Forty
years ago today, on June 4th, 1982, Paramount Pictures released the
second feature film in the Star Trek franchise, The Wrath of Khan.
After the disappointing critical and audience response to the first
film, The Wrath of Khan not only proved there was still life in the
stars, it helped revive the franchise and give it a foundation to build
on that would keep it on both the big and small screens throughout the
remainder of the 20th century and into the new millennium.
Star
Trek, in the early 1980s, was struggling to get itself together after
the failure of the first film. With so much hype and expense invested
into its production and release, its lack of action or a compelling
antagonist left many bored with its self indulgences. Scenes like the
opening Enterprise beauty shot that goes on far too long and the 2001
derivative extended light show when Spock penetrates the inner sanctum
of the mysterious “V’Ger” entity left audiences feeling impatient and
frustrated. These excesses put Paramount in the position of relegating
Gene Roddenberry to the mostly honorary role of “executive consultant”
on the second film, even though he’d written a treatment where the crew
travel back in time to stop a Klingon plot to prevent the assassination
of John F. Kennedy. That idea was outright rejected and Paramount were
determined to keep everything on a tight leash. The fan base were
readily apparent for the material, but it was necessary to bring
something to the screen that could reach beyond that cult following and
into the wider general public.
To this end, the studio hired
Harve Bennett, a new Paramount television producer, to helm the project.
Bennett assured the executives he was used to working with tight
budgets and that he could come up with something better than the first
movie. However, he’d never watched the original series before, so he
was starting off at a disadvantage where he needed to familiarize
himself with the material quickly. So he set about viewing the original
TV shows with an eye towards finding something which he might use as a
springboard for his film. He found what he was looking for when he came
across the episode, Space Seed, which featured Ricardo Montalbán as the
genetically engineered totalitarian tyrant, Khan Noonien Singh.
Bennett had recognized one of the first films biggest deficiencies was
in its lack of a compelling villain and Khan immediately stood out as a
character he could use to create some engaging conflict.
With the
central antagonist in place, the next step was to nail down the story,
which went through a few iterations before it came to its final form.
Initially, the idea was for Kirk to investigate a rebellion on a distant
world and discover that his son is the leader of the rebels. Khan is
the mastermind behind the plot, and Kirk and son join forces to defeat
the tyrant. Then they came up with an idea of Khan stealing a
devastating new weapon from the Federation, but that seemed too negative
for the Federation to be involved with. Eventually it was suggested
the device be changed from a weapon to a means to transform a dead
planet into a living one, with the caveat that it could also be misused
to destroy a living planet. With that concept the Biblical titled
“Genesis Device” was born.
The other key element in the story
was the death of Spock, something which had been essential to convince
Leonard Nimoy to be part of the project. He wanted his character to
have a spectacular ending in order for him to agree to be in the movie,
so this had to be integrated into the conflict in some way. Early
versions of the script had this happening too soon in the film and, when
it was accidentally leaked to fans, caused an uproar of disapproval.
Overall, the theme of the story had a lot to do with aging and death, so
the demise of Spock had to be carefully integrated so as to maximize
the emotional impact and allow the character to have a suitably
climactic ending.
Getting Ricardo Montalbán to reprise his role
as Khan was an easy sell as he was thrilled to have the chance to
return to the character and deliver a performance which he would
consider the highlight of his career for the rest of his life.
Montalbán loved that Khan was more than a simple evil-doer. Khan was,
at his core, driven by goals which he believed to be just and right and
good. He was not disposed to do evil for the sake of power alone. He
was a character who sought to build a society according to his
perceptions of courage and bravery and strength, but he was abandoned by
Kirk and the Federation on a doomed planet and forgotten there. As a
result, he became obsessed with a need to seek vengeance and retribution
for his fate. To this end, the writers drew heavily from Herman
Melville's Moby-Dick. This reference climaxes in the final showdown
between Kirk and Khan with literal quotes from the book.
After
the film’s completion, Montalbán only expressed one regret for not
having the chance to work directly with William Shatner. There was no
scene in the film where they were in the same location, so all their
interactions were remotely done through communications technology. As a
result, their scenes were shot independently with Montalbán having to
play off the readings from a script girl. The fact he was still able to
emote with conviction is a testament to the quality of his work in the
film.
Upon its release, the film scored big with both critics
and fans, breaking box-office records and establishing the Star Trek
franchise as truly bankable. It ended up becoming the start of a
trilogy of features including The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home.
With the success of Khan, Spock’s demise became somewhat exaggerated as
they managed to convince Nimoy to return by granting him directorial
control over the remainder of the trilogy. Those films ended up
providing the impetus to extend the franchise into a set of new TV
series which would continue into the beginning of the new millennium.
Though there was a lull after the failure of Star Trek Enterprise and
the last Next Generation film, the Star Trek universe burst back into
action after the release of a rebooted film trilogy starting in 2009 and
a slew of new TV series kicking off since the launch of Discovery in
2017. If it weren’t for The Wrath of Khan, none of that legacy may have
taken hold and the Star Trek universe may have faded into no more than a
mid 20th century cultural curiosity.
