is taking
Genesis.
We're here!
Starfleet wants this investigated and decides the Enterprise
despite having a crew of mostly Starfleet cadets shall do that investigation. Kirk
goes to tell Spock and the two of them haggle over which one of them should be
in command of the ship.It is decided
that Kirk shall be, so they go to the bridge and announce it to the crew.Afterward they decide they all should brush
up on the Genesis project, so Kirk, Spock, and McCoy go to watch a video about
the Genesis project.It is an impressive
video showing that it will be capable of.The ability to take a dead planet and make it a living planet like
Earth.They are all impressed and McCoy
is a little disturbed but while they are discussing it, they are alerted to the
arrival of the USS Reliant.
We are one big happy fleet!
Kirk and Spock arrive on the bridge, they see the vessel on the
viewscreen and yet they are not communicating with them.The scene shifts back and forth from the
bridges of the Enterprise to the Reliant.We see Khan’s crew is happy and eager to
attack, even Joachim, who earlier tried to warn Khan about continuing his
struggle with Kirk.Khan is pleased to
see that their subterfuge is working.As
the Enterprise crew is still trying to figure it out, Khan decides he
has had enough and attacks.The Reliant
relentlessly pours its phasers into the Enterprise.The attacks were right where they needed to
hit for the Enterprise has been crippled in space.If Khan wanted to kill Kirk now he could. However,
he has other goals in mind and wants to discuss their surrender.
Khan and Kirk once again face to face!
Kirk is shocked to learn that Khan is once again his adversary.After all, when they last saw each other,
they were on pretty good terms.Now to
be fair Kirk was generous to him at first before and he tried control of the Enterprise,
so maybe he shouldn’t be too shocked.Let’s just say he wasn’t expecting it.He tries to get Khan to explain but Khan isn’t interested, he wants Kirk
to surrender himself and any information Kirk has on Genesis.Kirk tries to play dumb, but Khan won’t fall
for it, Kirk asks if he can look up the information and Khan gives him a
minute.Instead of sending over data on
Genesis, Kirk sends the prefix code 16309.This allows the Enterprise to lower the Reliant’s shields
and give that ship a blast of her phaser banks.Reliant is now damaged in both its weapons and warp capabilities.
Joachim must convince Khan to retreat.
With the threat temporarily taken care of, they assess the damage, and it
is great.The ship is hobbled on
emergency power, and worse is human casualties are mounting.One of the dead is the young Preston,
Scotty’s nephew.Just when it seems like there is more death
than they can handle the ship crawls on impulse to Space Station Regula I.At the station they find most of the research
team’s mangled corpses.On the Enterprise
they saw young men and women snuffed out in battle, here they were slowly
tortured as their lives came to an end.They
do find some survivors: Captain Terrell and Commander Chekov.Chekov tells his former captain what Khan had
done to them and what he had done to the scientists who were here.However, Kirk notices they are not all here,
there are some missing.
Killed in action!
They find a transporter pad still on as no one was left to shut it
off.Kirk uses his communicator to talk
to Spock, unaware that Khan is listening in, Spock informs the Admiral that the
Enterprise is going to take nearly a week to finish repairs. Kirk tells Spock
that if they don’t hear back from him in that time, they are to leave without
them as they will be dead. Kirk said that because the transporter was sent to
the center of a dead moon, Kirk remembering the Genesis video recalls phase 2
of the experiment was to be conducted in a place like that.Kirk decides to take a gamble and follow them
there.
Look who we find!
The landing party find themselves in a corridor of some kind. As soon as they materialize, they are
attacked.Kirk being the greatest fighter in the known galaxy whose speed and
graze leaves all his opponents dazzled, he quickly defeats his opponent and
demands to see Dr. Marcus and his opponent responds with “I am Dr. Marcus.” Kirk
is shocked this man is his son and he is horrible at fighting. Carol shows up
and Kirk tries to get confirmation that this horrible combatant is in fact his
biological offspring.This is when we see that Captain Terrell and
Commander Chekov are still under the control of Khan as they draw their
phasers.David stupidly tries to rush
them only to be saved by Saavik, but the action kills off a red shirt scientist
instead. Khan order Terrell to kill Kirk but Terrell is still a Starfleet captain,
and he puts up a resistance to cold blooded murder. He turns the phaser on
himself wiping himself out of existence. Chekov then collapses as the creature
that invaded his body tries to escape only to be blasted to death by Kirk.
