Review of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) by Ken S — 18 Jul 2014

Sometimes it takes an outsider. Director Nick Meyer was only a casual fan of Star Trek, but he knew that just seeing the cast wasn't enough to make a good film. He looked at many episodes and found out what made Star Trek popular, what worked best.

What works best were never ever the special effects, but the characters. Nobody ever talks about the Space Amoeba in "The Immunity Syndrome" they talk about Spock grinning when Kirk lives at the end of "Amok Time", about the interactions between characters in "The Trouble with Tribbles" or "The City on the Edge of Forever".

It is about the characters. That's Trek's legacy, that in the future we won't just have neat toys, but that people will be kind to one another. The characters ARE the franchise. So we get this great film that is about our characters, our main cast, our returning villain, the new characters.

..and on top of that we get a great plot, with lots of good subplots and characters arcs and themes..."The Wrath of Khan" is really the pinnacle of all things Trek.