Adam Nimoy Meanders Through Memories Of His Father And His Father's Iconic Character: For The Love Of Spock!

The Good: Some decent interviews and clips
The Bad: A lot of common knowledge, Incoherent progression
The Basics: For The Love Of Spock feels far more exploitative than informative or a true tribute to Leonard Nimoy and Spock.


When Leonard Nimoy died, it was a shock and left a deep sadness within the Trekker community. For me, Nimoy's death stung, but I had had the good fortune to meet the actor multiple times at various Star Trek conventions and even inteact with him. Indeed, when I first met Leonard Nimoy, I carried out a postumous wish of a friend who died before she could meet him and I wrote a short story about it. Leonard Nimoy's death is one of the few celebrity deaths that resonated with me personally, but the sting of his death was muted rather quickly when Adam Nimoy announced his plans for For The Love Of Spock. At the time, the project did not have a name, but director Adam Nimoy announced he was making a documentary about his father . . . and he went to Kickstarter to raise funds for the project. As a fan of Leonard Nimoy's works, as one who watched legions of fans repeatedly shell out piles of cash to get Nimoy's autograph at conventions (and knowing those companies paid Mr. Nimoy for his time and service), I was offended. Leonard Nimoy did not die a pauper and regardless of how much Adam Nimoy inherited (or not) from his father, it was in pretty poor taste to solicit fans for money to complete the project.

Apparently, I was in the minority view for such things and Trekkers once again shelled out and allowed Adam Nimoy to complete what could have been a vanity project on his father's life. For The Love Of Spock is a meandering documentary that vaguely follows the narrative of Leonard Nimoy's life, blended with stories about the popularity of the character Spock and self-referential bits about the documentary itself. Given that there are two autobiographies from Leonard Nimoy, there is shockingly little information that is unique to For The Love Of Spock . . . so what is truly new in the film seems mostly like therapy for Adam and Julie Nimoy to talk about their father.

Opening with a self-referential clip that explains how For The Love Of Spock came to be, intended as a tribute to Spock for the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek, Adam Nimoy had begun work on the project before Leonard Nimoy died. After a brief biography of how Leonard Nimoy - who had never held an acting job for more then two weeks and was working as, essentially, a jack of all trades in order to make ends meet for his family while pursuing his passion of acting - was hand-selected by Gene Roddenberry to play Spock, the documentary transitions into an exploration of the character. Featuring interviews by William Shatner, George Takei, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Jason Alexander and Chris Pine and others, For The Love Of Spock discusses the dynamics of the character with how Nimoy portrayed the logical character against the more emotive Kirk and McCoy.

Adam Nimoy infuses himself into the documentary as it progresses. Adam Nimoy discusses the effect of popularity of Star Trek on the Nimoy family - mostly admitting repeatedly that his father was a workaholic who was barely around. Adam Nimoy's infusion of self into the narrative leads to some weird dead ends within the narrative, like his inclusion of a letter from the early 1970s where Leonard Nimoy wrote to Adam about his relationship with his own father after the two had a fight. Adam Nimoy then declares he was a deadhead at the time, puts up a video of Nimoy singing his song "Bilbo Baggins" . . . and the way he uses it seems like a way to subtly mock him. The weird infusion of Adam Nimoy talking about himself allows Adam Nimoy to promote himself - showing his first Star Trek convention, describing his father's support of him in being an entertainment lawyer, etc.

But the lack of a coherent narrative, any sense of linear development, quickly wears thin. For The Love Of Spock leaps from Star Trek into Nimoy's theatrical career after Mission: Impossible. But before discussing Star Trek: The Motion Picture (referencing the Animated Series, but not the aborted Phase II project!), Adam Nimoy leaps ahead to discuss directing his father in an episode of The Outer Limits . . . which came well after Leonard Nimoy had established himself as a director. In addition to having shockingly little new information, For The Love Of Spock starts to feel disengenious about the life of Leonard Nimoy.