So you want to see genesis!
Kirk grabs Terrell’s communicator and teases Khan about not being
dead.Khan transports the Genesis device
to the Reliant.Kirk continues to
torment Khan about not yet getting him.At this point Khan is probably tempted to go down there and finish Kirk,
but he remembers that Kirk is the greatest fighter in the known galaxy whose
speed and graze leaves all his opponents, including him, dazzled. The last time
the two of them fought it did not go well for Khan.The last thing he wants is for the Admiral to
embarrass him in front of his men.So, Khan
pretends that trapping Kirk is what he always wanted to do and tells him such.
Now that they are left behind, they have plenty of time to talk.Carol
asks who Khan is but doesn’t get a straight answer. Kirk explains to Saavik that he cheated on Kobayashi
Maru test.Carol shows off what Genesis
is capable of, as she takes them to the center of the cavern that is like a
tropical paradise.To top it off they
did it all in a day.It is revealed that
Kirk and Spock had been talking in code.Repairing the ship was a matter of hours not days and they are ready to
beam them up.
As the landing party returns to the Enterprise sensor scans reveal
that the Reliant is in better condition than they are.Nearby, however, is the Mutara Nebula, if they were to enter it the conditions
of the Nebula would make their shields and visuals useless.Not normally a good thing but as Spock points
out the odds will be even. As they head to the Nebula, Khan isn’t biting so
Kirk calls him out on the subspace radio.Khan, infuriated, flies into the Nebula after him despite warnings from
his second-in-command.
If Khan thought getting beaten by Kirk in “Space Seed” was embarrassing
enough considering his greater physical strength, the superior intellect was
going to be in for the worst day of his life trying to fight Kirk tactician to tactician.As Spock points out it’s a game of
two-dimensional thinking vs. three-dimensional thinking.Although Khan will get one more good shot in,
this will mostly be a one-way battle where the Enterprise rips the Reliant
apart with its phasers and torpedoes. The Reliant has one of its warp nacelles
blown off, most of the crew is dead, and Khan himself is severally
injured.
Realizing that Kirk again has him beat Khan decides to end it all by
activating the Genesis device.The Enterprise
detects it, and David lets them know that the Genesis wave will be able to
destroy them.The only way to escape is
to warp out but the warp engines still aren’t functioning. To make matters
worse, there is a radiation leak that is preventing anyone from accessing and
repairing the damage.Spock logically
deducts that he could withstand the radiation long enough to effect repairs.He heads down and is almost stopped by McCoy,
but a quick nerve pinch solves that.He
then puts his hand to the Doctor’s face and says “remember.”
Loser!
Spock makes the repairs, and the last Khan ever sees is the Enterprise
warping away as the Genesis device destroys him and his ship.Even though it’s not a planet, the Mutara
Nebula begins to transform into a solar system with a new M class planet around
it.Krik is summoned to engineering
where he is able to talk to Spock one last time before his friend dies.Spock reminds him that the needs of the many
outweigh the needs of the few and that he will always be his friend.He then dies and the whole ship mourns.At the funeral, Kirk mentioned that of all
the souls he had ever met, Spock’s was the most human.
The loss of a legend!
The movie ends on the bridge of the Enterprise, Kirk pulls out The
Tale of Two Cities, his birthday present from Spock, and reads its famous
last line uttered by a character who gave his life for another.Kirk, who began feeling old, tells his
friends that he feels “young.”The
camera moves to the Genesis planet where Spock’s body lies, then back into
space we hear the famous Star Trek phrase “Space the Final Frontier,” but the
voice is not the traditional James Kirk’s but rather the voice of Mr.
Spock.
Additional thoughts: Guess which movie I just had to watch on January
1, 1996!A great hero feeling his age
and that time has passed him by, an archrival who was long-thought vanquished
returns, epic naval space battle, the birth of a new world, and the death of
legend.Is it really any wonder why The
Wrath of Khan is considered to be such a great film. The type of film you want to watch so many times that you can quote all the dialogue along with the characters, and with such rich dialogue as this movie has it is so fun to do.
Kirk getting the jump on Khan!
