Trek Movies

Story Positives:

1. Visual Storytelling: Hey so if you’re reading these linearly, hi, welcome to the movie reviews, I’m pretty excited to be doing these. I was going to start with Episode 1 and then found to my chagrin I didn’t have a local copy handy nor could I access my blu rays at the time so here we are. Anyways! How big V’Ger’s stupid cloud thing is depends on which version you’re watching but let’s ignore that for a second because there is one thing I will credit the visuals, even here at the beginning. This sucker’s huge. We see three slow moving ships (clearly capital ships) moseying along and we can tell just based on perspective that these ships are absolutely dwarfed by this thing. And that’s before we see the two groups exchange fire
2. Moment: Okay call me weird, I like the detail that Epsilon IX (the listening post) is keeping an eye on the Klingons and, by consequence, probably a lot of things. In fact we get some neat storytelling again in that this place is probably pretty small in terms of habitable space and personnel, just giant arrays scanning in all directions, which makes sense
3. Prime Opt: It is fascinating to see Spock like this honestly, from a more modern perspective where he’s much more comfortable with himself and his identity. In perspective this makes sense; Spock has spent most of TOS identifying himself as a vulcan, clinging to vulcan ways and culture and mentality. Of course he would be here trying to take the final step to purge ALL emotion. And with hindsight it makes perfect sense why he would fail at this, though there’s an asterisk here we’ll get to in the negatives
4. NPC Set Dressing: Let’s ignore their terrible outfits for a sec. The sheer quantity of extras they got to populate UFP Command is good, and really adds to making this place feel like an actual location where bustling Starfleet personnel are doing their respective jobs
5. Acting: Right after Kirk gets on the Enterprise an ensign offers to escort Kirk to the bridge, and he (rather brusquely) declines. Then he enters the turbolift, takes a moment to run his finger on the panel showing him ‘his’ ship, and the second smile he’s shown this entire movie drifts across his lips. I should mention the FIRST smile was the awkward negative-worthy scene with Scotty, which I bring up because this is a far more genuine smile. He then walks forward, closes his eyes, inhales, and braces himself. He is SO relieved to be here. It is such a change in his composition and body language. I’ll talk more about this under Character but this moment is Shatner doing a legitimately excellent job of conveying everything going on inside Kirk’s head and heart right now
6. Moment: The bridge being in utter chaos is a nice moment. Honestly I wish it was in even MORE chaos but they couldn’t do much with the rather static set (this is why the set looks pristine despite the fact that they’re supposedly rebuilding circuitry and panels even as we speak). It’s also a nice contrast to the tranquility of the previous scene with Kirk
7. Moment: Another nice moment to speak of. Kirk doesn’t want to interrupt their very busy work so after he gives his immediate orders he leaves and lets them get to it. And the orders he gives are only critical ones (assemble the crew for a briefing, and keep in contact with Epsilon IX). That’s it. He knows better than to heap needless work on a team that’s already under the gun and behind schedule
8. Cutscene: Lotta good moments in the intro. I do rather like the drama between Decker and Kirk and how it progresses. Decker is actually quite friendly and amiable with Kirk, which you can tell bothers him, so he’s blunt and crisp with his words in response. He doesn’t sugarcoat it or even build up to it, just tells him flat out he’s taking his ship. Decker, rightly, pushes back at this and Kirk can only give two excuses for the ‘why’. His experience is valid, but as Decker points out he has NO familiarity with this ship or most of its crew (please remember that Kirk was the kind of guy who could remember crewmen’s names by memory back in TOS… on a ship with around 400 people on board. But he’s been captaining a desk for years now.) Kirk doesn’t really back down or even properly empathize with Decker, how could he? This is what he wants. And Decker (again) rightly calls him on this… but while the tension is there they remain professional
9. Moment: For how much I despise the transporter scene there’s a nice moment where Kirk is literally lost trying to find a turboshaft and has to ask a yeoman for help
10. Moment: So hey welcome back, it’s been like 10 minutes since our last story positive. McCoy leans down to Kirk on the bridge and tells him he’s pushing, and that his people know their jobs. This is… kind of weird and doesn’t quite fit considering how good Kirk was at this same thing earlier, and it only exists to establish McCoy as the advisor role I mentioned earlier. So I’ll give you that (and the fact that Kirk clearly listens because after Decker AND Scotty tell him they need more tests, the next scene we see is them doing more tests)
11. Cutscene: So Kirk confronts Decker about his order being countermanded… Credit where it’s due. Kirk doesn’t blast Decker in full sight of everyone, that’d be not only rude and militarily improper, it’d diminish the command respect of both him AND Decker. Kirk is obviously quite angry but when Decker informs him of why he did it he backs down immediately. His pride is obviously pricked and he’s human enough to want to take it out on Decker but he’s also intelligent enough to know it’s not Decker’s fault but his own. Which is probably WHY his pride is so injured. And when it comes down to it he eats crow to Decker’s face to give Decker the moral win… but it’s still obviously bothering him. Sorry for banging on about this so much but the very human drama around Kirk’s need to captain the Enterprise is not only one of the two narrative cores of this film but it’s also in my opinion the best plotline therein. This is one of the better scenes so far…
12. Cutscenes: …a solid double
13. Acting: This is the second time I’ve given Shatner an acting positive, wow. (Don’t worry we’ll see plenty of those in these films) It’s a very small thing but the way he turns when Spock enters the bridge, stalls for a second, processes the shock, then literally leaps to his feet and cannot help himself from smiling. It says so much
14. Cutscene: The approach to the V’Ger cloud for the first time is actually pretty appropriately tense. Thanks to having shown what this thing (effortlessly) did to the Klingons and the outpost we know what the stakes are. This even shows as Kirk ALMOST snaps at Decker but Decker corrects him and he accepts it, even grins at him for a second
15. Moment: Hey, more good character stuff. Kirk asks Spock and Decker their advice. Spock gives his rather flatly, Decker says the opposite and even gives reasoning but is obviously more impassioned in how he does so. The reason this is a positive is Kirk himself very clearly takes their competing advice seriously, he doesn’t just go with Spock’s answer because favorites. He ponders it for several long seconds
16. Moment: Ilia’s death (let’s call it what it is) is actually pretty messed up. Normally I’d ding a story for randomly picking the love interest like this but I think they do a good job of conveying the idea that she was picked completely at random. This continues something I’ve been meaning to give a positive to, so…
17. Atmosphere: …the whole film up to now has actually had a properly dreadful, tense atmosphere. I keep referring to V’Ger as eldritch and there’s a reason for that. Everything about it is presented as unfeeling and uncaring, and often not even noticing the people who are being destroyed in its wake
18. Character: This is as good of a time as any to give Decker a character positive. I don’t want to overpraise but he is good here. He’s a solid captain and a good XO (of course he is, he’s Riker lite! I kid I kid) and he knows how to keep things professional while still being fairly human. He adds some good counter tension to both Spock and Kirk throughout the film. I was sincerely debating giving Ilia a character positive too but the problem is, like early Troi, she really isn’t a character so much as an aspect of Decker’s character
19. MSQ: So the entire sequence from reaching the cloud to entering the larger ship inside does a great job of conveying why Kirk was right about exactly one thing; He has the experience for this kind of thing. Multiple times you can tell he’s dancing on eggshells and just barely keeping ahead of things. He’ll give orders designed to provoke but not antagonize, constantly trying to keep whatever he’s up against on its toes and gauge based on reactions. It’s a nice understated bit of storytelling
20. Moment: I hate to keep giving praise to the principal three but the way they deduce their way around the information Iliabot gives them is reasonably well written. They’re all a bit flummoxed but are rolling with the punches pretty well and trying not to give away too much about how far on the back foot they are to what they are still treating as a hostile entity (and for good reason… V’Ger DID murder Ilia, remember, something confirmed in this scene). Even the way Kirk asks ‘why are you going to Earth’ is well written; “Why does V’Ger travel to the third planet of the solar system directly ahead?” In a movie with pretty bad dialogue issues this is nice to see
21. Acting: Not to say that Ilia’s actress (Persis Khambatta) does a bad job of her role. There’s a lot of little body language bits she does, especially with her face, that convey quite a bit. In all honesty I think she’s a better actor in this film than Stephen Collins (Decker’s actor). A good showcasing of this is the next scene…
22. MSQ: So there’s a wonderful logic to their plan. Iliabot was copied so perfectly over Ilia that the original’s memories and personality are arguably still in there, just under a slave system (not like… slavery, like a drone or a bot). So all they have to do is connect with the duplicate of Ilia under the programming and they’ll have something to work off of. This also is the very first thing that’s truly gone their way this entire time, their first ‘in’ so to speak, and you can see how Kirk is jumping on this (Spock notices too of course). And naturally this is all AWFUL for poor Decker who is now forced to fraternize with his lover’s clone who’s master killed her
23. Moment: So I swear I don’t mean this as a dig but this movie CAN use its time well and have proper pacing. We find out that V’Ger is slowing down as it approaches Earth. We find out that due to the increased proximity they can contact Starfleet on Earth. We also see Kirk deducing (very quickly) what Spock is doing, reacting emotionally, counteracting himself and correcting himself. And I’m going to go on a tangent here but I love this. It’s so… rare, especially nowadays, that they allow the hero to appear uncertain or undecided, you know? They’re always decisive, never second guess, never question themselves. I know there are exceptions to this but it’s such a commonality that seeing Kirk flat out countermand himself like this felt vaguely refreshing
24. Atmosphere: So, as much as I’m not fond of the visual effects (and headache inducing pulse) of the trip inside V’Ger’s databanks there is some nice implication here and an interesting understated narrative point. We learned earlier from Iliabot that carbon based units would be stored as data patterns, and here we see planets and systems and, most tellingly, Epsilon IX station. Here we learn the truth, though I don’t think they ever say it outright. V’Ger has been destroying things to save them in intricate detail, storing all data as per its directives. We also get the absolutely chilling thought of how exactly all those planets ended up stored here
25. Moment: Spock calls Kirk ‘Jim’ for the very first time as he lays in sickbay. This is an incredibly understated but powerful moment. He also laughs right before. Then he gives a WONDERFUL speech…
26. Character: …and this is where Spock’s character arc FINALLY starts. It’s going to be interesting reviewing this because it spans… the ENTIRE series of movies, up to and including 6 (and arguably his presence in TNG as well), but we’re going to take a stab at it. But even here Spock is, for all his dickishness earlier, interesting. He has been trying SO hard to abandon everything, to become a being of total logic. And Spock gives an absolutely wonderful speech about it which I almost recited word for word here because it’s a banger…
27. Cutscene: …but allow me to say this is one of my favorite scenes in the entire film. The laugh to the revelation to him connecting with his friend (for the first time in the film) to his speech about meaning. And best of all…
28. Dialogue: …Spock never states outright why this is such a big deal to him. He lets it sit there for us to piece together naturally. And finally…
29. Moment: …I love the moment when Spock reaches up, grasps Jim’s hand, and says ‘this simple feeling is beyond V’Ger’s comprehension’ and Kirk is visibly moved by the gesture. Doesn’t say anything, just reacts to it. Brilliant scene
30. Character: This is as good a time as any to give a plus to V’Ger the ‘villain’. It’s actually a very typical Trek villain in that it ISN’T a villain, and the goal is to help us to understand and empathize with this alien life. We see V’Ger as this huge, eldritch, terrifying thing and it’s one of the few bits of good presentation in the entire film, and yet as we now know this is just an empty old shell of a being desperately trying to discover something more to is existence. To quote one of my favorite Trek quotes of all time, “Survival is insufficient.” And so V’Ger yearns for more, and we are invited to take pity upon it even as it is threatening to obliterate all life on Earth and store it as data, just as it has so many other planets. “It knows only that it needs, but like so many of us it does not know what” is a great line too
31. Moment: So then Kirk does what Kirk does best. He stares at something immeasurably stronger than him that has him completely at its mercy that is currently threatening to wipe out billions of people… and it is V’Ger that blinks. Everything about his ‘clear the bridge’ moment is great. Christ I love it
32. Plot: So then there’s the plot twist. And let’s be clear, it is intended to be a twist, everything about how it is framed (and how it was set up back in the 70s) makes this a big twist. I actually like this twist for what it’s worth, though there’s another layer to this I’ll talk about down in the negatives
33. Outro: So we’re firmly in the Outro now. We know all the pieces and we’re in the final, uh, ‘battle’ with V’Ger. So naturally Decker, who’s been crapped on this entire story, decides that the only possible path forwards for him is to merge with V’Ger. This is… REALLY convenient for us since it removes Decker (and Ilia) from the board and leaves Kirk, Spock, and McCoy on the Enterprise so that’s neat for the franchise. This is part of how the Story/Gameplay divide works in a film by the way. I DO like the story beat they’re going for here. They don’t say it out loud but the idea here is that the missing link for V’Ger is basic love, here expressed by romantic love. And so Decker willingly gives himself to what’s left of Ilia to allow V’Ger to become more

Story Negatives:

