Boldly going

Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan (1982)

In 1979 Paramount spent over $45mil on the first Star Trek film which received mixed reactions at best, following this the budget for the sequel was cut to just $11mil and Gene Roddenberry was sidelined as much as possible. While the original cast was retained Nicholas Meyer was added as director and uncredited as the writer of this film under the stewardship of producer Harve Bennett.

There are many things that make this a great film but the first and most obvious is the title character Khan himself, he is a great villain consumed by desire for revenge against Kirk and armed with some great literary quotes. One a basic level the revenge tale and conflict between Khan and Kirk works really well and echoes Moby Dick, the classic story of whale based obsession. The battle sequences have a great sense of tension, atmosphere and a feeling that space is a vast and lonely place where these two titans are duelling it out, the final battle in the nebula is especially impressive. Although there may have been a cut in budget the special effects still stand up really well.

While the film is great as a space action adventure there is also a lot more going on below the surface. As well as the general theme of revenge the film also looks at the ideas of life, death and the ageing of Kirk himself. Using Kirk and Spock to show the different facets of the traditional hero and exploring the idea of the no win scenario work really well. The genesis device also helps bring out the ideas of rebirth which are explored even further in the third film in the series.

The film is not without it's flaws however as some of Shatner's acting is fairly open to parody at best in some portions of the film. It can also be argued that with in the trek cannon that this film does not really fit with the idea of a utopian future that Roddenberry had in mind however this does not detract from the film itself.

5/5