Sci Fi Cinema: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

By Jason Haskins

After the dismal efforts of the first Star Trek film in 1979, Gene Roddenberry was taken off as executive producer and forced to sit idly while others stirred the pot for a change. In doing so they created perhaps the best known Star Trek movie and easily the highest regarded one in the history of the franchise. This is 1982's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

This film takes place, of course, after the original 1960s television series where we saw the episode "Space Seed", which this is a sequel to. Khan Singh is a man hell-bent on revenge for his wife's demise and his sojourn at the hands of James T. Kirk. He is devising a plan of stealing a device called the Genesis, which can build new worlds, but destroy at the same time.

He hopes to use this to rule the universe and finally put Kirk in his place. Kirk is suffering from a little bit of a midlife crisisand starting to feel old, but that doesn't stop him from taking control of the U.S.S. Enterprise with his old crewmates and sticking it to Khan--maybe he'll prove to himself that age doesn't dictate soul. Along the way he meets his son (!), says goodbye to an old friend, and redefines himself as a captain.

Wrath of Khan is such a diabolically good movie that succeeds in so many directions. First of all, the story is very memorable and doesn't suffer from being an overlong episode or something. It's got the cojones of a feature film with its intriguing story, bits of character development, and tons of awesome special effects and action including an awesome ship battle between the Enterprise and the Reliant, which Khan has commandeered.

I thought that the story was really fast-paced and actually quite amazing given the return of the old crew from the television show and they're all really well especially Spock, of course, and Dr. McCoy--but then again I could've seen more of Sulu (that's a given, though). The ending is definitely quite impactful with a large amount of people liking it and disliking it at the same time. I'm not familiar about where the series goes from here, but I think its ramifications are felt in the following films. I was actually quite touched at some of the places this movie went from the standpoint of Kirk's mortality as well as Spock's bravery.

The acting is all quite good and I was most surprised by William Shatner's performance as Kirk. He was very toned down and not as unruly as he can be on the television show. His ego didn't seem to get the better of him this time around. There's a particularly fantastic scene between him and Spock that was easily some of the best acting he's done in his career. Of course, Ricardo Montalban returns as Khan looking clearly aged from his first appearance in the show, but he's quick and calculating as the antagonist with the big chest and the long hair. Pre-Fat Actress Kristie Alley even makes her onscreen debut in this movie as a by-the-book rookie Vulcan.

Overall, these guys did it right. Nicholas Meyer's direction was great and it's intriguing to note that he also directed 1979's Time After Time, which has the same exuberance he displays here. The special effects are all quite good and not as dated or bad looking as some might imagine and for the most part the action (and gore effects relating to these icky creatures at some points) are all handled very well. I just wish the entire series of films had maintained this amount of depth and character, but alas we're left with a sequel that is much better than the first and is easily one of the best Star Trek films ever made. Those looking for the mainstream, "KHANNNNNN!!!!!", reference needn't look further than this movie and yes it's still one of the funniest most over exaggerated Shatner moments in all of cinema. Damn, it's good.

5 out of 5 stars