THE RETURN OF ONE FRIEND WHILE LOSING ANOTHER

 

Film Title: The Search for Spock   

Air Date: 6/1/1984

Written by Harve Bennett

Directed by Leonard Nimoy

Cast: William Shatner as Rear Admiral James T. Kirk    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      Robin Curtis as Lieutenant Saavik     Leonard Nimoy as the Excelsior’ computer and as Captain Spock’s adult body   Carl Steven as Young zombie Spock         Vadia Potenza as early teenage zombie Spock             Stephen Manley as older teenage zombie Spock       Joe W. Davis as Young adult zombie Spock        Phil Morris as Lieutenant (junior grade) Foster         Grace Lee Whitney as Lieutenant Commander Janice Rand                 Mark Lenard as Ambassador Sarek              Phillip R. Allen as Captain J.T. Esteban       Robert Hooks as Fleet Admiral Harrison Morrow       James Sikking as Captain Lawrence H. Styles              Miguel Ferrer as Commander Miguel Darby       Scott McGinnis as Lieutenant (junior grade) Heisenberg          Christopher Lloyd as Commander Kruge          Stephen Liska  as Torg              John Larroquette as Maltz                David Cadiente as unnamed Klingon Sergeant            Bob K. Cummings as unnamed Klingon Gunner #1             Branscombe Richmond as unnamed Klingon Gunner #2             Cathie Shirriff as Valkris            Paul Sorensen as Captain Harry Price          Danny Rogers as Hans Markheim           Jeanne Mori as unnamed Helm officer      Mario Marcelino as unnamed Communications officer     Mario Marcelino as  unnamed Alien     Sharon Thomas Cain as unnamed Waitress       Katherine Blum as unnamed Vulcan Child     Judith Anderson as unnamed Vulcan High Priestess     Gary Faga as unnamed Prison Guard#1     Doug Shanklin as unnamed Prison Guard#2     Teresa E. Victor as Enterprise Computer       Judi M. Durand as space dock controller      Shirley Anthony as unnamed Vulcan Priest       David Armstrong as unnamed Vulcan Priest       Benjie Bancroft as unnamed Vulcan Priest             Jessica Biscardi as unnamed Vulcan Priest      

Ships and Space Stations: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, USS Grissom NCC-638, USS Excelsior NX-2000, Earth Spacedock, IKS B'rel

Planets: Earth, Genesis Planet, and Vulcan

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The adventure begins mere weeks after the previous one ended with the Enterprise limping home from its victorious battle with the “Superior Intellect.”  With Spock dead however, Admiral Kirk doesn’t feel very victorious.  With almost all the training crew reassigned, the Enterprise only has a skeleton crew.  Suddenly there is a security breach.  Someone has broken into the late Captain Spock’s quarters.  Kirk gets down there and finds McCoy during a rather impressive Spock imitation.  McCoy in Spock’s voice wants to know why he wasn’t returned to Vulcan then he passes out.  At this point Kirk is probably thinking, “gee I thought I took Spock’s death hard.”

Entering spacedock

They get to space dock which is far more impressive than the space dock in the last two movies.  As the Enterprise moves in, everyone at the station is horrified to see battle scars.  The bridge crew then sees Starfleet newest idea: the starship Excelsior.  She is big and beautiful, and Sulu is already in love.  (I wonder if that will lead to anything.)  Fleet Admiral Marrow comes down to tell them they have all down an amazing job.  However, Genesis is a very controversial topic now, so they are not going to be allowed to talk about it.  In better news, Scotty gets a new assignment aboard the Excelsior (doing the same thing that he has been doing for the Enterprise) and a promotion to the rank of Captain.  Here we have the Star Trek franchise’s very first on-screen promotion.  Scotty is honored but would rather stay aboard the Enterprise.  That’s when the Fleet Admiral gives some more bad news, the Enterprise is being retired as she is too damn old.  Kirk goes to protest, but the Fleet Admiral insists with some reason explaining that the Enterprise is now 20 years old.  At this point Kirk wants to yell, “those who can’t do simple math should be allowed to make any sort of decision, the Enterprise is 40 years old you moron.”  However, Kirk doesn’t for two reasons. The first is that it would be insulting insubordination and the second is if he hopes to change their mind, he is best not remind the brass that the ship is twice as old as they already think it is.