Neglected in For The Love Of Spock is the period of Leonard Nimoy's life where he purposely attempted to distance himself from his experiences in Star Trek. Nimoy wrote his first autobiography, I Am Not Spock long before writing I Am Spock - which Adam Nimoy is shown reading and listening to in For The Love Of Spock. And then Adam Nimoy tosses in, late in the film, weird mentions of his personal conflict with his father and Leonard Nimoy's alcoholism.

The result is a documentary that very sloppily shifts from discussing the character of Spock and detailing the life of Leonard Nimoy. Adam Nimoy's late shift to discussing his estrangement seems incredibly self-serving as having so much material for people discussing Spock and Leonard Nimoy, there is an abrupt shift to only Adam Nimoy discussing his relationship with his father. In other words, despite its other narrative problems, there is a wealth of information and sources for so much of the information about all other aspects of Leonard Nimoy's life and the cultural impact of Spock . . . but then only Adam Nimoy's word for what went on in his relationship with Leonard Nimoy. And it is somewhat weird to see Adam Nimoy opening up to Zachary Quinto where Quinto asks some of the most pointed questions of the documentary. Similarly odd is that during that section of For The Love Of Spock, there is no material wherein Leonard Nimoy's second wife is given a voice in the documentary. The film climaxes not with any sort of tribute to Leonard Nimoy at any number of the Star Trek conventions that were done following his death . . . but rather with a Burning Man tribute from 2015 to Nimoy?!

So much of For The Love Of Spock is similarly sloppy or contradictory. I am a big enough person to admit when I am wrong, but with For The Love Of Spock, my impression before the fact was definitely right. This barely-documentary is more exploitative than it is revealing or engaging. For those who want to know about Leonard Nimoy's life, picking up either (or both) of his autobiographies is a far better use of one's time than For The Love Of Spock.

For other documentaries based on Star Trek, please check out my reviews of:
Trek Nation
Trekkies
The Captains

3.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years Is As Much A Mixed Bag As The Exhibition!

The Good: Good photography, Nice foreword, Some impressive art
The Bad: Overpriced, Some terrible artwork
The Basics: Titan Books allows those who cannot make it to the traveling Star Trek: The Exhibition experience the Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years as a coffeetable book with as mixed results as the artwork it presents!


I own very few coffeetable books. For one, I have cats, so the coffeetable is frequently used as a feline jungle gym and, frankly, I don't need to bring anything else into the house that the cats will destroy just by being placed where their name dictates. Second, coffeetable books are a tough sell with me because their pricing follows a very predictable arc; the price is usually set artificially high to capitalize on initial hype of the book's subject, then about three months after the premiere, the price of the book plummets . . . and about a year later, the coffeetable book goes into collectible pricing ranges based on its rarity, but it is virtually impossible to find truly mint copies of the book (yes, I am a snob about book condition!). So, I tend to avoid coffeetable books as a genre, though I do have a couple. When Titan Books announced that it was publishing the coffeetable volume Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years, that got my attention.

I was genuinely surprised that Titan Books could publish a coffeetable book because the last I knew Simon & Schuester/Pocket Books had the exclusive license for publishing Star Trek books (as I have come to understand it, there are differences between the fiction and non-fiction - about productions, cultural impact, etc. - publications and that allowed Titan Books to publish Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years). I also found myself thinking that Titan Books was a good choice for publishing Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years, a book based on the art exhibition of the same name that is traveling the world during the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek (which just so happens to be today!). Titan Books did an impressive job with Watchmen Portraits (reviewed here!) and it seemed like they could do right by a volume cataloging the Star Trek 50 Artists 50 Years Exhibition.

Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years is a coffeetable photography book that captures the artwork from the Star Trek: The Exhibition traveling art display of the same name. For $40, readers, collectors and art enthusiasts get a 112 page book of photographs and blurbs that is barely over a half-inch thick (not, admittedly, the way books are usually valued, but it's a lot of money for something that is physically less substantial or impressive than other Titan Books volumes in the same price point). The unique aspect of the book is a foreword by Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan director Nicholas Meyer.

