Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan directed by: Nicholas Meyer

 

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan stars William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Bibi Besch, Merritt Butrick, Paul Winfield, Kirstie Alley, and Ricardo Montalban.  It is directed by: Nicholas Meyer, written by: Jack B. Sowards, from a story by Harve Bennett and Jack B. Sowards, and produced by: Robert Sallin.  It was released theatrically June 4, 1982.

 

Looking at the original pitch of Star Trek the phrase ‘Wagon Train to the Stars’ is thrown around as to what the series would be.  A series about being on the outer frontiers of the galaxy, spreading humanity out to the vast reaches of space and the stars.  In adapting the series from television to film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is exclusively about that exploration and the discovery of the unknown.  It was also a film that was overbudget for Paramount Pictures and was released to mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike, though the box office returns did make up for this and led to the development of a sequel.  For the sequel, Gene Roddenberry was early on placed into the role of “executive consultant” despite writing his own potential script about time travel and ensuring the Kennedy assassination occurs.  Roddenberry’s influence on the films from this point would largely stay in the role of consultant, though he would have far more control and influence on the early seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation when that entered production in 1987.  Paramount was insisted that the second Star Trek film would be made on a tight budget of $12 million and producer Harve Bennett was brought on board to ensure this happened and suggested the use of Khan as the main villain of the film.  Several iterations of the script would occur before up-and-coming director Nicholas Meyer was brought on board.  Meyer and Bennett are the two men largely responsible for making Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan the film that it is.

 

While Roddenberry’s vision for Star Trek was largely a western, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan takes larger cues from adventure stories.  Herman Melville’s Moby Dick is alluded to throughout the film as this is Khan’s quest for revenge against Kirk and the Enterprise for leaving him on Ceti Alpha V which due to the random destruction of Ceti Alpha VI, leading to ecological destruction on Ceti Alpha V, six months after the events of “Space Seed”.  While this tone for the film may not be what Roddenberry envisioned for Star Trek, it is not something foreign to the franchise.  The episode “Balance of Terror” in particular is a precursor to the naval thriller tone that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan employs.  Nicholas Meyer in the director’s seat is given the genuinely difficult task to make an adventure film with a rather limited range of sets, mostly interior sets of the Enterprise and the Reliant, with long stretches of the film taking place on the bridges of these two ships (or a simulation of the bridge).  Meyer’s direction never makes these sets feel particularly stale, despite the similarities between them and their muted color palettes.  The score by a young James Horner adds to the swashbuckling adventure tone of the film by populating it with wholly unique themes that aid in telling the story.  There are other sets of course, Ceti Alpha V is the most impressive set of the film, at least for how it depicts the destruction and uses sand to great effect for the oppressive atmosphere.  It’s only used for an early sequence in the film, but using it and the lush forest for the final shots of the film creating the visual parallel for the film’s theme of death and rebirth.

 

Going into Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, I was already familiar with how the film ended, with Leonard Nimoy’s Spock sacrificing himself for the greater good.  Nimoy and William Shatner as Admiral Kirk give fantastic performances in the final twenty minutes of the film in a sequence that has entered the general pop culture consciousness for a good reason.  The subsequent funeral for Spock is discussed less, but it is just an emotional sequence as the death of Spock.  Shatner gets a small amount of dialogue, but outside of that the effectiveness comes from Meyer’s direction and the emotional pause to come to terms with the death of Spock.  The death itself is elevated by it being the second death of Spock in the film, in the opening sequence of the film Spock is killed by Klingon weapons attacking the Enterprise.  This is a simulation for the Kobayashi Maru test, a no-win scenario outlining the entirety of the film as a no win for Kirk and the Enterprise.  Kirk is a man who does not believe in the no-win scenario as a possibility and much of his arc in the film involves the no-win scenario of aging.  After the simulation there is a sequence involving Kirk’s birthday, Shatner playing the part as unsure of his place in Starfleet and uncomfortable with aging.  This is a film that puts Kirk with a younger generation in general: Kirstie Alley plays Saavik, a commander-in-training used to question Kirk’s methods and someone for Spock to be a mentor to and Merritt Butrick as David Marcus, Kirk’s son from a relationship with Bibi Besch’s Carol Marcus.

 

This makes the film in many ways one of letting go and having the younger generation willing to take over, allowing the change of the world to take place.  DeForest Kelley as McCoy, while not essential to the plot and largely filling his role in the main trio of characters as he would were this a televised episode of Star Trek, is the character who has changed and learned to go with the flow of the world, allowing himself amazement when being shown the results of the terraforming Genesis device.  Khan as a character is driven by his static villainy, he has not changed since the end of “Space Seed” and has really allowed himself to fester in his need for revenge.  Ricardo Montalban returns to the role and relishes every scene he gets to play.  Most of the discussion about Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is largely about the interplay between Khan and Kirk, something that yes is both important and the best aspect of the film, but in viewing it I noticed his early scenes to be more interesting.  His introduction is against Walter Koenig as Chekov and Paul Winfield as Clark Terrell.  While Koenig wasn’t in “Space Seed”, Chekov is used here as an introduction to Khan’s revenge and static nature, he is stuck in the past and is motivated by a clearly unjust revenge.  Koenig actually plays the scene equally well, despite being against such a strong personality of Montalban, and it is the strongest Chekov has ever been characterized.  Meyer also excels at the subtle body horror of the sequence as Chekov and Terrell are infected with eel larvae that allow Khan to control their actions.  Montalban is also an incredibly physical actor, despite not having much to do physically, the blocking of his scenes are always showing the viewer exactly where his mind is at and how many steps ahead he is.

 

Overall, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a film that unlike Star Trek: The Motion Picture goes against the vision of Gene Roddenberry in favor of taking the characters of the franchise and making them the focus from start to finish.  This wraps the film up in an adventure story about sacrifice and allowing oneself to age and evolve.  Thematically the film is as deep as the best episodes of Star Trek and it is just put into the packaging that would make it work best for the general audiences and for being a film as a whole.  It’s immediately a contender for one of the best adventure blockbusters ever made and one of the best Star Trek stories there are.  10/10.