1. Intro: Padding: The beginning of the film starts off with 100 seconds (I counted) of a completely black screen with music playing. There is nothing going on here, it doesn’t set the scene, it’s not indicative of the tone of the work (several later films for example will use the title card music to exactly this effect). It’s just 100 seconds of wasting your time. This is followed by 100 MORE seconds of just the title crawl with no visuals or effects. At least the song for that section is the classic TNG theme
2. Seconds In Minutes: There’s no avoiding this. There’s a reason this movie is referred to as boring, or the Slow Motion Picture, or all kinds of other jokes. And it’s because of these long, LONG establishing shots. Funny thing is I don’t mind a good establishing shot (Episode 4 does some great work with Luke staring at the dual sunset on Tatooine for example) but I think the issue here is the sheer length of time spent here. I don’t want this hyper edited and I don’t want to lose pacing but spending literally 54 seconds watching three ships pass by is a bit much
3. Prime Opt: So hey, Spock (who is ON Vulcan by the way) somehow senses V’Ger. Who is LIGHT YEARS away. This is the same bullcrap they’d pull with Troi over on TNG, where psychic powers are just shorthand for sensing a disturbance in the Force. And don’t look at me and say ‘oh it’s just a minor tidbit’, this is a HUGE deal because it’s the specific reason Spock doesn’t complete the Kolinahr, why he links up with the Enterprise, and why he’s present to help with the events of the film. And Spock is a critical component in the plot in general and victory in specific. So no this is Because Plot
4. Dialogue: There’s some… rough dialogue in this film. As of typing this I’m not sure how many negatives it will be because I’ve seen a wide gamut of bad dialogue in my times, but a lot of this doesn’t have the cadence or tone of people, y’know, talking. Kirk’s discussion with Sonak is a perfect example of this. There’s some exceptions but overall…
5. Dialogue: …I think this qualifies as a double
6. Seconds In Minutes: I’m going to stop counting how long these establishing shots are. So yeah long, looong establishing shot of the space station Kirk beams up to
7. Plot: The only ship in range is the Enterprise. Boy do they love THAT plot point. Get used to it, we’ll be seeing it a lot. And it’s ALWAYS stupid. There are as usual varying degrees to how stupid this is… and consequently it’s pretty bad here. They want to launch an unfinished ship which is untested, manned by an inexperienced crew that does not even know the new equipment yet because it’s the ‘only ship in interception range’. I don’t even feel like breaking down how stupid this is…
8. Plot: …and honestly I was originally going to give just a double, but after some thought I think this is AS stupid as V’s, especially considering there isn’t even LIP service to some other ships being on their way or the fleet assembling or literally anything, it’s ALL on the Enterprise…
9. Plot: …so, y’know, triple negative
10. Moment: Kirk and Scotty have negative chemistry with each other as they talk in the pod. This is clearly supposed to be an ‘old friends’ moment and it falls completely flat. It’s just awkward. And it’s followed by one of the most infamous moments in the entire film
11. Padding: 4 minutes, 45 seconds. We see Scotty and Kirk slowly… SLOWLY move around the (very gorgeous) Enterprise for four minutes and forty five seconds. Most of these ‘padding’ sections are more under Seconds In Minutes because, really, the problem isn’t the establishing shot it’s that it’s just a bit too long. But this is excessive. I know this is going to sound like a small number but I want you to realize that 3.7% of this entire film is just this one elongated shot with no dialogue and no nothing. This is pretty bad…
12. Padding: …and so…
13. Padding: …we give that triple. Oh and I debated which axis this sat under but ultimately decided that since this is in direct contradiction of the previous AND next scenes it’d go under story but a fair argument could be had for both
14. Cutscene: Sssooo hey, the transporters malfunction while in mid transport. This is bizarrely placed and completely pointless and does nothing for anything. There’s no world building here, no character, no relevance to the plot. In fact near as I can tell the only real point behind killing off Sonak is so Spock’s seat is empty when he gets here later (spoilers) which… actually makes even LESS sense if you think about it, since given the nature of the mission they probably would have just sent up ANOTHER science officer. This is a critical mission and they’re around EARTH. Don’t tell me they don’t have another science officer of caliber who could do this. Yes I know Decker says ‘there’s no one who’s fully rated on this design’ which is even stupider…
15. Cutscene: …this whole scene is stupid
16. Writing: Sorry, I need to give one last negative for the line I just mentioned. You’re telling me that there’s no science officer, on EARTH, who is rated for the brand new ship design? You realize somebody BUILT that ship right? Probably a LOT of people helped build that ship. And they probably know it VERY WELL. Christ
17. Cutscene: The destruction of Epsilon IX is… vacuous. There’s some nice performances by the crew reacting professionally to the situation but the whole thing is devoid of energy or tension. And then we see the thing lightning’d and… then we keep seeing the transmission for several long seconds afterwards… somehow
18. Moment: You remember when Riker and Troi acknowledge that they have a past in Encounter At Farpoint? And it sucks? Yeah that’s the vibe here with Decker and Ilia. It’s a shame, these two actors are clearly trying, but there’s just nothing here
19. Moment: Also I hate to bring this up but why does Ilia feel the need to tell Kirk that, and I QUOTE, “My oath of celibacy is on record, Captain.” I mean I know why, it’s because Roddenberry is a horndog and wanted Ilia to be ultra sexy to the point where she needs an oath to ward off the men. I’m not even going to mention how sexist that is (presuming the problem is with the woman, not the men lusting after her)
20. Internal Continuity: So hey, I counted. It’s almost 6 minutes to the dot when Kirk has to go down to the transporter room and convince the silly, ridiculous McCoy who’s clearly being ridiculous that he should just beam aboard. It’s been SIX MINUTES since Sonak and the other person (I don’t even know who, don’t ask me) died horrific deaths due to a transporter malfunction. Christ film, did they forget they had the Resident Evil segment there or something?
21. Direction: So Kirk pressgangs McCoy into service. Why? No I’m sorry, McCoy’s an awesome doctor but… why does Kirk need him for this mission? The presumption I have is it’s because he needs his ADVISOR not his doctor (which I would fully believe) but this isn’t how it’s portrayed. It’s just an excuse to get the cast back together. Also, and honestly I’d still be willing to let this go and not give a negative but… their acting is VERY wooden and flat here. As with the earlier Scotty scene there is just no chemistry here, and don’t tell me it’s the actors. I’ve SEEN these two men act at each other exceptionally well, both in TOS and in later films
22. Seconds In Minutes: The Enterprise launches. Slowly. Don’t mistake me there’s some cool footage here but as per usual this is just a bit much. This is 3 minutes and 25 seconds of this. I know I said I’d stop counting. I lied
23. World Building: I debated what category to put this under. Is it External Continuity, given how often it’s a non issue? Well no because this is so far back that the greater continuity is barely established. Is it plot, because this is all just for another side scene designed to establish more of the Decker and Kirk drama? No because THAT is its own category and separate. I decided on world building because quite frankly the ‘can’t warp in system’ thing has ALWAYS been stupid in Trek and they only ever traipse it out for Fake Drama purposes. There is NO logical reason why you’d have to be ‘out of system’ to use warp (let’s ignore the hundreds of times they warp in system, often right up to a planet even) and frankly if they DID have to leave system to warp travel times in this setting would elongate like crazy because leaving a solar system at sublight is a long friggin’ trip. And keep in mind you’d have to traipse out to warp out and traipse in after warping back, so you’re getting smacked with days of additional travel anytime you enter or exit a system. Our own solar system it’d take you over 5 days to cross it and that’s AT the speed of light which they are likely not traveling. And yes obviously you don’t have to cross the whole system each time but depending on the planet’s positioning and the orbit and a ton of math no one wants to do it’d still be DAYS each time and that’s nonsense and stupid moving on
24. Cutscene: So I’ll be thrashing the wormhole cutscene down in the gameplay axis as well but for now let’s talk about how stupid this all is. Entering Warp (just Warp 1, by the way) makes them enter a wormhole. How? Why? We find out later the warp engines formed a wormhole. I’m sorry lemme say that again. They MADE A WORMHOLE because of an imbalance in their warp engines. What! Why does the wormhole screw with everything? Why is there an asteroid in it? Why do they LEAVE Warp when they leave the wormhole?! Why is everything fixed the moment they leave?!?
25. Moment: I got a better one for you; Why does the wormhole GO AWAY the moment they blow up the asteroid? Was it some kind of alien space station maintaining the worm hole?! No the answer is because this scene exists to smack Kirk’s ego down and establish how more experienced Decker is so the instant that’s accomplished the crisis ends because it’s not needed anymore. There’s a term for that; Because Plot
26. Writing: How in God’s name did Spock find the Enterprise? Remember they’re a bit out of system right now, basically just in deep space. Wasn’t he heading to V’Ger? Or did he decide to hit Earth instead? Am I the only one bothered by this? Oh God I am aren’t I. Argh. It’s okay I have something much worse to complain about next
27. Seconds In Minutes: 1 minute and 3 seconds. That’s how long it takes for Spock’s shuttle to dock. By the way why does Spock have Grade 1 priority, especially considering he is, in the film’s own words, Starfleet inactive?
28. Cutscene: The scene with Spock on the bridge is AWFUL. I hate to use this word but this is what ‘cringe’ means. It is awkward and unpleasant to behold. Spock is… just INCREDIBLY rude here, to the point of aggravation. I know he’s been trying to purge all emotions but as many other vulcans can attest being emotionless does not mean being an asshole. Everyone is clearly happy to see him and he just… doesn’t respond. He also does that thing where he doesn’t clarify what he means, just assumes you know and waits for you to figure it out rather than clarifying. This is a truly terrible way to reconnect Spock to the crew. I know Nimoy was going through some things at this point and I legitimately wonder if that colored this scene because good God…
29. Cutscene: …I cannot overemphasize…
30. Cutscene: …how painful this scene is
31. Cutscene: Oh hey this is when we find out Spock was sending V’Ger through the Force. This is still stupid but this whole scene… it’s not as bad as the scene I just gave negatives for but it’s the same vibe. Spock is just plain a dick here, and Kirk tries to reach out to him repeatedly only to slam into a wall of rude. The only thing it has going for it is when Kirk realizes that this isn’t his friend (because let’s be clear, it isn’t) and drops all personable or amiable tone and just flatly orders him to be on top of things. As his captain
32. Moment: I’m sorry to bang on about this but how can Spock so effortlessly detect V’Ger’s thoughts here? Let’s ignore the light years thing earlier, the cloud is ENORMOUS. He’s sensing something that’s like 3,680,000,000 miles away (back of the envelope math). How the heck is this low grade psychic reading this. And why is he the ONLY ONE? I think that’s what bothers me the most, no one else in Starfleet senses V’Ger, it’s just Spock
33. Acting: I know Walter Koenig is a good actor but his ‘I’ve been burned by a friggin’ electrical discharge’ posture, scream, then pose, then slow fall to his knees is comical at best. Also he’s apparently the ONLY casualty of this nonsense?
34. Padding: Okay this is another of those ‘past seconds in minutes’ problems. We spend 4 minutes and 10 seconds entering the cloud, interrupted by one VERY brief conversation between Kirk and Spock. Jesus Christ…
35. Padding: …this is a bit much. By the way the very next scene?
36. Padding: 4 minutes and 40 seconds long. And it’s all just traveling along the ship. Guys… guys… I get it but dial it back a bit…
37. Padding: …good lord
38. Writing: I’ll talk more about this negative down in gameplay but… Why does Iliabot teleport inside the enterprise… into a friggin’ shower? And why does it have a convenient ‘put her in a robe’ button? There’s NO reason for any of this in universe

Technical Positives:

1. Song: “Main Title”, what is most commonly referred to as the TNG theme since it serves as the title song over there, and is often associated with Kirk given that it tends to follow him throughout the film. I’m going to be honest I think some other Trek ‘main themes’ are better (DS9’s certainly does, Voyager’s destroys everything) but this is still a damned good song and absolutely screams ‘Star Trek’ so it still gets the point
2. Spritework: So this is a good time to mention that, just like games, visuals and graphic elements will be judged the same way I do games. Put another way, I’ve seen games from the 80s have good Spritework and Brickwork, and I’ve seen television shows and movies from the 60s that have good effects and sets and costumes. That being said TMP is pretty low on the list of Trek films for quality here (probably only surpassed by V… which is no surprise given how many issues THAT film had but we’ll get there when we get there) but… but! But I do actually still rather like our first look at the K’Tinga-class Klingon Battlecruiser. This thing is in many ways our very first look at Klingon vessels and everything about it, from the squat wings making it look like it’s preparing for a punch, to the flattened profile to provide for a narrower silhouette when attacking head on, to so may of its guns being directly in front of behind (once again benefiting the aforementioned narrow frame). I am with it
3. Song: Speaking of, “Klingon Battle”. It’s a shame these songs have such casual names because they would go on to become so iconic and relevant. This one song would not only become the motif for Klingon music for decades to come but would be used and remixed in the Trek movies specifically to signify Klingons. And the drum beat and heavy percussion combined with military brass does a good job of emphasizing the Klingon vibe
4. Brickwork: Speaking of good set design I am actually pretty fond of the Klingon bridge. It’s simple and small but with nice sharp angles, dull red glow, and simple brown aesthetic it fits. I’ve seen better and we WILL see better later but credit where credit be due
5. Sound: There’s this cascading echo effect they use whenever V’Ger is present. It’s hard to explain but it’s very unique, and does a great job of conveying this vast alien thing
6. Viscerality: Credit where credit is due. They clearly didn’t have the capacity to show off the Klingon ships being destroyed properly so they used that limitation and instead have them engulfed in this lightning field that just deletes them instead. This, again, does a good job of establishing V’Ger as an eldritch power
7. Spritework: The Constitution Refit class is the best looking Starfleet ship of all time. Change my mind. This thing is GORGEOUSLY designed, with excellent lines and lights complimenting the new angles, staying sharp but maintaining enough smooth arcs and softness to make it not look like a strictly military vessel. The new nacelles actually look like something engine related instead of a busted toy, and just… everything about it is amazing…
8. Spritework: …no further notes…
9. Spritework: …only positives. Before you ask YES each film (except V) will get this triple
10. Brickwork: Another nice set design… honestly probably the only good set on the Enterprise. (What, these sets kind of suck). The engineering bay has this wonderful combined painting and camera effect to make it look like the warp core goes way down (about six stories from my offhand glance) and it really adds to the scene
11. Spritework: Wow it has been a LONG time since we’ve given a gameplay positive. Like half a friggin’ hour. Anyways once we get past the boring cloud part we see V’Ger’s interior middle layer ship and it looks appropriately alien and massive
12. Execution: Okay I’ll give you this, the audio visual combination for the probe does a pretty solid job at conveying how intense and unpleasant this thing is to be in the presence of
13. Sound: Also really nice moment. While I think the ‘romance music’ between Ilia and Decker is ridiculous, I do like how it’ll swell whenever he’s getting through to her… and it’s completely buried by the wonderful sound effect of V’Ger I gave a positive for earlier
14. Brickwork: The shot of V’Ger’s core with Enterprise docked upon it is actually pretty well done I’ll give you that. We get a good sense of the scale of the ship and the core, and the atmospheric music and crackling lightning add to the scene

Technical Negatives:

1. Spritework: Hokay. The pajama uniforms in the movie suck. The colors suck, they look unflattering, they look frustrating to move around in, they literally show off the extra’s dicks (no, seriously). These are awful. There’s a reason the TMP uniforms have never been used again…
2. Spritework: …and it’s because…
3. Spritework: …they’re even worse than the original series uniforms
4. Brickwork: So hey y’know how I’ve praised most of the set design so far? Vulcan looks… REALLY bad. Like, worse than Planet Soundstage bad. The physical set is tiny and covered in exceptionally fake looking rocks, the art behind them is weird and looks… well it looks like a cartoon, which REALLY throws the people right in front of it into contrast. And if you look into the background you can see how they really wanted it to be animated so it is… a little TOO animated. Like the whole image is constantly moving. (I’m especially fond of the multiple moons zooming across the sky). There’s also chunks of plastic just lying around here and there. The only reason this isn’t getting more negatives is because it’s a fairly short scene because good lord this looks bad
5. Padding: You may or may not remember the Worst Scene In The Film which is the 4.75 minute long shot of approaching the Enterprise and what you may remember is I gave it a triple negative to story for padding. Well guess what! I decided after some pretty careful thought this deserved a gameplay negative too for different reasons. Since gameplay here functionally means ‘execution’ in a non interactive medium like this we look at this (long) moment and see people showing off graphics just for the sake of it. And while this is a VERY pretty ship it is still excessive
6. Brickwork: Sooo yeah the Enterprise interiors are… not good in this film. They wouldn’t solidify the way they would in the next film. There’s this awful beige, 70s look to everything which actually makes it look MORE dated than (some of) the stuff in TOS. Let’s break this down brick by brick, pun not intended. First we have the bridge. I don’t… hate this but there’s something about the smooth angles and pastel colors that just make it look bland. For years I’ve thought of this as one of the worst Enterprise bridge sets, uh, ever and since I’m zooming in the camera this far to do an actual review I wanted to challenge that assertion and started looking at it side by side with the bridge sets in 2, 3, 5, and 6. And… yeah no it does look worse, but not by nearly as much as I remembered, so only a single negative
7. Brickwork: Then there’s what we’re going to refer to as ‘the rooms’ because there’s a few random rooms periodically here and there and they all look… really dated and bad. Lots of browns and oranges and awkward weird geometric shapes and it’s just bleh
8. Brickwork: And finally the corridors. Reviewing always gives me a unique perspective on the specifics of how a work is constructed. For example, did you know just how much of this movie is either the bridge or the corridors? We have a LOT of screen time in these stupid corridors…
9. Brickwork: …and I hate everything about them. The angles, the colors, the weird material. And yes I realize on actual military ships corridors are absolutely tiny (good luck crossing if someone’s in your way!) but these just FEEL crammed which has never been Trek’s style
10. FX: So hey! The people dying in the transporter beam. Y’know for literal years I couldn’t tell that they were supposed to be distorted pictures of the people being beamed, I just knew what was going on based on the dialogue and scene. This is probably the most clear-cut example of what a ‘gameplay’ point is because this is just a bad graphic
11. FX: Hey another one! The wormhole is… kind of blegh looking and the unnecessary visual distortion of the crew as they all shake in their seats does not look great. Speaking of…
12. Sound: Hey look, our first sound effect point! The increasing pitch in the background and the distortion on the audio for the wormhole section make it honestly pretty bad to listen to. On substandard speakers or without headphones it’s hard to even tell what they’re saying at times
13. Execution: So for those unaware the idea here is that this axis, what I tend to refer to as the ‘gameplay’ axis, is about the execution of the film or show. That means the vector by which the film conveys its story to us. Stuff we’ve already jotted down, like set design, camera usage, effects, you get it. So the entire wormhole sequence has problems that I’ve already mentioned but what this is really about is execution. How well executed is an idea. And the ENTIRE point of this extended sequence is to show how inexperienced Kirk is and how much better Decker knows the ship and how to operate it. And it SUCKS at conveying that. It’s one of the most contrived circumstances they could come up with to do so, makes no sense on any level, and goes away the moment its narrative point is accomplished
14. Camera: I’ve been chewing on this for a minute. They pick some weird camera angles in this film and they tend to lean on, uh, leaning. It’s not quite the dutch angle but it’s close. The camera also wobbles crudely when it does panning shots, probably because they had a real person holding it and not a dolley. And I know that sounds mean to point out but that’s kind of what the gameplay axis is here; These kinds of things do detract from (or add to) a work and so it’s a negative
15. Execution: The tension of the first encounter with the cloud is great. And they barely survive one hit from this behemoth, and cannot survive a second. And then the scene and all that great tension sort of… deflates. Kirk just kind of keeps needling Spock in a way that feels like it’s supposed to be humorous (they even joke about it after). The sound effect of the blast about to hit them… keeps playing even after the blast fades away. Hell the blast fading away looks so bad that the only reason you can tell it didn’t hit them is there’s no shaking. And the scene just kind of lingers unnecessarily. God how much of this film is spent drifting between scenes like this? Don’t answer that
16. FX: The trip through the cloud is… not interesting looking. In contrast to how well designed and massive and intimidating it looks from a distance, going through it is just moving through somebody’s old screensaver (or a lava lamp, given the era)
17. Spritework: So hey, welcome to a new category for negatives; objectification! We’ve actually given negatives like this in the past. It’s pretty rare, you have to be particularly egregious to qualify, but this is Trek so we’ll probably see this again a few times. Here’s the logic; Any time someone (regardless of gender) is pointlessly objectified for the purpose of titillation it’s a gameplay negative. If there’s no good in universe or in story reason for it, then it is ALSO a story negative. For example; The gold bikini in Return Of The Jedi would get a gameplay negative but NOT a story one (since it has a story purpose, is characterization for Jabba, and frankly is treated as a universally bad thing in universe). There’s a story justification but it’s still objectification. HERE of course there’s no such excuse (as you already saw if you’re reading these in order… is it obvious I wrote this negative first? I actually polled a bunch of people their opinions on how to classify this negative). Iliabot is wandering around in a VERY short robe for absolutely no reason other than check out the legs on this babe
18. Pacing: Man, they REALLY zoom by the ‘get Ilia on our side’ bit don’t they. I know they say it’s been twoish hours (with no progress, no less) but literally the next scene (with one interruption to show Spock assaulting an officer) and they break through to her. Also the only real information they get is… nothing! V’Ger doesn’t know its own creator. Cool
19. FX: I’m sorry I’m… not impressed with the ‘dimensional image’ (It’s okay Spock you can say hologram we know what those are) of the system and galaxy inside. It comes across as random space stuff to remind you that this is a space movie… which I guess I see why they would, we’ve spent a LONG time staring at the interior of the bridge and some corridors
20. Execution: Okay so Kirk goes out to find Spock, cool. Naturally this involves him sitting there doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING and waiting for Spock to come flying RIGHT back into his hands. Literally, by the way. I’m not even going to go into how insanely unlikely that is or how convenient it is for the plot, it’s just a quick ‘let’s get back to the ship’ moment
21. Execution: For as much as I like the plot twist about V’Ger and the build up to it AND the set design around it… they REALLY belabor the reveal. Like they hammer the point in over and over and don’t even give it time to breathe, they just keep expositing about it and pointing out the obvious. It hurts an otherwise powerful scene. Oh and I’ll mention this here; I know what Roddenberry said but no, V’Ger’s machine people are NOT the Borg, let’s not go down that path
22. Outro: I… really want to like this Outro and indeed I do think there’s some story positive here but honestly this is just kind of ridiculous. And they will NOT stop ruining the sequence by constantly over-talking it. And then Decker and Iliabot turn into pixie dust and let’s just… not think about the specifics of what insanity is actually happening here. I also love how they wait until the last possible moment to go running for the Enterprise. Oh one more thing to complain about; WHY does Decker want this exactly? I mean I know the last few days have been rough dude but come on. Anyways V’Ger ascends to a higher plane of existence (or… whatever, go play STO if you want to learn more) and we done

Story Positives:

1. Intro: Gosh this Intro does a lot right and quickly. I’m 4 minutes in as of typing this and that includes the opening title crawl. So immediately we establish that we’re on the Enterprise and a somewhat young looking woman is the captain with the classic crew as her bridge officers. We immediately establish they’re near the Neutral Zone (and even if we know nothing about it we quickly find out going there is considered unacceptable) and they get a distress call from said zone
2. Intro: Moment: We then see three beats in quick succession. After hearing the initial hail Saavik pauses as she checks something, then quietly mentions it’s in the Neutral Zone. It’s a small thing but it’s a good way to convey why this is significant (remember this is IMMEDIATELY after doing a course correct to avoid the Neutral Zone). We then see the infographic (more on that in the gameplay) and then she takes a moment (“Damn.”), hesitates, and then makes her decision. All of this quickly conveys her, the situation, and the mission
3. Intro: Writing: There’s also a smart tidbit where Sulu turns to tell her ‘hey you’re not allowed to go into the Neutral Zone’ but he doesn’t get past ‘May I remind the captain…’. This is good because if he’d gotten the whole speech out it would be repeat dialogue for information already conveyed to us far better previously
4. Intro: Consider this a remainder positive for basically all of the other elements of the Kobayashi Maru. The ship being hit, the death of the crew (and Spock), the smoke, the red lights, the fact that she had no real answer to anything that was happening…
5. Intro: …it’s a powerful Intro. And it establishes one of our primary Themes right of the bat which I’ll go ahead and mention now
6. Theme: The no win scenario. Kirk says it flat out shortly thereafter. “How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life”. And thus this theme informs so much of the piece (and only 6 minutes in!), how to deal with something that is just beyond you. Saavik herself said it earlier; “We’re in over our heads”. We will see this expressed beautifully throughout the piece…
7. Theme: …and it’s a fantastic theme
8. Acting: I’m just going to spoil that Shatner is going to get several acting positives for this one. This is one of the better works I’ve seen him in as an actor, probably because Meyer knew how to pull a performance out of him and push past his general laziness and stubbornness. Right off the bat we see that Kirk… is tired. There’s no enthusiasm, no energy. Even his jokes with his friends come across as entirely too bitter. When he gives a light jab to McCoy there’s no humor in his tone, and when McCoy returns it he gives this strangely cold response. McCoy even notices as the camera lingers on him for a second. And his response to McCoy later emphasizes this too. Speaking of…
9. Moment: McCoy’s line exposits while also conveying both character motivation and where Kirk is at. Unlike in TMP it’s now the rest of the crew that wants to be on the ship instead of running trainee simulations. And unlike TMP (again), Kirk… has no overt interest in commanding a ship and seems almost resigned to his desk job taking care of cadets. And of course this all hints at our primary theme which I’ll talk about more in a minute when it really comes on screen
10. Foreshadowing: Kirk and Spock’s walk and talk is quietly brilliant for several other reasons but the thing I want to highlight right now is how well it leaves a dangling mystery. We know the ‘no win scenario’ is a thing, we know Kirk took the test three times, we know he as a final solution. And (per good writing) neither of these old friends just straight up tells the other the solution they both know because why would they? But again it leaves the question; what WAS Kirk’s solution?
11. Cutscene: I have nothing to add to the Spock and Kirk scene other than it’s so nice to see these two actors doing a great job with each other again. We had ONE of these scenes back in TMP (in the medbay, remember?) and it’s nice to see two principals just acting off each other. We also figure out why Kirk has had a book under his arm the entire movie so far; A Tale Of Two Cities, a birthday gift from Spock. It also is a quiet character piece that Kirk has just kept the book with him this entire time, including while working
12. Moment: There is another wonderful moment between Spock and Kirk at the end of this great scene. Spock tells Kirk ‘happy birthday’ and it’s treated like a reveal, partially because it is. This whole movie (I know it’s only been like 8 minutes) Kirk’s been… off. And when he talks to Spock it’s the first time he genuinely smiles… until Spock says ‘happy birthday’. And Kirk’s entire expression dours, and he looks like he’s searching for what to say when Spock is called away to prep for an inspection. Spock, matter of factly, asks where Kirk is going to which Kirk, who looks sadder than he has all movie, says ‘home’ in just the most defeated way, forces a smile, and walks off. And Spock is left staring after him. This moment…
13. Moment: …is a masterclass in acting, directing, and exposition, all while dovetailing into the film’s biggest theme…
14. Moment: …an easy triple positive
15. Character: This is as good a time as any to mention that Kirk is an amazing character in this film. When many people, myself included, think ‘Kirk’ this is one of the films to come to mind. He is vulnerable, flawed, makes mistakes, and is very human while still being the leader, quick-thinker, and hero that we all know him to be. He is carried by a fantastic script and some excellent direction along with some of the best performances Shatner has ever put to screen. This…
16. Character: …is an easy double positive. And the only reason it’s not more is he’ll get OTHER positives later
17. Character: I’ll talk more about Spock specifically later but this is a Dynamic positive for how Kirk and Spock play off each other. Everything about their interactions indicates this is two people who know each other incredibly well, and their chemistry is great. This isn’t THE best interactions we’ll have with these two but it’s up there
18. Moment: There’s another bloody subtle moment where Kirk is admiring the Romulan Ale, notices the date and comments that it’s two years old… FIFTY years younger than Kirk is himself. McCoy responds “Yeah well it takes this stuff a while to ferment” to which Kirk just stares at him expressionless. And you can see, again, how much this is bothering him. We also see McCoy has gifted him some antique glasses and there’s a lot going on here. These glasses are FOUR HUNDRED years old. It probably took McCoy not-insubstantial effort to procure these, AND make sure they fit right, AND make sure they are the right prescription for Kirk. Kirk is still glowering but you can tell he appreciates the effort, which is why he lets it go pretty easily. Also remember these glasses they’ll come up again later
19. Character: And yes, another dynamic positive for Kirk and McCoy, of course. McCoy grouses but he’s also the only person who can (and has) cut straight to the heart of the matter with Kirk, and the two bounce off each other perfectly
20. Cutscene: This scene is poetry. That’s two extremely powerful character scenes immediately. Is it any wonder people are fond of this film? There’s so many good lines here, so much good interplay. A couple of key takeaways; Kirk isn’t REALLY old he just FEELS old, which is honestly worse. This is, as it was back in TMP (and will be the entire series) about Kirk having his command, about being in charge of the Enterprise. And the entire time you get this great interplay with the cast
21. Theme: And I know I’ve been dancing around it for a while but here’s what I consider the central theme of the piece; Getting old. There is a constant motif of the young versus the old and indeed in many situations and scenes the young die while the old linger. Kirk is buried in his feelings of being old and washed up and worthless. The rest of the crew wants to be doing good again. Khan is completely lost to his past. And I’ll mention this when we get there but at the culmination of the film, the second to last scene in fact, Kirk himself will bring this theme full circle. Because it’s not physically being old, it’s MENTALLY being old. Feeling like you’ve got nothing left to give to the world. Feeling like there’s no more point in you. Feeling like you’re just replaced. And how everyone acts and reacts to this theme is central to the entire work…
22. Theme: …it’s fantastic…
23. Theme: …and constant
24. MSQ: So we have some establishment of one of our main plot points; the Genesis Device. We once again get some good quick and dirty exposition (they want a COMPLETELY lifeless planet which is a sticking point) and they have been searching for a while (Chekov sounds bored AND irritated). We also get some fantastic acting from the ever amazing Paul Winfield who quickly establishes himself as a captain who knows his stuff… and who is just as tired of all of this as Chekov is of all this. “You KNOW what she’ll say”… and sure enough ‘she’ does, as we are introduced to Dr. Marcus. We’ll talk more about her later but you notice this initial section immediately establishes her as someone who has no hesitation talking DOWN to a Starfleet Captain, and with authority to shut down whatever this project is on a whim. She’s also unyielding in her views on the matter. We also find out she’s working on this project with her son… and he starts to talk about Kirk but is cut off by it as she literally walks away at his mention. So now we know she’s connected to Kirk personally, she and her son are connected to Starfleet professionally, and whatever they’re working on is serious enough that everyone’s on edge about it. These few scenes in a row are some great establishment…
25. MSQ: …good exposition…
26. MSQ: …and fantastic setup for what is to come
27. External Continuity: Chekov’s reaction to ‘Botany Bay’ is amazing. For Trek fans, we can figure out what’s going on pretty quickly. And for those unaware, his reaction and the music immediately convey how bad this is
28. Acting: Of course Ricardo Montalban nails Khan in all of his scenes. It’s all the little touches that work for me, like how he barely holds himself back from his rage periodically, or how he responds in shock, or here at his introduction where Chekov whispers his name and he gives a brief by noticeable reaction to it. “How do you know my name?” is all over his face. And later, when informed about ADMIRAL Kirk, you can see immediately who he holds directly responsible for everything that has befallen him
29. MSQ: God everything about this sequence is so tense and so powerful. Khan gives away so much in how he acts and reacts. When asked who he is, Chekov responds that he is a criminal of the distant past, which Khan just listens to calmly. It’s not until Tyrell makes a demand of him that Khan’s pride is pricked and he stamps down on that, before taking a moment to rant about how he was abandoned here and has nothing. You can tell, immediately, that his ambition is still there simmering in the background and he HATES his fate. But he amuses himself by flaunting what miniscule power he has over Tyrell… before the anger starts to build up from under the surface, and it’s there (just floating under the surface) before Tyrell says a critical line. “I’ve never even met Admiral Kirk.” And then Khan stalls as this galls him SO much, that his most hated nemesis has been rewarded while he has struggled and slowly watched his people die, he has to pause a moment before he continues. But now his taunting has less bite to it, less entertainment, and when Chekov explodes at him he SHOUTS in response… before taking several long seconds to recover his demeanor…
30. MSQ: …powerful, amazing stuff
31. Moment: “On Earth, 200 years ago, I was a prince…” And as he laments his situation and blames Kirk for not checking on him (in fairness that probably should have happened, don’t quote Lower Decks at me) and he realizes Chekov’s reaction earlier
32. Pacing: We’re at the 25 minute marker and the pacing has been fantastic so far. Initial calm, almost immediately ramped into action, and then back into calm character moments. This is followed by a quiet increase in tension as McCoy finally drills to the heart of Kirk’s issues, and we see a bit more tension on the planet as they try to find a suitable test site. The intensity ramps up continuously from this point onwards until Khan puts the slugs in their ears (bleh) and then we have another breather break with Kirk going to his previously mentioned inspection of the Enterprise
33. Visual Storytelling: A minor but nice touch. Kirk is reading the book Spock gave him with the glasses McCoy gave him. Kirk needs both of his best friends to see… remember this point
34. Dialogue: The back and forth between Kirk and Sulu says a lot. Kirk says the obvious (“I hate inspections”) but Sulu says he’s glad to just be on the Enterprise at all. It’s left unstated but this is probably exactly WHY Kirk hates inspections. He doesn’t want to go aboard the ship temporarily he wants to STAY there. It’s a tease
35. Moment: I love the big with Kirk pulling out a hankerchief just to prove the console was literally spotless. Scotty even grins at him. No need for dialogue, it’s friendly ribbing. This one scene has better chemistry for these two actors than they had in the entire first film
36. Cutscene: I’m just going to layer the entire Engineering inspection with blanket positives. Kirk trying to handle his issues by joking about young men. His good natured ribbing of Scotty. The (VERY young) cadets on display, including Preston (who we, very naturally, find out is Scotty’s nephew). The casual showcasing of the radioactive core in the background with big obvious WARNING DO NOT ENTER stamped on it multiple times. The early establishment of the repeated line, “The word is given”. And Kirk’s casual rush to get to space, literally skipping part of the inspection
37. Cutscene: I do like how Spock decides to poke Kirk by having Saavik command the ship out. There’s an issue with it I’ll talk about in the negatives but it’s a nice character moment
38. Cutscene: Chekov calling in on behalf of Khan is brilliant. There’s a subtle bit I’ll give its own positive in a sec but the rest of it is just gold. Chekov (hey look, I told you Koenig could act) is just a bit… off the entire scene. A bit too placid, a bit too slow in responding, and smiling too much. Meanwhile the scientists are all on edge, some physically looming over the comm or folding their arms like they’re ready for a fight. Chekov is WAY too vague here (which should have set them off a bit, nothing like this happens without three forms of authorization and twenty people signing off on it). He also stalls, a LONG time, before producing Kirk’s name
39. Character: I mentioned that subtle bit? NONE of the scientists have any issues at all thinking this is real and that Starfleet really is taking over Genesis except Carol herself and SHE only suspects because of the namedrop of Kirk, whom she knows well enough to question (and she later does). David himself instantly believes it without hesitation because of his pre-existing dislike of the military and Kirk in particular. In fact…
40. Story Sequencing: …this is a brilliant piece of writing, if you think about it. Carol having such a personal understanding of Kirk means she is willing to confront him head on and now be cowed by him, despite him being KIRK and also an admiral of the military. Later on this lets her try to get a message to him, which is the very reason Kirk even knows about the problem at all. If Carol was some other person this connecting thread would be gone and there’s a very real chance Khan would have just walked in and taken Genesis unopposed. Naturally this IS part of Khan’s plan and they might have called it in without her but I wonder. If nothing else it’s additional characterization for her
41. Cutscene: There’s this… strange scene. It’s funny because it might be one of the worst scenes in the film, but it still does a lot of story advancement. Saavik asks about the Kobayashi Maru again, Kirk deflects with a joke which turns into a vulcan human thing. Kirk comments on her hair (something McCoy will later reiterate) and of course Kirk mentions the main point of the Kobayashi Maru outright; it’s a test of character. This is important, remember that. Finally when informed that Carol Marcus is calling in, McCoy and Kirk are both there to hear it and both visibly react (Kirk because of Genesis, McCoy because he obviously knows about their history). And Kirk gives the first legitimately acerbic comment he’s given the entire film, flat out warning McCoy to back off. It’s sufficiently brutal that even McCoy backs off
42. MSQ: There’s a twofer scene here which pushes the plot along at rapid pace, continuing our good pacing of the film. We’ve had our tension, we’ve had our breathers, it’s time to reach our first climax point and everything is building to the first confrontation between Kirk and Khan. Kirk struggles to receive Carols’ message which is being very carefully jammed to allow both audio and visual out but only visual back. Carol also clearly sees Kirk is visibly disturbed at what she’s saying and is smart enough to realize something is going on here. To repeat my earlier points, while everyone else of the scientific staff is willing to believe this is just Starfleet military’ing it up, she’s the only one who pushes back and insists they do something about it. We also get some very smart exposition and writing in here; There’s actually a much larger staff than this (of course there is, on a project with planetary scope?) but they’re on leave right now. This helps explain some of the budget issues with so few extras and such a limited set (we only ever see TWO rooms of the Regula 1 station). We also see she is firmly treating Reliant as ‘the enemy’… and ONLY Reliant
43. Moment: Spock insists Kirk takes command of the Enterprise. Kirk hesitates JUST a moment… before declining. Of course he declines. He’s not going to do that to Spock. Decker, sure, but he can’t do that to Spock. It is SPOCK who has to talk KIRK into this
44. Moment: One more thing. You know that wonderful ‘getting old’ theme I’ve mentioned many times? Spock puts it beautifully in this very scene. “It was a mistake for you to accept promotion. Commanding a starship is your first, best destiny. Anything else is a waste of material.” Because as we’ve already mentioned the real problem is not Kirk’s age, it’s how useless he feels. Sitting on a desk… slowly collecting dust
45. Dialogue: The most oft-quoted quote in all of Trek history is in this scene. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” It’s a fantastic line, and inherently flawed, but the scene (and the rest of the movies, really) acknowledge that flaw. Kirk himself adds, “Or the one.” and it’s not entirely clear who he’s referring to there. Do the needs of the mission outweigh his own fears of being in command? Do they outweigh the loss to Spock himself, losing command? And of course these are not mutually exclusive; both are valid. I do think it leans to the former because Kirk is so clearly uncertain and hesitant and has been the entire film… until the next line (I’ll mention that in a second), and the scene IMMEDIATELY after that shows he is right back in his groove doing what he knows and loves
46. Moment: “You are my superior officer. You are also my friend. I have been and always shall be yours.” And this line is not only GREAT but it so clearly energizes Kirk, knowing he is not alone. Knowing he has Spock at his back. This, too, is a theme… one that goes across the entire series
47. MSQ: Joachim is the only one who dares even speak up to Khan. He defers, of course, but he is willing to question him and check him. He’s also a reality check and goes out of his way to stroke Khan’s ego in how he tries to convince him to give up revenge. We have a ship, we have escaped, you have proved the superior intellect and defeated the plans of admiral Kirk. But Khan has spent too much time in his own head, reading those books, and descending into his own private hell. He gives his own variant of a quote from Moby Dick in response to Joachim’s protest before firmly, confidently, insisting on his revenge
48. Character: Obviously Khan is a great character. Intelligent, ambitious, broken, and blind. He is the man who went through hell and came out of it with the worst of himself intact, all decency and semblence of sanity erased. This is a dangerous man, and the movie proves this time and again
49. Character: I also feel the need to add some analysis to this, as I believe it adds to his character. It’s often stated that the film is inspired by Moby Dick (which it is) but I think the reality is more nuanced. I think KHAN is inspired by Moby Dick, not Nicholas Meyer is inspired by Moby Dick, if that makes sense. Khan himself has perused those books over and over and over for 14 years and what is in those? Paradise Lost, the would be prince who chose to rule Hell rather than serve in Heaven after being cast out. King Lear, the warrior king ruined after his return by betrayal. Dante’s Inferno, the slow descent into hypocrisy. And of course Moby Dick itself, which… is mostly about whaling and the like but ALSO about one man’s quest for revenge that utterly consumes him
50. World Building: There’s a quiet implication I’ve always liked here. Kirk is the flag officer in charge of the Genesis Project. Why? Why Kirk? We could say it’s contrivance or convenience but I think there’s two big reasons that makes sense instead. First, he’s Kirk. He is someone who is supremely trustworthy and who Starfleet Command knows can run a tight ship for something this high security. Second, Carol. Doctor Marcus personally knowing Kirk and thus being willing to work with him, directly, as the liason to Starfleet just makes too much sense. It would not surprise me if SHE reached out to HIM, personally, and not Starfleet to initiate the project, something she could have talked him into even. It continues to show why Carol and Kirk’s connection is so important to the film as a whole
51. Plot: The Genesis Device itself is a near perfect puzzle piece of the film. It has some long term consequences (which will never be followed up on) but otherwise what we see is an extremely powerful tool of terraforming that the peace loving Federation would adore, enabling more planets for colonization and settlement for them and anyone else in the galaxy. And it is also something that can effortlessly be converted into a tool of mass devastation which will enable whoever holds it to wipe out entire worlds on a whim. It makes sense for the Federation, it ties Kirk in personally to the events of the film, it gives us insight into Spock and McCoy (more on that in a sec), and it serves as a goal for Khan to pursue in his dreams of ambition and power
52. Character: I mentioned Spock and McCoy. It is fascinating to see their reactions to this. It is Spock who is overall positive about the device who also insists by his dialogue and word choice that he is well in favor of the device, and why wouldn’t he be? He’s right, used carefully (as any tool must be) it is an incredible tool that would be a bounty for billions. It is McCoy who sees the more tangible reality of what a threat it poses at the exact same time. While riding emotion the entire scene, McCoy has a point. This thing can obliterate life on a mass scale and he is uncertain if ANY hands are capable enough to wield such a tool. And the best part about this scene is both are right
53. Atmosphere: The tension and build up of the first conflict between Reliant and Enterprise is near perfect. The film has spent almost half an hour building up to this moment, and this serves as a perfect ‘bomb under the table’ moment. We, the audience, know the bomb is there, the characters do not
54. Consequence Storytelling: Despite the issues around it there is a wonderful logic to how the Reliant v Enterprise initial battle goes. The Reliant had to get RIGHT on them, with their weaker phasers, to do the damage they needed to. The smaller and weaker ship (yes I know what the technical manuals say, those aren’t here right now we’re reviewing the movie) needed to be point blank range to be able to make this a one hit killing blow. Without this alpha strike it’d turn into a slug fest and the Enterprise was going to win that
55. Moment: Holy God everything about the alpha strike. You can just see Khan savoring it, savoring it, waiting until the perfect moment, and then enjoying every second of that word “Fire!”
56. Pacing: Right after the engineering insanity is this intense moment of almost holding one’s breath. The music dips down in intensity but not tension, Kirk ponders the obvious, and we get audible confirmation of just how badly they’re screwed. This crescendos again right after with a torpedo hit and you know it could have just nuked the bridge right then and their. Khan looks elated, like he’s never experienced anything so satisfying before
57. Writing: More quality writing. Scotty has almost a throwaway line about how if he had more time he could get the lines going, but he needs a few minutes. Kirk, outright shouting, says they don’t have a minute. In the moment Kirk is trying to think of what to do NOW but he logged that info in the back of his brain so that later he knows playing for time WILL help
58. Acting: More praise to… basically everyone here, but especially Shatner. This is one of the only times in the entire film he loses his cool, shouting as the situation is developing, until Uhura mentions the Reliant is asking for surrender. Kirk pauses, gives a hard look to Spock, and then acknowledges it. His line says everything. “Do it… while we still have time.” Kirk knows EXACTLY how screwed they are in this moment
59. Cutscene: Khan’s big confrontation with Kirk is basically perfect. Khan has so clearly and so obviously practiced this speech in his head, possibly for YEARS. He is just swimming in satisfaction. He’s won and now he’s enjoying that victory. And if he had targeted the bridge right then and there he would have won.. but he couldn’t. He flat out was incapable of letting this go without Kirk knowing. Kirk meanwhile is flabbergasted, straight up shocked even… but recovers almost immediately as he realizes the nature of his enemy. Indeed note the smart writing again in how Khan emphasizes his ‘intelligence’ to Kirk. For us this is the third time Khan has emphasized this, his pride, but for KIRK this is only the first time… and this will come up later. Moving on, Kirk capitulates almost immediately and offers the obvious; Take me, spare my crew. There is zero doubt he means this and just as little doubt that Khan would honor such a bargain (far more likely he would beam Kirk aboard then force him to watch as he butchered his crew, to punish him even more). Kirk knows this too. So without hesitation he gives in, asks the bridge be cleared (crisis situation, no time for repair crews or cadets), and goes RIGHT to Spock
60. MSQ: Spock of course knows exactly what Kirk is doing and why, and there’s JUST enough information here that if you’re paying attention you can tell what’s happening and if not you’ll find out very soon (he even explains to Saavik), and Kirk even stalls for a little bit more time by asking Khan if he’ll keep his word. Khan just CANNOT help but gloat a little more and I’ve always wondered if this was the moment Kirk decided to not even try talking anymore, knowing Khan had no intention of sparing his crew. And this entire sequence is SO QUIET and SO tense and then we see that wonderful graphic of the shields dropping and the music starts escalating and getting more and more intense as Khan is desperately trying to figure out the controls of his own ship
61. Writing: I have to give special praise to this segment. Unlike the earlier section which was ‘because plot’, the reason Kirk beats Khan here despite being so weakened and on the back foot makes perfect sense. This is experience trumping stats, to put it simply. Kirk (and his crew) know how starships work better than Khan does and can use that
62. Acting: WONDERFUL facial acting from Khan here. You can tell he’s gone right over the bend (and honestly his performance the entire rest of the film shows this… he is GONE now). And it’s so easy to see why. There’s this concept, I don’t have a term for it, when you’ve been denied something for a very long time but then you get it! And JUST as you’re relaxing, JUST as you’re satisfied, JUST as you feel relief… it’s taken from you. Snatched away. That is THE WORST feeling and I feel for every person reading this right now who has felt that before. This is what Khan is going through right now; he HAD it and he lost everything. It takes Joachim physically restraining him to convince him to back off and lick his wounds
63. Character: And then my personal favorite moment in the entire film. No not the brilliant character stuff at the beginning, nor the brilliant stuff at the end, it’s right here. Sulu says, with obvious relief, “Sir you did it” and Kirk whirls on him and responds, angrily, “I did NOTHING”. He keeps talking but those three words say everything. He is actually going through the EXACT same thing Khan is right now. He had been denied a starship for so long, captaining a desk, finally gets a ship back (HIS ship no less) and… his very first command he completely blows it. He is utterly ashamed of himself and refuses any praise in the moment. That is such a fantastic character moment for Kirk and why I like him so much as a captain
64. Moment: I’ll talk about this scene in the negatives too but I have to give praise to everyone’s reaction to Preston’s body. Uhura gives an audible gasp, alerting the others. Scotty looks absolutely destroyed. Saavik gives a small but audible gasp as well. And Spock, with full vulcan training and emotional control, cannot help but slowly close his eyes in grief at the loss. As I’ll talk about later this is essentially perfectly timed too; the audience has just started to unclench (the light music started playing again even) and then WHAM, Preston
65. Cutscene: Preston’s death is quiet. Scotty’s reaction to it is brutal. The first thing he wants to know? WHY. The grief twisted into anger. And after that? “He stayed at his post when the trainees ran.” That pride. And good GOD…
66. Acting: …listening to Doohan absolutely losing it here cuts deep. It’s no wonder he flees the medbay and rushes to engineering. I mean yes he obviously has a job to do but he needs to bury himself in his work
67. Moment: And some quiet acknowledgment of everything I’ve been saying. McCoy makes a point of praising Kirk (just like Sulu did earlier) and Kirk, once again, flat denies it. And in the off chance you didn’t catch it, Kirk mentions to McCoy that McCoy was right; someone like Khan having Genesis is a nightmare scenario
68. Atmosphere: The approach to Regula 1 and the slow examination thereof. This serves as an interesting breather section, but not in the usual way as this is straight up horror. We have a totally empty station, hand scanners beeping, Uhura trying to contact, and that’s… it. It all provokes the question; What the hell is here? And remember, sensors are knocked out so they’re not sure of anything, including Reliant’s location
69. Moment: There is a solitary and powerful moment when Khan orders Tyrell to kill Kirk. We can see Khan has learned his lesson and isn’t going to wait or delay or savor he’s just going to kill Kirk… but he can’t, he has to work through his intermediaries. And so Tyrel kills himself and Chekov… we’ll talk about in the negatives. And you can tell Kirk is really, legitimately angry now. He’s not crisis angry like during the fight. He’s not ashamed angry like after the fight. He is just plain mad. And so he goes and he taunts Khan right where he knows he’s weakest… and he does it perfectly, because Kirk knows what Khan does not
70. Moment: There is a solitary and powerful moment when Khan orders Tyrell to kill Kirk. We can see Khan has learned his lesson and isn’t going to wait or delay or savor he’s just going to kill Kirk… but he can’t, he has to work through his intermediaries. And so Tyrel kills himself and Chekov… we’ll talk about in the negatives. And you can tell Kirk is really, legitimately angry now. He’s not crisis angry like during the fight. He’s not ashamed angry like after the fight. He is just plain mad. And so he goes and he taunts Khan right where he knows he’s weakest… and he does it perfectly, because Kirk knows what Khan does not
71. Acting: I know it’s weird to give an acting positive right before, y’know, KHAAAN but here we are. This is a grab bag. First, Carol so clearly and visibly sees how this is bothering Kirk and is affected by it. We see David and Carol actually gasping for breath in horror at Genesis being beamed away. Saavik tries to restrain them and upon having done so recoils as if touching hot coals (vulcans have touch telepathy remember). And finally Khan himself who goes from wigged out to quiet and calm. “I shall leave you as you left me… as you left her.”
72. Pacing: The breather segment after is nothing short of amazing. Carol demands answers but Kirk deliberately avoids them. he’s also light, casual, talking about food and keeping mentally busy. This naturally transitions into her being incapable of holding back her pride at what they’ve accomplished, comparing it to the Starfleet corps of engineers. But she realizes what Kirk’s doing and encourages the others to leave. And this leads to, objectively, the best scene in the film
73. Acting: With the others gone and no one here but Carol, Kirk’s facade and guard finally (and for the third time in the film) drops. He dropped it with Spock, he dropped it with McCoy, and he drops it with her. Shatner is perfect in this entire sequence and in my opinion as a director this is the second best acted scene I have EVER seen him do…
74. Acting: …which by itself deserves a double
75. Character: By the way this is part of why Carol, who is functionally a Romance Of The Week, works so well. She is not a fling and she is not a one dimensional hotty. She is someone who can hang at Kirk’s level, someone who is his equal. And while there’s obvious friction there and, as Kirk put it earlier in the film, wounds… you can tell these are two people who know each other very well. And that means that past all the surface and all the pain these two can connect on a level that bypasses something as simple as a fling
76. Moment: This is when we see why David doesn’t know Kirk is his father (something they almost never outright state, by the way, it’s just there for us to pick up on). She… clearly resented Kirk for what he was, for WHO he was. And as we’ve seen in the last two films and especially in this one Kirk NEEDS to be in that chair, making the calls, and doing the impossible. As Spock put it, his ‘first, best destiny’… and so of course no one says it but it’s clear Carol and Kirk were never going to work. Because, as his equal, neither was willing to back down from their passions… not even for each other
77. Moment: But then after this brief butting of heads and sparks it feels like she’s sliding back into an old argument… until she sees Kirk’s face. And she immediately changes course and asks him, plainly and honestly, “Please tell me what you’re feeling.” And Kirk is brutally, overtly honest for one of the first times in the entire film. The regret is everywhere on his face. “There’s a man out there I haven’t seen for 15 years who’s trying to kill me, you show me your son who’d be happy to help.” And we see the regret pouring out of him. “My life that could have been and wasn’t.” He is so quiet here, as he finally admits to the central pillar of the work
78. Moment: “How am I feeling? Old. Worn out.”
79. Moment: And credit to the woman, in this moment of pain and vulnerability she reaches out a hand to him (literally!)
80. Cutscene: So Saavik really, finally presses (third time now) about Kirk’s approach to the Kobayashi Maru. And this is such a fantastic moment of jubilation in the wake of all the darkness of the last 30 minutes. Kirk reveals, at long last… he cheated. He reprogrammed the simulation to win. Everyone has a different reaction to this (Saavik is aghast) but what’s most interesting is the test still served its purpose. The Kobayashi Maru in universe is all about how you handle the no win scenario. It’s not an objective to be completed, it’s a character test. How do you react to the impossible, what does it tell you, what do you learn from it? And we see Kirk’s answer to that very question; He, in his own words, ‘changed the conditions of the test’. Kirk’s reaction to the no win scenario was to MAKE it winnable. And why?
81. Moment: “I don’t believe in the no win scenario.” And in reaction to his own comment he pulls out his comm to Spock, uplifting music starts to play, and for those not paying attention we now see that Kirk and Spock have been pulling a long con ever since they went over to Regula
82. Consequence Storytelling: And while this is a pretty big win for the crew and our heroes it is worth noting that it still makes sense. They have SOME power, SOME repairs, but they’re not tip top yet… and as exposited right after, it is now a race against the Reliant and they have better repairs and better engines so… time to get clever
83. Cutscene: I love, LOVE, how Khan is goaded into the nebula. The sequence of events is fantastic. Khan is content to chase Enterprise, and when Joachim pushes back against going into the nebula he starts to protest but realizes Joachim is right… so he relents. And then Kirk calls, and Khan is in abject shock at hearing Kirk’s voice again… and when Kirk pricks that critical point (his ‘intellect’, remember?) Khan absolutely cannot deal with it. He is BARELY able to hold back his rage as he orders full impulse power, and at this Joachim actually stands and verbally says no… to which Khan grabs him, his eyes wide and wild, and screams at him before physically flinging him away and taking the conn himself. Khan is completely gone and I love it
84. Atmosphere: Most of the quality of the Battle of the Mutara Nebula is on the gameplay axis but let’s be very clear, the atmosphere here is perfect. The music goes quiet and the tension is ramped up as the two ships blindly roam around one another
85. MSQ: And so begins an extended, memorable, masterful sequence. Khan is bloodied, his left hand useless, having trouble even moving. Khan has lost everything… again… again. And so he activates the Genesis device, and now Kirk is faced with another no win scenario, and this time he has no answers and no options. Khan dies, ‘spitting his last breath’ at Kirk, thinking he won in the end. And the moment Kirk realizes the situation he lays it out flatly and bluntly to Scotty and Spock, listening, takes only seconds to make his decision. And why wouldn’t he? He knows what’s at stake and he knows exactly the consequences of inaction. He even goes so far as to disable McCoy because he realizes he literally does not have time to deal with this the other way. And hey, there’s that radiation chamber, with nice big warning signs still very visible. DO NOT ENTER. Yeah. And so Spock enters and fixes the mains with literal seconds to spare
86. Tone: There’s something quietly terrifying about this entire sequence too. This is the ‘slow chase’ thing The Last Jedi failed miserably at. The slowness, the quietness of it, makes it more tense
87. Moment: I cannot believe how much this one small moment got me. McCoy calls Kirk up, “Think you’d better get down here” Kirk looks over, for the first time noticing Spock’s absence. “Better hurry.” And Kirk RUNS his ASS off to get down there
88. Cutscene: And now for a scene I almost feel silly to review. This scene has been analyzed by people across decades (including me!), oft repeated and rarely equaled. Notice that after all the brilliant music of the last 20 minutes there is none here at all. Just Spock and Kirk talking to one another. Spock can barely move, barely see, barely talk, because he is being destroyed on the molecular level. Kirk can barely move for his shock, barely see for his tears, barely talk for his pain. And Spock himself dovetails all the themes of the film together. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. The no win scenario. Growing old… and finally, and arguably the one thing that ties all things together. Death. There is a powerful irony that Spock’s very last lines as he dies are to encourage his friend, who’s friendship he reaffirms, to live long and to prosper. Kirk can barely talk…
89. Cutscene: …my God I’m literally crying even as I type this. What a powerful moment…
90. Cutscene: …and it’s not even done yet! Because next…
91. Outro: Cutscene: …is the funeral. Kirk’s speech is essentially perfect (“He did not feel this sacrifice a vain or empty one. And we will not debate his profound wisdom at these proceedings.” Meanwhile Kirks’ voice is flat, emotionless, just going through the motions. Saavik is openly crying, Carol’s heart lunges out at Kirk, David is seeing his father and Starfleet in general in a new light…
92. Outro: Acting: …some tremendous acting for all involved…
93. Outro: Moment: …and a single line. “Of my friend I can only say this. Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels his was the most… human.”
94. Outro: Acting: …and he almost can’t even finish the line as his voice breaks and catches in his throat
95. Outro: Visual Storytelling: And here, at the end of the battle and film, Kirk’s glasses from McCoy are broken. The entire film the glasses and his book have symbolized his two closest friends. And now, missing said glasses, he can no longer see clearly
96. Outro: Cutscene: David confronting his father with comfort and reassurances is a great scene. As Kirk is drowning in a sorrow he has no experience in dealing with David provides the buffer to help Kirk push through this. What kind of father doesn’t want to hear that their son is proud of them? Ah damn, tears again…
97. Outro: Cutscene: …take yer damn positives
98. Outro: Theme: And so we see at the very, very end the final conclusion of the themes of the film. Built up and arguably having reached their zenith, at the very end Kirk quotes A Tale Of Two Cities… and when asked how he feels he responds only with “Young. I feel young.” Because again the age is not and never has been the point, only the purpose. Only feeling alive, worthwhile, and fulfilled…
99. Outro: …what a great conclusion

