Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is the second feature film based on the Star Trek science fiction television series, following 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The film's storyline is a continuation of the original TV series episode "Space Seed", and features Ricardo Montalbán reprising his role as the genetically-engineered tyrant Khan. When Khan returns from a fifteen-year exile to enact revenge on his nemesis, James T. Kirk, the crew of the starship U.S.S. Enterprise must stop Khan from acquiring a powerful superweapon called the Genesis device. The events of Wrath of Khan begin a story arc which stretches to the fourth feature film.

After the lackluster critical and commercial response to The Motion Picture, series creator Gene Roddenberry was forced out of the sequel's production. Harve Bennett wrote the original outline for the film, which Jack B. Sowards developed into a full script. Nicholas Meyer was made director after writing a final script for the film in twelve days, without accepting a writing credit; Meyer's style would evoke the swashbuckling atmosphere of the original series, reinforced by James Horner's musical score. Production used various cost-cutting techniques such as using old miniatures from past movies. Among the technical achievements of the film is the first film sequence created entirely by computer graphics.

Upon release, The Wrath of Khan was a box office success, earning over $70 million in the United States and setting a world record for first-day gross. Critical reaction to the film was positive, with reviewers highlighting Khan as strong elements of the film. Dissenting reviewers, such as the Washington Post, called the special effects outdated and the cast geriatric. The film is now considered one of the best films of the franchise and is credited with bringing renewed interest in Star Trek.

Plot

The film opens with an unfamiliar female Vulcan in command of the USS Enterprise, attempting to rescue a stranded ship in the Neutral Zone. The Enterprise is attacked by Klingon cruisers, and is critically damaged. The "attack" is revealed to be an exercise known as the "Kobayashi Maru", a no-win situation designed to test the character of Starfleet officers. The Vulcan is Captain Spock?s protégée, Lieutenant Saavik. Admiral James T. Kirk oversees the training session externally.^[1]

Meanwhile, the USS Reliant is on a mission to search for a lifeless planet for testing of "Project Genesis", a device which reorganizes molecular matter on a subatomic level in order to create hospitable worlds for colonization. Reliant officers Pavel Chekov and Clark Terrell beam to the surface of a possible candidate, Ceti Alpha VI, and are captured by Khan Noonien Singh. Khan and his fellow genetically-advanced supermen were once rulers on Earth in the later 20th century, but were exiled to space. After a foiled attempt to capture the Enterprise, Kirk exiled Khan and his followers to Ceti Alpha V to build a new civilization. Soon after being left by the Enterprise, Ceti Alpha VI exploded, destroying Ceti Alpha V's ecosystem and shifting its orbit. Khan blames Kirk for the deaths of his wife and followers and their harsh life, and plans to revenge his people. Using mind-controlling eels, Khan controls Chekhov and Terrell and hijacks the Reliant.^[2]

The Enterprise embarks on a training voyage under the command of Captain Spock, with Kirk observing. The Enterprise receives a message from Space Station Regula I, a remote science laboratory where Kirk's former lover, Dr. Carol Marcus, and son, Dr. David Marcus, have been developing the Genesis Device. Informing Starfleet Command of the situation, the Enterprise is ordered to investigate; since the Enterprise is now on an active-duty mission, Kirk assumes command. En route, Khan attacks and cripples the Enterprise, wounding or killing many of the ship's trainees. During a transmission between the two ships Khan reveals he know of the Genesis device. Kirk stalls for time and offers to deliver himself and the data on Genesis to Khan; instead, Kirk disables the Reliants defenses by use of a special prefix code and counterattacks. With his own ship badly damaged, Khan is forced to retreat.

The Enterprise makes its way to Regula I, where they find most of the Genesis team dead. The remaining scientists, including Carol and David, have hidden deep inside the planetoid of Regula itself. Using Chekov and Terrell as spies, Khan steals the Genesis Device. When Khan orders Terrell to kill Kirk, the eel's influence wanes; Terrell kills himself while Chekov overcomes the parasite's control. Kirk and Spock arrange a rendezvous in code, and upon boarding the Enterprise pilots the ship into a nearby nebula, which will interfere with both ships' defenses and weapons. Despite the advice of his lieutenants, Khan pursues.

