- 1 day ago
The Wrath of Khan is arguably the greatest Star Trek movie, but it's far from perfect.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
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.
00:22The Omega System, The Genesis Project, and The New Star Trek.
00:27So Meyer and the producer identified all the bits they liked from the scripts, and Meyer
00:31wrote his first draft of a new script in just under two weeks, titled The Undiscovered Country.
00:37Well, actually, they retitled it to The Vengeance of Khan, but then they retitled it again to
00:43The Wrath of Khan before release, so they really couldn't make up their minds.
00:47Many, 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, but
00:57in that hurry, a fair amount of dumb things did slip through the cracks.
01:02So with all that history in mind, and with our love of this film firmly established, let's
01:07have a bit of fun while we look at the 10 dumbest things that happened in Star Trek Wrath of Khan.
01:13Number 10.
01:14Reliance Weak Password.
01:15The prefix code is a good idea for thwarting a hostile takeover of a starship, but a code
01:21of only five numbers is in the range of your upper-end bicycle combination lock, 90,000
01:27possible combinations.
01:28Have you ever looked at that bank of switches Spock flips to input the code?
01:32There are only 10 switches, one per number from 1 to 9 and 0, and each switch stays flipped
01:38after he uses it.
01:40Thus, each number can only be used once per code.
01:43This means no prefix numbers like 1-6-3-0-3 or 0-1-7-0-1, let alone 6-6-6-6-6.
01:53This cuts down on the possible combinations by two-thirds to just 27,216.
02:00Most Wi-Fi passwords are harder to crack.
02:02Also, after Khan has been prefix-coded and handed his ass, it's surprising that Mr.
02:08Superior Intellect doesn't figure out that this is what happened and try to locate the
02:12Enterprise's own prefix code in order to turn the tables on his old friend, Kirk.
02:18But that would have meant showing Khan is actually intelligent, not just telling us.
02:23Number 9.
02:24Cadet dead meat to the bridge.
02:26With the Enterprise's bridge at the very tippy-top of the ship's saucer, and with
02:30engineering in the cigar-shaped engineering secondary hall, there is no way that the bridge
02:35is en route to sickbay.
02:37So why then does the turbolift bring Scotty carrying the mortally wounded cadet Peter
02:41Preston to the bridge?
02:43Ever since the movie opened, fans have either been crying in outrage over this, or off-
02:48Uh, Scotty was so grief-stricken that he- blah blah blah.
02:52Logically, they could have had Kirk step out of the turbolift on his way to sickbay and
02:56find Scotty with Preston in a line of wounded trying to get into sickbay.
03:01But then the audience might have been anticipating such a sight en route to McCoy, whereas the
03:06doors opening to this horror was indeed a shock.
03:10So, that's the reality.
03:12It's only there for a punch-in-the-gut dramatic effect, even though it makes zero sense.
03:17Shocking?
03:18Yeah, absolutely.
03:19Dumb?
03:20Definitely.
03:21Number 8.
03:22Kirk and Bones both blow it.
03:24The film's story forces Kirk to catch the idiot ball in order to show him as old and worn
03:28out, and in desperate need to get his mojo back, which we can accept to a point, but it
03:33does go overboard in this regard, and does Bones dirty in the process.
03:38Upon discovering Tyrell and Chekov on the regular one space station, Chekov emotes.
03:43Chekov?
03:44Oh, sir.
03:44It was Khan.
03:45We found him on Setia-5.
03:47He put creatures in our bodies to control our minds.
03:51McCoy?
03:51It's all right.
03:52You're safe now.
03:53Chekov?
03:54They made us say lies, do things, but we beat him.
03:58We thought he controlled us, but he did not.
04:00The captain was strong.
04:02Wait a Vulcan minute, Lieutenant Commander Bad accent.
04:05And yeah, I'm also talking about me, because what fun would this be if we didn't do some
04:09light teasing?
04:10But anyway, Chekov just explicitly told them the titular space genius had put creatures
04:16in their bodies to control their minds, and what is the first reaction to this bombshell?
04:21Bones effectively says, it's all good.
04:23What?
