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‘KHAAAAN!’: why Wrath of Khan remains the greatest Star Trek movie, 40 years on

A gloriously evil villain, big-screen shocks, mind-control space slugs! The film photon torpedoed everything that went before, leaving a legacy that has yet to be bettered

W hen JJ Abrams began rebooting Star Trek with a fresh cast and crew of the Enterprise in 2009, many hardcore Trekkers complained that the new movies lacked the Apollo-era optimism and vision of space adventure as one giant cosmic morality tale that, in their view, had made the long-running saga stand out from its peers. Gone were slow-paced allegories playing on contemporary western culture, its triumphs and its horrors. In were hectic space battles, time travel, a strange obsession with motorbikes and plenty of fisticuffs.

What many of these critics failed to notice, was that this dichotomy between Star Trek as blockbuster space opera and thinking-man’s sci-fi had been going on for at least three decades before Abrams even got his hand on the Enterprise’s tiller. And to this day, the series’ greatest movie, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, only succeeded because it broke all the rules expected from an episode of Gene Roddenberry’s creation.

The Nicholas Meyer-directed 1982 film, which celebrates 40 years since its UK release this year, was a low budget follow-up to 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture. That film lifted a storyline straight out of the 1960s original series: something about a nefarious energy cloud later revealed as an ancient human space probe refitted by aliens that has subsequently achieved sentience and turned on Earth. The plot was so nebulous that even Spock struggled to work out what was going on. It duly picked up middling reviews and was a box-office disappointment for studio Paramount, largely due to its gargantuan (for the time) $44m shooting budget.

Out went Roddenberry (as producer) and in came Meyer to write and direct the project, with a much more frugal $12m budget. As well as including some juicy sci-fi stylings such as the Genesis terraforming program, Meyer, who knew nothing about Star Trek, spotted early on that the sequel needed an antagonist for William Shatner’s Admiral James T Kirk to face off against if it was to achieve the right level of big screen theatricality. The perfect solution was to bring back Ricardo Montalbán’s Khan Noonien Singh from the 1967 TV episode Space Seed, about a group of dangerous superhumans encountered by the crew of the Enterprise, who are left stranded by Kirk on an uninhabited but fertile planet.

At the time this is intended to be a merciful decision by the captain, an alternative to being sent to a penal colony for their crimes. But of course, we swiftly find out in Wrath of Khan that the supposedly perfect world picked by Kirk turned out to be in an unstable region of space, and that most of Khan’s people ended up dead or starving when a neighbouring planet subsequently exploded. Oops.

Cue a Melvillian battle between the two men as Khan takes out 15 years of frustration on his nemesis. Montalbán chews scenery like it’s an Ikea showroom made out of prime steak, yet crucially never slips too far into the realms of pantomime. The veteran Mexican actor remains a terrifying, vengeful force of nature, rage personified, throughout.

At the end of each episode of the original series, there was usually the sense that the Enterprise could fully reset, with danger averted and normal duties resumed. By contrast, the events of Wrath of Khan are so horrific that they can never be forgotten, and the level of threat seems to have been suddenly upped to warp factor 9.9.

Walter Koenig’s Chekov, along with newcomer Clark Terrell (captain of the USS Reliant) are mind-controlled by Khan using hideous space slugs that are painfully, and bloodily lodged inside their ears! Spock dies of radiation poisoning trying to restart the Enterprise’s warp engine! Khan himself is left to die once again after being summarily outwitted by his supposed inferiors. Where The Motion Picture was mildly intriguing, Wrath of Khan represents blood-pumping, big screen shock tactics on an epic scale.

Thirty years later, Abrams tried to recapture its magic with an effective remake, Star Trek Into Darkness. But even with Benedict Cumberbatch as a younger version of Khan (who crucially never got marooned by Kirk in the new timeline, so was really just a boring, big-headed eugenics experiment in human form) most of the original’s bloodthirsty lust for life and death failed to re-manifest.

Into Darkness was once voted hardcore fans’ least favourite Star Trek movie , a nadir for anyone who loved the original series’ more intellectual, cosmic musings. Yet it was all based on a movie that had to destroy everything that went before it, everything that fans expected from a Star Trek episode, just to keep the Enterprise from crashing down to earth for ever.

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

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"At the end of the universe lies the beginning of vengeance."

Admiral James T. Kirk faces his greatest challenge yet. Suffering through doubts about his place in the galaxy, he is thrust into action once more against his most bitter foe – Khan Noonien Singh, who has escaped his exile on Ceti Alpha V and now seeks revenge on Kirk. With a powerful new device in the wrong hands and a no-win scenario in play, the cost of victory for the starship Enterprise may prove too high.

• 1.1 Act One
• 1.2 Act Two
• 1.3 Act Three
• 2 Memorable quotes
• 3.2 Kobayashi Maru
• 3.3 Vengeance
• 4.3.1 Star Trek: War of the Generations
• 4.3.2 Star Trek: The Omega System
• 4.3.3 Star Trek: The Genesis Project
• 4.3.4 The New Star Trek
• 4.3.5 Star Trek II: The Undiscovered Country
• 4.4 Casting
• 4.6.1 Starfleet uniforms
• 4.6.2 Khan and his people
• 4.6.3 Other
• 4.7 Shooting
• 4.8 Visual effects
• 4.9 Production history
• 5 Awards and honors
• 6.1 Merchandise gallery
• 7 Apocrypha
• 8.1.1 Opening credits
• 8.1.2.1 Additional Animation Visual Concept Engineering
• 8.2.1.1 LCARS references
• 8.2.2 Meta references
• 8.2.3 Script references
• 8.3 Sources
• 8.4 External links

Summary [ ]

Act one [ ].

IN THE 23RD CENTURY...

A female Vulcan sits in the command chair on the bridge of the Enterprise . While the senior staff work at their consoles, the officer, Saavik , makes a log entry , then orders Commander Sulu , manning the helm , to project a course to avoid entering the Neutral Zone.

Suddenly, Uhura receives a distress call from the Kobayashi Maru , which has struck a gravitic mine near Altair VI ... inside the Neutral Zone. Despite warnings from both Sulu and Captain Spock , Saavik orders the ship to enter the Zone in order to beam the survivors aboard. Upon entering the Zone, the Enterprise is confronted with three Klingon battle cruisers , which open fire. The Enterprise is heavily damaged; many of the bridge officers are killed. Saavik has no alternative but to order the surviving crew to abandon ship.

Then the filtered voice of Admiral Kirk is heard. The bridge viewscreen slides aside, revealing a lighted room beyond. The Enterprise is a stage and the Kobayashi Maru was a test – one Saavik does not believe to have been a fair test of her command abilities. Kirk explains that the no-win scenario is a situation every commander may face and that how one faces death is equally important as how one faces life. Saavik seems ruffled at the advice, but Kirk offers that now she has something new to think about. As Kirk begins to leave, Dr. McCoy asks him if it would not be easier to just put an experienced crew back aboard the Enterprise . " Galloping around the cosmos is a game for the young, doctor, " Kirk replies while on his way out. Uhura wonders aloud what the admiral meant by that.

" Happy birthday. Surely, the best of times... "

Outside the simulator room , Spock awaits Kirk's opinion of the cadets ' performance. Kirk notes that the trainees wreaked havoc with the simulator room and Spock alike. Spock notes that this is a common occurrence with the Kobayashi Maru test and then recalls Kirk's own experience, noting that the admiral took the test three times and that his final solution was somewhat "unique." " It had the virtue of never having been tried, " Kirk says. He then thanks Spock for his birthday present, an antique copy of A Tale of Two Cities , reciting the book's first line, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." and asking his friend if it's meant to be a message. Spock replies " None that I'm conscious of, except of course, "Happy birthday." Surely, the best of times. " Just then, Spock is called to a space shuttle to take him to the Enterprise to prepare for Kirk's inspection. Kirk tells Spock he is going home and the Vulcan watches Kirk walk off with concern on his face.

Later at night, Kirk has retreated to his apartment , to be greeted by Leonard McCoy, who presents him with a bottle of finely-aged Romulan ale , vintage 2283 . For a present, the doctor hands him something in a case – reading glasses . " Oh, Bones , this is... charming, " Kirk says. McCoy notes that for most patients of Kirk's age, he usually prescribes Retinax V , which Kirk is allergic to. Noticing Kirk is acting stranger than usual, especially after giving him the glasses, McCoy questions whether Kirk really wants to carry on the duties of an admiral or to be "hopping galaxies" in a starship. Kirk confesses it to him, and the two share a drink sitting by the apartment's fireplace. McCoy admonishes Kirk to get his command back (in stark contrast to his previous assessment of Kirk's command fitness) before he gets too old.

Meanwhile, Commander Chekov is aboard the USS Reliant , which orbits Ceti Alpha VI in connection with Project Genesis , searching for a lifeless planet to satisfy the requirements of a test site for the Genesis experiment. Although Ceti Alpha VI should be incapable of supporting life, Chekov detects a minor energy flux reading on one dynoscanner . They promptly report this to Carol Marcus at Regula I , a space station orbiting a planetoid . They believe it is something they can transplant, since it may only be a particle of preanimate matter . Marcus is unsure and tells them that there " can't be so much as a microbe or the show's off. " Chekov and his commanding officer , Captain Clark Terrell , then beam down to the surface to investigate in environmental suits . " There's nothing here. The tricorder must be broken, " Chekov tells Terrell as they fight their way through clouds of dust until they discover what appears to be a crashed derelict vessel, which Terrell remarks looks like cargo carriers . Inside, Chekov soon discovers that the derelict is the shelter for the crew of the SS Botany Bay , a ship he remembers all too well . Panicking, he rushes a confused Terrell toward the exit, only to find a group of cloaked figures waiting outside nearby.

" A criminal... a product of late 20th century genetic engineering. "

On board Reliant , Commander Kyle attempts to raise communications with Terrell but receives no response. He and Chekov are held captive by the mysterious inhabitants, their leader revealing himself as none other than Khan Noonien Singh , and it further turns out that the planet they were investigating is in fact Ceti Alpha V , which was devastated by the explosion of the sixth planet six months after Khan and his followers were exiled to the planet by Kirk fifteen years earlier . In order to find out not only why the two are there, but also Kirk's whereabouts, Khan forces juvenile Ceti eels into their ears , rendering them subservient to his every command.

Under the command of now-Captain Spock, the Enterprise is being used to train Starfleet Academy cadets, and Kirk, McCoy, Uhura, and Sulu come aboard to assist in a short training cruise.

Chekov contacts Regula I to inform Dr. Carol Marcus, the head of the Genesis project, that Kirk has ordered them to take possession of the Genesis Device . Khan and his Augment followers have commandeered the Reliant , and Chekov informs Khan that Marcus will attempt to confirm the "order," something that Khan is counting on. A furious Dr. Marcus attempts to contact Kirk (who turns out to have been formerly her lover) to confirm the order, but the signal is disrupted at its source. Carol's message is thereby confusing and Kirk's replies cannot be heard by Marcus. Marcus and the Genesis Project personnel prepare to vacate Regula I before Reliant arrives. Kirk, after consulting with Starfleet Command , converses with Captain Spock in his quarters, who encourages Kirk to assume command. Kirk protests, insisting that it is okay for Spock to retain command during the mission (perhaps remembering what happened when he usurped the command of another captain of the Enterprise ), but Spock assures Kirk that, by contrast, he has no ego to be bruised by Kirk taking over for him, and further asserts that it was a mistake for Kirk to accept promotion, as commanding a starship is Kirk's "first, best destiny." Kirk agrees and assumes command, ordering Enterprise to set a course for Regula I. " So much for the little training cruise... ", Sulu notes as the Enterprise enters warp speed.

Khan, in full command of Reliant , has the ship set on an intercept course with Enterprise . Khan's second-in-command, Joachim , while pledging his loyalty and that of his comrades, tries to convince Khan that by escaping the planet, he has now evened the score with Kirk. Khan is not content to merely be even with Kirk, however, and reveals his intention to take revenge on the admiral.

While en route to the space lab, Kirk shows Spock and McCoy a briefing video on Project Genesis, the ultimate goal of which is revealed to be the creation of a torpedo-like Genesis Device, which can be fired at a lifeless planetary body and transform it into a habitable world. McCoy is alarmed at the implications of this, since if a Genesis Device were used on an already inhabited world the terraforming process would obliterate all life on the planet in mere seconds. " As a matter of cosmic history, it has always been easier to destroy than to create, " Spock mentions, although McCoy points out that the Genesis Device makes it possible to do both simultaneously, leading to a potential armageddon. Their discussion is interrupted by Saavik, who informs them that another starship is on an intercept course. A Federation starship named Reliant .

Peter Preston , mortally wounded by Khan's attack

Near Regula I, Enterprise finds the Reliant waiting for them. Despite Reliant failing to answer hails, Kirk is reluctant to raise shields – as, Saavik reminds him, regulations prescribe. The two ships edge closer, and Kirk orders yellow alert after finding the situation to be " damn peculiar " but still doesn't raise shields because the Reliant claims they can't use their communications system due to their chambers coil emissions. Spock quickly discerns that this isn't true, as Khan orders the shields on Reliant raised, then locks phasers. This is detected by Spock, and Kirk finally orders shields up but it is too late as Reliant opens fire, knowing exactly where the ship's most vulnerable points are, disabling the Enterprise 's main energizer and warp core, leaving only the battery to power the ship, and fatally injuring several cadets. Engines are down, shields inoperative, and there is only enough power for a few phaser shots, which isn't enough against Reliant 's shields. Reliant fires a photon torpedo from its aft launcher at the Enterprise which causes the crippled vessel's bridge to erupt in flames.

While Kirk is trying to hold the heavily damaged Enterprise and her injured crew together, Uhura announces that Reliant is signaling, wishing to discuss terms of their surrender . Kirk, taken aback for a moment along with the bridge crew, orders Uhura to put Reliant 's commander on screen. Kirk is shocked to see Khan in command of the Reliant . Khan arrogantly announces his plans to destroy the Enterprise , to which Kirk pleads with Khan to take him as prisoner and spare his crew. Khan agrees, but also demands all information and material on the Genesis device. Kirk pretends to comply, but actually transmits a signal using Reliant 's prefix code (1-6-3-0-9) that causes Reliant to lower her shields. Despite Khan's intelligence – he knew exactly where to hit the Enterprise for maximum damage – he is still relatively inexperienced with a starship. When he realizes what Kirk is doing he is unable to immediately find the controls to override the command lowering the shields. With the few shots auxiliary power can give him, Sulu is able to fire a few well-placed shots at the Reliant , damaging photon control and the warp drive (which also disables her phasers). An enraged Khan is reluctant to withdraw, but Joachim reminds him that Enterprise , with its disabled power systems, can't escape. Both ships limp away for repairs and the match ends in a stalemate.

Act Two [ ]

The Enterprise at Regula I

Kirk is furious at himself for being lulled into a false sense of security, spitting, " I did nothing! Except get caught with my britches down. I must be getting senile. " He then surveys the wounded in sickbay and attends Midshipman 1st Class Peter Preston on his deathbed alongside a grieving Scott. With impulse power restored, the Enterprise arrives at Regula I. Kirk and McCoy form a landing party , and Saavik reminds Kirk of General Order 15 barring the admiral, as a flag officer, from beaming into a dangerous situation without armed escort. Kirk disputes the existence of such a regulation, but then relents and invites Saavik to join the landing party. Kirk leaves Spock in command of the Enterprise , but not before the latter admonishes the former to be careful. (To that, McCoy replies that they will all be careful.)

" Oh, sir... it was Khan! We found him on Ceti Alpha V. "

Aboard the station, they find the personnel murdered and discover Chekov and Terrell semi-conscious and weakened inside a storage compartment. When the two officers come to, they claim they overcame the effects of the Ceti eels and reveal that the crew of the Reliant is marooned on Ceti Alpha V. Terrell calls Khan completely mad and that the genetically engineered superman blames Kirk for the death of his wife . Continuing their investigation, the Enterprise crew finds that the station's records of the Genesis Device have been erased. Exploring the station leads them to a transporter that has recently been activated. Checking the coordinates, Kirk realizes they beamed into the Regula planetoid . Kirk asks for a damage report from Enterprise . Spock reports that " by the book, hours would seem like days " and that main power will be not be available for two days. Kirk orders Spock to leave orbit if the Enterprise hears nothing from them within one hour. Uhura protests that they will not leave them behind, but Kirk retorts that if they hear nothing, there won't be anybody there to leave behind.

" KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!! "

They follow the transporter coordinates and materialize inside a cavern. The Genesis Device is there, but before Kirk can move, he is attacked by his son, David Marcus , who accuses Kirk of trying to steal Genesis. Carol, David's mother, tries to defuse the situation, but before she can elaborate the team is threatened by Chekov and Terrell, who it turns out are still under Khan's control. David brashly tries to rush the two, but Saavik tackles him to the ground just as Terrell fires on him, misses, and vaporizes the third scientist, Jedda instead. On the bridge of the Reliant , Khan gleefully orders Terrell to kill Kirk. However, Terrell resists Khan and the eel causes him extreme pain. To escape it, he turns his phaser on himself and commits suicide. Chekov collapses and the Ceti eel slips out of his ear before being vaporized by Kirk. Khan, shocked to find Kirk alive and well, beams the Genesis Device up to the Reliant before vowing to leave the admiral and his party marooned inside Regula forever by destroying the Enterprise , whom Khan believes will be crippled for at least two days, prompting Kirk to scream at Khan in blind rage.

Later on, Kirk avoids Carol and David's questions about Khan by asking for food. Carol and David show Kirk, McCoy, and Saavik the Genesis cave , which was created by a smaller Genesis Device: deep within Regula there is a stable ecosystem that was created in just one day. Meanwhile, Khan moves the Reliant back towards the spacelab where he expects to find the Enterprise , completely helpless. However, Khan is astonished to find that the Enterprise is not there. In the cave, Saavik asks Kirk, who casually eats an apple, about his performance on the Kobayashi Maru scenario. McCoy tells her that Kirk is the only one to beat the no-win scenario, and Kirk admits he reprogrammed the simulation. David chuckles and says he cheated, and Kirk qualifies that he "changed the conditions of the test." Kirk then promptly contacts Enterprise , and Spock says they should prepare for transport. Kirk smiles at a dumbfounded Saavik and asserts that he does not like to lose. Saavik asks for clarification while beaming back aboard, and Kirk reminds her of Regulation 46A : Spock made his report using an improvised code to deceive Khan; instead of immediate repairs taking two days, they only took two hours and moved the Enterprise out of range of the Reliant 's sensors. " You lied, " Saavik tells her mentor. " I exaggerated, " Spock replies. Kirk explains, " Hours instead of days ; now we've got minutes instead of hours. "

Act Three [ ]

After assessing the situation, it is determined the Enterprise can not outrun or outgun the far less damaged Reliant . Kirk decides to take the fight to the nearby Mutara Nebula , whose ionized gases will disrupt both ships' sensors and shields, making the fight an even one. Spotting the Enterprise fleeing, Khan orders Reliant to pursue, but Joachim is reluctant, so Khan acquiesces.

" Khan, I'm laughing at the superior intellect. "

Back on the Enterprise , Spock notes with his sensors that Reliant is reducing speed and seems to be backing off its pursuit. To ensure that Khan will follow him, Kirk has Uhura contact Reliant and proceeds to taunt his nemesis, saying " We tried it once your way, Khan. Are you game for a rematch? Khan... I'm laughing at the superior intellect. " Mocked and enraged, Khan orders full impulse power above Joachim's protests and recklessly heads into full pursuit. " I'll say this for him – he's consistent, " Kirk remarks about his nemesis as the Battle of the Mutara Nebula commences. Both ships are quite hampered by the conditions, but this is a good thing for Kirk, since both ships are reduced to an equal level of non-functioning systems, whereas in open space Enterprise would have been the more disabled vessel.

" We are now entering the Mutara Nebula . "

The opening of the battle consists of a game of cat-and-mouse with both ships. Computer-targeting does not function, so both crews must rely on manual firing commands by eyeballing the opposing ships on their static-filled viewscreen. Sulu, more experienced, narrowly misses the Reliant due to turbulence, while Khan fires a torpedo aft at the Enterprise , but both fail to land a hit.

As they maneuver half-blind around the nebula, suddenly the static on the Enterprise screen clears enough to reveal that the ships are about to collide. They veer apart and narrowly miss colliding, and at such point-blank range even manual firing is enough for each vessel to inflict key hits on the other. The Reliant manages to destroy the port torpedo tube of the Enterprise , which then returns fire and damages the Reliant bridge deck, causing an explosion that kills several of the bridge crew including Khan's most trusted lieutenant, Joachim, whom Khan vows to avenge. Main power on the Enterprise goes out again and the warp drive chamber in engineering floods with radiation, forcing Scott to take the mains off-line just before he and most of his crew pass out.

The crippled Reliant adrift in the nebula

A shaken, but physically recovered Chekov enters the bridge offering his assistance, which Kirk accepts and orders him to man the weapons control station. Kirk, still struggling with a strategy to trap Khan, listens to Spock, who suggests that Khan's battle plan to that point suggests "two-dimensional thinking." Kirk, inspired by Spock's comment, orders the ship to descend vertically. Khan isn't prepared for Enterprise to drop "down" its Z-axis as he passes overhead and then rise "up" directly behind him. Reliant 's torpedo pod is destroyed by a torpedo fired by Chekov, and a phaser blast and torpedo hit blows off its port nacelle . Reliant is crippled and drifts away, trailing plasma . Most of Khan's crew is killed in the process, and Khan himself is left maimed and barely alive.

" No, Kirk. The game's not over. "

In a last-ditch effort to destroy Kirk, Khan activates the Genesis Device, which will reorganize all matter in the nebula – including the Enterprise . With the mains offline, the warp drive is inoperable and the Enterprise cannot escape the large explosion that the device will trigger. Unnoticed, Spock exits the bridge while Kirk orders a withdrawal at "best possible speed".

" We're not gonna make it, are we? "

Spock arrives in the engine room, only to be blocked by Dr. McCoy from entering the lethally irradiated dilithium reactor room. After first feigning compliance, an apologetic Spock nerve pinches McCoy and mind melds with the doctor, simply saying " Remember... " He then dons Scott's radiation suit gloves, enters the chamber, and endures the life threatening radiation while repairing the main reactor . McCoy and Scott yell at Spock to get out immediately, but he continues to work, ignoring their pleas.

As Enterprise crawls away from Reliant , the bridge crew starts to resign themselves to the seeming inevitable. Sulu says what everyone is thinking; " We're not going to make it, are we? ", which David silently confirms to Kirk. On Reliant 's bridge, Khan quotes Moby Dick using his last breaths: " No... no, you can't get away. From hell 's heart , I stab at thee. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee. "

Spock finishes his work in engineering, bringing the warp engines back online just in time. Kirk, believing Scott to have worked a miracle, orders Sulu to engage immediately and Enterprise streaks away into warp just as the Genesis Device explodes, completely destroying the Reliant and killing Khan and his followers. The Mutara Nebula condenses around the explosion, creating the Genesis Planet . Kirk contacts engineering to congratulate Scott, but he is surprised to hear McCoy's voice gravely reply that Kirk needs to come down. Kirk looks over and notices the empty chair at the science station . A look of horror washes over Kirk's face as he rushes down to engineering to find Spock on the other side of the reactor room's wall. McCoy and Scott restrain him from rushing in and flooding the engine room with radiation, with Scott saying that Spock is already dead. Devastated, Kirk calls out for Spock and follows as the Vulcan, blinded by the radiation, staggers to the side of the transparent wall, finally resting against it.

" I have been... and always shall be... your friend. "

Spock attempts with difficulty to explain to Kirk his reasoning: " Don't grieve, admiral. It is logical . The needs of the many outweigh... " to which Kirk replies, " the needs of the few, " and Spock nods, " or the one... " Spock states that he himself never took the Kobayashi Maru simulation " until now, " and asks Kirk, " What do you think of my solution? "

Kirk, stricken with grief, can't reply. " I have been and always shall be your friend. Live long and prosper. " He holds out his hand, in the traditional Vulcan salute , and Kirk presses his hand up to the glass as well, watching helplessly as Spock slumps to the floor and dies. It takes all of his resolve to keep his composure as he sees his closest friend die in front of him. This time, there is no going back.

Spock's funeral is held later, on the torpedo deck . Kirk says a few words in Spock's honor, concluding with a befitting statement: " Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most... Human . " The crew watches (with Scott playing " Amazing Grace " on bagpipes ) as Spock's body is launched in a torpedo casing into the atmosphere of the newborn Genesis Planet.

Afterward, Kirk is in his quarters and tries to read from the book Spock gave him on his birthday but discovers that one of the lenses of his reading glasses was broken during the final battle with Reliant . Exasperated, he tosses them on the table as David enters. Kirk tries to be dismissive, but David confronts him, telling Kirk that he (Kirk) never really faced death. When Kirk admits that he hasn't, David points out that Kirk earlier told Saavik that how people face death is as important as how they face life. Kirk says those were just words, but David thinks they are good words, from which good ideas come. He then tells Kirk he is proud to be his son. The two of them hug, awkwardly at first but then with genuine warmth.

" He's really not dead... as long as we remember him. "

Later, on the bridge, Dr. McCoy, Carol Marcus, and Kirk stare at the Genesis Planet on the main viewscreen as the Enterprise departs for Ceti Alpha V to pick up the surviving crew of the Reliant . McCoy notes that as long as they remember Spock, he will not truly be gone.

" It is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done before. A far better resting place that I go to than I have ever known. "

Kirk softly quotes the last lines of A Tale of Two Cities ; something Spock was trying to tell him on his birthday. Upon McCoy's inquiry as to how Kirk feels, he answers: " Young. I feel young. "

Spock's torpedo coffin having landed on the surface of Genesis

On the Genesis Planet, the torpedo casing containing Spock's body has soft-landed among the jungle flora of the newborn world, teeming with new life and new possibilities. Spock's voice provides the final words:

Space... the final frontier. These are the continuing voyages of the starship Enterprise . Her ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds... to seek out new lifeforms, and new civilizations... to boldly go where no man has gone... before.

Memorable quotes [ ]

" Any suggestions, Admiral? " " Prayer , Mister Saavik. The Klingons don't take prisoners. "

" Physician, heal thyself. " " Is that all you gotta say? What about my performance? " " I'm not a drama critic. "

" How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life, wouldn't you say? " " As I indicated, Admiral, that thought did not occur to me. " " Well, now you have something new to think about. Carry on. "

" 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.' Message, Spock? " " None that I am conscious of. Except, of course, happy birthday. Surely... the best of times. "

" Galloping around the cosmos is a game for the young, doctor. "

" Romulan ale . Why Bones, you know this is illegal. " " I only use it for medicinal purposes. "

" Now, you open this one. " " I'm almost afraid to. What is it, Klingon aphrodisiacs? " " No. More antiques for your collection. " " Why, Bones, this is... charming. "

" Jim, I'm your Doctor, and I'm your friend. Get back your command. Get it back before you turn into part of this collection. Before you really do grow old. "

" He's never what I expect, sir. " " What surprises you, lieutenant? " " He's so... Human. " " Nobody's perfect, Saavik. "

" Every time we have dealings with Starfleet, I get nervous. We are dealing with something that... could be perverted into a dreadful weapon. Remember that overgrown Boy Scout you used to hang around with? That's exactly the kind of man... " " Listen, kiddo, Jim Kirk was many things, but he was never a Boy Scout! "

(to Captain Terrell) " I don't know you. " (to Commander Chekov) " But you... I never forget a face, Mister... Chekov, isn't it? I never thought to see your face again. " " Chekov, who is this man? " " A criminal, Captain. A product of late 20th century genetic engineering. "

" You lie! On Ceti Alpha V, there was life! A fair chance– " " THIS IS CETI ALPHA V!!! Ceti Alpha VI exploded six months after we were left here. The shock shifted the orbit of this planet and everything was laid waste . Admiral Kirk never bothered to check on our progress! It was only the fact of my genetically engineered intellect that allowed us to survive. On Earth... two hundred years ago... I was a prince... with power over millions. " " Captain Kirk was your host. You repaid his hospitality by trying to steal his ship and murder him! "

" This is completely improper, Commander Chekov! I have absolutely no intention of allowing Reliant or any other unauthorized personnel access to our work or materials! " " I'm sorry that you feel that way, Doctor. Admiral Kirk's orders are confirmed. Please prepare to deliver Genesis to us upon our arrival. Reliant out. "

" Starfleet has kept the peace for over a hundred years . I cannot, and will not, subscribe to your interpretations of this event! "

" Jim, you proceed from a false assumption. I am a Vulcan. I have no ego to bruise. "

" If I may be so bold... it was a mistake for you to accept promotion. Commanding a starship is your first, best destiny. Anything else is a waste of material. "

" Were I to invoke logic, logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. " " Or the one. "

" You are my superior officer. You are also my friend. I have been and always shall be yours. "

" He tasks me. He tasks me and I shall have him. I'll chase him round the moons of Nibia and round the Antares maelstrom and round perdition's flames before I give him up! Prepare to alter course. "

" As a matter of cosmic history, it has always been easier to destroy than to create ." " Not anymore; now we can do both at the same time! According to myth, the Earth was created in six days. Now, watch out. Here comes Genesis! We'll do it for you in six minutes ! "

" Logic? My God, the man's talking about logic! We're talking about universal armageddon! You green-blooded, inhuman – "

" Ah, Kirk... my 'old friend'. Do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold? It is very cold... in space. "

" Admiral, the commander of the Reliant is signaling. He wishes to discuss terms of our surrender. "

" Sir, you did it! " " I did nothing! Except get caught with my britches down. I must be getting senile. Mr. Saavik, you go right on quoting regulations! In the meantime, let's find out how badly we've been hurt. "

" He wants to kill me, for passing sentence on him fifteen years ago. And he doesn't care who stands between him and his vengeance. "

" Go? Where are we going? " " Where they went. " " Suppose they went nowhere? " " Then this'll be your big chance to get away from it all. "

" Where's Dr. Marcus? " "I'm Dr. Marcus! "

" Mother, he killed everybody we left behind! " " Of course he didn't. David, you're just making this harder. " " I'm afraid it's even harder than you think, doctor. Please... don't move. "

" All is well, sir. You have the coordinates to beam up Genesis. " " First things first, Captain. Kill Admiral Kirk. "

" Khan, you bloodsucker! You're gonna have to do your own dirty work now! Do you hear me? DO YOU?! " " Kirk! Kirk, you're still alive, my old friend. " " Still – 'old friend'! You've managed to kill just about everyone else, but like a poor marksman, you keep missing the target! "

" I've done far worse than kill you. I've hurt you. And I wish to go on... hurting you. I shall leave you as you left me... as you left her . Marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet... buried alive. Buried alive. " "KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!! KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!"

" You had your world... and I had mine. And I wanted him in mine... not chasing through the universe with his father. "

" Actually, he's a lot like you. In many ways. "

" Impulse power restored. " " Excellent. More than a match for poor Enterprise ."