Blinded by the nebula, both starships attempt to outmaneuver the other; the Enterprise strikes the Reliant and critically disables Khan's ship. Khan, mortally wounded, activates the Genesis Device, which will reorganize all matter within the nebula?including the Enterprise. Though Kirk's crew detects the activation of the Genesis Device and begins to lumber away using the impulse engines, without the damaged warp drive they will not be able to escape the nebula in time. Spock goes to Engineering to restore warp; when McCoy tries to prevent him from exposing himself to high levels of radiation, Spock disables the doctor and performs a mind meld, telling McCoy to "remember".^[2] Spock restores the warp drive, allowing the Enterprise to escape the explosion. Kirk arrives in Engineering just as Spock succumbs to radiation poisoning.

A burial in space is held, and Spock's coffin is sent into orbit of the new planet that the Genesis explosion created. Kirk and David make peace, and the crew leaves the Genesis planet reminiscing about Spock. In the final scene the coffin is seen to have soft-landed on the planet as Spock narrates the "Where no man has gone before" monologue.

Cast

Spock bids Kirk a final farewell.

William Shatner as James T. Kirk

A Starfleet Admiral and former commander of the Enterprise. Shatner and his film nemesis, Khan Noonien Singh, were never actually face-to-face at any point during the film; all of their interactions are over a viewscreen or through communicators. Shatner describes in his book Star Trek Movie Memories how their scenes were filmed four months apart.

Leonard Nimoy as Spock

The Captain of the Enterprise, who gives control of the ship to Kirk after Starfleet sends the ship to Regula I. Nimoy had not originally intended to have a role in The Motion Pictures sequel, but was enticed back on the promise that his character would be given a dramatic death scene.^[3]

DeForest Kelley as Leonard McCoy

The Enterprises doctor and a close friend of both Kirk and Spock. Kelley looked over an early version of the Wrath of Khan script and was initially dissatisfied to the point that he considered not being in the film.^[4]

James Doohan as Montgomery Scott

The Enterprises chief engineer. During Spock's death scene in the film, Kelley felt that him speaking his catchphrase "He's dead, Jim" would crack up the audience and ruin the moment. Doohan says the line "He's dead already" to Kirk instead.^[5]

George Takei as Hikaru Sulu

Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov

The Reliants first officer and a former member of the Enterprise crew. During filming, Kelley noted that Chekov never actually met Khan in "Space Seed" (Koenig had not joined the cast), and thus Khan recognizing Chekov on Ceti Alpha as in the script did not make sense. In the novelization by Vonda N. McIntyre, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Chekov is "an ensign assigned to the night watch" during "Space Seed" and thus met Khan in an off-screen scene.^[6] The non-canonical novel To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh by Greg Cox, meanwhile, explains the discrepancy by having Chekov escort Khan to the surface of Ceti Alpha. The real cause of the error was a simple oversight by the filmmakers. Meyer justifies it in the DVD audiocommentary by noting that Arthur Conan Doyle made similar oversights in his Sherlock Holmes stories.

Nichelle Nichols as Uhura

The Enterprises communications officer.

Bibi Besch as Carol Marcus.

The mother of Kirk's son, Marcus is the lead scientist working on Project Genesis.

Merritt Butrick as David Marcus

Kirk's son, who has grown up to be a scientist like his mother.

Paul Winfield as Clark Terrell

The captain of the Reliant.

Kirstie Alley as Saavik

Spock's protege and a Starfleet officer-in-training.

Ricardo Montalbán as Khan Noonien Singh

There were some speculation as to whether Montalban had prosthetics applied to his chest, to make him appear more muscular during his scenes as Khan. Montalban himself, as well as numerous people associated with the production of the movie, actively refuted it, saying that those muscles really were his, and citing the fact that, even going into his 60s, Montalban was physically very active, and worked out regularly. Nicholas Meyer, in the audio commentary of the Director's Cut makes it clear that Montalban is not wearing a prosthetic chest.^[7]

Khan frequently quotes (or paraphrases) the character of Captain Ahab from Herman Melville's Moby Dick in the movie, the intention being to draw a parallel between Khan's obsession with Kirk and Ahab's obsession with the titular whale. In the early scene where Chekov's landing party discovers Khan's group, Moby Dick is one of the books on Khan's bookshelf, along with King Lear and The Holy Bible. "He tasks me" is a direct quotation from the novel. Ahab's "I'll chase him round [Cape of] Good Hope, and round the Horn [of Africa], and round the Norway maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up" is paraphrased as "I'll chase him round the Outer Nebula and round Antares Maelstrom and round Perdition's Flames before I give him up". Ultimately, Khan's final words, "To the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee" are directly taken from Ahab's final words. Moby Dick would be used later as an open allusion during Enterprise-E Captain Jean-Luc Picard as he faced his vengeful lust for the Borg in Star Trek: First Contact.