04:24The instant Chekov admits this, both Kirk and Bones ought to have suspected Khan was
04:28behind every word coming out of the Reliant Boys' mouths.
04:32Sure, Kirk is focused on the Genesis material and finding Dr. Marcus, but he's beyond thick
04:38here.
04:38And Bones?
04:39What excuse does he have?
04:41What sort of doctor hears two potential patients say they had foreign creatures placed inside
04:46their bodies to control them, and doesn't immediately ask how and where, and examine the living crap
04:53out of them?
04:54Kirk's not the one caught with his britches down.
04:56McCoy is tripping over the metaphorical pants around his ankles.
05:00Number seven, the inferior superior intellect.
05:06Khan, Admiral Kirk, never bothered to check on our progress.
05:10It is only the fact of my genetically engineered intellect that allowed us to survive.
05:15Much is made of Khan's intellect in the film, but he's dumb as a box of rocks throughout,
05:20let's be honest.
05:21Consider the following, Khan wants Genesis, yet tortures and kills the uncooperative Genesis
05:26team instead of sticking eels in them, or instead of taking any of the team with him
05:31when he has to leave regular one in order to blow Kirk to bits.
05:35I mean, yeah, I get he's mad, but come on, he's a super genius.
05:39Next, Mr. Superior Intellect can't spot the most in plain sight code ever.
05:45Spock says hours would seem like days, and then explains the ship's status using
05:50days.
05:52Twelve-year-olds in the audience could decode that on the fly, so why can't Khan or his
05:57crew of fellow superhuman, or Savick for that matter?
06:01Yes, Khan has activated his Ahab obsession power-up, and he's phaser-focused on harpooning
06:07his white whale, Kirk.
06:08And granted, his monumental ego and sense of innate superiority cloud his judgment to the
06:14point where he's easily duped and goaded into chasing Kirk into a nebula where he loses
06:18most of his advantage.
06:20But, like Kirk and Bones, he gets tossed the idiot ball and never once demonstrates any
06:26real smarts.
06:27This was not always the case.
06:28In one of the scripts from which the final film's screenplay was built, and before his
06:33beloved wife was fridged, there was a dialogue that indicated Khan was indeed an extra-special
06:39super genius.
06:40Khan.
06:41How are system controls working?
06:43MacGyver's.
06:44Very well.
06:44Command and remote functions are all tied through computer stations.
06:47How could you have designed it so quickly?
06:50Khan.
06:51This is a sister ship of the Enterprise.
06:53The Enterprise's manuals I absorbed 14 years ago are still fresh in my mind.
06:58Not only would such a dialogue have demonstrated that Khan's an actual smarty pants, ergo a
07:04real threat, it would have made clear how 14 supermen could have run an entire spaceship,
07:09especially with 10 of them on the bridge.
07:12Number 6.
07:13Wily Chekhov.
07:15In old cartoons, characters would frequently run the same path of a steamroller about to
07:19flatten them, or stand by dumbly before getting clobbered by a car or flattened by a boulder.
07:25Chekhov effectively does this on SETI Alpha 5 upon seeing the belt buckle.
07:30Chekhov.
07:31Botany Bay.
07:32Botany Bay?
07:33Oh no.
07:34We've got to get out of here now.
07:36Damn.
07:36He knows what this means, but instead of doing the logical thing, putting his helmet on and
07:41calling for extraction, assuming he even needs a helmet to do this, he and Terrell put on
07:46their helmets, step outside, and at the sight of the 14 survivors, freeze like a bug-eyed
07:51wily coyote watching as a train bears down on him.
07:54By rights, Chekhov should have tried calling the ship before stepping outside.
07:58You don't stop to explain when-
08:00By rights, Chekhov should have tried calling the ship before stepping outside.
08:04You don't stop to explain when you realize you're standing over a live grenade.
08:08You run, duck, or throw yourself on it.
08:11And even if for some plot convenient reason, the comm didn't work inside the cargo containers,
08:16Chekhov should have been screaming for a beam-out throughout their exit from the hatch,
08:20and 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
08:27communication of any sort was received.