" Can I cook or can't I? "

" I don't believe in a no-win scenario. "

" That young man – he's my son! " " Fascinating. "

" Admiral, what happens if Reliant fails to follow us into the nebula? " " I think we can guarantee she'll follow us, Mr. Saavik. Remind me to explain to you the concept of the Human ego. " " Best speed, Scotty. "

" Khan... I'm laughing at the "superior intellect". "

" Full impulse power. " " No, sir! You have Genesis! You can have whatever you–! " (grabs Joachim by the vest) " FULL POWER! Damn you! "

" He 's intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking. "

" Are you out of your Vulcan mind?!? No Human can tolerate the radiation that's in there! " " As you are so fond of observing, Doctor, I am not Human. " " You're not going in there! " " Perhaps you're right. What is Mr. Scott's condition? " " Well, I don't think that he — " (Spock renders McCoy unconscious with a Vulcan neck pinch) " I'm sorry, Doctor; I have no time to discuss this logically. (Mind melds with McCoy) Remember. "

" No... no, you can't get away. From hell's heart, I stab at thee. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee. "

" Bless you, Scotty – GO , Sulu! "

" Jim, I think you'd... better get down here. "

" No! You'll flood the whole compartment! " " He'll die... " " Sir! He's dead already. " " It's too late. "

" I have been... and always shall be... your friend . Live long... and prosper. " " No... ! "

" We are assembled here today to pay final respects to our honored dead. And yet it should be noted that in the midst of our sorrow, this death takes place in the shadow of a new life, the sunrise of a new world, a world that our beloved comrade gave his life to protect and nourish. He did not feel this sacrifice a vain or empty one. And we will not debate his profound wisdom at these proceedings. Of my friend, I can only say this: of all the souls I have encountered in my travels... his was the most... Human. " " Honors, hup! "

" You knew enough to tell Saavik that how we face death is as least as important as how we face life. " " Just words. " " But good words. That's where ideas begin. Maybe you should listen to them. I was wrong about you... and I'm sorry. " " Is that what you came here to say? " " Mainly. And also that I'm – proud... very proud... to be your son. "

" It is a far far better thing I do than I have ever done before... a far – better resting place I go to than I have ever known. " " Is that a poem? " " No. Something Spock was trying to tell me on my birthday. "

" You OK, Jim? How do you feel? " " Young. I feel young! "

Analysis [ ]

The screenplay for Star Trek II was written by director Nicholas Meyer, compiled from a number of drafts which all contained one or several dominant themes. One element was clearly going to be central to the audience's emotional response. Meyer explained: " Once you decide that you're going to have the death of Spock, then how does that affect the other people? Why is it there? I got a lot of stick from a lot of people from the very beginning about the idea of killing Spock. Somebody said, 'You can't kill him.' And I said, 'Sure you can; the only question is whether you do it well.' If his death proceeds organically from the theme and the story of the movie, then nobody's even going to notice it until it's on you, and no one will question it. "

In other words, Meyer was determined that his film would be about something and would do more than tell an adventure story. " We were giving birth to planets, and Kirk was meeting his son, and Spock was dying. You sort of looked at that and said, 'Well, what unifying ideas are running through here?' And then you thought, 'Ah! This is going to be a movie about... '"

Meyer decided to embrace the idea that the characters had aged, and he gave Kirk some very Human flaws, including less than perfect eyesight.

" This was going to be a story in which Spock died, so it was going to be a story about death, and it was only a short hop, skip, and a jump to realize that it was going to be about old age and friendship. I don't think that any of those other scripts were about old age, friendship, and death. "

The decision that the film was going to be about old age and friendship prompted Meyer to include a scene in which McCoy visits Kirk in his apartment and tells him that he should get his command back. With every alteration, the themes were woven tighter and tighter into the script.

Ultimately, the film presented an aged Kirk in mid-life crisis. Uncertain of his place, of himself, Kirk must make the greatest sacrifice to find out where he truly belongs.

Kobayashi Maru [ ]

In one of the early drafts for the film, the Kobayashi Maru test was suggested as a no-win scenario – one Nicholas Meyer decided Kirk had solved by cheating. Initially, producer Harve Bennett was resistant to the idea that Kirk could do anything 'bad', yet Meyer won him over; in fact, he believed the story needed Kirk to have flaws. " There's a distinction to be made between heroes and gods, " he explained, " which I think we sometimes get confused about. [...] let me explain my theory of heroism. If a man jumps into a raging torrent to save a drowning child, he performs an heroic act. If the same man jumps into the same torrent to save the same child, but does so with a ball and chain attached to his leg, he's not less heroic; he's more heroic. "

" How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life, wouldn't you say? "

" If you look at the heroes of antiquity and myth, they all have flaws. It's something that they have to overcome; their flaws are something that they have to act in spite of. The challenge is not to defy your fate, but to endure it. That is heroic. " James T. Kirk is very much like a classical hero who must confront his own weaknesses. He played God when he marooned Khan to a desert world; he chose not to be involved in his son David's life; he allowed the Enterprise to be damaged because he would not listen when Saavik told him to raise shields. When Spock dies, Kirk must endure, and Nicholas Meyer was absolutely conscious of this when he was writing the script.

" The flaw is always the same ", he explained. " The hero always thinks he knows the answer, and ultimately he learns that he doesn't. [...] There is always a point in Greek plays, known as 'peripeteia,' where the hero learns that everything he knew is wrong. And it's no accident that in at least two of my movies there comes a point where the hero says, 'I know nothing'. H.G. Wells says it in Time After Time ; Kirk says it in Star Trek II . It's when you begin to realize that you know nothing that you're ready to learn something. When you've had the shit kicked out of you, you're ready to start over, and with a little humility. As I was writing it, I was certainly getting to that 'I know nothing' point. "

Vengeance [ ]

To Meyer's mind, Khan was related to Satan, who fell from grace with God. Of course, thematically, this linked him with Genesis – another of the film's Biblical allusions.

Using the Star Trek: The Original Series first season series episode " Space Seed " as a building block, Meyer built Khan into the ultimate adversary for Kirk. As he worked on his character, he imagined how enraged a man would be after being exiled on a desert world and losing his wife. Inevitably, Khan became obsessed with Kirk, who he saw as his nemesis. " Kirk was the fiend who had imprisoned him; who had stopped him up in the bottle. I think when Khan makes his appearance in the story, Kirk is flabbergasted. He did not lie awake thinking about Khan; Khan lay awake thinking about Kirk. "

Meyer decided that while Khan had been waiting for a chance to avenge himself upon Kirk, he would have been reading. " I started thinking, 'What books does a superman take with him into exile?' At one point, Khan says, 'On Earth I was a prince', and certainly he's a fallen angel, so I picked all the books that were Lucifer-related – fallen angel – whether it was 'Moby Dick' or 'Paradise Lost' or 'King Lear', and began to build from there. I thought, 'He's probably been obsessively reading these books again and again until every word out of his mouth has been written by Shakespeare or Milton'. Actually, Melville was the one who finally took over; he just becomes completely Ahab. "

Meyer intended for Spock's death to mean something, both for Kirk and for the audience.

Inevitably, there was concern that the script might seem too downbeat, particularly because in Meyer's version there was nothing to suggest that Spock might be reborn on the Genesis Planet. He later recognized that that might have been a mistake, yet he never felt that Spock's death was depressing. " My feeling about killing Spock was that it would be moving, but that didn't mean you would be depressed by it. Romeo and Juliet die, but nobody comes out of that play depressed. We didn't want Spock's death to be meaningless. And I don't think that it is. Aristotle had the notion of catharsis – that the audience is purged through pity and terror. You don't come out of these things saying, 'I'm going to stick my head in the oven'. Kirk chooses to go on living; sadder but wiser, understanding a little more the way the world works, and that is not, per se, depressing. It may be sad, but it's not depressing. "

Background information [ ]

• This movie was the first Star Trek release to occur in the 1980s.
• The Wrath of Khan, the second Star Trek feature film installment, is traditionally regarded by fans as the best in the series, and considered by many non-fans as an excellent science-fiction picture. In 2014, it was ranked by Empire readers as #89 in a poll to determine the 301 greatest movies of all time. [1]
• The film earned US$14,347,221 at the US box office in its opening weekend, a record at the time which was broken two years later by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. This film, in turn, was out-grossed by the next film in the series The Search for Spock.
• The film earned GBP£1,499,226 at the British box office upon release, and debuted at no.2 just behind Rocky III . [2]
• This was also done for the official movie novelization but subsequent prints of the film retitled it Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan .
• Writer and producer Harve Bennett had never seen anything Star Trek related but binge watched the entire Original Series to prepare for this movie.
• According to William Shatner's Star Trek Movie Memories , the original title of the film was The Undiscovered Country , the undiscovered country in this case being death. According to Shatner, as he told Chris Kreski in quoting Nicholas Meyer, Meyer was outraged when Paramount marketing exec Frank Mancuso renamed the film Star Trek: The Vengeance of Khan without consulting him. Meyer said that the title was ridiculous and that they would be forbidden to keep it with George Lucas making a movie called Revenge of the Jedi at the same time. Months later, Paramount changed the subtitle to The Wrath of Khan , and Meyer hated that even more but was made to live with it, although it became a moot point when Lucas changed the title of his movie to Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi . Meyer's original title was eventually used for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , which Meyer also directed.
• As with The Motion Picture , the movie was pre-sold to the ABC TV network for first time airing in the USA under a similar arrangement. This entailed two airings of the film, the first to run no earlier than 1985. [3] Its ABC premiere was on 24 February 1985, and its second run was in 1988 (ABC ran the film a third and final time on 18 June 1989, in conjuncture with their third re-run of The Motion Picture that year [4] ). Like the The Motion Picture , the television version of the movie featured deleted or alternate scenes, reintegrated for the television airing, that were originally cut from the theatrical version, and with some mild censoring, akin to the below-mentioned British television version. Unlike The Motion Picture (in the form of its " Special Longer Version ") however, this ABC version has not seen any home media format releases in the home market, nor were several scenes and takes included in the later, 2002 " The Director's Edition " DVD release.
• Several cuts were made to the film for its theatrical release in the United Kingdom in order for it to receive a more favorable classification (A for advisory, rather than the more restricted AA rating which was for over-14s only). The BBFC requested that the close-up sequences of the Ceti eels infecting Terrell and Chekov, and the later close-up of Chekov's eel leaving him, be removed as they were "almost X[-rated]". Seventeen seconds in total were removed. [5] The initial VHS release in the UK was of this cut version; an uncut version – marketed as the "Original Full Length Version" – was not released until 1988. As of 2018, it remains the only Star Trek film released on VHS in the UK to carry the BBFC's 15 certificate, although for its subsequent DVD releases it carries the more moderate 12 certificate which was introduced in the 1990s. [6] The edited version is still used for television broadcasts in the UK. The movie premiered on the ITV network on Wednesday 14th May 1986.
• Many of the outer space scenes in the first half of the movie are reused from Star Trek: The Motion Picture . These include the Klingon battle cruisers in the Kobayashi Maru sequence, the shots of the travel pod, the ' Enterprise 's departure from dry dock, and its first jump to warp speed.
• In fact, as noted in the Special Edition DVD's text commentary, Walter Koenig often joked (at conventions and in interviews) that his character had made Khan wait overly long to use a bathroom on Khan's visit to the Enterprise and that was why Khan remembered his face so well.
• In his DVD commentary track, director Meyer said that he was aware of the discontinuity but ignored it. Meyer acknowledged that he could have just as easily put Uhura on the Reliant and kept the consistency, but he preferred Chekov and referenced the fact that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle frequently contradicted himself in his books about Sherlock Holmes , saying that the continuity did not matter, as long as he had the audience engrossed in and enjoying the story.
• Kirk says, " I know what he blames me for " after being told that Khan blames him for the death of his wife. Taken at face value, this is untrue; until that moment Kirk was unaware Marla McGivers had died, as he did not check in on the planet and Khan did not include this detail in his earlier exchange with Kirk. Given Kirk's demeanor, it is more likely that he is alluding to the fact that he marooned Khan in the first place (though with the ultimately vain hope that Khan and his people could colonize the planet where they had been marooned) and therefore had deduced that Khan was bent on revenge.
• McCoy's line " He's really not dead... as long as we remember him " was improvised by Nicholas Meyer during filming, after he read an article on the set, concerning the possibility of Raoul Wallenberg being alive. Wallenburg was a Hungarian Jew who famously saved many Jews from the Holocaust (though accounts vary as to how many he actually saved). Referring to Wallenberg, Simon Wiesenthal said in the article, " He's really not dead, as long as we remember him. " (Meyer noted this in the Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan DVD audio commentary.) Since Star Trek III: The Search for Spock would show not only McCoy having had Spock's complete brain patterns ( katra ) transferred to him during a mind meld in the engine room but also Spock himself having been regenerated by the Genesis Effect, that line took on both ironic and prophetic meanings.
• No visitors were allowed on the set during the filming of Spock's death to keep it a secret as much as possible. Nicholas Meyer remembered, when they shot the scene, he looked around and saw members of the crew, including cinematographer Gayne Rescher , crying and did not understand their reason for bursting into tears. It was much later, he admitted, when he understood the significance of that scene. ( Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan DVD audio commentary)
• The events of the film were novelized by Vonda N. McIntyre and adapted into a photostory by Richard J. Anobile .
• Montalban also said in promo interviews for the movie (which can be seen on the Star Trek II DVD set) that he realized early on in his career that a good villain does not see himself as villainous. He may do villainous things, but the character feels that he is doing them for righteous reasons. Likewise with heroes, Montalban said he always tried to find a flaw in the character because no one is completely good or completely evil. He then compared Khan to this, saying that while Khan had a rather distorted view of reality and, therefore, comes the villainous acts, he still feels that his acts of vengeance against Kirk is a noble cause because of the death of his wife whom he loved dearly.
• In other various interviews at the time of the movie and afterward, some of which can be seen on the Star Trek II DVD features disc, Montalban has also spoken about how he almost turned the role down as he wanted a rather substantial part after coming from six years of Fantasy Island . Montalban changed his mind when he read the script and realized that the other characters were talking about Khan even when he was not on screen and so it made the part seem even more substantial. Montalban also recalled that, when he first started reading the script after having accepted the role and was trying to articulate Khan, that to his horror, he sounded like Mr. Roarke and was terrified that the audiences would laugh at him. Montalban contacted producer Harve Bennett and requested a tape of "Space Seed", and after several viewings of the episode, Montalban began to recall how he had played Khan and was much more comfortable afterward.
• At a high level, the characters of Khan and Kirk can be seen, respectively, as Captain Ahab and the great white whale from Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick , which was found among Khan's possessions. Khan quoted several lines from the novel almost exactly – even down to his dying curse. The ambiguous allegorical nature of the novel was not reproduced in the film, however. The original series episodes " Obsession " and " The Doomsday Machine " and the Star Trek: The Next Generation film Star Trek: First Contact were also inspired by Melville's novel.
• As with Star Trek: The Motion Picture , Paramount filed for and obtained design patents on some of the costumes, props (including the Ceti eel ), and ships from this film.

Juday with the recreation of Chekov's ear.

• The special effects scene in which the Ceti eel got into Chekov's ear was filmed with a large recreation of the ear on a plate. The model which was used was later put in storage and was shown by Penny Juday in the special feature "Inside Starfleet Archives" on the TNG Season 2 DVD .
• The pre-launch background dialogue overheard on the bridge as Kirk and McCoy arrive is almost identical to the checklist overheard in main engineering before the Enterprise launches in Star Trek: The Motion Picture .
• Since Kirk's birthdate was established in Federation computer records in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II " to be March 22nd (actor William Shatner 's actual birthday), this establishes that the beginning of this film is set on March 22nd, 2285 .
• This is the only TOS movie in which a Federation ship fires its phasers. All other films in the TOS series have the ships firing photon torpedoes. The next film in the series to have a Federation ship fire its phasers was Star Trek Generations , twelve years later.
• As noted later, this was somewhat disappointing to Montalban since Shatner and Montalban did not meet on set either but he'd wanted to.
• This was the fourth of five Star Trek projects to be adapted into View-Master reels.
• This film marks the first appearance in the Star Trek franchise of an isolation door in main engineering. It can be seen lowering during the "surprise attack" sequence following Khan's hijacking of the Reliant . That door later became the shuttlebay door on the Enterprise -D.
• There is a "No Smoking" sign on the door of the simulator room during the Kobayashi Maru test. It only appears in the earliest part of the scene. According to Mike Okuda's DVD commentary, it was removed at the request of Gene Roddenberry, who did not envision smoking as part of the Human lifestyle of Star Trek's future. Nevertheless, St. John Talbot was seen lighting up in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , and characters would later be shown smoking in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Star Trek: Picard .
• During the scene at Kirk's home where he and McCoy share a drink, a Commodore PET personal computer is recognizable at the rear of the set. At the time of filming, William Shatner was the commercial spokesperson for the Commodore line of home computers, including the PET (Personal Electronic Transactor). Although it's likely the PET in the scene was intended to be a Trek -era computer, given this film establishes that Kirk collects antiques, it could also have been part of his collection.
• The encounter between the Enterprise and the Reliant is glimpsed in ST : " Ephraim and Dot " (although the Enterprise is mistakenly labelled NCC-1701-A).
• The film's title, like so many others was altered by the teen soap drama Gossip Girl which starred Wallace Shawn as New York attorney Cyrus Rose in the second season episode "The Wrath of Con" albeit Shawn was not featured in it. Airdate Monday May 4th, 2009

The film alone does not clearly identify the year it is set on other than that it is somewhere in the early to mid 2280s . Based on some of the film's dialogue, the film was set fifteen years after " Space Seed ". Khan: " ... marooned here fifteen years ago by Captain James T. Kirk. " According to a line in the script, it was more accurately fourteen years after the episode. Kirk: " He wants to kill me for passing sentence on him fourteen years ago. " [7] "Space Seed" in turn aired in 1967 and is considered to be set in 2267 . This suggests The Wrath of Khan would be set in 2281 or 2282 though it cannot be fully confirmed given the six month gap could mean it's either early 2282 or very late 2281. Nick Meyer's commentary on the special edition DVD, explains that the intention was that the film depicted Kirk's 49th birthday. Kirk was born in 2233 , so this would support the year 2282.

Other accounts within and after the film suggest the events of the film took place later in the 2280s. The label on the bottle of Romulan ale that McCoy gives to Kirk as a birthday gift reads 2283 . In Star Trek Generations , in the Nexus , Kirk imagines himself eleven and nine years into the past, to the years 2282, when he met Antonia , and 2284 , to the day he told her he was returning to Starfleet. All those accounts suggest the events of this film occurred afterward, as Kirk was at the beginning of the film supervising command-track cadets at Starfleet Academy as an active Starfleet admiral. According to StarTrek.com , Star Trek Chronology , and Star Trek Encyclopedia , (3rd ed., p. 691) the events of The Wrath of Khan in fact occurred one year later in 2285 . This date was finally canonized in 2022 on a commemorative plaque for the Reliant which appeared in PIC : " The Star Gazer ". [8] (X) [9]

Despite its weaknesses, Star Trek: The Motion Picture had been a box-office success, so it came as no surprise that Paramount Pictures decided to develop a sequel. Gene Roddenberry 's first proposed storyline saw the Enterprise crew going back in time to make sure the Klingons did not stop the John F. Kennedy assassination. This idea was rejected and Roddenberry was forced to step into the background as "executive consultant" (at the request of Paramount executives who blamed him for the relative failure of the first film due to the constant re-writes he demanded) and Star Trek was handed over to newly-commissioned Paramount Television executive producer Harve Bennett . It was Bennett's job to develop a script that could be filmed on a reasonable budget (US$11.2 million, nearly $24 million less than the budget of TMP) and put a new Star Trek feature in the theaters in the summer of 1982. One of his biggest problems was finding the right approach to the material. The Motion Picture had adopted a very serious and epic style, which many felt was inappropriate. Somehow, the sequel would have to capture the essential heart of the show and give the audiences what they had been waiting for.

Star Trek: War of the Generations [ ]

Bennett watched all the original Star Trek episodes in preparation for his task. His trawl through the episodes provided him with what he had been looking for. He was determined that his movie would have something the first one lacked – a real villain. When he saw " Space Seed ", Bennett was struck by Ricardo Montalban 's performance as Khan, and decided that he would make the perfect villain for the film.

In November 1980, Bennett wrote a single-page outline called Star Trek: War of the Generations . In this story, Kirk is called to investigate a rebellion on a Federation world. En route he saves a woman he was once in love with and learns that their son – whom he never knew had been born – is one of the leaders of the rebellion. Upon arrival at the planet, Kirk is captured and sentenced to death by his own son before we learn that Khan is truly the mastermind behind the uprising. Kirk joins forces with his son to fight Khan, and the film ends with Kirk's son joining the crew of the Enterprise .

Bennett had already decided at the beginning that one of the film's major themes would be the aging of the characters. In the drafts that followed, Kirk was consistently confronted with a son he knew little about, Spock was often preoccupied with death, and, in the later versions, McCoy had to struggle with his feelings for a much younger woman, who had made it clear that she was interested in him.

Star Trek: The Omega System [ ]

Bennett still had to turn his outline into a workable script that could be shot, so he hired Jack B. Sowards , who had written several admired movies of the week and was a self-confessed Star Trek fan. Sowards instantly had a major impact. Where Bennett's original treatment made no mention of Spock, since Leonard Nimoy had made it clear that he was not keen to make a second Star Trek film, Sowards thought he had a way of persuading Nimoy to return: he suggested that Bennett tell Nimoy that in this film Spock would die a little more than a third into the story. The opportunity to play his death scene was too good for Nimoy to pass up, and he agreed to come aboard. From this point on, all the scripts featured Spock's death, although its position in the film would inevitably be pushed toward the dramatic conclusion.

Sowards had only a few months to write a full script before a writers's strike was called in April 1981. First, he expanded Bennett's outline into a nineteen-page treatment in which Kirk's former lover was named Diana, who was rescued from a refugee ship from Omega Minori IV where a revolution was underway, and who never told Kirk he had a son but Kirk discovers this later on. The treatment also introduced Mr. Wicks, the Enterprise 's male Vulcan science officer and Spock's replacement. Then, by February 20, Sowards had written a first draft that significantly expanded his treatment and added several vital elements. This script, titled Star Trek: The Omega System , introduced the idea that the Federation was preparing to test a terrible weapon known as the Omega System.

The film opened with Captain Terrell and his first officer, Pavel Chekov, beaming down to Ceti Alpha V, which had been selected as a test site, to make certain that the planet was as dead as sensor readings suggested. Starfleet knew that Kirk had left Khan and his people stranded on this planet, but was amazed to discover that he and a handful of his followers, including Marla McGivers , had survived. A vengeful Khan took control of Terrell and Chekov, and used them to take control of Project Omega. Terrell claimed that Kirk had ordered the Omega System to be loaded onto the USS Reliant , which was a Constitution -class starship like the Enterprise , and made it clear that it was going to be used to fight the Klingons in the Neutral Zone. Project leader Janet Wallace ( Sarah Marshall would have reprised her role from " The Deadly Years ") contacted Kirk, who ordered the Enterprise to set a course for Gamma Regula IV, the planet on which the project was headquartered. As Enterprise approached the planet, its engines were badly damaged, and Spock sacrificed his life to get them back online in time for Kirk to fight the Reliant off. Later, Khan and Kirk would fight a psychic battle in a variety of exotic locations, using quarterstaffs, whips, and swords. Khan, who had acquired impressive mental powers during his isolation, eventually won, but Kirk survived because he understood that the weapons were only illusory. The film ended with a pitched space battle in orbit around the planet, in which Kirk defeated his enemy with his superior tactics.

Star Trek: The Genesis Project [ ]

At this point, art director Michael Minor made an invaluable contribution. Bennett was concerned that the Omega System was simply a weapon and that there was nothing uplifting about it, so Minor suggested turning it into a device for terraformation , the reconstruction of a lifeless planet to give it the capability of supporting known life forms, especially intelligent ones like Humans. Because it would work by reordering matter on a planet's surface, it could still be a terrible weapon in the wrong hands, but the Federation's goal was to create a paradise, not to kill millions of millions. Bennett was delighted at this, and, in recognition of its Biblical power, the Omega System became the Genesis Device.

By April 10, Sowards had written a second draft of the script that incorporated the change and was now titled Star Trek: The Genesis Project . In this version, Janet Wallace had become Carol Baxter and Spock's death had been pushed a little later in the story. During the final battle, Khan fired the Genesis Device at the Enterprise but hit a planet, which was reborn as the two vessels continued their titanic struggle. This draft also included the first version of the simulator sequence in which Dr. Savik (formerly Mr. Wicks, now Captain Spock's first officer aboard the Enterprise ; taken from a separate six-page proposal) failed to rescue the Kobayashi Maru . When Dr. Savik questioned him about his failure, Kirk suggested that the test might be a "no-win scenario."

The New Star Trek [ ]

• Nicholas Meyer

By now, pre-production had begun in earnest, and line producer Robert Sallin and Mike Minor drew up storyboards for the effects sequences. But though this draft contained many, if not most, of the elements of the final script, Bennett and Sallin were not satisfied. To their minds, the script did not have the epic sweep needed for a major film, so they called upon Samuel A. Peeples , who had written " Where No Man Has Gone Before ", which had been the second pilot episode for The Original Series . Peeples submitted a story outline entitled Worlds That Never Were, which he transformed into the August 24th The New Star Trek script draft, entirely omitting the character of Khan and replaced him with two powerful aliens called Sojin and Moray, who had been exiled from another dimension and possessed almost godlike abilities. Also, Hikaru Sulu was the captain of the Reliant on which he served with Chekov. Finally, drawing from Theodore Sturgeon 's July 18 outline, Dr. Savik was now a half-Romulan, half-Vulcan woman. ( [10] ; The Making of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , pp. 47-51; Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 3, Issue 5 , pp. 84-85)

While Peeples was working on the script, Bennett and Sallin found a director they liked in the form of Nicholas Meyer . A week or so before the last draft was due to be delivered, they met with him and promised they would be back in touch as soon as they had the new script in their hands. Meanwhile, time pressures were becoming critical, and employees of effects company Industrial Light & Magic told the producers that without having a script within a matter of weeks, they would not be able to deliver the effects in time for the planned release date.

By the time the Peeples script arrived, Bennett and Sallin knew they could not film it. As Sallin explained: " We were off in some weird directions and I was really very concerned. It did not feel like a motion picture to me. Some of these ideas were too derivative and were too small in their scope. There wasn't anything underlying it. It was more about people shooting fire and things like that, as opposed to a real story. "

Star Trek II: The Undiscovered Country [ ]

Three weeks after their last meeting, Meyer called Bennett and asked where the script was. Although reluctant to share the script, which Bennett found almost embarrassing to share, Meyer persuaded him to send him the draft. Not impressed with what he had received, he called Bennett and told him and Sallin to come up to his house with all the different drafts of the script. The three of them made a list of all the things from all the different drafts that they wanted to end up in the final film, and then Meyer set out to compile a screenplay that incorporated all those things. Meyer concentrated on crafting a strong narrative by getting all the scenes in the right order and putting the story into his own words. " I was only interested in cobbling together and cannibalizing various parts that seemed useful ", he explained. " What I fell in love with is the story. I never looked at the scripts again, so there were no words that were appropriated. It all had to be in my own language and in a way that I could understand it. " By September 10, the end product was the Meyer screenplay titled Star Trek: The New Frontier , revised on September 29 under the name Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country , and finalized on January 18, 1982 as Star Trek II: The Undiscovered Country . [11]

Meyer had some very clear opinions about what made drama, and he was determined that, despite the futuristic setting, his film would make sense to a 20th century audience. Asked to quantify the character of his approach, Meyer produced two examples. The first was that he brought a sense of humor to the project, which is not to say that he did not treat it with proper respect. " I think that putting humor into a serious movie makes the serious stuff more serious, and the humor becomes more of an explosive release. " The other important decision he made was actually something he thought about when Bennett and Sallin had first asked him to direct the film. " I had the haziest notion of what Star Trek was, because I didn't really watch the show on television. I finally latched on to the idea (originated by no less than Gene Roddenberry himself) that Captain Kirk and friends were really an outer-space series of novels that I had loved as a kid, by C.S. Forrester, called 'Captain Horatio Hornblower'. So I said, 'OK, this is 'Hornblower' in outer space; I've got it'. When I wrote the script in 12 days it was very, very, very Navy, or, as my late wife used to say, 'Nautical but nice.' "

Casting [ ]

Because Ricardo Montalban had originated his role in " Space Seed " on the original program, director Nicholas Meyer was not involved with casting him, though he certainly had no complaints. " Khan is enough to tell you that this is a great actor ", he said. Most of Kirk's crew were in place, but Meyer was intimately involved with casting several new roles. He explained that what he was looking for was actors where he could see what the characters were feeling, even when they were not talking.

" For Carol Marcus I wanted a woman who was beautiful and looked like she could think; a woman who was attractive enough that you could see why Kirk would fall for her, and at the same time somebody who could keep up with him ", Meyer said. " [...] I loved Bibi Besch ; I became very close with her, and I used her again in 'The Day After'. She's no longer alive and I bitterly regret it; she was a lovely Human being, and a lovely actor. "

Paul Winfield as Captain Terrell

" Merritt Butrick is also tragically no longer alive ", Meyer lamented. " [As David Marcus] he not only had to be Kirk's son, he had to be Carol's son, so on a physical level I think what I liked was that his hair was the same color as hers but it was curly like Bill's, so I thought, 'Well, that's plausible.' "

" Paul Winfield was an actor I had wanted to work with since I saw 'Sounder,' " Meyer noted, " and I thought, 'Wow, what a lovely actor'. There was no real reason for him to be the captain of the Reliant , other than my great desire to direct him in scenes! I knew he could do it, without any question. " In The Next Generation , Winfield acted out a different role, that of the Tamarian captain Dathon , in " Darmok ".

The biggest casting coup was giving a young Kirstie Alley the role of Saavik. " She said as a child she wanted to be Spock and that she was so in love with the role that she wore her ears to sleep. [...] She didn't have to find the role; she didn't have to work her way into it ", Meyer pointed out. " She'd been living it somewhere in her head for years. There just wasn't a contest. I don't recall seeing another actor for that part who was as persuasive. " In addition to her instinctive understanding of the role, Alley brought another, slightly more definable quality to her role. Meyer explained: " The thing about her is that she's beautiful, but she also had a slightly other-worldly quality. [...] She was also able to encompass that sort of flat unemotionality, but she's basically a comedian. What I didn't know was that that flatness, like Leonard's, frequently comes out of a kind of a deadpan. I realized that when I watched her doing it. Then, at the other end of it, there she was at Spock's funeral, weeping. I remember somebody came running up to me and said, 'Are you going to let her do that?' And I said, 'Yeah.' And they said, 'But Vulcans don't cry', and I said, 'Well, that's what makes this such an interesting Vulcan.' " In dialogue not retained in the final film, Saavik was described as being half- Romulan , which might have explained her tears.

When production designer Joseph R. Jennings reported for work on the second Star Trek film, he found the sets for the USS Enterprise still standing. After director Robert Wise had finished filming the first feature, he had simply closed the stage doors and moved on. In the intervening months, the interiors of the giant starship had been sitting patiently, waiting to go back into action.

Most of the action in the film takes place on the bridge of the Enterprise . Although the set may appear quite different from the bridge on The Motion Picture , Jennings only made cosmetic changes to the design. The layout remained the same, but in order to make the second film warmer than its predecessor, the set was repainted in darker colors.

