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Trollheart's Star Trek Movie Reviews and Musings

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Trollheart

Lieutenant Commander
Red Shirt
Get your popcorn, kids! It's time to travel back to the seventies! :)


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Title: Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Released: 1979
Writer(s): Alan Dean Foster/ Harold Livingston
Director: Robert Wise
Starring: All the usual Star Trek crew plus: Stephen Collins as Willard Decker, Persis Khambhatta as Ilia
Runtime: 132 minutes
Budget: USD 46 million
Boxoffice: USD 134 million
Critical acclaim: Very low
Fan acclaim: Very low
Legacy: First in the franchise, but quickly forgotten about.
Enterprise: NCC-1701

Finally convinced they had killed the goose that laid the golden egg when they had cancelled the original Star Trek series in 1969, and having seen its phenomenal success in syndication all over the world, Paramount decided to cash in on this and began plans to revive the series, but changed their minds in 1978 and went for a movie release instead. This is not hard to understand. The late seventies had seen movies such as Alien, Star Wars and Close Encounters coin it in, and make a mockery of the belief that sci-fi was just for geeks and losers. Smashing box-offices all over the world, it seemed science-fiction and space opera was here to stay, and you could buy your next beachfront property if you hedged your bets in that area. And so in 1978 filming began on what would be the first live-action reincarnation of Star Trek since the original series was cancelled.

What resulted, sadly, was a critical and creative failure, although it did pull in the box-office receipts. It does have to be stressed though that most of those who went to see the film more than likely did so because it was after all the first Star Trek movie. There are no records for film-goers who went to see it and were disappointed: you couldn't demand your money back at the end. Not that it was that bad. But it was.

A huge alien energy cloud is headed for Earth, and is surprisingly immune to the photon torpedoes three Klingon warships throw at it, destroying them all in the process, and also taking out one of the Federation's monitoring stations on the way. Spock, on pilgrimage to Vulcan, is about to achieve Kolinahr, the state prized by his people in which total control of their emotions is achieved, but just as the culmination of his labours arrives and he is about to be presented with the symbol of total logic, something distracts him. He hears a call from out in space, and the high priestess realises he is listening to his human emotions, and that he is not yet ready. Back on Earth, at Starfleet Headquarters an older but perhaps not necessarily wiser Admiral James Kirk demands to take command of his old ship, which is being refitted and will soon be ready to be launched on its first mission. There is one problem though: the USS Enterprise already has a captain, one Willard Decker, and he is not happy about handing over the captain's chair.
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There are many new crew members, but when Lieutenant Ilia, a Deltan, boards, it is clear that she and Decker have history, although she mentions a vow of celibacy. En route, another crewmember joins them. It is Spock, but if they expected a tearful reunion the crew are to be disappointed, as the Vulcan is, if possible, even less friendly and more aloof than before. He is however able to help Scotty repair and recalibrate the engines, after Kirk had follishly demanded warp speed too soon, taking them into a wormhole and nearly destroying the ship, certainly damaging the engines. Spock tells Kirk and McCoy that he began sensing a powerful intelligence while on Vulcan, an exceedingly logical being, and believes that his answers, which he was unable to find while on his home planet, may lie within the entity they are approaching.

With his help, the Enterprise makes it to the cloud while it is still one day away from Earth, whereupon they are scanned, and Spock says he believes there is an object at the heart of the cloud. He also detects a feeling of surprise, that they have not responded, having been contacted. Kirk refrains from assuming a defensive posture, in case this is misinterpreted by the cloud (or whatever is at its heart) as a hostile act, but when they are attacked he has no choice. Spock manages to modify their communications to allow them to send messages of friendship the entity can understand and interpret, and the attack is broken off. For now. Needing to make contact with whatever is inside the cloud, Kirk has little alternative but to order the ship to enter the cloud, despite the danger and the uncertainty. On doing so, they do indeed find an object inside; seems to be some sort of alien spacecraft. As they hold position over the craft they are suddenly probed. Spock tries to shut off the ship's computer, as the probe is running their databanks, but the probe attacks him. Next it goes for Ilia, vapourising her and then disappearing. The Enterprise is drawn inside the alien craft.

Suddenly there is a security alert and they rush to find that Liuetenant Ilia has returned. Or not quite. Her form is that of the Deltan, but the voice speaks with a mechanical monotone, and McCoy and Spock confirm it is a probe from the alien vessel, merely taking the form of Ilia, the better to communicate with them. It says it is from V'ger, and wishes to study “the carbon-based lifeforms infesting the Enterprise.” That's them: Kirk, Spock, Scotty, the whole crew. Carbon-based lifeforms. That's us. The probe tells them it is heading towards Earth in order to merge with “the Creator”, but when Kirk tries to dig deeper he gets no further explanation. He sets Decker to chaperone the probe, as he was involved with Ilia, and the probe tells him that once it has completed its examination it will “reduce all carbon units to data packets.” Doesn't sound too good for the crew of NCC-1701! Meanwhile, Spock goes out of the ship to penetrate into the inner chamber of the vessel, a risky manoeuvre but he finds inside some sort of digital holographic record of all the planets and places this V'Ger has visited. He believes it is not a vessel after all now, but a living being.
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He finds a pulsing sensor at the centre of the chamber and believing it to be some sort of conduit for the intelligence driving the alien, tries to mind-meld with it, but it literally blows his mind and he floats, unconscious, until Kirk, who has gone out after him, finds him and brings him back to the ship. He tells Kirk that the alien, V'ger, is incapable of understanding emotion, and is going through what can only be described as an existential crisis, as it seeks to discover if this is all there is to its existence? The cloud is now almost within reach of Earth, and V'ger begins sending an old-style radio signal --- a message to its creator, which it expects to be answered. When no reply is forthcoming, the vessel, entity or whatever it is sets up powerful weapons arrays above the planet, after having knocked out all defensive systems, as it prepares to scour the Earth of life.

In a desperate ploy to save his home planet (and his own life; they're next obviously) Kirk tells the probe that he knows why the signal has not been responded to, why the creator has not replied, but he will only disclose this information on two conditions: one, the orbiting devices must be removed from around the planet, and two, he must give the information directly to V'ger. He and Spock have realised that if the probe takes them to the central processor unit of the vessel, they should be able to deactivate the devices. The probe agrees, but the devices will only be removed after Kirk has disclosed the required information. V'ger learns fast! And so they are taken into the machine, where with the benefit of an oxygen atmosphere being provided we are treated to the first ever instance of the crew walking on the saucer section of the Enterprise outside.
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What they find solves the mystery. A huge alien probe, and at its heart an old Earth one, Voyager VI. V'Ger is Voyager, and it is trying to transmit its collected data back to Earth, its creator. It was launched three hundred years ago, but now has been sent back by the inhabitants of the machine world who found it, and is trying to fulfil its mission. But it can't, as there is nobody left on Earth who knows the transmisson code that will allow it to send its data. Kirk has Uhura look it up and they send the code, but V'Ger does not receive it, having intentionally (apparently) burned out the wires that make the connection with its receiver. It wants to literally join with the creator, whom it now sees as Decker, with Ilia the probe. So Decker will after all get his end away and Ilia's vow of celibacy is about to be broken in the most spectacular fashion!

Decker puts in the transmission sequence manually and he and Ilia the probe are surrounded by light as they join and science goes out the window under total Star Trek technobabble. The cloud, the probe, the orbiting devices all disappear and the day is saved as the Enterprise comes out triumphantly, having once again saved the day.

QUOTES

Kirk (on taking over the captaincy): “I'm sorry Will.”
Decker: “No, sir, I don't believe you are. I don't believe you're sorry one bit, Admiral. I remember when I took command of the Enterprise you told me how envious you were, and how you hoped to get a command yourself. Well, sir, it looks like you found a way.”
(Considering he has not asked for permisson to speak freely, this could go down on Decker's record as insubordination. He is, after all, talking to a superior officer in a very belligerent and familiar way).