Story Negatives:

1. Plot: Okay so it’s a fairly large plot point that Ceti Alpha VI exploded and shifted Ceti Alpha V’s position. First of all the odds of an organization that regularly explores space NOT NOTICING this at all is pretty low and, frankly, already breaks my suspension of disbelief
2. Cutscene Incompetence: Second, how in God’s name did no one check the system they were in against ANY chart they would’ve had, even assuming they were stupid enough to not have noticed the explosion when it happened? Surely SOMEone would be like ‘hey we lost a planet’ and adjust accordingly rather than just assume that big ol’ ball of dirt in front of them was Ceti Alpha VI
3. World Building: Oh by the way this explosion happened 14 YEARS ago. NO one in all that time ever even GLANCED at this system to notice this? They’re not THAT far out into the frontier
4. Plot: One last complaint. Surely they knew the SYSTEM they were in right? Surely SOMEone remembered that they left Khan here right? At least Chekov himself, but nevermind there’d probably be official warnings and or information about it that they would have accessed when testing if they could try out the Genesis Device here. SOMEone had to double check that paperwork right?
5. World Building: Hang on I lied, one more complaint. Why did Ceti Alpha VI explode? Never answered. How did that explosion shift the orbit of Ceti Alpha V? Never answered. This is all a big handwave to have Khan be a surprise reveal and honestly it’s one of the biggest plot holes in the entire film
6. Moment: WHY is Kirk so freaked out over Saavik commanding the ship out of dock? No, seriously. SULU is at the helm. And Kirk is visibly freaking out. McCoy even asks if he wants a tranquilizer. Come on
7. Plot: Yes that’s right, even Wrath of Khan is not immune to the ‘Enterprise is the only ship in range’ nonsense. This is DOUBLY stupid here because Khan very specifically wants Kirk and set a trap FOR KIRK and the only reason Kirk is responding to it is because of the most contrived of circumstance. I’m not even going to comment on the mis-use of the word ‘quadrant’ that’s just inconsistent terminology, but it does imply that Enterprise is the only ship ANYwhere nearby…
8. Visual Continuity: …and implies that Regula 1 is pretty close to Earth. This is… a problem for a lot of reasons. Doing the kind of top secret research they’re doing close to home is fine, really, but that also means (given how little time it took Khan to reach Regula 1 from Ceti Alpha) Khan’s marooned location was the interstellar equivalent of just next door, which makes that whole plot beat even sillier
9. Plot: And I hate to bang on this but the ENTIRE film hinges on Enterprise, with Kirk, with cadets on board so they don’t have an experienced crew, being sent to deal with the Genesis situation. You’re telling me they don’t have another ship with another crew near Earth OR their hyper super secret research project?
10. Cutscene Incompetence: This has long been my biggest complaint about the film. Kirk is… REALLY stupid here (and has to be, the rest of the film hinges on it). You cannot make me believe in any reality that Kirk, KIRK, in this extremely suspicious situation where he’s ALREADY dealing with an unexpected crisis, just saunters up and gets caught with his pants down. I understand what they were going for and the scene ITSELF is legit but good lord people do it without Kirk being a moron
11. Story Sequencing: I’m sorry, why is Scotty on the bridge with Preston? There is absolutely no reason to bring his ACTIVELY DYING nephew to the bridge. We know they have a functioning sickbay (it’s literally the next scene). The reason WHY is a commonly used trick, especially in film; You just dovetail one scene into the other as a form of a transition. Rather than get a call or being asked to go to the medical bay, Scotty shows up so we can have the dramatic moment, people’s reactions, and we the audience can see this immediate visual cost of the battle. It’s also perfectly timed; It comes RIGHT as the light music started and the relief had hit the audience. But WHY IS HE ON THE BRIDGE
12. Plot: Also these ear worms are entirely too ‘because plot’. Khan says they make people more suggestible but that doesn’t explain how this COMPLETELY mind controls both men. In fact..
13. Internal Continuity: …we see later, on Regula (the station and the planet) that the mind control works despite being absent their ‘controller’ for an extended period of time. This gets even worse in a minute. Also remind me to circle back to this but they do go rescue Reliant’s crew on Ceti Alpha V, right? Like we know that in Search the Enterprise BEELINES home and there’s ‘no other ship nearby’ so uh… does someone go rescue those people?
14. Cutscene Incompetence: There’s some pretty bad Idiot Balling going around at this point of the film. The problem here is Spock needs to get a message to Kirk about repair times and they both know Khan is listening in. Credit to the fact that they both assume Khan is listening (they don’t even acknowledge it it’s just there). Thing is the code phrases Spock uses are SO ridiculously overt and obvious (so the audience gets it, I assume) that it breaks character. It makes Spock, Kirk, and Khan all look like idiots. In that little side edit where it cuts to Khan and he nods smugly at Joachim we can see he buys it hook line and sinker and it’s like…
15. Cutscene Incompetence: …guys, no
16. Writing: Tyrell being incapable of killing Kirk doesn’t bother me. The other guy he shot was reflex, barely intentional, but cold murder is more difficult in general (especially for a career Starfleet officer). No what bothers me is that after Tyrell SHOOTS HIMSELF, Chekov just… falls over because the eel leaves his ear for… some reason? No the problem here is Tyrell is a guest so he dies and Chekov is a main character so he lives
17. Moment: I know it’s memorable but KHAAAAN is still kind of a dumb scene and reading. I say that even knowing that Kirk is doing this as part of the trick

Technical Positives:

1. Song: “Main Title”. Y’know I hate these generic ass song names. I know sometimes it can get too flowery but c’mon. Anyways the central theme of Wrath of Khan is surprisingly uplifting given how dour the film is, and like so much of the film FEELS very Trek. It’s what plays over the title crawl if you’re not familiar with it, but there are plenty of other instances as well, always the more ‘heroic’ ones like when the Enterprise successfully evades Reliant
2. Intro: Execution: The film proper starts in a bloody subtle way that I don’t think I ever really processed before. We see a subtitle, “In the 23rd Century…”, an extremely brief and immediate way to convey what the film is for newcomers. And this was critically important because there’s only one other Trek film that was more geared to getting new fans than this one (and that’d be Voyage Home) so with that one line it’s like alright, sci fi. It serves the same general purpose as “A long time ago in a galaxy far far away” which I’ll talk about someday (hopefully). And, to further this point, the very first actual shot is of a computer display of the Enterprise while Saavik gives a captain’s log, and we see Spock very close up. The camera quickly pans to include Uhura, McCoy, Sulu, and see Saavik to put a face to the voice. All of this is quietly brilliant in how it conveys without needing to have boring exposition. Even someone who’s never seen Trek before can immediately deduce; This is a space ship, that’s the captain, that’s her crew, and they want to avoid something called the Neutral Zone for whatever reason…
3. Intro: Execution: …huge props to this as an opener
4. Spritework: Let’s also get this out of the way; these are the best Trek uniforms, bar none. I know this is a contentious topic and I’ll grant you that some of the later DS9 ones are legit too but this is still an amazing look. What’s hilarious is Robert Fletcher, who designed these, was ALSO the designer for the pajamas in TMP, but was told to make something more military and on less money and… here we are! These will last us for quite some time and have endured in public consciousness for literal decades…
5. Spritework: …so this is an easy…
6. Spritework: …triple
7. Brickwork: Also the bridge set! It’s not super amazing (in fact I do believe it’s mostly the same set as the last film, because budget) but they still did a lot to try and touch it up. Darker colors, better lighting, a few changes to the chairs. The little details help. It’s not as crazy good as the later bridge will look but it’s still good
8. Spritework: So this is not the first time you’ll hear me mention this but back in TMP a concerted effort was made to seriously cake most of the actors in makeup to make them look younger. That is now gone, and we get several nice close up shots of the actors showing their age… but in a good way. Effort is put into acknowledging that the crew has aged and then to use that AS a plot point. So credit to the makeup department. We’ll be seeing this used to good effect in future films too
9. Intro: FX: There’s a brief info graphic that displays during the intro which quickly conveys what the Kobayashi Maru is. And it’s interesting at a glance. We see it has about 381 people on board (almost as much as the Enterprise herself), has plenty of cargo capacity, is reasonably sized (237 meters long), and cruises pretty slowly (warp 3) but can hit warp 6 if it tries. Some of this might not be parsable to someone new to the series but most of this is pretty clear efficient info dumping
10. Intro: FX: A brief positive for something this film will do several times; They use these special effects graphics in place of external shots. Now yes this is happening on a test course on Earth but the point is what this REALLY did is save money (remember Wrath had WAY less of a budget than TMP did) and they used it smartly to convey the space side of things without the expense of getting the models out each time
11. Intro: Visual Storytelling: There’s a great bit of visual exposition early on where Saavik calls for the raising of the shields and we get a nice zoom in on the shield graphic as well as a verbal confirmation of shields going up. This is critical exposition for later and slides smoothly into the narrative for the viewer to pick up on subconsciously
12. Execution: More exceptionally efficient exposition right off the bat. Kirk calls Spock ‘Captain’, and Spock calls for the ‘trainees’ to go to the briefing room. With those two lines anybody who hasn’t figured out what’s going on is now clued in
13. Direction: The framing of the shot with Kirk alone in his room is almost perfect. We know by now he’s bothered by his birthday, and he’s sad to be going home instead of keeping busy like everyone else is. We also know he feels old. So we see him in a large, lavish room with a view of the bay and he is morosely staring out the window, Spock’s gift (A Tale Of Two Cities) in hand, just… staring…
14. Doodads: Surrounding him are antiques. LOTS of antiques. Old flintlock pistols, mini ship models, antique clocks, old naval equipment, all vaguely nautical themed and all old even by today’s standards, nevermind the 23rd century. And in this one shot we get across just how much time Kirk has spent being… bored. Doing his hobbies, building his ships, collecting old trinkets. And we can tell how unhappy he is with it
15. Spritework: 11 minutes in and we get our first space scene of the film (that’s not a complaint by the way) and we get to see the Miranda-class. And let me just say this ship is gorgeous for being a kitbash. It looks leaner, meaner, almost more combat oriented (which is funny since it’s a science vessel). It’s the perfect villain ship too for reasons I’ll get into later, but for now let’s just admire this gorgeous model…
16. Spritework: …for a double positive
17. Brickwork: So the sandstorm thing. I HAVE to give praise to this because of how clever this is. Anyone familiar with Star Trek knows about Planet Soundstage, which has been used since TOS. It’s some plaster and styrofoam on a closed sound stage and it looks cheap (because it is cheap). So when they land on Ceti Alpha 5 the place is completely overblown with sand to the point where you can barely see Planet Soundstage. Even the sun is just a search light they put behind the effect. This is a brilliant cost cutting measure to use a cheap stage and make it look like some abandoned hellscape
18. Doodads: So we see some good panning shots of the interior of what the supermen have been dealing with on the planet. A checkers board made of bolts, some sparse cooking equipment… hardly anything to survive by. But the real star of the show…
19. Doodads: …is the close up of the books. We’ll talk a lot about Khan and his motivations later but let’s look at what’s here shall we? Paradise Lost, the Bible, King Lear, Dante’s Inferno, Moby Dick. That is a hell of a laundry list of books and ALL of them immediately relevant to Khan and his situation. In this one shot we can deduce just how much of an impact all of these had on him and his mentality for the remainder of the film
20. Spritework: Once again, great costume designs for the supermen. Ragged, barely functional clothes, mostly survivalist… Khan himself though, he gets trophies. And he looks like a king
21. FX: There is a simple but effective moment where Khan lifts Chekov. It’s a good effect (even though he has to PULL him down, hah) but what really sells it is how effortless it seems for him to do… as if it costs him nothing. He’s not even breathing heavily
22. Spritework: This is a combination of costume design and pacing but there’s this great moment where Khan finally takes off his coat, revealing his amazing latin pecs… but also, more importantly, a necklace. They never call attention to this necklace the entire film, but it’s there and remains there for the duration, and it’s a Starfleet symbol. And mere seconds after finally revealing it he mentions how the creature killed his ‘beloved wife’… and now we know what it is and why it occupies such importance for Khan
23. Spritework: So we finally see the Enterprise and I’ma spoil something for you. In every one of these films except 4 and 5 (for different reasons) the classic Constitution revamp model is going to be a triple plus. It’s a brilliant model and a gorgeous ship and it deserves all of the praise…
24. Spritework: …so…
25. Spritework: …it shall receive it
26. Brickwork: They do some good double duty with pieces of what is in reality a very small set to make it look much more expansive. The initial greeting with the trainees is later used for the torpedo tubes, for example… and will be one of the final shots of the Enterprise interior
27. Brickwork: As before the engineering set is fantastic. Same great usage of cameras and visual tricks to make it look bigger, with a few extra doodads to improve it even more
28. Doodad: There is SO much early establishment here it’s scary. We see the genesis device itself (we have no idea what it is yet), and the machine that controls it as the two doctor Marcuses are fiddling with it before they get called by Reliant
29. Camera: One of my favorite camera tricks in the entire film is in the scene between Spock and Kirk. We see Kirk in the mirror BEHIND Spock, the camera is facing Spock and said mirror, and you cannot see the camera because of careful angle usage and placement. Very clever stuff and a well framed shot beside
30. Camera: Everything about the framing of Reliant’s bridge is great. Khan squats on the captain’s chair like Conan the Barbarian, a warrior king, literally covering it with his furs and wearing a clearly ripped Starfleet uniform like a trophy. Tyrell and Chekov stand and sit nearby, almost inert, barely moving or reacting to anything. And everyone defers to Khan
31. Execution: More quick and dirty exposition and storytelling as we find out Regula 1 is no longer responding to hails. Not jammed, that’s emphasized, just… not responding. We’re left to wonder what exactly has happened and remember we’ve already seen Reliant has since LEFT Regula 1 so whatever happened is in the past tense. We also get one other tiny interesting detail; Spock, despite being a captain and well revered to boot, has never even HEARD of the Genesis Project while Kirk is obviously quite familiar with it
32. Music: The music’s been pretty understated most of the film but the ENTIRE sequence of songs around the confrontation with the Reliant are gold. When I picture music in this film this is what comes to mind. The menace, the different tone and instruments for Reliant herself, the tension, the battle, the intensity, it’s great stuff. I’d put this under ‘song’ but this is really like 5 songs dovetailed into each other for this entire extended act
33. MSQ: We’re going to zoom out a bit here and just slather positives on the big fight between the Reliant and the Enterprise. This is DAMNED well done, especially considering their budget issues. You can really tell they blew a chunk of the budget right here. First we have this wonderful interplay as the music slowly swells. “Raise shields”, “They’re raising shields”, “Lock phasers”, “They’re locking phasers”, and then the first hits come and holy crap. We see several lengthy shots of just how badly this has hit them. Despite only having a few sets to work with they smartly use a combination of the bridge and engineering (the two most developed sets) to really show the damage. People flung around, security shields coming down, the implication that the hull was completely ripped open, the engineering staff running around wildly trying to survive, rushing for the rebreathers so they can BREATHE, Kirk demanding channels be cleared so he can talk to Scotty directly…
34. MSQ: …what a fantastic sequence
35. Spritework: There’s a brilliant transition here where as we shift from the damaged bridge to the medbay to see Preston we have an exterior shot of the gigantic gash in the Enterprise’s hull. An immediate and visible reminder of the scars the battle left. In fact this is a good time to mention…
36. Spritework: …for the rest of the film Khan will be sporting a visible scar on his chest, and until he changes outfits in several scenes Kirk will retain the bloodstain from Preston on his
37. Camera: Some clever editing work as Kirk and Spock are talking. This entire time Khan has been absent, and we see Kirk crawling over Regula, and then during the discussion it just casually cuts to Khan easily listening in on Kirk and Spock’s call. It’s a nice, completely understated way to keep him relevant without having to narratively cheat
38. Storyboarding: There is such a great moment here that fulfills so many requirements. David and some other loser jump the group of trained Starfleet officers (because they’re lying in wait for what they presume are Khan’s people). Naturally the Starfleet officers immediately win this engagement (because they’re trained military fighting some researchers). And Kirk, who has no idea who this person is demands the one thing that’s been on his mind for some time now; Where’s Dr. Marcus? To which David replies “I’m Dr. Marcus”. And Kirk realizes in that moment who he’s looking at, and his face is gold. And before any of this can sit and process we get the big reveal with Tyrell and Chekov (I’ve already complained about this down in the negatives)
39. NPC Set Dressing: Good general ‘getting ready for battle’ transition scenes as the Enterprise prepares to fight Reliant… on more even terms this time. By the way interesting bit of world building, the way nebulas work in Trek is pretty consistent across almost all of its various shows and movies (and games) even though it makes no sense in reality
40. FX: So a huge portion of the budget clearly went into these shots of the Reliant and Enterprise heading into the Mutara Nebula. These are some good shots. I’m especially fond of the torpedo that flies right by Enterprise
41. MSQ: The Battle of the Mutara Nebula is amazing. It is shocking how good this looks for how old and limited they were. And there is SO much good stuff here. The Enterprise swooping in behind the Reliant for an early shot, the two ships nearly colliding as they walk into a major storm, Reliant getting off good hits… but without shields this time Enterprise is able to fight back, and a lucky shot hits Reliant’s bridge leaving only Khan himself as the survivor, but now the Enterprise is having a radiation leak. I’ve seen better battles in Trek, but this is still doing a lot with a little…
42. MSQ: …and it deserves special mention how much thought is put into…
43. Storyboarding: …the choreography of the battle. Enterprise getting the first shot makes sense, but like any submarine battle shooting means they now know where you are, so Reliant is able to turn this around back on them and get in some good hits. But because both ships are equally vulnerable this hurts both ways… and now Khan once again knows where Kirk is, so Kirk exploits his lack of experience (again, and better this time!) by moving on the Z axis and surprising Khan from behind
44. Viscerality: The intensity of the battle itself is great. The shots, the explosions, the crackling storm in the background
45. Music: The music across the entire Outro is essentially perfect. Heroic horns and strings, quiet gloom on the bridge, tension while we see Spock irradiate himself in the face, the horribly dark drums when we cut back to Khan, it’s brilliant…
46. Music: …call this another strong double
47. FX: Special mention to how they visualize the nebula (and nearby barren rock) transforming in the wake of the genesis wave and slowly forming into a new planet
48. Replayability: Of course this film is rewatchable. Given our new definitions for how a film earns these positives I don’t think it earns the second or third, but you can definitely catch new things a second (or third) time around and enjoy rewatching it in general

Technical Negatives:

1. Intro: FX: I like this movie, I really do, but y’know what’s bothered me ever since I FIRST saw it as a kid? The neutral zone is a sphere the size of a small city. This is stupid twice. First, why is this thing SO small? Every visual and graphic conveys that this is a tiny dot of space
2. Intro: FX: Second, why is it a SPHERE. This makes NO sense unless the Klingon Empire is like… inside this sphere, which just makes the size thing even weirder
3. Camera: So there’s this weird problem in Wrath of Khan where they had to use such a cheap camera and film that even on modern takes and visuals does not look great. Everything is severely desaturated to the point where it’s distracting
4. Execution: Everything about the slug scene. I get where they’re going but this is just entirely too uncomfortable and there’s a reason I usually just skip this entire sequence. It’s a nice puppet and I get what they’re going for but come on

Story Positives:

