Book #101: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

 

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Gene Roddenberry

 Released: December 1st, 1979

My 44th book for 2025 was Vonda N. McIntyre’s "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan".  

The Wrath of Khan is a legendary movie.  Typically if you’re introducing someone to the Star Trek universe, you start with either this one or Star Trek IV (the one with the whales).  

I discovered this movie back in childhood.  I was watching it on TV with my dad, and was captivated by the final battle scene.  On my next birthday, my Uncle Dan got me a movie I already had, so I went and exchanged it for the DVD version of this film.  It was the first full Star Trek show/movie I had ever seen.  I loved it.

This is my second time reading this novel.  

I previously read it in 2009.  I remember being home at my father’s house during summer vacation in college when I first read it.  I was in a temporary apartment room in the mother-in-law suite.  Coming home from Walmart those days, I was eager to finish the book (and the 2-3-4 trilogy itself).  

It hit just as hard the second time.  The fact is, Wrath of Khan is an amazing story.  Even if you take out all of the Star Trek elements, the story itself is crisp and solid.

In Wrath of Khan, an aging Admiral Kirk feels remorse of accepting a desk promotion instead of continuing to chase adventure in the universe.  He oversees a routine training exercise with a brand-new Enterprise of young cadets, and Captain Spock helming the ship.  Meanwhile.  Pavel Chekov has been reassigned to the U.S.S. Reliant.  He is working on a top-secret project called "Genesis".  The program is designed and constructed by a group of scientists on the Regulus 1 Spacelab, with hopes of building new sustainable planets in galaxy.  As Chekov and Captain Terrell search for a lifeless planet to test the Genesis on, the mistake a planet for one that Kirk and the Enterprise exiled Khan to 15 years prior.  After discovering the reason for the Reliant arriving unexpectedly, Khan steals the Reliant, and then makes way for the Regulus 1 Spacelab to steal Genesis, and then go after Kirk, hellbent on revenge.  This leads to an incredible chess-like battle played out in space that tests the fortitude of the young crew, and proves once again that Kirk still has it.  There is an overwhelming sense of emotions in this one.  Life, Death, Loss, Victory, Revenge - Tons of themes are explored here. 

One way this book stood out how hard the deaths of filler characters hit.  In the movie, we know Khan killed people at the Regulus 1 Spacelab.  Their deaths are not shown, but there are scenes where bodies are lowered down, and it is implied that the deaths were brutal.  In the novel, we see and learn how he did it, and it makes Khan one of the most merciless villains in history.  The detail is graphic, and disturbingly violent.  

The Spacelab scenes are spectacularly written horror.  I felt immense sadness and despair for characters who lasted mere a few pages.  The passage of the Deltan warning her lover to escape, while cutting off contact with him permanently is sacrificially heartbreaking.  They presumably reunite in the afterlife, but their final chapter on earth might cause one to shed a tear or two.

The deaths of Del and Vance haunt me.  I will never forget the first time I read about it, and even 16 years later, their deaths are fresh in my mind.  It is insane that a novelization of a sci-fi movie can leave and everlasting impact on someone.  They were comedians who happened to be great scientific programmers.  Their deaths were in vain, and it is painful to know they never lived to see their work come to fruition.  

Scotty's nephew has been promoted to the Enterprise, and his short-lived appearance also affects the characters along the way.

Lt. Saavik, a Vulcan-Romulan officer, learns much on this journey, and experiences a great deal helps her to build leadership, and endure tough moments after failing the Kobiyashi Maru.

Speaking of which, the Kobiyashi Maru is introduced here.  A no-win scenario, designed by Starfleet Academy, to see how well a prospective captain deals with death.  There are many examples of it in various ways as this novel plays out.  

I have said for years that unless you read this book, people would never truly understand just how ruthless and evil Khan is.  Richardo Montalban is an amazing actor and is the iconic Khan.  But we never truly see how deadly Khan can be one-on-one.  We have memories from watching the classic episode S1E22: “Space Seed”.  Outside that, Khan is more commanding violence via ships and psychologically damaging.