Director Nicholas Meyer very much disliked the design of the Enterprise bridge set, because in his view there were many things that did not make sense: " [...] to take a silly example, if they are in terrible circumstances and everything gets all shook up, why don't they have seatbelts? And the answer is, because if they had seatbelts, it wouldn't be very interesting. Most of the movie actually takes place on that damn bridge, which is a very tedious set to photograph, and it was also, in a reconfigured form, the bridge of the Reliant , so I spent a lot of time there. "

" The biggest problem was just keeping alive what is happening in a 360-degree world. The bridge was, very rightly, built in pie sections, so you could yank out sections and put the camera in. But, occasionally, you might want to be in the middle and sweep the camera around at what is going on. The sections are curved at the top, so when they are all in, how do you get light in there? It's a sort of a nightmare scenario. Gayne Rescher (director of photography) invented a lot of very peculiar apparatus that dropped in from the top with light coming off, like a big chandelier on a chain. "

The Wrath of Khan did not have the budget to allow for significant alterations to be made to the bridge set, but Meyer did ask Jennings to find ways of making it appear more detailed and specific. " The least I thought we could do was revamp the bridge and make it twinkle. I remember I had Joe Jennings build me a wall of blinking lights. It was on wheels, and we would shove this thing around behind people, to try anything to break up this expanse of gray panel. "

Director Nicholas Meyer insisted on a certain amount of 'business,' so the art department built gratings into the floor of the photon torpedo room that had to be lifted before firing.

Although several other sets were also still in place, the Enterprise still gave Jennings plenty of work to do. As he recalled: " A new script will call for different things; somebody walks down a corridor and goes into another room and, bang, you don't have that room, so you add it. And it grows [...] until the stage sort of bulges out. "

The most obvious new addition was the torpedo room. Few people would realize it, but this set was actually a redressed version of the Klingon bridge from the first film. The torpedo room set featured a long channel where the torpedoes were loaded. Meyer wanted to have as much movement as possible in the action sequences, so he had Jennings put grates down over the channel that had to be lifted when the Enterprise went into battle.

The Enterprise bridge set was also adapted to serve as the bridge of the USS Reliant . " We had one thing going for us ", said Jennings. " There's a great deal of similarity between the bridge of a destroyer and the bridge of a cruiser in the American Navy. We gave it a change of color and orientation, and we got rid of the big screen in front. As I recall, we changed some of the seating arrangements and the elevators a little bit, and, of course, we added the ceiling piece to it, because the beam had to come down and pin Ricardo to the floor. The whole ceiling piece was something that had never been featured in the bridge of the Enterprise . That gave it a different look. "

This "Starfleet Headquarters" set used a perspective trick to appear much bigger than it really was.

One of the non-starship sets Jennings worked on was an interior section of Starfleet Headquarters, where a brief scene shows Kirk walking out of the simulator and heading for an elevator. In reality, this set was much smaller than it appeared. Jennings explained: " Mike [Minor] had a bright idea; he went out to several hardware stores and came back with a birdbath, a planter, and a bunch of junk. He went off and fiddled with it for about two days, and he came up with a miniature. We put that in the foreground as what is called a 'cutting piece', and the real set was in the background. They tied together visually and created a perspective trick that made the set look much bigger. "

Kirk's apartment in San Francisco was filled with collectibles that demonstrated his interest in the past, including many nautical objects for which Nicholas Meyer asked.

The next time we saw Kirk, he was in his apartment. Jennings had fond memories of this set and said that the challenge was to make it clear that it was in San Francisco, but also show that it was a 23rd century building. The setting was established by using a backdrop showing the Golden Gate Bridge that had been made for The Towering Inferno . The next task, Jennings explained, was to make the room appear futuristic. " You set up your frame of reference, and then within that you've got to be honest, which will lend credibility to the physical aspects of your show. Like all architecture, it has to look as though it's possible to live in it; you look for materials, for instance, that are unfamiliar, or that are being used in an unfamiliar fashion, to make your design look different from what the public is seeing today. "

Despite the need to make the apartment look futuristic, Meyer also impressed on the production crew that he doubted things would undergo a complete change in the future, so the apartment still had to look like a home. " A fireplace would be an anachronism but would still fit Kirk's image of having a cozy place to live ", said Jennings, " so we had to make a fireplace that looked a little different; hence we used the curved wall and the mosaic treatment behind it. " Meyer also wanted to suggest that Kirk had too much time on his hands in retirement and had a real attachment to the past, so Jennings and his team filled the set with antique collectibles.

However, Meyer was unhappy with the Genesis cave set, combining live footage with a matte painting. He thought that the scene looked false and too constructed, and would have used a real location instead, but neither time nor budget would allow it.

Costumes [ ]

Starfleet uniforms [ ].

When Robert Sallin came on board as producer for Star Trek II , one of the first things he did was change the wardrobe of the Starfleet officers. Sallin wanted the uniforms redesigned, yet, entirely due to budgetary reasons, he did not want to discard the old jumpsuits from the first Star Trek movie. " [...] so I said, 'Let's do some dye tests.' To this day, I have the swatches of the different-colored uniforms that we tested to see if we could reuse some of the old material and rework it. " ( citation needed • edit )

The series of dye tests showed that the old uniforms would take three different colors well: a blue-gray ("lead"), a gold (which proved to photograph almost "bronze"), and a dark red, or maroon ("blood"). The plan was to use the modified uniforms for the junior cadets and enlisted crew while enough money could be found to design an entirely new wardrobe for the senior officers.

The section colors were preserved on the undershirts and on the rank insignia on the shoulder, although wardrobe designer Robert Fletcher assigned new colors to each section of Starfleet.

Director Nicholas Meyer had some very specific ideas about how the uniforms should look. " I decided that this was going to be 'Hornblower' in outer space, so I said, 'Okay, if this is going to be the Navy, let's have them look like the Navy; they shouldn't be walking around in pajamas.' Which seemed to me to be what the uniforms in the first movie and the TV show looked like. " Additionally, Meyer had one other, significant instruction for costume designer Robert Fletcher : he wanted the costumes to be reminiscent of the clothes worn in the film The Prisoner of Zenda . ( citation needed • edit )

Fletcher was careful not to reproduce any specific naval uniforms and used the dark red that had been discovered during the dye tests. Meyer was keen on this approach, since it made the costumes dramatic and created a strong contrast with the background. The first versions of the uniform had a stiff black collar like the costumes in The Prisoner of Zenda . Producer Robert Sallin suggested changing this into a turtleneck and after he made the alterations, Fletcher decided to use trapunto, which is a form of vertical quilting. By 1981-82, the machines and specialized needles used to produce trapunto had become exceedingly rare, and Fletcher was able to secure only one needle for the entire wardrobe department. Fletcher said: " That trapunto machine saved my life. The machines are very rare and are not made anymore. We had, perhaps, the only one in existence on the West Coast, a 50-year-old antique. We lived in constant fear that we were going to break its one and only needle, because, of course, you can't get THEM anymore either! " One day, Fletcher genuinely worried that the needle had been lost or stolen (and even entertained thoughts of it being held for ransom) when one of the department's workers had taken it home as a security measure. ( citation needed • edit )

Meyer had always wanted the uniforms to feel as real as possible, and thus asked for rank insignia. Fletcher explained: " There was kind of a complicated arrangement of divisions and ranks expressed by the braid on the sleeves. I made that up. I organized it and produced a little instruction booklet about it for the wardrobe department [...]. " On the early version of the uniforms, the insignia was on a band around the upper arm, which was later moved to the cuff. The last major change was to redesign the flap of the double-breasted jacket so that it would actually open. This was something Meyer wanted because he felt the lighter color on the inside of the flap would frame the actors' faces better. ( citation needed • edit )

The flaps, however, did present Fletcher with a problem: when they were open, one could clearly see the snaps that held it in place, and, as he says, these looked distinctly unfuturistic. " In order to make these look less like plain old snaps, I found this sterling silver chain that looked strange. I ordered a reel of it and sewed it in with the snaps to give it a feeling that it was perhaps a magnetic closing. " ( citation needed • edit )

In toto, the design for the uniforms that resulted from all this proved to be extremely difficult for fans to duplicate accurately, and it ended up being called the "monster maroon" uniform design for that reason. ( citation needed • edit )

Khan and his people [ ]

For Khan and his followers, Fletcher wanted to create a definite contrast with the highly organized Starfleet uniforms . As he explained, his idea was that they had been forced to cobble together their costumes out of whatever they could find. " My intention with Khan was to express the fact that they had been marooned on that planet with no technical infrastructure, so they had to cannibalize from the spaceship whatever they used or wore. Therefore, I tried to make it look as if they had dressed themselves out of pieces of upholstery and electrical equipment that composed the ship. " After Khan and his followers hijacked the Reliant , many of them (including Khan himself in one scene) are seen wearing the stolen Starfleet uniforms of the Reliant crew as open jackets, with Khan himself wearing one of Terrell's, as the captain's rank insignia is prominently featured. ( citation needed • edit )

Ricardo Montalban's costume was designed to expose as much of his chest and arms as possible.

He added that when it came to Khan's costume, there was another major consideration. " We wanted to show Ricardo Mantalban's physique. He was rather proud of it, as he should have been. That was a theatrical gesture. " Of course, when Khan first appears, he is dressed from head to foot in rags. Again, Fletcher said, the design of this costume was dictated by Khan's situation. " They had to protect themselves from the planet, which was very inhospitable. That was the origin for the kind of Bedouin look. If you have nothing else, and you have access to some fabric you may have ripped out of a bedroom or whatever, then you wrap yourself up to protect yourself from the sandstorm. " (In Shane Johnson's Star Fleet Uniform Recognition Manual , Khan's primary outfit was described as being the remains of a life-support suit designed specifically for use with the DY series of sleeper ships, such as the Botany Bay itself had once been.) ( citation needed • edit )

For the remaining costumes, Fletcher's biggest concern was to create a sense of contrast with the major outfits. Carol Marcus and her team were given white smocks that suggested futuristic lab coats and, in the scene where Kirk and McCoy are dressed in civilian clothes, Fletcher tried his best to make sure the outfits looked practical and comfortable. Amusingly, Fletcher said the one costume that he got asked about most made only a fleeting appearance in the film. When Kirk visits Spock in his quarters, the Vulcan is wearing the same robes he wore in the previous movie. " People always ask me what the writing on front of Spock's black velvet, at-home costume symbolize. I have to explain the language that I invented to decorate those things, and I can't! All I can say is that it's very akin to Chinese; it's non-syllabic, and the various shapes contain an entire thought and you don't use them to make words. " Whether these robes became Spock's burial robes was never made clear in the final film, but the various younger actors who appeared as the younger Spock in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock wore robes that looked very similar to those Nimoy himself had worn. ( citation needed • edit )

He added that most of the costumes feature what he described as "corrupt" colors. " Technically, they are colors that are a little bit tinged with their complements. Probably, the closest thing in art history is art deco colors. I once did a production of Offenbach's Voyage to the Moon , and I based that on the fact that the moon probably looked like an art deco world. Maybe that struck in my mind, because I used those colors here. " He added that because these colors are not quite true, there is something slightly odd about them, which gives the audience the feeling they are from a different world. ( citation needed • edit )

The casual wear worn by William Shatner as Kirk was sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay. [12]

Shooting [ ]

Sallin insisted that Kirk's first appearance was as dramatic as possible. He wanted a shot when Kirk was silhouetted by the light behind him, and when the first version was not powerful enough, he had it reshot.

At the opening of the film, Robert Sallin wanted to make the entry of Kirk as dramatic as possible. He explained: " [...] we're introducing Captain Kirk. I think we need a little drama here, so here's what I want to do. When those doors open, the room is filled with smoke, and I want him to emerge in silhouette. I want the strongest backlight you can give him, directly behind him, so that when he walks through there are fingers of light that surround him in the smoke. I want it to look like the Second Coming. " The original version shot was not powerful enough for Sallin, so he made sure that it was reshot.

Sallin found a way of giving Meyer this shot of a torpedo without having to rebuild the set.

During Spock's funeral scene, director Nicholas Meyer wanted the camera to be directly in front of the torpedo that acted as a coffin and to move with it as it slid into the launcher. " I [Robert Sallin] got a call from the head of production at Paramount: 'Nick [Meyer] wants this, and we're going to have to rip out the floor, and we're going to have to rebuild the set so it's high enough off the ground to get the camera in. We've got to talk to Nick.' We all went down there, and everyone was gathered around looking at this through. I just turned to the key grip and said, 'Do you have a Western dolly?' That's basically a trolley that you use to pull the camera. He said, 'Yes', and I said, 'Have you that tubular track for it? And can you put on the little wheels?' He nodded, and I said, 'Can't we mount the camera on the dolly, put the track down inside the trough, then move the camera with an offset arm [which allows one to control it from above] and do the shot that way?' He said, 'Yeah, we can do that', and I said, 'What's that going to cost?' and he said, 'About $30', and I said, 'Well, I think that's what we're doing, then!' "

Visual effects [ ]

The visual effects for The Wrath of Khan were filmed quickly and efficiently – and, most importantly, they came in on budget. Unlike the first Star Trek feature, the effects were produced by Industrial Light & Magic, a company which would come to dominate the industry in the coming decades. Producer Robert Sallin recalled ILM's approach to the project: " They were incredible. The most professional, the most delightful, the most responsive; I couldn't say enough good things about the whole crew. It was an amazing experience. "

The Regula I space station

As a sequel, Star Trek II was able to reuse most of the models that had already been built for The Motion Picture. Besides the Enterprise model, Sallin wanted to make use of the orbital office complex that Kirk beamed up to in the first film; it became the Regula I space station. Steve Gawley , head of the model shop at the time, recalled: " We took it [the orbital office model] apart and put it upside down and then reattached some of the outer pods in a different way. " This also made sense from a storytelling-continuity standpoint, as it suggested that by the latter half of the 23rd century, space station designs might have become fairly standardized.

The remaining model shots required entirely new models. The ILM team built the Regula planetoid and several other simple pieces, but the main task was the construction of the Reliant , which was the first Starfleet vessel other than the Constitution -class ever seen. Paramount's art department provided the model builders with detailed drawings to work from, and, as modelmaker Bill George remembered, a general instruction that the Enterprise and Reliant should look as different from one another as possible. " The one thing that was a little bit different on the drawings was that they had come up with a totally new color scheme for the graphics, thinking that would make it look different. [...] When I got them in, I said, 'This can't happen.' So I showed them to Kenneth Ralston [ILM supervisor to the film]. His take on it was, 'Let's put on the Federation graphics we've seen before, and see what they say.' Thankfully, the producers were happy with it. "

The biggest challenge the ILM team faced was showing the heavy damage that the Enterprise and Reliant inflicted on each other in the script. The model shop used several different approaches to make sure that they did not actually have to damage the models. On the Enterprise , the damage was essentially cosmetic; pieces of aluminum were added on which were tainted so that, where need be, the damage could literally be peeled off. The damage to the Reliant was much more serious, so larger versions of different parts of the ship were built that could be destroyed.

The initial confrontation ended with the destruction of a dome (the impulse deflection crystal) toward the rear of the Reliant 's saucer. After that came the biggest single effects sequence of the film – the Battle of the Mutara Nebula . To create the nebula, the team used a cloud tank, which is basically a large container with colored liquid in it. The team spent weeks shooting the tank, searching for shots that could be used as background for the epic battle. When everything was finished, the team sat down to look through all their footage for shots they could use with the models.

The Reliant inflicts severe damage to the Enterprise.

Once the nebula had been filmed, the team focused on the starships that would be moving around inside it. Because the ships were often in the distance, the team was able to use small versions of the models which were much easier to handle than the full-size models and could perform bigger maneuvers. In one of the most impressive scenes of the battle, the Reliant fires its phasers at the Enterprise 's "neck" (interconnecting dorsal) section, cutting an enormous gash in the process – and rendering one of the Enterprise 's photon torpedo tubes useless. This shot was created using traditional stop animation techniques. Kenneth Ralston explained: " I had that section done as a wax piece and then painted it to look like the ship. Obviously, we worked out exactly how the camera was going to move. Then I just went into the wax version, and I would take little sculpting tools and rip stuff up and bend it around. We'd film that, then the camera would move whatever distance it would cover in one frame, and I'd sculpt some more damage. Then, on top of that, we did some animation of a laser hit sort of cutting into it, but it left a real cut – a big scar [...]. "

The Reliant's nacelle is blown off.

The damage brought onto the Reliant was even more severe and involved making several separate sections. " One of the engine pods blows up ", remembered Ralston. " We couldn't blow up the whole pod for some reason, so I built a shape similar to it and it was more like glass blowing out of the warp nacelle. We shot that as a separate element and then printed that on top of the actual model for the Reliant , with other pieces blowing off of it. Then, when the whole nacelle blows off, that was just a bunch of explosions and a separate arm that we shot using motion control. "

Perhaps the most important visual effect in the film in terms of historical significance is the Genesis Effect. This is the first use of particle effects in a motion picture. Particle effects are now widely used.

Production history [ ]

• 1980 – Paramount plans a TV-movie sequel; Gene Roddenberry submits a script but it is rejected and he is taken off the project, relegated to Executive Consultant; sequel upgraded to theatrical feature
• 13 November 1980 – Harve Bennett submits 1-page outline titled Star Trek: War of the Generations
• 18 December 1980 – Jack B. Sowards submits 19-page story treatment based on Bennett's outline
• 20 February 1981 – Sowards submits 1st draft of script titled Star Trek: The Omega System
• 10 April 1981 – Sowards submits revised 2nd draft of script, now titled Star Trek: The Genesis Project [13] (X)
• 1st storyboards for special effects by line producer Robert Sullin and production designer Mike Minor
• 18 July 1981 – Outline, perhaps by Theodore Sturgeon , fleshes out Dr. Savik as a female officer who becomes romantically involved with David Marcus
• 24 August 1981 – Samuel A. Peeples submits alternative 155-page script titled The New Star Trek [14] (X)
• 10 September 1981 – Nicholas Meyer submits 1st draft of final script titled Star Trek: The New Frontier [15] (X)
• 16 September 1981 – Meyer submits 2nd draft of script titled Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country [16] (X)
• 29 September 1981 – Meyer delivers 3rd draft of script [17] (X)
• 9 November 1981 – 12-week principal photography begins
• 18 January 1982 – Meyer delivers 4th draft of script, now titled Star Trek II: The Undiscovered Country [18] (X)
• 29 January 1982 – Principal photography ends
• March 1982 – After marketing tests, Paramount Pictures officially changes the title to Star Trek II: The Vengeance of Khan
• early April 1982 – Paramount Pictures, once again, officially changes the title to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan to avoid confusing audiences (and as a gesture of good faith to George Lucas) with the then titled Star Wars: Revenge of the Jedi
• 12-15 April 1982 – 1st session of recording James Horner's score at the Warner Bros. lot, Burbank Studios
• 30 April 1982 – Pickup session to record the Mutara Battle score
• 3 May 1982 – 3rd session to record revised epilogue
• 4 June 1982 – Theatrical release
• 16 July 1982 – British Theatrical release. The film is cut by 10 seconds at the behest of the BBFC.
• 24 February 1985 – US Network Television Premiere on ABC Television Network.
• 10 & 13 September 2017 – For the occasion of the film's 35th anniversary , NCM Fathom Events organizes a to 600 screens limited theatrical release of the Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan  (Director's Cut) . A newly produced, in-depth interview with William Shatner, conducted by Access Hollywood critic Scott Mantz , plays before the start of the film. [19] [20]

Awards and honors [ ]

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan received the following awards and honors:

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• US Betamax release: 1982

Merchandise gallery [ ]

Apocrypha [ ]

• In order to explain Khan's recognition of Chekov, Greg Cox 's novel To Reign In Hell established that Chekov was a security officer at the time of this episode and he led the security team that escorted Khan and his people down to Ceti Alpha V. He also led an assault against Khan and his followers to retake engineering, but were forced back.

Appendices [ ]

Credits [ ], opening credits [ ].

• William Shatner
• Leonard Nimoy
• DeForest Kelley
• James Doohan
• Walter Koenig
• George Takei
• Nichelle Nichols
• Merritt Butrick as David
• Paul Winfield as Terrell
• Kirstie Alley as Saavik
• Ricardo Montalban as Khan
• Gene Roddenberry
• James Horner
• William P. Dornisch
• Joseph R. Jennings
• Gayne Rescher , ASC
• Harve Bennett
• Jack B. Sowards
• Robert Sallin

Closing credits [ ]

• Kirk : William Shatner
• Spock : Leonard Nimoy
• McCoy : DeForest Kelley
• Scotty : James Doohan
• Chekov : Walter Koenig
• Sulu : George Takei
• Uhura : Nichelle Nichols
• Carol : Bibi Besch
• David : Merritt Butrick
• Terrell : Paul Winfield
• Saavik : Kirstie Alley
• Khan : Ricardo Montalban
• Preston : Ike Eisenmann
• Jedda : John Vargas
• Kyle : John Winston
• Beach : Paul Kent
• Cadet : Nicholas Guest
• Madison : Russell Takaki
• March : Kevin Sullivan
• Crew Chief : Joel Marstan
• Bridge Voice: Teresa E. Victor
• Radio Voice: Dianne Harper
• Radio Voice : David Ruprecht
• Computer Voice : Marcy Vosburgh
• Steve Blalock ( Enterprise crewmember )
• Janet Brady
• Diane Carter ( Regula I scientist )
• Tony Cecere
• Ann Chatterton ( Augment )
• Gilbert Combs ( Enterprise engineer )
• Jim Conners
• Bill Couch, Sr.
• Bill Couch, Jr.
• Eddy Donno ( Regula I chef )
• John Eskobar
• Chuck Hicks
• Tommy J. Huff
• Hubie Kerns, Jr. ( Enterprise trainee )
• Paula Moody
• Tom Morga ( Enterprise crewman / Dry dock worker )
• Mary Peters
• Ernest Robinson
• John Robotham
• Kim Washington
• Mike Washlake ( Enterprise trainee )
• George Wilbur
• William F. Phillips
• Robert Fletcher
• Austen Jewell
• Douglas E. Wise
• Richard Espinoza
• Thomas W. Lay Jr.
• Charles M. Graffeo
• Craig Denault
• Catherine Coulson
• Tom Connole
• Jim Alexander
• Patrick Clark
• Mark S. Server
• Agnes G. Henry
• Kimon Beazlie
• Joseph Markham
• Robin Michel Bush
• Werner Keppler
• James L. McCoy
• Dione Taylor
• Mary Jane Ferguson
• Edward A. Ayer
• Martin Becker
• Gary F. Bentley
• Fred Brauer
• Peter G. Evangelatos
• William Purcell
• Harry Stewart
• Sam Nicholson
• Romolo Acquistapace
• Charles Langham
• Murphy Wiltz
• Gene Griffith
• Don Whipple
• Gary L. Jensen
• Charles C. Eguia
• Michael Friedman
• Michael C. Gian
• John Graffeo
• Al DeGaetano
• Daniel Gluck
• Daniel E. Maltese
• Mike McDuffee
• Rick Valencia
• Howard Davidson
• Terry Ahern
• Jeff Melichar
• Edward Egan
• Bruce Birmelin
• John A. Haggar
• Christopher L. Koefoed
• Cecelia Hall
• George Watters II
• Teresa Eckton
• Michael Hilkene
• Jim Siracusa
• Curt Schulkey
• Alan Howarth
• Eugene Finley
• Cliff Bell, Jr.
• Robert Badami
• Dan Wallin , Record Plant Scoring
• Ray West , CAS
• David J. Hudson
• Mel Metcalf
• Mary V. Buck
• Dr. Richard Green
• Rodger Johnson
• Marc Okrand
• Deborah Arakelian

Industrial Light & Magic , a Division of Lucasfilm, Ltd.

• Jim Veilleux
• Ken Ralston
• Scott Farrar
• Stewart Barbee
• Selwyn Eddy III
• David Hardberger
• Robert Hill
• Michael Santy
• Bruce Nicholson
• David Berry
• Keneth Smith
• Donald Clark
• Thomas Rosseter
• Ralph Gordon
• Tim Geideman
• Duncan Myers
• Bob Chrisoulis
• Patricia Rose Duignan
• Warren Franklin
• Chris Evans
• Frank Ordaz
• Neil Krepela
• Craig Barron
• Steve Gawley
• William George
• Steve Sanders
• Bob Diepenbrock
• Mike Fulmer
• Marty Brenneis
• Samuel Comstock
• Kim Knowlton
• Scott Caple
• Kathryn Lenihan
• Judy Elkins

Additional Animation Visual Concept Engineering [ ]

• Arthur Repola
• Peter Amundson
• Malcom Blanchard
• Loren Carpenter
• Robert D. Poor
• Thomas Porter
• William Reeves
• Alvy Ray Smith
• Brent Watson
• Steve McAllister
• Neil Harrington
• Dr. Robert Langridge
• Terry Chostner
• Roberto McGrath
• Kerry Nordquist
• T.E. Moehnke
• Dave Childers
• Harold Cole
• Bobby Finley III
• Patrick Fitzsimmons
• Edward Hirsh
• John McCleod
• Peter Stolz
• Thaine Morris
• Wade Childress
• Bruce Hill Productions
• Kyle Turner
• Kathy Shine
• The National Aeronautics & Space Administration
• The Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• The Burbank Studios
• Hal Landaker
• Alan Landaker
• Los Alamos National Laboratory
• Modern Film Effects
• Music by Alexander Courage
• Panavision ®
• Bill Baker as Trainee lieutenant j.g.
• Laura Banks as Khan's navigator
• Harve Bennett as Bridge simulator computer voice
• Pam Bennett as Khan's woman
• Steve Bond as Khan's henchman
• Fletcher Bryant as Khan's henchman
• Todd Bryant as Engineering cadet
• Brett Baxter Clark as Khan's henchman
• Tim Culbertson as Khan's henchman
• Brian Davis as trainee Enterprise crewmember
• Richard Forinash as Enterprise lieutenant
• John Gibson as Khan's henchman
• Anthony Gordon as Regula I steward
• James Horner as Enterprise training officer
• Ree Kai as trainee Enterprise crewmember
• Dennis Landry as Khan's henchman
• Cristian Letelier as engineering cadet
• MacKing as Stran
• Jeff McBride as Khan's henchman
• Roger Menache as Khan's henchman
• Chuck Powers as Enterprise crewman
• Nanci Rogers as Khan's henchwoman
• Tony Roque as Enterprise engineer
• Kimberly Ryusaki as Trainee Enterprise crewmember
• George Sasaki as engineering crewman
• Judson Scott as Joachim
• John Staible as Enterprise crewman
• Deney Terrio as Khan's henchman
• Sergio Valentino as trainee Enterprise crewmember
• Philip Weyland as Enterprise crewman
• Daniel Wong as engineering cadet
• Man cleaning floor
• Enterprise trainee blowing boatswain's whistle
• Enterprise trainee bridge officer (male)
• Enterprise engineering crewman
• Enterprise nurses
• Enterprise medical staff member 1
• Enterprise medical staff member 2
• Reliant bridge officer 1
• Reliant bridge officer 2
• Reliant navigator
• Nicholas Meyer – Writer (screenplay)
• Samuel A. Peeples – Writer (story, additional writing material)
• Lightning Bear – Stunts
• Emil Richards – Percussionist
• Marvin Hoar – Video Operator
• Peter Lauritson – Pre-production
• Joel Marston – Dialogue Coach for William Shatner
• Ed Moskowitz – Video Operator
• Kathleen Nicholson Graham – Bagpipes performer " Amazing Grace "
• Jim Padgett – Video Operator
• Kevin Pike – Special Effects Artist
• Lee Dragu – Personal Assistant: Nicholas Meyer
• David Sosalla – Model sculptor: ILM
• Kirk Thatcher – Model sculptor: ILM
• The Producers Acknowledge the Invaluable Assistance of Bjo Trimble and Samuel A. Peeples in All Matters Relating to Star Trek

References [ ]

19th century ; 20th century ; 2185 ; 2267 ; 2283 ; 2284 ; 3rd class neutronic fuel carrier ; abandon ; able seaman ; aft thruster ; age ; airlock ; allergy ; " all hands "; Altair VI ; Amber ; " Amazing Grace "; amusement ; analysis ; Antares maelstrom ; antique ; apartment ( James T. Kirk's San Francisco apartment ); area ; Armageddon ; arrival ; assumption ; atmosphere ; attack ; attack course ; attention ; authority ; auxiliary power ; bagpipes ; battery ; battle ; battle stations ; bearing ; biblical references ; birthday ; birthday present ; bionetics ; blood ; " bloodsucker "; blue shift ; boatswain's whistle ; body ; " Bones "; bookshelf ; Botany Bay , SS ; Boy Scouts ; bridge ; bridge (game) ; bridge simulator ; briefing room ; " by the book "; cadet ; cargo bay ; cargo carrier casualty ; " caught with my britches down " ( britches ); cerebral cortex ; Ceti Alpha ; Ceti Alpha V ; Ceti Alpha VI ; Ceti eel ; chambers coil ; channel ; chance ; cheating ; checkers ; children ; Christmas tree ; Ciardi, John ; civilization ; class D ; coil emission ; collection ; command ability ; command console ; commander ; commendation ; comm-pic ; comm system ; combination code ; compartment ; computer ; computer console ; comrade ; concept ; conclusion ; console ; coordinates ; cosmos (aka universe ); course heading ; craylon gas ; creature ; crew ; criminal ; damage ; damage report ; danger ; Dante ; Dante's Inferno ; data ; data bank ; data chart ; day ; death ; defense field ; departure ; destiny ; detonation ; dinner ; " dirty work "; distance ; distress channel ; domestication ; doppler compensator ; drama critic ; duty officer ; dynoscanner ; ear ; Earth ; effect ; efficiency rating ; ego ; Einstein, Albert ; elevator ; emergency channel ; emergency light ; emergency situation ; enemy ; energizer ; energy flux ; engineer's mate ; Enterprise , USS ; Enterprise -class ; escape pod ; estimating ; eternity ; eulogy ; evasive action ; event ; Excellency ; exile ; experiment ; face ; fact ; Federation Science Bureau ; fermentation ; fire extinguisher ; fireplace ; firing switch ; flag officer ; floor cleaner ; fondness ; food ; food supply ; frequency ; friend ; French language ; funeral ; galaxy ; Gamma Hydra ; Gamma Hydra sector ; garden ; gas cloud ; General Order 12 ; General Order 15 ; Genesis cave ; Genesis Device ; Genesis effect ; Genesis Experiment ; Genesis Planet ; Genesis Planet sun ; Genesis wave ; genetic engineering ; geoplastics ; gift ; " give the word "; God ; goose ; gravitic mine ; gravitronics ; green ; Green, R.N. ; hair ; hairstyle ; hate ; heart ; Hell ; hello ; hijacking ; Holy Bible ; hospitality ; host ; hour ; hull ; Human ; humor ; hyperchannel ; idea ; impression ; impulse power ; information ; ingenuity ; " in over our heads "; inspection ; intention ; intercept course ; intruder alert ; " it never rains but it pours "; jamming range ; JBK sensors synthostasis ; joke ; judgment ; K't'inga -class ; katra ; Khan's wife ; King Lear ; kilometer ; Klingons ; Klingon aphrodisiacs ; Klingon battle cruisers ; Klingon Neutral Zone ; Klingon proverb ; Kobayashi Maru ; Kobayashi Maru personnel ; Kobayashi Maru scenario ; laboratory ; lie ; life ; lifeform ; life sign ; life support system ; listening ; light ; log buoy ; logic ; loitering ; luxury ; madness ; main energizer ; main power ; main stage flux chamber ; mains ; maintenance crew ; Mark IV bridge simulator ; marksman ; marooning ; mass ; matter ; meaning ; medical tricorder ; memory ; memory bank ; message ; meter ; microbe ; midshipman first class ; military ; million ; " mince words "; mind ; minute ; mission ; mistake ; Moby Dick ; model ; molecular structure ; month ; moon ; moons of Nibia ; mooring ; moral implication ; motor ; murder ; Mutara Nebula ; Mutara Nebula, Battle of the ; myth ; nebula perimeter ; " neck of the woods "; Newton, Isaac ; Niagara , USS ; Nibia ; ninny ; No smoking sign ; " no-win situation "; odds ; offspring ; " on leave "; orbit ; order ; ore ; override ; parabolic course ; Paradise Lost ; Paradise Regained ; " par for the course "; particle ; passenger ; passion ; " pat on the back "; patient ; pawn ; peace ; perdition ; performance ; period ; permission ; pet ; phaser ; phaser emitter ; phaser lock ; phaser power ; photon torpedo ; physician ; photon control ; photon torpedo ; place ; plan ; planet ( world ); planetoid ; poem ; poetry ; population ; port ; power ; power (politics); pray ; preanimate matter ; prefix code ; prefix number ; prestage flux chamber ; prince ; prisoner ; product ; problem ; progress ; Project Genesis ; Project Genesis Summary ; promotion ; proposal ; proverb ; quadrant ; quarters ; question ; quoting ; radiation ; radiation poisoning ; red shift ; Regula ; Regula I ; Reliant , USS ; rescue ; rescue mission ; respect ; resting place ; result ; retinal scan ; Retinax V ; " Revenge is a dish best served cold "; rigor mortis ; risk ; rock ; Romulans ; Romulan ale ; running light ; sacrifice ; sailing ship ; sand ; San Francisco ; " sauce for the goose " ( goose ; sauce ): scientific research laboratory ; scientist ; Scots language ; Scott's sister ; screen ; search ; section ; Section 10 ; Section 14 ; Section 15 ; security scan ; security procedure ; self-expression ; senile ; senior officer ; sensor ; shield ; ship's bell ; ship's company ; shore leave ; signal ; Signet ; simulator room ; slit ; solution ; " son of a bitch "; sorrow ; soul ; space ; space body ; spacedock ; space shuttle ; spacesuit ; speaker ; speed ; standard orbit ; " stand by "; starbase ; starboard ; Starfleet ; Starfleet Command ; Starfleet Corps of Engineers ; General Orders and Regulations ; Starfleet Headquarters ; Starfleet Operations ; starship ; static ; static discharge ; steal ; strength ; student ; subatomic level ; suggestion ; sunrise ; Surak ; surprise ; surface scan ; surrender ; survival ; survivor ; tactical display ; tactical situation monitor ; tale ; Tale of Two Cities, A ; tape ; target ; Tau Ceti IV ; teacher ; test of character ; test site ; thermonics ; thermowave multiplexer ; thing ; thinking ; thought ; throat ; Tiberian bat ; tiger ; toast ; torpedo bay ; torture ; trainee ; trainee crew ; training mission ; training voyage ( training cruise ); tranquilizer ; transmission ; transporter ; transporter room ; travel pod ( unnamed ); travel pod 05 ; treaty ; tricorder ; type 2 phaser ; United Federation of Planets ; velocity ; victim ; voice message ; Vulcan ; Vulcan language ; Vulcan nerve pinch ; Vulcan salute ; Wallis, D.E. ; warp drive ; warp engine ; warp speed ; Wave Matrix ETM Storage ; weapon ; weapons console ; weapons pod ; " wee "; week ; wind ; wisdom ; word ; wound ; yellow alert ;

