Spock’s climactic decision to enter the reactor chamber and his poisoned slump against the translucent engineering door still reduces the sternest fan to a blubbering mess. That is until, his BFF makes the ultimate sacrifice weighing the needs of the many against the needs of the few. The miracle of the Genesis Planet, his ex-wife, and his long lost son force him to glare into death’s void, but he does his damnedest to continuing his gallop around the cosmos.
Refusing to accept defeat on a starship while wallowing in a mid-life crisis perfectly positions Kirk as a semi-audience surrogate where his reunion with the Captain’s chair also allows us to reconnect with everything we love about Star Trek. Abandoned on Ceti Alpha V to stew in rage for decades as the planet went Fury Road around him, Khan is the hate-fueled catalyst here to shake Admiral Kirk out of his Birthday doldrums.
THE NEEDS OF THE FEW OUTWEIGH THE NEEDS OF THE MANY SERIES
Nicholas Meyer and producer Harve Bennett reach back into the original series canon to pull one-off villain Khan Noonien Singh ( Ricardo Montalban) back into relevancy. He’s never faced Saavik’s no-win scenario, except the boredom of a pencil pusher. Captain transitions to Admiral, the final frontier doesn’t reach beyond a pile of papers stacked on his desk, and Kirk is looking at a noose to relieve him of his earthbound depression. The thespians pick themselves off the floor, proudly claim that an experienced group belongs behind the wheel, and old Admiral Kirk self-loathingly dismisses such a notion with “galloping around the cosmos is a game for the young.” When the walls open up and Captain Kirk saunters into the training scenario in halo of light, the knowing relief felt by Trekkies stings with the inevitable tragedy awaiting at the climax. One after the other, our beloved Enterprise crew perishes. While Captain Spock ( Leonard Nimoy) observes from his science station, Captain-in-training Saavik ( Kirstie Alley) attempts to navigate a Neutral Zone rescue mission with catastrophic political Klingon consequences. The Kobayashi Maru fake-out massacre that opens the film still kills an audience. They’re as much about Star Trek as anything else. Kirk, Spock, and Bones – The Triumvirate, friends till the end. The Motion Picture didn’t misuse the cast but muted them while The Wrath of Khan reveled in their friendship. Meyer certainly delivers on the warfare, but the Roddenberry ideology is reserved pretty much to the character level. Director Nicholas Meyer was brought on board as director because he had proven on previous films ( The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Time After Time) that he recognized emotion as the crucial component within genre storytelling.
Gene Roddenberry’s vision ultimately takes second seat next to the characters as they drive the helm of Star Trek II. Enterprise because we love them even more than their voyages. “Second star to the right and straight on till morning” – while the human adventure should thrill in the exploration of the great barrier, we obsess over the crew of the U.S.S. At the very least, the second Star Trek film threw a cold splash of water on the audience that napped through the majority of The Motion Picture and reminded us that Star Trek was about Adventure with a capital A. While I will argue that The Motion Picture is a valid and essential Star Trek experience(and I have), The Wrath of Khan should rank at the top of every Trekkie’s ‘Best Of ‘ list. Don’t hold your breath on a Rocky III follow-up. However, on the 10 th and 13 th of this month, Fathom Events is bringing the undeniably superior Star Trek film back to nationwide theaters with a glorious 4K presentation and a special introduction from William Shatner. Still, if you live outside the selected cities, news of such showings often sends you into a flurry of rage rather than euphoria. We live in a glorious age of repertory theaters when mighty fine establishments like the Alamo Drafthouse, Arclight Cinemas, and Landmark Theaters work their magic to return the all-time greats to the big screen. If you’re lucky, you’ve seen one or all of these on the big screen without the curse of being an old codger like myself. Not sure how I’d deal with a Blockbuster season with more than one film to fret over, but that fantasy seems like pure bliss. 35 years later, and I’m still waiting for another run of films like that to overtake my life. (June 13 th), John Carpenter’s The Thing (June 27 th), Blade Runner (June 27 th), Tron (July 9 th), and Fast Times At Ridgemont High (August 13 th). Conan The Barbarian (May 14 th), The Road Warrior (May 21 st), Rocky III (May 28 th), Poltergeist (June 4 th), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan(June 4 th), E.T. The Summer of ’82 ranks as legend for a reason. The Needs of the Many, Outweigh the Needs of the Few…or the One.
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