Why were Khan and all of his followers blonde?

[Shon T'Hara]

Oh, I think TWOK has plenty of plot holes, contrivances, and internal inconsistencies that have nothing to do with continuity with TOS. How could the Reliant crew be unable to tell the fifth and sixth planets of a system apart or be unaware that a planet had exploded? Why wasn't there anything in the Starfleet databases telling them, "Hey, the Ceti Alpha system has dangerous genetically enhanced colonists so you should stay away from it?" If Chekov was on board during "Space Seed" as the movie claimed, why didn't he remember that Ceti Alpha was where Khan's people had been settled? Why was genetic supergenius Khan unable to pierce the screamingly obvious "hours could seem like days" code (which was even helped along by Spock pointedly stressing the word "hours" every time he said it)? Why would a security password that grants total access to a starship's computer systems be a measly 5-digit number? Why did Spock have to come all the way down from the bridge to sacrifice himself in order to save the ship when there was a whole engine room full of personnel with radiation suits? How could Kirk not even notice his second-in-command, most trusted advisor, and best friend had left the bridge without permission?

Of course, we could expand this right back to Space Seed. Why did the writers place the Eugenics War a mere 30 years in the future, which would imply that the genetic supermen were already being born when the episode aired? Why does the Enterprise need a historian, and why wasn't she or her successor consulted in any of the time travel episodes?

But they are the two most popular Trek movies ever made, despite their problems. So they both must've done something right, however much they both got wrong.

Technically, isn't IV more popular than II, at least based upon box-office receipts?

 

[Marc]

Technically, isn't IV more popular than II, at least based upon box-office receipts?

dunno but when you look at how much II cost and how much it made, according to Shatner, It was pretty carrying some of the costs that Paramount ran up with Phase II and TMP.

 

[Therin of Andor]

when you look at how much II cost and how much it made, according to Shatner, It was pretty carrying some of the costs that Paramount ran up with Phase II and TMP.

ST:TMP had the inflated budget, to cover "Phase II". Not ST II.

ST II didn't carry any of that financial burden. In fact, it deliberately saved money, because Bennett was told to use as much SPFX stock footage and model work as possible, hence the drydocked Enterprise (again), three Klingon vessels (again) in the simulator, and the inverting of the model for the orbiting office into Regular One's research station. This economizing permitted Meyer to insist on new "hero" Starfleet uniforms (and re-dying the ones worn by cadets and extras) and the then-trailblazing CGI sequence for the Genesis Project presentation tape.

ST II was a critical and financial success (helped by its relatively low budget for a movie of such scope; it was originally planned as a telemovie, and was produced by the TV arm of Paramount). ST IV was considered a huge financial success due to the many members of the general public it brought into cinemas.

 

[ALF]

They were blonde to illustrate that Augments "have more fun."

 

[Christopher]

Of course, we could expand this right back to Space Seed. Why did the writers place the Eugenics War a mere 30 years in the future, which would imply that the genetic supermen were already being born when the episode aired?

It's not so implausible if you keep in mind that what Spock actually said is that they were created "through selective breeding," not through the modern gene-splicing techniques that we tend to assume today. Selective breeding is the same method that humans have been using to breed livestock and plants for thousands of years -- picking out individuals with desirable traits and mating them with each other to promote those traits in their offspring.

Now, the term "eugenics" was coined in 1883, and there were a number of groups around that time, and for decades later, that actually did try to breed a superior type of human using eugenic principles. They all went nowhere because they were inherently racist and assumed that superiority meant uniformity, specifically being white. (The Nazis were the most infamous proponents of this flavor of eugenics.) But imagine if somebody back in the 1880s had actually started a eugenics program based on legitimate science rather than racist ideology and understood that a species' vitality comes from diversity, not uniformity. If they'd operated from the 1880s onward and produced a new generation of kids about every 18-20 years, then Khan could've been a 5th- or even 6th-generation product of the program, and with enough careful breeding and luck, that might be enough to produce humans of substantially increased strength, intelligence, and so on.

Of course, that's not compatible with what was later established in ST films, novels, and episodes, but I'm speaking in terms of what Carey Wilber may have intended when he wrote "Space Seed." Wilber was the right generation to have fought in WWII, so he could well have been aware of the legacy of eugenics programs that underlay the Nazi movement, and could've intended Khan's supermen as a hypothetical outgrowth of such breeding programs if they'd gone on longer and been more successful.

Why does the Enterprise need a historian, and why wasn't she or her successor consulted in any of the time travel episodes?

Why wouldn't a vessel of exploration have a historian? Other planets have history too, and it would presumably be her job to learn about it. Also, history can be valuable as an example. If you're trying to understand an alien culture, it's possible that there could be an analogous culture from Earth history that could help provide insight (although of course it would be risky to take the analogy too literally).

As for why the historian wasn't consulted in other episodes, one could just as well ask, of either TOS or TNG, why a ship with plenty of scientists onboard never sends anyone down to a planet except the command crew and a few security guards. Dramatic and budgetary requirements impose limits on how many characters you can feature.

Technically, isn't IV more popular than II, at least based upon box-office receipts?

That's a rather limited standard for defining it. I was thinking more in terms of how well the movie is regarded today (though personally I don't care for TWOK that much).

 

[Galileo7]

when you look at how much II cost and how much it made, according to Shatner, It was pretty carrying some of the costs that Paramount ran up with Phase II and TMP.

ST:TMP had the inflated budget, to cover "Phase II". Not ST II.

ST II didn't carry any of that financial burden. In fact, it deliberately saved money, because Bennett was told to use as much SPFX stock footage and model work as possible, hence the drydocked Enterprise (again), three Klingon vessels (again) in the simulator, and the inverting of the model for the orbiting office into Regular One's research station. This economizing permitted Meyer to insist on new "hero" Starfleet uniforms (and re-dying the ones worn by cadets and extras) and the then-trailblazing CGI sequence for the Genesis Project presentation tape.

ST II was a critical and financial success (helped by its relatively low budget for a movie of such scope; it was originally planned as a telemovie, and was produced by the TV arm of Paramount). ST IV was considered a huge financial success due to the many members of the general public it brought into cinemas.

You brilliantly summed up why WOK from production(without a bloated budget) to box office performance was a success. Nicholas Meyer and company's creativity instead of relentless waste.