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The Wrath of Khan is arguably the greatest Star Trek movie, but it's far from perfect.
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00:00Not too many people would argue with me when I say that The Wrath of Khan is the best Star
00:05Trek movie ever, but it's imperfect in the way that most human endeavors are.
00:10This is unsurprising, given that when director Nicholas Meyer was offered the film, there
00:15was shades of the motion picture, but no workable script.
00:19In fact, three different scripts had been developed, The Omega System, The Genesis Project,
00:25and The New Star Trek. So Meyer and the producer identified all the bits they liked from the
00:30scripts, and Meyer wrote his first draft of a new script in just under two weeks, titled
00:35The Undiscovered Country. Well, actually, they retitled it to The Vengeance of Khan,
00:41but then they retitled it again to The Wrath of Khan before release, so they really couldn't
00:46make up their minds. Many, many revisions followed, but time was wasting and money was tight.
00:51The script and the resulting film were of astounding quality for such a time crunch project,
00:57but in that hurry, a fair amount of dumb things did slip through the cracks. So with all that
01:03history in mind, and with our love of this film firmly established, let's have a bit of fun while
01:08we look at the 10 dumbest things that happened in Star Trek Wrath of Khan.
01:13Number 10. Reliance Weak Password. The prefix code is a good idea for thwarting a hostile takeover
01:19of a starship, but a code of only five numbers is in the range of your upper-end bicycle
01:25combination lock, 90,000 possible combinations. Have you ever looked at that bank of switches
01:30Spock flips to input the code? There are only 10 switches, one per number from 1 to 9 and 0,
01:37and each switch stays flipped after he uses it. Thus, each number can only be used once per code.
01:43This means no prefix numbers like 16303 or 01701, let alone 66666. This cuts down on the possible
01:54combinations by two-thirds to just 27,216. Most Wi-Fi passwords are harder to crack. Also,
02:03after Khan has been prefix coded and handed his ass, it's surprising that Mr. Superior Intellect
02:09doesn't figure out that this is what happens and try to locate the Enterprise's own prefix code in
02:14order to turn the tables on his old friend, Kirk. But that would have meant showing Khan is actually
02:20intelligent, not just telling us. Number 9. Cadet Dead Meat to the Bridge
02:25With the Enterprise's bridge at the very tippy-top of the ship's saucer, and with engineering in the
02:31cigar-shaped engineering secondary hall, there is no way that the bridge is en route to sickbay.
02:37So why then does the turbolift bring Scotty carrying the mortally wounded cadet Peter Preston
02:42to the bridge? Ever since the movie opened, fans have either been crying in outrage over this,
02:47or offering rationalizations and justifications for it. The damage caused the turbolifts to
02:53malfunction. Uh, Scotty was so grief-stricken that he blah blah blah. Logically, they could have had
03:00Kirk step out of the turbolift on his way to sickbay and find Scotty with Preston in a line of wounded
03:05trying to get into sickbay. But then the audience might have been anticipating such a sight en route
03:11to McCoy, whereas the doors opening to this horror was indeed a shock. So, that's the reality. It's
03:18only there for a punch-in-the-gut dramatic effect, even though it makes zero sense. Shocking? Yeah,
03:24absolutely. Dumb? Definitely. Number 8. Kirk and Bones Both Blow It
03:29The film's story forces Kirk to catch the idiot ball in order to show him as old and worn out and in
03:35desperate need to get his mojo back, which we can accept to a point, but it does go overboard in this
03:41regard and does bones dirty in the process. Upon discovering Torell and Chekhov on the regular one
03:47space station, Chekhov emotes Chekhov. Oh, sir. It was Khan. We found him on Seti Alpha 5. He put
03:54creatures in our bodies to control our minds. McCoy. It's all right. You're safe now. Chekhov.
04:00They made us say lies, do things, but we beat him. We thought he controlled us, but he did not. The
04:07captain was strong. Wait a Vulcan minute, Lieutenant Commander Bad accent. And yeah, I'm also talking
04:12about me because what fun would this be if we didn't do some light teasing? But anyway, Chekhov just
04:18explicitly told them the titular space genius had put creatures in their bodies to control their minds,
04:24and what is the first reaction to this bombshell? Bones effectively says, it's all good. What?
