Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (film)

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Paramount Pictures, 1982) is the second feature film based on the Star Trek science fiction television series. It is often referred to as ST2:TWOK , TWOK , or simply Star Trek II. It is widely regarded by fans as the best film of the series, and has been described as enjoyable by both fans and non-fans of Star Trek. This may be partly due to the tone and style of the film, which is firmly character-driven. The film starts a story arc trilogy spanning to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

Tagline:At the end of the universe lies the beginning of vengeance.

After the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, executive producer Gene Roddenberry wrote his own sequel, involving a plot he had touted before in which the crew of the Enterprise travel back through time to assassinate John F. Kennedy and set a corrupted time line right (a storyline which was also used in an episode of Red Dwarf).[citation needed] This sequel was turned down by Paramount executives, who blamed the relative failure of the first movie on the constant rewrites demanded by Roddenberry[citation needed] (he was ultimately removed from the production and reduced to an "Executive Consultant" advisory position).

Cast

William Shatner - Admiral James T. Kirk

Leonard Nimoy - Captain Spock

DeForest Kelley - Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy

James Doohan - Cmdr. Montgomery "Scotty" Scott
Walter Koenig - Pavel Chekov

George Takei - Hikaru Sulu

Nichelle Nichols - Cmdr. Uhura
Bibi Besch - Dr. Carol Marcus
Merritt Butrick - Dr. David Marcus
Paul Winfield - Capt. Clark Terrell

Kirstie Alley - Lt. Saavik

Ricardo Montalban - Khan Noonien Singh

Ike Eisenmann - Midshipman Peter Preston

John Vargas - Jedda
John Winston - Cmdr. Kyle
Paul Kent - Lt. Cmdr. Beach
Nicholas Guest - Cadet
Russell Takaki - Madison
Kevin Rodney Sullivan - March (as Kevin Sullivan)
Joel Marstan - Crew Chief
Teresa E. Victor - Bridge voice (voice)
Dianne Harper - Radio voice (voice)
David Ruprecht - Radio voice (voice)
Marcy Vosburgh - Computer voice (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:

Laura Banks - Khan's navigator
Steve Bond - Khan`s Crewman #1
Brett Baxter Clark - Khan`s Crewman #2
Tim Culbertson - Khan's henchman
John Gibson - Khan`s Crewman #4
James Horner - Enterprise crewman
Dennis Landry - Khan`s Crewman #5

Cristian Letelier - Khan`s Crewman #6
Roger Menache - Khan`s Crewman #7
Judson Earney Scott - Joachim Weiss
Deney Terrio - Khan`s Crewman #11

Plot
The film opens with an unfamiliar female Vulcan in command of the USS Enterprise, but most of the familiar bridge crew (Spock, McCoy, etc.) are present. Attempting a rescue mission in the Klingon Neutral Zone, the Enterprise is attacked by three Klingon battle cruisers, with the apparent loss of all hands. The situation is soon revealed to be, in actuality, the "Kobayashi Maru Test", an intentional no-win situation designed to test the character of officers-in-training. The unfamiliar character is introduced as Captain Spock’s protégé, Lieutenant Saavik. Admiral James T. Kirk oversees the training session externally.

At the same time, aboard the USS Reliant, First officer Pavel Chekov and Captain Clark Terrell are searching for a lifeless planet to serve as a testing ground for "Project Genesis", a device that reorganizes molecular matter on a sub-atomic level, turning barren environments into life-sustaining ones. They beam to the surface of a likely candidate, Ceti Alpha VI, and quickly become captives of Khan Noonien Singh. Khan and his followers were genetically-enhanced fugitives from the late 20th century. (They had been in suspended animation in space when they had been found by the Enterprise and the then-Captain Kirk (in the 1967 Star Trek episode "Space Seed"). After Khan tried to kill the Enterprise crew and steal the ship, Kirk had banished them to Ceti Alpha V, which at the time had been a lush planet.) Khan explains that Ceti Alpha VI exploded six months after their banishment, shifting the orbit of Ceti Alpha V to mirror that of Ceti Alpha VI (which is why the Reliant misidentified it) and causing an environmental disaster. Most of Khan's followers had died (and his wife died as well) in the ensuing disaster and Khan still blames Kirk for all of his troubles. Khan employs the small offspring of a nasty indigenous animal (known to fans as the "Ceti Eel") to control Chekov and Terrell and forces them to reveal the details of their mission, and the whereabouts of Admiral Kirk.

Later, the Enterprise is on a training voyage under the command of Captain Spock with Kirk observing. Kirk suddenly receives a garbled message from Space Station Regula I, a remote science laboratory where Kirk's former lover, Dr. Carol Marcus, and son, Dr. David Marcus, have been laboring to create the "Genesis Device". Informing Starfleet Command of the situation, the Enterprise is ordered to investigate. Since Spock's trainee crew are now on an active-duty mission, Kirk assumes command.

En route, Khan, now in control of Reliant, attacks the Enterprise, crippling her and wounding or killing many of the trainee crew. During negotiations over the terms of the Enterprise's surrender, Khan reveals his knowledge of, and desire for, the Genesis Device. Kirk and Spock use their knowledge of Reliant's computer codes to lower their shields and mount a successful counterattack, damaging Reliant enough to ensure it must temporarily retreat.

The Enterprise makes its way to Regula I, where they find most of the Genesis team dead, though some, including Carol and David, have escaped deep inside the planetoid of Regula itself. Chekov and Terrell are also present, but under hypnotic suggestion as spies, allowing Khan to steal the Genesis Device. Khan then orders Terrell to kill Kirk, but Terrell cannot and kills himself instead, while Chekov overcomes the influence of his own "Ceti eel" and faints. Kirk and Spock arrange a rendezvous in code, which Khan fails to decipher; upon returning with the Regula survivors, Kirk takes the Enterprise into the nearby Mutara Nebula, which will interfere with both ships' defenses and weapons. Despite the advice of his lieutenants, Khan pursues in the Reliant.

After a game of cat-and-mouse (both starships are more-or-less blinded by the nebula), the two ships exchange fire. Khan's lieutenant and friend, Joachim, is slain; on the Enterprise, radiation leakage forces the warp engine to fail and go offline. Though intelligent, Khan lacks Kirk's strategic experience, and the Enterprise is able to outmaneuver and then cripple the Reliant. Khan, beaten, and horribly injured, activates the Genesis Device, which will reorganize all matter within the nebula—including the Enterprise. Though Kirk's crew detects the activation of the Genesis Device and begins to lumber away using impulse engines, without warp drive they will not be able to escape the nebula in time. Spock goes to Engineering and, despite taking a fatal dose of radiation poisoning, restores the warp drive, allowing the Enterprise to escape the Genesis explosion.

A burial in space is held, and Spock's coffin is sent into orbit of the new planet that the Genesis explosion created. Admiral Kirk and his son, David, make peace, and the crew leaves Genesis reminiscing about Spock. In the final scene the coffin is seen to have soft-landed on the planet. The final monologue, the familiar (but slightly altered) "Space, the final frontier-", is delivered in Spock's voice.

Kirk and Shatner
Among the "antiques" visible in Kirk's San Francisco apartment is an ancient home computer that is recognizably (based on the trapezoidal shape of its monitor) a Commodore PET. At the time Star Trek II was filmed, Shatner was the celebrity pitchman for Commodore computers. (In the DVD commentary for the Director's Edition, the computer is pointed out but referred to as a Commodore 64.)