Two Khan questions...

[T'Baio]

Shot of Khan - "I shall leave you as you left her. Buried alive...

Cut to shot of Kirk - "Buried aliiive." "KHAAAAAAN!"

First question. Did Khan say "buried alive" twice, or was that a creative filmmaking decision to see it once with Khan saying it, and again to see Kirk's reaction at the moment? In film explanation, perhaps, that it was delay?

Second...why did Kirk get so mad at that moment and scream Khan when he knew everything was going to be okay? Sure, scream to make Khan think you're mad, but he looked mad too.

 

[RyanKCR]

Shot of Khan - "I shall leave you as you left her. Buried alive...

Cut to shot of Kirk - "Buried aliiive." "KHAAAAAAN!"

First question. Did Khan say "buried alive" twice, or was that a creative filmmaking decision to see it once with Khan saying it, and again to see Kirk's reaction at the moment? In film explanation, perhaps, that it was delay?

Second...why did Kirk get so mad at that moment and scream Khan when he knew everything was going to be okay? Sure, scream to make Khan think you're mad, but he looked mad too.

I think it was part ploy but I also think Kirk was still hurting from the goof he made that got trainees killed and then Khan's smugness was just too much.

 

[Norrin Radd]

Well, just a moment before, Khan had killed a Starfleet captain, almost killed a friend, and had managed to capture the most destructive weapon in the galaxy. That's on top of the deaths on the Enterprise and the killing of the Genesis station crew. I'd sure as hell be pissed, even if I had an ace up my sleeve.

As for the Khaaaan part, something tells me it was an "echo-effect" that's not meant to be taken literally. However, I could be wrong.

 

[Timo]

Also, we may consider that Kirk was sounding rather genuinely desperate when trying to goad Khan to come down. So, two major possibilities there.

One, he was planning on evening the odds a bit more by taking care of Khan personally (he knew Khan was key to everything, he knew Khan was vain enough to come, he knew he had beaten Khan once before). Surely it would anger and perhaps frighten him when this part of his plan fell to ruins when Khan showed highly atypical self-restraint.

Two, perhaps he was trying reverse psychology, as he knew the landing party would have no hope if Khan tried to get at them. If he was that good at reverse-psyching, then his "KHAAAANNNN!" would also only be expected, as continuation of his excellent pretense.

I'm mostly in the camp where Kirk didn't just carefully manipulate Khan while maintaining a cool head, but didn't flip completely, either. He was probably something like 70% mad and 30% deliberately allowing it to show to convince Khan not to act in the next few hours...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[guardian]

Originally as filmed, after Kirk says the first Khan...
Khan retorts, "..and don't count on Enterprise, my next action will be to blow her to bits." (or very close to that........)

And that was supposed to have gotten to Kirk even more than all the previous stuff. In editing they took it out for dramatic effect---instead Kirk calling after Khan vainly as he is suposedly buried forever in the planetoid.

 

[Kryton]

One of the most brilliant parts of film editing allows one to take context and twist it into a different context. To take drama where it wasn't before and shine a light upon its heretofore unseen existence.

The whole scene is a conceit but one which (as they correctly gambled) would resonate with the audience. And that's really all that matters.