McCoy: “The admiral invoked a little-known, seldom-used clause called a reactivation order. In simpler language, they drafted me.”
Kirk: “They didn't.”
McCoy: “This was your idea?”
Kirk: “Bones, there's a ... thing out there ...”
McCoy: “Why is any object we don't understand always called a thing?”
Kirk: “It's headed this way. I need you. Damn it Bones: I need you! Badly!”
(You'd have to wonder at the validity of this. After all, McCoy is a doctor, this is a cloud measuring tens of atmospheric units across. What's he gonna do? Diagnose it?)

Decker: “Permission to speak freely sir?”
Kirk: “Granted.”
Decker: “You haven't logged a star hour in over two and a half years, sir. That, plus your unfamiliarity with this ship and its redesign, in my opinion sir, seriously jeopardises this mission.”

Kirk: “Full sensor scan, Mr. Spock. They can't expect us not to look them over now.”
Decker: “Not now we're looking right down their throats.”
Kirk: “Right. Now that we have them just where they want us.”

Kirk: “Where's Lieutenant Ilia?”
Probe: “That unit no longer functions.”
(Oh. What an epitaph for the Deltan officer: Here lies Lt. Ilia, of the USS Enterprise. She no longer fucntions.)

Kirk: “Who is the creator?”
Probe: “The creator is that which created V'ger.”
Kirk: “And who is V'ger?”
Probe: “V'ger is that which was made by the creator .”
(Circular logic at its best!)

Decker: “Within that shell are the memories of ... a certain carbon unit. If I could help you to revive those memories it might help you understand our function better.”
Probe: “That is logical. You may proceed.”
(Howay ya lad ya! ;))

Spock: “Captain, V'ger is a child. I suggest you treat it as such.”
Kirk: “A child?”
Spock: “Yes captain. A child. Learning, evolving, searching. Instinctively needing.”
Decker: “Needing what?”
McCoy: “Spock, this child is about to wipe out every living thing on Earth! What do you suggest we do: spank it?”

Kirk (as Decker prepares to manually input the signal): “Decker, don't!”
(It's such a sincere request; Kirk obvously sees his main competitor for the command of Enterprise about to be removed from the game, and he can't wait. He might as well have said “Yeah go on, do it.”)

Kirk: “Mister Sulu, ahead, warp one.”
Sulu: “Warp one, captain. Heading?”
Kirk: “Out there. Thataway.”
(I don't think you'll find this in the Starfleet manual of operations, Kirk me old chum!)

Questions?

Why does at least one of the Klingon warships not hit warp and get the **** out of there when they see how powerful the alien cloud is? I know, I know: Klingons never run, but have they never read Sir John Falstaff? I mean, come on! They are clearly up against a vastly superior power, and as any commander worth his salt knows, it is no shame to retreat in the face of either overwhelming odds or from an enemy who has you completely outmatched. Besides, won't the Klingon High Command, to say nothing of the homeworld itself, need to be warned, apprised of the danger? Isn't this one time where a bit of brains should triumph over chest-beating brawn? But no: they instead fire --- with one of the ships already vapourised in seconds before their eyes --- three photon torpedoes at an entity which has already proven immune to such weapons. Are these guys idiots?

Kirk mentions that “the only starship in range of the cloud is the Enterprise”. But they're at Starfleet ****ing headquarters! Are we supposed to believe that there is no other warship, starship or cruiser docked there, that the only ship moored there of consequence is NCC-1701? Seems at best unlikely.

Why does Kirk demadn to be in command? Sure, we need it for the movie, but in reality, is there any justification for this? Decker knows the ship inside out, he's a competent captain. Why does Kirk think he is the only one who can complete the mission? Is he that arrogant? Don't answer. Seems to me he may just have grabbed at his only chance to get his own command again, particularly the one ship he would have wanted. A little petty? The needs of the one outweighing the needs of the many?

Spock mentions that, while inside V'ger, he saw the alien's home planet, a “planet populated by living machines”. He refers to them as “cold”, using “pure logic”. An early template for that later scourge of the galaxy, the Borg?

Memorable scenes and effects

The energy cloud is done well, but basically it's, well, a cloud with a lot of colours and things floating in it. My main plaudits have to go to the initial approach as Kirk and Scotty see the Enterprise for the first time in the movie --- I remember the lump in my throat when I saw that the first time too. After all, remember, this was the very first glimpse for us of a ship we had see carry Kirk and his crew through three seasons of television adventure, and we thought we would never see it again. A special moment. The sequence is perhaps overextended and a little indulgent, but you can forgive them for that. The scene where they leave spacedock is also very impressive.

Kirk's hubris
Never a man to listen to others when his mind is made up, Kirk is well known for pushing the limits and taking often unnecessary risks. Here, I'll be charting the moments when his overconfidence is his undoing, putting his crew and others in potential danger.

As they leave Earth, Kirk demands warp power immediately, even though everyone from Decker to Scotty advise against it: more simulation time is needed. The ship is untested, having just undergone a complete refit, and they should not be pushing things. Kirk, however, as usual listens to nobody, with the result that they nearly end up colliding with a wormhole in space and ending their mission before it has even begun. He is forced into an embarrassing climbdown, and it won't be the last time he has to admit he was wrong, or at least too hasty in ordering something. Also, while in the wormhole they encounter an object in their path. With helm unresponsive, they can't avoid it and Kirk orders phasers to fire, but Decker, knowing the new ship better, countermands the order and uses the photon torpedoes instead.

Themes and motifs

Certainly the theme of homecomings is evident here, and not surprisingly so. This is, after all, the return of Star Trek to the screen, albeit the big one too. But apart from that, it's a sort of homecoming for Kirk, who has been flying a desk for some years now and has almost forcibly changed that to ensure he has returned to the captain's chair. V'ger has its own sort of homecoming, returning to the planet from which it was launched, although certainly it comes back a changed probe, with a somewhat skewed idea of its mission! It's also a return for Decker and Ilia, as they meet again after an unspecified but not hard to guess at liaison on her home planet.

There's a theme too, though, I feel, of helplessness. Kirk feels helpless as an admiral, unable to take command of a starship as he has been used to, until he forces Starfleet's hand and convinces them to give him his old ship back. Helpless describes Decker, relievd of command and now subservient to a man he does not like, and whom, he knows, is angling for permanent command of the Enterprise. The Earth is helpless before the attack of V'Ger, and even V'ger is, to some extent, helpless, as it tries to work out what it is supposed to be doing, and how it is to do it.

Parallels

The plotline follows basically the same as the TOS episode “The Changeling”, in which an Earth probe returns, having collided with an alien probe, and, well, goes a bit loopy. Essentially, Kirk does the same here as he did there (or tries to): pretends he is the one the probe is seeking.

The relationship between Decker and Ilia, or at least their initial reunion, is mirrored almost exactly by the same scene in TNG when Riker and Troi meet on the Enterprise.

And isn’t that…?

Two cameos at the beginning of the movie for Grace Lee Whitney, returning as Janice Rand, promoted after all this time from Yeoman to Commander, who handles the disastrous transport of Sovak and another crewman, the fault in the teleporter resulting in their grisly deaths. The commander of Epsilon 9 monitoring station is none other than the late Mark Lenard, who played the Romulan commander in “Balance of Terror” but is best known for playing Spock’s father, Sarek, in both TOS and TNG. He later returns as Sarek in the third movie.

Does this movie deserve its reputation?

Here I'll be looking at what is generally thought of the movie, good bad or indifferent. Does it deserev the plaudits, or indeed the derision it has earned over the years? Having watched it fresh, perhaps for the first time in a very long time, is my mind altered on how I originally recieved it, or does it still rock/suck, or is it still meh, or even a case of the jury being out?

The basic reputation this movie has is perhaps best encapsulated in a title my brother once jeeringly gave it, calling it “Star Trek: The Slow Motion Picture”. And he's not wrong. It's a terribly plodding, dull, uneventful movie. When you look at the later ones in the franchise, you can see how they must have agreed. There's very little action here, and no space battles at all. The only other vessels we see really, other than V'Ger, are the Klingons and they're gone within the first three minutes of the movie's opening. There's little too of the famed easy friendship between the main characters: Kirk is stilted and uptight, knowing he has overstepped his authority at least morally, in taking command of the ship and secretly unsure if he's still up to the job. Spock is even less human, having been on pilgrimage to Vulcan, and McCoy is, well, McCoy, but he's worried about Kirk. Scotty is fine, but then Scotty will always be Scotty.

