Friends treated like family

One of the great idealist themes of the Star Trek series is that in times of crisis, your friends will stand by you and believe in you when all appearances are against you. Any teenage social outcast growing up in the 1970s & 80s could tune in to their local UHF channel running classic Star Trek reruns on weekday afternoons (when we only had about 5 total channels on TV) and immerse ourselves in this fantasy. Star Trek II is the quintessential melodrama for this theme. "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times" is a theme in the movie. And in the Star Trek universe, in the worst of times, your trusted friends will step up to assist you.

The movie asks the following question repeatedly. What would you do if faced with a no-win situation? A Kobayashi Maru? Do you concede the loss? Do you redefine the rules? Do you cheat? Or do you sacrifice? What steps do you take to protect yourself & your allies?

In the real world, we rarely find friends that will stay around during hard times. That ideal exists more in the world of fiction. But if you find a friend who sticks by you during genuinely difficult times and who stands by you when most others step away, then treasure them, because they are one of the rarest assets you will ever encounter.

When faced with a no win situation, Lt. Saavik fights fair and loses. Captain Kirk cheats and wins. Spock redefines the terms and sacrifices.

Spock doesn't talk about all he would sacrifice for his friends. He doesn't say one thing and do another. The fact that Spock directs his chosen fate at the end of the film is not primarily what makes us cry. What makes us cry is that we knew his quality of character all along, yet we didn't appreciate it until it was fully realized and he was gone. He was uncharismatic, logical, insensitive at times, & frank - not particularly endearing qualities. And to those who knew him well, Kirk's farewell words break our hearts, "Of my friend I can only say this, of all the souls that I have encountered in my travels, his was the most . . . human."

Buy, borrow, or bypass? Buy

Montalban steals the film from Shatner and company.

What makes Star Trek 2 truly exceptional is the menacing, scene-chewing villainy of KHAN himself. This character, and Motalban's performance, saved the Trek franchise from oblivion.

For me, the greatest sequence of the film is Khan's introduction on Cetti Alpha 5. He is absolutely magnetic, as you watch him piece together the entire sequence of events in a brilliant work of exposition. James Horner does a wonderful job of culling themes from the old series to underscore the drama. From this point on, the film jumps to life whenever Khan is on screen.

As for the rest of the plot -- it's vintage Trek, a tad earnest, but solid. The infamous scene at the end is very well played, but becomes a bit over the top with Amazing Grace pumping etc. Nicholas Meyer's tendentious sentimentality and curt dialogue, Moby Dick references and the rest make for fast-paced, snappy scenes but frequently lapse into hokum. See "The Undiscovered Country" for much worse abuses.

But to get back to Khan for just a moment. For any fan of "The Space Seed" is bound to be disappointed. In that 50-minute episode Khan is given about twice the screen time that he is here. The entirety of his background, his temperment, his psychology is delved into. He has some magnificent clashes with Kirk and turns a woman into a simpering slave. In Star Trek II, Khan and Kirk do not even confront each other in person. This is a major disappointment.

Yet I give the script credit for taking a situation directly out of the Trek universe and turning it on its head; Kirk finally cannot cleverly escape the clutches of a determined enemy. Khan is too unrelenting; he is the engine of this film.

Not just a great Trek movie, but a great movie period.

I saw this movie when it made it's original theater run and I enjoyed watching it two days ago on this DVD as much as back in the theater. This particular Trek movie has a great story and perfect pacing. The story moves along quicly enough to keep the viewer's interest (unlike the first Trek movie) while allowing time for a lot of dialogue and character development.

The soundtrack is beautiful. The starship dogfight is about the best space battle scene I can think of. And, now that I'm approaching the age Kirk was in the movie, I see it all in a very different light than I did twenty four years ago. It hits a lot closer to home.

Finally, the best thing I can write about this movie is that people who aren't necessarily into Trek or sci-fi so much still enjoy it. It's just a well done movie. And, the wealth of bonus features just make it a slam dunk decision to buy this DVD.