The Sequel Was Better? is a series of reviews looking at famous
movies with sequels that are considered, rightly or wrongly, to be
better than the original movies. Typically, sequels are a step down in
quality, acting, and/or production value. But not always. See other
reviews here.
A massive energy cloud travels through Klingon space. Three Klingon battle cruisers confront the cloud, only to be completely obliterated by an energy torpedo. On the planet Vulcan, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) undergoes a ritual that will remove all emotion from his life. Just as he is about to finish, he feels a strange seemingly mystic call from space. Meanwhile, a Federation outpost (with the first English-speaking characters in the film) spies on the Klingon encounter with the cloud. They plot the course of the cloud and it's heading directly to Earth! At Starfleet Command on Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) pulls some strings to get reassigned from his desk job to the captain's chair aboard the Enterprise. The Enterprise has just undergone an overhaul and is the only starship that can intercept the cloud, which is two days away. The current captain, Decker (Stephen Collins), is mad at the demotion and takes on the job of science officer reluctantly.
The crew tries to go to warp speed to get to the cloud but the engines aren't quite ready for the strain and they generate a worm hole that almost destroys the ship. Decker's quick thinking (and familiarity with the refitted Enterprise) saves the day, though he has to go against Kirk's orders. Kirk is at first upset but realizes Decker was right and that he (Kirk) needs the additional input. A Federation craft approaches the Enterprise. Once it's docked, Spock comes aboard and helps fix the engines. He also takes the science officer job, which Decker happily relinquishes since he knows how brilliant Spock is. Spock tells Kirk and McCoy (DeForrest Kelley) that he's heard something from the cloud. His motivation may be his own curiosity rather than the safety of Earth, which could be a problem. Kirk takes him back anyway.
They proceed to the cloud which they can enter once Spock figures out how to communicate with the intelligence occupying it. The center of the cloud has some large ship. As they approach, the cloud sends an energy probe to the bridge that first scan the equipment. Then it scans some crew members and obliterates the helmsman Ilia (Persis Khambatta). Decker is very concerned because he had a past with her on her homeworld, Delta.
It's not long before Ilia is back, or a projection of Ilia generated by the alien and using Ilia's memories. The new Ilia says the alien intelligence is called V'Ger. Ilia is back on the ship to gather information about the Enterprise and the "carbon forms" that infest it. She refers to Kirk as "Kirk-Unit." Her impersonal style occasionally slips and the crew realize they need to tap into the emotional and personal memories of Ilia to save themselves. Decker is all too willing to help Ilia (and the ship) recover her personality.
Meanwhile, Spock sneaks off the ship to find out more about the alien intelligence that has been communicating with him. He discovers a lot of information--there's some sort of robotic life form gathering information about the whole universe. On the ship, Ilia reveals that V'Ger is returning to its maker on Earth, though she does not identify the maker. Spock comes back and they convince V'Ger, through Ilia, to let them onto the ship at the center of the cloud.
Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Decker, and Ilia travel to V'Ger's location and discover it is an old Earth Voyager probe given sentience on a far distant robotic world. Since Voyager was programed to gather information and return that information to Earth, it's merely following its programing. Some of the probe's wiring is broken so it's not functioning properly, i.e. not recognizing humans as its creator. By this point, the crew realizes Ilia is gone for good. Decker volunteers to fix the wiring and become one with the probe (reuniting creator and created). He and Ilia embrace as they are absorbed by an electrical storm. The Enterprise crew heads back to Earth, musing about the new life form they have discovered and possibly created. Cue end credits.
This story is pretty average Star Trek fare. The crew encounters an unknown alien and struggles to understand it enough to counter the jeopardy it is causing. Unfortunately the movie is hampered by the very slow pace and lack of character development. Many shots of the Enterprise and of traveling through the wormhole and the cloud go on and on, lingering on the details and often cutting back to looks of amazement on Kirk's and other crew members faces. The movie could easily have been forty minutes shorter. Also, though the story hints at possible developments with Spock (who may be unhealthily obsessed with the alien intelligence) and Kirk (who clearly wants to go back to his glory days of space exploration), nothing really changes for anyone aside from Decker.
The visual effects range from good to bad. The ships look good even forty years later. A lot of the travel through space is less impressive, as are the ubiquitous lightening effects (the cloud's attacks on ships, a computer panel that fries Chekov, the energy probe that scans the bridge, etc.). The trips through the wormhole and the cloud take longer than they should and look a little dated by today's standards. Kirk and Scotty ride in a shuttle around the Enterprise and the view of them through the window looks bad.