The plot is wafer-thin. As I said above, it's basically cobbled from ideas taken from “The Changeling” and what was to have been the pilot for the new series, which was cancelled. It also has some elements of 2001 about it, but the resolution is ridiculous, and jumps right off the science-fiction trail into the woods of magic and sorcery. There is no scientific explanation as to why Decker suddenly becomes one with V'Ger after inputting the code, and why a new lifeform results. It might as well be magic, and it's a stupid, lazy ending. Had it ended as it should have, with V'Ger transmitting its message and Earth being saved, that would have been okay, but this pseudo-psychological mumbo-jumbo about creatures joining because someone fuses two wires.... bah.

The thing is that up to then there's very little that happens, and like a certain point in later Generations, when a friend at work confessed to me that she fell asleep during the scene that explained what was going on, the whole thing is very boring. It survives on one real pretext only, and that is that it was the first of the Trek movies. Everyone wanted to see the gang again, everyone was eager to see the Enterprise in action, and because of that it got what can only be described as a pass. I'd venture to bet that a very large percentage of those who went to see it came out bewildered and disappointed. In the “Questions?” section I laughed at the contention that there were no other starships in the vicinity of their ****ign home base (!) but now have to ask what the hell were Starfleet doing while Kirk and Co rode to save the day? When the Enterprise, within the V'Ger cloud, gets back to Earth they still haven't launched any ships, called any back to assist in the defence of the homeworld? They're pinning all their hopes on NCC-1701, just waiting?

I'm also quite disappointed in the soundtrack. I didn't know it at the time of course, but it's basically the theme for TNG, note for note, with the odd nod back to the original theme and a few heavy bass or guitar notes when V'ger comes on the scene. Very poor. If I had to pick out things that could have saved the movie, or at least areas that impressed me, the launch of the Enterprise, the transporter accident and maybe the trip through the wormhole. That's about it. Not much in a movie that's over two hours long.

So yeah, at the end, I feel this does deserve its poor reputation. It's almost like the writers weren't trying, or maybe were trying to hard, and fell somewhere in between. The movie was overall quite boring, no real action, too wordy and without question, if she fell asleep during Generations then Helen would have been snoozing about ten minutes after this began. Thankfully it was the last such poor movie, and they totally upped their game for the next one. But as a debut for the film franchise it leaves a whole lot to be desired.

Therefore, having taken everything into account and approaching this both from a fresher and more informed perspective, all I can award this first Star Trek movie is
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Why does at least one of the Klingon warships not hit warp and get the **** out of there when they see how powerful the alien cloud is?

They were already at warp in this entire sequence, though granted, it's not really made that clear at first.

Kirk mentions that “the only starship in range of the cloud is the Enterprise”. But they're at Starfleet ****ing headquarters! Are we supposed to believe that there is no other warship, starship or cruiser docked there, that the only ship moored there of consequence is NCC-1701? Seems at best unlikely.

Welcome to Star Trek.

Why does Kirk demadn to be in command? Sure, we need it for the movie, but in reality, is there any justification for this? Decker knows the ship inside out, he's a competent captain. Why does Kirk think he is the only one who can complete the mission? Is he that arrogant? Don't answer. Seems to me he may just have grabbed at his only chance to get his own command again, particularly the one ship he would have wanted. A little petty? The needs of the one outweighing the needs of the many?

I thought he justified it fairly well enough. Kirk's arrogance is part of his character.

The energy cloud is done well, but basically it's, well, a cloud with a lot of colours and things floating in it.

What did you expect an energy cloud to look like? It's a... cloud.

My main plaudits have to go to the initial approach as Kirk and Scotty see the Enterprise for the first time in the movie --- I remember the lump in my throat when I saw that the first time too. After all, remember, this was the very first glimpse for us of a ship we had see carry Kirk and his crew through three seasons of television adventure, and we thought we would never see it again. A special moment. The sequence is perhaps overextended and a little indulgent, but you can forgive them for that. The scene where they leave spacedock is also very impressive.

Indulgent, overlong, impressive, it's all of those things. And I wouldn't change a second of it.

I'm also quite disappointed in the soundtrack. I didn't know it at the time of course, but it's basically the theme for TNG, note for note, with the odd nod back to the original theme and a few heavy bass or guitar notes when V'ger comes on the scene. Very poor. If I had to pick out things that could have saved the movie, or at least areas that impressed me, the launch of the Enterprise, the transporter accident and maybe the trip through the wormhole. That's about it. Not much in a movie that's over two hours long.

Huh? It's one of the greatest movie scores ever made. Note for note TNG? How is that a criticism? TNG didn't premier for another eight years after this film was made.

So yeah, at the end, I feel this does deserve its poor reputation. It's almost like the writers weren't trying, or maybe were trying to hard, and fell somewhere in between. The movie was overall quite boring, no real action, too wordy and without question, if she fell asleep during Generations then Helen would have been snoozing about ten minutes after this began. Thankfully it was the last such poor movie, and they totally upped their game for the next one. But as a debut for the film franchise it leaves a whole lot to be desired.

I can totally see why people don't care for it. It has a style, tone and pace that is completely alien to most people under the age of 40. It's an old school sci fi epic the likes of which we don't see any more. Would I like a little more action in it? Yes I would. Would I have made any other changes? Quite possibly. It's still in my top 3 Trek movies though.
 
They were already at warp in this entire sequence, though granted, it's not really made that clear at first.
They were at warp? I'll have to look back. So you're saying they couldn't get away? Hmm.
I thought he justified it fairly well enough. Kirk's arrogance is part of his character.
Hmm again. How did he justify it? That he was an admiral who hadn't "logged a star hour in two years" and that a more experienced captain, who knew the ship - certainly after its refit, as was proven - better than him was less qualifed? I don't see how or where he did, other than to say MINE! Get your OWN starship!

What did you expect an energy cloud to look like? It's a... cloud.
Meh, less cloud, more energy maybe. Mutara Nebula-like.
Indulgent, overlong, impressive, it's all of those things. And I wouldn't change a second of it.
Oh yeah you can definitely forgive this one.
Huh? It's one of the greatest movie scores ever made. Note for note TNG? How is that a criticism? TNG didn't premier for another eight years after this film was made.
I guess I'm just looking at it retrospectively, and considering the, in my opinion, far superior theme for the next movie.

I can totally see why people don't care for it. It has a style, tone and pace that is completely alien to most people under the age of 40. It's an old school sci fi epic the likes of which we don't see any more. Would I like a little more action in it? Yes I would. Would I have made any other changes? Quite possibly. It's still in my top 3 Trek movies though.

Not in mine. It's slow, it's boring, it's devoid of any real humour or charisma between the characters, the kind of thing we had got used to in the series, and it becomes Lord of the Rings at the end. Meh. Not for me.

Oh, and thanks for taking the time to comment. Appreciated.
 
They were at warp? I'll have to look back. So you're saying they couldn't get away? Hmm.

At the end when it approaches earth Sulu mentions that the cloud's 'forward velocity has slowed to sub light speed' I'm not saying that they couldn't get away explicitly but it's not made clear what the velocity of the cloud was in relation to the Klingons.

Not in mine. It's slow, it's boring, it's devoid of any real humour or charisma between the characters, the kind of thing we had got used to in the series, and it becomes Lord of the Rings at the end. Meh. Not for me.

You have to bear in mind that it's a crew that hasn't been together for a few years - I always took their behaviour as being a little stilted for that reason, being a bit awkward around a friend you've not seen for years.
 
While I wouldn't say it's at the top of my list either - it's still got quite a bit going for it.

TMP is actually visually and musically quite a good film. Yes, the story needed a couple more passes through the committee before filming and it could have used another round of post-filming editing but...

The Enterprise was stunning to behold (remember, 10 years of no new live-action Trek), the Klingon ships were a stylish upgrade from the classic 60's ships. The sets and effects were quite impressive in quality - far better in details than Star Wars from just a couple of years before.

The 'off' behavior of Shatner's Kirk and Nimoy's very aloof Spock was appropriate under the circumstances. Most of the rest of the cast was pretty much spot on - even McCoy (irascible as always).
 
