Of the 13 existing “Star Trek” feature films, it is widely believed that Nicholas Meyer’s 1982 sequel, “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” is the best.. Many Trekkies love Khan’s outsized character and Ricardo Montalbán’s equally outsized performance, as well as the film’s thrilling, climactic fight sequence. To remind readers, “Khan” culminates when the eponymous character hijacks a Starfleet ship called the USS Reliant and uses it to fight Admiral Kirk (William Shatner), who is aboard the USS Enterprise. Kirk, you see, had left Khan on the planet Ceti Alpha V in the original series episode “Space Seed”, unaware that an environmental cataclysm had turned the entire planet into a desert wasteland. Khan barely survived and when he finally escaped the Ceti Alpha V, all he could think about was revenge.

“The Wrath of Khan,” which features a story attributed to Harve Bennett and Jack B. Sowards (who is also credited for writing the screenplay), thematically deals with aftermath. Kirk was previously an outspoken but reckless captain who rarely faced the consequences of his actions. “The Wrath of Khan” not only has him confronting a forgotten enemy, but also learning that he has a grown son (Merritt Butrick) whom he has never met. It’s about growing up and re-evaluating your life. Then, at the end, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) dies, showing that there will always be consequences. Youth will not last forever and we will never be able to move beyond our past.

Bennett was not only a writer on “The Wrath of Khan,” but also a “Star Trek” producer who joined the franchise in 1980 after the financial disappointment of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.” He will then stay to produce several other films in the franchise.

In 2010, Bennett was interviewed by StarTrek.com when, naturally, he was asked which of his “Star Trek” films he preferred. Perhaps naturally, he said it was “The Wrath of Khan”.

It should be noted that Leonard Nimoy’s 1986 film “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” was, by far, the most financially successful “Star Trek” film, at least until the release of JJ Abrams in 2009. Bennett, a producer, was immediately tempted to call “Voyage Home” his favorite simply for that reason. But then, after a moment of reflection, he had to admit that he, like most Trekkies of the world, preferred “Wrath of Khan”. In his own words:

“My instinct is to say, ‘You bet, IV is my favorite,’ but then I have to stop and say that I love ‘IV,’ but ‘II’ will always have a special place in my heart for reasons including we talked. and more.”

Bennett was not a Trekkie when he was hired to work on “The Wrath of Khan” and had to go back and watch every episode of the original series to prepare. The episode “Space Seed”, he explained in the StarTrek.com interview, talked to him and left him wondering what Khan would be like 25 years after these events. Interestingly, it took a non-Trekkie to create the story for one of the most beloved “Star Trek” films of all time.

But Bennett had more to say about “The Voyage Home,” because it also had a novel concept. This is the film in which the crew of the Enterprise, after hijacking a Klingon ship which they renamed Bounty in “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock”, travel back in time to 1986 to recover a pair of humpback whales. It seems that a mysterious and all-powerful space probe from the future is emptying Earth’s oceans in search of a few humpback whales, and the planet is screwed since humanity hunted whales to extinction. centuries earlier. Bennett also liked this movie, like most movie fans.

As noted above, “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” was a commercial disappointment, so a new creative team (sans “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry) was brought in for the sequels. Bennett, a newbie, struck gold with his “Wrath of Khan” idea, but it was somewhat risky at the time. If “Wrath of Khan” had failed, it could have been the last “Star Trek” movie. Fortunately, this film and “The Search for Spock” both performed well and, in Bennett’s words: “By the time we got to ‘IV,’ we were confident. » Bennett felt that the film’s time travel plot was a great way to appeal to a wider audience beyond Trekkies.

It worked. Bennett loved the movie and loved for everyone to see it. “Wrath of Khan” may have been his favorite, but “Voyage Home” received more verbiage from the producer. As he said:

“Returning to the present created something nothing else could have done, which was to introduce ‘Star Trek’ to a non-‘Trek’ audience. All you have to do is remember those scenes in the streets of San Francisco people did it. “I don’t think of the characters as ‘Star Trek’ stars, but as just another crazy person from San Francisco. I love the lady who reacts to Chekov when he asks her “Where can I find the nuclear ships?” » This whole scene featured “Star Trek”? ”

The reference to “nuclear Wessels” comes from Chekov (Walter Koenig) who is looking for nuclear power for his spaceship, but has no idea where he can get it. He knows the nuclear-powered ships have what he needs, but he doesn’t know where they are. So he simply starts asking passers-by (including an extra who only got the role because the film production towed her car), with a Russian accent, where he could find “nuclear wessels”. In 1986, during the Cold War, it was particularly funny.