04:30The instant Chekhov admits this, both Kirk and Bones ought to have suspected Khan was behind every
04:35word coming out of the Reliant Boys' mouths. Sure, Kirk is focused on the Genesis material and
04:41finding Dr. Marcus, but he's beyond thick here. And Bones? What excuse does he have? What sort of
04:48doctor hears two potential patients say they had foreign creatures placed inside their bodies to control
04:53them and doesn't immediately ask how and where and examine the living crap out of them? Kirk's not
05:01the one caught with his britches down. McCoy is tripping over the metaphorical pants around his ankles.
05:07Number seven, the inferior superior intellect. Khan. Admiral Kirk never bothered to check on our progress.
05:16It is only the fact of my genetically engineered intellect that allowed us to survive. Much is made of
05:22Khan's intellect in the film, but he's dumb as a box of rocks throughout, let's be honest. Consider the
05:27following. Khan wants Genesis, yet tortures and kills the uncooperative Genesis team instead of
05:33sticking eels in them, or instead of taking any of the team with him when he has to leave regular one
05:39in order to blow Kirk to bits. I mean, yeah, I get he's mad, but come on, he's a super genius.
05:45Next, Mr. Superior Intellect can't spot the most in plain sight code ever. Spock says hours would seem
05:53like days, and then explains the ship's status using days. Twelve-year-olds in the audience could decode
06:00that on the fly, so why can't Khan or his crew of fellow superhuman, or Savik for that matter? Yes,
06:07Khan has activated his Ahab Obsession power-up, and he's phaser-focused on harpooning his white whale,
06:14Kirk. And granted, his monumental ego and sense of innate superiority cloud his judgment to the
06:20point where he's easily duped and goaded into chasing Kirk into a nebula where he loses most of
06:25his advantage. But, like Kirk and Bones, he gets tossed the idiot ball and never once demonstrates
06:31any real smarts. This was not always the case. In one of the scripts from which the final film's
06:37screenplay was built, and before his beloved wife was fridged, there was a dialogue that indicated
06:42Khan was indeed an extra-special super-genius. Khan. How are system controls working?
06:49MacGyver's. Very well. Command and remote functions are all tied through computer stations.
06:53How could you have designed it so quickly? Khan. This is a sister ship of the Enterprise.
06:59The Enterprise's manuals I absorbed 14 years ago are still fresh in my mind. Not only would such a
07:05dialogue have demonstrated that Khan's an actual smarty pants, ergo a real threat,
07:10it would have made clear how 14 supermen could have run an entire spaceship,
07:15especially with 10 of them on the bridge.
07:18Number 6. Wily Chekhov. In old cartoons, characters would frequently run the same path
07:24of a steamroller about to flatten them, or stand by dumbly before getting clobbered by a car or
07:29flattened by a boulder. Chekhov effectively does this on SETI Alpha 5 upon seeing the belt buckle.
07:35Chekhov. Botany Bay. Botany Bay? Oh no, we've got to get out of here now. Damn!
07:42He knows what this means, but instead of doing the logical thing, putting his helmet on and calling
07:47for extraction, assuming he even needs a helmet to do this, he and Terrell put on their helmets,
07:53step outside, and, at the sight of the 14 survivors, freeze like a bug-eyed Wily Coyote
07:58watching as a train bears down on him. By rights, Chekhov should have tried calling the ship before
08:03stepping outside. You don't stop to explain when you realize you're standing over a live grenade.
08:08You run, duck, or throw yourself on it. And even if, for some plot convenient reason,
08:14the comm didn't work inside the cargo containers, Chekhov should have been screaming for a beam-out
08:18throughout their exit from the hatch, and even as Khan's people moved towards them.
08:22But from the lack of alarm exhibited by Beach and Kyle on the Reliant, it's obvious no communication
08:28of any sort was received. One can excuse Chekhov's behavior after he gets an eel in the ear,
08:33but not his costly ineptitude at this stage in the story. It's no wonder he never made captain.
