The 1982 sequel to the original Star Trek feature film is now re-released: a brisker, brasher work directed by Nicholas Meyer which moved away from the more lugubrious, Kubrickian ambitions of the first film and back to the crowdpleasing zap of the TV show, importantly starting with the irresistible theme tune. However, 60s TV Star Trek would surely never have given us anything like the rather extraordinary moment included in this movie: chief engineer Mr Scott is discreetly treated for a certain ailment by Dr McCoy, because of his recent “shore leave”. Too much information there about Mr Scott’s private life.
Wrath of Khan is the film that sensationally gave us the heroic and tragic sacrifice of Mr Spock, a wonderful performance of sonorous gravitas from Leonard Nimoy. That calamity traumatised its audiences and taught future generations of franchise-creators from Star Wars to Harry Potter that nothing grabs the fanbase like a big death. The Spock demise was further elevated in pop culture a decade later on the Seinfeld TV show when it was revealed that Jerry’s friend George Constanza was, in adult life, more moved by the memory of Spock’s fate than by the death of his own fiancee.
