Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Other mistake: On board the USS Reliant as it orbits Ceti Alpha 6 the systems panels show ship diagnostic diagrams including a wire model of a Constitution class hull, something the Reliant doesn't have. (00:13:01)

Other mistake: When Captain Terrell shoots himself with the phaser, the phaser disintegrates along with his body, when it should have just dropped to the ground (as often shown in the various Trek TV shows). It wouldn't make sense to explain that the phaser disintegrated because Terrell was touching it, because then it would be impossible to explain why nothing happens to the ground that people are standing on when they get shot (Director's Cut). (01:11:20)

Teru_Kage

Other mistake: As the turbo lift doors open for Joachim to say his line, the diagram of the lift system on the back wall is of the Enterprise's system.

Movie Nut

Other mistake: On the Reliant, as the woman turns and goes to activate the transporter, the blue diagram on the monitor above and to the right of her head is the port and top diagnostic views of the Enterprise, rather than the Reliant.

Movie Nut

Other mistake: After Khan activates Genesis, David says the device will explode in 4 minutes. However, on the device itself we see the countdown begin at 999 at a rate of 2 per second. This correlates to about 8 minutes, 20 seconds.

Other mistake: After the Enterprise blows the port nacelle off the Reliant, the destroyed Reliant bridge is shown. The three sheaves of wires hanging from the ceiling should be on a tilt with the angle of the ship rather than straight down. Even accounting for the artificial gravity unit, which could have been damaged.

Movie Nut

Revealing mistake: When the Enterprise is leaving space dock, look at the right (starboard) side of the ship. You can see the shape of the mounting arm the model was mounted on, even though it was blacked out to look like space, and it also blocked out the bottom of the dock. The footage was reused from Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Movie Nut

More mistakes in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Dr. McCoy: Go... Where are we going?
Captain Kirk: Where they went.
Dr. McCoy: Suppose they went nowhere.
Captain Kirk: Then this will be your big chance to get away from it all.

More quotes from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Trivia: As the shuttle with Kirk and company approaches the Enterprise in Space dock, Sulu says "I'm delighted. Any chance to go aboard the Enterprise..." According to IMSDb.com, there was a full dialog between Kirk and Sulu in the original script. The rest of Sulu's line was "however briefly, is always a chance for nostalgia." Kirk also told Sulu the he had cut the orders for Sulu to Captain the Excelsior.

Movie Nut

More trivia for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Question: This isn't technically a mistake per se, but it involves Spock's funeral. Several Enterprise crewmembers are killed during the battle with Khan, and yet only Spock gets a funeral. Perhaps there was a smaller memorial for the others, and Spock got a full funeral due to his status as captain, but why is Kirk only sending Spock's body to the Genesis planet? I imagine he sent only Spocks's body there since in ST3 there aren't dozens of little regenerated human babies crawling around down there.

Vader47000

Chosen answer: I imagine there was a memorial service for everyone killed. Starfleet's policy on corpses is probably to return them to Starfleet HQ where their families can collect them for whatever services or ceremonies they want unless the crewman had left instructions specifying otherwise. There's no telling why Kirk sent Spock's body to Genesis. Based on Sarek's reactions in ST3 he almost certainly went against Spock's wishes, unless of course, Spock left no recorded instructions and Kirk did what he thought would please Spock based on his being highest ranking officer and Spock's closest friend. It also seems very out of character for Spock to just assume that whoever he transferred his katra to would be able to handle it and carry out his wishes (McCoy certainly couldn't!). Ultimately it seems we have to chalk it up to a plot device to base the sequel on.

Grumpy Scot

According to the novelization, Kirk's intentions were to send Spock's remains into the Genesis sun. Lieutenant Saavik altered the trajectory of the torpedo beforehand, due to Spock's desire to see the Genesis effect for himself. The torpedo casing was expected to incinerate when entering the atmosphere. As pointed out by David Marcus in STIII when the pod was detected on the scanners, the gravitational fields were in flux at the time, and the pod had obviously soft-landed on the surface.

More questions & answers from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

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