Star Trek II

Not that KAAAAAAAAHN!

Another of the movies that I had the chance to record during one of the free preview weekends that I hadn't yet blogged about was Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Recently, I decided to watch it so that I could do a blog post on it here.

William Shatner returns as Capt. James T. Kirk, who is actually now an Admiral and earthbound, since he's too old to be commanding a starship something shown by his need for eyeglasses. (They didn't have Lasik when the movie was made.) Kirk is running the simulation for new captains, with Saavik (Kirstie Alley) about to become the new captain of the current incarnation of the Enterprise.

Cut to some part of the universe out in the middle of nowhere. A group of scientsts led by Dr. Carol Marcus (Bibi Besch) and her son David (Merritt Butrick). They're working on something called "Genesis", which will supposedly be able to rearrange molecules to create life out of nothing. There's obvious use as a weapon, and Starfleet would like it, which irritates Marcus and her colleagues.

Meanwhile, the Genesis folks need a completely lifeless planet for their experiments. After all, if they can rearrange molecules to create life out of nothing, then the rearrangement is going to kill anything already living. They think they've found one in Ceti Alpha 6, but they're also getting some odd readings, so they send in a ship captained by Terrell (Paul Winfield) and Chekov (Walter Koenig) to investigate. They find the remains of the S.S. Botany Bay.

This is a big problem, because as Chekov remembers, the Botany Bay was captained by Khan (Ricardo Montalban), who was a survivor of the eugenics wars of the 1990s, and survived in stasis with his crew before they were revived by Kirk's Enterprise in the Space Seed episode of the original ceries. Khan was a villian and super strong from all that genetic engineering, so he's easily able to overpower Chekov and Terrell and take their ship, going first for the research station where the Genesis project is headquartered before going after the Enterprise.

The Enterprise just happens to be the closest ship in the area to where Khan is, so they're sent to intercept Khan, even though the Enterprise's refitting isn't complete. There are further complications when it turns out that Dr. Marcus is Kirk's ex-wife, making David the son he never saw and didn't know about. But getting Khan, who also recognizes the Genesis project's potential as a weapon, is the priority.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a pretty good adventure movie, even if you didn't know anything about the Star Trek franchise. It just happens to be set out in space instead of on the ocean or some other way a pursuit would make sense. William Shatner is definitely nobody's idea of a great actor, but for a movie like this you don't need great acting, so Shatner's bombast works well here.

Even though it helps to know the back story of Star Trek, I think anyone can appreciate Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It's definitely worth a watch.