At the end when it approaches earth Sulu mentions that the cloud's 'forward velocity has slowed to sub light speed' I'm not saying that they couldn't get away explicitly but it's not made clear what the velocity of the cloud was in relation to the Klingons.
Okay well spotted. I didn't notice that, although in fairness I wrote this review a few years ago now, and am unlikely to go back watching this movie again. I neverthless think, I don't know, launch a probe, some sort of record of the attack so that it could be picked up and studied even if the ships got destroyed? Don't remember them doing anything other than fighting. Reminds me a little of those Texans planning to shoot at a hurricane! :)
You have to bear in mind that it's a crew that hasn't been together for a few years - I always took their behaviour as being a little stilted for that reason, being a bit awkward around a friend you've not seen for years.
Yes this is a good point. Never really thought about it like that. Age changes us all etc.
Actually, Lenard played the Commander of the Klingon squadron.
May I just say, D'oh!

Thanks for the comments, guys!
 
While I acknowledge that TMP needed better pacing and more humour, I really admire it in many ways. It has fewer plot holes and is more scientifically accurate than all the other movies.

The Enterprise is the only STARSHIP in range. Space is BIG; really, really big (well you can look up the entry in the Hitchhiker's Guide yourself) and V'Ger is travelling fast. No lesser ships would be able to match its speed in order to intercept. You should also remember that the solar system has automated defences (it's easy to forget because they always fail at the first sign of trouble) so Earth doesn't usually need its valuable deep space exploration vessels idling in the Solar System on the off-chance that an invading force could just stroll all the way through Federation territory. V'Ger is an improbably powerful unknown phenomenon that might possibly change Starfleet's protocols going forward. Some dialogue even implies that a ship without the refit upgrades would not have survived the first hit. It's strange that they didn't throw in some dialogue about other vessels trying and failing to make contact or something but its not actually as silly as the ship, fresh from Earth, being the only ship near Regulas I in TWOK; or Star Trek 2009 with almost the ENTIRE fleet on manoeuvres and out of contact, or Picard where the entire fleet is in one place for the anniversary celebration. They verified the speeds and distances in TMP too so they actually do add up unlike, for example Trek 2009. It's a very detailed piece of sci fi but lots of movie fans prefer action to accuracy. Trek 2009 was hugely popular but was deplorably dumb, including highly inaccurate real world science. It's different strokes for different folks.

For me, the only bit that drags is the final scene at V'Ger. I would have liked a proper landing party with a bit more character interaction to get there too. Spock's solo trip is visually impressive but sterile.

The characterisation is clever and subtle, just not what fans really wanted after the absence. Still, the ship has never looked better, before or since, the Oscar nominated effects still look amazing 40+ years later, and if you think the Oscar nominated score is disappointing, despite part of it being adapted for the hugely popular TNG theme, then I must question your sanity!

I do find TWOK to be my favourite but TMP has a special place in my heart. I even used lockdown to start a project making a fan edit hybrid of the DE and SLV, with some extra airtime for Janice Rand. Bonkers but good fun.
 
Sorry StarCruiser: for some reason I missed your post when I was quoting.
While I wouldn't say it's at the top of my list either - it's still got quite a bit going for it.

TMP is actually visually and musically quite a good film. Yes, the story needed a couple more passes through the committee before filming and it could have used another round of post-filming editing but...

The Enterprise was stunning to behold (remember, 10 years of no new live-action Trek), the Klingon ships were a stylish upgrade from the classic 60's ships. The sets and effects were quite impressive in quality - far better in details than Star Wars from just a couple of years before.
Agree about the Enterprise. Superb, and very well handled. I think I said that already. One of the few things I like about the movie.
The 'off' behavior of Shatner's Kirk and Nimoy's very aloof Spock was appropriate under the circumstances. Most of the rest of the cast was pretty much spot on - even McCoy (irascible as always).
McCoy was McCoy of course. I just didn't like the rest of the characterisations.
While I acknowledge that TMP needed better pacing and more humour, I really admire it in many ways. It has fewer plot holes and is more scientifically accurate than all the other movies.
Come on now: fewer plot holes? What about the way they wrap up the ending with what can only be described as magic or Treknobabble? There's no explanation for how Decker and Ilia/V'Ger merge, just a big light and a shrug. Meh.

I will allow that there is a bigger plot hole in TWOK, which everyone knows about, and one massive one in TUC, but this one I find hard to get past.
The Enterprise is the only STARSHIP in range. Space is BIG; really, really big (well you can look up the entry in the Hitchhiker's Guide yourself)
Yeah I know. I thought it was a long walk down to the shops but that's just peanuts to space.
and V'Ger is travelling fast. No lesser ships would be able to match its speed in order to intercept. You should also remember that the solar system has automated defences (it's easy to forget because they always fail at the first sign of trouble) so Earth doesn't usually need its valuable deep space exploration vessels idling in the Solar System on the off-chance that an invading force could just stroll all the way through Federation territory. V'Ger is an improbably powerful unknown phenomenon that might possibly change Starfleet's protocols going forward. Some dialogue even implies that a ship without the refit upgrades would not have survived the first hit.
I still can't imagine Starfleet build and maintain a home base that never has starships there, being refitted, refuelled, changing crews, whatever. It's their home base.
It's strange that they didn't throw in some dialogue about other vessels trying and failing to make contact or something but its not actually as silly as the ship, fresh from Earth, being the only ship near Regulas I in TWOK
That depends on where Regula I is though doesn't it? And to use your own argument, Enterprise is probably the only starship in the area. Reliant has been co-opted.
; or Star Trek 2009 with almost the ENTIRE fleet on manoeuvres and out of contact, or Picard where the entire fleet is in one place for the anniversary celebration.
I remember little - or have blocked out most - of JJ's universe movies thank you and I have yet to watch Picard.
They verified the speeds and distances in TMP too so they actually do add up unlike, for example Trek 2009. It's a very detailed piece of sci fi but lots of movie fans prefer action to accuracy. Trek 2009 was hugely popular but was deplorably dumb, including highly inaccurate real world science. It's different strokes for different folks.

For me, the only bit that drags is the final scene at V'Ger. I would have liked a proper landing party with a bit more character interaction to get there too. Spock's solo trip is visually impressive but sterile.
Yeah, for me everything drags. Other than the opening scene with the Klingons, and then the oops-we-slipped-into-a-wormhole bit, very very boring and slow, hence my brother's accurate quip.
The characterisation is clever and subtle, just not what fans really wanted after the absence. Still, the ship has never looked better, before or since, the Oscar nominated effects still look amazing 40+ years later, and if you think the Oscar nominated score is disappointing, despite part of it being adapted for the hugely popular TNG theme, then I must question your sanity!
That starship has long ago left spacedock, I'm afraid!
I do find TWOK to be my favourite but TMP has a special place in my heart. I even used lockdown to start a project making a fan edit hybrid of the DE and SLV,
with some extra airtime for Janice Rand. Bonkers but good fun.
DE and SLV?
 
DE: Director’s Edition
SLV: Special Longer Version. Available until recently only on VHS, but now available on 4K.
Thank you. I was totally clueless about what those acronyms were.

By the way, does anyone know why, when I quote messages, it keeps putting them twice into my reply? Thanks.
 
There's an old adage, “adapt and survive” which kind of echoes the mantra of the Borg, “Resistance is futile.” Though the first movie had made its budget three times over in box office takings, I don't believe this qualifies it as a success, and certainly the panning and derision it received from critics and fans alike made it obvious that major changes needed to happen if there was to be a second movie. So the creator of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry himself, was dispensed with, and mindful of the comparatively low returns of the previous movie, execs declared that things must be run on a much tighter budget, leaving composers like Miklós Rózsa and Jerry Goldsmith out of the price range of the second movie. This led to the first ever job for a young James Horner, who would of course go on to not only compose what remains the best and most identifiable of the Trek movie soundtracks, but would become a successful and sought-after composer himself.