Jerry Goldsmith's score for the movie is great and has been reused by and reformulated for the other films and is almost verbatim copied in the opening credits of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The movie opens with a new captain helming the Enterprise--a Vulcan woman named Saavik. They receive a distress signal from a civilian ship, the Kobayashi Maru, in the Neutral Zone between Federation and Klingon space. Going to help the ship violates a treaty but that ship is on the verge of dying. She decides to rescue the ship. Three Klingon ships show up and make short work of the Enterprise, crippling it and killing most of the bridge crew, including Spock, McCoy, and Uhura. As Saavik orders the rest of the crew to abandon ship, the main screen splits and James Kirk walks in. The whole thing was a training simulation. The "dead" crew pop up and head off to other duties. Kirk chats with Spock about the training mission they are about to go on and Kirk's birthday. Spock gives Kirk an antique copy of A Tale of Two Cities.
Back at Kirk's apartment, McCoy shows up with two presents. One is Romulan Ale, which is illegal. McCoy says it's only for "medicinal purposes." The other gift is a pair of reading glasses since Kirk is allergic to the medicine that corrects aging eyeballs. McCoy tells Kirk to get a starship command back because he's going to turn into an old man if he doesn't. Kirk struggles with what to do and is reluctant to make a change.
Meanwhile, Chekov is on the USS Reliant, a ship that is surveying lifeless planets for use in the Genesis Project. They think they've found a winner in Ceta Alpha Six, a wasteland of a planet that appears to have no life. But the scanners pick up something, so he and his commanding officer Terrell (Paul Winfield) beam down. They discover some ship wreckage and soon discover the crew. It's the SS Botany Bay, a ship that was forced down on Ceta Alpha Five with Khan Singh (Ricardo Montalban), a genetically-engineered human who almost took over the Enterprise with his group of seventy or so other genetically-enhanced people from the 1990s. This all happened in the TV episode Space Seed, so this movie is a sequel to the first movie and to a TV episode! Khan tells Chekov and Terrell that Ceta Alpha Six blew up six months after Kirk marooned them, shifting the orbit of Ceta Alpha Five and turning it into a wasteland. Khan uses some nasty creatures to render Chekov and Terrell compliant and then finds out why they were there and how he can find Kirk (to get revenge, of course). Khan has Chekov call the scientific outpost orbiting Regula One to inform them that the Reliant is coming to take all their Genesis materials.
Meanwhile, the Enterprise starts its training cruise with Spock as captain and Kirk as an observer. Kirk receives a call from Doctor Carol Marcus (Bibi Besch), the lead scientist on the Genesis Project and one of Kirk's old flames. She asks why they are taking Genesis away from her. Kirk gets the idea that there's trouble but the transmission is quickly jammed. After reporting it to Starfleet, the top brass order the Enterprise (the only starship in range of Regula One) to investigate. Spock relinquishes command, deferring to Kirk's experience.
Kirk, Spock, and McCoy watch a promotional video for the Genesis Project. The project is a scientific endeavor to create life from lifeless matter. A first experiment was made in a lab; a second was scheduled for underground. The video promises a third stage where a device would be set off on a dead planet or moon that would be turned into a habitable planet. McCoy is shocked that such a thing would be created because it could obviously be used on a live planet to wipe out the local inhabitants and create a new matrix of life. The scientists at Regula One were clearly aware of that possibility which is why they protested the project being taken by Starfleet.
As the Enterprise approaches Regula One, the USS Reliant shows up. In a tense confrontation, Khan's ship cripples the Enterprise and only through a trick can Kirk turn the fight into a draw (he hacks into the Reliant's command console and drops their shields!). Khan withdraws and the Enterprise goes to the orbiting science station. Kirk beams over with McCoy and Saavik. They don't find any of the Genesis materials or live crew (some of the crew members were clearly tortured). They do find Chekov and Terrell, who seem to have recovered. The crew keeps exploring the station, getting to the transporter room. The transporter is still on and set with coordinates deep within Regula, a planet that is a giant space rock. After communicating with the Enterprise, which doesn't have enough power to beam them back, Kirk tells them to make what repairs they can and head to a starbase to get help. Kirk and crew decide to beam down to where ever the coordinates are.