Admiral Kirk once again takes control of the Enterprise as he did in The Motion Picture.  This time around, Kirk is bothered by a sense of aging.  The role of an admiral is much more administrative than the role of a captain.  Kirk is reminded that it was a mistake to accept promotion as his heart is still young and set on jumping around the universe.  Adding to this is the revelation of his son, Dr. David Marcus to his old flame Dr. Carol Marcus.

Spock plays a quieter role in this until the ending.  Years ago, it would have been considered a spoiler, but there's enough material surrounding it in Star Trek lore that I don't feel shame in talking about it.  This is the book where Spock dies.  As we all know, he returns later in the series, but this was the crucial one that hit fans super hard upon its release (and the success that led to his return in next adventure The Search for Spock).

An interesting note is that Kirk loses another captain in this film (Spock here vs Decker in the previous story).  It's almost a running joke that if Kirk cannot have the Enterprise, nobody can.

We also learn in this one that Kirk has a son with Dr. Carol Marcus.  This is news to Kirk as well, believing their fling to not have led to conception for over 20 years.  He must learn to adjust to the new information as he battle Khan, and maintains his normal duties.

Saavik is a nice addition to the cast.  Part-Vulcan, part-Romulan, her thought and musings are a welcoming presence.  She is strict on regulation and very determined to advance her career in Starfleet.  She seems a bit annoying at first, but grows to become a strong asset to the Admiral and the crew as the story goes along.

There are many other things I could say, but I'll leave it at that for now.  Amazing read.

Here is what I learned:

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• The Enterprise is in the Gamma Hydra.

• Lt. Saavik is a Vulcan trainee attempting to pass the test.

• She differs from Spock in that her other side is Romulan instead of human.

• The Kobayashi Maru is trapped 12 parasecs outside Altair VI.  It was caught in a gravitic mine.

• The Kobayashi Maru is a third class neutronic fuel carrier, with a crew of 81, and 300 passengers.

• Klingons never take prisoners.

• Spock has promoted to Captain of the Enterprise.

• "By now you know pretty well how you deal with life, Lieutenant. But how you deal with death is important, too, wouldn't you agree?"

• The prototype of a Rickoverian paradox is: “You are on a ship—a sailing ship, an oceangoing vessel. It sinks. You find yourself in a life raft with one other person. The life raft is damaged. It might support one person, but not two. How would you go about persuading the other person to let you have the raft?"

• "You ask me if I should not preserve myself so I can carry out my responsibilities. Then I ask you, what are my responsibilities? By the criteria you have named, my responsibilities are to preserve myself so I can carry out my responsibilities! This is a circular and self-justifying argument. It is immoral in the extreme! A just society—and if I am not mistaken, the Federation considers itself to be just—employs a military for one reason alone: to protect its civilians. If we decide to judge that some civilians are 'worth' protecting, and some are not, if we decide we are too important to be risked, then we destroy our own purpose. We cease to be the servants of our society. We become its tyrants!"

• The colony world Saavik had lived on was declared a failure; the Romulan military (which was indistinguishable from the Romulan government) made the decision to abandon it. They carried out the evacuation as well. They rescued everyone.

• Vulcans are renowned for their ability to be idle.

• Kirk has a fondness for antiques.

• Spock gives Kirk a leather-bound copy of Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” for his birthday.

• Spock struggles to understand human feelings as Kirk struggles with aging.

• Panel Chekov is the duty officer on the U.S.S. Reliant.

• The Reliant is looking at the planet Alpha Ceti VI as a candidate to test the Genesis project.

• Reliant has looked at 16 worlds previously.

• Reliant is known as “This Old Bucket”.

• Captain Clark Terrell commands the Reliant.

• Dr. Carol Marcus is stationed on the Regulus 1 Laboratory Space Station.

• Carol still chews her nails in her forties.

• David Marcus is her son with James Kirk.  He works with her at on Regulus One.

• "Listen kiddo, Jim Kirk was a lot of things … but he was never a boy scout."

• McCoy gets Kirk a bottle of Romulan Ale from 2283, and 400 year old reading glasses for his birthday.

• Kirk is allergic to Retinax.

• "Damn it, Jim.  What the hell's the matter? Everybody has birthdays. Why are we treating yours like a funeral?"

• Kirk gave up the Enterprise after the Voyager incident (See Star Trek: The Motion Picture).

