Name: The Wrath of Khan
Author: Vonda N. McIntyre
Publication Date: 7/1981
Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #7)
Page Number: 223
Historian’s Note:
NA
Cast of Characters: Rear Admiral James T. Kirk Captain
Spock Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
AKA “Bones” Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty” Commander Hikaru
Sulu Commander Nyota
Uhura Commander Pavel Chekov Commander Max Arrunja Lieutenant Commander
Kyle Dr. Christine Chapel Lieutenant Janice Rand Lieutenant (Junior Grade)
Saavik Lieutenant (Junior
Grade) Croy Captain Clark
Terrell Commander Ralston "Stoney"
Beach Captain Mandala Flynn Khan Noonien Singh Joachim Dr. Carol Marcus Dr. David Marcus Dr. Jedda Adzhin-Dall Dr. Vance Madison Dr. 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.
Final Grade: Final Grade 4 of 5
No comments:
Post a Comment