Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan **** (1982, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Ricardo Montalban, Paul Winfield, Kirstie Alley) – Classic Movie Review 1919

The whole old crew of the USS Starship Enterprise are all aboard for director Nicholas Meyer’s tighter, tauter and generally much improved 1982 first sequel to 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

This time Ricardo Montalban enlivens things up a lot playing the juicy villain Khan, who tries to avenge himself on Admiral James Tiberius Kirk (William Shatner), who had marooned him on a distant planet back in the days of the original TV series.

Montalban’s Khan captures another starship, the USS Reliant, and sends in his secret weapon, a nasty creepy-crawly that attacks victims via the ear. Then it’s Mr Spock (Leonard Nimoy) to the rescue – but is the price he pays for trying to do so going to be too high?

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is an extraordinarily good-looking, pacey and amusingly acted sci-fi adventure, with the ground-breaking special effects up to snuff on a tighter budget. And it is quite possibly the best movie of the original series.

DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, George Takei and Nichelle Nichols are also aboard the Enterprise. Kirstie Alley makes her film debut playing the Vulcan Starfleet officer Lieutenant Saavik. Paul Winfield as Clark Terrell, Bibi Besch as Carol Marcus, and Merritt Butrick as David Marcus co-star.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan has earned a place in film history. It is notable for containing the first all-computer graphics (CG) sequence in a feature film. Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) collaborated with the Lucasfilm Computer Graphics division to create the Genesis Sequence, showcasing a continuous shot of a planet being terraformed into an inhabitable environment fit for life.

The ILM Visual Effects Supervisors are Ken Ralston and Jim Veilleux.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) followed.

Star Trek was successfully rebooted in 2009, with a sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness, in 2013 and Star Trek: Beyond in 2016.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays Khan in the 2013 Star Trek Into Darkness.

Gene Roddenberry was removed from direct involvement in the development of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan over studio concerns that he was the main reason behind Star Trek: The Motion Picture‘s lukewarm reception.

Nicholas Meyer revealed that he had never seen an episode of Star Trek when asked to direct the film and rewrite the script. Meyer described Shatner as naturally protective of his character and himself, who performed better over multiple takes.

All interactions between Kirk and Khan are over a viewscreen or through communicators, and their scenes were filmed four months apart.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1919

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