It is funny that at the end of The Motion Picture, after saving the Earth
from V’ger the refitted Enterprise has its classical crew completely
reunited and ready to begin a new five-year mission.Then this movie gives about an eight-year
time jump and now they are all relocated again.Granted they mostly ended in the same space: teaching at Starfleet
Academy, even the Enterprise itself is now assigned there.The only person who finds himself elsewhere
in the universe is Chekov, now first officer of the Reliant.To be
fair it was a time catch up in a way.Ten years had gone by from the end of classic Star Trek and five
years from the end of the Animated Series when The Motion Picture opened in theaters
and yet Kirk in that movie stated that the original five-year mission had been
over for about two years. So, if they were airing episodes from the third year
of the mission during season 3 that means only four years went by in Star
Trek’s time where ten years went by in ours.Since “Space Seed” aired in 1967, and “The Wrath of Khan” was released
in 1982 with Kirk claiming to have run into Khan “fifteen years ago” the timeline
is now the same for both the fictional and real-life universes.Still, it makes me grateful for the books that
help fill in this gap.
Direct hit!
The uniforms in this movie are the best in the whole franchise.I imagine the entire cast must have shown up
to work every feeling pretty good knowing that they look so sharp.Why couldn’t they always dress this
good?At least when they are in dress
uniforms like in “Court Martial.”
This is a crew that knows how to dress!
I have made the decision that plot holes aren’t that big of a deal.They only matter if the movie sucks.If the movie is terrible, you notice the plot
holes more but if the movie is great then the audience just ignores or forgets
about them. Think of the sudden drop off
in the T-Rex pen in Jurassic Park, as Nedry would say “nobody
cares.”The Wrath of Khan has three
popular plot holes in it and it’s still the best movie ever.However, I am going to explain that two of
these plot holes are not plot holes at all.
Everyone knows this is awesome!
The first is the Chekov plot hole.Ensign Chekov first appeared in the second season of the original
series.If you watch in the true
production order than his first appearance is in “Catspaw.”However, “Space Seed” was a season 1
episode.So, Chekov never appeared in it
and yet Khan recognizes him.This
however is the easiest thing to explain, clearly Chekov was serving in a
different area of the ship before he transferred to the bridge.Each episode is an hour long with commercials
included and yet often episodes can take place over the course of days and
sometimes as much as months. So, there is a lot of space and time to fill these
tiny little plot holes with.
So you don't care about this!
The second so called plot hole is: why didn’t the crew of the Reliant realize
that one of the planets in the Ceti Alpha system was missing.That is even easier to explain.The thing is solar systems are huge.You see a picture of them, and they look neat
and orderly however if they were done exactly to scale and you made the sun the
size of a small ball then Neptune would be almost a third of a mile away.And that is not even taking into account the
different orbits. The distance between
planets often changes.The closest
planet to Earth switches between Venus, Mars, and Mercury throughout the
year.Surprisingly enough Mercury is actually our closest neighbor most of the time. So, I can see how a starship
heading towards coordinates where they expect a planet to be not to notice one
is missing.
The scene where Kirk returns to the Enterprise and the scene where
it is leaving space dock are both directly lifted from The Motion Picture.I am completely okay with this as I suppose
the Enterprise leaving space dock must look the same every single
time.So, it was a good budget saver.
What was the regulation that Saavik was about to quote?Was it “when approaching a fellow Starfleet
ship where communication has not been established the captain should assume
that the other vessel is in distress, and it must prepare to accept survivors?”
I hope so, because if it was “when approaching another Starfleet ship where communication
has not been established the captain should raise shields and go to red alert immediately”
Kirk could very well be guilty of criminally negligent homicide multiple times
over.
The scene where Kirk sees Khan again for the first time is great.You can feel Kirk’s shock.The last time he saw Khan they were on
reasonable terms.It kind of reminds me
of the 1990s comic series “The Reign of the Supermen” (spoiler warning) where
Superman learns the top adversary was Hank Henshaw, he is floored because the
last time he saw him they were on good terms. Nevertheless, Kirk overcomes his shock and
uses the prefix code trick.That was a
pretty cool trick.
Superman was as surprised as Kirk in this issue.