Other references [ ]

• Starfleet Training Command (STC), 2nd Level: Administrative Offices ; Arakelian, D. ; Astrogation ; battalion commander ; Beam Technology ; Becker, M. ; Cole, L. ; Commandante Cadets ; Communications ; Director of Educational Services ; Engineering ; Fletcher, R. ; Gabrielle, D. ; Gluck, D. ; Gort ; Graffeo, C. ; Grodnick, T. ; Henry, A. ; Inter-stellar Ethnology ; Jennings, J.R. ; Longo, J. ; Maltese, D. ; Mark III bridge simulator ; Mark X bridge simulator ; Minor, M.C. ; Mitchell, J. ; Office of General Services ; Receivingship ; Rescher, G. ; Sofak ; Supervisor of Curriculum ; Wise, D. ; Wong, J. ; Xon
• Cargo containers : Altair IV ; Beirut Research ; Bellus 4 ; Copenhagen Base ; Kosygin Base ; New Chicago ; Talos III ; Tycho Laboratories ; Vulcan ; Zyra

LCARS references [ ]

Class 3 neutronic fuel carrier ; gravity generator ; Hermes -class ; Jupiter ; K'ushui ; NCC-500 ; NCC-585 ; NCC-3801 ; NCC-4000 ; Oomaru ; Ptolemy -class ; Saladin -class ; Shaandra ; Sol ; Thelonii ; Xanthii ; Yaan

Meta references [ ]

Script references [ ].

Excelsior , USS ; officers' mess ; Prometheus ; Starfleet General Staff ; Starfleet Operations ; technical manual ; White Sands

Sources [ ]

• Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 3, Issue 5 , September 2002
• The Art of Star Trek , Judith , Garfield Reeves-Stevens , Pocket Books, 1995
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan The Director's Edition
• Anderson, Kay. "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, How the TV Series Became A Hit Movie, At Last," Cinefantastique Magazine, volume 12, issues 5-6 (double issue) spring 1982
• A Picture is Worth a Dozen Names at StarTrek.com

External links [ ]

• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan at Wikipedia
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan at the Internet Movie Database
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan script  at Star Trek Minutiae
• " Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• 3 Erigah (episode)

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Where to watch.

Watch Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan with a subscription on Max, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

What to Know

Considered by many fans to be the best of the Star Trek movies, Khan features a strong plot, increased tension, and a sharp supporting performance from Ricardo Montalban.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Nicholas Meyer

William Shatner

Admiral James T. Kirk

Leonard Nimoy

Captain Spock

Ricardo Montalban

Khan Noonien Singh

DeForest Kelley

Commander Leonard H. McCoy, M.D.

James Doohan

Commander Montgomery Scott

Movie Clips

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Khan, a genetically enhanced “super man” from Kirk’s past, returns to seek revenge on now-Admiral Kirk, the man who banished he and his followers to a dying planet 15 years earlier.

How William Shatner's famed 'Wrath of Khan' cry became an instant 'Star Trek' legend

"KHAAAN!" is the cry that shook Earth and space.

William Shatner's  Admiral Kirk  unleashed the bellow at his rival Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán) in 1982's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,  a moment so profound it earned an instant spot in Star Trek history and popular culture.

Kirk's over-the-top shout-out put an exclamation point (or four) on Star Trek 's second film, sending the nascent film franchise into warp drive.

Fathom Events is bringing a  35th anniversary Wrath of Khan director's cut to theaters on Sept. 10 and 13. Prepare for an onslaught of "Khaaan!" imitations and puns, which amuses Shatner.

He insists that his vocal outburst was just another day at the office.

"Who thinks of those things when you’re making a film? Imagine thinking, 'I’m going to say the name 'Khan,' and years from now people will be talking about it,' " says Shatner, 86. "You'd barely make it through a whisper. It would make you awfully self-conscious."

History has shown that "Khaaan!" still resonates.

"As Shatner himself said, that cry is the most 'I-Khanic' moment in Star Trek history," says Scott Mantz, film critic for Access Hollywood , who interviews Shatner for a pre-movie segment. "If  Wrath of Khan is the Citizen Kane of Star Trek movies, then when Shatner yells 'Khaaan!' is the equivalent of Orson Welles whispering 'Rosebud.' "

The cry caps off the epic standoff between Kirk and Khan, with Khan taunting Kirk before he cripples the Enterprise, leaving Kirk stranded alive on a barren moon, "marooned for all eternity." 

Kirk, who is actually pretending his ship is disabled to lure Khan into a trap, roars in apparent frustration.

"He's an alpha male bellowing his alpha male cry, like I have seen elk do," says Shatner.

Director Nicholas Meyer says he wrote the line himself "in caps with four exclamation points."

"It’s a bit of a cheat," Meyer says. "Kirk has to make Khan believe that this round, and it appears to be a final round, has gone to Khan. He has to act like he is a man who is totally screwed."

Shatner doesn't recall more than a couple of "Khaaan!" takes. 

"I hate to open up that Khan of worms, It was actually a Khan-undrum on how to play it," says Shatner. He pulled the rage, amplified by Meyer's temple-throbbing close-up, from being "totally immersed in the emotion. You cannot fake that. People would recognize it."

The shout was a hit and  Wrath of Khan a box office success, allowing for a future that now spans 13 films. In 2013's  Star Trek   Into Darkness , featuring a new generation  Star Trek cast,  Zachary Quinto 's Spock paid tribute, yelling "Khan!" when Captain Kirk ( Chris Pine ) appears to die at the hands of young Khan ( Benedict Cumberbatch ).

"As I fan, I cringed. I couldn't believe they went there," says Mantz. "They cannot re-create that moment of Wrath of Khan  magic."

Shatner will only say this about that Into Darkness  utterance: "(Quinto) gives a great impression of screaming 'Khan.' " 

Other tributes have been more successful, including an operatic stop-motion animation version seen on Robot Chicken (part of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim late-night programming) with a dramatic Italian cry that Meyer admires.

The original bellower refuses to comment on the parodies.

"I Khan-not do that," says Shatner. "They are not worthy of consideration, really. Especially by me."

• Cast & crew
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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

• With the assistance of the Enterprise crew, Admiral Kirk must stop an old nemesis, Khan Noonien Singh, from using the life-generating Genesis Device as the ultimate weapon.
• It is the 23rd century. Admiral James T. Kirk is an instructor at Starfleet Academy and feeling old; the prospect of attending his ship, the USS Enterprise--now a training ship--on a two-week cadet cruise does not make him feel any younger. But the training cruise becomes a deadly serious mission when his nemesis Khan Noonien Singh--infamous conqueror from late 20th century Earth--appears after years of exile. Khan later revealed that the planet Ceti Alpha VI exploded, and shifted the orbit of the fifth planet as a Mars-like haven. He begins capturing Project Genesis, a top secret device holding the power of creation itself, and schemes the utter destruction of Kirk. — Gregory A. Sheets <[email protected]>
• It is the 23rd century. The Federation starship USS Enterprise is on routine training maneuvers, and Admiral James T. Kirk seems resigned to the fact that this may well be the last space mission of his career. But Khan Noonien Singh is back. Aided by his exiled band of genetic supermen, Khan--infamous conqueror from late 20th century Earth--has raided Space Station Regula One, stolen a top secret device called Project Genesis, wrested control of another Federation starship, and now schemes to set a most deadly trap for his old enemy Kirk... with the threat of a universal Armageddon! — Robert Lynch <[email protected]>
• In the year 2285, Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) oversees a simulator session of Captain Spock's (Leonard Nimoy) trainees. In the simulation, Lieutenant Saavik commands the star ship USS Enterprise on a rescue mission to save the crew of the damaged ship Kobayashi Maru. When the Enterprise enters the Klingon Neutral Zone to reach the ship it is attacked by Klingon cruisers and critically damaged. The simulation is a no-win scenario designed to test the character of Starfleet officers. Later, Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) joins Kirk on his birthday; seeing Kirk in low spirits, the doctor advises Kirk to get a new command and not grow old behind a desk. Meanwhile, the USS Reliant is on a mission to search for a lifeless planet for testing of the Genesis Device, a technology designed to reorganize matter to create habitable worlds for colonization. Reliant officers Commander Pavel Chekov and Captain Clark Terrell beam down to the surface of a possible candidate planet, which they believe to be Ceti Alpha VI; once there, they are captured by genetically engineered tyrant Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán). The Enterprise discovered Khan's ship adrift in space 15 years previously; Kirk exiled Khan and his fellow supermen from 20th-century Earth to Ceti Alpha V after they attempted to take over the Enterprise. After they were marooned, Ceti Alpha VI exploded, shifting the orbit of Ceti Alpha V and destroying its ecosystem. Khan blames Kirk for the death of his wife and plans revenge. He implants Chekov (Walter Koenig) and Terrell (Paul Winfield) with indigenous creatures that enter the ears of their victims and render them susceptible to mind control and uses the officers to capture the Reliant. Learning of Genesis, Khan attacks space station Regula I where the device is being developed by Kirk's former lover, Dr. Carol Marcus, and their son, David. The Enterprise embarks on a three-week training voyage. Kirk assumes command after the ship receives a distress call from Regula I. En route, the Enterprise is ambushed and crippled by the Reliant, leading to the deaths and injuries of many trainees. Khan hails the Enterprise and offers to spare Kirk's crew if they relinquish all material related to Genesis. Kirk stalls for time and uses the Reliant's prefix code to remotely lower its shields, allowing the Enterprise to counterattack. Khan is forced to retreat and effect repairs, while the Enterprise limps to Regula I. Kirk, McCoy, and Saavik beam to the station and find Terrell and Chekov alive (who feign innocence and say that they did not help Khan. They also tell Kirk that Khan tortured the station crew but could not get hold of Genesis as Dr Marcus and David were nowhere to be found. The data banks were empty as well), along with slaughtered members of Marcus's team. They soon find Carol and David hiding deep inside the Planetoid of Regula. Khan, having used Terrell and Chekov as spies, orders them to kill Kirk; Terrell resists the eel's influence and kills himself while Chekov collapses as the eel leaves his body. Khan then transports Genesis aboard the Reliant. Though Khan believes his foe stranded on Regula I, Kirk and Spock use a coded message to arrange a rendezvous. Kirk directs the Enterprise into the nearby Mutara Nebula; static discharges inside the nebula render shields useless and compromise targeting systems, making the Enterprise and the Reliant evenly matched. Spock notes however that Khan's tactics are two-dimensional, indicating inexperience in space combat, which Kirk then exploits to critically disable the Reliant. Mortally wounded, Khan activates Genesis, which will reorganize all matter in the nebula, including the Enterprise. Though Kirk's crew detects the activation of Genesis and attempts to move out of range, they will not be able to escape the nebula in time due to the ship's damaged warp drive. Spock goes to the engine room to restore the warp drive. When McCoy tries to prevent Spock's entry, as exposure to the high levels of radiation would be fatal, Spock incapacitates the doctor with a Vulcan nerve pinch and performs a mind meld, telling him to "remember". Spock successfully restores power to the warp drive and the Enterprise escapes the explosion, though at the cost of his life. The explosion of Genesis causes the gas in the nebula to reform into a new planet, capable of sustaining life. After being alerted by McCoy, Kirk arrives in the engine room and discovers Spock dying of radiation poisoning. The two share a meaningful exchange in which Spock urges Kirk not to grieve, as his decision to sacrifice his own life to save those of the ship's crew is a logical one, before succumbing to his injuries. A space burial is held in the Enterprise's torpedo room and Spock's coffin is shot into orbit around the new planet. The crew leaves to pick up the Reliant's marooned crew from Ceti Alpha V. Spock's coffin, having soft-landed, rests on the Genesis planet's surface.

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The peculiar thing about Spock is that, being half human and half Vulcan and therefore possessing about half the usual quota of human emotions, he consistently, if dispassionately, behaves as if he possessed very heroic human emotions indeed. He makes a choice in “Star Trek II” that would be made only by a hero, a fool, or a Vulcan. And when he makes his decision, the movie rises to one of its best scenes, because the " Star Trek " stories have always been best when they centered around their characters. Although I liked the special effects in the first movie, they were probably not the point; fans of the TV series wanted to see their favorite characters again, and “Trek II” understood that desire and acted on it. 

Time has passed since the last episode. Kirk has retired to an administrative post. Spock is commanding the Enterprise, with a lot of new faces in the crew. The ship is on a mission concerning the Genesis device, a new invention which, if I understand it correctly, is capable of seeding a barren planet with luxuriant life. A sister ship, the USS Reliant, is scouting for lifeless planets and finds one that seems to be dead, but its instruments pick up a small speck of life. Crew members investigate, and find the planet inhabited by an outlaw named Khan, who was exiled there years ago by Kirk, and has brooded of vengeance ever since. 

Khan is played as a cauldron of resentment by Ricardo Montalban , and his performance is so strong that he helps illustrate a general principle involving not only Star Trek but “ Star Wars ” (1977) and all the epic serials, especially the “James Bond” movies: Each film is only as good as its villain. Since the heroes and the gimmicks tend to repeat from film to film, only a great villain can transform a good try into a triumph. In a curious way, Khan captures our sympathy, even though he is an evil man who introduces loathsome creatures into the ear canals of two Enterprise crew members. Montalban doesn't overact. He plays the character as a man of deeply wounded pride, whose bond of hatred with Admiral Kirk is stronger even than his traditional villain's desire to rule the universe. 

There is a battle in outer space in this movie, a particularly inept one that owes more to "Captain Video" than to state-of-the-art special effects. I always love it when they give us spaceships capable of leaping across the universe, and then arm them with weapons so puny that a direct hit merely blows up a few control boards and knocks people off their feet. Somehow, though, I don't much care if the battles aren't that amazing, because the story doesn't depend on them. It's about a sacrifice made by Spock, and it draws on the sentiment and audience identification developed over the years by the TV series. 

Perhaps because of that bond, and the sense that an episode may be over but the Enterprise will carry on, the movie doesn't feel that it needs an ending in a conventional sense. The film closes with the usual "Star Trek" end narration, all about the ship's mission and its quest, and we are obviously being set up for a sequel. You could almost argue that the last few minutes of “Trek II” are a trailer for “Trek III”, but, no, that wouldn't be in the spirit of the Enterprise, would it?

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

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The Ending Of Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan Explained

"Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" is one of the most iconic movies in the indispensable "Star Trek" franchise. It has a wonderful cast, stellar performances, and an excellent action-packed story. If that wasn't enough, it also delivers a truly unforgettable ending by providing a heartfelt goodbye between the two main characters of the original "Star Trek" series. The classic ending, in which Spock sacrifices his life to give the U.S.S. Enterprise a chance at survival, is remembered as one of the saddest and most memorable moments in science fiction.

Regardless of its quality, however, "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" isn't free of apparent inconsistencies and confusing ideas. For example, Kirk's nemesis — the genetically enhanced Khan Noonien Singh — is supposed to have a superior intellect, yet he's repeatedly outsmarted by Kirk. The man in command of the Enterprise is also presented as a righteous leader, and yet he is famous for cheating in one of the Federation Academy's most important assessments. The story also includes complex themes related to revenge and the impact scientific research can have on people. Below we provide an analysis of this iconic movie. Here's the ending of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" explained.

The plot of 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'

The first movie in the franchise, "Star Trek: The Motion Picture,"  doesn't deliver the level of action some fans may have expected. Its sequel, "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” initially threatens to have a similarly slow pace. At its onset, the U.S.S. Enterprise and its aging crew, with Spock as captain, are relegated to training new cadets through simulations and training missions. James T. Kirk, on the other hand, has been granted the rank of admiral but occupies his time as a retiree who occasionally supervises cadets' assessments and inspects ships.

After joining his old crew for their training mission, however, the U.S.S. Enterprise receives an unclear message from an old friend. Carol Marcus is a scientist developing Genesis, a technology capable of instantly changing the chemistry of a dead planet to provide it with its own biosphere. Marcus demands that Kirk explain why he has ordered to take over Genesis, which awakens her fear of the technology being used as a weapon. Unknown to the crew of the Enterprise, though, their old enemy Khan Noonien Singh, a genetically engineered super-soldier, has taken over the ship Reliant and is setting a trap to finally get revenge on Kirk.

What happens at the end of 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'

As with most major "Star Trek" stories, the crew of the Enterprise faces a seemingly unbeatable opponent and has to rely on their wits to defeat him. After their ship is badly damaged during an ambush, Kirk launches a counterattack on Khan's ship, then enters the depths of the planet where the Genesis was tested and asks the Enterprise to leave if they don't hear back from him. However, they soon discover that Khan is listening to their communications and intends to use his knowledge of their plans against them.

Nevertheless, Khan is defeated by Kirk's experience. First, Kirk reveals that he was aware of Khan's surveillance and that the Enterprise hasn't left. He then lures Khan's ship, which is in a better condition than the Enterprise, to follow them into a nebula where a storm taking place within will block most sensors and shields, leveling the playing field. The Enterprise launches a sneak attack on the Reliant, leaving the agonized Khan to activate the Genesis, believing that Kirk and his crew won't be able to leave the zone of impact on time. In what is considered one of the most memorable moments in "Star Trek,"  Spock leaves the bridge and heads to the engine room where he enters the core of the ship and repairs it, allowing the crew of the Enterprise to escape the explosion, but receiving a deathly dose of radiation in exchange.

Khan represents Kirk's dreaded Kobayashi Maru scenario

In the first scene of the movie, we see a new cadet commanding a bridge in a simulation. She is given the option to rescue the fleet of a damaged ship by entering a Klingon neutral zone or leaving them to die. She chooses the first option and gets attacked in response. The mission is designed to test how cadets react to a scenario where no victory is possible. Only Kirk manages to overcome the challenge during his training days by reprogramming the simulator. As he puts it later, he doesn't like to lose. Sadly, this also means the experienced admiral has never faced true loss ... until now.

During his confrontations with Khan, Kirk manages to not only survive but defeat the vengeful super-soldier. This doesn't mean he leaves completely unscathed. His ship is badly damaged, he loses several crew members, watches helplessly as Khan transports the Genesis to his ship, and realizes he might not be able to escape the explosion of the device when Khan activates it before dying. Kirk only escapes thanks to Spock's sacrifice. After a heartfelt goodbye and funeral, Kirk realizes that even though he has faced death several times, he's never had to experience the loss of someone this close to him. Thus, he finally confronts the no-win scenario from the Kobayashi Maru.

The possibilities of Genesis and Kirk's newly discovered son

James T. Kirk has lived most of his life traveling across the universe. And yet, this movie finds him living the life of a retired officer. He spends his days in a beautiful house, being visited by old friends, and only stepping into a ship to perform inspections. Kirk's life seems like a suitable reward for his achievements, but as McCoy reminds him, he should get back on a ship before he truly becomes an old man and can no longer do so.

When the Enterprise receives a call from the space station working on Genesis, the decision is made to investigate. However, since Kirk is the senior officer, he is granted command over the bridge. Once again, he is in control of the Enterprise, exploring the unknown, but his trip is filled with surprises and traps.

On the planet orbited by the space station, Kirk meets an old friend who shows him the power of Genesis. In an underground facility, the device is able to fill an enormous cave with life in only a few minutes. With a sight that reflects paradise and the revelation that David, Dr. Marcus' son, is Kirk's, the admiral starts to feel differently. With the amazing power of Genesis and the possibility of having a father-son relationship, Kirk starts feeling young for the first time in years.

Khan's superior intellect is no match for his ego

Once Chekov and Terrell explore Ceti Alpha VI, they expect to discover a planet with no life. But as soon as Chekov realizes they have accidentally landed on the planet where Khan Noonien Singh and his team were abandoned, he reacts with horror and tries to escape the doomed planet. The former Enterprise crew member's reaction is justified; Khan is a super-soldier, genetically engineered on Earth with superior physical and intellectual capabilities in order to make him the perfect conqueror. But he also has a fatal flaw — an enormous ego.

Khan is clever and persistent, but completely controlled by his emotions. He uses Chekov, the Reliant, and Genesis solely to draw out Kirk. When he launches his ambush, he assumes he has completely defeated his old enemy, which gives Kirk the chance to use his knowledge of Federation ships to launch a counterattack. When Kirk taunts him and departs from the nebula, Khan follows despite being warned that this is a clear trap. In the end, Khan's natural confidence brings about his demise at the hands of an admiral who has developed a keen sense of strategy thanks to his decades of struggles. As the crew states, Khan is smart but inexperienced.

The death of Spock was supposed to be permanent

The original cast of "Star Trek" appeared in a handful of films, starting with 1979's "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" and concluding with 1991's "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country." During this period, Spock was a regular member of the cast, except for his absence between the end of "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" and the end of "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock." Under these circumstances, it would appear that the death of Spock was nothing but a marketing trick intended to draw more fans to theaters, but members of the cast draw a very different picture.

William Shatner, for example, explained to Nerdist that back in the day, each movie was filmed as if it was the last one — props and sets were typically destroyed under the assumption that they wouldn't be needed again. This makes it clear that the intention to kill Spock was, at the time, a final decision that wasn't changed until the possibility of a third movie became real. Nicholas Meyer, the director, corroborated this in an interview with Yahoo  by explaining that, despite the different scripts written for the sequel, they all had one thing in common: Spock dies. This was a requirement demanded by Leonard Nimoy. After "Star Trek II" became a success, the studio came back to Nimoy with a sufficiently appealing offer, and he agreed to return. But as far as anyone knew at the time, Spock was dead as a doornail. 

Khan's intention to get revenge on Kirk became true

From his first confrontation with Kirk, it's evident that Khan's worst flaw is his lack of control over his emotions. His overconfidence after ambushing Kirk earns Kirk a counterattack; Khan's presumption that he has tricked Kirk by using a mind control technique on Chekov and Terrell leads him to think that the Enterprise has abandoned Kirk when it hasn't; and his pursuit of the ship into the nebula leads him to be killed by a devastating surprise attack. And yet, the promise Khan makes to Kirk when Kirk looks stranded — that he will continue to hurt him — ultimately becomes true.

The Enterprise has, of course, suffered several casualties by that point. But none of them were people personally close to Kirk. After the admiral forces Khan into a battle in the nebula, Khan's crew is killed, his ship is mostly disabled, and he is fatally wounded. Is at this point where Kirk makes the same mistake Khan constantly fell for — he acts with excessive confidence. With his last breath, Khan activates the Genesis, which generates an explosion capable of destroying the Enterprise. The Enterprise manages to escape, but the situation hurts Kirk quite a lot by forcing Spock to sacrifice himself to fix the ship's engine.

The director's approach and the actors' performance made the death scene

The ending of "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" is one of the most iconic and bittersweet in the franchise. Fans are constantly quoting the last words spoken by Spock and Kirk, and the moment is even reimagined for the second movie of J.J. Abram's "Star Trek" reboot series. This isn't surprising considering how emotionally moving the scene is, especially if we take into account that the actors had been working together as Kirk and Spock for many years. In fact, as the director explains, the crew was in tears when they witnessed the last goodbye between the two legendary characters.

With such a legendary ending, the film became a source of discussion and analysis that's continued for years. Speaking to Yahoo, Meyer mentioned that his technique to get Shatner to perform was to make him repeat his scenes so many times that he would stop trying to act and provide more honest takes. Meyer also refers to the level of preparation both Shatner and Nimoy brought to the scene, and how they immersed themselves in the roles, providing a performance that reflects the time they had spent together.

Shatner believes the death of Spock helped get Nimoy the director's chair

As popular as the original "Star Trek" series was and remains, this didn't save it from being canceled after only three seasons. While most fans and cast members may have felt a deep sense of disappointment, one main cast member probably felt a little bit of relief. It's well-known that the success of "Star Trek" made Leonard Nimoy fear being typecast as an alien character in science fiction shows. He got roles in popular series like "Mission: Impossible" while also working on plays. But every other job was overshadowed by his performance as Spock.

Nimoy got tired of people identifying him with Spock. He even went as far as writing a book titled "I Am Not Spock." Despite this, he accepted the role one more time when the franchise made the jump into feature films. After "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" though, he decided to abandon the role, only agreeing to participate in the sequel on the condition that Spock dies in the film. William Shatner, however, has an interesting theory about this requirement. In a chat with USA Today, he argued that, after the popularity of the sequel, Nimoy used Spock's death for leverage in a bid to get the director chair. In the end, he appears to have succeeded, as he directed both "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock," and "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," productions that allowed him to start a career as a director.

'Wrath of Khan' set the conditions for the next Star Trek movie

The main theme of "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" revolves around how revenge can be a self-destructive journey. However, the script doesn't completely forget that this is a science fiction franchise and introduces a thought-provoking concept — scientists have developed a device that can trigger a chemical chain reaction capable of creating a biosphere around a deserted planet. The details of this accomplishment are not discussed, but the power is made evident when the device explodes and leaves a surrounding planet with overgrown vegetation.

Interestingly, the crew of the Enterprise chooses this location as the place to leave Spock's body. The reason may be that it's the location closest to his most heroic act, but it also conveniently opens the door for Spock's revival due to the planet's miraculous capacity to create life. However, the biggest evidence of the intention to revive Spock is probably the fact that, right before entering the core of the ship, he performs a mind meld on McCoy, suggesting that he might have stored his memories with the doctor. That becomes an important part of the sequel when Spock's body returns and retrieves his memories from McCoy.

Gene Roddenberry had a different idea for the ending

Many stories and scripts were created for the sequel to "Star Trek: The Motion Picture." Each of these stories was different from the others, so when Nicholas Meyer was brought to the project, he decided to pick every element he liked from each version and try to put together a good story. Each version differed significantly. In one iteration, Spock dies very early in the movie; in others he dies in the end, and in Gene Roddenberry's version, the crew would have traveled back in time.

Many science fiction stories play with time travel, and "Star Trek" would eventually have a movie that revolves around such a concept in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home." However, there were specific aspects of the story that made Roddenberry's proposal  highly unpopular  with just about everyone who read it. To be more specific, at one point in the movie, the crew goes back in time and find themselves planning the assassination of J.F.K. in order to restore their timeline. Needless to say, the studio executives weren't very happy with the idea and ended up scrapping it.

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Film / Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Edit locked.

The one where Kirk screams Khan's name .

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is the second movie in the Star Trek film series, released in 1982.

About 12 years after the events of Star Trek: The Motion Picture , Admiral Kirk has been overseeing students at Starfleet Academy and Enterprise largely serves as a training vessel in orbit around Earth. Kirk has been promoted beyond his usefulness and is facing a mid-life crisis, with Spock and McCoy encouraging him to head back out into the galaxy to regain his confidence.

Unfortunately, Kirk finds himself drawn into a conflict with Khan Noonien Singh, a Worthy Opponent he encountered during Star Trek: The Original Series fifteen years ago, during the events of " Space Seed ." Khan has escaped his exile on Ceti Alpha V through capturing the crew of Reliant , who were surveying the planet for a project called "Genesis." His goal is to get revenge against Kirk and secure his own territory through the "Genesis Device," a terraforming explosive that can be used as Hostile Terraforming against any who oppose him. Kirk struggles against his rusty skills and instincts as Enterprise and Reliant do battle, and it doesn't get any easier for him when the scientists in charge of "Genesis" turn out to be his Old Flame and their son .

With a powerful old enemy driven by blind vengeance, powerful new technology fallen into the wrong hands, and a no-win scenario in play, the cost of victory for Kirk and the Enterprise may prove too high.

Star Trek II starts a loose trilogy arc that continues with Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and concludes with Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home . Nimoy directed the latter two films.

• Kirstie Alley made her acting debut in this film playing the young Vulcan Saavik , even getting the onscreen credit "and introducing Kirstie Alley" .
• This was the first major motion picture note  His first film, Battle Beyond the Stars , had a much lower budget. to be scored by James Horner , who would go on to be one of the most prolific film score composers of his era. As Nicholas Meyer once put it, they hired James Horner to do Star Trek II because they couldn't afford Jerry Goldsmith , but by the time Meyer returned for Star Trek VI they hired Cliff Eidelman because they couldn't afford James Horner. note  Horner would succeed Goldsmith on another sci-fi franchise , reworking one of his cues from this movie to great effect, while Goldsmith, somewhat ironically, would later return to score the TNG -era films First Contact , Insurrection , and Nemesis .

