10 Dumbest Things In Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan

This just made me want to watch the movie again. Have to mention, I saw this in 1982 with a very lively audience. When Spock was dying, you would have thought family members were witnessing the death of a grand patriarch. If a fire broke out in the theater, you could have extinguished it with tears. People were consoling each other in the lobby. It tells you the power and charisma Leonard Nimoy's Spock conveyed to Star Trek fans. It was a beautiful thing.

Lest we forget that the Reliant failed to notice that an entire planet was missing from the Ceti-Alpha System. "Arriving at Ceti-Alpha 6! But... it's only the 5th planet according to sensors... OH WELL!"

I always thought that Kahn and his crew flying the Reliant (without blowing it up) was a pretty good demonstration of their collective intelligence

0:37 - Fun Fact that probably everyone knows: The subtitle change from "The Vengeance of Khan" to "The Wrath of Khan" was due to the still in development third Star Wars film being subtitled, at the time, "Revenge of the Jedi." Paramount changed it to its current title so as not to confuse movie going audiences... only for Lucas to change his title to "Return of the Jedi." Oops. Although, in retrospect... "The Wrath of Khan" works so much better.

My dad always yelled at Kirk for not raising the shields when Spock reports that Reliant's coils are normal. I always assumed the Genesis Wave hit Regula 1 and that became the Genesis Planet.

Kirk meeting Spock before heading to the bridge made perfect sense... Spock was the commanding officer. Kirk was about to take the ship (yet again) from someone else. He did his friend a solid, consulting him in private and then - being Kirk and doing Kirk things. The scene is necessary and poignant.

To me, the dumbest thing in Wrath of Khan is that Reliant entered the Ceti Alpha system, a place they've obviously been before, and fails to notice an entire planet is missing.

The reason Scotty brings Peter Preston up to the Bridge instead of to Sickbay -- I think -- is because the lad is his nephew and they both know he's a goner, and the lad's dying wish was to see the Bridge of the ship he has just given his life to save, just once before he dies. And Scotty didn't have the heart to deny him his last request. Also, Spock's reaction to seeing this example of self-sacrifice -- Preston's 'Kobayashi Maru' test -- sets the stage for him to do what he does later in the film, to sacrifice himself in order to save the ship. Scotty didn't bring the cadet up to the Bridge against his will -- that would be just reprehensible! No, the only reason he would bring him there was because the dying lad had BEGGED him to do so, so that he could see that the Command Deck of the ship was still in working order and able to stay in-the-fight due to his own heroism. Undoubtedly, Peter Preston had had ambitions of becoming a Chief Engineer on a starship, just like his uncle Scotty, which would have resulted in frequent moments spent on the Bridge at its Engineering station -- even, at times, having the Conn, sitting in the Captain's chair, when the Captain was away with his 1st Officer. All of that future he'd dreamed of, and knew he would never get to experience, had to have motivated the dying cadet to beg -- to insist -- that Scotty take him up to the Bridge, to fulfill his final lifelong dream, rather than make the trip to Sickbay where he was going to end up dead eventually anyway. Scotty knew that there wasn't a damn thing McCoy could do to keep his nephew alive, the physical trauma being fatal.

When the Enterprise first entered orbit near the Regula station, Kirk asked Spock for a scan and Spock told him that sensors and scanners are still inoperative. That's why they didn't know about what was on the station, the cave, or Reliant's position.

Writing a action packed film in two weeks and then enduring all the changes during the production and then changes made during the editing process and it's a wonder the ST:WoK is mostly so damn good. Credit to the cast and crew for pulling that off.

If anyone read the novelization, the sandstorm interfered with the transporters to the extent that if they were inside a structure they couldn't be beamed up. They had to go outside

The dead engineer went to the bridge for a reason. I never understood until I watched the directors cut version. It's apparently Scottys sisters kid. That's why he took the death so hard.

I feel that Kirk didn't rush to Carol's location right away because they were on a training cruise. He notified Starfleet command and continued on the original mission statement that was the purpose of the voyage. It's only when he stops ignoring his instincts in the next scene and goes to investigate himself.

what about the fact that khan never met chekov before? "Space Seed" happened in the first season of TOS while chekov only joined the crew in season 2. walter koenig even realized this when they were filming star trek 2, but kept silent in fear of being replaced or his role being toned down in the movie.

In the novelization of TWOK (Vonda McIntyre), which was probably based on an earlier copy of the script, Chekov DOES try to contact Reliant. He's panicked and yelling, "Beam us up! Beam us up!" and Beach and Kyle get a garbled version of it on the bridge. Beach urgently orders the transporter to lock on but then the signal fades and the lock is lost. So, originally, Chekov was actually less stupid.

LOL, #9 - I have always envisioned a scene where McCoy pulls the blanket over the dead nephew and then turns to Scotty and says, "Y'know, Scotty if you'd brought him here first, I probably could have saved him."

The scene establishing Peter Preston as being Scotty's nephew was omitted from the theatrical release, but reinstated for the Director's Cut DVD, as were several other scenes like an extended version of the scene where Kirk explains the Genesis Project.

For #3, I assumed that the Enterprise focused on repairing sensors first while the Reliant focused on repairing engines and weapons. Look how quickly the Reliant started catching up to the Enterprise right before entering the Mutura Nebula. Kirk's experience probably taught him that there's more of an advantage in repairing sensors first to see where your enemy is when your enemy can't see where you are.

Point 10: In all fairness, they probably were not aware of how complex security really needed to be back in the early 80's. Looking at this film with 2020 lenses is rather unfair in this regard. It was unthought of by the general public at the time that they needed high encryption passwords. Also, the fact that the prefix code was not changed by Kahn shows the character's arrogance, he is still human and has a great ego. Additionally, he is highly intelligent, he knows there needs to be an override engaged to stop the Enterprise takeover. Finally, once reminded of the prefix code, he can assume Kirk changed the code and even with 27000 possible combinations, it is impractical to go flipping switches at random hoping to catch Kirk by surprise.

When the Enterprise first approached the Reliant, Saavik dutifully informed Kirk; "On the approach of a vessel when communications have not been established......" with Spock then cutting her off about how Kirk was "well aware of Regulations", that meant YOU RAISE THE SHIELDS. PERIOD. That would have been my #1 "dumbest thing" to point out. But that's just me. This is a great video and yes, "The Wrath Of Khan" is also my favorite Star Trek movie. It brought back the camaraderie, humor, and dramatic impact of the Original Series, the lack of which made "The Motion Picture" sterile and rather bland. But no matter what movie was made based on the Original Series, the Enterprise itself was the star. I remember the audience when I first saw "The Wrath Of Khan", they reacted viscerally when the ship was defenseless and being cut up by phaser fire from the Reliant, another Starfleet ship, to boot. And in "The Search For Spock", when Kirk ordered the destruction of the Enterprise, when it blew up, again, the audience reacted emotionally, many were crying.