Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) - 32 corrections (edit)

On Ceti, Khan states that Kirk never checked on their progress - and there is no reason or film evidence to doubt it. Later, Bones starts to inform Kirk that Khan blames Kirk for the death (of his wife), but Kirk interrupts and says, "I know what he blames me for". How? [Kirk is furious over Khan's attack, and feeling guilty over both the cadets he got killed by ignoring regs and never checking on Khan's people. He doesn't want to hear any more about it, he just wants to move on and resolve the situation. Further, as Marla McGivers is nowhere in sight, he's probably already figured out she's at the top of Khan's 'why I hate Kirk list'.]

During the final battle with the Reliant, Spock points out that Khan's flaw is his "two dimensional thinking". Why then, does the Enterprise have to move "up" on the Z-axis, to come up behind Reliant and be on the same plane before she can fire? Surely starships can fire weapons in three dimensions? It has nothing to do with "seeing" Reliant on the viewscreen either, since the viewer is a composite of sensor readings, not a window. [They're too far apart, so they can't see each other; the Mutara nebula restricts sensor range massively, so all they can do is search and hope that they get close enough to spot the other. Spock's observation is that Khan's inexperience is leading him to only search in two dimensions, when the ships are actually separated vertically. Kirk therefore orders the Enterprise to move along the z-axis to get back within sensor range of the Defiant, closing on the smaller ship from a direction that Khan would be unlikely to anticipate.]

In almost all of the outer space shots the stars in the distant background "twinkle". When looking into space from earth stars appear to twinkle because of the distortion caused by the atmosphere; when viewed from space all of the stars should have a consistent glow - no twinkling. [Thats not entirely correct. The Mutara Nebula features heavily and is cloud like, and clearly stretches far beyond what is visible, this alone can account for the twinkling stars.]

Towards the end of the movie, when the Enterprise and Reliant are in the nebula, Spock observes that Khan is plagued by 'two dimensional thinking,' i.e. he's using the Reliant as if on a flat surface, rather than in three dimensional space. Kirk then orders Sulu to set a course of "Z minus 10,000" and we see the Enterprise descending, with Reliant visible below her. Moments later, the Enterprise appears behind the Reliant, rising up from below in direct contradiction to the previous shot as well as the order Kirk gave. [That is not what happened, very few films are shown in real time. Kirk gave the order, and we see Enterprise descend. This begins a search pattern focusing on Z rather than X & Y. We don't hear the rest of Kirk's orders, just like we didn't hear any of his earlier orders regarding the previous search pattern. Eventually during the search Enterprise comes up behind Reliant.]

During the first battle between "Enterprise" and "Reliant", the Enterprise destroys the dome above the impulse engines on Reliant's saucer-section. This dome is then shown to be undamaged in the very next exterior shot of Reliant as it moves away from camera. [The center section of the dome is smashed, leaving some of the "glass" intact around the edges. The shot of the Reliant leaving only shows a side view of the vessel and a very tiny section of the glass dome that stayed in place along the port side. They never show the dome fully intact.]

After Kahn reveals himself to Kirk and company, he gives sixty seconds to gather the information that he wants on Genesis. From that declaration to the actual "Time's Up." is just over two minutes even though it would appear that he was using some device to do the actual timing (he appears to be shutting off a stopwatch or something when he says that their time is up). On the Director's Edition, the time index is about a minute and 40 seconds later than the original release. [They don't show Khan setting any kind of timer; he's just looking at a clock to time the minute. Then his second in command starts a conversation with him, followed by Kirk talking to him. It's likely that with the distractions he forgot which minute he started his countdown on, or just decided to let Kirk have the extra minute after pleading for the extra time. Character choice/mistake.]

When the Enterprise first encounters the Reliant, we see several screen shots of the Reliant on the Enterprise viewscreen, and several shots of the Enterprise on Reliant's viewscreen. The puzzling thing is, if you watch very closely to the shots of the Enterprise on the Reliant's viewscreen, you will notice that the stars are actually moving BACKWARD, as if the Reliant were in a slow reverse. Obviously this is an editing blooper since Khan just ordered that the ship slow to one half impulse power, which still moves the ship forward. [Trek canon has shown the viewscreens are not the same as windows, and that the screens can show us views from vantage points where no camera exists. These vantage points also do not need to be stationary. As such, the views of Enterprise on Reliant's screen are taking Enterprise's speed into account, and the 'vantage point' is backing up to keep her 'in the shot' while Reliant is still moving forward.]