Not to be confused with Star Trek Phase II , a TV series that eventually became Star Trek: The Motion Picture . Because of this movie Khan and his backstory has gone on to be notable in several other works including Star Trek: Enterprise , Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds .

Tropes seen in The Wrath of Khan include:

• Both inverted and played straight. Spock observes of Khan that "He's intelligent, but inexperienced. His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking." (This was foreshadowed by Khan having a traditional 2-D chess set.) Kirk then orders "Z-1000 meters" so Enterprise can come in under Reliant . But it's still played straight in a different way; Enterprise has to rise back onto the same plane as Reliant to fire instead of shooting up from below (which is especially bad, as this would give them a much better "profile" to shoot at).
• Watch closely when Reliant first blasts Enterprise with phasers and you can see a display on a bridge panel showing the ship tilting wildly out of trim, as if concepts like list and trim had meanings in space.
• Abandon Ship : Said by Saavik at the end of the Kobayashi Maru simulation. Admiral Kirk points out that Klingons don't take prisoners.
• Kirk and McCoy on Kirk's birthday. McCoy : Dammit, Jim, what the hell's the matter with you? Other people have birthdays; why are we treating yours like a funeral? Kirk: Bones, I don't want to be lectured. McCoy : What the hell do you want? This is not about age, and you know it. It's about you flying a Goddamned computer console when you want to be out there hopping galaxies.
• Kirk in the Genesis Cave, admitting how old he feels.
• Of course, Spock's death.
• Actionized Sequel : The Motion Picture was a rather slow-paced affair in the vein of 2001: A Space Odyssey . Wrath of Khan features remarkably more action and an overall faster pace, already setting its tone with the Kobayashi Maru opening.
• Action Prologue : Which turns out to be an Unwinnable Training Simulation .
• Activation Sequence : After Enterprise shoots Reliant to pieces, Khan, in a final act of spite , begins activating the Genesis Device, a process that involves turning a series of cylinders on a control panel and then pushing them down to reveal the next one which starts a final countdown.
• Actor Allusion : Kirk owns an antique Commodore computer. William Shatner was Commodore's spokesperson at the time.
• Adaptation Expansion : The novelization goes into considerably more depth on certain characters, especially Saavik and Peter Preston. We get a full backstory of Saavik's origins as a half-Vulcan half-Romulan Child by Rape and how Spock was responsible for saving her from the Romulan prison planet of Hellguard, a story arc for Peter clashing with his uncle Scotty over a number of issues as well as a heartwrenching scene of his Heroic Sacrifice staying too long in the middle of a coolant leak in order to get Enterprise 's power back online after the initial clash with Reliant, and a minor overlap between the two of them (Saavik was tutoring Peter and he seemed to have a crush on her) which devastates Saavik when Peter dies.
• Aesop Collateral Damage : Unlike in the original series, where Kirk went into It's All My Fault easily but there were very few deaths in total; what he did with Khan, and Khan’s ensuing revenge, left a large death toll, including Spock, David and Enterprise . More detail in the books is given to Carol mourning her lover amongst the scientists killed, and Scotty/his family’s grief over Peter dying.
• The overarching moral is shared with Moby-Dick , from which it drew a lot of inspiration: Revenge is a self-destructive course that will not only be your end, but the end of everybody and everything you care about.
• Kirk learns to be less hateful of himself .
• Ageless Birthday Episode : At William Shatner 's insistence, Kirk's exact age was left unstated onscreen. (In the series, he's the ripe old age of 52 , in a time when people live past 137 ... meaning that Kirk has Progeria, perhaps a relapse from "The Deadly Years." )
• Alas, Poor Villain : Khan dies in the exploding Reliant after failing to kill Kirk. When you think you're tough enough and smart enough to tame a planet with only a dozen or so disciples to back you, and you pointedly reiterate Satan's Badass Boast from Paradise Lost , you owe it to your sense of integrity to take the death like a man when the Hell that you proclaimed it better to rule than serve in Heaven actually turns out to be Hell and not Eden after all. Alas, poor Khan for not being quite the superior being he thought he was .
• All Abusers Are Male : Averted in the novelization, as all Saavik knows is that she’s a Child Of Rape by a Romulan guard and a Vulcan prisoner, but is unsure if the rapist is her mother or father.
• Preston, the young midshipman who aids Scotty in engineering but gets horribly burned and dies on the operating table? The director's cut includes a scene that shows us that he's also Scotty's nephew . Ouch.
• The Blu-Ray releases include the Library Computer, an interactive database that will appear on screen as the movie plays offering entries on characters, ships, places, etc. with additional information on them.
• It’s only in The Autobiography of James T. Kirk do we get the expanded version of Kirk disappointing Carol; while he had good intentions, he kept promising her and David he’d be around, but always going off on his career (like his mom did with him), and finally when David is two, she tells him to stay away. Definitely not a boy scout .
• Amazing Freaking Grace : On bagpipes too, no less.

• Ricardo Montalbán as Khan, which is literally the billing in the opening credits, after all the other main cast is listed, "And Starring Ricardo Montalbán as Khan". This might be the only film using that specific credit (most of the examples on the Trope page are billed simply "And"), making this film the Trope Namer .
• Kirstie Alley gets an "Introducing," while Paul Winfield gets the more traditional "And."
• Antagonist Title : Khan is Captain Kirk's enemy.
• Apologetic Attacker : After nerve-pinching McCoy , Spock tells him "Sorry, Doctor, but I have no time to discuss this logically.".
• Applied Phlebotinum : The "Genesis Device" is an inexplicable gadget that defies all known science of the era — as well as logic, achieving a controlled reaction that transforms a planet's surface, with magnitudes more energy than any weapon . In fact, the first discussion Kirk and Spock have after watching Carol Marcus' video on the device is about its potential destructive capabilities if it were to be used as a weapon (despite the obvious fact that, logically, weapons are more powerful than complex tools, due to the lack of need for control, with the purpose being destructive rather than constructive; just like fusion-weapons exist, but not controlled fusion-reactors). Naturally, it falls right into Khan's hands — conveniently just at the same time as Kirk.
• "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." "Or the one."
• "You are my commanding officer. You are also my friend. I have been, and always shall be yours."
• "I don't believe in the no-win scenario" and "I don't like to lose" are used fairly interchangeably.
• Artistic License – Music : During Spock's funeral , Scotty plays "Amazing Grace" on the bagpipes. It is very obvious (especially if you are an actual piper) that James Doohan isn't actually playing them, but merely holding them and twiddling his fingers. Not that it breaks the drama in any way.
• Ascended Extra : Khan himself (and the mythos around him) was only in a single episode of the Original Series and the events of that episode are rather low key to start with; it is more a character drama discussing Khan's history and thwarting an attempt to take over the ship. The movie turned out the way it did because Nicholas Meyer reviewed all episodes of the Original Series and found himself drawn to Khan's charisma and the strength of Ricardo Montalban's performance. Without this movie Khan would have just been an amusing footnote.
• Awesomeness by Analysis : As usual, the entire Enterprise crew. Spock analyses Khan's attack patterns, Kirk analyses Khan's mental state to pull a gambit based on his personality , and discovers the scientists hiding on Regula One through his intuition. Using the ship's weapons, Chekov pulls off a near-perfect crippling salvo to Khan's ship while in a sensor-clouding nebula ...
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other : When Khan mentions his "beloved wife", he is referring to Marla McGivers , a historian on Enterprise when they found Khan's ship. During " Space Seed " Khan rather abusively took advantage of her romantic view of twentieth-century men to get her to help him take over the ship. At the end of the episode Khan did seem to have some genuine affection for her, and accepted her going to Ceti Alpha V with him.
• Backing into Danger : While exploring the raided space station at Regula 1, McCoy gets a Cat Scare when a rat scuttles past behind him. Instead of turning and continuing forward, McCoy walks backward for a bit, and ends up backing straight into a Peek-a-Boo Corpse .
• Back in the Saddle : Kirk gets command of Enterprise to investigate the Regula Station situation, but his rustiness gets the better of him when Khan uses Reliant for a surprise attack.
• Khan taunting Kirk after thinking he's marooned him on Regula. Khan: I've done far worse than kill you. I've hurt you, and I mean to go on hurting you. I shall leave you as you left me, as you left her : marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet. Buried alive. Buried alive...
• Followed shortly by: Kirk: I don't believe in the no-win scenario.
• And later on, after showing Khan he survived his attempt to maroon Enterprise 's crew: Kirk: We tried it once your way, Khan. Are you game for a rematch? [ Beat ] Khan, I'm laughing at the "superior intellect."
• Khan makes Chekov tell the Regula 1 lab that Kirk gave the order for Reliant to take control of Genesis. Khan knew they would contact Starfleet to try to verify the order, which would get Kirk involved. The fact that Dr. Marcus is Kirk's old flame is a happy coincidence for Khan.
• Kirk later reverses this when he pretends to surrender and upon "agreeing" to Khan's terms demands proof that Khan won't just kill them all anyway and Khan refuses, telling Kirk he doesn't have a choice. Kirk seems to just meekly back down, but Khan's response tells Kirk that Khan isn't aware Enterprise can remotely control Reliant , otherwise he wouldn't have been so assured that Kirk was beaten and also that Khan hadn't been aware and altered the computer so this trick wouldn't work as he'd have taunted Kirk about this.
• Exploited when Kirk tries to goad Khan into beaming down to Regula to dispose of him personally. Kirk's obvious frustration ( KHAAAAAAAAAN!!! ) when this gambit fails helps to convince Khan that he has won. The actual gambit is that Kirk wanted Khan to think he had won so that Enterprise can return to pick them up while Khan still thinks she is crippled and trying to run.
• Kirk's plan to trick Khan into chasing Enterprise into the Mutara Nebula (where both ships will have a mutual disadvantage and thus be equal), which works since Khan is becoming unhinged and irrationally bent on revenge . Furthermore, this is all justified by Kirk's critical observation about Khan and his Berserk Button : Kirk: I'll give him this: he's consistent!
• Best Served Cold : " It is very cold in space... "

