JB & The Chop Do: Star Trek II – The Wrath of Khan (1982)

The Chop and I return, yet again, to delve into the world that is Star Trek, to foray into another film, new territory, and see what comes from it. This is the second installment to the Stark Trek film franchise, and certainly one of the more loved ones. Without further ado, I am going to step aside so that we can chat about The Wrath of Khan in more detail.

SYNOPSIS: It is the 23rd century. Admiral James T. Kirk is feeling old; the prospect of accompanying his old ship, the USS Enterprise – now a Starfleet Academy training ship–on a two-week cadet cruise is not making him feel any younger. But the training cruise becomes a deadly serious mission when his nemesis Khan Noonien Singh–genetic conqueror from late 20th century Earth–appears after years of exile. He begins capturing Project Genesis, a device holding the power of creation itself, and schemes the utter destruction of Kirk. – via IMDB

So I watched this for the second time, and only the second time ever. The first time that I watched this, I really didn’t know what the hell was really cracking, and I wasn’t a fan of it. I followed the story, I figured out what was going on, but it still just didn’t work for me. Hence I have never been a fan. Then The Chop and I decided to do a Star Trek run, and guess what? I would have to be watching this one again.

I asked Eric to fill me in more about the background of this, seeing as I have never watched the show, so I don’t have a history of what to look for, or why this would be cool, etc. I know that The Wrath of Khan is one of the more popular films. Luckily for me, my request was obliged. I made myself some freaking delicious chilli (recipe courtesy of Mr Isaacs, too – just check it out) and vegged out on the couch, testing these waters again. I thought it was all appropriate.

Hmmmmmmm. SCRUMPTIOUS. Hot. Yummy. I just have to share this, I was so proud of it, and first attempt, too!

The movie was… much better the second time around, and with a little more backing from Eric (this is totally his forté). I was not so lost and confused, and I was far more focused. The one thing The Wrath of Khan did better than The Motion Picture was to cut out some of those ridiculously long and meandering shots. When I saw Kirk rolling up to the Enterprise again with Sulu and company, I was terrified it would be another twenty minutes of panning. Luckily this was certainly not the case, and everything rolled forwards smoothly enough.

Looking at the supporting cast, I will always enjoy George Takei as Hikaru Sulu, and DeForest Kelley remains my favourite character as Leonard “Bones” McCoy, extremely entertaining. James Doohan’s portrayal of Montgomery Scott is also fantastic, and I think he is adorable, I really enjoy watching him. This cast works well together, too, always a bonus. The effects weren’t terrible for the time, either. I must say that I was not a particularly huge fan of Ricardo Montalbán’s Khan… he was just a little… meh. Bland. Boring. If you listen to the things the other people say about him and all, you really expect someone more than the person you get. Also, what the hell is up with their outfits?! And the hair?!

But anyways, I am sure that the costume designers thought that they were on a roll. Moving right along from that ghastly fashion statement. I find myself always laughing at Bones and Spock when they are “communicating” with each other, which is simply a nice way of saying they are permanently sniping at each other. For our amusement, of course.

The hell, things got real serious real fast there. 😦 Oh well, it is one of those scenes that actually resonate with you, and flesh a few things out, throwing some serious perspective on things. Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner pulled this together well, and I was glad that the movie wrapped up rather quickly when all was said and done, lingering would have just drawn it out. Spock’s demise was incredibly sad, and his funeral was something to see. Amazing Grace seems to be the send off song for the ages…

 

*spoilers I suppose*

For this – I want to get something off my chest. I’ve seen this movie 100s of times – the first time in the theater and I bawled my eyes out when Spock died. One of my old bosses at one of my old jobs once said to me (because I had a picture of Spock on my wall at work) “I’ve never met anyone like you, Isaacs. Most kids grow up wanting to be Kirk – I’ve never met anyone who wanted to be Spock.” Well, I did and it’s true and there it is. But the most important thing that this movie brings to me when I watch it is that my old roommate and I watched this dozens and dozens and dozens of times in the years we lived together. There’s a quote from this movie and when he was dying in that hospital bed I whispered it to him and I think he actually acknowledged it before he died during the night.

Now I don’t want to get too mushy on my JB’s blog because we’re out here to have a good time but I just wanted to say that we’ll meet again the next time around and we’ll hang with The Swede again and tear some fucking shit up like we did this last time and I fucking loved you man. You were a true friend. Remember that time I sneezed and a booger went in my Scotch but I drank it anyway? Remember that time you shit your pants on the way back from Sonic and then ran through the apartment in your shitty jeans and I projectile vomited everywhere? Man – we fucked some shit up didn’t we??

Love,

The Great Montana Jumping Spider

*sniff

Well – now that that shit’s out of the way, let’s look at The Wrath of Khan, shall we?? I’m sure the lovely SB has gone into the particulars of the movie by now so let’s have a look at a couple of things I noticed this last go around, now that I have the savvy ability to make my own screen grabs….

I’m not really sure if this is an accident or not but just look at the “EXIT” sign! That’s not very 23^rd Century looking is it. You’d think that the United Federation of Planets would have been able to pony up a few Simolians for some fancier displays, huh? And, strangely, that’s actually the ENTRANCE to the Kobayashi Maru Testing Simulator…. Also – Is Kirk gassy?????

Upon arriving on the Enterprise for inspection, I see we’re getting away from the Dagwood Bumstead uniforms from the last one but we’re still “One Button” friendly in the costume department…. Also – Sulu sure looks happy over there on the side…. I wonder what he’s thinking about….?

Does anyone remember when Kirstie Alley was a hot piece of ass? I mean, I still think she’s pretty good lookin’ but she use to be smokin’! “Meow Pussycat” indeed!

Also – how hard is it to fuck up a fucking chicken sandwich??????

Lastly – the other day some broads on twitter were going off about how they didn’t cry during some woman’s movie about cancer something or other and calling themselves Cold Hearted Bitches or something and, you know what?? I cry EVERY TIME I see this:

When Kirk comes up and sees Spock all crouched over in the corner about to die – it breaks my heart. There’s also something very important in this scene that you may or may not know about (I wish I knew how to do gifs). When Spock hears Kirk call for him, he stands up and tugs on his shirt, pulling it into place. That’s a reference to the original TV series. They barely had any budget for costumes and most of their shirts didn’t fit so when members of the cast would stand up during shooting, they would have to pull their shirts into place so they didn’t show their belly buttons (or their beer guts). When Zachary Quinto Spock first stands up in the chamber room in the reboot I fucking cried little tears of joy, that made me SO FUCKING HAPPY!!!!!

ED: Here’s the scene, Chop!

Well – I guess I better go – my mom is emailing me that she just got Text Messaging on her phone and I need to go help her figure it out : )

See Ya!

TGMJS