08:40Number 5. Universal Armageddon. But no rush. As David Marcus frets, as the Genesis proposal
08:46demonstrates, and as Spock and Bone's argument makes clear, the Genesis device has the potential
08:52to be a dreadful weapon if used where life already exists. We're talking about Universal Armageddon,
08:59Bones exclaims. In short, Genesis is a Manhattan project, and Kirk clearly knows what it is before
09:06revealing it to his confidants. So why is it then that everyone's so damn blasé about Carol's cry for
09:13help? Consider this. Carol calls Kirk to ask if he gave the order, and states that someone is going to
09:19take Genesis without proper authorization. Mid-conversation, her transmission is jammed at
09:24the source. This isn't garbled communications. It's deliberate. Kirk calls Starfleet Command to try
09:30and get to the bottom of things. And when he clearly doesn't get an answer to what's going on,
09:35instead of, you know, immediately calling to the bridge and ordering maximum warp to regular one,
09:40he meanders to Spock's quarters for a friendly chat, and then finally goes up to the bridge to
09:46order Sulu to go to warp 5. Warp f***ing 5! Yes, it's a minor continuity point, but in the previous
09:53film, the Enterprise zipped along to meet V'ger at warp 7 without even breaking a sweat. Warp 5 is like
09:59a police car driving below the speed limit while rushing to an active crime scene. Kirk ought to
10:04have been court-martialed for that. I mean, come on, take things seriously, Admiral. As scripted,
10:10this would have been a better scene, as Kirk would have gone to the bridge prior to him going to see
10:15Spock. This was, however, swapped around in editing for dramatic effect, but at the cost of making
10:21Kirk appear to be not taking this whole thing as seriously as he really should. Number 4. Exit the
10:27eel. The influence of the baby eels is pretty shaky. How is it that Tyrell and Chekhov can sit by as
10:34their shipmates, Reliance crew, are marooned on Khan's barren sand heap? Yet, later in the movie,
10:40Tyrell manages to resist when Khan instructs him to shoot Kirk, a man he says he'd never met. Is Kirk
10:47really just that awesome? Eh, rank does have its privileges, I guess. Or, is actively murdering
10:54someone just too much for even eel influence? Mmm, no, not really, as he vaporizes an innocent
11:01civilian just moments earlier. And, after Tyrell phasers himself out of the narrative rather than Kirk,
11:07why is it that the eel and Chekhov's noggin chooses that precise moment to get the heck out of there?
11:13You could maybe argue semantics about what happened to its friend, but it's a little convenient,
11:20isn't it? However, for the past 40 years, fans have joked that there's another reason the beast fled.
11:26It was starving to death as Chekhov is brainless. Number 3. Kirk's unfair tactical advantage.
11:32Show don't tell is a truism in film and video, and while it's not always necessary to cross every
11:38T or dot every I, sometimes a film really ought to just make a tiny bit of effort to make clear
11:44how something improbable happens to happen. Case in point, when the Enterprise first arrives at
11:50Regula I. Spock. Regula is a Class D. It consists of various unremarkable oars. Essentially, a great rock in space.
12:00Kirk. Reliant could be hiding behind that rock. Spock. A distinct possibility. Then, in a classic case of
12:08technology doing whatever the plot requires at any given moment, when Kirk returns to the ship from the
12:13Genesis cave, he orders tactical, and immediately a computer graphic shows him exactly where the Reliant
12:19is, orbiting opposite them, presumably having just left the Regula I station where we saw her seconds
12:25earlier. Now, how come they couldn't do that before? And how can they track her through an entire
12:30planetoid now? And why does it only work one way? Why isn't Khan all, there she is, at the same instant
12:39Kirk spots where the Reliant is. And just how long has the Enterprise crew known where Reliant is?
12:45Is this how she's managed to stay out of sight? If you can't tell, I have a lot of questions.