• Notably, Khan is completely aware of this, as evidenced by his literary references. He repeatedly compares the situation to Moby-Dick , casting himself as Ahab. Also, his tendency to compare himself to Satan goes all the way back to "Space Seed." Joachim : Sir, may I speak? We are all with you, sir, but consider this: We are free. We have a ship and the means to go where we will. We have escaped permanent exile on Ceti Alpha Five. You have proved your superior intellect, and defeated the plans of Admiral Kirk. You do not need to defeat him again. Khan : He tasks me. He tasks me and I shall have him. I'll chase him round the moons of Nibia, and round the Antares maelstrom, and round Perdition's flames before I give him up! Prepare to alter course.
• Billions of Buttons : After Enterprise has remotely ordered Reliant to lower her shields, Khan's Oh, Crap! moment is punctuated by a rapidly panning POV shot of a bank of buttons and switches as he desperately tries to find the override before Enterprise can open fire. note  Per the subtitle commentary track in the Director's Cut, Khan won't find it; he's staring at the Helmsman's station. This highlights the fact that while Khan might be smarter than Kirk, Kirk has much more experience.
• In his eulogy, Kirk explicitly juxtaposes Spock's death with the creation of life on the Genesis planet. Kirk: And yet it should be noted, that in the midst of our sorrow, this death takes place in the shadow of new life, the sunrise of a new world, a world that our beloved comrade gave his life to protect.
• Near the end of the Nebula Battle: Khan's aide Joachim dies aboard Reliant , juxtaposed with Chekov rejoining Enterprise 's bridge crew.
• Bittersweet Ending : Kirk escapes Khan, but Spock sacrifices his life repairing Enterprise to make it happen. In a way, this means Khan succeeds in avenging himself upon Kirk, as Spock's death is by far the worst injury he could have inflicted upon Kirk, besides actual physical harm.
• Blatant Lies : Before Reliant first attacks Enterprise , Kirk attempts to hail his sister ship. Khan, eager to maintain his element of surprise, does not answer. Realizing that Kirk will find the silence suspicious , he sends a token message stating that Reliant 's coil emissions are overloading her comm systems. Spock runs a scan of the ship which reveals normal coil emissions. This alerts Kirk that something is up, though by this time, it is too late.
• Bond Villain Stupidity : Khan's Fatal Flaw is that he cannot resist toying with Kirk.
• Both Sides Have a Point : Downplayed ; while Khan is justifiably miffed at Kirk's failure ever to check in on Ceti Alpha V, which resulted in the death of his wife and many of his followers, Chekov points out that Kirk had a very good reason not to visit the planet again, considering that the last time they met Khan tried to hijack Enterprise and murder Kirk. Khan then loses any tiny sliver of moral high ground he may have held by putting Ceti eels in Chekov and Terrell, which will eventually kill them if not removed, then hijacks Reliant and dumps its crew on the planet.
• The existing bridge set from the first film was made of modular wedge shapes, allowing it to be easily redressed as the Reliant bridge (along with a little paint and changing a few displays). Engineering, sickbay, and Kirk's quarters also appear pretty much just as they were in the first movie.
• Stock Footage from the first movie was used for the Klingon ships in the Kobayashi Maru test, Enterprise leaving spacedock, and a few establishing shots.
• Reliant was the only new starship model used (with Regula I being a re-use of the "orbital office complex" from the first film just turned upside down). Both models would also be heavily re-used later on in The Next Generation .
• The only new sets are Kirk's apartment, the main set for Regula I, Khan's home on Ceti Alpha V, and a few corridors (in Starfleet Command and on Regula I), with matte paintings and miniatures used to make them more impressive.
• Space suits and uniforms from the first movie were also reused. Chekov wears Kirk's suit from the first movie while Terrell wears Spock's. The engineering crew all wear the same radiation suits they had in the first film. The red jumpsuits seen by the trainee crewmen were recycled from the pale colored TMP uniforms. Red happened to be the dye that worked the best.
• Breakout Villain : Before this film, Khan was just a Villain of the Week for the show. Ever since this film, he's been arguably the most memorable and highly regarded individual villain in the entire franchise.
• Burial in Space : One of the most famous examples following the death of Spock .
• The Bus Came Back : Oh boy, did it ever . Khan goes from ho-hum Villain of the Week to one of Trek ' s most iconic Big Bads .
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday : The rare variant from the villain's point of view. Part of the reason Khan is so pissed at Kirk is because when he was exiled Kirk promised to return and check on the colony's progress someday (in "Space Seed" Kirk said he'd "come back in a hundred years"), but never did and forgot all about him. In the novelization, Khan also believes that Kirk was promoted to Admiral because Kirk exiled him (in "Space Seed", Khan was not exiled but granted the planet by Kirk after dropping all charges, to give Khan what he wanted — i.e. "a new life, a new world to rule"). Touched on in the movie by the way Khan emphasizes Admiral after being corrected by Capt. Terrell.
• Kirk and Spock's exchange before he assumes command of Enterprise contrasts the previous movie. Kirk used the emergency as an excuse to oust Decker and they spent most of the movie at each other's throats. This time, Kirk is reluctant to take command but Spock (now the Captain) insists.
• A callback to " Requiem for Methuselah ", where Spock had done a mind meld on Kirk, saying " Forget " in order to help ease his pain. Here he does a mind-meld with McCoy and instead says " Remember. "
• In "Space Seed", Kirk smashed the glass to free Khan. Here, he smashes a control panel to free Chekov and Terrell.
• The Cameo : Mr. Kyle, the Transporter Chief from Star Trek: The Original Series , is the Communications Officer on Reliant —making him, Scotty, Uhura and Rand the only Red Shirts known to have survived the five-year mission. (In fact, he even survived having been tossed aside by Khan in the transporter room in the original episode .)
• When Enterprise is trying to contact Regula One, Spock has this insightful comment, "There are two possibilities: They are unable to respond; they are unwilling to respond."
• McCoy's unfinished insult to Spock, "You green-blooded, inhuman..." Yes, Vulcans have green blood and they're not human, so...?
• Cat Scare : More like Rat Scare, but that's being picky. Bones is startled by a rat aboard Regula 1. While backing away from it, he bumps into a corpse hanging from the ceiling.
• Cavalier Consumption : While everyone else is worried about being stranded inside Regula, Kirk casually munches an apple; another hint that he has something up his sleeve.
• Celebrity Paradox : Kirk has an antique Commodore PET computer in his apartment. William Shatner was in ads for the Commodore VIC-20.
• Central Theme : Regret, rejuvenation, sacrifice.
• The film takes place 16 years after the last episode of the original series, and was made 13 years after said episode was made. Kirk's advancing age is a major theme of the film. Kirk: There's a man out there I haven't seen in 15 years who's trying to kill me. You show me a son that'd be happy to help. My son! My life that could have been ... and wasn't. How do I feel? Old. Worn out.
• On the other hand, Khan's followers (but not Khan himself) appear to be affected by Comic-Book Time . None of them is played by the original actors from the television episode. There is speculation as to whether or not these are the same persons from "Space Seed", especially given the obvious difference between Joaquin ("Space Seed") and Joaquim ( Wrath of Khan ), who are said in Expanded Universe to be father and son, Joaquin having died in the intervening years. The relatively youthful appearance of Joaquim and the other Augments suggests that these are all the children of Khan's deceased original crew. The novelization and comic book of the movie, in contrast, posit that Khan has aged more rapidly than his followers due to The Chains of Commanding on what is essentially a Death World .
• Spock, promoted to Captain and assigned as training instructor for a crew of cadets, has become more easygoing and patient than he was on the original series.
• Kirk, who arrogantly assumed command of Enterprise in the last film and put himself at odds with Captain Decker, has become a lot more humble and is reluctant to take command of a ship again until the Captain, Spock, gives him absolute assurance that he's the one who should be in the captain's chair for the rescue mission. He also addresses the crew and apologizes that what was supposed to be a training cruise will now be much more intense for them.
• The Chessmaster : Khan is remarkably intelligent and this is stated (and shown) many times throughout the film. His main flaw (besides Pride ) is that he's not very good at thinking outside the box , which happens to be Kirk's specialty .
• Cold-Blooded Torture : What Khan does to the scientists on Regula I. It's even worse in the Novelization ; they're tied up, stabbed and brutally beaten while bleeding to death, and it's all an explicit taste of what Khan plans to do to Kirk once he gets him. Plus, putting very painful brain slugs in Chekov and Terrell's ears.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience : While all Starfleet officers wear red uniforms, they wear turtlenecks, shoulder badges and cuff bands in differing colors signifying which division they belonged to: Command (white), Science (gray), Operations (gold), Medical (light green), and Trainees/Cadets (red). Non-Commissioned Officers wear black turtlenecks with the same jumpsuits that Trainees wear. The later TOS films would add Security (dark green) and Special Services (light blue) to the mix.
• Comic-Book Adaptation : Due to the comic book rights being in limbo at the time ( Marvel Comics had cancelled its version a year earlier, and DC Comics wouldn't launch its comic for nearly a year), this was the only original-crew film not to get a contemporary comic book adaptation. Fans had to wait nearly 30 years before IDW Publishing filled the void.
• As the movie is a sequel to "Space Seed," the entire film is one big one to that episode.
• Like many times before in the original show, Bones helps out his depressed friend with booze, this time Romulan Ale.
• As in TMP , at least one supporting character from TOS turns up, with a promotion. As noted in The Cameo , transporter operator Lieutenant Kyle from the original series shows up, still serving with his old crewmate Chekhov, as Reliant ' s communications officer, now promoted to commander. The implications are more significant than the usual cameo because of Khan's prior interactions with the Enterprise crew: Since Kyle played a prominent role in "Space Seed" while Chekov did not, and Khan recognized Chekov instantly, there is little doubt that Khan recognized Kyle, but this is not shown onscreen.
• Enterprise 's training cruise heads for the Gamma Hydra sector — the same location as the TOS episode "The Deadly Years" . In the TV episode, the aging of the command crew (and how to overcome it) drove the plot; here, it's subtext.
• After the first exchange, Reliant is forced to withdraw when Kirk's attack cripples their torpedo controls and warp drive, rendering them unable to return fire. It's established in Star Trek: The Motion Picture that the new phaser system channels power through the warp drive, therefore damage to that system cuts off power to the phasers.
• One of the books seen in the Botany Bay is Paradise Lost . Khan referenced Milton when choosing exile over imprisonment.
• From the last movie, Kirk is still miserable about his growing age/not having a ship, while Spock is trying to deal with being okay regarding emotions and the human niceties like giving your best friend pressies.
• There is some evidence for the fan theory. Chekov appears in “Catspaw,” which has an earlier stardate than "Space Seed." Chekov does not appear at the navigator’s station in “Catspaw,” which is consistent with the theory that this was before he became part of the regular bridge crew. note  Stardates in the original series were not as linear or organized as those used in later series, however, and episodes were broadcast in a different order than their production order, which means some episodes that obviously follow others can have an earlier stardate.
• A minor one: when Khan takes off his makeshift environmental suit in his first scene in the film he is already wearing a medallion that looks like the belt buckles worn with the then-current Starfleet uniforms, with a notch taken out of the circle around the arrowhead. The problem is that at the time Khan was marooned on Ceti Alpha V not only was such a buckle not part of the uniform, but Starfleet had not yet adopted Enterprise 's Command section insignia as a universal emblem (each ship had its own emblem in the original series). So where did it come from? Some fans suggest it is a Tragic Keepsake from his wife Marla McGivers but she was not part of the command department: her "arrowhead", even if she had worn one, would not have had the star in the center but the "support services" spiral.
• Cool Starship : The Miranda -class U.S.S. Reliant and of course the original Lady E. Rich Evans pointed out that Khan managed to cripple Enterprise seriously with a weaker ship , whose main job was scientific.
• Costume Evolution : This film introduced radically different Starfleet uniforms compared to the tunics and slack worn in TOS and the Space Clothes in Star Trek: The Motion Picture . Everyone worn maroon double-breasted jackets with black pants and a belt, with department insignia sometimes indicated by the color of the collar. The very sharp look made them reused for all later Original Series movies and In-Universe some version of the uniform and general style was used for the next 70 years note  Captain Picard can be seen wearing one as an ensign in the TNG episode "Tapestry” .
• Check the poster at the top of this page and you'll see Enterprise engaged in an all-out battle with the Regula One space station. Not only does this never happen, but it's Enterprise blasting away at an unarmed research station.
• Another poster is composed of film stills showing scenes that didn’t exactly happen: Enterprise phaser-blasting Reliant 's torpedo launcher (it was photon-torpedo-ed instead). A knife-wielding David crouching over a fallen Kirk. A close-up of Kirk and Spock at a ladder that will lead them to the bridge.
• The shooting script goes into a bit more detail about this. Command signals are transmitted around the ship by subspace, because it's faster than closed circuits (which are limited to relativistic speeds). That’s why the prefix code is necessary. By using Reliant 's code, Enterprise is able to transmit a signal that looks to Reliant 's shield generator like it's coming from Reliant 's bridge.
• Creating Life : The science team at Regula seem very excited about the Genesis Device; one can only assume they never read Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus .
• Critical Staffing Shortage : Enterprise is on a cadet cruise, with only vital systems manned by the cadets and a few senior staff supervising, and none of the science labs, or other stuff Starfleet usually has, active. Reliant is similarly under-manned, with only Khan's dwindling number of loyal followers. Space Station Regula 1 is also on short staff, with David noting that everyone is on leave.
• Cruel Mercy : Khan doesn't kill Kirk when he has the chance, but instead leaves him marooned in the Genesis Cave, thinking him completely impotent and helpless there.
• Cryptic Conversation : With an incredibly obvious code. "By the book", yes—but only selectively so.
• Curb-Stomp Battle : Enterprise versus Reliant , two high tech, immensely powerful spacecraft both crippled from their previous engagement and then partially blinded by the effects of the nebula, reduced to slugging it out at point blank range like a pair of ships of the line from ages past.
• Curse Cut Short : From McCoy : "You green-blooded, inhuman ..." note  McCoy gets to complete the phrase in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , finishing with a "son of a bitch."
• Damage Control : Enterprise is taken by surprise in the initial attack, but Kirk and Spock can turn the tables and deal some swift damage to Reliant . Both ships are forced to withdraw and effect repairs before they can fight again. In the final battle, both ships are again crippled ( Reliant from the devastating volley Enterprise just delivered, and Enterprise still from lingering damage from the very first encounter), and it is only a Heroic Sacrifice by Spock that allows them to survive.
• Danger Room Cold Open : The Kobayashi Maru scenario is an Unwinnable Training Simulation , but we don't find that out until it's over.
• Once the mission turns from a training cruise to a real mission, Admiral Kirk gives a broadcast to the cadets stationed on board, telling them that the mission has turned real and that they will have to grow up sooner than they expected.
• Darker and Edgier : Than The Motion Picture and much more than the series. With all the graphic injuries on display, it would not be rated PG today. And indeed, it's the only Star Trek film with a 15 certificate in the UK. Even First Contact is only a 12. note  To be fair, the 12 certificate was not established until mid-1989. All video releases since 2002 have been rated 12.
• Darkest Hour : "Marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet ... buried alive. Buried alive!" As it turns out, the planet isn't dead. They're not even marooned.
• Dead Sidekick : Joachim and Spock , at the end.
• Of Kirk. His being Married to the Job with his Type being women also devoted to their careers ends up with Carol being bitter and a son he had to stay away from, the show’s habit for running off at the end of every week comes back to bite him in the form of Khan, and being a traumatised Determinator with a penchant for denial means he’s actually forced to face loss when Spock dies (and not just try and pretend everything is fine) and cheated on a test expressly designed to deal with loss. The movie also amplifies Starfleet’s military nature, as they as well as Kirk forgot about Khan until it was too late. Bones: Dammit, Jim, what the hell's the matter with you? Other people have birthdays! Why are we treating yours like a funeral ?
• There were shades of this in the previous film, The Motion Picture , where it was shown that Kirk was clearly unhappy when he was anything other than being the captain of Enterprise , and was shown to be more grumpy than usual when things didn't fall into place the way he wanted them to be. While lost in the shuffle of the previous film, these elements are explored more thoroughly here.
• Did You Die? : Kirk quips, "Aren't you dead?" to Spock after the Kobayashi Maru scenario.
• Didn't See That Coming : An identification code that would enable the Enterprise crew to remotely command Reliant to lower her shields then lock them out while they open fire? Never occurred to Khan.
• Died in Ignorance : At the end of the film, a defeated Khan decides to pull a Taking You with Me rather than surrender to Kirk. Khan succumbs to his injuries shortly before Enterprise manages to warp to safety, and he thus dies believing that he won.
• Dies Wide Open : Joachim.
• Disappeared Dad : Kirk knew about David, but kept his distance because of Carol's wishes. Kirk: Why didn't you tell him? Carol: How can you ask me that? Were we together? Were we going to be? You had your world and I had mine. I wanted him in mine ... not chasing through the universe with his father.
• Diving Save : As Captain Terrell is about to fire at David Marcus (Kirk's son), Lieutenant Saavik rushes forward and pushes David out of the way. As a result, Terrell's phaser blast kills a Red Shirt scientist, one of David's colleagues.
• The barren moon featured in the Genesis demonstration tape bears a distinct resemblance to Star Wars ' Death Star; especially since it is mostly in shadow and what is most visible is a big crater that looks for all the world like the Empire's planet-killer laser dish. (Probably a Shout-Out as well, since ILM did the effects for this film as well.)
• And after the simulated Genesis run it gets replaced with an awfully familiar Blue Marble.
• Doomsday Device : Ironically, Genesis, if it falls into the wrong hands. A device that re-orders matter into whatever form you want it, creating your very own habitable planet ... by destroying everything that was on the planet you fired it at. A rare planet killer weapon that leaves a perfectly intact, usable planet behind for you. Spock : As a matter of cosmic history, it has always been easier to destroy than to create . McCoy : Not anymore. Now we can do both at the same time!
• The Dog Bites Back : Khan tortures Chekov and manipulates him to act against his former colleagues. It is therefore fitting that in the final showdown, it is Chekov who returns to the crew and fires the shots that fatally cripple Khan's ship .
• Dramatic Irony : When the warp core is repaired in the climax just before the Genesis Device detonates, Kirk thinks that Scotty has pulled off another miracle before ordering Sulu to bring Enterprise to warp ("Bless you, Scotty"). The audience however knows the price Kirk has paid (through Spock's sacrifice) for his escape.
• Dramatically Missing the Point : Khan owns a copy of Moby-Dick , and quotes the book, but apparently has completely ignored the message of the book.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap : While Kirk managed to outsmart Khan, and Enterprise wasn't as damaged as Khan was led to believe, it was still badly damaged, and Spock pointed out that the ship was still nowhere near fully operational.
• Dude, Not Funny! : In-universe when Spock is dying, he makes a Gallows Humor joke saying he never took the Kobayashi Maru test until now, and what does Kirk think of his solution. The attempt at humor just makes Kirk cry harder.
• Dying Moment of Awesome : Khan and Spock get one each, activating the Genesis device and saving Enterprise respectively.
• Elevator Conference : The Star Trek practice of using a halted turbolift as an ad hoc conference room is lampshaded, after one such meeting concludes only to reveal a very annoyed Doctor McCoy waiting to board when the doors open. McCoy : Who's been holding up the damn elevator?
• Emotional Torque : You're not going to find many films that attempt what this film does with a popular franchise and still be regarded as a masterpiece. People say that Nicholas Meyer giving Kirk reading glasses saved Star Trek . Why? Because it works so well.
• Enemy Rising Behind : Enterprise does this to Reliant in the Mutara Nebula. This is either for dramatic purposes, or Kirk himself fell victim to the 2-D Space phenomenon that Spock attributed to Khan. (Nicholas Meyer admitted it was because he wanted the sequence to feel like a submarine battle.)
• When the Enterprise crew explore the remains of the Regula space station.
• When Enterprise blows the nacelle off Reliant , Khan is left as the only survivor.
• Put the freaking Villain Ball down and just blow him to bits , Khan! Khan: First I deprived your ship of power, and when I swing around I mean to deprive you of your life! But I wanted you to know first who it was who had beaten you.
• Although he does actually want to see if he can threaten them into giving him the Genesis information first—whether he intends to use it as a weapon or as a way to create a new planet for himself and his followers is not certain.
• Lampshaded by Joachim , who advises both shooting Kirk straight away when Enterprise 's shields are down, as well as retreating once they have Genesis and Reliant has suffered damage. Naturally, Khan ignores him both times.
• Plays very well into both of Khan's flaws, wrath and pride . He can't let Kirk live, but at the same time Kirk has to know that Khan was the one who beat him ... which is ultimately what grants Kirk victory.
• Evil Overlord : Khan . He ruled roughly one-third of the Earth, but was overthrown and went into exile like Napoléon Bonaparte , in a fictional late 20th century.
• Exact Words : McCoy tries to stop Spock from working in the warp core by saying "No human can tolerate the radiation in there!". To which Spock says " As you are so fond of pointing out, Doctor, I am not human ," and nerve-pinches McCoy into submission.
• Played with at first. The Unwinnable Training Simulation has the consoles explode harmlessly whenever the operator is supposed to "die".
• Played brutally straighter during the battles. One solid torpedo hit on Enterprise causes half The Bridge to explode. Later on, the destruction of Reliant 's port nacelle sends backlash throughout the ship, with one of the bridge consoles exploding into pieces just as Khan walks by it, horrifically mangling and burning him.
• In the first confrontation between Khan and Kirk, as Reliant is closing in on Enterprise , Kirk orders Yellow Alert. Saavik responds with "Energize defense fields!", and a console shows a secondary shield layer activating over the upper dome on the saucer section, giving the bridge an extra layer of protection the rest of the ship doesn't have.
• When Reliant and Enterprise engage at nearly point-blank range in the Mutara Nebula, Enterprise 's phaser salvo hits the port side of Reliant 's upper dome. Since both ships' shields are down due to being in the nebula, this causes severe damage to Reliant 's bridge and kills everyone inside except Khan.
• Spock straightens his uniform before facing his captain and friend for the final time.
• Khan didn't exactly go out like a slouch either.
• Failed a Spot Check : Reliant 's crew fails to notice that they're on the wrong planet , related to the fact that they failed to notice another planet ceasing to exist due to a Ceti Alpha VI–Shattering Kaboom .
• Faking the Dead : Spock supposedly dies at the beginning of the film. This scene was concocted hastily by Nick Meyer after hearing that spoilers had leaked about Spock dying in the film. To preserve the wham factor of Spock dying, the Kobayashi Maru and its disastrous aftermath was added to fool viewers into thinking that this was the "Spock dies" moment the spoilers meant.
• False Flag Operation : Khan and his crew using the hijacked Reliant to sneak up on the unsuspecting Enterprise .
• Familial Chiding : McCoy tries to stop Spock from entering the highly radioactive compartment to effect repairs. McCoy : Are you out of your Vulcan mind? No human can tolerate the radiation that's in there! Spock: As you are so fond of observing, Doctor, I am not human. McCoy : (stands between Spock and the core) You're NOT going in there. * Spock then takes matters into his own hands, gently incapacitating McCoy *
• Famous, Famous, Fictional : "Newton, Einstein, Surak." Who? Surak is the Vulcan philosopher who convinced them to abandon their Proud Warrior Race tendencies—and bloody, catastrophic wars—and turn to dispassionate logic instead. Those who wanted to keep the old ways became the Romulans.
• The wrath of Khan . Like Ahab before him , his all-consuming desire for revenge on Kirk ultimately gets in the way of his better judgement and ends up destroying him.
• Kirk's hubris; his unshakable belief in his own ingenuity and command instincts. Therefore he's taken off guard by something that even raw cadet Saavik saw coming. And he arrogantly believes there's no such thing as a situation that he can't win. As his character develops throughout the film, he learns just how misguided he's been.
• Ricardo Montalbán 's monologue on the subject is just fantastic. Khan: I've done far worse than kill you. I've hurt you. And I wish to go on hurting you. I shall leave you, as you left me ... as you left her . Marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet ... Buried alive ... buried alive...
• What Kirk suffers when Khan's last gambit with the Genesis Device forces Spock to sacrifice himself to save the ship . "I've hurt you" indeed.
• Fictional Disability : Kirk has to wear antique reading glasses, because he's allergic to the drug that most people take to correct their vision.
• Fix Fic : A classic Star Trek example, fixing an apparent continuity glitch—in the film, Khan and Chekhov recognize each other upon meeting. However, " Space Seed ", the episode of Star Trek: The Original Series in which Khan appears, is a first-season episode, and Walter Koenig did not join the cast of the show until the second season. The semi-official retcon (not explained in any of the shows or movies, but widely propagated by producers and actors in convention appearances) is that Chekov was on Enterprise at that time, he just wasn't part of the bridge crew yet and thus didn't appear on screen. After all, Khan was trying to recruit the crew to follow him, with the implied narrative that every single crew member (other than Lt. McGivers , of course) refused to do so, out of a ship's complement of 430, while only about 30 of the crew are shown onscreen, so Chekov could easily have been among those not shown, since there was never any canonical evidence showing when Chekov officially came onboard Enterprise . Likewise, Khan had full access to the names and other information of the crew, who as prisoners would likewise give their names, ranks and serial-numbers, etc. A very funny fanfic distributed in print ('zines, photocopies, etc.) not long after the movie came out expands on that, envisioning Khan and Chekov bumping into each other in the bathroom. Sillier versions have Khan vowing revenge on Chekhov for making him wait for the cubicle and/or using all the toilet paper (which is actually Walter Koenig's own joke).
• Flat "What" : When Kirk tells Saavik just how he beat the Kobayashi Maru . Saavik: On the test, sir. Will you tell me what you did? I would really like to know. McCoy : Lieutenant, you are looking at the only Starfleet cadet who ever beat the no-win scenario. [ Points at Kirk ] Saavik: How? Kirk: I reprogrammed the simulation so it was possible to rescue the ship. Saavik: What? David: [ Chuckling ] He cheated . Kirk: Changed the conditions of the test. Got a commendation for original thinking. I don't like to lose. Saavik: Then you never faced that situation. Faced death. Kirk: I don't believe in the no-win scenario.
• Flying Saucer : Reliant is, essentially, what you get if you mush Enterprise 's engineering section into the saucer section rather than have two distinct parts, with the warp engines flipped downward. This was only the second Starfleet starship design to appear in the franchise, as all other Starfleet vessels seen earlier were Constitution class ships like Enterprise note  Some other Federation ship designs were seen in the original series, such as the robot freighter in "The Ultimate Computer" but they were civilian Federation vessels rather than Starfleet ships . It must have been influential, as many Starfleet designs seen in later series would be variations on the Flying Saucer theme.
• To Spock, after the Kobayashi Maru scenario, where everyone but Saavik played dead: Kirk: Aren't you dead?
• The movie is full of this. For example, Khan's chess set is a 2-D version (in the original series, Kirk was often seen playing 3-D chess), which points out Khan's difficulty in fighting in three dimensions (as a starship would), which helps lead to his defeat. Also, in Khan's quarters, you can see titles of books that Khan will draw inspiration from and frequently quote, including Moby-Dick .
• Spock gives Kirk an antique copy of A Tale of Two Cities . Kirk quotes the iconic passage, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," asking Spock if he's trying to say something. Spock meant nothing by it, only saying that Kirk's birthday must be "the best of times." Naturally, what follows is "the worst of times."
• The closing lines of that book ("It is a far far better thing I do than I have ever done before") also foreshadow the ending of the film, as both works feature people who willingly sacrifice themselves so that others may live .
• While supposedly "marooned for all eternity" inside the planet Regula, Kirk nevertheless keeps checking his watch. He's keeping tabs on the real repair estimate so Enterprise can beam them all up.
• Gee, the close-up shot of that photon torpedo being lowered into the chamber makes it look an awful lot like a coffin , doesn't it?
• One of Bones's last lines foreshadows the plot of the next film: Doctor McCoy : He's not really dead. As long as we remember him.
• This film introduces the Genesis device. As we'll see , the planet it creates disintegrates within a couple weeks, thus rendering it useless for its original purpose ( terraforming ). But surely Captain Picard and Captain Janeway might have found it useful as a handy-dandy instant Borg Cube Killer . note  This is addressed in the novelizations of this movie and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock . Vance Madison and Del March were actually the leading scientists on the project and they can briefly be seen in the scene where they argue about what they should do; Vance is the quiet black man, and Del is the restless one with slightly shorter sleeves. When they realize that their research is about to be taken from them they erase it all from the station's computer banks. Khan kills both of them after he discovers the device is gone and the plans erased. By the end of Star Trek III the only person with any working knowledge is Carol, and she's vowed to keep it to herself, though she admits no one could replicate the project without Madison and March.
• Spock also displays a trick whereby he can transfer his life-force, or "k'atra," to another person to allow him to transcend death, even while he's still alive. Furthermore, the Vulcans later prove able to re-insert this "k'atra" into a clone of Spock, which conveniently ages to the same degree as Spock's body when he died. Thus, while this Phlebotinum would normally allow immortality, Spock proves the first and last case of it ever being used this way. note  In Star Trek: Discovery , another character transfers part of their k'atra, but in this case it's to save someone else rather than themselves.
• Funny Background Event : While Kirk is telling Blatant Lies to Saavik ("There's no such regulation!"), Sulu, behind her back, is smiling from ear to ear, both because it's so perfectly in character for Kirk to just brazen it out, and because she obviously knows it's a lie, and stares Kirk down until he gives in.
• Gallows Humor : After absorbing fatal amounts of radiation, Spock tells Kirk that he never took the Kobayashi Maru, then asks, "What do you think of my solution?"
• Gargle Blaster : Judging by Kirk's reaction to just one sip, Romulan ale is a pretty potent brew. And as opposed to Earth ale, which is served in mugs, McCoy pours just a tiny amount into a small glass. Wonderful stuff, indeed.
• Khan is a "product of late 20th century engineering" and the chief reason for The Federation 's policy against it.
• The Genesis Device is a literal genetic engineering (as well as Terraforming ) nuke.
• Genesis Effect : Trope Namer —the Genesis device turns a lifeless rock or cloud of gas into a living, breathing planet. And, if aimed at a living, breathing planet, it'll erase it entirely and create a brand-new living, breathing planet, making it also a potentially devastating weapon.
• The Ghost : Marla McGivers . Her death in the Back Story hangs over the entire film as the main motivation for Khan's tumble down the slippery slope of revenge.
• The Glasses Come Off : Right before Enterprise takes out Reliant 's shields . Kirk also tells Khan "I see your point" as he does it.
• Glasses of Aging : Bones gives Kirk a pair of glasses on his birthday, which only reinforces his belief that he's getting old and obsolete.
• Guile Hero : Echoing a number of TOS episodes, this film sets up Kirk as completely outmatched in physical power, but maintains a clear head.
• Ham-to-Ham Combat : Pretty damn literal example. And it's delicious. William Shatner and Ricardo Montalbán despite never meeting face-to-face on screen gloriously ham their way through the whole movie, taking big bites out of every piece of scenery they can along the way.
• Haunted House : The Regula space station after Khan has paid it a visit.
• Headache of Doom : Symptoms of infestation by Ceti Eel larvae include extremely painful headaches and suggestibility, making them ideal when Khan needs a way of controlling Captain Terrell and Commander Chekov.
• Helpless Window Death : In the climax, Spock sacrifices himself to repair Enterprise 's damaged warp core, taking a lethal dose of radiation from the core in the process. Once Kirk arrives in Engineering, he's forced to speak to Spock through the clear wall of the warp core chamber, as opening the chamber would flood the area with radiation, and can only watch as Spock succumbs to his injuries and dies.
• Scotty, when his nephew is mortally wounded staying at his post after the ship suffers a surprise attack.
• Kirk, when Spock dies .
• Heroic Build : Khan, and Ricardo Montalbán in Real Life .
• And again, Midshipman Preston: Scotty: He stayed at his post... when the trainees ran...
• Heroic Suicide : While under Khan's Mind Control , Captain Terrell is ordered to kill Admiral Kirk. Realizing he can't resist the order, he kills himself with his own phaser to save Kirk's life.
• He's Back! : When Kirk appears on Enterprise again after Khan attempts to maroon him on Regula. Kirk: We tried it once your way, Khan. Are you game for a rematch?
• Hesitation Equals Dishonesty : Justified with Chekov reporting to the Genesis scientists. He's under mind control, and being fed lines.
• Hide and No Seek : Lampshaded when Carol Marcus wants to have a private talk with Kirk without David or the others listening in. Carol: David, why don't you show Dr. McCoy and the Lieutenant our idea of food? ... David: This is just to give us something to do, isn't it? Come on.
• Hoist by His Own Petard : Khan, repeatedly . Despite his superior intellect, he fails to acknowledge that Enterprise 's crew would be more familiar with how another Starfleet ship like Reliant works, especially after so many years (and the fact that Khan had never actually engaged in starship-to-starship combat before ever !). Then he futilely blows himself up with the Genesis device, because he simply cannot imagine that anyone could possibly be smart enough to get Enterprise 's warp drive working again in time to escape the detonation. Had he listened to Joachim in the first place, he could have taken Reliant and the Genesis device and carved out a nice empire for himself somewhere . Instead, every asset he gains is turned against Kirk, and ends up doing him far more harm than it does Kirk.
• Hollywood Hacking : Actually handled fairly realistically. Khan wants Kirk to hand over all data regarding the Genesis Project, so he opens a network connection between Reliant and Enterprise . Kirk and Spock take advantage of this to order Reliant 's computer to deactivate their shields , leaving her open to counterattack. It's even lampshaded that it will only work if the supergenius who stole a starship didn't think to change the password on the computer.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs : "Revenge is a dish best served cold" is actually a Sicilian (or French, depending on who you ask) proverb.
• Holy Backlight : Kirk's entrance.
• Honor Before Reason : Peter Preston stays at his post, saving a fellow engineer along the way.
• Hopeless Boss Fight : The Kobayashi Maru simulation is unwinnable by design, ending in an encounter with a numerically superior Klingon force that inevitably overpowers Enterprise .
• Hostile Terraforming : Discussed. The Federation is trying to find a completely lifeless world to try the Genesis Device on so they avoid this, but it is quickly brought up that it would make a very effective weapon as the Genesis Device would overwrite any existing life present. Then Khan steals it .
• Khan suffers from this flaw. He's very intelligent, but he lets his Pride and desire for revenge get the better of him, causing him to make mistakes.
• Kirk and David .
• Saavik, by Vulcan standards , is prone to some quite emotional outbursts. She swears mildly and mutters under her breath about being in over their heads during the Kobayashi Maru sim, is visibly frustrated at her failure afterward, is quite bemused at human behaviour in general, and shows obvious, if subdued, grief at Spock's death. In the novelization and the Star Trek Expanded Universe , this is explained by Saavik being half Vulcan and half Romulan.
• Humble Hero : Kirk starts off the film tired and aware of his own mortality, which becomes more pronounced as the film progresses. His way of stalling for time with Khan as they prepare a counterattack was praised by the cadet bridge crew but he knew it was a lucky shot. Sulu: Sir, you did it. Kirk: I did nothing ...except get caught with my britches down. I must be getting senile.
• I Never Said It Was Poison : Chekov unintentionally reveals he and Terrell meant to beam down to Ceti Alpha VI. Chekov: You lie! On Ceti Alpha V, there was life! A fair chance- Khan: THIS is Ceti Alpha V! [some hammy exposition later] Khan: You did not expect to find me. You thought this was Ceti Alpha VI. Ah... Why are you here?
• When Carol calls Kirk to demand answers for why Reliant is trying to seize Genesis, she uses nothing but pronouns and vague statements ("they", "the order", etc.) which only serve to confuse Kirk, since he has no idea what she's talking about or any context. The signal is jammed eventually, but they converse long enough that Carol could have given some specific details if she only thought to do so. When Kirk subsequently runs into Reliant , which is mysteriously uncommunicative, he fails to connect the dots and associate the ship's odd behavior with Carol's earlier message about Genesis being taken.
• Acknowledged In-Universe when Kirk beats himself over his mistake that let Khan cripple the ship.
• Khan fails to recognize the incredibly simple code used by Kirk and Spock when discussing repair times.
• Carried by Reliant 's crew as they mistake Ceti Alpha V for Ceti Alpha VI (imagine mistaking Earth for Mars), and by Chekov for not remembering that Khan was left on. In their defense, Ceti Alpha VI was destroyed, Ceti Alpha V's orbit was shifted to be closer to Ceti Alpha VI's, they are both in an out-of-the-way system that was not well surveyed, and Ceti Alpha V had formerly been a life-filled planet, but was devastated by the orbit shift to more closely resemble Ceti Alpha VI.
• Chekov finds a buckle that says "Botany Bay" and realizes they're in Khan's camp seconds before they're captured.
• Reliant approaches Enterprise , but refuses to open a visual channel, claiming a malfunction. When she raises her shields and locks weapons Kirk realizes what's going on and orders his own shields raised, but not soon enough to prevent Reliant from crippling them in a single pass.
• When Enterprise successfully hacks Reliant 's computer during the brief ceasefire that follows, the only warning that Khan gets that he's about to be attacked is his ship's shields abruptly dropping.
• Indy Ploy : Kirk's quick thinking about hacking into Reliant 's main computer using her command codes.
• Insistent Terminology : Kirk did not cheat on the Kobayashi Maru, he just "changed the conditions of the test."
• In the Original Klingon : "Do you know the old Klingon proverb that revenge is a dish best served cold? It is very cold... in spaaace ." (Who knew Pierre Choderlos de Laclos was a Klingon?)
• Intercom Villainy : Khan never meets the Enterprise crew face-to-face, and instead menaces them through viewscreens, communicators, and whatever other devices he can use to threaten them with Moby-Dick quotes.
• Intrinsic Vow : Captain Terrell resists Khan's order to murder Admiral Kirk enough so that he can kill himself and save Kirk's life.
• Irrevocable Order : Once the Genesis Device's countdown is started, it can't be stopped.
• "I'm laughing at the 'superior intellect'." This was to infuriate Khan into making a mistake. It works.
• "...But like a poor marksman, you keep missing the target! " Subverted in this case when Khan refuses to rise to the bait and decides to leave Kirk on the planetoid to rot . Khan might have taken the bait had Ricardo Montalbán 's schedule allowed him to share production time with the rest of the cast. This is why Khan and his crew never interact with Kirk and his .
• I Surrender, Suckers : In the initial confrontation between Enterprise and Reliant , Kirk pretends to accept Kahn's surrender demand. This is just a ploy to stall for time while his crew looks up Reliant 's prefix code. Once found, he uses the code to deactivate Reliant 's shields and force them to withdraw.
• It Has Been an Honor : Implied and results in Manly Tears with "Do not grieve. It was... logical."
• It's All About Me : When Captain Terrel mentions he's never even met Admiral Kirk, Khan immediately thinks that Kirk was promoted as the result of exiling him .
• It's a Long Story : Kirk's response to Carol asking him who Khan is. Considering they are trapped inside a moon, his son responds, "We appear to have plenty of time..."
• It's What I Do : Same with It Has Been an Honor .
• Jerkass Has a Point : Khan complains that no one ever bothered to check up on his crew after Kirk stranded them, so most of them died when Ceti Alpha VI exploded. As Chekov inadvertently reveals, the Federation didn't even realize the system was missing a planet or that Khan's crew were supposed to be on one of them. Since it's a small colony of dangerous megalomaniacs, created out of mercy, you'd think Kirk would have arranged for better oversight.
• Just Ignore It : Explicitly deconstructs Kirk’s flaw from the series, as he’s always tried so hard to not deal with death, either with Tarsus making him the good Starfleet soldier or going more codependent after Edith dies, but Spock’s death forces him to face up to loss and try and cope instead of just ignoring it.
• Just Think of the Potential! : The idiotically idealistic science team see Genesis simply as "instant terraforming, just add water", and consider it to be the ultimate salvation to problems of overpopulation and food supply. Plenty of other people (including McCoy ) see an entirely different potential ... one that doesn't even have the nasty side effects of other superweapons as it leaves verdant worlds behind in its wake note  The subsequent film reveals that Genesis is actually useless as a terraforming tool, but nobody knew that during the events of this film with the possible exception of David . David at least seems aware of the Genesis Device's potential less-than-altruistic uses.
• It should be noted that the tradition in the British Navy, as reflected in works like the Hornblower books that exerted significant influence on Star Trek in general and this film in particular, was that the proper, functional title of the person explicitly charged with commanding a ship, having been "read in" as the vessel's commander on boarding, was "Captain" even if his rank was higher. If Starfleet followed the same model, Kirk answering to the functional title of Captain when taking up formal command of Enterprise did not affect his graded rank of Admiral and did not constitute demotion (self-inflicted or otherwise). Kirk's reduction to Captain at the end of the fourth movie , in contrast, was a demotion in graded rank imposed as punishment for disobeying orders.
• David's well aware he, Saavik, and McCoy are being told to Hide and No Seek .
• Joachim playing Khan's Only Sane Man .
• Khan all but turns to the audience and explains his willfully engaging in a Moby Schtick .
• Large Ham : A double serving: Kirk and Khan in Ham-to-Ham Combat !
• Last-Second Term of Respect : In the Director's Cut , Admiral Kirk takes delight in teasing Scotty's nephew, Peter Preston, about the state of Enterprise 's engine room. Preston: Oh, no sir! Wha... this is the finest engine room in the whole Starfleet! If the Admiral can't see the facts for himself, then, with all due respect , he's as blind as a Tiberian bat! Scotty: Ahem! Preston: Sir!
• A Lesson in Defeat : Kirk learns that he can't always find a way to win when Spock is forced to sacrifice his life to save the crew .
• Let Them Die Happy : Kirk does this for Preston right before the latter dies: Preston: Is the word...given? Kirk: The word is given. Warp speed. Preston: Aye...( dies )
• Like a Son to Me : Joachim, while not being related to Khan by blood (expanded universe materials revealed he was the son of Khan's right hand man in "Space Seed" named Joaquin), is the closest thing Khan has to a son. Joachim gets Khan to listen to him at several crucial moments when his thirst for revenge is overriding his common sense and Khan is devastated when Joachim dies in his arms towards the end of the film.
• Like Father, Like Son : David. His Establishing Character Moment has him attack Kirk under the mistaken belief that Starfleet were the ones who tortured and executed their fellow scientists, showing that he's brash and hot-blooded. Remind anyone of someone we know, when he was younger? But then again...
• Like Father, Unlike Son : David Marcus may be the son of James T. Kirk and he may be just as hot-blooded as Kirk, but he clearly does not have his father's combat prowess, as Kirk disarms and overpowers him pretty easily after David ambushes him. This would be taken to its logical, tragic conclusion in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock .
• Little "No" : From Kirk , of all people, when Spock dies , just to punctuate how broken the man is.
• Lock-and-Load Montage : Commentary from the DVD's special features lampshade that much of this, particularly crewmen manually preparing the torpedo tubes and hand-loading them, makes absolutely no sense at all, but it looks awesome .
