Film Title: The Wrath
of Khan
Air Date: 6/4/1982
Written by Harve
Bennett and Jack B. Sowards
Directed by Nicholas
Meyer
Cast: William Shatner as Rear Admiral James T. Kirk Leonard Nimoy as Captain Spock DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H.
McCoy AKA “Bones” James
Doohan as Commander Montgomery Scott AKA
“Scotty” George Takei as Commander Hikaru Sulu Nichelle Nichols as Commander Nyota Uhura Walter Koenig as Commander Pavel
Chekov Kirstie Alley as Lieutenant
(junior grade) Saavik Ike Eisenmann
as Cadet First Class Peter Preston
Paul Winfield as Captain Clark Terrell John Winston as Lieutenant Commander Kyle Paul Kent as Commander Ralston
"Stoney" Beach Joel
Marston as unnamed Chief Petty Officer
Bill Baker as unnamed Cadet
Steve Blalock as unnamed Cadet
Bobby Burns as unnamed Cadet
Gilbert B. Combs as unnamed
Cadet Richard Forinash as unnamed Cadet Jim Painter as unnamed Cadet Kimberly L. Ryusaki as unnamed Cadet George Sasaki as unnamed Cadet Philip Weyland as unnamed Cadet Ricardo Montalban as Khan Noonien
Singh Judson Scott as Joachim Laura Banks as Khan's unnamed Navigator Steve Bond as Khan’s unnamed
crewmember Fletcher Bryant as Khan’s
unnamed crewmember Ann Chatterton as Khan’s unnamed
crewmember Brett Baxter Clark as
Khan’s unnamed crewmember Tim
Culbertson as Khan’s unnamed
crewmember John Gibson as Khan’s unnamed crewmember Dennis Landry as Khan’s unnamed
crewmember Cristian Letelier as Khan’s unnamed
crewmember Jeff McBride as Khan’s unnamed crewmember Roger
Menache as Khan’s unnamed crewmember Nanci Rogers as Khan’s unnamed crewmember Deney
Terrio as Khan’s unnamed crewmember
Bibi Besch as Dr. Carol Marcus Merritt Butrick as Dr. David
Marcus John Vargas as Dr. Jedda
Adzhin-Dall Russell Takaki as Dr.
Vance Madison Kevin Rodney
Sullivan as Dr. Delwin March Eddy Donno
as unnamed Regula I Cook Anthony
Gordon as 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.”
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.”
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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?
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| 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.
FINAL GRADE 5 of 5
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