As for the rest, what Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years are photographs or images of the fifty art pieces that were contributed to celebrate the 50th Anniversary Of Star Trek. The pieces range from montages that pack characters in from virtually every episode of the original Star Trek for a single shot to stylized headshots of Star Trek (franchise) aliens. There is a photo montage of (essentially) Mayim Bialik doing cosplay and photographs of toys and a theoretical starship. One of Leonard Nimoy's photograph montages was included, as well as new retro-looming movie posters and faux-recruiting posters for StarFleet!

What Titan Books got right with Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years is the book's physical quality. The foreword is a nice touch and all of the images are credited on the page opposite the work. The photographs look good and the paper stock is thick enough so there is no image bleed from other pages; each work of art is left to stand on its own. Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years is a book that looks as good as the artwork it portrays within its pages.

That said, Titan Books cannot be held responsible for the content of those pages and that is a decidedly mixed bag. Some of the artwork is cartoonish and juvenile and the purpose behind some of the pieces eludes me (Spock leaning on a classic car, for example). It is art, but it is not like the subjects of the photographs in the book Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years were all oil paintings; some are essentially doodles by famous artists. Others are immaculate works of detailed art, clever, or have quite a bit of artistic merit (like Nimoy's photography). The inconsistency makes for a very unsatisfying book and collection.

Which brings us to why Titan Books bothered to publish Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years. Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years was a massive undertaking and I suspect licensees like Titan Books and Rittenhouse Archives (which created a trading card set based upon the artwork from the exhibition, reviewed here!) had to bid and produce their products in something of a vacuum. They took a risk on the subject and, sadly, none of the licensees or museums that are hosting the Star Trek: The Exhibition knew that it would be so thoroughly spoiled online. StarTrek.com published images of all fifty works to promote the project and it completely guts the need for something like Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years. The book ends up feeling, sadly, like a cashgrab and to be fair to Titan Books, they did get screwed by startrek.com.

But, Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years exists in the same world as the internet and is attempting to appeal to the same fanbase. Unfortunately, in this instance, it makes Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years utterly unnecessary. Given the opportunity, I suspect most fans will look over the artwork on startrek.com and realize there is little thrill to be had in seeing the displays in person. Moreover, some of the artists are likely to offer prints of their work directly; that would allow fans to get the exact work or works that they loved from the art exhibition, without the works they did not. I would be surprised if there were fifty Star Trek fans in the entire world who would want all fifty pieces of artwork from the Star Trek 50 Artists 50 Years project hanging in their homes.

Ultimately, that makes the appeal of Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years surprisingly minimal, even for a coffeetable book that one glances at only occasionally.

The artwork within this book utilizes images based upon elements of the Star Trek franchise, most notably:
Star Trek
Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan
Star Trek: The Next Generation

For other Star Trek reference books, check out my reviews of:
Where No One Has Gone Before: A History In Pictures
The Star Trek Compendium
The Official Star Trek Prop And Costume Auction Book

5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, A Last Hurrah That Works More Than Just Metaphorically!

The Good: Good plot, Nice message, Decent acting, Most character work
The Bad: Returned scenes garble everything, Spock's character
The Basic: Despite some serious character and plot flaws, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country remains a solid film that illustrates a diplomatic process that meets with resistance.


"All good things must come to an end," goes the old saying and as the actors portraying the primary cast of the classic 60's science fiction show Star Trek aged and decided they were done with their occasional outings into the final frontier, they closed the series with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Not ones to go out on a low note, the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-A is charged with essentially creating universal peace and making the 25th Anniversary of Star Trek an event.

When the Klingon moon Praxis explodes, the Klingon homeworld's environment and power supply is crushed. Unprepared for the magnitude of the environmental disaster, the Klingons turn toward their old enemies, the Federation for help. Captain James T. Kirk and the U.S.S. Enterprise head to a rendezvous with the Klingon flagship that ends with an unfortunate incident wherein the Enterprise apparently fires on the Klingon ship and StarFleet officers beam aboard and kill the Klingon Chancellor.