The future of Starfleet

  Around the Genesis planet, the USS Grissom is in orbit.  Aboard this science vessel is Dr. David Marcus and Lt. Saavik (who has matured quite a bit, it’s almost as if she was a completely different person) they are guiding this crew on this special journey.  Captain J.T. Esteban, who is commanding, is a very stickler for rules and slow to make decisions but Marcus and Saavik find a way to work around him.  As strange lifeforms readings appear the two of them talk the Captain into allowing two-person landing party to investigate. 

The two person landing party 

 Elsewhere a small merchant ship is waiting for something and onboard is a two-person crew and a female Klingon.  Suddenly a Klingon Bird-of-Prey decloaks above the merchant ship in all of its awesomeness.  The Klingon on board, named Valkris, sends the data her people have been waiting for.  Commander Kruge is happy to get it but disappointed that Valkris reveals that she has seen it.  For he is under orders to leave no one who has seen it alive.  He has ship destroy the merchant ship killing everyone board even that lady Klingon who we learn was his lover.   Later he goes over the Genesis data with those who are authorized.  We see the same tape played from The Wrath of Khan but instead it is Kirk not Carol Marcus giving the introduction.  (Which okay I get the studio doesn’t want to pay Bibi Besch any more residuals than are necessary and Dr. Carol Marcus isn’t supposed to be in this movie, but shouldn’t it be David whose explaining what Genesis is?  Granted considering David’s fate in this story that may have been why they had Shatner do it, but it still feels cheap.)  Kruge declares this to a doomsday weapon to which they have a natural right to defend themselves against.  For them the mission is now on.   

Admiral Kirk is having a get-together at his place when Ambassador Sarek arrives and demands a solo meeting the Admiral.  Kirk agrees and Sarek begins criticizing Kirk in ways that Kirk really doesn’t understand.  Sarek and Kirk mind meld so Sarek learns exactly what Kirk experienced at Spock’s death.  It turns out Vulcans have been able to transfer their essence—their soul as it were—to others upon death.  This is something that Vulcans gain by being touch telepaths.  They call this their katra, the transfer of all the know into another body who will host it long enough to return to Vulcan where it is to be interred in the Hall of Ancient Thought at Mount Seleya.  Sarek had thought Kirk had Spock’s katra and for reasons he didn’t understand was neglecting his duty.  He turns away disappointed that Spock’s katra, everything that he knew and was, would be lost forever.  At this point Kirk should have jumped and said “he is not fully gone for we still have Big Spock.  Big Spock!”  Rather than confuse the older Vulcan he just claimed that Spock “would have found away.”

Sarek looking for his son's soul

Going over security footage Kirk notices the physical contact between Spock and McCoy, and suddenly McCoy’s weird behavior makes a lot of sense.  They are instructed by Sarek to get both Spock’s body and McCoy to genesis to complete the procedure.  This is going to be hard because McCoy was already trying to get back to Genesis, he gets picked up by Federation security and in his confused state tries to give the man a Vulcan nerve pinch.

Kirk generally tries to explain everything to the Fleet Admiral and get permission to do what they need to do.  However, his commanding officer orders him not to go and expressly stay away from Genesis and not talk about it.  Of course, Kirk is going anyway he just wanted to give Starfleet the opportunity to do the right thing.    

On the Genesis planet, David and Saavik find Spock’s photon-torpedo coffin.  It’s surrounded by creatures that used to be microbes.  On the inside are Spock’s burial robes so his body has been separated from its coffin and is naked. They hear a cry, and they find a Vulcan child.  Spock’s body has regenerated and was reduced to infancy and is now a toddler.  They report this to Captain Slow Decision, who while slowly deciding what to do, has no idea what is coming next.  The Klingon Bird of Prey decloaks and the slow Captain can’t think to say “shields up” so the Klingon torpedo destroys the Grissom.  Understanding what has happened Saavik and David take the young Spock and go into hiding.

