by Tim Webb

Created on: March 25, 2009

After the mixed reviews that were received regarding the slow pace and overall blandness of Star Trek - The Motion Picture, Paramount decided to give it another go and quite literally wanted to raise the bar with Trek and take Trek to another level entirely. Anything that Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry had wanted to do with a second film was immediately refused as it was the budget based on his initial scripts for the first film that were to become the deciding point and the plot of this one. So Paramount very subtly "moved" Roddenberry to the perch of Executive Consultant and bought in a new team to produce and direct the film. A bold move, but then considering the first film cost $46 million and the budget on this was just $8.5 million then this was a justified decision.

The film begins with an unknown female Captain of Vulcan ancestry orders Sulu to take Enterprise into the Neutral Zone on a rescue mission; all the familiar faces are present, with the exception of Admiral Kirk. The rescue attempts goes wrong and with the bridge exploding around them Spock, Sulu, Uhura and McCoy are all killed by the Klingons in a vicious attack upon the Starship. When the Vulcan Captain calls for the Enterprise to be abandoned in space, the exercise finishes and all the lights are turned on. The Kobiyashi Maru Test has now concluded. It turns out this was a training exercise to see how Lt Saavik, the Vulcan, would treat a no win situation in this case being to rescue the crew of the Kobiyashi Maru. Admiral Kirk enters the mock bridge and addresses the students. Meanwhile Commander Chekhov has been transferred to the USS Reliant. The crew of the Reliant are looking for a suitable planet that must be baron of life to test the Genesis device. On what they think is a baron planet, they discover is an old enemy of Kirk's from the past who wants revenge. His name is Khan Noonian Singh and Kirk exiled Khan for attempting to take control of the Enterprise 15 years before. Khan steals the Reliant to find Kirk. Admiral Kirk accompanies the now promoted Captain Spock on a training cruise with the full compliment of cadets. Without any notice Enterprise is met by the Reliant.....

This was a very clever twist being performed with the opening of the film and one that shows just how much the characters in the Star Trek universe have moved on as it sets a precedent straight away with who you see and who you don't see on screen. I thought it was clever also by the fact that it leaves the

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next Page >>