Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan rewrite
- Thread starter James Wright
- Start date
I think the idea was that we're just supposed to assume this bunch is the same as the group from Space Seed, despite their ages.
And some of them might be from that original group. They look to be in their early 20s (several of the actors were then-current Chippendale male strippers) and maybe they've looked that young since "Space Seed" due to their Eugenic genes? We didn't see all of Khan's people in the episode.
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Deney_Terrio
That's how I choose to interpret it.
Realistically, a second generation born on CA5 and age-accelerated was not how Bennet, Sowards, Meyer, Montalban, Scott, or anyone else involved in making the film expected it to be understood. Khan's followers were the original supermen marooned with him, but an army of hexagenarians might be difficult for some in the audience to take seriously, so they cast younger actors in the roles.
Wanna bet. I spent a week with Judson Scott when he visited Sydney and Brisbane for a convention in the 80s. He and Montalban used to rehearse and improvise scenes together at Montalban's house. In the absence of any notes in the script, and before any direction from Nick Meyer, they decided that Khan and Joachim were father and son. The script called for a father/son relationship, but their personal take on it was that they were father and son.
Years later, "Starlog" interviewed Scott and quoted him talking about his relationship with Khan as "He's my Daddy."
The notion may have influenced the performances of Montalban and Scott on set, I dunno, but given the final cut of the film is it how they realistically expected it to be understood by audiences? Certainly the dialog doesn’t support it.
Is “company and crew” meant to convey company and crew and their offspring?
Does “these people have sworn” mean “vicariously, through their parents, who were alive at the time”?
Is the audience supposed to infer from this dialog that these apparent adults are actually 14 years and younger and are the offspring of the people Khan is describing? Is that what Khan communicates to Terrell?
I accept that it has become part of the lore and had origins behind the scenes, but it’s still a preposterous fanwank contrary to the plain meaning of the film.
Is “company and crew” meant to convey company and crew and their offspring?
Does “these people have sworn” mean “vicariously, through their parents, who were alive at the time”?
Is the audience supposed to infer from this dialog that these apparent adults are actually 14 years and younger and are the offspring of the people Khan is describing? Is that what Khan communicates to Terrell?
I accept that it has become part of the lore and had origins behind the scenes, but it’s still a preposterous fanwank contrary to the plain meaning of the film.
No, the audience was expected to relax and just enjoy the movie and the nostalgia. Not analyze it to death for several decades.
Sulu! I would have loved to see how George tackled the scenes with Khan, but Walter Koenig said he chose not to tell the writer or writers that he had not joined the original series at that point.
Similar threads