To Kirk the best ride to Genesis would be his favorite ride, and the crew pulls a Mission Impossible type of assignment where each actor has his own part to play in the breakout.  (Except McCoy who just needs to be rescued.  Kirk gets McCoy out of his cell; Sulu beat the guard who called him ‘tiny’ and blew up the security consul; Uhura running the transporter room sticks “Mr. Action” in the closet (in one of best Uhura scenes of all time) and gets them back onto their ship.  Now that they are on the Enterprise it is Scotty’s turn to contribute.  Not only does he have the ship running but he has hacked into the Starbase’s system to open the space doors, but it’s that last one that almost takes a little too long.   Captain Styles powers up his Excelsior to give chase.  However, that is where Scotty comes through once again.  As the Enterprise takes off the Excelsior stalls in its pursuit.  “Good morning, Captain” is Scotty’s message to his now former CO.

On the planet Spock is aging rapidly.  David confesses to Saavik that he had added proto mater to the Genesis matrix.  This substance is illegal and highly unstable, but David said it solved certain problems.  This is when Saavik explains the Pon’ Farr to David. Vulcans normally have their mating cycle once every seven years but due to his rapid again, Spock’s about to experience it every hour.  Fortunately, he has a nice lady Vulcan on the planet, and she is ready and willing to do the deed.  After all it is only logical.  And while Spock and Saavik are getting it on David is trying to protect them from Klingons.  He doesn’t do a good job as shortly after they are all captured. 

A very brave but not always smart bunch

The Enterprise arrives in orbit around Genesis planet, and as she does the Klingon ship goes into cloak mode.  They summon their commander back to the ship.  Kruge had been arguing with his prisoners about the merits of Genesis, while they see it as a failure Kruge still sees the potential of this Doomsday weapon.  The two commanders try to figure out what the other is all about.  Kirk guesses correctly about a cloaked ship, that it is both out there but needs to decloak in order to fire.  As Klingon ship goes into attack the Enterprise fires first with torpedoes sending their enemy flying.  If the Enterprise was in peak condition that would have been all she wrote for the Klingons.  But in her damaged state the Klingon ship was able to recover and return fire.  The legendary ship couldn’t even get her shields up as the Klingons landed a crippling blow.  Kirk tries to bluff his way out, but he is dealing with Kruge, the coolest Klingon to date, not Balok of the First Federation.  Kruge correctly guesses the Enterprise’s best days are behind her and demands Kirk’s surrender.  He points out he has hostages and will even let the Admiral talk to them. 

Saavik explains Spock’s condition as best she can.  David explains that he messed up and Genesis is a failure.  If this movie wasn’t called The Search for Spock, it could be called David Marcus, The Never-ending Screw Up.   David tells his father that Genesis is a failure, that he messed up, and then brilliantly adds “I don’t believe they are going to kill us for it.”  Kruge, of course, takes that as a challenge and orders one of their deaths.  It looks like the Klingon is going to kill resurrected Spock, but David won’t let him die again especially since it was his fault.  He goes to fight the Klingon, something his father has done several times.  However, he may be Admiral Kirk’s son, but his name isn’t Kirk, it’s Marcus and that is fitting because he is so much more a Marcus than a Kirk.  Unlike his father David is not one of the great fighters in the galaxy.  He has neither speed nor grace, his blows lack power.  The Klingon warrior quickly overpowers him and guts him like a fish.  Saavik has the horrid duty of announcing his death.  Kirk collapses raging against the Klingon for killing his son.  Kruge is unmoved and reminds him of the hostages that he still holds.  Kirk agrees to surrender but the Enterprise still has one last trick up her sleeve. 

Kirk asks for time to prepare the crew he doesn’t actually have and Kruge allows.  He sends nearly his entire crew as a boarding party; Klingon Bird of Preys are very small and only have a crew-complement of slightly over a dozen.  Kirk, with Scotty and Chekov, activate the ship’s self-destruct device.  They transport away just before the Klingons are transported onboard.  They search going all the way to the bridge.  The lead Klingon checks back with his Commander and tells Kruge that the ship appears abandoned.  With constitution-class starship normally having over 400 crew members Kruge can’t believe it.  The team leader states the computer is talking, Kruge hears it and realizes what it is but it is too late.  The Enterprise lights up in fire of its own creation destroying itself and anything aboard her which includes most of Kruge crew.  Kirk and crew watch as the Enterprise turns to dust in the atmosphere over planet Genesis.  Kirk shoots with a phaser the exact Klingon who killed his son.  He then manipulates Kruge to come down to the planet and to bring his crew up, save him and Spock.  At this point Kruge only has one crew member, however since he thought a small landing party could hold over 400 people, he clearly doesn’t doubt his warrior’s ability to guard five. 