This time, they would get it right. The camaraderie between the three main leads, which had been badly missing from TMP, the space battles, the references back to the original series, the ship itself, the uniforms, and, most importantly, the storyline. The second of the franchise still stands for me, and for many others, as the archetypal Star Trek movie and the benchmark by which all future versions would be judged.
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Title: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Released: 1982
Writer(s): Jack B. Sowards/ Nicholas Meyer (uncredited)
Director: Nicholas Meyer
Starring: All the usual Star Trek crew plus: Ricardo Montalban as Khan Noonien Singh, Bibi Besch as Dr. Carol Marcus , Merrit Butrick as David Marcus, Kirstie Alley as Lt. Saavik, Paul Winfield as Captain Terrell
Runtime: 132 minutes
Budget: USD 11.2 million
Boxoffice: USD 97 million
Critical acclaim: Extremely high
Fan acclaim: Extremely high
Legacy: Saved the franchise and set the tone for all future Star Trek movies. Also featured the death of one of the series' best-loved and most famous characters.
Enterprise: NCC-1701

We open on the unfamiliar sight of the Enterprise under a new captain, a Vulcan called Saavik. She is projecting a course to avoid the Neutral Zone when they pick up a distress call from a civilian ship called Kobyashi Maru, which has been damaged and which is now drifitng inside the Neutral Zone. Having no other choice, Saavik sets course for the border but as they reach the co-ordinates where the stricken freighter is meant to be they find nothing. Then Klingon attack cruisers show up and start firing. The situation looks hopeless, and it is. The Enterprise is soon overwhelmed, all crew killed but all is not as it seems. This is merely a simulation, and Kirk arrives to grade the new captain.

In point of fact, it is Spock who is in command of the Enterprise, Kirk having been relegated to flying a desk again as an admiral, and he is not happy about it. Today is his birthday, and he is feeling old. Chekov, meanwhile, is first officer on the USS Reliant, a science vessel which is searching for a lifeless planet to serve as the testbed for something he calls “the Genesis Experiment”. The ship is in orbit around Ceti Alpha VI, and they pick up a faint signal which looks like it could be some kind of lifeform, however basic. They check in with the scientific mission they are assigned to and are told by Dr. Carol Marcus that they have to be sure there are no lifeforms on the planet before they recommend it to Starfleet as a suitable subject. Chekov and his captain duly beam down. The planet is a desert world, lashed by high winds and sandstorms, and seems totally incapable of supporting life. But the signal persists.

Against all odds, they find a rough cabin in the middle of the wilderness, and going inside it appears to be someone’s home, although it is at the moment deserted. As they look it over, Chekov sees debris from a ship called the S.S. Botany Bay, and suddenly a terrible realisation dawns on him, and he urges his captain in something of a panic to leave, to get back to the ship before … but it is too late. Someone has come out of the desert and is standing outside, a large figure, with others around it. To Chekov’s growing horrified realisation he sees it is indeed Khan Noonien Singh, the genetically enhanced leader of the remnants of the survivors of the Eugenics Wars, which took place in the late twentieth century on Earth, and whom Captain Kirk rescued from suspended animation in the original episode “Space seed”. For anyone who hasn’t seen the episode, a quick recap: well, that’s kind of it really. Khan and his people, supermen from Earth’s twentieth century who would have made Hitler’s ubermensch look like fairies, exiled from Earth in suspended animation are rescued as they drift in space.

Having been revived, Khan and his people try to take over the Enterprise and kill Kirk, but are defeated and sent into another exile, on a planet which is hostile but capable of supporting life. When Khan tells Chekov and Captain Terrell that the one of the other planets in the system exploded six months later and knocked Ceti Alpha V --- where they are now, thinking it is Ceti Alpha VI --- out of orbit and changing its geosphere, he realises that this is a chance meeting. The Reliant was not looking for him. So why did they come here? To find out, he inserts little creatures into their heads via their ears. These alien insects make the recipient susceptible to suggestion, in effect make them do or say anything they are told to.
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Oblivious to all of this, Kirk inspects the Enterprise and takes her out on a training mission, while on Space Station Regula One, Dr. Marcus gets an odd call from the Reliant, to say that the planet has checked out and they are en route. Marcus is surprised, as they were not due to return for months yet. Chekov tells her that they are to transfer all material pertaining to the Genesis Project to that ship, and further, that the order comes from Kirk. David, her son, worries that they are now defenceless if they refuse to give up the material. Chekov of course is under Khan’s control, he and his people having taken control of the starship. When Marcus tries to contact Kirk to confirm the order, Khan ensures that her transmission is blocked, and he can’t understand what she’s talking about. He has never heard of Genesis. Not a fan of Phil Collins then!

On Spock’s recommendation Kirk takes command of the Enterprise as they head to Regula One to investigate, and on the way they query the computer to find out what Genesis is. It turns out to be a sort of terraforming tool, which can turn a dead world into a thriving, living ecosphere in a fraction of the time it would normally take. As Marcus says in the presentation they watch, Genesis is literally life from lifelessness. McCoy wonders and worries about the possibility of the device being perverted into a weapon, and Kirk knows they must hurry to the space station. En route though they encounter the Reliant, unaware that it is under Khan’s control. As they have no reason to suspect anything they are taken by surprise. The Enterprise, without shields, is taken totally by surprise as battle is joined. Badly damaged, crippled even, it lists in space as Kirk is amazed to see the face of his old adversary on the screen, commanding the Reliant. Thinking quickly, he surrenders but tells Khan he needs time to transfer the information about Project Genesis that the madman has demanded, time he uses to have their computer decode the shield frequency of the opposing ship and order it to lower its shields, whereupon Enterprise fights back, badly damaging the enemy. Unable to pursue it as it breaks off and limps away, Kirk must wait until impulse power has been re-established and they can continue to Regula One.

Where they find most of the scientists butchered, and Chekov and Terrell hiding in a cabinet. Chekov tells him about Khan, but that the scientists died without revealing the whereabouts of Genesis. Kirk figures out that that Marcus and her people beamed to the surface of the planetoid the station orbits; or rather, into its interior as it is lifeless. They follow them down and Kirk is reunited with his old girlfriend and his son, only to find that Chekov and Terrell are still under the control of Khan, waiting for the moment when the location of the device is revealed. When it is, Khan beams it up, but when he orders them to kill Kirk they resist, Terrell turning the phaser on himself while the creature in Chekov is forced out of his brain by the conflicting emotions and killed. Kirk and his people now are trapped though in the interior of the planetoid as Khan flies off, victorious.
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Kirk renews his acquaintance with Carol Marcus, and they talk about why David, her son, his son, does not want to have anything to do with him. Marcus shows him what they have done with the Genesis Experiment, the cave entirely transformed into a living planet. Kirk reveals how he beat the Kobyashi Maru situation, by cheating. He reprogrammed the simulation so he could win. Saavik is not impressed. Kirk contacts the Enterprise and says “It’s been two hours. Are you ready?” Spock confirms they are --- hours mean days: see the quotes section for further --- and they are all beamed aboard the ship and head for their confrontation with Khan. Still outgunned and at less than full power, Kirk leads him into the nearby Mutara Nebula, where the interference from gas and magnetic disruption will even the odds a little. Khan takes the bait, following the Enterprise in. The battle is a little unorthodox, as neither ship has shields nor phaser lock, but Kirk eventually scores hits on the Reliant, crippling the enemy ship.

Faced with defeat, unable to manouevre and with his people dying around him, Khan clings to revenge to the last. Determining to take Kirk with him, he uses his final breath to commit the Genesis Device to operation, ensuring that all life in this sector will be destroyed. The Enterprise, still under impulse power, has no chance of escape. As they limp away, knowing they will never make it before the explosion, Spock leaves his post and goes to Engineering. Incapacitating Mr. Scott, he walks into the antimatter chamber and manually changes the dilithium crystals, regaining warp speed and the Enterprise is saved, just as the Reliant explodes.
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Spock, however, has paid the ultimate price for the safety of his ship and crew, and in an emotional death scene tells Kirk not to grieve; he has done the logical thing, putting the needs of the many nefore the needs of the few. Kirk is heartbroken, and as they launch his coffin into space, it is caught in the gravity of the newly-forming planet, and lands on its surface. David Marcus comes to see that his father is not the devil-may-care adventurer that he has imagined him as, and reconciles with him.