As Kirk and McCoy are tried and convicted by the Klingons for failing to save the life of Chancellor Gorkon, a new Chancellor is named. Spock works to find the evidence to exonerate his friends before they are killed on an icy prison planet and in the process, he uncovers a plot that strikes at the heart of all he believes in.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is one of those movies that comes in with a bang - the explosion of Praxis is quite impressive - and manages to go out with one as well. This is the end of an era, the cinematic adventures of Captain Kirk and his crew, and by the way the crew is split up, the viewer feels that. To wit, Captain Sulu is in command of the U.S.S. Excelsior and while he is invaluable to the film, actor George Takei is virtually relegated to a cameo role as a result.

The Undiscovered Country is hailed by many as the best of the Star Trek film franchise and while it is a wonderful film, three things keep the movie from rising to the level of greatness that was achieved by Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (click here for my review of that!) and Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (click here for that review! ), especially when those two are viewed together as one longer movie. The three things that keep The Undiscovered Country from being even remotely considered perfects are: the bastardization of the idea of the Federation and StarFleet for plot points, Spock's actions near the climax of the film, and the sloppiness of the writing as far as basic details go.

On the two-disc special edition DVD of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the director's cut of the film is presented, which simply reinserts a subplot into the movie that involves a rescue attempt for Kirk and McCoy by high command figures in StarFleet. Recutting the Colonel in with his essentially racist (against Klingons) viewpoints and remarks cheapens what Star Trek stands for.

I've vigorously argued that Gene Roddenberry's vision of Star Trek was not truly achieved until Star Trek: The Next Generation. Yet, in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the supplemental characters are all motivated by conservative ambitions to keep a cold war mentality going and they are almost universally prejudiced, barbaric and, well, dumb. In short, Roddenberry's vision is of a humanity that is not motivated by greed, war or prejudice and yet in The Undiscovered Country, the highest levels of StarFleet are filled with people who are only avaricious, barbaric and bigoted. It's insulting to anyone who has watched Star Trek and bought into concepts like Infinite Diversity through Infinite Combinations. It's a cheap way to flesh out the plot at the expense of the greater themes Star Trek had stood for for a long time before.

Moreover, the viewer is asked to believe that high level conspirators within StarFleet, the Klingon and Romulan Empires are working together to . . . prevent the major powers from working together. Wrap your head around that.

Even more troubling is what happens with Spock near the climax of the film (I'm writing around a lot of details here to prevent any "surprises" from being leaked!). On the bridge of the Enterprise, Spock roughly grabs a fellow officer and performs a Vulcan mind meld. The person resists and Spock pushes. In essence, the audience watches Spock rape another character and the scene is disturbing, treated as uncontroversial and guts the pacifistic, rational character that fans have loved for the twenty-five years before this film was made. The scene is violent and more than anything else in the movie is why the film ought to have been rated PG-13 (it escaped with a PG and for those who do not follow my reviews, I seldom bother even noticing ratings from the MPAA). Strange, considering Leonard Nimoy was intimately involved with the creation of the story, that the writers would so incredibly botch the character of Spock.

While the other two elements might only be appreciated by fans, the final problem is sloppiness that any moviegoer who is awake for this film will find troubling. The first words of the film are uttered by Captain Sulu, dictating a captain's log about how the Excelsior is returning from the Beta Quadrant where it has been cataloguing gaseous anomalies. At the climax of the film, Spock and McCoy retrofit a photon torpedo with . . . the sensor equipment that the Enterprise had used on its last mission, cataloguing gaseous anomalies. Now, I'm not saying that there isn't a whole lot of gas that needs to be catalogued in space, but it seems like the writers mixed up their two ships and that's just indefensibly sloppy. What's sadder is that Uhura's suggestion that they utilize this equipment is the strongest contribution she makes to this endeavor.

Beyond that, the movie is wonderful. Even if one does not like Star Trek (heretic, you!), The Undiscovered Country is a vital outing that is accessible to anyone. Like the very successful cinematic outing Star Trek IV The Voyage Home, The Undiscovered Country takes a powerful social idea and couches it in the science fiction/adventure trappings of Star Trek. In this case, the philosophical question of what happens when there are no more wars to fight is tackled.

