SS Botany Bay

I went to watch Star Trek Into Darkness on Wednesday and it got me thinking, where did the idea of peaceful exploration of space go? Star Trek movies through the past two decades were mostly a bunch of explosions and senseless action. I am not saying that action is not entertaining, I love the intense battles from First Contact, but the Star Trek I knew growing up was more about diplomacy and discovering new ways to solve difficult situations.

The title of this post is dedicated to the greatest Star Trek film and a big contender for my favourite film of all time,

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

I shall not spoil the movie for everyone who has not seen it, so all I can say is this movie brings balance to all that is great in Star Trek. The movie deals a lot with core human qualities including vengeance, sacrifice and fear while incorporating chilling battle sequences. It has many of Star Trek's most memorable moments including the infamous meme of Kirk screaming Khan's name out of anger.

Notice that little starship with the Enterprise? That is SS Botany Bay from the TOS episode Space Seed.

Star Trek II was released in 1982 with a significantly reduced budget compared to the first motion picture. Due to cost saving measures, the movie had to incorporate many effects from the first film while changing the tone and approach to be more like a space opera. It was written and directed by Nicholas Meyer as a sequel, not to the first movie, but to an episode from the TV series known as Space Seed. Although this movie holds itself very well as a stand alone film, it is always nice to watch the episode to see the events leading to the movie.

Space battles in the movie are fueled by tactics and counter tactics from the hero and the villain instead of just blasting a colourful light show and explosion sounds. Combining those battles with strong literature references from famous books like Moby Dick, King Lear and Paradise Lost is like a match made in heaven. So do not be deceived by the outdated visual effects and dull computer graphics from the trailer, the key to a movie is the story and it is where this movie excels. It was a successful film in a time when legendary films like Return of the Jedi, E.T. and Blade Runner were released. In a way, this movie saved the Star Trek franchise, which lived on for another 30 years and is still going strong till today.

Cumberbatch did an excellent job as the villain!

On a side note, I was super excited about the new Star Trek movie that I went to see it at the first screening at the local cinema, which somehow shows the movie on the 15th instead of the 16th. It was a fun movie to watch and had many scenes that referenced older Star Trek episodes and movies like the 2009 film (sometimes too much!). This is one movie that is difficult to review without spoilers, so I shall not spoil it anymore, enjoy the movie!

lalanandaFRY
18/5/2013