---------------- INTRODUCTION ---------------- Rel eased in 1982, STAR TREK II - THE WRATH OF KHAN is a sequel to both STAR TREK - THE MOTION PICTURE (released in 1979), and the episode 'Space Seed' from the first season of the original TV show STAR TREK. The first movie had not been well received by the critics, although it did quite well at the box office. Unfortunately its gross was not good enough for the studio in comparison for its budget so with the second movie they really were looking at the final outing for STAR TREK, unless they were able to come up with something both critically and financially more successful. ---------------- THE PLOT ---------------- Whilst on mission training cadets, Admiral James T. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise is attacked by superhuman criminal Khan Noonian Singh and his followers, who had been banished to Ceti Alpha V during the aforementioned episode of the television series. Khan and his crew have escaped and are looking for revenge upon those who they feel wronged them - particularly James T. Kirk!
------------------- THE
MAIN CAST ------------------- William Shatner is back as Admiral Kirk. Following the first movie Shatner had appeared in small roles in a couple of movies, and had just begun his new series as the tough police officer T.J. HOOKER, who he would go on to play five seasons.
Leonard Nimoy co-stars as Spock. After THE MOTION PICTURE Nimoy did some stage work and appeared in some well-received TV movies.
Deforest Kelley returns as Dr. McCoy. Between THE MOTION PICTURE and this film he appeared in only a couple of guest roles on TV shows.
Other regular cast members from the original TV show who returned for this movie were James Doohan, George Takei, Walter Koenig, and Nichelle Nichols. Ricardo Montelban co-stars as the evil Khan, reprising the role he had played in the TV series. Montelban was most famous around this period for his role as Mr. Roarke in the TV series FANTASY ISLAND.
-------------------------------- THE DIRECTOR -------------------------------- STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN was directed by Nicholas Meyer, who also contributed to the writing of the script. Meyer would later return to the STAR TREK fold as writer of the 4th movie, and writer/director of the 6th.
------------------------------------------ MY VIEWS ON THE FILM ------------------------------------------ The slow moving STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE was not well received critically or financially, although it did make enough money for the studio to decide to make a sequel. However they decided that they needed to go in a different direction to the original movie and as such they decided to dispense with the services of series creator Gene Roddenberry. Roddenberry remained as 'executive consultant' but from now on he had little to do with the STAR TREK movies. Instead he would give notes on scripts and developments, but often as not his opinions were not listened to.
To replace Roddenberry as the driving force of the STAR TREK movies Paramount Pictures chose Harve Bennett. Bennett had done quite a lot of work in television, and he was before Trek primarily best known for his work on both THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN and THE BIONIC WOMAN. Bennett brought a sense of humanity and humour to the film, which was sorely lacking in the first movie outing. One of the main aspects of Trek which was missing from the first film was the friendly relationship between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, and this was brought to the fore in this film. There are also developments in Spock's character which I won't ruin here, but which add a touch of heartbreak to the film. One of the best aspects of this film is the fact that the characters deal with the fact that they are getting older, which had been ignored in the first film. This theme would be picked up on with much greater weight in the sixth film, THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.
THE WRATH OF KHAN breathed new life into the film franchise, and begins a storyline which continues through the 3rd and 4th films. Although I am also a fan of the first movie, if one wants a fun adventure then this would definitely be the more appropriate choice.
-------------------- THE DVD -------------------- STAR TREK II - THE WRATH OF KHAN (THE DIRECTOR'S EDITION) is available on DVD from Paramount Home Entertainment. This features an audio commentary by the director, Nicholas Meyer, in addition to a text commentary by Trek expert Michael Okuda. Also included are some short featurettes, and cast interviews from the time the movie was made. This is a generous DVD package, and is a bargain at Amazon UK for only £6.98
-------------------- THE DETAILS -------------------- Directed by Nicholas Meyer STAR TREK Created by Gene Roddenberry Produced by Harve Bennett Music by James Horner Starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, Ricardo Montalban
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