KKKKKHHHHHHAAAAAANNNNNNN! Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan turns 36!

On June 4th, 1982, Star Trek II, opened in the United States. The sequel to the considerably lack luster “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” many consider it the best of the Star Trek film series. It’s “The Empire Strikes Back” of the original three films with a downer, yet hopeful ending when Spock sacrifices himself for his crew mates, especially his friend, James Tiberius Kirk. In my humble opinion, I found the first film incredibly boring, with it bringing nothing exciting or interesting to the table. Khan, however, is a masterpiece in pop-corn filmmaking while paying homage to the original series. It’s action packed, funny, adventurous and has one of the greatest sci-fi villains ever immortalized in celluloid… genetically engineered tyrant, Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán), a character who first appeared in the 1967 Star Trek episode "Space Seed".

The plot is pretty simple. When Khan escapes from a 15-year exile to exact revenge on Kirk, the crew of the Enterprise must stop him from acquiring a powerful terraforming device named Genesis. It’s Star Trek at its best, although series creator Gene Roddenberry was forced out of the sequel's production due to poor reception of the first film.

Executive producer Harve Bennett wrote the film's original outline, and Jack B. Sowards developed into a full script. Director Nicholas Meyer completed its final script in 12 days, without taking a writing credit. Meyer's approach evoked the swashbuckling and adventurous atmosphere of the original series, and it is completely reinforced by James Horner's amazing musical score. Leonard Nimoy had not intended to have a role in the sequel, but was enticed back with the exception that his character would be given a dramatic death scene.

Negative test audience reaction to Spock's death led to many revisions of the ending with Meyer's objecting wholeheartedly. The production team used many cost-cutting techniques to keep within budget very inexpensive 8.5 million dollar budget (the original film cost 46 million) which was then raised to 11 million due to positive feedback on the first two weeks of shooting. Some of the cost-cutting including utilizing miniature models from past projects and reusing sets, effects footage, and costumes from the first film. Among the film's technical achievements is being the first feature film to contain a sequence created entirely with computer-generated effects.

Released in North America on June 4, 1982 by Paramount Pictures, it went on to become a box office success, earning $97 million worldwide and setting a world record for its first-day box office gross, at the time. Critical reaction to the film was very good; reviewers highlighted Khan's character, the film's pace, and the character arcs and relations as strong elements. Negative feedback focused on weak special effects and some of the “over-the-top” acting. The Wrath of Khan is often credited with renewing interest in what people thought was going to be a dead franchise.

It’s this writer’s personal favorite along with the also very well received Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home… You know, the whale one. So happens, I have a friend who played the punk rocker Spock Vulcan nerve pinches on a bus in the film which is pretty cool.

That and I still think “Wild” Bill Shatner’s hair piece should get some sort of award for something. It’s just as much part of sci-fi movie and television history as the Enterprise itself.

OH, and THIS happened too, which is totes amazeballs!