They beam into a tunnel where they are attacked by Doctor David Marcus, Carol's son. And also Kirk's son! David thinks they are Khan's group trying to steal Genesis. Kirk sets him straight but then Terrell and Chekov admit they are still controlled by Khan, who has been listening in. Khan orders Terrell to kill Kirk but Terrell resists, shooting himself rather than Kirk. Chekov screams and falls to the ground, where the nasty creature comes back out of his ear and Kirk phasers it. Khan beams away the Genesis materials and tells Kirk he will be left marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet, buried alive. Kirk gives his famous "KHAAAAANNNNN!" shout, which is clearly delightful to Khan.
Carol and Kirk have a parental discussion about David. They were clearly going to live two different lives when she got pregnant. Carol didn't want David galavanting about in space with Kirk so she raised him on her own. Kirk is shocked into a malaise and really does feel old with a madman from fifteen years ago trying to kill him and a son whom he has just met for the first time and who has no interest in him. Carol takes pity on Kirk and leads him further down the tunnel to the area where they conducted their experiment and created an expansive biological garden.
Kirk and Saavik discuss the Kobayashi Maru test. Kirk says it's a no-win scenario that tests character rather than ability. And yet Kirk was able to beat the test and save the ship. When pressed for how he did it, Kirk admitted that he reprogrammed the simulation so it was possible to save the Kobayashi Maru. Then he calls the Enterprise which is ready to beam them up. Kirk and Spock had a coded conversation, so the Enterprise never went to the starbase and it is mostly ready to confront the Reliant again.
In order to even up the odds, the Enterprise flies into a nebula where the gas will render shields inoperable as well as forcing weapons into manual aiming. At first, Khan's crew doesn't want to go in but Kirk taunts Khan. Another tense battle sequence happens with Kirk crippling the Reliant. Khan decides to activate the Genesis device which will blow up in four minutes. The Enterprise still doesn't have the warp drive on line, so they won't be able to escape in time. Spock heads to Engineering where he goes into a radiation-filled chamber to repair the warp drive--just in time to escape the device's explosion!
When Kirk calls down to Engineering to congratulate Scotty on a job well done, he realizes Spock is missing. McCoy tells Kirk to hurry down. Once there, Kirk and Spock talk through the radiation shielding. Spock has a dramatic death scene where he says that he's found a solution to the no-win scenario. They have a touching funeral for Spock and send his body to the newly-formed planet created by the Genesis device.
David comes to Kirk's quarters to console him for the loss and reconnect with him as a father. Kirk goes to the bridge where he muses on the possibility of new life on the Genesis planet and maybe a new life for Spock. McCoy asks Kirk how he feels. Kirk replies with a winsome smile, "I feel young." Cue end credits.
So is the sequel better? Let's look at some points of comparison.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This particular set of films is the paradigmatic example of a sequel being better than its predecessor. Star Trek: The Motion Picture almost tanked the franchise. In order to justify a sequel, film studio Paramount gave the makers one-quarter of the budget and relegated Gene Roddenberry (Star Trek's creator) to a "creative consultant" role. Leonard Nimoy was only convinced to play Spock again because they guaranteed him that Spock would have a great death scene. Sequel director Nicholas Meyer injected a lot of creativity and new ideas into the movie and delivered what is arguably the best Star Trek movie ever made. Indeed, Wrath of Khan is a good movie all on its own, apart from the Star Trek milieu. It's well worth watching or revisiting if you haven't seen it for a long time.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) directed by Robert Wise
A massive energy cloud travels through Klingon space. Three Klingon battle cruisers confront the cloud, only to be completely obliterated by an energy torpedo. On the planet Vulcan, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) undergoes a ritual that will remove all emotion from his life. Just as he is about to finish, he feels a strange seemingly mystic call from space. Meanwhile, a Federation outpost (with the first English-speaking characters in the film) spies on the Klingon encounter with the cloud. They plot the course of the cloud and it's heading directly to Earth! At Starfleet Command on Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) pulls some strings to get reassigned from his desk job to the captain's chair aboard the Enterprise. The Enterprise has just undergone an overhaul and is the only starship that can intercept the cloud, which is two days away. The current captain, Decker (Stephen Collins), is mad at the demotion and takes on the job of science officer reluctantly.
The crew tries to go to warp speed to get to the cloud but the engines aren't quite ready for the strain and they generate a worm hole that almost destroys the ship. Decker's quick thinking (and familiarity with the refitted Enterprise) saves the day, though he has to go against Kirk's orders. Kirk is at first upset but realizes Decker was right and that he (Kirk) needs the additional input. A Federation craft approaches the Enterprise. Once it's docked, Spock comes aboard and helps fix the engines. He also takes the science officer job, which Decker happily relinquishes since he knows how brilliant Spock is. Spock tells Kirk and McCoy (DeForrest Kelley) that he's heard something from the cloud. His motivation may be his own curiosity rather than the safety of Earth, which could be a problem. Kirk takes him back anyway.