After sending David and the others into the other room, Kirk has a nice and private talk with Carol. They should have been even more discreet. Chekov is still right there and is quite awake because he is holding a bandage of some sort to his ear the whole time. Just a short time earlier, in fact, you can hear McCoy saying "He's coming around," and then he hands Chekov the bandage. And even if Kirk had forgotten that Chekhov was there, he would have said something. They are friends and Chekhov would not want to embarrass his friend by listening in on a private conversation. [Yes, but they still had the conversation. They might have assumed Chekhov is loopy on painkillers. Chekhov is several feet behind them and has damage to one of his ears as well, he might not have heard a thing. It might be a socially awkward situation, but couldn't really be called a mistake.]

Maybe not a mistake per se, but certainly odd: A sign posted at the rear of the bridge says "No Smoking On The Bridge At Any Time." A good idea to be sure, but at no time in any incarnation of "Star Trek", whether the TV versions or the theatrical releases has any character ever been shown to smoke anything. Gene Roddenberry' Utopian vision of the future didn't include any of our contemporary vices, so it is odd that a sign like this would ever be posted. However, it's possible that this was simply a warning to the cast and crew on set, and had no impact on the fictional characters and their universe. [This was actually a deliberate act on the part of the director, Nick Meyers. He likes putting elements that give a common, real-world sense to them. He's also the one that gave the crew bunk beds in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.] [There are vices shown in "Roddenberry's Utopian vision of the future". Alcohol and synthehol is consumed on several occasions, and people still get drunk and rowdy. And people can be seen smoking on holodecks (Data when portraying Sherlock Holmes, in Picards Dixon Hill programs, Riker's jazz club, etc.)]

The simulation of the "Genesis Effect" is shown on a relatively small planetoid, and other than the initial fireball, there is not much 'drama' about the explosive aspects of the effect. However, when the Genesis Device explodes aboard the Reliant at the end of the film, the resultant explosion looks to be violent enough to dwarf and completely destroy even a small sized solar system. At full warp speed, the Enterprise barely escapes, and even that is at great distance from 'ground zero'('space zero'?). This sure does not resemble the gentle, 'friendly' effect shown on the demonstration tape! If Kahn hadn't interfered with the plans, how is it reasonably possible that the crew of the Reliant was going to detonate the device and get away safely? [The Genesis Device takes existing matter and restructures it according to its matrix. The device was intended to be released on a planetoid or small moon where there would be plenty of available matter. Instead, it was detonated within a nebula where the matter was not concentrated, so the effects were much more widespread. In any case, there is nothing to indicate Reliant would have been the ship to activate the Genesis device, its mission was only to find a suitable planet to use. The scientists might have used a probe or some other remote testing device. Finally, the Enterprise makes a slim escape only because it only went to warp moments before detonation. Had it been able to use the full four minutes the Genesis device allots, it would have gotten away in more than sufficient time.]

When Joachim is telling Kahn why they can't return fire on the Enterprise, it's because "They've damaged the photon control and the warp drive. We must withdraw." Notice how his eyes aren't looking at Khan until he says "We must withdraw." indicating that he's reading his lines from an off-screen cue card. [Alternatively, he is looking at the damage readouts to give the correct information. Once he has read the displayed information, he turns to his captain and gives his advice/opinion.]

When Spock dies, the left side of his body and the left side of his head rest against the transparent shield. In the next scene, the back of his body and the back of his head rest on the shield. The position of Captain Kirk relative to the position of Spock also changes between these scenes. [Look more closely, before the scene changes to outside the enclosure, Spock's body shifts and it is his shoulderblade and not his back that rests against the transparency. It is the same position of both his head and his back that we see outside of the transparency.]

When the Enterprise leaves spacedock, Saavik orders 'half impulse'. However, in the exterior shots the impulse engines are not lit. The reason is that ST II uses stock footage from ST I for the spacedock scene. In that movie, the ship leaves the dock using thrusters. [Star Trek 6 establishes that the regulations allow only for thrusters while in Spacedock. The Enterprise would have left Spacedock on thrusters and accellerated to half impulse after clearing Spacedock. Even though Saavik gave the order, Sulu's the one flying, and he's not going to break regulations.]

When Chekov calls Dr Carol Marcus about coming to take the Genesis device (after being subdued by Kahn) there is a science tech in the background, he is African American. Watch him, and his reaction to Chekov's statement about coming over to Regula One. At that point Chekov has mentioned just coming over. The techs reaction is one of questioning annoyance, he then darts his eyes realizing that he's reacting to the right thing at the wrong time. [His eyes don't quite 'dart' - he simply looks at Dr. Marcus after making that 'annoyed' face in reaction to Chekov's line 'We will be there in 3 days'. There's any number of perfectly normal reasons why this visit alone would annoy him. This would only be a 'mistake' if he'd also shouted 'You can't take Genesis.' (Though even that could just be the reaction of a paranoid conspiracy theorist. proving him correct in the process.)]