Poor Scotty, he is in such shock over his nephew’s injuries he brings him
to the bridge and not sickbay.At least
he and his crewmates died quick and cleanly as opposed to the poor folks on
Regula One who got slowly tortured to death.Ricardo Montalban was right when he said he couldn’t play the same
character.Khan changed a lot since
“Space Seed” and is now an utter madman.
Captain Terrell turns to Kirk and says, “He blames you for the death of
his wife.”Kirk responds with, “I know
what he blames me for.”No, he doesn’t.His response should be, “what McGivers is
dead?What happened?Why does Khan blame me for it?What is he so upset about?”There seems to be some missing dialogue
somewhere.
It was hard for fans to learn that Kirk is a deadbeat dad.The makes McCoy’s decision to try to get Kirk
to be Charlie X’s mentor really bad in hindsight. Shame on both parents because Carol encouraged
it.David needed his dad.It’s clear because he loves to fight but
doesn’t know how.Your dad is the
greatest fighter in the known universe, and you can’t fight your way out of wet
paper bag.How exactly did David not know
who his father was?What did his mother
do when he asked this question?
Why didn’t the ear slug thing kill Chekov?Wasn’t that the final stop with this
thing.That is some powerful plot armor
protecting everyone’s favorite Russian.Saavik claims that Kirk faced death, but he has twice, he only cheated
on this third go at the Kobayashi Maru. How come Carol has never heard of
Khan?Or has she and she just hasn’t put
two and two together.If I met a person
named Napoleon, I wouldn’t assume he was THE Napoleon.
In the beginning we see a chess game in the Botany Bay wreck.However, we always see Kirk play 3-d chess
with Spock and the battle in the Nebula shows why that was such a big
deal.Cold Space may be a good place for
revenge, but you need to think 3-dimensionally, or you will be done in short
order.
When Khan started the Genesis device why couldn’t they have blown it up
with torpedoes?I assumed it was kind of
like a nuclear weapon if you destroy externally then it won’t go nuclear.I guess firing on the Genesis device would
make the wave come earlier?
Instead of running away try to blow it up!
We come to the last plot hole and the only real plot hole.We were told the Genesis device was to be
fired on dead world, the Reliant was going around looking for the dead
world.Yet the Reliant became the
dead world because apparently you can use it to make a planet out of a starship
that is in a nebula.The planet forms
out of nowhere and the nebula also forms a star system for the new planet to
orbit.When I was a kid, I imagined the Reliant
hit to warp with a single nacelle and hit a planet, but that clearly didn’t
happen.They probably should have done
that it is almost like the author wrote himself into a corner.
The biggest event of the movie of course is the death of the noble
Spock.His sacrifice was logical, and he
point out not a sacrifice because he would have died either way if the ship had
been destroyed.His death is certain but
he can act in his final moment to ensure the ship he served on and the friends
he served with would be allowed to live.He was even allowed a few additional moments to explain this to Admiral
Kirk.If this was his final moments,
they were certainly worthy of being so.Rest in peace, Mr. Spock.
After Spock’s death we had a
funeral on the ship.This makes me think
we had a lot of people die on this mission; did they all get funerals like this?Or was it just Spock since he was the big
hero who saved the day?Maybe the other
funerals were smaller more private affairs, or maybe they had one big funeral
for all the people who died on ship and let their families do a private one
later.Sending him out to space.Shouldn’t they contact Sarek and Amanda to
see what they wanted, since he is their son?Did they fire all their dead crew into space?There might have been a more pragmatic reason
to send Spock’s body off into space: he must have been quite radioactive.Maybe incasing his body in a torpedo tube and
sending him off to space was the best way to keep everyone else safe. McCoy says he is not truly gone so long as they
remember him.McCoy should remember he
is not truly gone because there is a giant Spock clone who lives on Phylos.
In closing as the title says this is the greatest movie ever created by
humans.One day an advanced artificial
intelligence may give us a better one but that is unlikely.What is certain is that humans never
will.I don’t know if the writers,
director, film crew, and cast realized as they were making this movie that they
were accomplishing the ultimate in human cinematic achievement but that is what
they had accomplished.For over forty
years now movies that were made could only shoot for the slot of 2nd
greatest movie ever made by humans for the debate for #1 was over before I knew
how to talk.That might seem unfair but
that is how the universe sometimes is.