QUOTES

McCoy: “Admiral, wouldn’t it be easier just to put an experienced crew on board the Enterprise?
Kirk: “Galloping around the cosmos is a game for the young, doctor.”

Kirk: “What do you think, Bones?”
McCoy: “Get your command back, Jim. Get it back before you turn into part of this collection: before you really do grow old.”

Saavik: “He’s (Kirk) so … human.”
Spock: “Nobody’s perfect, Saavik.”

Spock: “Lieutenant, have you ever piloted a ship out of spcedock before?”
Saavik: “Never, sir.”
Spock: “Take her out, Mister Saavik.”

Saavik: “May I speak, Sir?”
Kirk: “Self expression doesn’t seem to be one of your problems! You’re bothered by your performance on the Kobyashi Maru test.”
Saavik: “I failed to resolve the problem.”
Kirk: “There is no resolution: it’s a test of character.”
Saavik: “May I ask how you dealt with the test?”
Kirk: “You may ask. That’s a little joke.”
Saavik: “Humour: it is a difficult concept.”
Kirk: “We learn by doing.”

Spock: “The ship is yours.”
Kirk: “No that won’t be necessary. Just get me to Regula One.”
Spock: “As a teacher on a training mission I am content to lead.Iif we are to go into battle, it is clear that you should be in command.”
Kirk: “It may be nothing. Garbled transmission. You take the ship.”
Spock: “Jim, you proceed from a false premise. I am a Vulcan; I have no ego to bruise.”
Kirk: “You’re about to remind me that logic alone dictates your actions?”
Spock: “I would not remind you of that which you know so well. If I may make so bold, it was a mistake for you to accept promotion. Commanding a starship is your first, best destiny. Anything else is a waste of material.”
Kirk: “I wouldn’t presume to debate you.”
Spock: “That would be wise. In any case, were I to invoke logic, logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweighs the needs of the few.”
Kirk: “Or the one. “
Spock: “You are my superior officer. You are also my friend. I have been, and always shall be, yours.”
(An incredibly important speech. It points the way towards Spock’s later sacrifice and death, but also lays down a precept that will be followed, and quoted, in other movies of this franchise. But more than that, in a few short words at the end, the bond between Kirk and Spock, this human and Vulcan who shared three seasons of adventures in the late sixties, is forever reaffirmed, cemented and enshrined. In one sentence, the second movie does what the first completely failed to do: makes us see the characters, once again, as real people whom we care about, and reminds us that they care about each other too.)

Helmsman (Khan’s son?): “We’re all wth you sir, but consider this. We are free. We have a ship, and a means to go where we will. We have escaped permanent exile on Ceti Alpha V. You have proved your superior intellect and defeated the plans of Admiral Kirk. You do not need to defeat him again.”
Khan: “He tasks me! He tasks me, and I shall have him! I’ll chase him around the moons of Nemdia and round the Antares Maelstrom and round Perdition’s flames before I give him up!”
(So that’s a no, then?)

McCoy: “Dear God! To think we’re intelligent enough to --- what would happen if this device were used where there was already life?”
Spock: “It would destroy it, Doctor, in favour of the new matrix.”
McCoy: “Its new matrix? Do you have any idea what you’re saying?”
Spock: “I was not attempting to evaluate its moral implications, Doctor. As a matter of cosmic history, it has always been easier to destroy than create.”
McCoy: “Not any more! Now we can do both! According to myth, the Earth was created in six days. Now watch out! Here comes Genesis! We’ll do it for you in six minutes!”
Spock: “Really, Doctor, you must learn to govern your passions. They will be your undoing. Logic suggests…”
McCoy: “Logic! My God, the man’s talking about logic! We’re talking about universal Armageddon!”
(No, we're not! Have a lie down, Doctor!)

Khan: “Ah, Kirk, my old friend. Do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us that revenge is a dish best served cold? It is very cold in space!”

Kirk: “What is the meaning of this attack?”
Khan: “Surely I have made my meaning plain, Admiral? I have deprived your ship of power and when I swing about I intend to deprive you of your life.”

Scotty (with dead trainee in his arms): “He stayed at his post when the trainees ran!”
(Which teaches us a valuable lesson: it may be brave to stand and fight but you can continue living if you take to your heels!)

Spock: “Jim, be careful.”
McCoy: “We will!”

Kirk: “Captain Spock, damage report.”
Spock: “If we go by the book, Admiral, like Lieutenant Saavik, hours would seem like days.”
Kirk: “I read you Captain. Let’s have it.”
Spock: “The situation is grave, Admiral. We won’t have main power for six days. Auxilary power has temporarily failed. Restoration may be possible in two days. By the book, Admiral.”
Kirk: “Meaning you can’t even beam us back?”
Spock: “Not at present, Admiral.”
Kirk: “Captain Spock, if you don’t hear from us in one hour, your orders are to restore what power you can, take the Enterprise to the nearest starbase. Notify Starfleet once you are out of jamming range.”
(Very clever. Spock is using coded phrases to explain to Kirk that when he says days he means hours. Surprisingly, given the incongruity of the phrase “hours would seem like days” from a Vulcan, who would not be expected to use such flowery metaphors, Khan, despite his vaunted intellect, does not cotton on as he listens to the transmission.)

Khan: “I’ve done far worse than kill you. I’ve hurt you. And I wish to go on hurting you. I shall leave you as you left me, as you left her: on a lifeless moon, buried alive!”
Kirk: “Khhhaaannnnn!”
(Classic quote!)

Kirk: “There’s a man out there who I haven’t seen for fifteen years who wants to kill me. You show me a son who’d be happy to help him. My life that could have been. How do I feel? I feel old.”
Carol Marcus: “Let me show you something that will make you feel young again, as when the world was new.”

Kirk: “We tried it once your way, Khan: are you game for a rematch? Khan: I’m laughing at the superior intellect!”

Khan: “To the last will I grapple with thee. No, Kirk, you can’t get away. From Hell’s heart I stab at thee. For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee!”
(Khan is obviously a fan of Moby Dick!)

Spock: “Ship … out of danger?”
Kirk: “Yes.”
Spock: “Don’t grieve, Admiral. It is logical. The needs of the many outweigh…”
Kirk: “The needs of the few.”
Spock: “Or the one. I never took the Kobyashi Maru test until now. What do you think of my solution?”
Kirk: “Spock…”
Spock: “I have been, and always shall be your friend. Live long and prosper.”

Spock’s eulogy, delivered by Kirk

“We are assembled here to pay final respects to our honoured dead. And yet, it should be noted that in the midst of our sorrow, this death takes place in the shadow of new life. The sunrise of a new world, a world that our beloved comrade gave his life to protect. He did not deem this sacrifice a vain or empty one, and we will not debate his profound wisdom at these proceedings. Of my friend all I can say is of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most … human.”
(I love the way Kirk’s voice breaks near the end; although he probably knew that Nimoy would be back, in a very real way Shatner was saying goodbye to his best friend, with whom he had shared the small screen for three years and the big for three. It must have been hard. And he reacts as you would expect the captain to react in the face of such horrible personal loss. It’s possibly the first time we’ve seen Kirk as less than indestructible, and uttery human, lost and alone in his private grief.

When I wrote this originally, we had not yet had the dire news of Leonard Nimoy's death, and now, as I publish it, this scene takes on an added poignancy.)


Kirk: “All is well, and yet, I can’t help thinking about the friend I leave behind. There are always possibilities, Spock said, and if Genesis is indeed life from death, I must return to this place again.”
(And there’s the out, but it’s handled very well and you can’t really hold it against the writers.)
 
Houston, we have a problem!

A big one. When Chekov and Terrell meet Khan on Ceti Alpha V he recognises the ex-officer of the Enterprise, but the only time Khan came into contact with that ship was in the episode “Space seed”, and at that point Chekov was not a part of the crew, nor the cast. He could not recognise him, as he would never have met him before.

When Kirk asks Khan if he will keep his word, if they surrender the information on Genesis, Khan says he has given no word to keep. But he most assuredly has. Kirk has offered to have himself beamed over if Khan will spare his crew and Khan has agreed to do this, provided Kirk also sends over the information on Project Genesis. A rare (for this movie) piece of bad or lazy writing, forgetfulness or just another aspect of Khan’s slowly unhinging mind?