The Death of the Enterprise

Kirk and Kruge face off.  We know Kruge is a warrior, but he is not facing David Marcus, Kirk’s late and soft son, he is facing one of greatest fighters this side of galaxy.  Kirk fights with speed and grace that will often leave his opponents spellbound.  And Kruge is more than spellbound, with some boot kicks to the face he falls to his death and ends up in a poll of lava just before the planet explodes.

Warrior to warrior

Kirk tricks the Klingon remaining to beam him and Spock’s reanimated body up to the ship.  They escape in the nick of time and head to Vulcan.   There they bring Spock’s body and McCoy to the Hall of Ancient Thought at Mount Seleya.  The Vulcan priests and priestesses manage to take Spock’s katra out of McCoy and back into the body it belongs.  Spock is out of it and clearly has a long way to go but he recognized his friends who came back to save him.  

A family reunited!

    

Additional thoughts: There are those who say the good Star Trek movies are the even numbered ones and the bad ones are the odd number films.  Those people are really stupid, and you shouldn’t listen to them about this subject or any other subject.  The Search for Spock gives the viewer everything you would want in a middle chapter story.  We start right where we had left off, followed by non-stop action, and finish ready for the next chapter.  The title is a bit of spoiler to paraphrase Leonard Nimoy, we called it “The Search for Spock” it would be rather odd if Kirk turned to the audience at the end and said, “sorry folks, we didn’t find him.”

Everyone seeing the damage

What ever happened to T’Pau? You remember her from the famous episode “Amok Time.”  The last time Kirk defied Starfleet to save Spock’s life.  She, by her own authority, was able to get the Enterprise’s orders retroactively changed so Kirk could keep his command.  Why don’t they go to her for help against Starfleet this time?  Heck, they could save themselves half a trip and she could just order the Grissom to bring Spock’s body back to Vulcan.  Is she dead or otherwise incapacitated.  I wonder more about her missing than I do about Big Spock.  Why didn’t Kirk bring him up again? 

Where was she this whole time?

In Lenord Nimoy’s follow up auto-biography I Am Spock, when discussing the Spock and Savvik scene dealing with Spock’s Pon’ Farr, Nimoy had a bet with one of writers.  Nimoy did not think anyone would laugh and then made a bet about it which Nimoy won.  Well, that may have been true in 1984, however ever since I first watched it, I always found it hilarious.  First, why is Spock going through this now where in his original life it didn’t hit him well into adulthood at which point he was a commander in Starfleet and first officer of the Enterprise?  Here since it started early it will now hit often with rapid aging which means Saavik and Spock really got down to it a lot.  What a lucky Spock!  Too bad remember any of it, or can he?  That was never really clear.  

Before I talk about the death of the Enterprise, I want to point out in Star Trek Which Way book I reviewed a little while ago, I, as a Starfleet ensign, lead a boarding party onto a Klingon ship.  When fighting on the bridge some Klingons were near the computer consul entered something in and retreated.  Going up to the consul I saw images flashing, now I don’t speak Klingonese but I can recognize symbols changing and could easily guess these were numbers counting down.  So, I took my phaser and blasted it preventing the self-destruct and allowing the capture of the Klingon ship.  For that I was promoted to lieutenant.  Now if you are wondering if I feel superior to the Klingon officer who didn’t understand what the talking computer was doing, I do feel superior.

 Now let’s talk about the Death of the Enterprise.  When this movie came out in 1984, Star Trek was eighteen years old.  It is hard to overstate the trauma of watching this beautiful ship die on the big screen to these Star Trek fans.  For those eighteen years the starship Enterprise was the ship of their dreams.  The amazing vehicle that traveled through space faster than light and took them to all their adventures both on the small screen, the big screen, live action, animated, and in literary form.  The ship was where their characters returned to at the end of all their adventures.  Once they were back on board, they were safe again.  Although there were times when the entire ship was in danger, she would always escape whatever peril they faced just in the nick of time with the chirping of the computer equipment on the bridge.  As Kirk, Scotty, and Chekov enter in the death codes what fan didn’t to hear Admiral Kirk’s voice say, “Code1-2-3-continuity, abort destruct order."  Just like he did the last time they considered scuttling the ship.  Thus, saving and the ship and finding another way to defeat their enemy that didn’t involve killing one of their friends.  However, it was not to be here in orbit on the Genesis planet.  The Enterprise would go out on her own terms at the hands of a lover rather than a stranger.  She was consumed by fire of her own creation destroying both herself and the Klingon crew that infiltrated her.  As what was left of her crew watched her remains burn up in the atmosphere, they were reminded that she was a beautiful lady, and they loved her.

