Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan story
The plot features Admiral James T. Kirk and the crew of the starship USS Enterprise facing off against the genetically engineered tyrant Khan Noonien Singh, a character who first appeared in the 1967 Star Trek episode "Space Seed". When Khan escapes from a 15-year exile to exact revenge on Kirk, the crew of the Enterprise must stop him from acquiring a powerful terraforming device named Genesis. The film is the second film in the Star Trek film series, and is a sequel to Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). It is the beginning of a story arc that continues with the film Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and concludes with the film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).
20 total · 8 major · 12 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| coping with aging | major | Kirk was in low spirits on his birthday and McCoy giving him a pair of old man glasses for a present didn't help matters. McCoy urged him to get back his command of the Enterprise before he really did become to old to go galloping around the galaxy. The film concluded with Kirk saying that he felt young. |
| facing a mortal enemy | major | Kirk versus Khan. |
| friendship | major | Kirk and his friends Spock and McCoy. |
| interstellar space travel | major | Travel among the stars is a fundamental reality in the Star Trek universe. |
| old flames | major | Kirk and Carol Marcus. |
| speculative spaceship | major | The Enterprise. |
| speculative terraforming | major | The Genesis torpedo could be sent to a lifeless body and it would transform it into a body full of life. |
| the desire for vengeance | major | Khan was obsessed with getting even with Kirk for having marooned him and his crew on what became an inhospitable world. |
| choosing between equally unappealing possibilities | minor | Lieutenant Saavik had to pass the Kobayashi Maru test which was designed to have no way to win. A young Kirk dealt with the test by reprogramming the computer so that it was not longer a no win scenario. |
| coping with the death of a friend | minor | There was a pointed scene where Kirk grieved over the death of his dear friend Spock. |