12:51One can speculate or manufacture all sorts of rationalizations for this, like how the Enterprise
12:56was receiving telemetry from Regula I that Khan didn't know how to access. But then it gives Kirk an
13:02easy advantage instead of showing him using his smarts or his experience as a starship captain,
13:07taking obstacles away from the protagonist diminishes his efforts. It could easily have
13:12been addressed by simply mentioning sensor damage earlier in the damage report, or by having Regula
13:18I telemetry appear on the tactical display. But alas, they didn't. Number two, damn peculiar.
13:25Starfleet surely knows that the Reliant is assigned to Project Genesis. So when Kirk calls them concerning
13:31Carol's cry for help, the very first order of business should have been to call the Reliant and ask
13:37what's going on or if they know anything about it. Nothing in the film suggests that a call like
13:42this happened, or if it did, that Starfleet ever got back to Kirk about whether they could or couldn't
13:47get through. And furthermore, despite being told they are, as usual, the only ship in the Quadrant,
13:54they spot the Reliant assigned to Genesis not only in their Quadrant but closing fast. As soon as Kirk
14:01calms the bridge, he's ordering to try the emergency channels, so something is already odd. The moment
14:07Spock deduces there's something weird about Reliant's excuse about their chamber's coil is overloading
14:12their comms systems, that ought to have been the last straw, but it wasn't. Now, from Carol's message
14:19earlier, Kirk knows that A, someone is trying to take Genesis, B, that Carol believes it's someone from
14:26Starfleet, as she said, did you give that order? And C, her transmission gets jammed at the source.
14:32So, when the Reliant shows up acting damn peculiar, even too long out of pasture, Kirk should have been
14:37able to put two and two together and acted with due caution. Yeah, I know the point of Wrath of Khan
14:43is that Kirk is rusty, but given everything leading up to the moment of the ambush, his hesitation and
14:50inaction serves to not merely portray Kirk as out of practice, but as an incompetent fool,
14:56responsible for the loss of Genesis and the Enterprise damage and casualties. That's almost
15:01dumb enough to warrant being drummed out of the service. Number 1. The Genesis Defect
15:07Even taking the movie on its own terms, that the Genesis planet even exists at the end is beyond
15:13absurd. The narrative makes it abundantly clear that the Genesis device is intended to be employed on an
15:19existing solid body. Why else would the Reliant be scouring space for suitable sites? Carol,
15:25Stage 3 will involve the process on a planetary scale. It is our intention to induce the Genesis
15:30device into the pre-selected area of a lifeless space body, a moon or other dead form. Yet,
15:36as the story climaxes, the Genesis device goes off inside the Reliant, which is itself within the
15:41Matara Nebula. And somehow, the Genesis wave not only turns the entire nebula's gas and dust into some
15:47different kind of matter, complete with all sorts of plant DNA, but all of this conveniently falls
15:53together into a sphere in a matter of minutes. The icing on the cake, though, is that this
15:58preposterous planet just so happened to have formed within the Goldilocks zone of a star.
16:04Star? Wait, where did that star come from? Was it the one regular orbits, or did Genesis manufacture
16:10a star too? And how does that miracle planet just happen to have exactly the right angular momentum
16:17to go into orbit around that wherever it's from star? Ugh, and some fans complain that the red
16:23matter in Star Trek 2009 was dumb. But play by your own rules, movie. And those were the 10 dumbest
16:29things in Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan. Do you think we missed something? Well, check out the article
16:34on our website, because there's four additional dumb things listed there. Oh, and before I get any pitchforks
16:40in the comments, this is genuinely my favorite Star Trek movie, and I've watched it way more times
16:46than I can count. But there's just something fun about taking a look at the media that we love
16:51and just tearing it apart. If you liked this video, go ahead and give it a thumbs up. And if you didn't,
16:56make sure you let me know in the comment section below how much you dislike it. If you want to keep
17:00up to date with us, you can give us a follow on various social medias at Trek Culture or at Trek Culture
17:06YT. You can also give me a follow on various social medias at Trekky Bree. But most importantly,
17:12don't forget to live long and prosper.
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