The Undiscovered Country is a metaphor for the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, with the Klingons taking the place of the USSR and the Federation embodying the United States. The tensions, mistrust and machinations are compelling. Sure, it buggers the viewer to see Klingons and humans working together so they won't have to work together, but the idea is very well explored.

In fact, outside the comedic elements that are thrown in to try to capitalize on the same formula as The Voyage Home, the dinner scene wherein the concept of peace and life without wars is debated is brilliant and vibrant.

The reason The Undiscovered Country ultimately works as well as it does is because it maintains the focus on the characters, in this case Captain Kirk and . . . well, virtually everyone else. Chancellor Gorkon is an idealist, General Chang is the fairly generic villain and Captain Spock is more diplomat than science officer here, which foreshadows his return in "Star Trek The Next Generation's "Unification, Part II.” Gorkon and Spock are rational, idealistic alternatives to the conservative, warring viewpoints expressed by Kirk and Chang. These other characters service Kirk by providing him with guides by which to grow.

And Kirk grows beautifully in The Undiscovered Country. While some die-hard fans seem to hate the idea that Kirk might hate Klingons, the motivations seem very vivid, considering what happened to his son in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock. Kirk's anger becomes something he must confront and a serious liability to his ability to perform his mission. Indeed, because he is clinging to his hatred of Klingons, he is easily convicted at his trial on the Klingon homeworld. Through the course of the movie, Kirk wrestles with his dislike of Klingons and his desire to see them suffer as a result of the actions certain individual Klingons have taken.

One person I know is deeply offended by Kirk's suggestion near the beginning of the movie that the Federation's response to the Klingon's desperate crisis is "Let them die." I believe his utterance, in the halls of StarFleet's most powerful people, is a shocking statement that serves the story well, while preserving the character of Captain Kirk quite well. It's hard to be high and mighty when you are hurt, no matter how evolved one is.

Moreover, how Kirk's reaction evolves from being willing to let the Klingons suffer and die without aid to his shock when Gorkon is murdered, is compelling. This leads the viewer on an emotional journey that is realistic, intense and wonderful to watch.

Part of what does this is the acting. Guest actors include David Warner as Chancellor Gorkon, Kurtwood Smith as the Federation president, Mark Lenard as Sarek and Brock Peters as Admiral Cartwright, all of whom are familiar to fans of the "Star Trek" franchise for other roles. Here they each perform wonderfully, contributing to their characters in ways that transform them from "types" on the page to vivid individuals on the screen.

Christopher Plummer plays General Chang and his performance is wonderful. Plummer is menacing, maniacal and clever as the one-eyed general. Plummer varies his performance between cultured and deadly with an ease that overcomes his prosthetics. He steals every scene he is in.

Having seen some episodes of Sex and the City, it's a pleasure to see Kim Cattrall acting in The Undiscovered Country. She plays Spock's protege, the Vulcan Valeris. She is emotionless and wonderful in the role and it's a big stretch for those who are used to her from the other show.

It is William Shatner whose performance rules The Undiscovered Country. Kirk's character journey would not be possible were it not for the depth and scope Shatner used to portray him. He throws his whole body into the role, playing sedate and intellectual in the dinner scene and making his brawl on Rura Penthe completely believable. Shatner earns his pay and it's a pleasure to see him redefining Captain Kirk as a truly dynamic character in this outing.

The two-disc DVD set is very much designed for the fans. Bonuses include commentary and a number of featurettes that explore the ending of the adventures of the original Star Trek. Virtually all of the bonus features explore The Undiscovered Country in the context of the Star Trek universe (including a wonderful one where guest actors are shown in their various other Trek incarnations), leaving little for those who are not fans of the franchise to celebrate.