1. Intro: Cutscene: For what it’s worth I enjoy this intro. No not the bad rehash of Trek 2’s ending minus all the good dialogue. No I mean the title crawl with the camera starting at Spock’s torpedo tube lying peacefully on the planet, then up through the trees, through the clouds, out into space, and then to the Enterprise. Nice lengthy transition
2. Intro: Foreshadowing: Y’know I honestly don’t think I ever caught this before but during the Intro Kirk asks Scotty if the automation is done. This actually makes sense, they’re down a crew and need to dock with ESD so Scotty has spent considerable time setting up automation on the ship. Okay! I’m with it. This not only makes sense NOW but perfectly sets up for later. (As an aside there’s also a quick thing where they’re asking for updates on Genesis and receiving no response, which is also foreshadowing, just not as good)
3. Intro: Consequence Storytelling: Positive for the aforementioned logical storytelling too
4. Character: I’ll give this now and walk away from it; Kruge is at least a decent villain. There’s not much to him but he is clearly a loyalist to the Empire, has his own layers to him, and is unabashedly villainous. It helps that he’s played by…
5. Acting: …Christopher Lloyd who manages just enough of a bad boss, muwa ha ha vibe while still maintaining a degree of a brain. A lot of his taunts land entirely because of the actor saying them. “Then I hope pain is something you enjoy.”
6. Moment: It’s a brief thing but they do a decent job of conveying that the Excelsior is the young new hotness, the latest and greatest ship in the fleet. Kirk’s line sums it up best, ‘The great experiment.’ This is actually important establishment for later
7. Acting: So, lawl, I do like Scotty’s very… very forced politeness to Admiral Morrow on being assigned to the Excelsior. Doohan says so much with some expressions and, again, very stiff politeness
8. Foreshadowing: A couple of early tidbits here. They’re all excited about it but it’s interesting to note that apparently there’s multiple conflicting biomes within walking distance of each other and that’s… y’know… not stable
9. Acting: Mark Lenard is amazing as always. This isn’t his best outing but he deserves a nod here
10. Acting: Another nod for Shatner. His very quiet, overwhelming grief as Sarek essentially forces him to relive the death of his closest friend is powerful. And more praise to Lenard here, Sarek is clearly mortified by his mistake and gives a very sincere apology
11. Internal Continuity: I’ll give you this. While the way the Genesis effect works is pure magic, the way it works is also pretty consistent. There’s a surprisingly subtle touch when they’ve found Spock’s burial robe and the planet does its first quake. Obviously the team hears Spock screaming in the distance, but the microbes they’re standing on also squiggle and make more noise in reaction to it as everything affected by the protomatter lurches in time with each other
12. Acting: So I just finished typing up a lengthy negative for when Admiral Idiot (no longer looking up his name) shuts down Kirk’s pretty reasonable request. During that scene the Admiral overtly threatens Kirk. While he’s doing so the camera slowly zooms in on Kirk’s face and Shatner does some good stuff here. He looks to the side, considering, and you can actually see him making the decision right then and there. You can tell this is the moment Kirk was willing to throw away his life AND his career for this. And it’s a great moment (nestled in a terrible scene)
13. Internal Continuity: We start to see a little bit of the internal logic here. McCoy, driven by things he does not understand, is trying to get to Genesis so he tries to charter an illegal ship. Starfleet Security is tracking him because A, he’s already had a flag sent up about him having issues and B, he’s part of the Enterprise crew who are aware of Genesis and therefore they’re ALL being followed as security risks. And finally C, he’s probably one of the least antagonistic Starfleet people in this entire act. While he is still an obstacle for McCoy to overcome, he is doing this out of legitimate concern for the doctor and treats him as if he’s ill, not as if he’s an enemy (or, as we’ll see later, a lesser)
14. Moment: Okay, lawl. Kirk and McCoy have a few good moments as they’re chatting in the FRIGGIN’ PRISON okay I’m moving on, I’ll see you down in the negatives. Anyways! The ‘how many fingers am I holding up’ gag with the Vulcan salute was good, and McCoy’s quip about Spock’s revenge for all those arguments he ‘lost’. Again, lawl
15. Cutscene: Okay for all the awful, awful build up the actual escape from Starfleet is legit and arguably the best overall sequence of the film. Kirk slugging the asshole, Sulu bodying the dickhead (“Don’t call me tiny”), and the team showcasing real competency and coordination. It’s nice to see them succeeding because they know what they’re doing, not luck or bad writing. This also leads to Scotty being irritable in the most charming way possible, it’s hard to describe but if you’ve seen it you know
16. Moment: And then we see Uhura who’s implied to have taken a rather specific post (again, that competency) and we see Scott Heisenberg talk about all the adventure he wants in his life which Uhura, once again, absolutely owns him. She also has a great line here, “All my hopes”
17. Internal Continuity: So hey, remember that ship automation mentioned at the beginning? Comes back here and now they have to escape with the five of them running a heavy cruiser. There’s a whole discussion to be had on this which I mentioned, briefly, during the Rum on this film but all I’ll say is it does make a degree of sense
18. Moment: Kirk STARTS to give the ‘you don’t have to do this with me’ speech, and I love how Chekov just shuts him down immediately and they are all like c’mon dude
19. Cutscene: I will mention this down in Execution as well because there’s a lot of money going into the Enterprise escaping, but the tone and vibe of the whole thing is interesting in how it’s exactly what the audience wants. We were told the Enterprise, OUR ship, is old and needs to be put out to pasture. And we see it outpacing and besting the modern doom machine, the Excelsior. There’s a reason this is such a well remembered sequence
20. Moment: There’s a great, subtle moment where Captain Styles (the Excelsior asshole) tells Kirk he’ll ‘never sit in the captain’s chair again’ if he does this. The thing that really sells this is Kirk DOES hesitate, of course he does. We’ve seen two films (and plenty of the show) showcasing Kirk’s need to be in that chair. But in the end he goes through with it anyways, because even his fondest ambition is not worth his closest friends
21. Cutscene: And then the Excelsior, uh, literally putters out. This is a great sequence. The confusion of the crew, the captain bonkered, the ship malfunctioning everywhere
22. Theme: For all the mud I fling at 3 for its overt and badly executed usage of Starfleet as the bad guys, I will give it this. There is a dominant theme of loyalty throughout the entire first act that stands up pretty well. We see how loyal Valkris was to Kruge. We see how loyal Kruge is to being Klingon. And most importantly of all we see how the principal cast is loyal to McCoy, Spock, and each other in general. Every one of them is willing to damage their careers permanently and spend the rest of their lives in prison over this. Because of COURSE they are. I’ll be mentioning this theme again in 6 so hold onto that thought
23. Moment: I’ll give you this. Everyone acts properly eye rolley at the idea that Spock is resurrected thanks to wibbly wobbly woobly
24. Moment: There’s a small little moment where we find out Starfleet has commed ahead to inform the Grissom of Enterprise’s arrival. But there’s been no response. So Kirk ponders a moment and then decides to break silence and call the Grissom himself, calling upon the captain by name. It’s a nice little echo of the loyalty motif and helps set up the scenes to come (which would probably have worked better if we didn’t already know EXACTLY what happened to the Grissom). Also enjoy this, it’s basically the last time the Grissom is ever relevant or even mentioned
25. Writing: Credit where it’s due. The initial confrontation between the B’Rel and Enterprise is interesting. The B’Rel is ABSOLUTELY no match for the Enterprise and they know it, so they rely on that initial strike to try and do any damage. Unfortunately for them Kirk and Sulu spot the cloak visibly (we’ll discuss the slow escalation of cloaks as they improve over time later, this is functionally the first cloaking device post TOS so kind of establishes some norms). So Enterprise gets the first shot in, and that probably should have been all she wrote but Scotty’s automation didn’t accomodate combat. So the bird gets in a lucky shot while the Enterprise has no shields which (luckily) knocks out all the automation Scotty had set up. I should mention I’ve talked, at length, about why this is silly but I’m going to let that go for now because this whole sequence is interesting. It’s trying to bring the power level of the heroes down so the heroes can threaten them and let me tell you, I’ve seen a lot worse attempts (Generations says hello)
26. Writing: Credit to Kruge too. He picks up almost immediately on the fact that he’s doomed. In fact it’s clear the only reason he shot back was in retaliation for the death of his targ. So when asked to fire again he immediately halts it, and when asked to talk he does so instantly. He knows something’s up, and he’s still trying to ‘win’ from all of this. So he turns Kirk’s bluff right back on him and demands KIRK’S surrender. It is, honestly, a very Kirk maneuver
27. Moment: There’s no music when David lunges to save Saavik. He just does it, and pays for it with his life. Credit to logic, one science geek probably can’t take on a Klingon warrior with a melee weapon
28. Moment: David’s death is the second biggest mis-step in the entire film. It does nothing here and would not pay off for years and years (not until 6, in fact). But for all that, the moment itself is quiet. No sad music, no over-emphasis. He’s stabbed, and Saavik informs Kirk very matter of factly that David is dead
29. Acting: And Shatner does so much with it. Not for the first time in this film I must praise William Shatner for basically carrying a scene. The shock on his face, the desperate searching for any kind of support amongst his crew, literally stumbling back into the chair and falling to the ground in a way so sudden and shocked, and he just sits there… staring, acting with his face. And once his brief interaction with Kruge is done he turns around, lays his hands down on the railing, and just hangs there… motionless and quiet
30. Moment: There’s one last moment where they acknowledge David’s death. It’s brief but it’s powerful. When we cut back to the bridge McCoy is leaning over, and after a few seconds we realize one of his hands is laying on Kirk’s. And they’re totally silent for another moment before Kirk reaches out to grip McCoy’s arm
31. Cutscene: There’s an extended scene leading up to the destruction of the Enterprise. It starts silent (the whole film has been silent for several minutes now). Kirk puts in the self destruct codes and then looks, expectantly at Scotty who gives him a shocked look but then acquiesces. At this point the music starts to pick up, and will continue to build for the remainder of the sequence. There’s even a nice moment where Chekov ALSO hesitates before he inputs his code as well. By the way this also establishes the standard operating procedure for setting self destruct which we’ll see many times in the future. The Klingons beam aboard of course, armed and alert, and very… very confused as they patrol empty red hallways (the music is STILL building). And then they reach the empty bridge… when the countdown starts finishing, and Kruge realizes the truth entirely too late. And then they all die. This…
32. Cutscene: …is…
33. Cutscene: …an AMAZING build up
34. Moment: So Kirk dangles Genesis in front of Kruge as a last ditched effort and amusingly enough it DOES work. But I do like how Kruge flat out refuses to beam up Spock because, and I quote, “Because you wish it.” Cruelty or pragmatism? Either way it works
35. Moment: Kirk emulating Klingon to beam up is clever and cute… even if it’s totally irrelevant (we later see the rest have already overpowered the one remaining Klingon)
36. Moment: “Goodbye David”. Okay I lied, they acknowledge David’s death ONE more time. Appropriately enough it’s a good moment. Quiet, again
37. Outro: Moment: Search For Spock has a pretty bad repetition problem I’ve given many negatives for, but McCoy’s quiet speech to Spock imploring him for help is a great showcasing of it done correctly. Perfectly natural and calling back to what started this all. “Remember?”
38. Outro: Moment: “My logic is uncertain where my son is concerned.” What a great line, especially from a vulcan
39. Outro: Acting: I’ve said this before, I do not like the entire resurrection sequence. When I’d rewatch this film I’d usually cut it off as they escape from the Genesis Planet. But the way Kirk looks after Spock as he walks by… dejected, lost, longing
40. Outro: Moment: “The needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many” is another hell of a quote. It’s borrowed, but it’s still a great line, and it’s well used here. And it does a good job of inverting the math of the original quote by replacing it with morality; Many sacrificing for one. And thus we conclude the film on the theme the work is best at. Loyalty

Story Negatives:

