Starship Nomadic, Northern Ireland STARSHIP NOMADICA NORTHERN IRELAND STAR TREK FAN GROUP
FILM 2 OF 14 · 198202
STAR TREK II

The Wrath of Khan

NOMADIC PICK · ESSENTIAL VIEWINGMany fans' favourite Star Trek film.
US RELEASE
4 June 1982
UK RELEASE
16 July 1982
RUNTIME
113 minutes
UK CERTIFICATE
A
DIRECTED BY
Nicholas Meyer
MUSIC
James Horner
BUDGET
$12 million
BOX OFFICE (WORLDWIDE)
$97 million
FIRST STARDATE
8130.3

WRITTEN BYScreenplay by Jack B. Sowards; story by Harve Bennett and Jack B. Sowards

PRODUCED BYRobert Sallin

IN BRIEF

SPOILER-FREE

An old enemy Kirk left marooned years ago escapes, steals a starship and goes hunting for revenge, and for a device that can create or destroy whole worlds.

SYNOPSIS

SPOILERS
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSISHIDE SYNOPSIS

Admiral Kirk, now teaching at Starfleet Academy, watches Lt Saavik take the Kobayashi Maru, a training simulation built so that it cannot be won. Feeling his age, he joins Captain Spock on the Enterprise for a cadet training cruise. Meanwhile the USS Reliant is looking for a lifeless world on which to test Genesis, a device created by Dr Carol Marcus and her son David that can turn a dead planet into a living one. Captain Terrell and Commander Chekov beam down to what they believe is Ceti Alpha VI and find Khan Noonien Singh, the genetically engineered tyrant Kirk exiled to Ceti Alpha V fifteen years earlier. The neighbouring planet has exploded, wrecking Khan's world and killing his wife, and Khan blames Kirk.

Using parasitic Ceti eels to control Terrell and Chekov, Khan seizes Reliant and goes after Genesis. Answering a distress call from the Regula I laboratory, the Enterprise is ambushed and badly damaged, but Kirk uses Reliant's own command code to lower its shields and drives Khan away. At Regula, Kirk finds Carol again and meets David, the grown son he barely knows. Khan steals Genesis and leaves them trapped inside a barren planetoid, but Kirk and Spock had arranged a coded rescue, and the Enterprise returns for them.

The two ships meet for a final duel inside the Mutara Nebula, where shields and sensors are useless. Kirk exploits Khan's inexperience with three-dimensional combat and cripples Reliant. Dying, Khan triggers Genesis, and the damaged Enterprise cannot reach warp speed to escape. Spock enters the radiation-flooded engine room, restores power and saves the ship, after quietly touching McCoy's face and asking him to remember. Kirk reaches the engine room in time to share a last farewell with his friend through the glass. The crew hold a funeral in space, and Spock's casket comes to rest on the newly formed Genesis planet.

BEHIND THE CAMERA

After the costly first film, Paramount handed the sequel to its television division and producer Harve Bennett, who studied the original series and chose Khan from “Space Seed” as the villain. Jack B. Sowards wrote the drafts, and art director Michael Minor suggested turning a destructive weapon into the Genesis terraforming device. Nicholas Meyer then rewrote the screenplay in about 12 days, taking neither credit nor payment, and gave it a seafaring, swashbuckling flavour. Costs were kept down by redressing sets and reusing models from the first film. Leonard Nimoy agreed to return after being offered a dramatic death scene for Spock. Critics were largely enthusiastic, and the film is widely credited with reviving the franchise.

DID YOU KNOW?

  1. 01Ricardo Montalbán and William Shatner never shared the set: their scenes were filmed separately, so Kirk and Khan never meet face to face.
  2. 02For its 1982 UK release, distributor UIP cut shots of the Ceti eels entering and leaving ears to win an A certificate rather than an AA.
  3. 03The Genesis demonstration was created by Lucasfilm's computer graphics group, using a new technique called particle systems.
  4. 04James Horner was 28 when he scored the film.
  5. 05The 1983 US video release was priced at $39.95, far below the norm, and sold a record 120,000 copies.

CONNECTIONS

  • Khan first appeared in the original series episode “Space Seed” (1967), which ends with Kirk exiling him and his followers to Ceti Alpha V.
  • Spock's final moments with McCoy set up the plot of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984).
  • Meyer wanted to call this film The Undiscovered Country. The phrase became the subtitle of Star Trek VI (1991).

AWARDS

Saturn Awards for Best Actor (William Shatner) and Best Director (Nicholas Meyer); Hugo Award nominee; added to the US National Film Registry in 2024

SOURCES WE CHECKED