• It's notable that David knows who Kirk is, based on his early dialogue explaining his distrust of Starfleet. He brings him up, not Carol. And refers to him as "that overgrown Boy Scout (she) used to hang around." David's a smart man, he might have had his suspicions already. After things calmed down, he might have analyzed his mother's and Kirk's reactions ("Is that David?" from Kirk, and when David accuses him of killing the Regula scientists, Carol immediately defends Kirk, with a pointed "You're just making this more difficult.") and confronted his mother off screen.
• Magic Countdown : Khan's "sixty seconds", since he's not going by exact times but is OK with delaying as long he perceives that Kirk really is complying and believes that he is about to get the Genesis info turned over to him (along with Kirk continually begging for more time on the grounds that battle damage has slowed the computer down), and Kirk's "We need warp speed in 3 minutes or we're all dead."
• Man Hug : Kirk and David. Awwwk-waardd. note  Justified in that this was a father and son who hadn't even heard of/seen each other until a day ago, and the latter hated the 'military type', until he saw he was wrong. Any way you cut it this was going to be awkward.
• Lampshaded by Kirk after a confused look from Saavik: "...That's a little joke."
• Meaningful Gift : Subverted. The gifts given to Kirk for his birthday are thoughtful and reflect the knowledge the givers have of the Admiral. Spock gives him a copy of A Tale of Two Cities because he "knows of his fondness for antiques". Bones gives him a pair of reading glasses, knowing that Kirk is allergic to a medication that would have improved his vision. In fact, it's worth noting that Kirk is later seen reading the book with those glasses on his way to Enterprise to run an inspection. But the gifts don't make him happy, because as Bones observes, Kirk would prefer to be "out there hopping galaxies" instead of bound to desk duty, the one thing his friends can't give him.
• Milestone Birthday Angst : Kirk is celebrating his fiftieth birthday, and is so sullen about it that Bones calls him out on it, saying that he's treating it like his own funeral. The events of the film rejuvenate him, by the end he says that he feels young.
• Misaimed Fandom : In-Universe . Moby-Dick is part of Khan's private library and he quotes Captain Ahab throughout the movie. Either Khan misses the point of the novel or alternatively , he understands the point of the novel completely and recognizes the parallels between himself and Ahab, but is so consumed by his rage that he doesn't care, or is just so arrogant that he believes that, unlike Ahab, he could slay his white whale without destroying himself and his crew. Also, it's possible that Khan knows he will die as a result of his actions, but he wants to take Kirk with him. A " The Only One Allowed to Defeat You " sort of thing.
• Misfit Mobilization Moment : The boatload of trainees move with a purpose during the Lock-and-Load Montage .
• Moby Schtick : From hell's heart Khan stabs at thee.
• Mood Whiplash : Done skillfully throughout. Kirk manages to buy the crew some time by crippling Reliant , and it's a great badass moment to remind us how smart Kirk is. Then Uhura gasps in horror, and the camera pans to see an agonized Scotty holding the horribly burned body of one of the young cadets (a deleted scene shows it's his nephew) in his arms, reminding us that Kirk has unwillingly dragged a bunch of untrained kids into a violent battle with one of the smartest enemies he's ever faced.
• Moral Myopia : Yeah, Khan, get really upset that Kirk hurt your crew on accident and forget that you hurt his crew on purpose , right after they'd finished saving your hide. Chekov calls him on this, to no effect. Chekov: Captain Kirk was your host. You repaid his hospitality by trying to steal his ship and murder him!
• Mr. Exposition : David Marcus wanders onto the Enterprise ' s bridge during the battle in the Mutara Nebula (something that a real navy wouldn't allow a civilian to do), just so that he can later explain to Kirk and Spock that Khan has activated the Genesis Device, there's no way to stop it, and it'll detonate in four minutes.
• Mr. Fanservice : Khan has a lot of really pretty boys in his crew. And he's not exactly hard on the eyes himself!
• Mutual Disadvantage : Going into the Mutara Nebula means that both ships will be blind as Tiberian bats and without shields; the fact that Reliant is less damaged becomes practically negligible, because any hits that do land will be crippling. Spock: The odds will be even.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg : A minor case when Kirk is about to beam to Regula I and Spock tells him to be careful, McCoy replies " We will."
• My Greatest Failure : Kirk felt guilty for Spock's death after the events of the movie, as he failed to foresee the apocalypse of Khan's homeworld .
• Mythology Gag : As noted above, how Kirk dealt with growing older was a major subplot of the movie. In the Kobayashi Maru test at the beginning, the simulated Enterprise was heading to the Gamma Hydra system; the TOS episode " The Deadly Years " (in which the Enterprise crew had to deal with rapid aging) took place there.
• Naïve Newcomer : Saavik quotes regulations by their number, only to be brushed off by Kirk. Subverted in that she had a pretty good point about the regulation regarding Federation vessels acting strangely. Kirk swallows his pride after it results in Enterprise getting blindsided by Reliant , and gives her free reign to go "right on quoting regulations".
• Neck Lift : Khan does this to Chekov to show how badass he is, but he's really lifting him by a handle on the front of his spacesuit, not his neck. Still, this is a grown (if below-average sized) man wearing wearing many pounds of space suit, and Khan lifts him effortlessly with one hand . Turns out "five times your physical strength" was no idle boast.
• The Needs of the Many : The Trope Namer . This is essentially the reasoning why Spock performed his Heroic Sacrifice
• Never Give the Captain a Straight Answer : McCoy merely tells Kirk that he should get down to engineering and that he had better hurry. Justified in that he didn't want to rattle the whole bridge crew by saying outright that Spock was dying of radiation poisoning.
• New Meat : Everyone on Enterprise aside from the bridge crew and Scotty is a trainee.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain : If someone on Reliant hadn't come up with a lame story about Chambers coil emissions, Spock would not have been scanning the ship during their first encounter, and the Enterprise crew would not have had even a shred of warning that they were about to be attacked. Not that it did much good, but Kirk at least ordered the shields raised at the last second, which may have stopped some damage.
• Both Kirk and Khan (who are biased against Kirk for different reasons ) take it as Kirk's fault that Khan was marooned on the planet. While it's part of a bigger issue that Kirk is impulsive with choices and runs away from problems pretending they're not there, Kirk was probably kinder than Khan deserved, as Chekov points out.
• Cadet Peter Preston goes back into the gas-filled engine room during Khan's first attack and drags another trainee out before he can be trapped behind a closing door. His reward is being left on the floor while the kid he rescued hotfoots it to safety .
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown : Wrath of Khan is often praised for its fast-moving, intense space battles. This is unusual for Star Trek because all of the ship-to-ship combat in this movie is done without shields —Kirk can't get Enterprise 's shields up in time when Khan first attacks, and then hacks Reliant 's computer to lower shields before retaliating. During the climax, conditions in the Mutara Nebula disable the shields of both ships. Conversely, Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek: Nemesis have been criticized for having boring space battles, since they follow the normal style of Trek combat where ships gradually chip away at each other's shields before doing damage.
• No Kill like Overkill : Kirk vaporizes the brain slug with his phaser, when simply stepping on it probably would have worked. Then again, he's seriously pissed.
• No Man Should Have This Power : Dr. McCoy immediately realizes that not only can Genesis create life on desolate worlds, it can easily eradicate life on hospitable worlds as a weapon of mass destruction. Spock initially believes McCoy 's overreacting, until they find out Khan wants Genesis for himself . David Marcus also pointed out the same thing even before Khan got involved. Spock: I do not dispute that in the wrong hands... McCoy : "In the wrong hands"? Would you mind telling whose are the right hands, my logical friend?
• Non-Indicative Name : The Ceti eels are actually arthropods, not fish.
• Scotty had "a wee bout" in his shore leave which Dr. McCoy pulled him through. Out of universe it's a reference to James Doohan having had a heart attack and a coronary bypass a short time before filming.
• While explained in All There in the Manual (he kept promising he’d be around but was too interested in his career to balance it out), it’s never expanded in the movie on why Kirk thinks of Carol as an old wound, or she gets annoyed at people thinking he’s perfect.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent : Khan. An East Indian (sure) with a Mexican accent.
• Spock of all people does this to Saavik. When Saavik cautiously reminds Kirk of a regulation about keeping shields up until communication is established Spock brushes her off and tells her that the Admiral is well aware of the regulations. Once it's clear that this was an almost fatal error, Kirk gives Saavik a standing order to keep quoting regulations.
• Then brought back almost immediately when Kirk decides to beam down to Regula One himself. Saavik does exactly what he told her to do and reminds him of the regulation that states he can't as a flag officer without a proper escort in a dangerous situation. The novelization makes it clear that his immediate assertation that "there's no such regulation!" is Kirk blatantly trying to invoke this trope in the hopes she'll drop it. She just stares him down, and he acquiesces.
• Spock only closes his eyes when an anguished Scotty carries his badly burned, dying nephew to the bridge, but the set of his face gives it the same impact as someone turning and wincing.
• Saavik is just about the most emotional Vulcan one will ever see. She gets visibly flustered and prickly when Kirk critiques her Kobayashi Maru test (and utters a "Damn!" during the test—highly uncharacteristic of Vulcans, as Spock lampshades in later films ). She also sheds a few tears during Spock's funeral . A deleted scene points this out, with Spock offering a Hand Wave that she's half-Romulan. The novelization expands on this, describing Saavik as one of many half-Vulcan/half-Romulan children left to fend for themselves on a Crapsack World when the Romulan colony there was abandoned. She was never even exposed to Vulcan culture until adolescence, when Vulcans came to the planet and rescued her and her fellow half-breeds; therefore, she doesn't yet have the emotional mastery one would expect from a person who was raised with Surak's teachings from birth.
• Nothing Is Scarier : As mentioned above, the battle in the Mutara Nebula at the end is not what you'd expect from two space-based warships duking it out. It's really more like a submarine battle—slow, quiet, tense and very effective.
• Chekov's reaction when he realizes what he and Terrell have stumbled upon. Botany Bay ... Botany Bay ?! Oh, no ! We've got to get out of here, now !
• Kirk when he sees Khan on the viewscreen and can't believe this guy has come back to haunt him.
• Khan, when Reliant 's Deflector Shields go down. Joachim: Sir...our shields are dropping! Khan: Raise them! Joachim: * after the controls don't respond * I can't ! Khan: Where's the override? The override? note  Not where you're looking, Khan.
• Most heartbreakingly, Kirk when he realizes what just happened to Spock .
• Only Mostly Dead : Spock after the final battle. He still has time to say goodbye to his friend.
• The Oner : Kirk, Saavik, and Bones conversing in the elevator.
• The Only One : Kirk mentions they are the only ship in the area and able to investigate Regula One going dark. Not quite as bad as other Trek examples, as at least they were some distance from Earth by the time they got the mission. This also sets up a Closed Circle -type situation, there was no one else around to help out.
• Joachim seems to be the only one on Khan's crew rational enough to realize (and actually voice the opinion) that revenge against Kirk is silly, but unfortunately for him, Khan's too bent on his revenge.
• Lampshaded by Khan, who responds to Joachim's advice by quoting Moby-Dick , specifically a speech showing Ahab's too obsessed to care about the consequences of his hunt. Khan acknowledges his desire for revenge is suicidal, and pushes himself anyway.
• Orchestral Bombing : James Horner is awesome .
• Orifice Invasion : The worms that enter through the ear.
• Out-Gambitted : Khan thinks he's trapped Kirk on that planet, but Kirk used a coded message before to ensure his escape. Kirk takes that extra step to convince Khan of the hoplessness of Kirk's situation as well.
• Outrun the Fireball : Or in this case, Outrun the Genesis Effect - the Genesis Effect works at light speed and just Warp 1 is faster than that.
• Override Command : Kirk uses Reliant 's prefix code to remotely lower its shields, allowing Enterprise to disable its weapons with the limited offensive capacity they have after Khan's surprise attack. Khan's inexperience with the vessel prevents him from locating the override on Reliant that would be able to reverse Kirk's sabotage.
• Parody Commercial : Bones sarcastically enacts one in describing Genesis, to Spock's exasperation. McCoy : According to myth, the Earth was created in six days . Now watch out! Here comes Genesis! We'll do it for you in six minutes!
• Peek-a-Boo Corpse : Right after getting a Rat Scare while on Regula 1, McCoy turns around and finds himself face-to-face with a dead scientist, hung upside-down.
• Permission to Speak Freely : After the Kobayashi Maru . Saavik: Permission to speak candidly, sir. Kirk: Granted. Saavik: I don't believe this was a fair test of my command abilities. Kirk: And why not? Saavik: Because there was no way to win. Kirk: A no-win situation is a possibility every commander may face. Has that never occurred to you? Saavik: No, sir, it has not.
• The Peter Principle : Kirk has long since been an Admiral at Starfleet Command, with Enterprise in orbit serving mostly as a training vessel. He is feeling old and useless because all he is doing is paperwork and chastising cadets. Both Spock and McCoy tell him at different points that, although more than qualified to be an admiral, his greatest destiny is as a starship captain. This is echoed through the remainder of the Original Series films, as he is eventually demoted back to captain and he is perfectly fine with that. (In Generations he even spells this out as advice to Picard.)
• Plot Archaeology : Khan has become such an iconic Star Trek villain that it's easy to forget that he was originally a one-episode character from the first season of the original series.
• Plot Hole : Khan immediately recognizes Chekov, even though the ensign wasn't a character on the show at the time Kahn's episode took place, and didn't join the cast until the following season. A common fan theory is that Chekov was part of the crew during the first season, but not assigned to the bridge or any other location seen by the audience. Walter Koenig joked that he believes Chekov accidentally made Khan wait an uncomfortable amount of time to use the bathroom. He also says he spotted the hole immediately when he was given the script, but he wasn't about to mention it to the producers and give up such a large role in the story for Chekov.
• Power Of Hate : Khan's rage and hatred give him the strength to launch one final Taking You with Me attack on Kirk and Enterprise , as well as providing inspiration for some great last words (quoted from Moby-Dick ).
• Bones uses the curse "goddamn". This was the first time a word of this strength had been uttered in any Trek production, and the last until the sixth film.
• A behind-the-scenes example. Shortly after the first film was released, Harve Bennett was brought before a group of Paramount executives. Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Eisner asked if he could make a better movie. Harve replied he could, and then Charles Bluhdorn replied "Can you make it for less than 45-fucking-million dollars?" Harve replied, " Where I come from, I could make five movies for that. "
• Pre-Mortem Catchphrase : Spock gives Kirk the Vulcan salute and says, "Live long... and prosper," before finishing his Heroic Sacrifice .
• Properly Paranoid : After watching the informational video on Genesis, McCoy immediately realizes that Genesis could also be used as a weapon of mass destruction . Spock thinks McCoy 's being his overemotional self. Then, they encounter Khan , who wants Genesis for himself, and they become determined to prevent him from taking it.
• Proscenium Reveal : The entrance of Admiral Kirk ends the Kobayashi Maru test.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy : Khan. He is a Sikh after all.
• Spock tells Kirk on an open channel, "Admiral, if we go by the book, hours could seem like days". To anyone else, this might sound like a case of Lawful Stupid , but Kirk, who'd been discussing regulations about coded messages with Spock earlier, knows that this means to decode the next message, replace the word "days" with "hours" .
• In Real Life , this counts as Roddenberry's second attempt to reconnect with his long lost World War II buddy, Kim Noonien Singh.
• After Kirk survives Khan's attempt to have Captain Terrell murder him in the Genesis Planet cave: Khan: Kirk...you're still alive , my old friend. Kirk: Still! Old! Friend!
• And later in the same conversation: Kirk: Khan, you've got Genesis. But you don't have me! You were going to kill me, Khan. You're going to have to come down here. You're going to have to come down here!
• Puppeteer Parasite : The larvae of the Ceti eel enter a host through the ear canal, burrow into the braincase, and wrap around the cerebral cortex. One side effect is that the host becomes, as Khan puts it, "extremely susceptible to...suggestion."
• Pyrrhic Victory : Part of what makes Khan one of cinema's most respected villains is how much his actions cause Kirk to lose, but at a great cost to himself.
• Race Against the Clock : When Khan activates the Genesis device, it counts down from four minutes before it detonates. This is the amount of time Spock has to get down to the engine room and repair Enterprise 's engines so that she can go to warp and escape the blast radius.
• Railing Kill : It's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it example, but during Enterprise ' s final attack on Reliant , an explosion in the latter ship's engineering section throws one of Khan's henchmen over the railings surrounding the warp core.
• Reality Is Unrealistic : Khan's "prosthetic pecs"—no, Montalban just buffed himself up really well.
• Recycled In Space : First, a 19th-century naval adventure, and later a 20th-century submarine vs submarine battle, all IN SPACE .
• Red Alert : The basis for the Lock-and-Load Montage , complete with closeups on viewscreens flashing the RED ALERT message.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning : Reliant 's running lights become red once the ship's hijacked by Khan. Especially apparent when Reliant is bearing down on Enterprise in the first attack.
• Red-Flag Recreation Material : The meagre library on Ceti Alpha V includes some very dark works, including Paradise Lost , Dante's Inferno , and Moby-Dick . As such, Khan's thematic connections to Lucifer and self-destructive obsession with revenge are hinted at well before he formally reintroduces himself with the ambush on Chekhov's team.
• Red Right Hand : Khan never takes off his right glove, nor is it commented upon, but his removal of his left is a key part of his Establishing Character Moment .
• Subverted. Screws with expectations by having every main character wearing red uniforms for most of the film . The ones who get killed the most on Enterprise are the engineers, who wear white outfits.
• A non-literal Redshirt is the member of the science station's crew who gets shot by a mind-controlled Terrell.
• Khan meets Chekov and says he knows him because "I never forget a face." Which means that Chekov was on ship during " Space Seed ," a first-season episode, despite the character not appearing on screen until the second season. Numerous explanations have been thrown about (he was on the ship, just not as bridge crew; Chekov was the officer in charge of delivering the supplies and food to Ceti Alpha V; an obvious joke about Chekov occupying a latrine Khan wanted to use), but ultimately it comes down to this trope.
• Repeat to Confirm : When Saavik is piloting Enterprise out of Spacedock. Saavik: Aft thrusters, Mr. Sulu. Sulu: Aft thrusters. Saavik: Ahead one-quarter impulse power. Sulu: Ahead one-quarter impulse power.
• Retool : Director Nicholas Meyer made some changes, most notably making Starfleet like an actual navy and giving the crew uniforms which looked less like a product of the 60's/70's , sporting uniforms with a more classical and thus timeless look. So timeless, in fact, that they used those same uniforms for the rest of the TOS films and, in continuity, were used by Starfleet in some form up until 2350's, about 70 years after this film and 10 years before Star Trek: The Next Generation . note  Picard can be seen wearing one as an ensign in 2327 in the episode "Tapestry", and "Cause and Effect" establishes that the uniforms were created as early as 2278, 7 years before the events of this movie.
• Revenge Before Reason : Khan has this pointed out by his underlings, twice no less. First they have a Federation starship, they can go anywhere . Then they have Genesis and a Federation starship, so they can go anywhere and have a planet-killing bomb as insurance. Khan refuses to listen to this both times and proceeds with his plan of revenge. There's a reason he owns a copy of Moby Dick and routinely quotes Ahab. Khan: He tasks me. He tasks me, and I shall have him. I'll chase him round the Moons of Nibia and round the Antares Maelstrom and round Perdition's flames before I give him up .
• Revenge is Sweet : Khan engages in such feelings, ultimately stranding Kirk in the Genesis Cave in retaliation for leaving him and his followers on Ceti Alpha Six after a failed attempt to take over Kirk's ship, which while hospitable when Kirk left, not too long afterwards was turned into a Death World by a catastrophic ecological disaster. These feelings disappear after Khan finds out that Kirk has found a way onboard Enterprise , making him bent on taking down Kirk for good despite his underling Joachim pointing out Khan has much more to gain from ignoring Kirk and taking his new starship and planet-killing Genesis device to carve out a new empire.
• Revenge Myopia : Lampshaded . After Khan explains his beef with Kirk, Chekov says, "Captain Kirk was your host. You repaid his hospitality by trying to steal his ship and murder him!" Khan ignores the point. Neither does he consider that he owes his life to Kirk, on account of the fact that his ship almost certainly would have fallen victim to age sooner or later; a dozen of his fellow augments died from stasis malfunctions before Enterprise even found them. Even their exile was an act of charity (even if it went horribly wrong); Kirk could have just dragged them all back to Earth for war crimes trials. But Khan has a Never My Fault sort of mentality.
• Riddle for the Ages : Invoked behind-the-scenes. Nicholas Meyer told Ricardo Montalban to keep Khan's right glove on at all times, to create a little mystery about the character that viewers could work out for themselves.
• Rule of Cool : The primary reason for the Lock-and-Load Montage : There really isn't any reason why a 23rd century starship should require a dozen crewmembers manually lifting deck grates in order to load a torpedo, but damn if it isn't awesome to watch. note  It's possible that the automated loading system was damaged in their first encounter with Khan so they had to resort to the human backup system, but this isn't stated in the film.
• Rummage Sale Reject : Khan and his followers wear clothing comprised from whatever they could cannibalize from the Botany Bay .
• Sacrificial Lamb : Peter Preston is introduced in the Director's cut as Scotty's young nephew. He perishes in the line of duty during Khan's attack. Besides Saavik, he's the only trainee highlighted, and his death helps us view the deceased trainees as more than just Red Shirts .
• Say My Name : "KHAAAAAANNNNNN!!!"
• Used with the Peek-a-Boo Corpse scene.
• The original soundtrack features a Scare Chord at the end of the track "Kirk's Explosive Reply", though it wasn't used in the movie itself.
• Scenery Porn : The cave inside the planetoid orbited by the Regula 1 station, and also the clouds of the Mutara Nebula.
• Screw the Rules, They're Not Real! : After failing the intentionally unwinnable Kobayashi Maru scenario twice, Jim Kirk cheated by hacking the computer to make it possible to win. Kirk justifies this with the belief that he doesn't believe there is such a thing as an unwinnable scenario, only ones with non-obvious solutions , and says he "received a commendation for original thinking."
• Sealed Evil in a Can : Khan Noonien Singh and his cryogenically frozen followers, when they're abandoned on Ceti Alpha V (which the crew of Reliant mistake for Ceti Alpha VI after a natural disaster alters its orbit and destroys its environment).
• Sealed Good in a Can : Khan attempts to do this, but Kirk has other plans.
• Secret Test of Character : The stated purpose of the Kobayashi Maru , which is kept from the cadet taking the test, is to find out how the cadet will react in a "no-win" situation. The test, however, is flawed in that, even if the cadets taking the test will always find themselves in a "no-win" problem, he or she always knows that it is just a test. How each cadet might later act under actual combat conditions is still unknown.
• Self-Disposing Villain : Khan attempts to take Kirk with him . It doesn't turn out as planned.
• Separated by the Wall : Spock inside the lethally radioactive chamber, with Kirk outside unable to do anything but exchange a few last words.
• Sequel Hook : So last minute, it isn't even reflected in the novelization of the movie: Spock does not mind-meld with McCoy , and his will specifically states he is not to be taken to Vulcan . The novelization of Search for Spock simply retcons in the former while attempting to justify the latter by saying Spock felt he was incompatible with the ritual.
• Sequel Reset : Kirk is back to being an Admiral again, only this time is one willingly out of a feeling of being too old to be captain, rather than being Kicked Upstairs as TMP!Kirk was. It also reuses the Back in the Saddle plot from the last one, but the results are much more tragic here.
• Koenig was joking, of course, but it's entirely possible that Chekov was a junior officer on Enterprise at the time of "Space Seed", and only later got promoted to the bridge crew (and thus became an on-screen character). This is explicitly the case in the novelization: it describes Chekov having an encounter with Khan while still a junior officer assigned to the overnight watch on the bridge.
• The second season episode "Catspaw" features Chekov not at his usual navigator station but filling in at Spock's science station while Spock is off the ship. The stardates given in the episode (3018.2) place it before "Space Seed," (3141.9) providing on-screen evidence that Chekov was on the ship before Khan, but not yet assigned to the navigator post that would make him a regular fixture on the bridge. It should be noted, however, that it wasn't until Star Trek: The Next Generation that stardate use was made consistently chronological (for example, there are a couple of Star Trek: The Animated Series episodes with stardates higher than that of the first movie, yet clearly set before.
• Shabby Heroes, Well-Dressed Villains : Inverted. Enterprise 's crew wear pristine uniforms while Khan and his followers are Rummage Sale Rejects .
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog : The whole point of " Space Seed " was that Kirk was giving the supermen a second chance to redeem themselves, allowing them to start their own colony on an uninhabited planet, with the intention to come back "in a hundred years" and see what kind of civilization would eventually develop from this "seed". Here we learn that in a mere fifteen years, it developed into a threat to the entire galaxy note  And this was what happened when the planet they were on underwent an ecological disaster that almost killed them all. Imagine how much of a threat they could have been if they hadn't been so beaten down by the conditions, and still wanted to go out conquering the galaxy .
• Multiple direct references to Moby-Dick and A Tale of Two Cities , the two books which represent Khan (irrationally obsessed with revenge) and Kirk (coming to terms with his own mortality).
• The concentric tubes of the Genesis control panel resemble the ones that Ripley uses to activate the self-destruct sequence in Alien .
• Two of the crates in the Genesis cave are marked for locations called Bellus and Zyra .
• Harve Bennett, when given the reins of the Star Trek franchise, had no experience whatsoever with it. So, one weekend he had a marathon session of watching each and every episode to bring himself up to date on the franchise. Keep in mind, he didn't watch it on videotape - he watched it on kinescope .
• Spock's death is a fairly accurate depiction of acute radiation poisoning, which causes blindness and skin damage similar to burns.
• Sink the Lifeboats : When Saavik gives the order to Abandon Ship during the Kobayashi Maru, which ends in failure, Kirk steps in to inform her that the Klingons don't take prisoners.
• Slobs vs. Snobs : Played With . Khan and his followers are the slobs, forced to scrounge together anything they could find after Ceti Alpha VI's destruction ruined Ceti Alpha V's environment. Kirk and Starfleet are the snobs, wearing clean, orderly uniforms, with the twist being the "snobs" are the heroes.
• Small Role, Big Impact : Ricardo Montalbán once said that he almost passed on coming back for Wrath of Khan because, as it is written in the script, Khan is actually only onscreen for about fifteen total minutes over the course of the entire movie, and his actual spoken dialogue is pretty minimal as well when compared to the main characters. But then he realized, as he read the story, that Khan's impact on the other characters is present on every single page of the script , and immediately agreed to reprise the role. (It's worth noting that Khan's name hadn't been put in the title yet.)
• Smart People Play Chess : A chess set is one of the few creature comforts Khan and his followers had on Ceti Alpha V. This becomes a plot point later on. Khan may be The Chessmaster , but in the 23th century, they play three-dimensional chess .
• Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome : Given the youthful appearance of Joaqim and the rest of Khan's followers (compared to Khan himself who clearly looks at least fifteen years older), there has been speculation that this group is actually not his original followers but their children, a concept used in the expanded universe novel "To Reign in Hell" by Greg Cox. note  However, they clearly look more than fifteen years old. And even assuming that they began having children immediately after being exiled on Ceti Alpha V (which would be a foolhardy choice at best considering the initial work required to at least make the world livable), the oldest child born wouldn't be older than thirteen or fourteen. Conversely, the comics and novelization of the movie suggest that they are indeed Khan's original followers and that Khan himself has simply aged prematurely due to the immense stress of his situation (losing his wife and most of his crew while having to fight to keep the survivors alive for 15 years on a Death World ).
• Sorrowful Stutter : Captain Kirk manages to get through most of his eulogy for Spock before stopping to gather himself before the final word of the line "Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most... human."
• Averted with the new uniforms. The badass maroon jacket and department-colored turtleneck combo is a million steps up from TMP's Starfleet pastel pajamas.
• Played straight with Khan and the other augments' wardrobe, as well as the Regula scientists' uniforms.
• Khan and his followers' clothes were supposed to look like they had been scavenged from whatever fabrics they could find, which is why their outfits are more Rummage Sale Reject than an actual uniform.
• Space Clouds : The Mutara Nebula is portrayed as a gigantic mass of layers of swirling purple and magenta clouds.
• Space Is an Ocean : More pronounced than ever before, as the movie is essentially a naval combat movie In Space , but comes with a Lampshade Hanging , as well as a famous aversion, where the main characters take advantage of the fact that the villain believes this trope, but they know better. Spock: His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking.
• Space Mines : In the Unwinnable Training Simulation that starts off the movie, the ship Enterprise needs to rescue was disabled by a gravitic mine.
• Naturally. Quite notable here, however, in what Spock's Heroic Sacrifice said about how this archetype should be written. That "cold Vulcan logic" that McCoy is always harping on Spock about applies to his own life as much as anyone else's... and he doesn't hesitate even for a moment when applying it.
• Saavik serves as a second example, being a young protégé of Spock. She insists on citing regulation at Admiral Kirk, and he quickly decides to start heeding her counsel. Being a younger Spock-in-training, she is more impulsive and hot-headed (for a Vulcan, anyways) in contrast to her mentor's mellow, seasoned approach.
• Spy Speak : Cleverly used. After getting screwed badly with not following regulations on approaching a silent ship, Kirk asserts that they will be following regulations more closely from then on. When on Regula One Kirk asked Spock for an update on the repairs and Spock tells Kirk that "By the book, hours will seem like days." and explains that it will take several days to get transporters back online. Kirk then tells them that if they don't hear from him in one hour they are to leave the combat zone and contact Starfleet. Several hours later everyone else thinks Enterprise has left and Kirk reveals his trump card, assuming that Khan was listening in on their communications regulation stated they needed to speak in code. "Hours will seem like days" meant that transporters would be online in two hours , not two days. Kirk's command to leave in one hour meant one day, and waited to contact Enterprise when they could transport them back. Khan WAS listening, and attempted to ambush Enterprise at Regula One right as they were to leave but Spock had them on the other side of the planet. When he finally sees Enterprise again he remarks that the ship was not as crippled as he was led to believe.
• Staggered Zoom : A series of shots pull back from the Reliant just before the Genesis Device detonates.
• Much of the Scenery Porn of Enterprise from The Motion Picture was reused to help stretch the budget, specifically several flybys and scenes involving the spacedock.
• The original teaser trailer features the STTMP blue ' Enterprise going into warp' effect shot. The warp shots made for STTWOK (and following movies) are more subdued.
• The Klingon ships in the Kobayashi Maru simulation are the same ones that attacked V'ger in the first movie. Of all the reused footage, this one makes the most sense, as we already saw that Starfleet had recorded footage of the V'ger incident.
• Stock Phrase : In the Genesis Cave sequence, right after Kirk asks if there's anything to eat: McCoy : How can you think of food at a time like this?! Kirk: First order of business: survival.
• The Stoic : We get a twofer with Spock and Saavik as the Vulcan officers. For bonus points, Spock's experience-tempered calmness contrasts with the younger Saavik's relative Hot-Bloodedness ; Saavik gets visibly flustered and swears in frustration (if rather deadpanned frustration ) during the film's opening scene.
• Story Arc : This is the beginning of a storyline that continues into Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home . It also extends beyond, as Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is indirectly shaped by those three films, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine explicitly states that Khan is the reason the Federation bans bio-augmentation and genetic engineering (though that has as much to do with the historical Eugenics Wars as the events of this film).
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome : The movie takes Kirk’s penchant for ignoring things (villain of the week after it’s done, his age, the forgotten fallen friends ) and runs with it. It’s not that he’s never had a no-win scenario or not dealt with death (Tarsus IV for instance), it’s that he doesn’t want to deal with it, and is now forced to.
• Take a Third Option : When Kirk took the Kobayashi Maru , he failed it twice. Too stubborn to admit to it being unwinnable, he altered the simulation so it would have a winning outcome. The fact that he was the first person to ever cheat as such got him a commendation. Deconstructed in that this reflects Kirk's major failing: an unwillingness to accept loss.
• Taking You with Me : Khan, at the end, attempts to destroy Kirk and Enterprise by detonating the Genesis device.
• Technology Porn : The CGI simulation showing the Genesis effect was so spectacular that it appears again in two more movies, as a visual aide to exposition and recapping of said device.
• Tempting Fate : Mercifully subverted for Enterprise . When going over how they're going to disable Reliant using the prefix code, Spock feels it necessary to note that Khan might have changed it. Fortunately fate lets this one slide, else the movie would have ended there.
• Theme Music Power-Up : No less than three .
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill : Kirk phasers a Ceti eel, vaporizing it, even though his foot would have worked equally well.
• Poor Captain Terrell looks like he's rebooted in safe mode when they find him on Regula I.
• Kirk after Spock dies. The script describes him as "beyond seeing or hearing anything".
• Time Bomb : When Khan activates the Genesis device on Reliant , Enterprise has four minutes to get away before it detonates, but it can't reach a safe distance unless the warp drive is repaired...
• Time Skip : The Motion Picture was set shortly after the end of the original series, despite the fact that it was filmed a decade later. This film advances the chronology to roughly real time, and Kirk had spent a decade as an admiral. This was deliberate, and the passage of time is important for both Kirk and Khan.
• Together in Death : Three men (Bones, Scotty and another crewman) have to restrain Kirk from rushing into the radiation room, which would have killed him and everyone else, and it’s too late to save Spock anyway. After a brief moment of not caring, Kirk collects himself and settles for a crying goodbye.
• The fate Khan thinks he's given Kirk.
• Before that, Khan goes into excruciating detail to Terrell and Chekov about what the Ceti eels do to their hosts. Khan: You see, their young enter through the ears, and wrap themselves around the cerebral cortex. This has the effect of rendering the victim extremely susceptible to... suggestion. Later, as they... grow ...follows madness... and death.
• Peter Preston is horribly wounded after Khan's first attack. McCoy does all he can, but it is clear to all present that the brave man is going to die. In the Director's Cut, Scotty even tearfully says he knows that McCoy did all that he could, acknowledging that his injuries were simply too severe.
• At the climax of the movie, when Enterprise 's warp drive is damaged and the ship is in danger of being consumed by the Genesis device detonation, Spock sacrifices himself to save everyone by manually fixing the warp core, giving himself a lethal dose of radiation in the process . When Kirk sees him in the dilithium chamber, he tries to charge in to get him out but is restrained by McCoy , Scotty, and one of the crew. Bones : No! You'll flood the whole compartment! Kirk : He'll die! Scotty : Sir, he's dead already. McCoy : It's too late.
• Trapped with the Therapy Session : Kirk and Carol Marcus have an intense discussion about their past relationship and their adult son. In the background is a recovering Chekov, who is clearly still conscious as he's holding a bandage to his ear, but decides to keep his eyes closed as if he's asleep.
• Troll : Spock orders the inexperienced Saavik to take Enterprise out of drydock, knowing it would make Kirk nervous to stand by and watch her.
• Try and Follow : Kirk mocks Khan to goad him into following Enterprise into the Mutara nebula, counting on Khan's Pride to override his better judgment, as the gambit is a very obvious trap.
• Two-Faced : Khan gets the right side of his face horribly injured following an explosion on Reliant 's bridge.
• Khan would like to think he is. In reality, he's gone half-mad since being marooned on Ceti Alpha V.
• Even without that, Khan and his followers were part of a group of genetically enhanced children that did manage to seize control of over forty nations simultaneously, are superhumanly strong, and most likely with enhanced intellect to back that up. It's heavily implied that had Khan not been half-mad, he would have been an even greater threat.
• Unknown Rival : Kirk knew about Khan, but had honestly believed that all issues between them had been settled fifteen years prior and hadn't spared much thought for the man since the last time they'd met. Which makes it rather surprising to him when Khan turns out to have been nursing a grudge for fourteen of those years and is now in a position to seek revenge.
• Upgrade vs. Prototype Fight : This is often overlooked: in the previous film , Enterprise had just completed a massive refit using updated technology. The ship was entirely rebuilt, effectively making it a totally new ship. Reliant is effectively an upgrade, using all of the same technology without the bugs of the old design. Even more, it has more guns, including a rear-mounted photon torpedo launcher that can fire both forwards and aft, and a pair of oversized phaser cannons. It fits all of this in a space less than half the size of Enterprise .
• Undying Loyalty : Khan points out to Captain Terrell that trying to reason with Khan's band of followers is useless, given they pledged their loyalty to him long ago. This extends so far as to Joachim's last words being those of reassurance that Khan is who he follows.
• Unwinnable Training Simulation : The Kobayashi Maru test is likely the Trope Codifier . The test is designed to end in failure, and its purpose is to see how cadets will react in a situation which has nothing but bad outcomes. Kirk is the only Starfleet cadet ever to have beaten it, and his method was—by his own admission—as unorthodox as it was unauthorised. This film provides the page quote. As further proof of its influence and impact the page also lists all the other works that have called their Unwinnable Training Simulation a variant on the Kobayashi Maru test .
• A Villain Named Khan : Khan Noonien Singh is the Big Bad .
• Weapon of Mass Destruction : The Genesis Device, as a side effect of its primary purpose of Terraforming . It instantly fills a world with new life—whether or not there's any life already on the world. This would become even more apparent in the next movie , which reveals problems with the "terraforming" part of the process, leaving only the "destroy what was there before" part.
• In-universe as well as to the audience (at least, those who saw "Space Seed"), near the beginning: Chekov: [ reading ship's name on seatbelt ] Botany Bay ... Botany Bay ... oh no...
• Khan provides one a short while later, showing just how much he feels Kirk betrayed him: Chekov: You lie! On Ceti Alpha V there was life! A fair chance- Khan: [ furious ] THIS IS CETI ALPHA V! [ calmer ] Ceti Alpha VI exploded - six months after we were left here. The shock shifted the orbit of this planet, and everything was laid waste. Admiral Kirk never bothered to check on our progress. It was only the fact of my genetically-engineered intellect that allowed us to survive.
• As with the above, there's another towards the end that serves to shock the characters and the audience: Kirk: He'll die! Scotty: Sir, he's dead already.
• White Glove Test : Captain Kirk does this in the engine room inspection. Scotty gives him a knowing smirk when it passes.
• Whole-Plot Reference : Loosely, to Moby-Dick , from the perspective of the whale.
• The "Why Wait?" Combatant : Kirk is relying on this response from Khan. Enterprise is heading into the Mutara Nebula, where none of Reliant 's tactical advantages will matter. Kirk NEEDS Khan to follow him, because if he breaks off, they have a starship and can go anywhere they want with a Doomsday Weapon on board. So, he goads Khan with a taunt. Khan swallows the bait, hook, line, and sinker. Kirk * over comms * This is Admiral Kirk. We tried it once your way, Khan. Are you game for a rematch? * condescendingly * Khan. I'm laughing at the "superior intellect". Khan: * simmering with rage * ...full impulse power. Joachim: No, sir! You have Genesis! You can have whatever you— Khan: * grabs Joachim * FULL POWER! DAMN YOU! * shoves Joachim aside and furiously inputs the command *
• Wicked Cultured : Apparently even in the 23rd century there will be villains that read and quote Herman Melville , though, admittedly, Khan is from the 20th century.
• Window Love : Kirk and Spock, just before Spock dies.
• Wistful Smile : Kirk, in the end, has a sad smile as he recites a line from A Tale of Two Cities , while reflecting on what Spock was trying to tell him, while still mourning Spock's death.
• With My Dying Breath, I Summon You : Khan does this before activating the Genesis device. It's not technically a summoning, but it follows pretty much the same form.
• Won't Do Your Dirty Work : Kirk tries to invoke this as part of a feint to get Khan to fight him man-to-man after Khan's failed assassination attempt. It doesn't work, as Khan instead opts to leave him "Marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet... buried alive, buried alive ..."
• Enterprise is in a heavier weight class than Reliant (although Reliant is a newer design ) and would likely win or at least be evenly matched in a straight up fight, and Kirk quickly proves himself the superior strategist and leader over the course of the film. But in their first confrontation, both ships ended up being attacked aggressively with their Deflector Shields down, and for the final confrontation both ships are in a nebula which disables shields and impairs scanners. This makes weapons fire very risky for both parties, as all damage is taken directly to the hull.
• Enterprise is additionally handicapped because it is staffed with a cadet crew, meaning Scotty loses most of his crew at a vital moment when the trainees panic and flee the engine room during the first attack. This is balanced in turn by the fact that Khan and his people are lost in time, even less numerous, and barely understand how to work their ship.
• Kirk tells Carol "There's man out there I haven't seen in fifteen years who's trying to kill me," which is the real-life timespan between "Space Seed"'s original airdate in 1967 and this film's release in 1982. However, "Space Seed" took place in the year 2267, while this film takes place in 2285, which is 18 years later in the Star Trek universe. Khan makes a similar error by saying that Kirk marooned him 15 years before.
• Likewise, unless some of Khan's followers were made up of literal children when they were left on Ceti Alpha V, his remaining followers are all far too young to have been his original crew but too old to have been born to the original Augmented humans in the period of time which passed. Some expanded universe materials attempted to solve this by saying they were in fact the children born to the original Augments who aged at a faster rate than normal into their prime due to their superior genetics.
• The X of Y : The Wrath of Khan .
• Xanatos Speed Chess : Kirk plays without a net. Don't look down. note  Though, without Spock's mention of Khan's Space Is an Ocean tendency, he probably would have lost.
• You Are in Command Now : At the beginning of the movie Spock is actually Enterprise 's captain, with a cadet crew for a training mission. Kirk comes along primarily to get out of Starfleet Command and back into space. When Carol calls them up asking about Genesis and the transmission is jammed, Kirk gets orders to investigate. A long scene in Spock's quarters has Kirk dancing around the issue of taking command and Spock gladly hands it to him, citing both regulation and echoing McCoy's earlier thoughts that Kirk is at his best commanding a starship.
• "You!" Exclamation : David upon seeing Kirk, before attacking him.
• You Said You Would Let Them Go : Done preemptively when Kirk asks Khan for proof that Khan will honor their deal to trade himself and Genesis for the lives of his crew. Khan bluntly points out that he hasn't and won't give any such assurances, as Kirk has no other choice (so far as Khan knows) than to hope Khan keeps his word.
• Khan's followers and their clothing, CRT displays plus physical buttons on the bridge console, and how David wears his sweater.
• The (apparently operational) 1970s Commodore PET in Kirk's apartment is actually part of his antiques collection, and thus doesn't technically count. note  It should be noted that William Shatner was the promotional face of Commodore (particularly the VIC-20 ad campaign) in the early '80s, and would try to sneak CBM products into many projects in which he was involved...
• Moderately averted by the Genesis simulation. While it's clearly CGI, it still holds up as good CGI (especially for 1982), and it's also supposed to be CGI in-universe.

