For Hate's Sake, I Spit My Last Breath at Thee!

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is widely celebrated by Star Trek fans as being the best of the movies with the original cast, if not the best of all of the Star Trek movies.  This movie stars the same original cast as last time, with the addition of the incredible Ricardo Montalbon (may he rest in peace) and Kirstie Alley, along with a few other, more minor characters.  Montalbon, besides playing Khan in the original Star Trek series episode "Space Seed," also is best known for his role as Mr. Roarke in Fantasy Island, and Kirstie Alley has done many other roles, including Rebecca Howe in Cheers, and best known to me in North and South, an extremely long and fun miniseries about the Civil War.  This movie was directed by Nicholas Meyer (who has not directed many movies, but, in fact, directed Star Trek IV - more about that in a couple of blogposts), and was released in 1982.

Given that The Wrath of Khan is considered the best of the Star Trek movies, I would postulate that anyone reading this blogpost would already know the plot if they were at all interested in the Star Trek movies.  If this offends any of my readers, I apologize.  Therefore, in lieu of plot summary, I present this short opera by Robot Chicken to help explain the plot:  Le Wrath di Khan.

My husband showed me that video after watching the film with me.  I enjoyed it a great deal, and I hope you did too!

Now, on to the notes!

While this video is a little trite and awfully funny, The Wrath of Khan is, in fact, quite moving.  It has strong and clear-cut emotions - fear, anger, love.  While watching it, I thought that the writers must have had the original characteristics and quirks of the television show in mind before writing the dialogue.  In fact, Harve Bennet - the executive producer and also a writer - sat down and watched every episode of the original Star Trek before trying to hash out a concept for this movie.  One in particular caught his eye - "Space Seed."

I can understand why.  In preparation for this post (and out of sheer curiosity), I decided to also watch "Space Seed."  (Thank you to CBS and YouTube who paired to present full episodes of the original Star Trek on YouTube for free public viewing, albeit with commercials.)  I have watched perhaps a third of the original series, and this is, by far, the most interesting and best of the episodes I have seen.  I am curious as to whether or not people who have seen them all would agree.  The flavor of The Wrath of Khan is the exact same as "Space Seed."  There is a lot of wry commentary and wit, magnetism and passion, and calm danger.  The only irritation with this episode is a terrible error for the movie: Chekov (the one that Khan recognizes and points out, "I never forget a face") was not in that episode at all.

According to Wikipedia, here's the scoop: "During filming, Kelley noted that Chekov never met Khan in 'Space Seed' (Koenig had not yet joined the cast), and thus Khan's recognizing Chekov on Ceti Alpha did not make sense.  Star Trek books have tried to rationalize this discrepancy; in the film's novelization by Vonda N. McIntyre, Chekov is 'an ensign assigned to the night watch' during 'Space Seed' and met Khan in an off-screen scene.  The non-canonical novel To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh fixes the error by having Chekov escort Khan to the surface of Ceti Alpha after the events of the television episode.  The real cause of the error was a simple oversight by the filmmakers.  Meyer defended the mistake by noting that Arthur Conan Doyle made similar oversights in his Sherlock Holmes stories."

Wait, what??

Okay, first off, it's bad enough that authors decided to go back and explain in the context of the Star Trek universe why the filmmakers made a mistake, but I can understand that.  Us Trekkers/Trekkies want everything to come together in a sort of dogma or canon - it MUST be so.  The fact that the director defended the mistake by saying, well, this famous author totally did it so neener, and shut up, is NOT an excuse!  It's a total cop-out and it's disappointing.

Ah well, back to the praise for the movie instead of the frustration about the movie-makers.

The Wrath of Khan stands in sharp contrast to The Motion Picture.  The uniforms are neat and ...  well, uniform.  Everything - the sets, the costumes, the special effects - are crisp, colorful, and vibrant.  It makes The Motion Picture look completely washed out.  (Although it's awfully funny that the costumes that Chekov and Captain Terell wear for the excursion onto what they believe to be Ceti Alpha 6 have very convenient handles on the front for Khan to lift Chekov up in what is otherwise one of his most threatening scenes.)

Oh, and then there are the eels - the only living indigenous creature still left on Ceti Alpha 5.  Those things - puppets on rods or strings with raspberry jelly coating them - are terrifying.  They have frightened me since the first time I saw them, and I still am horribly stunned when I see them - even after more than 25 years.  The special effects for them are neither flashy, nor especially believable, but the human fear of creepy-crawlies is well used in this scene.

Finally, I must talk about the end.  When I saw Spock die the first time I watched the film, I was shocked.  I had already seen Star Trek IV several times before seeing The Wrath of Khan, and I knew he was alive there!  It was quite confusing, but no less moving.  This is probably the very best acting that William Shatner ever did in this role.  The funeral moves me to tears, and I appreciate greatly the last tribute (although not to be the last of Spock) of Spock reading the prologue at the end:  "Space...the final frontier..."

Wonderful, wonderful.  If you are a Star Trek fan - and even if you're not - this is a must.