Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Dir. Nicholas Meyer

Watching Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan makes the disappointment of The Motion Picture (1979) seem even worse than it was, by comparison.

Regarded by many fans, including myself, as the best of TOS's big-screen adventures, TWoK is what a Star Trek film ought to be. Respectful of the series history, it uses the Kirk, Spock and McCoy triumvirate as a strong foundation to heap layered levels of danger and tragedy atop. The story recognises that the steadfast closeness of the Trek family is its greatest strength.

The villain of the piece is the titular Khan, played with aplomb by Mexican actor Ricardo Montalbán. Full name Khan Noonien Singh, he's a character first seen in the TOS episode Space Seed (S1, Ep 22), but you don't need to have seen it in order to enjoy Ricardo's spectacular performance because the screenplay manages to recap his backstory successfully, without it seeming like some kind of info-dump or intrusive exposition scene.

A man utterly consumed by vengeance should be fearsome, formidable and relentless in pursuit of his singular goal, which is what the exiled Khan is. Visually, he may resemble an ageing rock star, but Ricardo tapped effortlessly into what gave the character purpose and brought it to the surface - you can almost feel the burning hatred for Kirk emanating from the screen in his best scenes. The Melville parallels in the script strengthen the whole thing even more.

-Fearsome, formidable, relentless... and bare-chested, for good measure.-

Interestingly, it takes a similar amount of time as it did in TMP for the reassembled crew to once more leave the safety of a Starfleet space dock, but screen time prior to the departure is used to introduce a new Vulcan protagonist (Saavik) and offer insight into the current mindset of the ageing Enterprise crew, and by doing so it highlights some of their reasons for venturing back into the unpredictability of space. In short, it's well-paced, not languid like it was previously.

In addition to the almost Shakespearean drama provided by an enemy whose passions can be understood by anyone who's ever been wronged (so, everyone?), the film explores a number of other themes, including, but not limited to, the role of family — both blood relations and the extended one we create with friends — the pursuit of inner peace, the acceptance of one's own nature, and the relationship that exists between self-worth and self-sacrifice. The latter, in particular, is handled beautifully, giving the entire TOS franchise one of its best ever scenes.

Well-written, eventful, tense, and with a kick-ass memorable villain, TWoK is TOS gold.

NOTE: regarding the differences between the Theatrical and Director's Cut versions of the film that are available on Blu-ray at time of writing. The Director's Cut has an additional three minutes, mostly character stuff, all good, giving more depth and nuance to existing scenes. The Director's Cut edition has a shitty Mondo cover art on the outside, but the 4K scan means that PQ of the actual film is greatly improved over the previous Blu-ray edition. However, there's been a change in the colour grading, overseen by Dir. Nicholas Meyer. I feel that the new version looks better, most of the time, being less blue and murky, but not everyone will agree. Luckily, the Director's Cut has the Theatrical Cut as an extra, so if you go for it, it's win-win! (It's not like Paramount to be generous, so I recommended picking it up before they change their mind.)

-Kirk's "Khaaaaaaaaan!" may have become a convenient internet meme, but it remains as powerful as ever when viewed in context.-