They proceed to the cloud which they can enter once Spock figures out how to communicate with the intelligence occupying it. The center of the cloud has some large ship. As they approach, the cloud sends an energy probe to the bridge that first scan the equipment. Then it scans some crew members and obliterates the helmsman Ilia (Persis Khambatta). Decker is very concerned because he had a past with her on her homeworld, Delta.
It's not long before Ilia is back, or a projection of Ilia generated by the alien and using Ilia's memories. The new Ilia says the alien intelligence is called V'Ger. Ilia is back on the ship to gather information about the Enterprise and the "carbon forms" that infest it. She refers to Kirk as "Kirk-Unit." Her impersonal style occasionally slips and the crew realize they need to tap into the emotional and personal memories of Ilia to save themselves. Decker is all too willing to help Ilia (and the ship) recover her personality.
Meanwhile, Spock sneaks off the ship to find out more about the alien intelligence that has been communicating with him. He discovers a lot of information--there's some sort of robotic life form gathering information about the whole universe. On the ship, Ilia reveals that V'Ger is returning to its maker on Earth, though she does not identify the maker. Spock comes back and they convince V'Ger, through Ilia, to let them onto the ship at the center of the cloud.
Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Decker, and Ilia travel to V'Ger's location and discover it is an old Earth Voyager probe given sentience on a far distant robotic world. Since Voyager was programed to gather information and return that information to Earth, it's merely following its programing. Some of the probe's wiring is broken so it's not functioning properly, i.e. not recognizing humans as its creator. By this point, the crew realizes Ilia is gone for good. Decker volunteers to fix the wiring and become one with the probe (reuniting creator and created). He and Ilia embrace as they are absorbed by an electrical storm. The Enterprise crew heads back to Earth, musing about the new life form they have discovered and possibly created. Cue end credits.
This story is pretty average Star Trek fare. The crew encounters an unknown alien and struggles to understand it enough to counter the jeopardy it is causing. Unfortunately the movie is hampered by the very slow pace and lack of character development. Many shots of the Enterprise and of traveling through the wormhole and the cloud go on and on, lingering on the details and often cutting back to looks of amazement on Kirk's and other crew members faces. The movie could easily have been forty minutes shorter. Also, though the story hints at possible developments with Spock (who may be unhealthily obsessed with the alien intelligence) and Kirk (who clearly wants to go back to his glory days of space exploration), nothing really changes for anyone aside from Decker.
The visual effects range from good to bad. The ships look good even forty years later. A lot of the travel through space is less impressive, as are the ubiquitous lightening effects (the cloud's attacks on ships, a computer panel that fries Chekov, the energy probe that scans the bridge, etc.). The trips through the wormhole and the cloud take longer than they should and look a little dated by today's standards. Kirk and Scotty ride in a shuttle around the Enterprise and the view of them through the window looks bad.
Jerry Goldsmith's score for the movie is great and has been reused by and reformulated for the other films and is almost verbatim copied in the opening credits of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) directed by Nicholas Meyer
The movie opens with a new captain helming the Enterprise--a Vulcan woman named Saavik. They receive a distress signal from a civilian ship, the Kobayashi Maru, in the Neutral Zone between Federation and Klingon space. Going to help the ship violates a treaty but that ship is on the verge of dying. She decides to rescue the ship. Three Klingon ships show up and make short work of the Enterprise, crippling it and killing most of the bridge crew, including Spock, McCoy, and Uhura. As Saavik orders the rest of the crew to abandon ship, the main screen splits and James Kirk walks in. The whole thing was a training simulation. The "dead" crew pop up and head off to other duties. Kirk chats with Spock about the training mission they are about to go on and Kirk's birthday. Spock gives Kirk an antique copy of A Tale of Two Cities.
Back at Kirk's apartment, McCoy shows up with two presents. One is Romulan Ale, which is illegal. McCoy says it's only for "medicinal purposes." The other gift is a pair of reading glasses since Kirk is allergic to the medicine that corrects aging eyeballs. McCoy tells Kirk to get a starship command back because he's going to turn into an old man if he doesn't. Kirk struggles with what to do and is reluctant to make a change.