And there is a lot in the movie that is geared toward a more mainstream audience. The conflict in The Undiscovered Country is one of life and death that is wonderfully open to anyone who likes a good political thriller. At the end of the day, The Undiscovered Country is about how governments relate and the machinations that are in place to create and disrupt peace. As a result, the film succeeds admirably in making a statement about what peace ought to cost.

That's a lesson anyone can appreciate.

For the other Star Trek film adventures, please click here!

7.5/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please click here to visit my index page!

© 2010, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Nasty Villain Returns With A Vengeance In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan!

The Good: Excellent plot, Character elements, Effects, DVD bonuses, Great acting
The Bad: None!
The Basics: When Khan escapes the planet he was imprisoned on in "Space Seed," the U.S.S. Enterprise must save the galaxy from Khan's perversion of a scientific experiment into a weapon.


Following on the heels of the Star Trek: The Motion Picture The Director's Cut (click here for my review!) which remixed and redid the special effects of the first, dreadfully slow Star Trek movie came the DVD Director's Cut of the classic film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The Wrath of Khan was a perfect film to begin with and the DVD treatment of the film does nothing to diminish the film, instead only enhancing its perfection. Like The Empire Strikes Back (click here for that review!), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan had very little added back into it, affirming its original quality.

When the U.S.S. Enterprise begins a training mission with most of the senior crew overseeing a ship full of cadets from StarFleet Academy, Admiral James T. Kirk is given the chance to stretch his space legs and he leaps at the opportunity. The ship sets out under the guidance of Captain Spock and his Vulcan protege, Saavik. Meanwhile, in a remote corner of the galaxy, the U.S.S. Reliant, with first officer Pavel Chekov, runs into a planet that appears deserted until he and his captain find a downed ship. The ship is housing none other than the genetically enhanced former ruler of most of Earth, Khan.

Khan quickly - and monstrously - learns what Chekov and his captain were doing on his little planet and he sets off for the Regula 1 space station where testing has begun on the mysterious Genesis Device. Hijacking the Reliant with his superhuman crew, Khan seeks to take control of the Genesis Device as a weapon, killing those who keep him from his objective. This lures Admiral Kirk to Regula where he and Khan engage in a battle of wits and starship battle techniques to prove dominance and control an incredibly powerful device.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is essentially "Moby Dick in Space." Khan hunts Kirk as Ahab hunted the whale, beyond all reason, beyond all sense of self and acknowledgment of peril. This is a tale of obsession and it is fraught with consequences. Just as Khan's obsession results in the ultimate consequences that end this movie, Admiral Kirk is finally forced to accept the consequences of his actions from previous episodes of "Star Trek" and unseen prior events in the life of James T. Kirk. These take two forms: Khan and David.

Khan is a remnant from the original Star Trek and he appeared in the episode "Space Seed" (click here for the episode review!). In that episode, Kirk awoke Khan and his crew from suspended animation only to have Khan attempt to take over the ship with the aid of the ship's historian. By the end of the episode, everything was tidied up all neat and Khan's people were condemned to a nearby planet to live and rule over it as they saw fit. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan presupposes that Khan's world was made almost entirely inhospitable when another planet in the system exploded and altered its orbit. In the series, Kirk never faced the consequences of abandoning Khan to his own devices and here he is forced to. The consequences include the loss of life, the menace of a despot with a super-powerful device and the destruction of Kirk's ship.

The other consequence nicely balances the malice of Khan and that is in the form of David Marcus, a young scientist who is working on the Genesis Project with his mother, Carol Marcus. David and Carol are part of a team working to make lifeless planets bear life through the use of a missile - the Genesis Device - that reorganizes existing matter and energy into patterns that support life. It's like a giant transporter that makes rocks into trees. David, as it turns out, is a consequence from Kirk's prior relationship with Dr. Carol Marcus. With all of the relationships viewers saw Captain Kirk have on Star Trek it seems both natural and perfectly appropriate that one of those relationships would net him a child.

