News Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan To Return To Theaters

[Phoenix219]

I jumped at the rat. The sound queue was loud!

I thought of questions I hadn't before during this viewing, like did Khan and his people survive by eating Ceti eels, and if not, what? and questions like was that an escaped lab rat, or did they somehow bring rats to a clean science station on a dirty transport of some sort? lol.

 

[Phoenix219]

But then after that we get an entire film devoted to resurrecting him. Even though Nimoy himself only appears at the end of that one, seems like it more than makes up for Spock assuming a secondary role in Khan.

That aside, I would say that Spock's more relaxed demeanor and sentimentality during his death speech at the end reflects TMP. He was much more open and frank about his friendship than he typically was in TOS. He was the bridge that connects TMP to Khan whereas Kirk appears to be going through the exact same sort of mid-life crisis he already had in TMP.

If we had never seen his stoic nature at the beginning of TMP, its really not far off from where the Big Three were in the original series. It seems like a pretty natural extension.

 

[dub]

Spock is pretty incidental to the story. This is KIRK'S film. Everything revolves around him and even Spock's death serves to give Kirk that last push toward his own rebirth. Spock gives advice, talks about logic, saves the ship and....that's about it. Take away his sacrifice, say Scotty or a cadet got the mains back on line, and Spock has no purpose in the film. He's just there. He actually shows more growth in TMP.

I guess a little Spock goes a long way. He felt very present and integral to me. And there was a deep sense of emptiness when he died.

It's truly a shame he and Montalban didn't have scenes together.

I agree. But it makes a cool story that the hero and villain never once met in person throughout this film. It also says something about the acting skills of Montalban and Shatner.

 

[KirkusOveractus]

I agree. But it makes a cool story that the hero and villain never once met in person throughout this film. It also says something about the acting skills of Montalban and Shatner.

Although I did once think about how having Kirk and Khan in the same room for some form of climactic scene, like maybe Kirk beaming to Reliant to try to stop the Genesis device and a fight sequence, as I watched the movie over time, I thought of how it eventually came out was actually a little better.

Once, Montalban said in an interview that he played Khan in the movie with a resentment and hate, which built up in 15 years to being so absorbed with killing Kirk that it became a Moby Dick-like obsession.

Now, not having them in the same room together actually makes Khan's hate just on edge, and that makes for higher drama. He can't physically get to Kirk, can't hurt him by his own hands. Can't get that ultimate satisfaction. He does what he can to hurt Kirk by hurting what means the most to him first, but that tension must still be there because he can't physically get to Kirk.

It makes for that tension, that just under the surface of becoming totally unhinged, but enough to keep tempered enough to lead his people.

 

[Trekker4747]

With the Fanthom event last night, I really enjoyed the Shatner interview before the feature. It's easy to read or hear something Shatner says and think how terrible of a man he must be, but then you see him in an interview like this and you see some real humanity and personality in him; that it really must be interesting to sit down and speak with him. His telling of the stories of working on the movie(s) (though he mixed up the fire-fighting story and which movie he was on at the time) and is little bit of self-depreciation over ST:V.

 

[dub]

Once, Montalban said in an interview that he played Khan in the movie with a resentment and hate, which built up in 15 years to being so absorbed with killing Kirk that it became a Moby Dick-like obsession.

That's interesting, because Nicholas Meyer said that he couldn't rehearse with Montalban because he was doing Fantasy Island, so instead he said, "Here's Moby Dick - this will give you an idea of the character/story."

 

[KirkusOveractus]

That's interesting, because Nicholas Meyer said that he couldn't rehearse with Montalban because he was doing Fantasy Island, so instead he said, "Here's Moby Dick - this will give you an idea of the character/story."

And Khan quoting it after setting off the Genesis device just brings it all together.

 

[Kor]

Got back from the theaters seeing this. Man, this movie just works!

It seems to be yet another cut of the movie, it largely contains everything from the DVD/earlier anniversary cut but one exchange is removed. When Kirk and co. arrive back on the Enterprise from the Genesis cave we see them climbing through the Jefferies Tubes and Kirk says, "That young man back there is my son." Spock, "Fascinating." (Almost in a tone as if to say, "But of course he is, you slut.")

I guess I can see why it was removed, it's overall an odd thing for Spock to say in the circumstances and maybe out of character for him depending on how you want to interpret his response and, narratively it's unneeded as it's information the audience already has.

This is the same cut as the blu-ray. That dialog exchange was removed for the blu-ray release of the TWOK-DE.

Kor

 

[Kaelef]

Does anyone know if the Shatner interview shown with this is available online or elsewhere? I missed seeing it this week.

 

[Trekker4747]

Fathom is doing another screening of TWK next Thursday. Looking around on the internet I can't find anywhere the interview is available on-line. Maybe once Fathom is fully done with the theatrical events they'll put it on their website.

 

[Kaelef]

Thanks for the heads-up! I thought they were done, but I see an "encore" on the web site.

 

[Kor]

If we had never seen his stoic nature at the beginning of TMP, its really not far off from where the Big Three were in the original series. It seems like a pretty natural extension.

Yes, I've always felt like Spock in TWOK was more back to his old self from TOS, just maybe slightly more "relaxed" as he had gotten older. His character arc in TMP doesn't really inform my perception of him in TWOK.

Kor