• “Get your ship back. Get it back before you really do get old. Before you turn into part of your own collection."

• Alpha Ceti VI is worse than Siberia in winter.

• According to Chekov, Vladimir Lenin once said, “better part of valor is discretion."

• Mr. Kyle, the Communications officer on the Reliant, tends to err on the side of caution.

• Chekov finds a child in an abandoned spaceship.

• [Aloha Ceti VI] was not a world where Chekov would wish to father and try to raise a baby, but obviously at least one couple among the survivors of the cargo ship crash had felt differently.

• The crashed ship is the Botany Bay. A ship left stranded 15 years prior by Captain Kirk. (See S1E22 of Star Trek TOS: Space Seed).

• "You, sir, are in a position to demand nothing.  I, on the other hand, am in a position to grant nothing."

• Khan reveals that the planet is actually Alpha Ceti V.  The planet he and his people were marooned on.

• Alpha Ceti VI has a tectonic instability, causing it to explode and lay waste to the beautiful Alpha Ceti V.

• Khan was once a prince on Earth.

• Lieutanent McGiver joined Khan in exile, married him, and was killed by a Ceti Eel.

• Ceti Eels are the only surviving species native to Alpha Ceti V.

• Ceti Eels kill by intertwining with the cerebral cortex.  The victim slowly becomes susceptible to suggestion.  Eventually the body paralyzes, and the victim suffers a slow agonizing death as the eel grows and continues to twist within the skull.

• Last night's rain had left today crystal clear and gleaming. The shuttle gave a three-hundred-sixty-degree view of land so beautiful that Hikaru wanted to grab everyone in the shuttle and shake them till they looked: two ranges of mountains, the Cascades to the east and the Olympics to the west, gray and purple and glittering white; the long wide path of Puget Sound, leading north, studded with islands and sliced by the keen-edged wake of a hydrofoil. He rotated the shuttle one hundred eighty degrees to starboard, slowly, facing in turn the solitary volcanic peaks of Mount Baker, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, steaming and smoking again after a two-hundred-year sleep, Mount Hood, and far to the south, rising through towering thunderheads, Mount Shasta.

• Sulu has been promoted to Captain.

• It is implied that Scotty has gotten some form of VD during Shore Leave.

• Cadet First Class Peter Preston is Mr. Scott’s nephew.

• Lt. Saavik has piloted a starship out of spacedock 193 times in simulation.

• Spock was a member of an exploratory expedition to Hellguard.

• Khan killed 10 of 300 crew members on the Reliant for attempting to stop him from taking over the ship.

• Kirk is a member of the Fleet General Staff and has access to all classified information.

• There are 93 computers in the SpaceLab.

• Del March and Vance Madison are quark chemists on Regulus 1.

• Jedda is a Deltan who works on Regulus 1.

• Del and Vance like to play Boojum Hunt.

• Boojum Hunt is 50mg in computer size.

• "Something's happened at Regulus I. We've been ordered to investigate."

• "In any case, were the circumstances otherwise, logic would still dictate that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”  “Or the one?"

• Vulcans tend to be vegetarians.

• Peter dislikes feeling embarassed.

• "There are two possibilities, Admiral, that they are unwilling to respond, or that they are unable to respond.”

• “I'm Dr. Carol Marcus, director of the Project Genesis team at Regulus I Spacelab. Genesis is a procedure by which the molecular structure of matter is broken down, not into subatomic parts as in nuclear fission, or even into elementary particles, but into sub-elementary particle-waves. These can then, by manipulation of the various nuclear forces, be restructured into anything else of similar mass.  Stage one of the experiment has been completed here in the lab. We will attempt stage two underground. Stage three involves the process on a planetary scale, as projected by the following computer simulation.  We intend to introduce the Genesis device via torpedo into an astronomical body of Earth's mass or smaller.  The planet will be scrupulously researched to preclude the disruption of any life forms or pre-biotics.  When the torpedo impacts the chosen target the Genesis effect begins.  The Genesis wave dissociates matter into a homogenous mass of real and virtual sub-elementary particles.  The sub-elementaries reaggregate instantaneously.  Precisely what they reform into depends on the complexity of the quantum resonances of the original Genesis wave, and on the available mass. If sufficient matter is present, the programming permits an entire star system to be formed. The simulation, however, deals only with the reorganization of a planetary body.  In other words, the results are completely under our control. In this simulation, a barren rock becomes a world with water, atmosphere, and a functioning ecosystem capable of sustaining most known forms of carbon-based life.  It represents only a fraction of the potential that Genesis offers, if these experiments are pursued to their conclusion.  When we consider the problems of population and food supply, the value of the process becomes clear. In addition, it removes the technical difficulties and the ethical problems of interfering with a natural evolutionary system in order to serve the needs of the inhabitants of a separate evolutionary system.  This concludes the demonstration tape. I and my colleagues, Jedda Adzhin-Dall, Vance Madison, Delwin March, Zinaida Chitirih-Ra-Payjh, and David Marcus, thank you for your attention."