1. External Continuity: I hate to bring this up IMMEDIATELY but… I’m sorry how is Spock’s torpedo tube just… fine? Just chillin’, laying on the planet. Yes I realize this was technically in the previous film but it’s a major plot point in THIS film so uh… what the hey
2. Writing: So I’ll talk about the Captain’s Log more down in the technical section but it’s funny how much worse the dialogue and writing are immediately. This log is… bad as a concept but even ignoring that Kirk breaks every rule of proper exposition and writing here. He flat out says “I’m sad because Spock’s dead” and then doesn’t properly convey how long it’s been since Wrath (days? weeks?) and the only REAL bit of info is that all the trainees are gone (to explain where all the extras went). So this is… y’know…
3. Writing: …bad
4. Dialogue: Generally not great. The whole film just has very first pass, obvious dialogue…
5. Dialogue: …nothing great
6. Moment: Speaking of bad dialogue. One of the nameless ensigns asks if there’s a reception when they return because, y’know, they just heroically saved untold lives. Kirk’s response is to grouse about how they paid for it with ‘dearest blood’ and he completely wet blankets the kid. I understand Kirk is hurting and lord knows he’s human but he would NEVER lower the mask this far down for some random ensign, both professionally (as a captain he needs to project leadership and care for his people) and personally (Kirk is only this honest with those he really trusts)
7. Plot: So everything about the first scene with Kruge is stupid. Let’s start with the obvious; it’s a mandatory plot point that these random ass smugglers with their dinky ship (remember this thing is dwarfed by the B’Rel, it can’t be larger than a shuttle) managed to successfully steal a full brief of Genesis data. Bull crap, but this is needed to get the information to Kruge (unlike Khan who’s introduction to it made perfect sense)
8. Cutscene: So it might be indicative of how much I don’t enjoy the McCoy Is Possessed scene that when I got to it I almost shut off the movie and worked on something else rather than watch it. There’s some decent stuff here (the voice sounds SO much like Spock)…
9. Cutscene Incompetence: …but then Kirk grabs… whoever it is and drags him out into the light very violently, and then Kirk (who has dealt with many things unusual and bizarre in his career) and even though he’s in Spock’s quarters talking to Bones who is CLEARLY out of his mind he acts like an idiot the entire time. He does this in service of…
10. Writing: …bad exposition. Just in case anyone in the audience hadn’t figured out that the film they’re watching, which opened with a shot of Spock dying, which is NAMED The Search For Spock, wasn’t going to be about that
11. Plot: So here’s the main thrust of Act 1; defeating Starfleet. I’ve often referred to the Obstinate Bureaucrat (or their worse version, the Obstructive Bureaucrat) who serves as a ‘friendly’ antagonist for the heroes and this is a pretty classic Trek move (they’ve been doing it since TOS). Admiral Morrow here (who has I do believe like… three scenes in the whole film) is just here to be the face of ‘the man’, the generic and vague government that stands in the heroes’ way. The problem is it doesn’t really make sense here. First, their stated reason for doing this is because Genesis is ‘a galactic controversy’ and it needs to be kept top secret. Which actually would give them MORE reason to send this crew who ALREADY knows about Genesis right back out to help deal with it (it’s not like they couldn’t send a ship, they already sent the completely worthless USS Grissom)
12. Plot: Second, sending an entire crew into extended shoreleave is probably THE most likely thing to get this talked about, even if on accident, meaning more likely information will already filter out
13. Internal Continuity: Third, if it’s ALREADY a ‘galactic controversy’ that means other powers already know about it. Staying quiet here is a… well, I won’t type up a full paragraph about international politics, let’s just say it’d be bad and move on
14. Plot: One final complaint here. He states that they’re going to decommission the Enterprise. Everyone naturally doesn’t like that, ESPECIALLY the audience (we’ll get into this more later). His stated reason why? The ship’s 20 years old. That’s… not very old for a heavy cruiser in this era. I don’t want to get into the weeds here since we’re reviewing the FILM not all the ancillary material but even just in the films there is ONE ship bigger and heavier than a Constitution class Heavy Cruiser in this era and that’s the experimental Excelsior that’s still in spacedock. Why are they retiring the equivalent of a battleship? Especially one that’s not that old and has such a storied history and legendary status? The answer…
15. Plot: …is Because Plot. Again, this entire act is about defeating Starfleet, which means they’re the bad guys for this Act, not Kruge or anyone else. It makes Starfleet look bad and it makes the movie look bad… and it’s a shame cuz when we get to the actual escape sequence it’s one of the best sequences in the entire film
16. Internal Continuity: By the way Kruge kills Valkris (and the shuttle) because she’s seen the Genesis data. This is relevant because he then watches it with his two bridge officers and apparently feels no desire to kill THEM. So… why??
17. Dialogue: I know I’ve ALREADY complained about the dialogue but the way they (uh, re)introduce us to Saavik and David is not great. He says some awkward lines and she says an even more awkward rejoinder and we squeeze in a little racism in there
18. Plot: And by the way why did they send this weenie ship to this anyways? Unescorted? There’s possible explanations for all of this but none of those exist, for the real reason is so that the Grissom can just be obliterated effortlessly by what is effectively a combat fighter (the B’Rel that Kruge is on)
19. Character: Captain Esteban is such a damned weenie. In fact he’s our second look at a problem I’ve already brought up (with Admiral Morrow), he’s here to be the bad guy but not actually evil. He’s an obstacle for the heroes to overcome. So when they bring up very obvious and valid concerns he squashes them by simply stating ‘regulations’ and ‘captain’s purview’ which is not a particularly great defense. And also this asshole is directly responsible for why the Enterprise crew HAS to break out later. If he’d informed Starfleet like his science team asked they’d be up to date and at least CONSIDER letting Enterprise go (they wouldn’t, because they’re the bad guys) but the fact that he refuses ENSURES they will not let them go
20. Writing: So we open up with Kirk and the squad toasting to ‘absent friends’ and before Kirk has even gotten to take a sip, Sulu asks about Enterprise being decommissioned. Chekov follows up with the obvious, ‘do we get another ship?’ and Kirk’s response is ‘who friggin’ knows’. This is really on the nose dialogue, crude exposition, AND redundant information. It only exists to remind us that, yes I will not let this go, Starfleet / The Federation are the bad guys of act 1
21. Writing: Okay so uh. Sarek gives some… REALLY bad exposition here. He’s also not this stupid (or this RUDE) because Kirk clearly has no idea what he’s talking about and he just keeps spouting what honestly sounds like nonsense, and is clearly intended for the audience and not for Kirk
22. Plot: And… I have to mention what a cheat this is. “All that is not of the body” is in someone else now meaning Spock, OUR Spock not a clone or a mindfork, can come back. They go deliberately vague so the audience can fill in the gaps but this is… such a cheat. I know the ENTIRE film is about bringing Spock back but I’m sorry, this is not a great way to go about it. There are so many alternatives here (rTrek ReWrite plug!)
23. World Building: This is also apparently normal, a vulcan giving their soul to someone else to either be reborn or to pass on knowledge. This is SUCH a rare occurrence in the franchise that it only happens TWO other times (TOS’s Return To Tomorrow and Enterprise, if you know you know). You’d think this would be a major cultural thing and indeed could be a huge talking point. I have a phrase for this type of concept; This is Underthought. Something that could be a big narrative point that could have ramifications for episodes to come that will rarely or NEVER brought up again because it was dreamed up by a writer to solve a single problem in a single episode/movie. And this is textbook Underthought. This could be a HUGE part of Vulcan culture. But no. It’s here to bring Spock back, the end, stop thinking about it. This…
24. World Building: …is bad
25. Moment: I’m sorry to bang on this point but Captain Esteban is such a dick here. He beams down two crew members THEN warns them about the radiation (if they can detect it from orbit they would’ve known that BEFORE beaming AND they would have known it wasn’t dangerous, which Saavik mentions immediately after) and then tells them HE’S the one in danger here (as the two of them are on an unstable and alien planet). Like if this dude was in a corporate suit telling the working class people that he’s going to shut down their division to buy a new yacht I’d buy it completely
26. Writing: So hold up, hold up. Spock woke up, got out of his torpedo tube (do those… have interior release levers?), got out of his burial robe, folded it neatly behind him, closed the torpedo tube, THEN ran off into the jungle? As a reminder he’s not even a person here (no ‘soul’ or whatever according to the movie) so… what??
27. Cutscene: I’m sorry. I’m sorry. So Admiral Asshole (I’m going to stop looking up his name) flat out says no. His reason? “I don’t break the rules.” Kirk (rightly) throws that back in his face and his counter argument? “I never understood vulcan mysticism”. Okay that’s neat, you realize you live in Star Trek, right? You have literal psychics and god-like aliens and jellyfish people and you ‘don’t understand vulcan mysticism’?? THAT’S your excuse?! The problem of course is that the reaction I’m having right now, that anger? That’s the point. He’s not SUPPOSED to be a reasonable authority figure, he’s the obstinate bureaucrat. He is (I swear I’ll stop bringing this up… not now, there’s another character who will hit this point later) the antagonist. So Kirk gives a VERY sincere plead to the Admiral and this leads to the Admiral turning him down because, in order, ‘the Enterprise can’t take the pounding’ (what pounding? Does he already know that Kruge is there? Did he read the script?!) and then he falls back on… orders. The Council has ordered that no one go to Genesis! Which we’ve ALREADY discussed is stupid! And the final insult. He backhandedly compliments Kirk by saying Kirk stands for ‘rationality, not intellectual chaos’ alongside a hidden threat, ‘keep this up and you’ll lose everything’. God this is so bloodly blunt and poorly executed
28. World Building: I’m sorry I really hate to keep harping on this. Why are Starfleet such assholes here? The SECURITY GUARD who is guarding McCoy who is in PRISON for the crime of being crazy not only is a complete asshole to Kirk but flat out states they’re sending him to the ‘funny farm’. I know when this was written and mental health wasn’t much of a thing but I find it hard to believe no one involved in production thought that maybe, MAYBE the Federation might take care of one of its own, especially someone as venerated as McCoy
29. Moment: Aaarggghhh why is this guy SUCH AN ASSHOLE. Sulu is just making small talk so the guard feels the need to stand to his full height and call Sulu ‘tiny’. What kind of limp dicked nonsense is this
30. Writing: Saavik has this weird moment where she gets all preachy at David for using protomatter for the Genesis Device. This has literally never made sense to me. She’s yelling at him for using scientific shortcuts but she does so in a way that frames it like everything that’s happened is BECAUSE he did that when that’s completely unrelated. What Khan did was because he’s, y’know, a brutal psychopathic murderer. And everything Kruge has been doing has just been one klingon pursuing power and glory. What exactly is the slam here? If you’re paying attention the negative here is very specifically for ‘writing’ not ‘moment’ or ‘cutscene’ and that’s because I get what they were going for. They wanted to paint him as an unethical scientist, doing whatever ‘for the science’, but the problem is not only do they NOT do this but this lasts exactly one scene, never mattered before, and will never matter again. Why is this here again? (For more on this, check the Execution Negatives down below)
31. Moment: I’m sorry. WHY do we need to see Saavik initiating pon farr with the non-sentient, still-growing Spock? I’ve always wondered about this. I get the intended logic, and they wanted this new Spock body to grow with Genesis (for… some reason), and that means pon farr, but like… why. You had the power over this
32. Writing: Small tidbit. Multiple people, starting with Saavik, keep telling Kruge Genesis is a failure and not understanding why he wants it. He… doesn’t care about being able to make planets, guys. Genesis is a PLANET DESTROYER. That’s exactly what he wants. It’s actually QUITE effective at its job
33. MSQ: I must speak on the death of the Enterprise. And while the cutscene building up to it is amazing (probably the single best sequence in the film) and the effects are well done… the problem is it does not fit the film proper at all. Destroying the Enterprise is not the problem, destroying it HERE like THIS is. This would be like watching the Enterprise dying to some random 20 year old Bird of Prey it outguns 10 to one (hey that sounds familiar). There’s no significance to it. And yes I know the argument is always that the death of a main character (for that is what this is) doesn’t have to be significant but I will always push back against that. In fiction death MUST mean something, for it is a tool of permanent erasure for the writer and something irrevocable for the reader, player, or viewer. The fact that people die randomly and pointlessly in real life does not excuse its existence in a work of fiction. So first and foremost the Enterprise’s death… means nothing. It’s done to beat 6 random Klingon bad guys who don’t even have names and ultimately only matters because it means the crew must find another way off the planet
34. Theme: Further, this is in total contrast to the entire supposed theme of the film. The theme of rebirth and life from death. When we’re told the Enterprise is old and out of date, we cheer because it bested the new hotness that was the Excelsior. And now it’s just destroyed, just like that? Similar to Spock’s death in the previous film you can kill off a main character, but you have to do it in a way that flows so naturally from the themes of the work that the audience doesn’t even notice until it’s already upon them
35. Consequence Storytelling: Finally, and I already mentioned this, there’s no real consequence to this action. Not really. They need to capture the B’Rel to get out, that’s it. Imagine if Spock’s death had no impact on anyone
36. Writing: It is SHOCKINGLY convenient that New Spock has no mind somehow. “His mind’s a void”. And I only even bring this up because it is just there so we don’t have to think about any possible dilemmas at all
37. Dialogue: This is a good time to mention that the dialogue has gotten noticeably worse by this part of the film, so much so I’m dinging it again. Kruge’s final speech leading to their big fight is… flat at best. And this IS a big fight let’s be clear, they build it up so that Kirk can 1 v 1 Kruge and the planet detonating around them (literally) sets up the fight
38. Plot: So Spock comes back. I know I know it had to happen, I even like what happens in 4 and 6 (and TNG) but dammit, the mere fact that they undid his very well done death needs to be dinged
39. Outro: Moment: One last complaint. They try to underscore all that it cost Kirk to do this and… fail miserably. Kirk’s rejoinder line is honestly weak. “If I hadn’t tried it would have cost me my soul”

Technical Positives:

1. Spritework: As usual the Enterprise is gorgeous. Well lit too, in fact I would say the Enterprise only really looks better in 6 comparatively so enjoy…
2. Spritework: …that full…
3. Spritework: …triple. Gorgeous
4. Brickwork: As before the bridge is still solid looking. Same bridge of course, but still good
5. Lighting: So hey, this is our VERY first Lighting positive ever! Woo hoo! Wrath was so low budget they didn’t have proper lighting here but it’s finally a fixed situation so the uniforms pop, the sets pop, the actors pop…
6. Lighting: …solid double across the film
7. Spritework: There she is. The B’Rel class Klingon Bird Of Prey. What a gorgeous ship. Still a great model decades later, and among my favorite Klingon ships of all time, and of course for those of you unaware Search had a hell of a budget (in contrast to Wrath) and by golly does it show (we get FOUR new ship models in this movie alone, plus the first look at ESD). So anyways yeah it’s an amazing ship…
8. Spritework: …an amazing model…
9. Spritework: …and it will continue to be amazing up to and including Deep Space Friggin’ Nine
10. Spritework: Hey, speaking of which, there’s ESD. For those of you wondering why I keep using that acronym it means Earth SpaceDock, it’s the best looking space station in the entire franchise and it’s a brilliant model with brilliant lighting and I love it to death. It manages to look perfectly ‘Starfleet’ in terms of angles, lighting, and technology and it can literally fit entire ships INSIDE of it…
11. Spritework: …so yeah…
12. Spritework: …another triple. Don’t worry we’re gonna see another of those very soon
13. Spritework: And there it is. Y’know my opinion on the Excelsior has shifted a bit over the years. I always liked it as a big bulky dreadnaught, but even as it was replaced by bigger ships over the years it remained solid. There’s actually a variant on it in STO I always wanted and never got (and never will now, I’m not spending real money on a damn cosmetic). Anyways it’s a gorgeous ship. I thought about ‘only’ giving it a double but c’mon…
14. Spritework: …it’s one of the best looking ships in Trek and, more to the point…
15. Spritework: …they’re REALLY showing off the money here. Brand new custom model, no kitbashing here. Lovely stuff
16. Brickwork: The obviously Star Wars coded cantina. It’s not bad, honestly, for what it is. We see plenty of aliens, entertainments, little decorations
17. Doodads: This is a good time to mention the doodading. A lot of this is copy pasted from the previous film (same sets, same doodads) but it’s still good…
18. Doodads: …and it still deserves mention
19. Spritework: And I’ll give credit for the various aliens too. I’m not super wowed but obvious effort (and budget) was put in
20. Execution: So now we see some money shots. The Enterprise fleeing the interior of ESD, the Excelsior pursuing, Scotty trying to hack the doors as they get distressingly close, the chase and adventure music. All of this is very well constructed
21. Music: Good time to talk about that music too. In addition to the obvious, Enterprisey adventure themes I just mentioned, when the Excelsior gets ready to chase them we get this brief but memorable drum beat indicating the chase… before, y’know, it putters out
22. FX: While I have many, many issues with it, the effect of the Enterprise self destructing is powerful and well executed. The phoenix soaring across the sky like a meteor while the crew watch
23. FX: Another nice shot, the Bird fleeing the Genesis Planet as it dissolves into molten explosions
24. Outro: NPC Set Dressing: You’re probably expecting me to ding the resurrection sequence for how ridiculously touched up, set dressingy, and generally flashy it is. And while I have issues with this sequence that is not one of them. The Vulcans have always had this… thing about ritual. They’re extremely traditionalist and a lot of their culture is informed by this. So there’s this overwhelming vibe of ritual about everything they do, especially when it comes to gatherings of vulcans. For them to have this staircase leading up Mt. Seleya, lined by visitors and onlookers, while people dressed in ceremonial robes array themselves across what can only be called a stage as one man rings a gong… all of this actually FITS really well with vulcan culture…
25. Outro: Brickwork: …so I have no complaints

Technical Negatives:

1. Storytelling Mechanic: So there’s a captain’s log introducing us and that’s… immediately bad. I have to explain so gimme a second here. The Captain’s Log is the definition of Tell Don’t Show but it’s a very interesting format because it’s usually acceptable and can actually be some great setup. It’s very quick and dirty exposition to get the audience caught up with ‘now’ before we can move on, and is invaluable for an episodic series like Trek. The problem? This is not an episode. There is no need for this log. Further there is DOUBLE no need for this log because the first few minutes of the epi–movie set up everything Kirk says in this log so it’s redundant AND bad
2. Storyboarding: I have to complain about how the “Kirk and McCoy” scene is shot. It’s way too dark (for no reason), Kirk makes no movement to turn the lights on he has to DRAMATICALLY drag McCoy into the light (keep in mind he either thinks it’s Spock or some intruder), and then they stand right under the only light so Kirk can be an idiot at him for a minute
3. Padding: This is a weird one but this movie reuses… a LOT of footage from Wrath of Khan. Like, a lot a lot. Literally just taking a VHS from the second film and replaying it in this one. I wouldn’t mind once or twice but they do this like 8 friggin’ times…
4. Padding: …and it gets old. It’s just padding out the runtime
5. Spritework: I chewed on this for quite a while but I do think the Oberth ship just… kind of sucks. I mean yes it looks ugly but the problem is it looks stupid too. You look at it and you just kind of wonder… how does that ship even work? Lord knows the Oberth has been memed on for literal decades but at least part of why is the design of the ship is nonsense. The Miranda, a kitbash I remind you, had more thought put into its construction than this which feels more like parts placed randomly
6. Padding: I’m sorry I know I JUST dinged this but then we run into YET ANOTHER scene where we just replay footage from Wrath of Khan but it’s even worse because it’s like they freeze frame it to make it super duper obvious because they think we have the attention span of a 3 year old and dammit my niece could pick up on this, come on
7. Spritework: I’m sorry, the sound (AND visuals) of the microbes has ALWAYS grossed me out. The sound is the worst part, gyeck
8. Brickwork: I have to comment on this. For all the great new visuals and sets there’s just something… REALLY cheap looking about the Genesis planet. It’s not that bad here but it will never get better, up to and including the final battle
9. Pacing: So hey, there’s this… weird transitional period of the story where more or less nothing happens and we’re just spinning our wheels until we get from ESD to Genesis and where we need to be. The Grissom is destroyed (and no one seems to care), the Enterprise arrives at Genesis, the duo on the planet find Spock, and Kruge finds the group. I have no real notes for this entire stretch of time
10. Storyboarding: I try to be kind to the fight choreography in Trek, it’s not what they’re known for, but the fight between Kirk and Kruge is… not good. It’s slow, plodding, action light, doesn’t feel visceral and realistic enough to work in that direction, not epic enough to work in the other. No music (which DOESN’T work this time), and what few lines of dialogue they have are rote. The fight literally ends in Kirk kicking Kruge in the face while he dangles off a cliff
11. Outro: Pacing: One last complaint before I go. First, the pacing of the finale is weird. I know getting Spock back is kind of the point and purpose of the whole film but they lurch weirdly from what is clearly the final battle to… the next final battle where they bring Spock back. It’s not treated like an Outro or a denouement, it’s more like another major step in the journey