My Trek Through Trek — The Wrath of Khan

I've been waiting for this one for what feels like an eternity, even though I only started this massive Star Trek rewatch a handful of months ago.

You see, when I started watching the original series Star Trek from the beginning, I didn't realize exactly how much of a slog some of it was going to be. Which isn't to say that the original series is “bad,” because there were several episodes that were very good or at least fairly interesting in the stories they told, but it is very dated, it has a lot of hammy acting, and the special effects are terrible, maybe even for the time period in which they were done. At one point during my viewing of one of the more boring episodes, I turned to my nephew (who some believe may be the reincarnation of Gene Roddenberry himself) and asked him when the original series actually starts to get good. His answer was swift and definitive: The Wrath of Khan.

While this was discouraging at the time (I still had a combined four and a half seasons of the series and the follow-up Animated Series to get through!), it did provide me with a little bit of a light at the end of the tunnel. And now we've finally reached that light... Though interestingly enough, this one happened without Roddenberry!

(By the way, if you're interested in previous Star Trek reviews during this epic rewatch, you can find my reviews here: First season of The Original Series, second season of The Original Series, third season of The Original Series, both seasons of The Animated Series, and full review for The Motion Picture. Also be sure to follow me on Bluesky for additional commentary while I'm actually watching and, you know, life stuff! Oh, I also have a website!)

As it turns out, Roddenberry had started writing a sequel to The Motion Picture that would feature the Enterprise traveling back in time to stop a devious Klingon plot. Paramount declined this sequel, however, and actually wound up removing him from the second film entirely as his constant rewrites were said to have been responsible for the first movie's lackluster critical reception. In his place, the studio hired producer Harve Bennett to shepherd the sequel. After watching several episodes of the original series, Bennett came to the conclusion that the element missing from the first film was a villain, and so he decided that Khan Noonien Singh, Ricardo Montalbán's character from the episode “Space Seed,” was the perfect antagonist to go up against the Enterprise crew. They would later hire Jack B. Sowards to flesh out Bennett's outline into the full script, and Nicholas Meyer to direct the film. Despite that shuffling of producers behind the scenes, I'd say the new story works well and I agree with my nephew's sentiment that this is the original crew's finest moment so far.

The plot begins with another Federation starship, the U.S.S. Reliant, searching for a planet without life with which to test Genesis, a new technology that is capable of reorganizing the matter on a dead planet into a planet that is teeming with life. It is effectively an instant terraforming tool. Our boy Pavel Chekov, now a commander and the Reliant's first officer, beams down with his Captain Terrell to evaluate one such deserted planet only to captured by Khan Noonien Singh and his genetically-enhanced followers, who were exiled there by Captain Kirk 15 years ago after the events of “Space Seed.” Once Khan learns about the existence of Genesis, he and his people capture the Reliant and start heading to the space station where the tech is being developed by Dr. Carol Marcus, an ex-girlfriend of Kirk, and their son David. Realizing that he could use Genesis as a weapon to wipe out entire worlds, Khan intends to steal it for himself in order to use it as a weapon to wreak havoc on Kirk and the rest of the Federation. Naturally, it's the Enterprise that receives a distress call from the space station Carol and David are on and is sent to intercept.

Life and death space battles ensue, culminating in a tense standoff with Enterprise and Reliant both badly damaged within the Mutara Nebula, which renders shields and targeting systems worthless. The Reliant is eventually disabled and Khan is nearly dead when he activates Genesis at the last minute, causing the Enterprise to scramble out of the nebula without warp power. Despite Scotty and Bones warning him otherwise, Spock decides to enter the irradiated engine room in order to restore the warp drive right as the Enterprise warps out of harm's way. It's too late for Spock though, who shares a brief, heart-wrenching scene with Kirk before succumbing to radiation poisoning and passing away. The ending of the film sees the crew holding a space burial for Spock, launching his casket out the torpedo tubes where it comes to rest among trees and greenery on the Genesis planet.

Though Roddenberry had little to do with the creation of The Wrath of Khan, I think that this may have been the best move for Star Trek. His initial script for the sequel sounds familiar*¹, but I do believe Harve Bennett's insistence on giving the crew a real villain to go up against gave them some important stakes. And given that Spock, who is arguably the most popular character of the original series cast, dies by the end of the film, illustrates that point remarkably. The reception among both fans and critics alike echo that sentiment. Critic Marc Bernardin of Entertainment Weekly even once said that it is the “film that, by most accounts, saved Star Trek as we know it.” All things considered, that's probably a true statement. The original series and The Animated Series were both long over by this point, and had Wrath of Khan failed at the box office following The Motion Picture's lukewarm reaction, Paramount may have just abandoned the IP entirely. Fortunately, that wasn't the case, and The Wrath of Khan is now one of Star Trek's very best, having been a success at the box office and even being inducted into the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2024.

I have one small gripe with the film, and it's really just the uniforms. My aforementioned nephew and a lot of other Trekkies refer to these big red uniforms as the “Monster Maroons,” and I feel like that's a pretty apt name for them. They feel like a lot of uniform, I think the chest flap is silly and unnecessary, and I really miss the uniforms from the series that had the traditional gold, red, and blue division status each crew person worked in. Unfortunately, we gotta get used to them because production seemed pleased with these uniforms, since Starfleet continues to utilize them until the Next Generation uniforms start appearing at the start of that series. Otherwise, this film was a lot of fun and really did kind of refresh my entire desire to want to do this rewatch to begin with. I wanted to be reminded of all the best reasons why Star Trek is now in its 60th year of sci-fi film, TV, and more.*² And honestly? Wrath of Khan might be one of those first real blockbuster Trek stories. Honestly, I think that if I were to introduce someone new to the Star Trek universe, this film might be the one I have them watch first.

I am interested to know, however, if there are any Trekkies from around when the time The Wrath of Khan was released. I'm always interested for some reason in knowing what the reaction to certain moments were, particularly when it was revealed that Spock was dying in the movie. Were you mad? Were you sad? What was that like?? Tell me more!

In the meantime, I'll be back in a few days with my thoughts on The Search for Spock. In real-time, I'm already nearing the end of Next Generation's first season but I don't want to confuse myself by getting too far ahead of my reviews being written, so I gotta start cranking these movie reviews out quick! 😂