"Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Kahn"

Title: "Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Kahn"
Director: Nicholas Meyer
Producer: Robert Sallin and Harve Bennett
Editing: William Paul Dornisch
Composer: James Horner
Starring:
- William Shatner as James T. Kirk
- Richard Montalban as Kahn Noonien Singh
- Leonard Nimoy as Spock
- DeForrest Kelley as Leonard McCoy
- James Doohan as Montgomery Scott
- George Takei as Hikaru Sulu
- Walter Koeing as Pavel Chekov
- Nichelle Nicols as Uhura

'Doesn't S come before W in the alphabet?' Aye, it does. Oops...

Plot and Critical Review: The film opens with a female Vulcan, Lieutenant Saavik, in command of the starship USS Enterprise. The vessel is on a rescue mission to save the crew of a damaged ship in the Neutral Zone along the border with Klingon space. The Enterprise is attacked by Klingon cruisers and critically damaged. This "attack" is revealed to be a training exercise known as the "Kobayashi Maru"; a no-win situation designed to test the character of Starfleet officers. Admiral James T. Kirk oversees the simulator session of Captain Spock's trainees.

The USS Reliant is on a mission to search for a lifeless planet for testing of the Genesis Device, a torpedo that reorganizes molecular matter to create hospitable worlds for colonization. Reliant officers Commander Pavel Chekov and Captain Clark Terrell transport down to the surface of a possible candidate planet, Ceti Alpha VI, where they are captured by Khan Noonien Singh. Khan and his fellow genetically-advanced supermen were once rulers on Earth in the late 20th century, but after their defeat they were exiled to space in a sleeper ship. The Enterprise discovered Khan's ship adrift in space fifteen years previously; James Kirk exiled Khan and his followers to Ceti Alpha V after the supermen nearly captured the Enterprise. Khan reveals that after they were marooned, Ceti Alpha VI exploded, destroying Ceti Alpha V's ecosystem and shifting its orbit; Chekov and Terrell have unwittingly landed on Ceti Alpha V. Khan blames Kirk for the deaths of his wife and followers, and plans to avenge them. He implants Chekov and Terrell with indigenous, mind-controlling eels that enter the ears of their victims, and uses the officers to gain control of the Reliant.

The Enterprise embarks on a training voyage under the command of Spock. Kirk, conducting an inspection of the Enterprise, receives a garbled message from Space Station Regula I, a remote science laboratory where Kirk's former lover, Dr. Carol Marcus, and their son, Dr. David Marcus, have been developing the Genesis Device. The Enterprise is ordered to investigate and Kirk assumes command of the vessel. En route, the Enterprise is ambushed by the Reliant, which is now captained by Khan. The attack cripples the Enterprise and many of its trainees are killed. A transmission between the two ships reveals Khan knows of the Genesis Device and wants all materials related to the project sent to him. Kirk stalls for time and disables the Reliant's defenses by transmitting a prefix code. With his ship badly damaged, Khan is forced to retreat and make repairs.

The Enterprise arrives at Regula I, where they find members of the Genesis team dead. The remaining scientists, including Carol and David, have hidden deep inside the planetoid of Regula. Using Terrell and Chekov as spies, Khan steals the Genesis Device. When Terrell is ordered to kill Kirk, the eels' influence wanes; Terrell kills himself while Chekov overcomes the parasite's control. Though Khan believes he is leaving Kirk stranded on Regula I, Kirk and Spock use a coded message to arrange a rendezvous and pilot the Enterprise into the nearby Mutara nebula. Static discharges from the nebula renders both ships' defensive shields useless and compromises targeting systems, making the Enterprise and Reliant evenly matched. Khan pursues his quarry against his lieutenant's advice.

Inside the nebula, Kirk uses Khan's inexperience in three-dimensional combat to critically disable the Reliant. Mortally wounded, Khan activates the Genesis Device, which will reorganize all matter in the nebula—including the Enterprise. Though Kirk's crew detects the activation of the Genesis Device and begins to lumber away using impulse engines, with the warp drive damaged they will not be able to escape the nebula in time. Spock goes to the ship's Engineering section to restore warp drive. When McCoy tries to prevent Spock's exposing himself to high levels of radiation, he disables the doctor and tells him to "remember". Spock restores power to the ship, allowing the Enterprise to escape the explosion. Kirk arrives in Engineering just before Spock dies of radiation poisoning.