What keeps the film viable, fresh and interesting is that it does not simply begin and a simple chase movie and certainly it does not start out as a "kill the villain of the week" flick. Instead, The Wrath of Khan begins as a slow, eagerly developing story about aging. Admiral Kirk is feeling his years and here he is forced to accept that he is no longer young in the way that he was when he embarked on his five-year mission. Instead, here Kirk is forced to use his brains as opposed to his brawn and he works himself slowly out of the slump that he is in to rise to the heroic levels needed to thwart Khan.

And where Khan is a singular menace, Kirk is teamed with Spock and their teamwork allows them to maneuver toward victory, even as Khan's obsessions take him over.

Most nitpickers will observe that Chekov, who Khan recognizes, was not on Star Trek when "Space Seed" aired. There's a simple explanation for this discrepancy for those who like to think about such things and it would be that Chekov was on the ship, but not assigned to the bridge at the time. Khan read the ship's library, so it would be possible he encountered Chekov's record there, if one wants to make excuses for the writing oversight here. Far more troubling is the crew of the Reliant, which apparently cannot count, mistaking Khan's Ceti Alpha V for Ceti Alpha VI. More troubling than the Chekov backstory is how a planet that exploded would leave no debris to be detected by a science vessel sent to find lifeless planets.

These nitpicky ideas are easily brushed aside as the film creates a story that is far more engaging for its broad concepts than its minor technical inconsistencies. The character elements that force the characters to deal with consequences are enhanced in the Director's Cut. Returned are brief lines where Kirk acknowledges that his first victory over Khan comes only because he had specific knowledge of the equipment that Khan did not. Also included in this version is additional footage of Cadet Peter Preston, who is Scotty's nephew and who serves to make a point about consequences. In this version, the viewer cares a little bit more about Preston.

Part of the brilliance of the rivalry between Khan and Kirk as expressed in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is that the hero and villain never directly face off. Kirk and Khan communicate via communicators (like cell phones) and they see one another on the view screens, but they are never in the same place at the same time, which only serves to add to the tension as they chase one another around the stars.

This is a huge kudos to actors Ricardo Montalban and William Shatner for pulling off their acting jobs so perfectly that viewers are often surprised to learn they never met on the set. Montalban creates an anger in his eyes and a vengeance in his voice that makes the viewer believe he is staring down Kirk, spitting at him. And when he is enraged, the viewer feels the menace, so wonderful and convincing is Montalban's performance.

Similarly, William Shatner sells the audience on both Admiral Kirk's reluctant aging and his ability to still be cunning and clever. He alternates between casual and command body language perfectly emoting using his physique as opposed to simply voicing all of what is going on in his head. Shatner wonderfully baits Khan with an affect that (again) makes one think he is standing right next to the villain.

The cast is rounded out by wonderful performances by Leonard Nimoy as the taciturn Mr. Spock and DeForest Kelley as the emotive and cranky Dr. McCoy. Walter Koenig, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols and George Takei are all given moments to support as well and they live up admirably. For such a tight cast, newcomer Merritt Butrick fits right in with his energetic performance as David, as does Bibi Besch as Carol Marcus.

It is Kirstie Alley who steals ever scene she is in, though, as the Vulcan Cadet Lieutenant Saavik. Alley is cool, calm and mostly very Vulcan in the role (though she does swear during the opening sequence). Alley holds her own with acting heavyweights Nimoy and Shatner and she does it while embodying a brilliant addition to the crew. It is a pleasure - especially now - to watch her work.

This two-disc DVD set also includes thorough commentary on the film as well as a number of featurettes and some decent easter eggs. The supporting material is enough to counterbalance the nagging nitpicky plot points that might otherwise rob this film of perfection. I find this film is best enjoyed with its sequel, Star Trek III: The Search For Spock. But, even on its own, this is a wonderful film essential for anyone who likes science fiction, action adventure and revealing human dramas.

For the rest of the Star Trek films, please check out my review of the film franchise here!
For other science fiction films, please check out my reviews of:
Robert A. Heinlein's The Puppet Masters
Land Of The Lost
The Clone Wars

10/10

For other "Star Trek" movie and episode reviews, please check out my index page by clicking here!

© 2010, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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