A Brief Guide to Star Trek

reaching a total of $78.9 million in the US, and becoming the sixth highest grossing film of the year. The final total may have been less than that of
The Motion Picture
, but the substantially lower production cost meant the
Star Trek
sequel was much more profitable.
    Critical reaction was more uniform than that in response to the first film, with many welcoming the dramatic nature of the easy to follow storyline. The improved pacing in comparison to its predecessor was much commented upon, with the
WashingtonPost
and the
New York Times
feeling the movie was much closer in spirit to the original TV series. The stronger storyline was welcomed by the
New York Times
, while
Variety
praised the new movie’s stronger character interaction. Spock’s death was deemed to have been dramatic and well handled by the
Chicago Sun-Times
’ critic Roger Ebert, although he feared the film sometimes verged on melodrama and he saw the climactic battle sequences as tepid.
    For
Star Trek
fans (and many critics)
The Wrath of Khan
would be regarded as the film that saved the
Star Trek
movie franchise. It had shown that
Star Trek
could fill the big screen in a dynamic and exciting way that faithfully recalled the TV series but also pushed on to new frontiers – and was unafraid of taking risks, such as killing off Spock.

    Recognising a successful production when they saw one, the executive team at Paramount kept Harve Bennett on board for the next
Star Trek
movie. Although there were plenty of sequel movies through the 1980s, few were as heavily serialised as Bennett would make the second, third and fourth
Star Trek
movies.
Star Trek III
would pick up directly from the end of the second film and take the characters and drama forward into a new adventure. There would also be a moment of high drama to match the death of Spock in
Star Trek II
: the destruction of the starship
Enterprise
. As with Spock’s death, Gene Roddenberry objected to this latest development. ‘I thought it was a foolish piece of waste’, he said. ‘I don’t know what they gained by losing the
Enterprise
, other than a moment in a film. The
Enterprise
was really one of our continuing characters.’
    Part of the climactic action of
The Wrath of Khan
had been cooked up between Harve Bennett and Leonard Nimoy on set during filming. Just before Spock takes action to save the
Enterprise
, thus leading to his death, he delivers the notorious Vulcan nerve pinch to Dr McCoy, so the medic will not interfere. Bennett had come from episodic television, and was aware that
Star Trek
might well return for a third episode. Laying possiblestory threads that could be picked up in the next movie, Bennett (with Meyer’s reluctant agreement: he wanted Spock’s death to be final) had Spock perform a mind-meld on McCoy, with the crucial line of dialogue – ‘Remember’ – suggested by Nimoy himself. This also served to provide a response to Roddenberry’s main criticism of the film, namely the apparent death of Spock. Few knew at that point how – or if – the implications of that brief moment might be picked up in another
Star Trek
film.
    Bennett had to first persuade Nimoy to return once again if they were to seriously pursue the option of resurrecting Spock. After each
Star Trek
movie Nimoy had considered himself to be finished with the character. The actor always had a confused relationship with his Vulcan creation (to the extent that he issued two autobiographies at different times, one called
I Am Not Spock
and another titled
I Am Spock
). If Nimoy had not fully grasped the implications of the brief ‘Remember’ scene, he did understand the meaning of the surprise appearance of Spock’s burial tube on the Genesis planet (a scene added by Paramount and not shot by Meyer) in the closing moments of
The Wrath of Khan
: he would be wanted once again to play Spock.
    The two key
Star Trek
stars who returned for
The Wrath of Khan
managed to gain pay-or-play deals (meaning they would be paid whether the projects proceeded or not) for two additional non-
Star Trek
acting projects from Paramount as part of their negotiations. Nimoy knew what his deal-breaker would be this time around: he wanted to direct. Nimoy recalled that he (and Shatner) had campaigned for the opportunity to direct episodes of the original
Star Trek
TV series back in the 1960s – but had been consistently turned down, although Shatner was scheduled to helm a late season three instalment that was never