Kahn explains that Ceti Alpha VI exploded and altered the orbit of the Ceti Alpha V, laying everything waste on the planet. Okay, fine. How then did they mistake Ceti Alpha V for Ceti Alpha VI? Star Trek has established that their method for numbering planets is based on orbit position numbering outward from the star at the center of the system (Earth would be Sol III if it didn't already have other names). For Ceti Alpha V to be mistaken for Ceti Alpha VI, there would have to be another planet inserted between Ceti Alpha V and the star (Ceti Alpha). There is no way for an explosion at Ceti Alpha VI to send a new planet in past Ceti Alpha V and the only way for the explosion to push Ceti Alpha V away from the star would be if the planet had exploded while on the other side of its orbit from Ceti Alpha V. If that had happened, the shockwave would not have been nearly enough to sent Ceti Alpha V up two orbits (because Ceti Alpha VI is gone so Ceti Alpha V would have to go up past Ceti Alpha VII). [The explanation here is pretty simple. Ceti Alpha V must have been where Ceti Alpha VI was supposed to be. With that said, the captain and crew could have easily assumed that Ceti Alpha V was Ceti Alpha VI and that Ceti Alpha V must be on the other side of the system, hiding behind the star. Obviously, the system isn't visited often. Otherwise, Kirk wouldn't have picked the Ceti system for Khan 15 years earlier. So, it's easy for the captain and crew of the Reliant not to be aware of the explosion of Ceti Alpha VI and the shifting of the orbit of Ceti Alpha V. With minimal information about the system (other than the fact that Khan was on Ceti Alpha V), they could have easily mistook one planet for another, especially if they have similar characteristics. The fact that Chekov thinks they're on Ceti Alpha VI when they beam down confirms this. Also, the fact that Khan says that Kirk (and no one else) bothered to check on their progress in 15 years confirms that the system is not visited often. So, what seems like a plot hole can be easily explained.]

Khan claims to have remembered Chekov from "Space Seed", which ran during the series first season, but the character of Chekov wasn't created until the second season of the series. [Chekov only appeared in the show starting with the second season, true, but that doesn't mean that the character wasn't already working on the ship during season one. His sudden appearance was merely the result of him getting a promotion to the primary bridge crew - Khan simply met Chekov elsewhere on the ship at some unseen point during his time on the Enterprise.]

Doesn't it strain credulity that the Enterprise is (once again) "the only ship in the quadrant"? In Star Trek terminology (all series), a quadrant covers one fourth of the galaxy (smaller regions are "sectors" and the boundary runs just about right down the middle of the Federation, right by Earth to be exact. Are we to believe that there is no other starship in that entire half of the Federation? [Before ST:TNG, "quadrant" was a term used somewhat loosely. In the Wrath of Khan, quadrant does not refer to one quarter of the galaxy.]

The scene where Checkov first goes to Khan's cabin on the planet, he notices a belt with "Botany Bay" and realizes it is Khan's cabin. This film is based on TOS-"Space Seed," however Checkov was not in "Star Trek" when this episode was made. How would Checkov know about the ship "Botany Bay"? [Maybe Checkov was assigned to another section of the ship at the time of Space Seed, then later he was promoted to bridge officer.]

After the Enterprise first attacks Reliant and they have moved away, Kirk says "Let's see how bad we were hurt". Then Scottie is seen coming out of the lift with a wounded crewman. Wouldn't it be better to take him to sick bay? Sickbay is in the upper (circular) hull, but is on a lower deck than the bridge. There's no sane reason why Scotty would bypass the deck where Sickbay is to go all the way up to the bridge in order to get help in carrying the wounded crewman back down again. ["no sane reason"-exactly. Scotty thinks the crewman, who happens to be his nephew as I recall, is dead. He's overwhelmed with grief and so is not thinking rationally.]

When they discover that the Genesis device has been activated, Kirk volunteers to beam over to stop it. Even though he is told it can't be stopped, that would indicate the transporters are still working. Why does nobody suggest beaming the device itself off of the Reliant and out into space with the widest possible dispersion, like they did in "Wolf in the Fold" to Redjac? [The Genesis wave forming was interfering with transporter lock, making this solution impossible.]