"He tasks me. He tasks me and I shall have him! I'll chase him 'round the moons of Nibia and 'round the Antares Maelstrom and 'round Perdition's flames before I give him up!"
Thirty years ago today,
Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan was released in American cinemas. I wasn't one of those disappointed in the first
Trek feature; quite the contrary, in fact: I liked it. But there's no denying that
Nicholas Meyer's follow-up was more action-packed, more colorful, and more dramatic than its more cerebral predecessor. As a direct sequel to the TV series' episode, "Space Seed," the story was considerably more personal, and the stakes somehow seemed higher. The threat that V'Ger posed to Earth in
The Motion Picture was almost too big to really grasp, while Khan's motives and the threat he posed to our heroes were a lot more identifiable.
Meyer also managed restore a sense of humanity to the characters, who had often come across as slightly robotic in
Robert Wise's film, pulling probably the best performances of Kirk and Spock out of
William Shatner and
Leonard Nimoy that we've seen in the entire canon. Not to mention the exceptional acting from
DeForest Kelly and the rest of the crew, and the utterly unforgettable, scenery-chewing (yet layered) performance of
Ricardo Montalban as Khan.
Star Trek II remains my favorite of the
Trek films, and sits securely among my top ten favorite
Trek episodes, as well. It's one of those films that hardly seems to have aged at all - every time I watch it (most recently, on Blu-ray), I'm caught up in it as thoroughly as I was the first time I saw it at age 17. It - along with
Return Of The Jedi the following year - really marked the end of the
Space: 1970 era for me; no matter how many good and entertaining genre films Hollywood produced over the next few decades, I was no longer a kid, and couldn't enjoy them
quite the same way. Thank goodness, 1982 was such a great year for sci-fi flicks....
"Space: the final frontier. These are the continuing voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life forms and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before."
Me and a buddy hid in the theater in order to watch this twice on opening day!
ReplyDeletetrue, true!
ReplyDeleteI'm convinced this movie remains among the very finest SF feature films ever made. I had an argument with a friend where I insisted that one of its qualities was that you could have removed all the legacy Star Trek elements from the movie and still had a great *story*.
ReplyDeletemy dad took me to see this - i was still 4 years away from a driver's license at the time - probably the week it came out. i remember dad being really surprised that he actually DUG the movie, taking me there had been one of those "parental responsibility" trips. i remember him saying "wow, that was REALLY GOOD!" he died 5 years later. wonderful film, wonderful memory. thanks for the great post.
ReplyDeleteThis blog posting made me go buy a copy of the 2002 DVD release and watched it last night awesome film Here's to another 30 years
ReplyDeleteAll time best. The most amazing result of this film is how successive generations of trek film-makers and producers ignored everything that made this the best trek ever.
ReplyDeleteThe Wrath of Khan is light years ahead of the recent Star Trek movie. There's just no comparison. I've seen WoK dozens of times and will continue to do so, but I never feel like watching the 2009 one again.
ReplyDeleteAn outstanding Trek movie, and a fitting to tribute to DeForest Kelly, James Doohan, Bibi Besch, Merritt Butrick, Paul Winfield and Ricardo Montalban.
ReplyDeleteIt's just one of those movies where everything works--the writing, acting, pacing, music, special effects. Classic. It should've been the blueprint for the films that followed.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Trek movie, always has been. Glad the 2009 film helped the franchise back on it's feet though. Trek films had gotten old like their cast and it was time for a re-boot.
ReplyDeleteYup, definitely the best Trek. Lightning in a bottle.
ReplyDeleteStill the best of all Trek movies. They dont made them like that anymore
ReplyDeleteI agree that it was the best Trek film. The characters were back to being what we remembered from the series and not the slightly altered ones from the first movie. Also the dogfight between the Enterprise and the Reliant still ranks as one of the most exciting and original scenes in sci-fi history.
ReplyDelete