Saying good-bye to their ship!

     Sadness aside, there was also something else about the destruction.  Although it may have been a stunning visual effect, it didn’t make a lot of sense.  You would think the ship blowing itself up would have its main explosion be its primary engine.  With the saucer burning up in the atmosphere after that.  What we see is the exact opposite, the place with personal quarters and research laboratories explodes and the engine star drive section is what falls into the atmosphere.

This has to be the damn coolest the landing party has ever looked! 

The Genesis planet is unstable that I can buy but they think they were a little too quick to come up with the reason and blame it on David?  David explained he used proto-mater in the Genesis formula to solve certain problems, and Saavik objects to this as it is widely considered unstable. Yet the earlier Genesis in the undergrown cave was fine.  Some may say it’s the scope, but I am bothered by something different.  When were explained Genesis, the plan was to test it out on some dead world or moon.  The mission of the Reliant in the previous film was to find such a planet for them to use.  It was never meant explode inside a damaged starship flouting around the middle of a nebula.  Such a major change of variables should be the first thing that is pointed out, yet no one ever does.  Instead of labeling Genesis a failure they should say it has never been properly tested.

In reading Nimoy’s I Am Spock we learn a great deal about what went to his decisions on the movies where he was director.   He stated that he was given a number of ship design models.  Of the bunch he chose the one that became the Excelsior because it looked the most like the Enterprise.  There was a clear evolution between the designs, Nimoy felt as if the two were designed by the same people.    

There was one small detail that I really liked.  Scotty was promoted to captain, yet on the Enterprise’s computer system he still identified as a commander.  This makes since considering the vastness of space there is no way for all the starships to be so interconnected.  (They probably weren’t thinking of that in 1984 as the world was not yet online.)  It was a nice little detail that they didn’t update the personal files on a decommissioning starship.

The Klingons attack

We must talk about Christohpher Lloyd and how he as Commander Kruge came to define the Klingons for the franchise going forward.  Yes, there have been impressive Klingons in the past such as Kor and Kang.  Here, however, is where the standard is set.  When the Klingons got the new/traditional/true look in The Motion Picture, the only thing we saw from them was they were getting their butts kicked to V’ger.  Here we get to see what these Klingons are all about.  A warrior species that thinks about honor, glory, and duty.  The first thing we see Kruge do is kill his wife along with the human smugglers because she saw something she wasn’t authorized; we also see that she has no problems with this and gladly goes to her death.  Kruge leads his own landing party and when he encounters a strange life form, he puts aside his advanced weapons and meets it head on.  It almost kills him before he kills it and tells his ship that they have encountered nothing important.  He dares to take on a starship that has ten times his fire power and actually win.  He chooses battle with his enemy and almost certain death because he won’t give quarter.  He was a great leader of Klingons; he does not tolerate repeated failure and will punish it with death.  The guy probably would have won if he didn’t have the misfortune of going against James T. Kirk.  

Kruge leading his men

According to Nimoy the original antagonists in this film were going to be the Romulans, but he changed it to the Klingons.  That is why they have a ship called “Bird of Prey” and can cloak; this is something Klingons couldn’t do up until that time.  Although the Klingons were mentioned as having the cloaking ability in the episode “The Time Trap.”

I still don’t understand why Kirk was tasked with retrieving Spock’s body. Also, would it have continued to age and regrow the radiation burns that killed him if he stayed on the planet too long?  I wonder if his ever-growing changing body has some sort of consequence for Saavik who had sex with him a lot.  

Did Kirk actually sacrifice in the way Sarek says he did at the end?  Did he give up his son and ship for Spock?  Because I think he would have lost those things anyway.  The Enterprise was set to be decommissioned by Starfleet, and the Klingons were already chasing after Genesis.  He wasn’t getting his ship back, and the Klingons might have killed David anyway considering he could neither fight nor shut his mouth for too long.  

 

FINAL GRADE 5 of 5

THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE BY HUMANS

 

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. 

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 23^rd 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 20^th 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 2^nd 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