Judson Scott as Joachim

Khan's chief henchman. Scott had several speaking lines with Montalbán, but appears in an uncredited role.^[8] According to TV Guide, this was due to Scott's agent trying to negotiate top billing; Scott wound up with more money but no credit. ^[8]

Production

Preproduction

Gene Roddenberry (above) was removed from a direct role in the development of The Wrath of Khan due to concerns that he was the main reason behind The Motion Pictures financial ills.

Bennett realized he faced a serious challenge in developing the new Star Trek movie, including the fact that he had never seen the show.^[12] To compensate Bennett watched all the original episodes. This immersion convinced Bennett that what the first movie lacked was a real villain; after seeing the episode "Space Seed", he decided that the character of Khan Noonien Singh was the perfect villain for the film.^[13]

Bennett wrote his first film treatment in November 1980. In his version, titled Star Trek II: The War of the Generations, Kirk investigates a rebellion on a distant world and discovers that his son is seemingly the leader of the rebels. Khan is in fact the mastermind behind the plot, and Kirk and son join forces to defeat the tyrant.^[13] Bennett then hired Jack B. Sowards, an avid Star Trek fan, to turn his outline into a filmable script. Sowards wrote an initial script before a writer's strike in 1981. Soward's draft, "The Omega Syndrome", involed the theft of the Federation's ultimate weapon, called the "Omega system".^[13] Sowards was concerned that his weapon had nothing uplifting about it, so the art director Michael Minor suggested the device be turned into a terraforming tool instead; in recognition of the Biblical power of the weapon, Sowards renamed the "Omega system" to the "Genesis device".^[13] By April Sowards had produced another draft which moved Spock's death further in the story and introduced a male character named Savik. As preproduction of the film began in earnest, Samuel A. Peeples, writer of the Star Trek episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before", was called in to offer his own script, but the resulting draft (which entirely omitted Khan) was judged insufficient. With deadlines looming for the special effects, director Nicholas Meyer and Bennett pooled the written drafts.^[13] Meyer contributed his own screenplay written in twelve days which he called "'Hornblower' in outer space", utilizing nautical references and a swashbuckling feel.^[3] Despite Roddenberry's disagreements with Meyer's naval texture or Khan's Captain Ahab undertones, production of the film began in fall 1981.^[14]

Filming

The Wrath of Khan was much more action-oriented than its predecessor, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but was much less costly to make, with a modest special effects budget and TV production schedule. The project was supervised not by Paramount's theatrical division, but by its television unit, and produced by Bennett, a respected TV veteran, at a budget of US$11,000,000?far less than The Motion Pictures $46 million cost.

Spock's death was shot over three days; during that time, no visitors were allowed on set. Originally, Spock's death would have been earlier in the movie, but fan reaction led to the event's movement to the climax of the film. Initially, Spock's death was to remain irrevocable, but Nimoy had such a positive experience that he asked if he could add a way for Spock to return in a later film; the "remember sequence" was initially added without Kelley's prior knowledge.^[15] Test audiences at screenings of the film reacted badly to Spock's death, so Bennett went about to modify the ending. The scene of Spock's casket soft-landed on the planet was developed by ILM, and Nimoy's closing monologue was added; Meyer objected to the changes, but did not stand in the way of the modifications.^[16]

To save money, production designer Joseph Jennings utilized existing sets from The Motion Picture, which had been left standing after filming was completed.^[13] Most of the film was shot on the same set, as the bridge of the Reliant and the "bridge simulator" from the opening scene were simply redresses of the Enterprise?s bridge. Star Trek II re-used models and footage from the first Star Trek film. It also used the same shots of the docked Enterprise that were used in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but these shots were greatly shortened.