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Enterprise / reliant faceoff.

Enterprise and Reliant engage each other at close range, with Enterprise's phasers hitting Reliant's bridge and killing everyone except Khan.

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Star trek ii: the wrath of khan, common sense media reviewers.

Thrilling, philosophical installment of popular space saga.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

There's a continuing theme throughout about how to

Kirk learns to accept his aging and the mortality

Phaser and photon-torpedo battles, with deaths (in

We learn that Kirk has an illegitimate son by an o

"Hell," and various forms of "dammit" from Dr. McC

Star Trek is an enormous commodity with plenty of

Social drinking, with Dr. McCoy bringing Kirk some

Parents need to know that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a more violent feature than the original Star Trek: The Motion Picture , with assorted character deaths and torture. One of the biggest stars of the series dies. While the TV Captain Kirk always seemed to have girlfriends on every planet, this…

Positive Messages

There's a continuing theme throughout about how to react with courage and resourcefulness in a seemingly hopeless situation.

Positive Role Models

Kirk learns to accept his aging and the mortality of his friends, and there's a closing act of heroic self-sacrifice. Starfleet is, as always, racially integrated, and a female Vulcan character has more of a presence than women usually do on the ship.

Violence & Scariness

Phaser and photon-torpedo battles, with deaths (including major characters in the series). Two men are tortured in gruesome detail with brain-burrowing insect-like parasites put into their ears. Scenes of corpses after a massacre.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

We learn that Kirk has an illegitimate son by an old lover, and she describes the Starfleet hero as "no Boy Scout." Kirk eyes a pretty Vulcan, but that's as serious as it gets.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"Hell," and various forms of "dammit" from Dr. McCoy especially.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Star Trek is an enormous commodity with plenty of merchandise available to buy.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Social drinking, with Dr. McCoy bringing Kirk some "old" (22nd century) wine for his birthday.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a more violent feature than the original Star Trek: The Motion Picture , with assorted character deaths and torture. One of the biggest stars of the series dies. While the TV Captain Kirk always seemed to have girlfriends on every planet, this is the first time it's acknowledged that one of them bore him a now-adult son, and their paternal relationship is not close or cordial. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (8)
• Kids say (20)

Based on 8 parent reviews

Wonderful, but would be PG-13 now.

Ok film with pretty brutal violence, what's the story.

STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN takes place 15 years after "Space Seed," an episode from the original Star Trek series. In it, The Enterprise discovered a vessel whose crew were placed in suspended animation, banished form Earth in 1996. When Captain James T. Kirk ( William Shatner ) realized their leader, Khan Noonien Singh ( Ricardo Montalban ), was still as dangerous some 200 years later, the Enterprise marooned him and his followers. Now 15 years later, Khan has managed to escape with his people and hijack a well-armed Federation starship of his own. Obsessed with wreaking vengeance on Kirk, he lures the Enterprise into a devastating battle while plotting to steal the Genesis project, a bomb-like device capable of creating or destroying new worlds.

Is It Any Good?

This sequel combines passionate acting, great music, fine effects, philosophy, ethics, and derring-do to create what some fans consider the best of the Star Trek features. The script contains observations about friendship, aging, military misuse of science, contentious father-son relationships, and the futility of revenge. Since the chance of any further Star Trek movies was iffy -- and Leonard Nimoy was hoping at the time to sign off playing Spock for good -- viewers get the feeling here everyone is really giving the material all the respect it's worth, just in case this turned out to be the final Star Trek as we knew it (it wasn't, of course).

It was good to be a science-fiction movie fan in 1982. Out-of-this-world features released that year, which seemed to reach a pinnacle of entertaining scripts, mind-expanding concepts, and cutting-edge special effects, included E.T. , Blade Runner , The Road Warrior , Tron , and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . This last one even proved that sequels from adaptations of TV shows could be better than originals (talk about mind-blowing concepts), since the first Star Trek: The Motion Picture was a bit of a disappointment. Director Nicholas Meyer claimed to have very little prior knowledge of Trekdom when he came aboard. Instead, he said, he took inspiration from his favorite Napoleonic-era naval adventures, novels in the C.S. Forester Horatio Hornblower series. That's indeed how Star Trek II plays out, as a seagoing military epic transplanted to deep space, with questions of command and leadership, duty, and sacrifice for the welfare of the crew.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the parallels between Khan's obsession with avenging himself on Kirk and one of the books glimpsed in Khan's personal library, Moby Dick . How is the theme of vengeance similar in both works?

What do you think of Spock's code of sacrifice for "the needs of the many"?

This movie added to Trekkie lore a Starfleet Academy flight simulation test in which a practice captain faces a seeming no-win battle scenario. Why do you think this is important training? What would you do in this scenario?

Movie Details

• In theaters : June 4, 1982
• On DVD or streaming : August 2, 2002
• Cast : Leonard Nimoy , Ricardo Montalban , William Shatner
• Director : Nicholas Meyer
• Inclusion Information : Latino actors
• Studio : Paramount Pictures
• Genre : Science Fiction
• Topics : Adventures , Space and Aliens
• Run time : 116 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : violence and language
• Last updated : June 1, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

WhatCulture

10 Dumbest Things In Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan

Posted: May 11, 2024 | Last updated: May 11, 2024

The Wrath of Khan is arguably the greatest Star Trek movie, but it's far from perfect.

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All Roads Lead to Discovery: The Full Star Trek Timeline, Explained

Star Trek: Discovery takes place at the furthest point in the franchise timeline. Here is the stardate for each major entry in the series.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, the final season, is currently underway. The series debuted in 2017 and was used as the launch title for the streaming service CBS All Access, now rebranded Paramount+. It was also the first Star Trek series on television in 12 years following the conclusion of Star Trek: Enterprise back in 2005. While Paramount has spent nearly a decade trying to get Star Trek 4 out of development hell , the franchise has been going strong on Paramount+ with various series on the streaming service at different times of the year. Now, there is almost always a Star Trek series on the air at any given point.

Star Trek: Discovery is a fascinating case for the franchise, as it was originally conceived as a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series , but following the conclusion of Season 2 and starting in Season 3, the series jumped far into the future, the farthest point in the franchise history. Star Trek: Discovery now takes place in a universe built on years of stories. Here is a breakdown of the Star Trek timeline across television and film and how it all leads to Star Trek: Discovery .

Star Trek: Enterprise (2151-2155)

Star trek: enterprise.

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The last television series on air before Star Trek: Discovery is also the first in the timeline as Star Trek: Enterprise takes place over 100 years before the adventures of Kirk and Spock in Star Trek: The Original Series . The series follows Jonathan Archer, the captain of the Enterprise NX-01 which was Earth’s first starship able to reach warp five. Major events in the series are around first contact with alien species like the Klingon and the Xindi. The series also featured the true formation of the United Federation of Planets.

The series also established the Temporal Wars, a conflict that stretched across time and space and resulted in the creation of multiple timelines as agents from various factions in the 32nd century were sent back in time to move history in their favor. This eventually resulted in an all-out war, and while it was resolved, it later had some major ramifications for the franchise. The first was that all-time travel technology became outlawed or destroyed in the 32nd century, so when the crew of Discovery jumped forward in time, they had no way of returning home. The other was a way for the writers to fix continuity errors , like moving up the date of Khan's rise and the Eugenics wars from the 1990s, as established in The Original Series , to the 2010s.

Star Trek: Discovery: Seasons 1 and 2 (2256-2258)

When Star Trek: Discovery first premiered, it was pitched as a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series , taking place nine years before the events of the series. It introduced Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham, the never-before-mentioned adopted sister of Spock who ended up starting the war between the Federation and the Klingons, one that would have repercussions for the franchise for years. Star Trek: Discovery dealt with a threat from the Mirror Universe , a faction that would come into play in Star Trek: The Original Series , while season two brought on fan-favorite versions of characters from the original Star Trek pilot in the form of Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), Number One (Rebecca Romijln), and Spock (Ethan Peck).

Star Trek: Discovery season two ended with the crew of the Enterprise making the decision to jump forward 1000 years in the future to save the galaxy from an artificial intelligence threat. This resulted in Pike, Spock, and Number One telling Starfleet that Discovery was destroyed in the battle and vowing never to speak of it or the crew again to prevent another incident like the rouge AI Control from happening. This was done to explain why nobody in the later series of Star Trek mentioned any of the characters on Discovery or the advanced technology the ship had as the first and only one of its kind to use an experimental spore drive.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2259-TBD)

Star trek: strange new worlds.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is both a spin-off of Star Trek: Discovery , following Captain Pike and the crew of the USS Enterprise, introduced in that series, as well as a continuation of the original pilot for Star Trek: The Original Series "The Cage." Now that Captain Pike knows the fate that awaits him by the time Star Trek: The Original Series happens, he and the crew of the Enterprise begin exploring strange new worlds. The series is notable for featuring not only Spock but also his first-ever meeting with Captain Kirk (Paul Wesley) and the first missions of Uhurua (Celia Rose Gooding). Other members of the original crew, like Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush) and Doctor M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun), while Season 2's finale introduces a young Scotty (Martin Quinn).

Star Trek Movies in Order: How to Watch Chronologically and by Release Date

It also adds a new wrinkle to the lore: La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), who is a descendant of villain Khan Noonien Singh. The series has so far fleshed out the alien race, The Gorn, and features the foundation of the Prime Directive rule, one that forbids a Starship from interfering with the development of an alien planet. It also features time travel in two key episodes. The first was when La'an and another version of Kirk traveled to 2020 Toronto, where La'an has a chance to kill a young Khan when he was just a boy but doesn't due to him not being guilty of any crime yet, and the other involved the crew of Star Trek: Lower Decks traveling back in time and arriving back 100 years before their time.

Star Trek: The Original Series (2265-2269)

The one that started it all, Star Trek: The Original Series , follows the crew of the USS Enterprise in their five-year mission to explore strange new worlds and go where no one has gone before. Under the guidance of Captain Kirk (William Shatner), his first officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and friend and ship doctor Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelly), the crew of the USS Enterprise are the most important characters in the Star Trek franchise. Decisions and events here have major ripple effects on the entire franchise.

There are far too many to name, but the biggest ones include in 2267 when the crew finds and uncovers the body of Khan Nooniegn-Signh, and after he attempts a mutiny, they leave him on a planet to begin a new life, an action that will have repercussions decades later.

Star Trek: The Animated Series (2269-2270)

Star trek: the animated series.

Star Trek: The Animated Series was made in 1973, four years after Star Trek: The Original Series was canceled. It featured the continuing adventures of the crew of the Enterprise's five-year mission. It lasted for two seasons and helped round out the stories of Captain Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the USS Enterprise.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (2271)

Star trek: the motion picture.

While no official stardate is mentioned in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and is only identified as the 2270s, supplementary material for the film dates it one year after the crew of the Enterprise's five-year mission. The film sees the crew of the Enterprise reunite to investigate a mysterious and powerful alien cloud known as V'Ger, which is destroying everything in its path as it approaches Earth. While not stated in the film, subsequent Star Trek material has suggested that V'Ger is the progenitor of the Borg, one of the franchise's most popular recurring enemies.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (2285)

Star trek 2: the wrath of khan.

The most iconic Star Trek film, The Wrath of Khan , picks up 15 years after the events of the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Space Seed." The time since the planet Khan was marooned on , it became a wasteland after one of the planets near it was destroyed and altered the atmosphere. Khan now seeks revenge on Kirk and does so by going after the planet-terraforming machine called the Genesis device, a machine created by Kirk's ex, Carol Marcus, and his son, David Marcus. Kirk is able to defeat Khan but at a price, as Mr. Spock is forced to give his life to save the crew of the Enterprise. Spock's death will have major repercussions on the franchise that will be felt for years.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (2285)

Star trek iii: the search for spock.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock picks up just months after The Wrath of Khan , as the crew of the Enterprise discovers that there is a way to revive Spock. They go against Starfleet's orders and steal the Enterprise to return Spock's body and mind to Vulcan so that he can be reborn. The crew must also face off with hostile Klingons, led by Kruge (Christopher Lloyd), who is bent on stealing the secrets of the powerful terraforming Genesis.

Here’s How Much Each Star Trek Movie Made at the Box Office Upon Release

The film features some major hallmarks of the franchise. The first is the destruction of the Enterprise, a ship that had been with the franchise for years and would be absent in the following film. The second was establishing the core characters as fugitives from the United Federation of Planets, which would set up clearing their names in the follow-up. It also featured Spock being resurrected but at another cost for Kirk, the death of his son, which would begin to drive Kirk's prejudice against Klingons for many films.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (2286 and 1986)

Star trek iv: the voyage home.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home sees the former crew of the USS Enterprise discover that Earth is in grave danger from an alien probe attempting to contact now-extinct humpback whales. The crew travels to Earth's past to find whales who can answer the probe's call. The first and final part of the movie takes place one year after The Search for Spock , but the majority of the movie takes place in 1986, the present day for moviegoing audiences. While Star Trek had done time travel stories before, this one set a template for future entries in the franchise. By the end of the film, Kirk and his crew had been reinstated and cleared of all charges.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (2287)

Star trek v: the final frontier.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier deals with the crew of the new USS Enterprise-A as they confront renegade Vulcan Sybok, who is searching for God at the center of the galaxy. Sybok is Spock's half-brother , and he is from his father's previous relationship with a Vulcan woman. This makes the second chronological secret member of Spock's family and the first introduced in the series in order of release.

Sybok's presence was actually hinted at in the series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds when his lover, Angel, attacks his half-brother's ship. The entry is also the first to allude to a higher power in the Star Trek franchise, and while God would not be revealed in the series, the idea of someone being the creator of life in the galaxy would be picked up years later in Star Trek: The Next Generation and is now the main storyline for the final season of Star Trek: Discovery.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (2293)

Star trek vi: the undiscovered country.

The final time the entire crew of the USS Enterprise would be together was in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . The Klingons seek to form an alliance with the Federation after years of fighting due to their planet suffering a major catastrophe, but Kirk is still bitter after the death of his son at the Klingon's hands in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock . Kirk and Bones are framed for the murder of a high-up Klingon official, which threatens the peace accords, and they, alongside the rest of the crew of the Enterprise, must work to clear their names.

This final entry for most of the original cast marks a turning point in the franchise. It marked the end of the Federation and Klingon conflict, setting up Star Trek: The Next Generation , featuring the character Worf in a prominent role as part of the crew. The film takes place 28 years after Star Trek: The Original Series, and through one live-action show, an animated series, and six films, audiences saw a massive epic unfold for these characters, but the story was far from over as a new era began for the franchise and the next generation began.

Star Trek: The Next Generation (2364-2370)

Star trek: the next generation.

Star Trek: The Next Generation takes place a century after the events of Star Trek: The Original Series . The series follows Captain Jean Luc-Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise-D as they continue to explore strange new worlds and seek out new life and new civilizations. For many audiences, this was their Star Trek and introduced a whole new host of concepts to the franchise, with the most iconic being the villain, The Borg.

Star Trek: The Next Generation might be one of the most important in terms of how it connects to Star Trek Discovery. The first is the episode "Unification," in which Spock looks to bring peace between the Vulcans and Romulans. Not only is this paid off as Spock's vision of a united Romulus and Vulcan comes true in the form of the planet Ni'Var in Star Trek: Discovery , but his work with the Romulan people will lead to the events that create the alternate Kelvin timeline of Star Trek , Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond .

Yet the most important element is in the episode "The Chase," which reveals that the reason various alien life in the galaxy looks so similar is due to sharing a common ancestry from an ancient species that crafted life in their image. This revelation forms the backbone of Star Trek: Discovery 's final season as the crew looks to find the technology of the species that created life, now dubbed the Progenitors. The episode debuted in 1993, and now, 31 years later, the series is finally going to delve into some answers.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (2369-2375)

Star trek: deep space nine.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine broke from franchise conventions as instead of being focused on a starship, it was set on a space station Deep Space Nine, located adjacent to a wormhole connecting Federation territory to the Gamma Quadrant on the far side of the Milky Way galaxy. The series begins one year before the events of Star Trek: The Next Generation come to a conclusion and is firmly connected to the events of that series as Benjamin Sisko, head of Deep Space Nine, is mourning the death of his wife, who was killed by the Borg at the Battle of Wolf 359 seen in the episode "The Best of Both Worlds Part II" from The Next Generation and has a difficult time seeing the face of Jean-Luc Picard as that was the face he saw leading the Borg that lead to the death of his wife.

The biggest event of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is The Dominion Wars, a massive story arc that ran over the course of the series. It involved all major powers of the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants, organized into two opposing military alliances, the Federation Alliance and the Breen-Dominion Alliance, which resulted in the deadliest conflicts in the galaxy. It would begin the drive for the Federation to become a more militarized organization.

Star Trek Generations (2371)

Star trek: generations.

Star Trek: Generations occupies an interesting place within the timeline. It is set one year after the events of The Next Generation and two years into Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in the year 2371. Yet the film's beginning takes place shortly after the events of Star Trek VI: The Final Frontier, which sees Captain Kirk stuck in a pocket dimension, allowing him to meet Captain Jean-Luc Picard of The Next Generation nearly a century later into his future. This film marked the death of Captain Kirk , who died the way he lived, a man of adventure.

Star Trek: First Contact (2373)

Star trek: first contact.

Star Trek: First Contact is another time travel movie, similar to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home . Set six years after being assimilated by the Borg in Star Trek: The Next Generation , Captain Picard and his crew travel through a time portal to pursue the Borg to April 4, 2063. This is the date before the historic warp drive flight that leads to humanity's first encounter with alien life, and the Borg are looking to alter the future so humans never make contact. The film's date of April 5th has now become an unofficial Star Trek holiday known as First Contact Day .

Star Trek: Insurrection (2375)

Star trek: insurrection.

Star Trek: Insurrection is notable as the film is set in 2375, the same year as the final season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Trying to take the renegade Starfleet team element from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , the crew of the USS Enterprise -E rebels against Starfleet after they discover a conspiracy with the Son'a species to steal the peaceful Ba'ku's planet for its rejuvenating properties.

Star Trek: Voyager (2371-2378)

Star trek: voyager.

Star Trek: Voyager begins in 2371, the same year as Star Trek: Generations . It follows the adventures of the USS Voyager as it attempts to return home to the Alpha Quadrant after being stranded in the Delta Quadrant on the far side of the galaxy. This entry is key for introducing two characters to the franchise that will play major roles in future installments. The series introduced Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), the first female Captain in the franchise, who will later have a major role in Star Trek: Prodigy .

The second is Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), a former Borg drone that was born Annika Hansen before being assimilated by the Borg at age six in 2356, eight years before the start of Star Trek: The Next Generation . Seven of Nine plays a major role in Star Trek: Picard as the series delves more into the Borg's history and culture.

Star Trek: Nemesis (2379)

Star trek: nemesis.

Star Trek: Nemesis takes place fifteen years after the events of Star Trek: The Next Generation and deals with a threat from a clone of Captain Picard named Shinzon (Tom Hardy), who has taken control of the planet Romulus and was created by the Romulan Empire originally to create a spy within the Federation but the plans were abandoned likely due to the events of "Unification" and the clone child was left on die as a slave on the Romulan controlled planet Remus. The film marked the final film for the crew of The Next Generation as it marked many landmarks, including the wedding of Commander Will Ryker and Deanna Tori and the death of Data, all elements that lead into Star Trek: Picard .

Star Trek: Lower Decks (2380-TBD)

Star trek: lower decks.

Star Trek: Lower Decks is a comedic spin on the Star Trek franchise . This animated adventure follows the low-ranking support crew of the starship Cerritos and begins one year after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis . Star Trek: Lower Decks crossed over with Star Trek: Strange New World in that series' second season episode, "Those Old Scientists," which saw Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid get the chance to play their roles of Beckett Mariner and Brad Boimler, respectively, in live-action.

The series just announced its fifth and final season, meaning both it and Star Trek: Discovery will come to a close in 2024, and fans are certainly hoping to hear a mention of the characters of Lower Decks in Discovery just to know these lowly crew members did become big names with the Federation history.

Star Trek: Prodigy (2383-TBD)

Star trek: prodigy.

Star Trek: Prodigy was an attempt to create a new starting point for young kids to get into the Star Trek franchise. Set in 2383, it follows a group of young aliens from the Delta Quadrant who find the abandoned starship Protostar and learn about Starfleet with the help of the ship's computer, an AI of Captain Janeway from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . This young crew of kids makes their way to the Alpha Quadrant while discovering what it means to be a crew and what being part of Starfleet is all about.

The series features plenty of cameos and references to the past Star Trek series but does so in a way that invites the young viewer to learn more about them. The series was canceled at Paramount+ after one season but was then picked up by Netflix, where it will have a second season.

Kelvin Timeline (2387, 2255 - 2263)

This is where things get a bit tricky. In the year 2387, a supernova destroys the planet Romulus. For those in the original timeline, the destruction of Romulus kicks off the events of Star Trek: Picard, but a major event happens that none of the characters are aware of at the time: the creation of a new timeline.

In an attempt to stop the supernova, an elder Spock launches a piece of red matter into the supernova that creates a black hole that sucks both him and the Romulan villain Nero (Eric Bana) through it and back in time. Nero arrives first in the year 2233, which results in the destruction of the USS Kelvin and the death of Geroge Kirk on the birth of his son James T. Kirk's birth, creating a new branching timeline that is the Kelvin timeline, which is where the events of Star Trek , Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond take place. This means that while the events of the Kelvin timeline take place earlier, they are doing so in a separate timeline that is built off the events of the prior stories. So 2009's Star Trek is both a reboot, a prequel, and a sequel to the franchise.

Due to the timeline changing, the events of the Kelvin timeline actually take place earlier than in Star Trek: The Original Series . 2009's Star Trek takes place in 2255, while Into Darkness takes place four years later in 2259, and Beyond is set in 2263, roughly four years into the crew's five-year mission. This is notably two years before Star Trek: The Original Series begins. By the 31st century of Star Trek: Discovery season three, the Prime Timeline is aware of the Kelvin timeline. They established a Starfleet officer named Yor, a time soldier who originated from another timeline and referenced the events of 2009's Star Trek .

Star Trek: Picard (2399-2402)

Star trek: picard.

Star Trek: Picard takes place 20 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis in the year 2399. In the years since the series concluded, the Federation has become more isolationist. Following the destruction of Romulus, the Romulan people have become scattered; meanwhile, an attack on a Starfleet operation has led to a ban on synthetics. Season one focuses on Picard discovering more about the syncs with the discovery of Data's daughter Soji while also exploring more into the Borg culture as Romulans have begun mining Borg technology.

Season 2 takes place two years later, in 2401, and sees an old adversary named Q, an extra-dimensional being, traping Picard and his new crew in an alternate reality which forces them to travel back in time to Los Angeles 2024 to save the future while exploring more about Picard's own family origin. Finally, season three takes place one year later, in 2402, as Picard reunites with his old crew from The Next Generation , as well as his long-lost son, for a final showdown with the Borg.

Star Trek: Discovery: Seasons 3-5 (3188-TBD)

Now, finally, it's time to loop back to Star Trek: Discovery . Season 3 sees the crew of Discovery travel to the year 3188 to discover the Federation fragmented and investigates the cause of a cataclysmic event known as the "Burn" as they attempt to rebuild Starfleet. Burnham is promoted to captain at the end of the season, and in season four, the crew helps rebuild the Federation while facing a space anomaly created by unknown aliens that causes destruction across the galaxy, similar to the plot of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

The fifth and final season sees Discovery faced with its biggest task yet. They embark on a journey to uncover the mystery of The Progenitors, the species that The Next Generation revealed created multiple sentient lifeforms in the universe. The final season of Star Trek: Discovery , the series set furthest in the Star Trek timeline, is now taking the franchise to answer the oldest question in the cosmos: where do we come from, and what is our purpose?

With humans making first contact with aliens on April 5, 2063, to the events of Star Trek: Discovery in 3188, the story of Star Trek is one that spans 1,125 years. It is an epic tale filled with heroes, villains, and worlds filled with imagination and hope. Star Trek continues forward as there are plenty more stories to tell.

Den of Geek

Discovery Season 5 Just Brought Back a Lost Piece of Star Trek Voyager Canon

The Breen have really taken over Star Trek: Discovery at this point, which is why it might be time to revisit Deep Space Nine.

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This Star Trek: Discovery article contains spoilers.

Since its inception in 2017, Star Trek: Discovery has been compared to various aspects of the Star Trek franchise. But, perhaps the show it most closely resembles, at least tonally, is Deep Space Nine , the gritty ‘90s spin-off of The Next Generation . And, with its fifth and final season, it feels like Discovery knows it’s the Deep Space Nine of modern Trek , and has leaned into that feeling more than ever.

The series has also taken on the mantle of being the new DS9 by simply making a ton of references to that series, as well as continuing huge storylines from that series. In the 7th episode of season 5, “Erigah,” Discovery makes a ton of references to the breadth of the Trek canon, with a specific focus on DS9 . Here’s all the best easter eggs and shout-outs you might have missed.

The Return of Nhan 

At the top of the episode, we get the first appearance of Rachael Ancheril as Nhan since season 4 episode “Rubicon.” Nhan’s journey is unique within Star Trek , and Discovery specifically. Originally a part of the crew of the USS Enterprise under Pike, Nhan joined the Discovery in season 2 during the search for the Red Angel. She stayed with the crew when they jumped to the future in season 3, making her seemingly the only Enterprise crew member from the 23rd century who now lives in the 32nd century . Nhan is from Barzan II, a planet established in the TNG episode “The Price.”

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Dominion War Medical Research 

Culber says he’s doing a deep-dive into Dominion War medical research, in order to learn more about the Breen, noting, “We don’t know much about Breen physiology.” This is accurate since, although the Breen appeared for the first time in DS9 , they never took their helmets off in that series. Culber’s deep dive into Dominion War research is also interesting in light of Star Trek: Picard season 3. It was in that season that we learned Starfleet was secretly experimenting on Changelings. Did Culber stumble on any of that research?

“Never Turn Your Back on a Breen”

Reynar reminds President T’Rina of the Romulan saying, “Never turn your back on a Breen.” This comes from the DS9 episode “By Inferno’s Light,” and was uttered by an unnamed Romulan prisoner. Although T’Rina is seemingly Vulcan, the Vulcans and Romulans are essentially the same people in the time of Discovery . As revealed in season 3’s “Unification III,” all Vulcans and Romulans live together on the planet Ni’var, previously known as the planet Vulcan.

Breen Attack on the Federation 

In this episode, we’re reminded that “the last time the Breen paid a visit to the Federation, they destroyed an entire city.” This references the Deep Space Nine episode, “The Changing Face of Evil,” in which the Breen attack Starfleet Headquarters on Earth, directly, and nearly destroy all of San Francisco. Most of the city was rebuilt by the time of the Picard flashbacks in season 1 of that series, and certainly, is fully rebuilt by seasons 2 and 3 of Picard . But, it seems like the Federation has not had a direct battle with the Breen in Federation space since the DS9 era.

Tilly Is Worried About Her Cadets

In another reference to DS9 and “The Changing Face of Evil,” Tilly expresses concern about her cadets safety if the Breen attack Federation HQ. In the DS9 era, Starfleet Academy was still located in San Francisco, though now it’s at Fed HQ. That said, the upcoming show, Starfleet Academy , set in the Discovery timeline, will move the Academy back to Earth, and San Francisco.

We learn in this episode that the next piece of the Progenitor puzzle is a book called Labyrinths of the Mind , a Betazoid manuscript written by Dr. Marina Derex. “Marina” is almost certainly a reference to Marina Sirtis, the beloved actress who has played the half-Betazoid character Deanna Troi in all of The Next Generation and Picard , a few cameos on Voyager , and the Enterprise finale.

The book was also written in 2371, which is the same year that the USS Voyager left space station Deep Space 9 for the Badlands. It’s also the same year that Thomas Riker stole the USS Defiant from the same station. It’s also the year that the USS Enterprise-D crash-landed its saucer section on Veridian III in Star Trek Generations , which also means it’s the same year that a time-displaced Captain James T. Kirk was killed. Big year!

Seven of Limes 

Reno mentions a cocktail called “Seven of Limes.” This can only be a reference to Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), the former Borg drone turned Fenris Ranger and Starfleet Captain. Because Discovery is set several centuries beyond Picard Season 3, we can only assume that Reno and the crew now have knowledge of events well beyond the early 2400s.

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“A Holodeck Adventure for the Littles”

Reno jokes that the entire premise of the current clue—connected to a library card—makes everything sound like “something out of a holodeck adventure for the littles.” The most prominent holodeck adventure for children that we’re aware of in Trek canon is The Adventures of Flotter , which first appeared in the Voyager episode “Once Upon a Time.” In Picard season 1, Soji had a Flotter lunchbox.

The Badlands 

By the end of the episode, the Eternal Gallery’s location—and thus the location of the book  Labyrinths of the Mind —is revealed to be in the Badlands. This is an unstable area of space that was first mentioned in…you guessed it… Deep Space Nine ! Although the Badlands is most famous as the area where the USS Voyager went missing in its 1995 debut episode, “Caretaker,” the concept of the Badlands was introduced about a year earlier in 1994, during DS9’s second season, specifically in the episode “The Maquis Part 1.”

The Badlands is located near what used to be Cardassian space, so in its next episode, Discovery will literally be traveling directly to the neighborhood of Deep Space Nine . We have no idea if the wormhole is still there in this time period, or if that old station is still kicking. But, as Discovery continues to drop surprises in its final season, we can all keep our fingers crossed for a glimpse of a very special space station.

Ryan Britt is a longtime contributor to Den of Geek! He is also the author of three non-fiction books: the Star Trek pop history book PHASERS…

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