From Hell’s heart, we take a stab this week at encompassing the excellence of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan!
New York Times and USA Today best-selling author David R. George III returns to the show to discuss the sequel to “The Motion Picture” and many fans’ pick for the best Star Trek film. As he turns 50, Admiral Kirk has resigned himself to the fact that his days of spacefaring danger are behind him. But when an old flame asks for his help recovering a dangerous experiment, he’ll learn that danger isn’t through with him and that some debts can never be repaid.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture wasn’t exactly a failure, but Paramount had no interest in spending another $45 million dollars while dealing with Gene Roddenberry. So instead, they spent $12 million dollars and hired TV producer Harve Bennett to make the sequel to the first film. Eventually, Bennett hired novelist, screenwriter, and Trek virgin Nicholas Meyer to direct (and later write) the film. Meyer envisioned Star Trek II as a rollicking naval adventure in the style of Horatio Hornblower…apparently unaware that the British naval hero was one of the chief inspirations for The Original Series. Meyer changed a lot about what audiences knew about Trek, both on the big and small screen, but he did so in a way that only underlined the core of the characters we had come to know and love. On this episode, we talk about the human and relatable themes in TWoK, Meyer’s incredible achievement in writing the script in twelve days, the bold use of negative space in the film, the film’s impressive editing, the controversies associated with the film, and its lasting legacy.
We also discuss getting old, literary antiheroes, injecting some fresh blood, bucking tradition by embracing a different one, fixing the air conditioner, and killing Spock the *right* way!
It’s the most fun movie about, death, loss, and absentee parenting!