Another problem I have is that when Terrell and Chekov are turning on Kirk down on Regula (or I should say, in Regula!) Khan orders them to kill Kirk. Now, for a man so arrogant and single-minded, with an ego almost the match of Kirk’s, surely Khan would have wanted to kill him himself, not have an underling do it? What? Give up his revenge, after all this time? Lose the chance to squeeze the life out of his hated enemy with his own bare hands? Why not just have Terrell beam Kirk to the Reliant, where he could deal with him? Khan is not the sort of man who has others do his dirty work. Well, he is, but when it comes to Kirk there’s a very personal score to be settled, and you’d think he’d want to settle it, well, personally.

Kirk’s hubris

Once again, Kirk thinks he knows it all. As Picard would years later make the same almost-fatal mistake when approaching the first ever Borg cube and keeping his shield down, Kirk ignores Saavik’s recommendation that he should follow protocol, which requires that on approaching a ship with which communication has not been established, shields should be raised. This overconfidence and brash bravado almost costs him his ship. Had he followed her suggestion the ship would not have been as badly damaged as it is now, and the fight would have been less one-sided.

Parallels

The most obvious of course is Moby Dick: Khan sees himself as Ahab, forever trying to bring down his enemy the great whale, but of course this is not accurate. Khan has not seen Kirk for fifteen years, has not been in a position to check on him, so that when he hears he has been made an admiral he is incensed. How dare Kirk, as he sees it, live the high life while he is left to scratch out a meagre living on this deserted desolate planet? But when he gets the chance to take him on, Khan is happy to expire while clutching his enemy to his bosom, so to speak. It doesn’t quite work out that way, of course.

The second parallel is the original episode, “Space seed”, in which a revived Khan tries to take over the Enterprise and kill Kirk, but is defeated and exiled. Khan has never forgotten or forgiven Kirk for this ignomnity. Not only the exile, not the hard existence he and his people have been forced to eke out for a decade and a half, but for the shame of losing to the man he sees as being far inferior to him. Khan has been brought up with the idea that he is the better man -- and he is, or was, in his century. But his ideas are a little outmoded now, and whereas he could only have ever dreamed of conquering Earth back in his time, now there’s the whole galaxy to bring under his heel.

Of course, he’s never going to manage it. The odds are stacked firmly against him. Even should he destroy Enterprise and make it away with the Genesis Device, Starfleet will hunt him and he can’t hide forever. Perhaps he would make alliances with the likes of the Klingons or the Romulans, the traditional enemies of the Federation, but even those races must see in the end they are dealing with a madman, and that is never a good bargain. His intellect and his lust for power could have taken him far in this new century, but despite his intelligence and his ability to learn so quickly, he is a man out of time, and this would eventually be his undoing. But he certainly goes out with a bang.

Music

Unlike the previous movie, which tended to use the same basic theme throughout --- which became, as I mentioned, the theme for the series Star Trek: The Next Generation some years later --- James Horner’s first major score gives a feeling of cohesion to the music, as it changes as the scenes change and the situations develop. There’s an aura of seafaring adventure to the rolling, lilting theme he composed that would be retained, in one form or another, for the next number of movies. He also includes at the very start, and end, the original Star Trek theme, which ties everything together nicely. The themes for Spock and Khan are well observed, and the usage of “Amazing Grace” flowing into the Trek theme at the end is inspired. All over, were I to rate the themes this would get a solid 9 compared to TMP’s maybe 3. A huge improvement.

Themes and motifs

There are many, to be sure, among them the fear of advancing age, the realisation that you’re no longer young and cannot behave as you did back then. Kirk encapsulates this in the snapped comment “Galloping around the cosmos is a game for the young!” There is also a sense of loss --- Khan has lost his wife, Kirk has lost the son he could have been around to see grow up, perhaps the chance at a proper relationship with Carol Marcus. For much of the movie, Chekov and Terrell lose their free will, slaves to the creatures Khan has put in their heads.

Great loss, too, in the death of one of Kirk’s oldest friends, and even though it was well foreshadowed before the movie was even completed, and we know that there is an out at the end, with the third movie being titled The Search for Spock, it’s still a wrench to see a character we have followed through our early years on the television and come to identify as one of the great trademarks of this series, die at the end. The fact that he gives his life to save the ship both vindicates and confounds his logic, and we see that despite even himself, Spock is perhaps, as Kirk notes at the eulogy, more human than anyone he has ever met. Star Trek became noted, even jeered, for killing off characters only to bring them back again in a variety of increasingly implausible ways, but here was the first time a major character had died, and it hit us all hard.

Distrust is also there. David Marcus distrusts Starfleet. He is a scientist, as is his mother, and they have managed to create what they see as a great force for good and have been constrained to turn to the military for funding, and he believes their discovery can and will be subverted into a weapon. When he hears the purported order from Kirk to transfer all materials relating to the project to the approaching USS Reliant, he believes his mistrust was well placed.

But for me the main and overarching theme is one of revenge, not surprisingly. Khan believes that after fifteen years and against all odds, fate has delivered into his hands the means and opportunity to strike back at his old foe. Revenge for the death of his wife, and revenge for the defeat he was dealt by Kirk all those years ago. Kirk, too, is seeking revenge. This is, after all, the man who tried to kill him after the Enterprise rescued he and his people from floating in deep space in suspended animation. For that act of kindness --- had Kirk known what he later did, perhaps he would have left the Botany Bay drifting, or even destroyed it --- Khan tried to take over his ship. There is certainly a score to be settled.

Memorable scenes and effects

Of course, the most memorable scene will always be Spock’s death, which is in three acts really. The first begins when he hears Kirk say they need warp power or they’re all dead, and leaves his post. This continues into his sealing himself into the warp core chamber and replacing the crystals, thus giving his life for the ship and crew. Act II then is his reunion with Kirk as he lies dying, the ship saved but Spock beyond any help. It’s touching, emotional but not overblown, and Shatner acts one of the scenes of his life. Nimoy is gracious and reserved as ever, even making sure to stand when his captain arrives, and going so far as to pull at the hem of his tunic to straighten it, something that would become a habit of Jean-Luc Picard later.

The exchange between them, bringing full circle the “needs of the many” argument, is perfectly observed, and the attempts to touch each other’s palms through the glass almost heartbreaking. Important, too, is the scene where, just before going into the chamber and having used the Vulcan nerve pinch on McCoy, Spock places his palm to the doctor’s face and says “Remember”. That will come into play in the third movie. Act III of course is the burial-in-space scene, where Kirk does his best to hold his emotions in check as captain of the ship, and no doubt as a parting gesture of respect to his Vulcan friend, as he delivers the beautifully-written eulogy.

But other than the death of Spock, which comes after all right at the end, there are other memorable scenes here. The “WTF??!” moment, as it were, when Chekov sees the words “Botany Bay” in the hut, and realises who lives here. The battle in the Mutara Nebula, as each ship dances around the other, deprived of all sensors and shields, almost like modern troopers reduced to using bayonets and their own wits instead of HUD and heat-seeking missiles. The sequence showing how the Genesis Device works. Indeed, the opening scene, with the simulation, is very effective. Then there’s the scene where Kirk is reunited with the son he left behind, and the horror-filmesque search through the silent Regula One space station before the crew find what remains of the scientists who have been butchered by Khan’s people.

Does this film deserve its reputation?

Of course it does. It’s easily seen as the best in the movie franchise --- at least, the original ten movies --- and deserves that accolade entirely. It’s a quantum leap from the first movie, with far better characterisation, a better plotline, space battles, an implacable foe, turning points for Kirk and of course the harrowing death of Spock. As a movie, this is pretty good. As a Star Trek movie, it stands head and shoulders above all the others. The music is far better, more fitting, the cast play their parts perfectly, Montalban is stunning as the maniacal Khan (and how wonderful they could get the original actor, who has lost none of his deadly charm and menace twenty years later!), and it acknowledges the series without making it absolutely necessary that you have seen that episode in order to be able to enjoy and understand the movie.

