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Following up on our viewing of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, we moved on to watch Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (ST2 or Wrath of Khan for short). While Wrath of Khan isn’t my personal favorite Star Trek movie, I’d certainly be willing to make the case that it’s the best Star Trek movie.
While behind the scenes, a lot of the decisions about the film’s plot and focus were driven by the second film’s smaller budget, the end result was a much tighter, better focused film. There’s been a lot written about this movie over the years. I highly recommend this Collider interview with William Shatner, for example. There’s very little that I can add to what’s already been written.
Wrath of Khan plays with themes of aging, vengeance, and self-sacrifice. When we meet Admiral Kirk once again, he’s grappling with the fact that he’s aged and ranked out of the starship captain business. We also learn something new about his character, in that he doesn’t believe in the no win scenario. He comes aboard the Enterprise now as an observer, not as her captain.
Spock, meanwhile, seems to have quite comfortably found his niche as an instructor. He has a protégé in the young Vulcan Lt (j.g.) Saavik, who looks to be the next captain of the Enterprise, although that role goes to Spock for the training voyage with an inexperienced crew. Other crew members have found other positions within Starfleet.
Of course, everything is soon to go awry, as our main antagonist takes the stage. Ricardo Montalbon plays an older, insane Khan to perfection, and chews scenery in perfect match to Kirk.
The nebula battle between the USS Reliant and the Enterprise has more in common with the tense, slow pace of a submarine battle than it does with the slam-bang lasers flashing space kablooie kind of action most people are used to, but it works perfectly, and is shot to perfection with the practical model effects of the time.
As an aside, that’s something that I think has really been lost over the past couple of decades with every movie going to CGI effects. Sure, the overall quality is great for far less money, but in the hands of a master, the practical effects of movies in the ‘80s and ‘90s hold up far better than the CGI of the ‘00s. I think there’s just something about how a model can be weathered and physically damaged that’s still just about impossible to do with computer animation. At the very least, it’s difficult without a massive budget.
The crux of the movie, of course, hinges around both Khan’s suicidal vengeance, and Spock’s self-sacrifice. Where Khan is willing to destroy himself and everything around him to see the end of his personal nemesis, Spock gives up his own life “for the good of the many.”
Outside of the movie, of course, it’s interesting to note that the main reason for Spock’s death was that everyone assumed that Wrath of Khan would be the last Star Trek movie. As such, Leonard Nimoy was quite willing to see Spock go out in a blaze of glory. Regardless of the actual reasons why, Spock’s death, along with Kirk’s “Khaaaaaannn!” scream, is one of the great moments of cinematic history, with genuine heartfelt emotion between the two friends. It’s also something that J.J. Abrams tried to invert in Star Trek: Into Darkness (which I might get to eventually, but probably not) with a lot less success. Nothing against Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, but they had the misfortune of not only trying the same trick a second time, but having to do so without the decades of working together that Shatner and Nimoy had.
With the benefit of hindsight, we know that far from being the last Star Trek movie, Wrath of Khan effectively paved the way for everything that would come after. A huge opening weekend, and long-lasting critical success ensured the health of the franchise for decades to come.