Meanwhile, Chekov is on the USS Reliant, a ship that is surveying lifeless planets for use in the Genesis Project. They think they've found a winner in Ceta Alpha Six, a wasteland of a planet that appears to have no life. But the scanners pick up something, so he and his commanding officer Terrell (Paul Winfield) beam down. They discover some ship wreckage and soon discover the crew. It's the SS Botany Bay, a ship that was forced down on Ceta Alpha Five with Khan Singh (Ricardo Montalban), a genetically-engineered human who almost took over the Enterprise with his group of seventy or so other genetically-enhanced people from the 1990s. This all happened in the TV episode Space Seed, so this movie is a sequel to the first movie and to a TV episode! Khan tells Chekov and Terrell that Ceta Alpha Six blew up six months after Kirk marooned them, shifting the orbit of Ceta Alpha Five and turning it into a wasteland. Khan uses some nasty creatures to render Chekov and Terrell compliant and then finds out why they were there and how he can find Kirk (to get revenge, of course). Khan has Chekov call the scientific outpost orbiting Regula One to inform them that the Reliant is coming to take all their Genesis materials.
Meanwhile, the Enterprise starts its training cruise with Spock as captain and Kirk as an observer. Kirk receives a call from Doctor Carol Marcus (Bibi Besch), the lead scientist on the Genesis Project and one of Kirk's old flames. She asks why they are taking Genesis away from her. Kirk gets the idea that there's trouble but the transmission is quickly jammed. After reporting it to Starfleet, the top brass order the Enterprise (the only starship in range of Regula One) to investigate. Spock relinquishes command, deferring to Kirk's experience.
Kirk, Spock, and McCoy watch a promotional video for the Genesis Project. The project is a scientific endeavor to create life from lifeless matter. A first experiment was made in a lab; a second was scheduled for underground. The video promises a third stage where a device would be set off on a dead planet or moon that would be turned into a habitable planet. McCoy is shocked that such a thing would be created because it could obviously be used on a live planet to wipe out the local inhabitants and create a new matrix of life. The scientists at Regula One were clearly aware of that possibility which is why they protested the project being taken by Starfleet.
As the Enterprise approaches Regula One, the USS Reliant shows up. In a tense confrontation, Khan's ship cripples the Enterprise and only through a trick can Kirk turn the fight into a draw (he hacks into the Reliant's command console and drops their shields!). Khan withdraws and the Enterprise goes to the orbiting science station. Kirk beams over with McCoy and Saavik. They don't find any of the Genesis materials or live crew (some of the crew members were clearly tortured). They do find Chekov and Terrell, who seem to have recovered. The crew keeps exploring the station, getting to the transporter room. The transporter is still on and set with coordinates deep within Regula, a planet that is a giant space rock. After communicating with the Enterprise, which doesn't have enough power to beam them back, Kirk tells them to make what repairs they can and head to a starbase to get help. Kirk and crew decide to beam down to where ever the coordinates are.
They beam into a tunnel where they are attacked by Doctor David Marcus, Carol's son. And also Kirk's son! David thinks they are Khan's group trying to steal Genesis. Kirk sets him straight but then Terrell and Chekov admit they are still controlled by Khan, who has been listening in. Khan orders Terrell to kill Kirk but Terrell resists, shooting himself rather than Kirk. Chekov screams and falls to the ground, where the nasty creature comes back out of his ear and Kirk phasers it. Khan beams away the Genesis materials and tells Kirk he will be left marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet, buried alive. Kirk gives his famous "KHAAAAANNNNN!" shout, which is clearly delightful to Khan.
Carol and Kirk have a parental discussion about David. They were clearly going to live two different lives when she got pregnant. Carol didn't want David galavanting about in space with Kirk so she raised him on her own. Kirk is shocked into a malaise and really does feel old with a madman from fifteen years ago trying to kill him and a son whom he has just met for the first time and who has no interest in him. Carol takes pity on Kirk and leads him further down the tunnel to the area where they conducted their experiment and created an expansive biological garden.
Kirk and Saavik discuss the Kobayashi Maru test. Kirk says it's a no-win scenario that tests character rather than ability. And yet Kirk was able to beat the test and save the ship. When pressed for how he did it, Kirk admitted that he reprogrammed the simulation so it was possible to save the Kobayashi Maru. Then he calls the Enterprise which is ready to beam them up. Kirk and Spock had a coded conversation, so the Enterprise never went to the starbase and it is mostly ready to confront the Reliant again.