08:29One can excuse Chekhov's behavior after he gets an eel in the ear, but not his costly
08:34ineptitude at this stage in the story.
08:37It's no wonder he never made captain.
08:40Number 5.
08:41Universal Armageddon.
08:42But no rush.
08:43As David Marcus frets, as the Genesis proposal demonstrates, and as Spock and Bones' argument
08:49makes clear, the Genesis device has the potential to be a dreadful weapon if used where life
08:55already exists.
08:56We're talking about Universal Armageddon, Bones exclaims.
09:00In short, Genesis is a Manhattan project, and Kirk clearly knows what it is before revealing
09:06it to his confidants.
09:08So why is it, then, that everyone's so damn blasé about Carol's cry for help?
09:14Consider this.
09:15Carol calls Kirk to ask if he gave the order, and states that someone is going to take Genesis
09:19without proper authorization.
09:21Mid-conversation, her transmission is jammed at the source.
09:25This isn't garbled communications.
09:27It's deliberate.
09:28Kirk calls Starfleet Command to try and get to the bottom of things, and when he clearly
09:33doesn't get an answer to what's going on, instead of, you know, immediately calling
09:37to the bridge and ordering maximum warp to regular one, he meanders to Spock's quarters
09:42for a friendly chat, and then finally goes up to the bridge to order Sulu to go to warp
09:475.
09:48Warp f***ing 5.
09:50Yes, it's a minor continuity point, but in the previous film, the Enterprise zipped along
09:55to meet V'ger at warp 7 without even breaking a sweat.
09:58Warp 5 is like a police car driving below the speed limit while rushing to an active
10:03crime scene.
10:04Kirk ought to have been court-martialed for that.
10:06I mean, come on.
10:07Take things seriously, Admiral.
10:09As scripted, this would have been a better scene, as Kirk would have gone to the bridge
10:14prior to him going to see Spock.
10:16This 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.
10:25Number 4.
10:26Exit the eel.
10:27The influence of the baby eels is pretty shaky.
10:31How is it that Terrell and Chekov can sit by as their shipmates, Reliance crew, are marooned
10:37on Khan's barren sand heap?
10:39Yet, later in the movie, Terrell manages to resist when Khan instructs him to shoot Kirk,
10:44a man he says he'd never met.
10:47Is Kirk really just that awesome?
10:50Eh, rank does have its privileges, I guess.
10:52Or, is actively murdering someone just too much for even eel influence?
10:57Hmm, no, not really, as he vaporizes an innocent civilian just moments earlier.
11:03And, after Terrell phasers himself out of the narrative rather than Kirk, why is it that
11:08the eel and Chekov's noggin chooses that precise moment to get the heck out of there?
11:12You could maybe argue semantics about what happened to its friend, but it's a little convenient,
11:20isn't it?
11:21However, for the past 40 years, fans have joked that there's another reason the beast fled.
11:26It was starving to death as Chekov is brainless.
11:28Number 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
11:38every T or dot every I, sometimes a film really ought to just make a tiny bit of effort to
11:44make clear how something improbable happens to happen.
11:47Case in point, when the Enterprise first arrives at Regula I, Spock, Regula is a Class D.
11:53It consists of various unremarkable oars, essentially a great rock in space.
12:00Kirk, Reliant could be hiding behind that rock.
12:03Spock, a distinct possibility.
12:06Then, in a classic case of technology doing whatever the plot requires at any given moment,
12:11when Kirk returns to the ship from the Genesis cave, he orders tactical, and immediately a
12:16computer graphic shows him exactly where the Reliant is, orbiting opposite them, presumably
12:21having just left the Regula I station where we saw her seconds earlier.
12:26Now, how come they couldn't do that before?
12:28And how can they track her through an entire planetoid now?
12:32And why does it only work one way?
12:34Why isn't Khan all, there she is, at the same instant Kirk spots where the Reliant is?
12:41And just how long has the Enterprise crew known where Reliant is?
12:45Is this how she's managed to stay out of sight?
12:48If you can't tell, I have a lot of questions.
12:50One can speculate or manufacture all sorts of rationalizations for this, like how the
12:56Enterprise was receiving telemetry from Regula I that Khan didn't know how to access.
