Defense of KAAAHHHN!!!

[RobertScorpio]

A lot of jokes have been aimed at Shatner's KAAHHHHHN!!!! yell in TREK #2. They say it was over-acting..well..it had to be.

If you will recall, only HE knew that what Spock told him was in code and that they would be able to beam up shortly. But to make khan, Chekov, and Terell, as well as Savik and the others, believe to the contrary.

Kirk had to sell it, so he over-acted for the benefit of Khan (who was listening on the other end) and the others..

KHAHNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!! will go down as one of the greatest one lines of all frickin' time!!!!!!!!

Rob

 

[Nerys Myk]

He was in the Academy Drama Club.

 

[RyuRoots]

You can be passionate without overacting to the point of making a joke of yourself. Well, not Shatner (until later on), but most actors.

 

[sbk1234]

Actually, I don't think there's a way to really over-act any Trek role.

 

[Yeoman Randi]

Its one of my most favorite scenes/lines evah!
Shatner is god. Its that simple.

 

[Shazam!]

I'm sure Meyer would've made Shatner do it again if he thought it was over acting.

 

[Cryogenic]

If you will recall, only HE knew that what Spock told him was in code and that they would be able to beam up shortly. But to make khan, Chekov, and Terell, as well as Savik and the others, believe to the contrary.

Kirk had to sell it, so he over-acted for the benefit of Khan (who was listening on the other end) and the others.

As you've described it, it still doesn't make any sense. As the camera closes in on Kirk's face, we see his rising response to Khan's taunt, which is confusing film language, in my opinion, for something that's meant to be an act (on the part of Kirk). The intimacy of the shot, and its pregnant nature, is at odds with the idea that Kirk has already planned his escape, and that Khan, but not Kirk, is ignorant of this. Meyer plays this moment for melodrama, clumsily for the sake of trying to imbue his film (as he does over and over and over) with more gravitas than his shopworn revenge plot naturally has. On subsequent viewings, it doesn't really wash. Not for this viewer, at least.

 

[Shazam!]

Played any other way though, would've given the game away.

 

[Maurice]

Ummm...Terrell was "waporized" by that point, and Chekov was de-eeled.

 

[Xerxes1979]

 

[Maurice]

Let's not also forget that, despite his plan with Spock, a lot went wrong up to this point for Kirk. He's seen his ship crippled, crewmen maimed and killed, scientists slaughtered, a fellow starship Captain driven to shoot himself, and Khan absconding with Genesis. He's got PLENTY to scream about.

 

[Kirk1980]

And even if he knows he has a way out, he is still being taunted and tormented by this guy.

I always thought it was pretty powerful.

But I'm no film student.

*shrugs

 

[Unicron]

I always found it odd that Khan, with his military experience, wouldn't have figured out the verbal code, since it had a fairly obvious cue ("if we went by the book, hours would seem like days").

 

[Shieldsdown]

I was VERY disappointed he never got an Oscar for that scene!

 

[Shazam!]

I think people would've preferred Kirk to be like this after Khan had just told him that he was going to be marooned:

 

[RobertScorpio]

I always found it odd that Khan, with his military experience, wouldn't have figured out the verbal code, since it had a fairly obvious cue ("if we went by the book, hours would seem like days").

He was distracted by all those Chip'n'Dales dancers and strippers...

Rob

 

[Cryogenic]

I always found it odd that Khan, with his military experience, wouldn't have figured out the verbal code, since it had a fairly obvious cue ("if we went by the book, hours would seem like days").

He was distracted by all those Chip'n'Dales dancers and strippers...

And the fact that he lost his own South-East Asian ethnicity and fathered a bunch of Aryan supermen and superwomen.

 

[Anji]

I figured Meyer wasn't too keen on that scream either...which was why he cut to the planet shot so quickly.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

I always found it odd that Khan, with his military experience, wouldn't have figured out the verbal code, since it had a fairly obvious cue ("if we went by the book, hours would seem like days").

He was distracted by all those Chip'n'Dales dancers and strippers...

And the fact that he lost his own South-East Asian ethnicity and fathered a bunch of Aryan supermen and superwomen.

Everything was going wrong for the poor guy; no wondered he went insane...(Excuse me: Was insane...)

 

[SRFX]

I always found it odd that Khan, with his military experience, wouldn't have figured out the verbal code, since it had a fairly obvious cue ("if we went by the book, hours would seem like days").

He was distracted by all those Chip'n'Dales dancers and strippers...

And the fact that he lost his own South-East Asian ethnicity and fathered a bunch of Aryan supermen and superwomen.

Wasn't he supposed to be Indian or Pakistani? Either way, you make a fair point.