[Christopher Halsey]

MOVIE DISCUSSION

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Original Air Date: 4th of June 1982
Series: The Original Series
Movie: 2

SUMMARY

As Kirk struggles with his career decisions he must take on an even greater challenge as his old foe Khan returns seeking revenge and armed with a weapon capable of wiping out all life on a planet.

"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." - James T Kirk

DISCUSSION
To celebrate the release of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Director's Cut we'll be discussing Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, kinda makes sense no?

Was The Wrath of Khan your favourite Star Trek movie? Had you watched the TOS episode Space Seed before watching it? What did you think of Khan as an adversary? Did you like the new uniforms? What did you think about Spock's death?

[Mark Okuda]

Wrath is my Favorite Trek Movie. It was a definite better following from The Motion Picture. I especially liked the new uniforms, much better than the ones in TMP, in my opinion anyway. I had watched the Original series episode but don't quite remember much from it. there are some great quotable lines from that movie.

[Caymen Greener]

For whatever reason (production quality, writing, directing, whatever else), Trek didn't get me enthused until IV (skip V) and VI, so Wrath is rarely on my list. It is hard for me to articulate, and I'm sure I would enjoy it if I watched it again. But for now, for me, it's there as one of the best (according to most Trekkies), but just not in my top 5.

[Toanstation]

Wrath was an awesome Star Trek movie. It's tied for my favorite with Undiscovered Country. It had everything that a good Trek story needed: a great villain, tension, technobabble, explosions... And then Spock died, and Trek went to a new level. It confirmed, in those final moments, what the movie was telling us all along: that Kirk and the rest weren't comic book heroes but we're quite human. And flawed, a theme that I don't think comes back in full force until Undiscovered Country.

Wrath introduced my favorite uniform of the franchise. And while TMP told a story of a cosmic scale, Wrath told us a more personal story.

[Christopher Halsey]

Wrath was an awesome Star Trek movie. It's tied for my favorite with Undiscovered Country. It had everything that a good Trek story needed: a great villain, tension, technobabble, explosions... And then Spock died, and Trek went to a new level. It confirmed, in those final moments, what the movie was telling us all along: that Kirk and the rest weren't comic book heroes but we're quite human. And flawed, a theme that I don't think comes back in full force until Undiscovered Country.

Wrath introduced my favorite uniform of the franchise. And while TMP told a story of a cosmic scale, Wrath told us a more personal story.

Really well put. My thoughts pretty much echo yours.

I also have TWOK tied with TUC as the best Star Trek movie. I also think TWOK had a great story and that it did a great job of showing certain characters as being realistically flawed. It was also nice to see such a personal story, one of the great things about Star Trek is that the storytelling scales so well from personal stories to much larger ones and this is one of the best examples of a story about some very specific characters all of which get some real progression.

For the uniform I absolutely loved the design, I think it looks great and ages very well unlike the TOS, TNG and VOY uniforms. That said as much as much as I do love the design I can't imagine it being practical in reality, most Star Trek uniforms would seem to be suitable for a number of environments, I can't really see that being true for the TWOK uniform which certainly explains the uniforms used during the mission to liberate Paradise City in The Final Frontier.

[Deltron]

Best line by Mckoy

"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!"

[Danska101]

The more I think about Wrath of Khan, the more I like it. It goes without saying that the villain and central conflict are fantastic, and I actually like Kirk as a character in it (not a common occurrence, though my failure to watch much of the Original Series in the last 15+ years means I don't feel entirely qualified to judge him). The theme of growing old and feeling out of place is one I'm sure I'll identify with more over time and the film combines action, emotion and scientific discovery extremely well.

I must confess, however, that I prefer The Undiscovered Country. I feel I may need to rewatch some of the Trek films soon (II-VI, probably skipping V).

[Toanstation]

The more I think about Wrath of Khan, the more I like it. It goes without saying that the villain and central conflict are fantastic, and I actually like Kirk as a character in it (not a common occurrence, though my failure to watch much of the Original Series in the last 15+ years means I don't feel entirely qualified to judge him). The theme of growing old and feeling out of place is one I'm sure I'll identify with more over time and the film combines action, emotion and scientific discovery extremely well.

I must confess, however, that I prefer The Undiscovered Country. I feel I may need to rewatch some of the Trek films soon (II-VI, probably skipping V).

I think the reason Wrath edges out Undiscovered Country for me comes down to nostalgia and the pathos of Spock's death (I'm a sucker for pathos). I also liked TWOK's Savik better than the version in Search.

I also liked how Wrath and Undiscovered Country showed a bit more depth to Starfleet and the Enterprise. Wrath showed us some of what went on at the Academy, and Country showed us more of the parts of the crew spaces of the Enterprise (I loved that a scene took place in a galley).

[Stormy]

TheWrath of Kahn is by far the best Star Trek movie made to date. There is no doubt this is the primary reason J.J. tried to kidnap it and remake it with Star Trek: Into Darkness. Additional evidence of this is the fact that J.J.'s version has been so widely criticized, slandered and held in contempt by those who are pure Trek fans.

After a lackluster reception for Star Trek:The Motion Picture, the keepers of Trek had to do something to restore the fan base's adoration of the franchise. They went big with this story line and hit a home run. It is my opinion that without the reappearance of Kahn, masterfully played by Ricardo Montalban, it is likely no more feature films would have been made and would have made it very difficult to convince the powers to be to approve The Next Generation.

Yes, I am stating this movie saved the franchise and paved the way for everything that was to come. Period.