13:01But then it gives Kirk an easy advantage instead of showing him using his smarts or his experience
13:06as a starship captain.
13:07Taking obstacles away from the protagonist diminishes his efforts.
13:11It could easily have been addressed by simply mentioning sensor damage earlier in the damage
13:16report, or by having Regula I telemetry appear on the tactical display.
13:21But alas, they didn't.
13:23Number two.
13:24Damn peculiar.
13:25Starfleet surely knows that the Reliant is assigned to Project Genesis.
13:29So when Kirk calls them concerning Carol's cry for help, the very first order of business
13:35should have been to call the Reliant and ask what's going on or if they know anything about
13:39it.
13:40Nothing in the film suggests that a call like this happened, or if it did, that Starfleet
13:44ever got back to Kirk about whether they could or couldn't get through.
13:48And furthermore.
13:50Despite being told they are, as usual, the only ship in the quadrant, they spot the Reliant
13:55assigned to Genesis not only in their quadrant, but closing fast.
13:59As soon as Kirk comms the bridge, he's ordering to try the emergency channels, so something
14:05is already odd.
14:06The moment Spock deduces there's something weird about Reliant's excuse about their
14:10chamber's coil is overloading their comm systems, that ought to have been the last straw, but
14:16it wasn't.
14:17Now, from Carol's message earlier, Kirk knows that A, someone is trying to take Genesis,
14:23B, that Carol believes it's someone from Starfleet as she said, did you give that order?
14:28And 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
14:37should have been able to put two and two together and acted with due caution.
14:41Yeah, I know the point of Wrath of Khan is that Kirk is rusty, but given everything leading
14:47up to the moment of the ambush, his hesitation and inaction serves to not merely portray Kirk
14:52as out of practice, but as an incompetent fool, responsible for the loss of Genesis and the
14:58Enterprise damage and casualties.
15:00That's almost dumb enough to warrant being drummed out of the service.
15:05Number 1.
15:06The Genesis Defect
15:07Even taking the movie on its own terms, that the Genesis planet even exists at the end
15:13is beyond absurd.
15:14The narrative makes it abundantly clear that the Genesis device is intended to be employed
15:19on an existing solid body.
15:21Why else would the Reliant be scouring space for suitable sites?
15:24Carol
15:25Stage 3 will involve the process on a planetary scale.
15:28It is our intention to induce the Genesis device into the pre-selected area of a lifeless
15:33space body, a moon or other dead form.
15:36Yet, as the story climaxes, the Genesis device goes off inside the Reliant, which is itself
15:41within the Matara Nebula.
15:42And somehow, the Genesis wave not only turns the entire nebulous gas and dust into some
15:47different kind of matter, complete with all sorts of plant DNA, but all of this conveniently
15:53falls together into a sphere in a matter of minutes.
15:56The icing on the cake, though, is that this preposterous planet just so happened to have
16:01formed within the Goldilocks zone of a star.
16:04Star?
16:04Wait.
16:05Where did that star come from?
16:07Was it the one Regula orbits?
16:09Or did Genesis manufacture a star, too?
16:12And 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?
16:20Ugh.
16:21And some fans complain that the red matter in Star Trek 2009 was dumb.
16:25But play by your own rules, movie.
16:27And those were the 10 dumbest things in Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan.
16:32Do you think we missed something?
16:33Well, check out the article on our website, because there's four additional dumb things
16:37listed there.
16:38Oh, and before I get any pitchforks in the comments, this is genuinely my favorite Star
16:43Trek movie, and I've watched it way more times than I can count.
16:47But there's just something fun about taking a look at the media that we love, and just tearing
16:52it apart.
16:52If you liked this video, go ahead and give it a thumbs up, and if you didn't, make sure
16:57you let me know in the comment section below how much you dislike it.
17:00If you want to keep up to date with us, you can give us a follow on various social medias
17:04at TrekCulture or at TrekCultureYT.
17:07You can also give me a follow on various social medias at TrekEBri.
17:11But most importantly, don't forget to live long and prosper.
Comments