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Star Trek II: Minor Nitpicks :(
12 months ago
It pains me to admit that, in what I consider to be the greatest Star Trek film ever made, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, I found certain plot elements that do not entirely make sense. There are three I can think of.
1) Khan recognizing Chekhov when Chekhov and Captain Terrell beamed down to Ceti Alpha V. In the episode Space Seed, Chekhov never once appeared. Are we to assume that Khan had bumped into Chekhov during his stay on board the Enterprise during the quieter days of his duration? Maybe they bumped into each other in the men's room or something. Why didn't they just use someone else, such as Sulu or Uhura? I'm only going to guess they went with Pavel Chekhov because Sulu was needed too much for training young recruits on how to pilot a star ship, and they didn't wanna use Uhura, because, well, no one wants to see her get ear bugged. I mean, let's face it, every Star Trek series has its whipping boy. TOS had Chekhov, DS9 had O'Brien, VOY had Harry Kim, and so on, but I'm getting off-topic.
2) 'This IS Ceti Alpha V!' Yes, it was not Ceti Alpha VI, which everyone aboard the Reliant thought, because V had turned into a desert wasteland due to VI exploding and causing orbital shifts throughout the rest of the system. My question is how did they not know it was V when they landed there? Surely Starfleet keeps records of every system that has been encountered, so when the Reliant warps to the Ceti Alpha system, I wonder if the crew thought, "Why are the planets out of order? I think we're missing a world, guys. Nahhh, it'll be fine!' >.> Maybe they were too busy to look it up and were just excited to find a potential candidate for Dr. Marcus's experiment.
3) The Genesis Cave under the surface of Regula. It was a lovely scene seeing all of that water and those pretty trees, and such a lovely morning sunrise- WAIT. How? What is the heat and light source? I can allow the formation of water and plant life, but the light source? I figure Genesis was designed to be used on the surface of a dead planet or moon that was in the 'Goldilocks' orbit of a sun. Someone told me that the novelization had explained a mini-sun was created, but I never read it. Someone, fact-check.
Anyway, minor nitpicks. Anyone else wanna help me out here?
-D
1) Khan recognizing Chekhov when Chekhov and Captain Terrell beamed down to Ceti Alpha V. In the episode Space Seed, Chekhov never once appeared. Are we to assume that Khan had bumped into Chekhov during his stay on board the Enterprise during the quieter days of his duration? Maybe they bumped into each other in the men's room or something. Why didn't they just use someone else, such as Sulu or Uhura? I'm only going to guess they went with Pavel Chekhov because Sulu was needed too much for training young recruits on how to pilot a star ship, and they didn't wanna use Uhura, because, well, no one wants to see her get ear bugged. I mean, let's face it, every Star Trek series has its whipping boy. TOS had Chekhov, DS9 had O'Brien, VOY had Harry Kim, and so on, but I'm getting off-topic.
2) 'This IS Ceti Alpha V!' Yes, it was not Ceti Alpha VI, which everyone aboard the Reliant thought, because V had turned into a desert wasteland due to VI exploding and causing orbital shifts throughout the rest of the system. My question is how did they not know it was V when they landed there? Surely Starfleet keeps records of every system that has been encountered, so when the Reliant warps to the Ceti Alpha system, I wonder if the crew thought, "Why are the planets out of order? I think we're missing a world, guys. Nahhh, it'll be fine!' >.> Maybe they were too busy to look it up and were just excited to find a potential candidate for Dr. Marcus's experiment.
3) The Genesis Cave under the surface of Regula. It was a lovely scene seeing all of that water and those pretty trees, and such a lovely morning sunrise- WAIT. How? What is the heat and light source? I can allow the formation of water and plant life, but the light source? I figure Genesis was designed to be used on the surface of a dead planet or moon that was in the 'Goldilocks' orbit of a sun. Someone told me that the novelization had explained a mini-sun was created, but I never read it. Someone, fact-check.
Anyway, minor nitpicks. Anyone else wanna help me out here?
-D
I can NOT give that same excuse for the deep ocean tunnels that somehow snake through the ACTUAL planet core of Naboo in The Phantom Menace. The heat and pressure should hand collaped those as soon as the planet formed. Yes I know I'm on a tangent but this just made me think of it and no I will never get over that (even though I do mostly like the prequels over-all.)
The second one...yeah that bothered me too. Even if SOMEHOW Starfleet DIDN'T keep records on that system (maybe Kirk covered it up), shouldn't sensors have noticed as soon as they entered the system that there was a planet missing? That the planet they were landing on was NOT in fact the sixth in that system, but the fifth? Unless the shift in the orbit meant it swapped orbits with another planet...and even if it WAS a cover-up by Kirk, why didn't Chekhov tell Terrell "Oh hey I remember this system. My old captain stopped by here to drop off some dangerous outlaws from the 20th century. I wonder how they're doing."
Third problem, artificial lighting. Technology we have now actually. It's not all that difficult to set up a big UV lamp inside a cave so long as you have a power source.
I also found it curious when Khan said to Pavel, "You mean, you never told 'the tale', to amuse your captain?" At that point, how many adventures did Chekhov already mention to Captain Terrell. If I had to recount some stories when I was on the Enterprise I'd have mentioned the Doomsday Machine first or the Tribbles incident, you know, to amuse my captain.
Maybe after the Reliant was done with its mission in Ceti Alpha, Chekhov, in the officer's mess, might have told Terell the Khan story starting off with: "Oh, yeah! I didn't get a chance to mention this yet, but that system we were in? Man, have I got a story..."
Unless Kirk had standing orders to never let ANYONE mention ANYTHING about Khan to ANYONE under ANY circumstances...but yeah that just makes Kirk look even more incompetent. It's already his fault for dumping Khan on that planet rather than having him be sent to trial by Starfleet, and THEN never actually going back to check up on things himself... Wrath of Khan really is just Kirk's bad judgement calls coming back to bite him.
Also, come on. This wouldn't be the first time nutty stuff like this wouldn't have been swept under the rug by higher ups in governments.
And to be fair... Star Trek II was meant to be part of Kirk's character arc. He's older, not as confident, especially when he begins to realize his mistakes, not just with Khan, but with his one-time beloved Dr. Marcus and his own son; 'My life that could have been, but wasn't.'
The writers researched enough Star Trek before writing the script, and then proceeded to turn it completely on its head.
Still doesn't explain why sensors wouldn't notice the planet they're orbiting is in the wring place. Something you'd think Starfleet would be keen on investigating. Even if the records were heavily redacted...did no one think to ask "Hey, why is this planet called Ceti Alpha Six when it's only the fifth planet in the system?"
Yes I watched The Way to Eden last night, and that bit stuck in my craw.
I believe it had a younger Charles Napier in it as the tribal leader.
'Yer gonna look pretty funny eatin' corn on the cob with NO FUCKIN' TEETH!'
2: I think the novelization covers this, someone thought the old star charts were inaccurate.
3: yeah that sounds about right.
But the episode itself showed that Reliant couldn't track the Enterprise on the other side of that moon. If the destroyed Ceti Alpha VI was supposed to have been orbiting on the opposite side of that system's sun when Reliant warped into orbit, they very well might not have been able to scan it through the star and simply assumed it was still there but obscured at it's current place of orbit as expected.