Effects

The Wrath of Khans special effects were created by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), George Lucas' effects house.^[13] To reduce costs, the original ship miniatures were used when possible, or else modified to stand in as a new construction. The orbital office complex from The Motion Picture, for example, was inverted and retouched to become the Regula I space station.^[13] ILM also created the new models for the film; the Reliant was the first non-Constitution-class Federation starship seen in the series.^[13]

As the script called for the Reliant and Enterprise to inflict significant damage upon each other, ILM developed techniques to illustrate the damage without physically harming the models.^[13]

Among ILM's technical achievements on The Wrath of Khan was cinema's first entirely computer-generated sequence, showing the effects of the Genesis Device on a barren planet.^[17] The programmers spent an inordinate amount of time and detail on the sixty-second sequence, hoping it would serve as a "commercial" for the studio's talents; programmers ensured that the stars visible in the background matched those visible from a real star light-years from Earth.^[17]

Music

James Horner was hired to score The Wrath of Khan, composing music evocative of seafaring and swashbuckling; The Washington Post described the style as "echoing both the bombastic and elegiac elements of John Williams' "Star Wars" and Jerry Goldsmith's original "Star Trek" scores."^[18] This was Horner's first major film score.^[18] The music was recorded with a 88-piece orchestra which also used synthesizers; at the time, science-fiction films such as E.T. The Extraterrestrial and The Thing were eschewing the synthesizer in favor of more traditional orchestras.^[19] Despite the differences, Horner did borrow one signature sound from Goldsmith's earlier soundtrack: a very deep string tone (produced by the "blaster beam"), used to accentuate moments of tension and danger.

Release and reception

Reaction and box office

Star Trek II grossed $78,912,963 in the U.S. and $97,000,000 worldwide. Although the total gross of Wrath of Khan was less than The Motion Picture, it was more profitable due to its lower cost of production.^[20] The film earned $14,347,221 in its opening weekend at the US box office, at the time the largest opening weekend gross in history.^[20] The film's novelization, written by Vonda N. McIntyre, stayed on the New York Times paperback bestsellers list for more than three weeks.

Critical response to The Wrath of Khan was positive. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a "fresh" rating, with 92% of featured critics giving the film a positive review;^[21] The Wrath of Khan is the highest rated Star Trek film on the site.^[22] After the lukewarm response to the first feature film, Trek fan response to The Wrath of Khan was highly positive, crediting the film's success as bringing renewed interest to the franchise.^[23] Entertainment Weekly went further, calling The Wrath of Khan "the film that, by most accounts, saved Star Trek as we know it."^[24]

A near-universal note of praise was for the film's pacing, which was much swifter than its predecessor and closer to the TV series.^[25][26] Janet Maslin of The New York Times also credited the film with a stronger story than The Motion Picture and stated the sequel was everything the first film should have been.^[25] Variety agreed that The Wrath of Khan was closer to the original spirit of Star Trek than its predecessor.^[27] Strong character interaction was also cited as a positive feature of the film,^[28] as was Montablán's portrayal of Khan.^[29]

Complaints about the film focuses on what was seen as the tepid battle sequences,^[29] and perceived melodrama.^[30][26] While many publications felt that Spock's death was dramatic and well-handled,^[31][29] The Washington Posts Gary Arnold stated Spock's death "feels like an unnecessary twist, and the filmmakers are obviously well-prepared to fudge in case the public demands another sequel."^[26] Negative reviews of the film also focused on what critics felt was aged acting by the stars.^[26][32]

Home video

Paramount released The Wrath of Khan on Video Home System in 1983. Unlike contemporary releases, Paramount sold the VHS for $39.95, more than $40 below other movie cassette prices. The move was credited with an increase in competitive VHS pricing, and an increase in the adoption of increasingly cheaper VHS players.^[33]

Paramount rereleased The Wrath of Khan on DVD with no special features in 2000.^[34] The film was rereleased as a highly anticipated^[35] two-disc "Director's Edition" format in 2002.^[36] In addition to remastered picture quality and 5.1 Dolby surround sound, the second DVD contains extras including director commentary, cast interviews, storyboards and the theatrical trailer.^[37] The four hours of bonus content and expanded director's cut of the movie were positively received.^[37]

Notes

References

External links

• ''Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'' at StarTrek.com

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