Filming on The Wrath Of Khan began in November of 1981, and the Paramount brass are so impressed with the dailies (the footage that’s been shot so far) that they raise the film’s budget to $11 million. A young film composer named James Horner is hired to do the score for the film. He previously wrote the score for Rodger Corman’s Battle Beyond The Stars, and would go on to do the score for the Wrath Of Khan sequel, The Search For Spock, as well many other films--including James Cameron’s Titanic, for which Horner would win a well-deserved Oscar. Another showbiz newbie working on Khan was Kirstie Alley, for whom The Wrath Of Khan would be her first major motion picture role. She originated the character of Lt. Saavik, a young Starfleet officer whom Spock mentored. Saavik was supposed to be of Vulcan/Romulan heritage, yet due to keeping the film under a specific running time, all mention of her background wound up being cut.

Filming on Khan ended on January 28, 1982. Yet there is still additional filming to be done when studio executives reconsider the controversial ending. The only way that Meyer and Bennett could get a reluctant Leonard Nimoy to play Spock once more was to promise the actor that Spock would die in the second film. His death originally took place in the first third of the film’s running time, when the beloved Vulcan is killed in the initial attack by Khan, but Meyer wisely changes this so that Spock dies while bravely saving the rest of his crewmates near the end of the film. However, after seeing how good the film is turning out to be, the studio decides to leave an opening for Spock to come back. An additional scene is shot in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, showing Spock’s coffin resting on the surface of the Genesis planet. In the original version of the story, Spock’s coffin was simply jettisoned into space.

The effects for the film are handed out to Industrial Light & Magic, the special effects house that George Lucas created to handle the effects for Star Wars. Despite the fact that ILM was already working on Return Of The Jedi at the time, they also readily take on the effects for The Wrath Of Khan, working under the supervision of Jim Veilleux, Ken Ralston and Don Dow. They reuse the filming model of the Enterprise left over from ST: The Motion Picture. And the model of space lab Regula-One, where Carol Marcus and her son David work on the Genesis Device, is also a left over prop from the first film that had been reworked and inverted when shown in the Wrath Of Khan.

But ILM creates a new starship of its own in the form of the U.S.S. Reliant. A compact variation on the Enterprise design, the Reliant has her twin engines hanging directly under the saucer section, with a roll bar running over the top. This was meant to be a more advanced starship than the Enterprise, which is reflected in the Reliant’s registration number: 1864. Much like Robert Fletcher’s costumes, the Reliant would be seen in later productions, such as Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and in the various TV sequel incarnations of Star Trek. In addition to ILM, Peter Kuran’s effects company, Visual Concepts Engineering, handled the optical effects, such as the transporter, the phasers, and the glowing radiation effects during Spock’s death scene.

Opening on June 4, 1982, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan turns out to be both a critical and fan favorite, earning $97 million dollars worldwide (which, in 1982 dollars, made it a huge hit). It’s vital, fast-paced storyline, filled with rich characterization, manages to win over the majority of Star Trek fans, and create many new ones. However, the Great Bird Of The Galaxy was not amused. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, was reportedly not pleased with TWOK, stating in interviews that he felt the film was saved largely by Ricardo Montalban’s powerhouse performance as Khan. The film’s original running time was 113 minutes, but a longer version, with added scenes trimmed from the theatrical run, appeared when TWOK made its TV debut. This version establishes young engineering Cadet Peter Preston as being the nephew of Chief Engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, among other restored scenes. The longer, 116 minute version of TWOK is now available on DVD in The Director’s Edition.

Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan has been cherished, poked fun at in various satires, and even reviled by some in the 25 years since it’s original release. Yet even after all these years, the film still holds up as a great escapist entertainment that’s accessible to both Trek fans and non-fans alike. And one could make the argument that without TWOK, the Star Trek film series would probably have come to a halt, as well as the TV sequel series that followed. And so, in addition to being a marvelous movie in it’s own right, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan also served as the booster rocket which helped propel the entire Star Trek franchise into the stratosphere as an American pop culture icon. --SF

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