Serious Sci-Fi # 10

Today we tackle a very important subject, Star Trek and since this is a newbie friendly blog we will cover some basics first. Rule # 1, some people live Trek all their lives and take this very seriously, some would say religiously. Rule # 2, Teleportation, there I said it, as this is a big sticking point to the non-sci-fi loving audience out there. Rule # 3, Trek babble, this is a major component of all Star Trek movies. All three points are major reasons why the average movie goer avoids Trek films in the past but hopefully not in the future.

We will be discussing The Wrath of Khan as a stand alone movie due to its many plot points incorporating the old T.V series and the original movie part # 1. One can see how the public would be hesitant to invest time in a flick that they need to have viewed other lore. But everyone has a father or friend that loves star trek and I believe Star Trek part 2 is a good starting point for anyone.

The cast includes William Shatner as Captain Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as science officer Spock a half human/alien, think of him as a walking supercomputer. Many of the original Trek films deal with problems of our time such as wars, environmental problems and revenge. This Trek film is considered the best of all Trek films and I’ll tell you why here.

Ricardo Montalban, yes the Fantasy Island guy, stars as the vengeful Khan, a man out to avenge an earlier defeat at the hands of one Captain Kirk. You see class all these Trek movies are really old school pirates and sailors. They follow rules established firmly in ship to ship combat of the high seas. As space battle is always a tactical affair. 

Why this movie works, the viewer really doesn’t need to know our main characters all you need to know is the time and place this setting takes place in. A federation science vessel or in this case a star-ship is on a standard recon mission to uncover an inhospitable planet devoid of any life. Sounds simple enough, but nothing ever is, as we soon see two crew members from the star-ship beam down, beam down you say? Ohh God here is where we lose most people, but bare with me here, beaming down or teleportation is key in these films. Very straight forward they get from one place, say 3000 miles away and transport there in seconds!

O.K one rule out of the way, on to the story as these two humans explore the planet and quickly find out that all is not well. They find on this planet a group of ragtag refugees led by or antagonist Khan. Apparently still harbouring ill feeling towards a certain Captain Kirk. So our team is captured and are subjected to one of science fictions aliens, in this case ear aliens. These tiny creatures about the size of a worm are placed on the two crewmen and they slowly travel into their ears and wrap around their brain where they take total control of them.

With these two crewmen in control by the manipulative Khan, they and his supporters quickly overcome the science star-ship Reliant. Now you can see a pattern forming two men of very distinct character in their vessels and awaiting for the right time to strike. I will gloss over many portions of the story and focus on the final battle that is so wonderfully played out, the viewer feels compelled to scream “Spock don’t do it”, but seriously I digress on to the epic battle and the consequences.

This final sequence stands out for its attention to the star-ships themselves, I know that’s kinda geeky but at the time special effects were done with model ships not computers. The difference is striking then on CGI, the computer artists just haven’t nailed star-ships yet in my opinion, I’m looking at you ILM. The ensuing action in the final act of this flick is still by leaps and bounds above many a space battle in sci-fidom.

It’s almost blasphemous for old Klytus here is say that the new Star Wars, which are full of computer effects, have not properly given us the goods when it comes to space battles. I hope the new generation of computer artist study the lighting and pacing of this simple Trek battle and learn that just because one can manipulate polygons does not mean the eye is fooled. Anyway enough ranting, go buy this flick on DVD or whatever you  non sci-fi loving people watch you movies with, I hope it’s not a VHS or beta. With the new year upon us let us look forward to better science fiction with the new crop of movies hitting in the coming months. End of line.