Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

An original movie poster in 1982; the cast of ST:WOK (L-R) 1st row- DeForest Kelley (Dr. Leonard McCoy), William Shatner (Adm. James T. Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Capt. Spock). 2nd row- George Takei (Cmdr. Hikaru Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Cmdr. Nyota Uhura), Walter Koenig (Cmdr. Pavel Chekov), James Doohan (Cmdr. Montgomery Scott); the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 approaching Khan's highjacked USS Reliant NCC-1864; Khan, his followers, and his unfortunate captive, Cmdr. Pavel Chekov; Khan in command of the Reliant; Spock's sacrificing his life to repair the damaged warp core, for the Enterprise's escape from the exploding nebula.
Summary

Completed in 1982, The Wrath of Khan was a brilliant work. (Those dreadful pajamas were finally turned into respectable and formal maroon uniforms!) Continuing one of the more memorable episodes of ST:TOS, "Space Seed", the movie told briefly of the demise of the inhabitants of Tau Ceti Five. In the episode "Space Seed", Captain Kirk intercepted a DY-100 sleeper ship carrying several wounded genetically-modified superpeople escaping from the Eugenics War of 1996. After healing them, Kirk left them on Tau Ceti Five with supplies to start a new home for themselves. During that ten year time span, Tau Ceti Four, a neighboring planet, exploded, causing Tau Ceti Five to change its orbit, leaving it a barren desert, unhospitable to normal humans. But these weren't normal humans - they were genetically modified. Khan, their leader, wanted revenge on Kirk for not checking on their colony since then.

Meanwhile, Tau Ceti Five was selected as a test site for a new scientific device invented by the Federation, known as the Genesis Device. This device, although scientific in purpose, could also be used as a mass weapon. It terraformed planets and moons and seeded them with vegetation for future colonization. The dark side about it was that planets with life already on it could be targeted and all life on the planet would be eliminated in the device's process. Before the Genesis Device could be test-detonated on Tau Ceti Five, the starship USS Reliant was sent to check the planet for any existing lifeforms. The away team consisted only of the Reliant's captain and first officer to scan. While there, they ran into what they thought was an old freighter wreck. During the inspection of the ship's interior, the first officer, Cmdr. Pavel Chekov, who also served aboard the Enterprise ten years before, recognized the name of the freighter and urgently requested that they leave. On the way out, the two were greeted by Khan and his followers. While in a short captivity, the captain and Chekov were taken over by mind-controlling creatures which made them 'extremely open to suggestion'. In this way, Khan was able to have the officers bring him and his band of followers on board the Reliant, which they efficiently took over. Khan's first goal was done. He had a ship. Now he had to look for Admiral Kirk.

At the same moment, Admiral Kirk was taking the Enterprise out from Spacedock on a training and inspection cruise. As an admiral, Kirk now had pride inspecting the crew of his old ship. The Enterprise also was in good hands. Spock, his former Vulcan science officer was in command. Midway into the cruise, Kirk received a communication from Regula Station; most importantly from his former wife, one of the scientists on the station. His wife remarked that the Reliant had orders directly from Admiral Kirk to use the Genesis Device. The communication was gradually jammed as the Reliant approached the station slowly and precariously. The training cruise was over. Kirk ordered the ship to intercept the station. While approaching the system, the Enterprise encountered the Reliant. Seeing that it appeared to be a friendly ship, the Enterprise took a beating before Kirk overrode the command codes on Khan's ship,lowering his shields, allowing the Enterprise to inflict heavy damage on it. Khan retreated to make repairs. Since the Enterprise's scanners were knocked out, Kirk didn't know where the other ship went. When they arrived momentarily later, the research station was wrecked and littered with the bodies of dead scientists, although Kirk's former wife was not one of them. The away team found the transporter still on with the coordinates set for an underground chamber within Tau Ceti Five. Upon transporting there, they found the surviving missing scientists and their device.

Meanwhile, up in Tau Ceti Five's orbit, the Enterprise crew discovered that the Reliant was orbiting on the far side of the planet and was closing on their position. Kirk, aware that the Reliant might be tuning in to the communication channels, ordered Spock to come back to get the away team in a "few days" and to make repairs in that time. During that time, Chekov and Captain Terrell of the Reliant, who were found on board the station, defected to Khan, as they were still under the influence of the mind-controlling creatures. Faced with divided loyalties between Khan and Kirk, Captain Terrell finally vaporized himself. Cmdr. Chekov collasped in pain as the mind-controlling creatures attacked him and departed from his brain. During the incident, Khan was able to beam up the Genesis Device to the Reliant and went back into orbit, laying in wait for the "returning" Enterprise to show up. A few hours later, Spock returned and picked up the Admiral, the away team and the researchers. Seeing that the Reliant was not as damaged as their own ship, thus making the Reliant faster, the Enterprise made a dash for the nearby Mutara Nebula. Here, it was an even playing field, because the giant gaseous cloud blocked out all sensors and communication. Both ships had to persue each other in a partial blindness.

Eventually locating each other several times, the two ships lobbed torpedoes and shot phasers at each other. The Reliant became even more damaged, unable to fire anything else. Khan's only weapon was the Genesis Device, which would detonate within 30 seconds of being armed, vaporizing both ships. Since the warp drive was disabled by battle damage, it was impossible for the Enterprise to escape from the blast in time. Therefore, Spock decided to sacrifice his own life to repair the highly radioactive engines with the logic "The needs of the one outweighs the needs of the many." Before he did, however, he transferred his living soul into the mind of Dr. McCoy, who had tried to stop him from killing himself. The ship, having restored warp drive, escaped successfully, with the price of Spock's life. The detonation of the Genesis Device created a new planet where the nebula once was. Spock's casket (a gutted photon torpedo casing) came to rest on the aptly named "Genesis Planet". Spock would go on to be resurrected on that planet, since the planet itself possessed metaphasic regenerative properties, as continued in the next Star Trek film..........









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