This was, literally, the movie that saved the franchise. After the disaster Star Trek: The Motion Picture became, there was no room for error here. A movie seldom gets a second chance, but this being Star Trek the producers were allowed to try again, with a smaller budget (which yielded far greater box office returns in the end) and a new premise, and they, as the Americans say, knocked it out of the park. Had this second movie failed, it’s unlikely there would have been a third, and from this on in, all future Star Trek movies would be measured against The wrath of Khan, and take their cue from it, keeping the easy humour, the sly wink to the audience in movies like The voyage home and The final frontier, and of course, The search for Spock. Sometimes, it went a little too far into the tongue-in-cheek idea, but thankfully there was never another rigid, stuffy, boring and slow movie as the first one. Lessons had been learned, and would be implemented as the franchise set course at full warp speed into another eight movies before being rebooted.

I could write pages more, but in the end the best I can do is award this movie the highest score I can:
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Come on now: fewer plot holes? What about the way they wrap up the ending with what can only be described as magic or Treknobabble? There's no explanation for how Decker and Ilia/V'Ger merge, just a big light and a shrug. Meh.

I still can't imagine Starfleet build and maintain a home base that never has starships there, being refitted, refuelled, changing crews, whatever. It's their home base.

That depends on where Regula I is though doesn't it? And to use your own argument, Enterprise is probably the only starship in the area. Reliant has been co-opted
I think you are being too literal. Trek has maybe 6+ episodes that explore whether it's possible for a human personality to uploaded into an artificial body: mostly no, sometimes yes. It's nothing new or controversial in Trek lore; this version just had pretty lights.

Regulas 1 must be close enough to Ceti Alpha V for Reliant to reach it before Carol can call for help, which puts it close to Earth (admittedly Khan probablywaited until he was close to Regulas before tipping of Kirk). The real issue is why Starfleet doesn't know something is going on with Reliant. Federation ships have transponders so they can find each other. If Khan left his on, either Starfleet would have known he was on his way to Regulas when he passed within range of a subspace relay, or he would have switched it off, which case Starfleet would have added Reliant to some kind of watch list and Kirk would have noted the lack of signal straight away Sensible precautions that we have now could have averted or mitigated the situation. Or tweaked the story.
 
When Chekov and Terrell meet Khan on Ceti Alpha V he recognises the ex-officer of the Enterprise, but the only time Khan came into contact with that ship was in the episode “Space seed”, and at that point Chekov was not a part of the crew, nor the cast.

He was certainly not part of the cast, but is there any dialog directed toward him or delivered by him to indicate that he was not part pf the crew?

It's nothing new ... in Trek lore; this version just had pretty lights.

I have to disagree. We saw Kirk deal with the physical problems of accelerated aging, but we never saw him deal with the psychological problems of inevitable, actual aging, a "no-win scenario."
 
He was certainly not part of the cast, but is there any dialog directed toward him or delivered by him to indicate that he was not part pf the crew?



I have to disagree. We saw Kirk deal with the physical problems of accelerated aging, but we never saw him deal with the psychological problems of inevitable, actual aging, a "no-win scenario."
I think you meant to quote someone else, as I was talking about the Trek trope of uploading consciousness not being a plot hole. Also, I think Kirk's revelation at the end of TWOK demonstrates that ageing isn't a no win scenario.

I agree wholeheartedly that the characterisation in TWOK was amazing. Pacing was spot on and score fits perfectly. It is my favourite of the franchise.

As an adult, however, I now find the plot holes to be quite embarrassing. Spock's coded message is the worst offender. You are going to explain to the audience that its a code, why not give smart viewers the chance to work it out instead of making it so obvious that all the other intelligent characters in the movie look like imbeciles.
 
I think you are being too literal. Trek has maybe 6+ episodes that explore whether it's possible for a human personality to uploaded into an artificial body: mostly no, sometimes yes. It's nothing new or controversial in Trek lore; this version just had pretty lights.
Yeah I really don't know. Are you talking about Sargon? Spock's Brain? The Enemy Within? All of them were pretty poor, but in Sargon's case it was their brains into android bodies, so I'm not sure what the six plus episodes you're talking about are. Either way, I stand by my contention that there is no explanation for what happens. They just touch and that's it. It reminds me of Futurama: Farsnworth - "Anything is possible once you can imagine it! That's science!" His nephew - "No, that's magic elves!"
Regulas 1 must be close enough to Ceti Alpha V for Reliant to reach it before Carol can call for help, which puts it close to Earth (admittedly Khan probablywaited until he was close to Regulas before tipping of Kirk). The real issue is why Starfleet doesn't know something is going on with Reliant. Federation ships have transponders so they can find each other. If Khan left his on, either Starfleet would have known he was on his way to Regulas when he passed within range of a subspace relay, or he would have switched it off, which case Starfleet would have added Reliant to some kind of watch list and Kirk would have noted the lack of signal straight away Sensible precautions that we have now could have averted or mitigated the situation. Or tweaked the story.
I imagine you're right, however this sort of thing would presumably have been left out in favour of plot line, kind of like saying "you couldn't steal a starship without having command codes," which he might have got from Terrell, but even so, how did he know how to pilot a starship? He's from the 20th century. Many holes containing plots there are indeed, oh yes.
He was certainly not part of the cast, but is there any dialog directed toward him or delivered by him to indicate that he was not part pf the crew?
Not really, but aren't we just "Kessel run"ning here? It's pretty clear that he never appeared on the bridge before "Space Seed", so Khan should not have ever seen him, much less known his name.

I think you meant to quote someone else, as I was talking about the Trek trope of uploading consciousness not being a plot hole. Also, I think Kirk's revelation at the end of TWOK demonstrates that ageing isn't a no win scenario.
I think that's a very well written scene indeed.
I agree wholeheartedly that the characterisation in TWOK was amazing. Pacing was spot on and score fits perfectly. It is my favourite of the franchise.
I feel I recognised everyone in TOWK so much more than I did in TMP. It was like bumping into old friends who didn't recognise me (TMP) and then getting to know them again (TWOK/TSFS/TVH)
As an adult, however, I now find the plot holes to be quite embarrassing.
I really hate plot holes. As an aspiring, never-to-be-published author, I take offence at them and try to ensure there are none in my writing. I find them to be lazy writing and also an insult to the reader - "ah they won't notice."
Spock's coded message is the worst offender. You are going to explain to the audience that its a code, why not give smart viewers the chance to work it out instead of making it so obvious that all the other intelligent characters in the movie look like imbeciles.

I think I remarked upon this in the review, and if not, I'll do so now. I think the message was completely atypical of a Vulcan. Aren't they supposed not to tell lies? He justifies it by saying it's an exaggeration or something but again, Kessel run guys. It's such a strange thing, also, for a Vulcan to say that it's unbelievable an intelligent man, a man called a genius by Spock (praise from Caesar indeed) could miss such an obvious ploy. I mean, other than as a coded message, what other meaning could it have? Though I admit, when I first watched the movie, I was like huh? What the hell are they talking about?
 
Not really, but aren't we just "Kessel run"ning here? It's pretty clear that he never appeared on the bridge before "Space Seed", so Khan should not have ever seen him, much less known his name.

The way I look at it...
1) There's no proof either way that he was on the Enterprise.
2) There's evidence that he was on the Enterprise, somewhere.
3) I'll go with the weight of the evidence and say he was there.
 
The way I look at it...
1) There's no proof either way that he was on the Enterprise.
2) There's evidence that he was on the Enterprise, somewhere.
3) I'll go with the weight of the evidence and say he was there.

Okay. Or you could look at it this way.
1) Khan was only on board for that one episode.
2) Chekov was not seen in that episode.
3) Chekov was never mentioned in season one
4) Had he even been on board, he would have had to have been 4a) on duty 4b) had contact with Khan and 4c) spoken to him and indeed 4d) given him or allowed his name to be heard by Khan in order to be remembered by him many years later.

The weight of evidence is against him. You might as well say Khan would have recognised Rand or Crewman X in the canteen or the Guy Who Sweeps Up All the Debris from Transporter Accidents. To my mind, it will always remain a major gaffe. You are, of course, free to believe what you wish.
 
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