In order to even up the odds, the Enterprise flies into a nebula where the gas will render shields inoperable as well as forcing weapons into manual aiming. At first, Khan's crew doesn't want to go in but Kirk taunts Khan. Another tense battle sequence happens with Kirk crippling the Reliant. Khan decides to activate the Genesis device which will blow up in four minutes. The Enterprise still doesn't have the warp drive on line, so they won't be able to escape in time. Spock heads to Engineering where he goes into a radiation-filled chamber to repair the warp drive--just in time to escape the device's explosion!
When Kirk calls down to Engineering to congratulate Scotty on a job well done, he realizes Spock is missing. McCoy tells Kirk to hurry down. Once there, Kirk and Spock talk through the radiation shielding. Spock has a dramatic death scene where he says that he's found a solution to the no-win scenario. They have a touching funeral for Spock and send his body to the newly-formed planet created by the Genesis device.
David comes to Kirk's quarters to console him for the loss and reconnect with him as a father. Kirk goes to the bridge where he muses on the possibility of new life on the Genesis planet and maybe a new life for Spock. McCoy asks Kirk how he feels. Kirk replies with a winsome smile, "I feel young." Cue end credits.
So is the sequel better? Let's look at some points of comparison.
- SCRIPT--While both movies start off from ideas reminiscent of the television show, the sequel manages to go somewhere the show hadn't before. The crew is clearly getting older and the story deals with that issue head-on. Kirk has a mid-life crisis and is forced out of his malaise thanks to both his friends and his enemy. He actually has a character arc that comes to a very satisfying conclusion. Khan is a much better villain than V'Ger thanks to a smart script that gives him motivation while acknowledging that he's crazy. The second movie uses literary references (primarily A Tale of Two Cities and Moby Dick) effectively to underscore thematic elements of searching for purpose and obsessing over revenge. Advantage Wrath of Khan
- ACTING--Star Trek has never been known for its great acting. William Shatner has a reputation for overacting which can be seen in both movies, though he is vastly better in the second film. Wrath of Khan is probably his best performance as Kirk. Ricardo Montalban chews up the scenery with his performance but it works pretty well with his character's madness. The other actors also do better in the second film thanks to the stronger script that gives them more to do than mugging for the camera after yet another "amazing" journey through visual-effects-laden space. Advantage Wrath of Khan
- ADVANCES THE STORY/MYTHOLOGY--Even though the crew has "ongoing missions" they really never have had an ongoing story arc. Mythological development only happen by necessity. Sure the Klingons look a lot rougher and tougher in the first film than they did in the TV show, but they have just a cameo at the beginning. The first movie is basically an extended episode of the original series. Wrath of Khan is a sequel to one specific episode and borrows themes from that episode and from the first movie. Rather than being a rehash of old ideas, the film makers build up a better story with action and character dramatics--a definite improvement. Advantage Wrath of Khan
- SPECIAL EFFECTS--This category may be the closest for the two movies. Other than the cheesy lightening effects and the long, drawn-out space sequences, the first film holds up as well as its sequel holds up. They both used miniatures for the spacecraft so the effects don't look like dated CGI. Slight advantage Wrath of Khan.
- VISUAL STYLE--Well, let me just say the Starfleet uniforms in the first film were horrible...HORRIBLE! They looked like pajamas with a weird belt that seemed like it should do something techy, like have their communicator or phaser or some gadget. The uniforms in the sequel actually look like actual military uniforms. On the other hand, Khan's crew of genetically-altered supermen look like their costumes were leftovers from a Mad Max movie. They look like an impoverished biker gang. I can understand they were roughing it on Ceti Alpha Five for fifteen years, but surely they could have updated their wardrobe when they took over the Reliant. The 1970s hair in the first movie gave way to even bigger early 1980s hair in the sequel (even though both films were set in the twenty-third century). Which hair style is more palatable is up to the viewer. Advantage Wrath of Khan
FINAL THOUGHTS
This particular set of films is the paradigmatic example of a sequel being better than its predecessor. Star Trek: The Motion Picture almost tanked the franchise. In order to justify a sequel, film studio Paramount gave the makers one-quarter of the budget and relegated Gene Roddenberry (Star Trek's creator) to a "creative consultant" role. Leonard Nimoy was only convinced to play Spock again because they guaranteed him that Spock would have a great death scene. Sequel director Nicholas Meyer injected a lot of creativity and new ideas into the movie and delivered what is arguably the best Star Trek movie ever made. Indeed, Wrath of Khan is a good movie all on its own, apart from the Star Trek milieu. It's well worth watching or revisiting if you haven't seen it for a long time.
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