The explosion of the Genesis Device causes a planet to coalesce out of the nebula. A space burial is held in the Enterprise's torpedo room, and Spock's coffin is shot into orbit around the newly formed planet. The crew leaves the planet to pick up the Reliant's marooned crew. In the final scene Spock's coffin is seen to have soft-landed on the planet. Spock narrates Star Trek's "Where no man has gone before" monologue as the view moves forward into a field of stars.

My Rating: 8.5/10

The "Reel Revelation": "The Difference Is This..."

Have you ever seen known any two characters as different as James Kirk and Spock? No doubt a creative answer could be submitted but, for the sake of the task at hand, let us presume they are the "end-all." Everything Kirk is, Spock isn't, and likewise. Kirk is impulsive, emotional, reacts without regard to reason and is altogether impractical. Spock is steady, calm, logical (of course), and his every move is calculated to yield maximum efficiency. They are truly opposites, two men polarized against one another. And yet, they need each other in ways neither of them can express. Kirk needs Spock to be his guide, his flawless sounding board, and a source impeccable counsel. Spock is in dire need of Kirk to remain intact with the human condition he will never fully understand. Kirk's foolishness also allows Spock to make use of his Vulcan intellect and logic time and time again...keeps him sharp. For as different as Kirk and Spock are, they really do need one another.

Have you known people that were so different from yourself it was almost impossible to have a civil relationship with them? Was there ever a point in which you realized, much like Kirk and Spock realized, that you actually needed that person to serve as a sort of counter-balance to your own personality? I believe we all have those people in our lives. If they're "so different" from ourselves it would be no surprise if we pushed them away instead of keeping them close, but they're still there. A very wise friend of mine once rejoiced that he and his wife weren't entirely alike. He said "If we were both the same there'd be no sense in having both of us around!" His words are humorous, but true. It's always easy to get along with the people whom you share common interests with, etc. Those friendships have great value, indeed! But the people who challenge you with different opinions, traditions, perspectives, and thoughts will cause you to grow as a person.

Kirk and Spock exist in the fictional universe of "Star Trek" (that it were not so!) and so the example of their dicey relationship runs thin somewhat quickly. There is, however, a very real relationship we are all a part of that is even more dramatic than that of the Starfleet Captain and his Vulcan companion. That relationship is the one that exists between Jesus and ourselves. Jesus is altogether holy, righteous, sinless, merciful, and forgiving. We wander away from the things of God, do evil acts, hurt one another, exact revenge on each other for foolish reasons, and harbor hatred against one another. With a comparison like that it's easy to see how different we really are. Yet for our sake Jesus became a man and suffered the pains of a human life. To take our sins away Jesus willingly took the sins of the world on himself...he became all of the things he wasn't. He did this so that we might have all of the things he has had all along and share with him in the eternal glory of Heaven. Through Jesus' death and resurrection we are also able to trust in a God who can relate to us. Think back to our Kirk/Spock example. For as intelligent and insightful as Spock was he was never really able to relate to Kirk because he wasn't a human. He didn't know what it was like to be driven by human emotion, etc. Jesus took on real flesh (just like the stuff you and I have!) so that we could look to him and say "Lord, you knew the pain of this life...grant me the strength to endure it today!" Jesus is God, and he is a God we can approach like a friend, one who knows every angle and understands every difficulty we might endure.

Keep your friends close, even those who you don't agree with on every topic or subject. Keep your friends close, even those who don't talk like you do, or whose skin is a different color. Keep your friends close, even those whose lives seem to be in direct disagreement with your own. Keep your friends close, and keep Jesus even closer. God is near to us, and he is altogether compassionate, loving, and understanding of the struggles we face on a day to day basis. Jesus is the One who understands us and no matter how far away from him we feel, no matter how unclean we may become, he is merciful, and he knows.

See you tomorrow - E.T.