The one thing about Star Trek II that always irks me...

[Pauln6]

I think the novelisation makes the code a bit more vague but even so, there were many ways that they could have phrased it to make it more obscure. Why does the audience need to see through the code anyway? Those that didn't get it will find out a couple of scenes later.

 

[Christopher]

Khan being insane was one of TWOK's failures in my eyes. "Space Seed" made him such an interesting, worthy antagonist with great potential, but TWOK reduced him to a scenery-chewing nutjob, a far less impressive figure. Not to mention the way it squandered the possibilities of what Khan and his community of superior beings might have created if not for the inexplicably exploding planet.

 

[DonIago]

Given Khan's massive ego and the demonstrated tendency of augments to underestimate normal humans...and the fact that Khan was crazy...I think it's entirely possible he just couldn't see Kirk being clever enough (the fact that it wasn't -that- clever notwithstanding) to pull the wool over his eyes.

Yup, what you said. Much less verbose than my answer.

If you ever need an editor, let me know!

 

[Ssosmcin]

Khan being insane was one of TWOK's failures in my eyes. "Space Seed" made him such an interesting, worthy antagonist with great potential, but TWOK reduced him to a scenery-chewing nutjob, a far less impressive figure. Not to mention the way it squandered the possibilities of what Khan and his community of superior beings might have created if not for the inexplicably exploding planet.

That would have been the more interesting story. I agree that there was a lot more potential in what Space Seed set up than we saw in TWOK. Had Khan's people truly tamed that world, rather than being driven to the brink, they would have been a fascinating and terrifying group to face. Getting them off the planet to cross paths with Kirk wouldn't be difficult. The revenge plot would still have worked (going after Kirk - the one man who defeated him), and Khan's followers might have been actual characters with depth rather than window dressing. Although, the novelization did a really good job with them, at least making them more dimensional.

I'm not complaining about what we got, but Spock's question at the end of the episode was really never answered, as much as Harve Bennett thought it was.

If you ever need an editor, let me know!

If you look at some of my posts, you'll see that's exactly what I do need.

 

[DonIago]

^How's $5/post sound?

As a Star Trek version of Moby Dick it's a rather successful story, but I agree that it might have been more interesting if it had been handled differently. I'd like to think if it had been a mult-part episode of the series we would have gotten to see Joachim ultimately "betray" Khan in the interests of preserving what was left of their group rather than continue their self-destructive revenge quest. Heck, Joachim's repudiation of Khan could have been what finally pushed him over the edge. Sure his wife died, but she was just a normal weak human to begin with, having a genius friend who's been at your side for decades suddenly turn his back on everything you stand for has to really hurt.

This reminds me of how disappointed I was when ENT brought up the "defective" Augment in "Cold Station 12" but then summarily offed him later in the episode after they'd apparently run out of things for him to do.

 

[Christopher]

Heck, Joachim's repudiation of Khan could have been what finally pushed him over the edge. Sure his wife died, but she was just a normal weak human to begin with, having a genius friend who's been at your side for decades suddenly turn his back on everything you stand for has to really hurt.

Rather, a friend who's been at your side for decades but for some reason is played by a 30-year-old actor.

 

[DonIago]

Or in the Greg Cox-verse, the genius son of the genius friend who sacrificed himself for you, I suppose.