"There she is..."

In 1982 Trek fans were once again treated to another dose of their favorite sci-fi show, Star Trek II,The Wrath of Kahn. And like every other fan of the show, I had to "boldly go" to the theater to see how this one would fair. End result, I loved it. Where else could one see a spectacular battle between two federation starships.

The jist of the plot was simple. Captain Terrell and First Officer Pavel Chekov of the U.S.S. Reliant accidentally come across the exiled heretic Khan Noonien Singh. Khan, was exiled on Ceti Alpha V by Captain Kirk in the TV episode "Space Seed" and was soon forgotten. Now, of course, there was a legitimate reason why Kirk exiled Khan and his followers on this barren rock. He did, after all, attempt to take over the Enterprise. But ole Cap'n Kirk put a stop to his ill gotten plans. Surprised? Of course not.

But Terrell and Chekov must have gotten their space coordinates from Yahoo Maps, cause they didn't beam down to an uninhabited Ceti Alpha VI, seeing hows it blew up a couple years back. They just happened to park right above Ceti Alpha V. Guess who they all ran into, yeppers, ole demented Khan and the remnants of the S.S. Botany Bay.

Now you would reckon after a shows cancellation and many, many years of raising a group of genetically created mutant people, ole Khan would have learned to forgive and forget. Oh no!!! None the least. He still carried a grudge against Kirk. He was still as pee'd as he was back in 1967 or rather 2367, and more so after he learned that Kirk was now an Admiral. "Admiral Kirk?...Admiral?" Khan, by the way, was played both times by the most excellent actor, Richardo Montalban. Possibly one of his best performances in my opinion. I sure would have hated to have been the one who pee'd him off.

So, long story short, Khan puts weird looking worm/scorpion thingys in Terrell and Checkov's ears. This had the ability of, "making the victim susceptible to..uh..suggestion." He then had his homeys transported to the Reliant and the Reliant's crew were marooned on Ceti Alpha V. He than found out the true reason that the crew of the Reliant even wanted to visit Ceti Alpha V. They were looking for a suitable place to test the Genesis Device. A device for making dead planets into live ones but also could be used as a horrible doomsday weapon.




Hmmm, now we got us a ship and a reason. We need us a doomsday bomb and a way to scare the crap out of everyone. We gotz to get all our ducks sitting pretty in the same pond. Gotz our plan right and tidey, been brewing for eons and eons. Then we need to go make Captain Kirk pay for what he did. Sooooo, we're offff.

The Starship Reliant, a Miranda class research vessel, may not be as big or as glamorous as the Constitution Class starship, Enterprise, but she still has her beauty and elegance. Seriously fine lines and curves. Yep, for a starship, she is rather hot. And about to get hotter.

Khan is still pee'd, as I said earlier, at Kirk for what he did. Now one other thing he is still mad at Kirk for is his wife, who once was a crewman onboard the Enterprise, died early into their exile on the planet. Which he has always blamed Kirk for. Now being the typical male that Khan is, and a typical male who was so totally enamored of his wife, vengeance must be taken.

Ya'll Tired of all this yet? Hope not, there's more and a moral as well.


Khan intercepts the Enterprise and her crew somewhere in space. Not using the same Yahoo maps system that Terrell and Chekov did, he actually found the Enterprise and not the crew from Lost in Space. "This is peculiar." Said Kirk about the approach of the Reliant and her inability to make radio contact with another sister starship. "Of course, we are one big happy fleet." Khan said with a grin, knowing he was gonna surprise Jimmy and blow a whole in his ship. Thus totally messing up Jimmy's day, and everyone else on the Enterprise.


Meanwhile back on the bridge of the U.S.S. Reliant, Khan's slackey, Joachim takes a brief moment to try to get Khan to forget about the past and lets just get the frail out of Dodge.
"We're all with you, sir. But, consider this. We are free. We have a ship, and the means to go where we will. We have escaped permanent exile on Ceti Alpha V. You have defeated the plans of Admiral Kirk. You do not need to defeat him again."
This didn't sit well in Khan's belly. "He task me, he task me and I shall have him. I shall chase him round the moons of Nibia and round the Antarries Maelstrom and round Perdition's Flames before I give him up!" Sounds rather determined if ya ask me.

Again, long story short (appears I haven't shortened anything actually, good thing blogspot doesn't have commercials). Khan surprises Kirk and really shoots up the Enterprise. Ouch, bunch of folks get killed, sucked into space, burnt really really bad, knocked on the head, slapped on their rumps and such. Kirk surprises Khan while he gets him monologing using the Enterprise to drop the Reliants shields then,,blamo, blamo, now it's the crew of the Reliant who gets burned, beaten and sucked into space.




Both ships hobbled off to lick their wounds and make what repairs that they could. Khan tricked Kirk into going down to the planetoid Regula I and marooned him, thinking the enterprise had limped off to Starfleet Command. Kirk had another plan in mind and later on, the Enterprise picked em all up and off towards the Mutara Nebula they all went. Khan fussing all the way. Feeling cheated of his prey that he has hoped for for so long.

The reason behind heading to the nebula was simple, both ships would be crippled with their sensors and shields, mono e mono. Round and round they went, in and out of the nebula,,fuzzy view screens made it hard to find one another. Kirk would shoot at Khan and Khan would shoot at Kirk, both starships getting the crap blown out of them and making things worse as they went.



Eventually Kirk figured Khan out and sneaked in behind him, locking phasers and photon torpedoes on the Reliant and blamo!! The Reliant starts losing body parts. Eventually Khan decides to get the last lick in. Knowing that the Enterprise can't move real fast from her wounds, he activates the Genesis Device with intents to blow, both the Reliant and Enterprise into smithereens. End result, Khan and the Reliant get blown up. Spock dies, but comes back in the next movie and the Enterprise gets warp drive and escapes in the nick of time as usual.

The moral? Hmm, lets see. It appears that a fine, beautiful ship and many lives were lost simply to revenge a woman. Khan lost all that he had simply to seek revenge on Captain Kirk for the loss of Marla, his beloved wife. He had the doomsday weapon and a starship and could have went anywhere in the galaxy that he wished to go. Live on any planet that he wanted to live on and basically have any other woman he wanted. But he choose sacrifice. He sacrificed all that he had for the love of a woman. Poor waste of a perfectly good starship I suppose, but each to their own.

I guess that a person could look at this any way that they wanted to. I suppose that people or the love of a person is well worth sacrificing the thing that is sacrificed. Possibly not the life of another or the destruction of someone elses property but there are times and certain people, that a sacrifice is acceptable.

Did Khan come out in the end smiling? His lady's honor restored or better yet her life restored? No, he lost all, but felt that all was worth gambling. We each gamble and sacrifice daily. Gambling on our future, our love and our lives.(Ever see me drive?) I think, regardless of what people say or think, there are many times, the end does justify the means. Sometimes the sacrifice and the gamble is well worth taking and unlike Khan and the Reliant, things do turn out rosey and fine. Sometimes we gamble and loose. But many times, the risk is well worth taking if you feel certain that the outcome will be what you have dreamed it would be. My outlook on this fine sci-fi movie? Yea I guess. You decide.

Live long and prosper...