• Historically it has always been easier to destroy than to create."

• Adzhin-Dall is a quantum physicist.

• ChitirihRa-Payjh is a mathematician.

• Boojum was the best piece of software Del and Vance ever wrote.

• Del and Vance have a company called Mad Rabbit Productions in Port Orchard.

• No human could tolerate the intensity of the intimacy of a Deltan.

• Yoshi is the Spacelab cook.

• The Reliant crew, being commanded by Khan, lies to Spacelab by arriving in two days rather than three in order to take them by surprise.

• Khan slashes throats to kill.

• Del made a promise to Vance to quit mixing recreational drugs, which he oddly remembers before his death.

• For fifteen years Khan Singh had dedicated himself to the survival of his followers, when he himself had nothing left to live for. Nothing but revenge. Bitterness and hatred had overwhelmed him. Joachim held desperately to the conviction that when his vengeance was behind him, Khan could find himself again, that somehow, someday, Joachim would regain the man to whom he had sworn his loyalty and his life.

• A Deltan can give a man the strength to die.

• Zinaida transfers all of her thoughts to Jedda as a warning that all hope is lost and he must escape to avoid death.

• Joachim feels great pain at the loss of life caused by Khan.

• An old Klingon proverb states, “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”

• Coolant leak was supposed to be impossible in the engine room.

• "You've got to learn why things work on a starship, not just how."

• Reliant’s prefix code for its command console is 16309.

• "I got beat. We're only alive because I knew something about these ships that he didn't."

• Regulus 1 is a Class D Planetoid.  Essentially a very large rock.

• General Order 15 specifically prohibits the entry of a flag officer into a hazardous area without armed escort.

• A “galley chief” is a head chef.

• McCoy once served with Captain Terrell.

• Terrell knew McCoy as “Len McCoy”.

• Admiral Kirk is David Marcus’ father.

• Genesis is the most beautiful place Saavik has ever seen.

• Kirk was the only cadet to ever bet the Kobayashi Maru because he reprogrammed the simulation so that he could save the ship.

• Kirk does not believe in the no-win scenario.

• He received a commendation for original thinking.

• Kirk was the first person to ever give Saavik a flower.

• Even Spock could see the effects of strain and exhaustion in her face; the deaths on Spacelab must of course have affected her far more than they did him, not only because she was human and he Vulcan, but because she had been far better acquainted with the people who had died. Words of condolence were such a trivial response to a loss of this magnitude that Spock refused to attempt any.

• Regulation 46a states that “During battle, no uncoded messages on an open channel.”

• The Enterprise uses Spacelab’s sensors to monitor the position of the Reliant.

• The gas clouds within the Mutara Nebula interfere with tactical and the visuals may not function.  Also, ionization will disrupt shields.

• Joachim feels betrayed by Khan.

• David Marcus and a medic bring Sulu back to life.

• Joachim's body lay only an arm's length from him. His wife's body, dust, lay half a light-year distant. Soon neither space nor time would have any meaning, and he would join his love and his friend.

• Spock has enjoyed his conversations with McCoy.

• Massive radiation feels like sunlight.

• “The good of the many, outweighs the good of the few…or the one.”

• "Jim, I have been, and will be, your friend. I am grateful for that. Live long, and prosper. . . ."

• The bodies of deceased crew members are kept in the stasis room until returned to their families

• Captain Spock’s will Shane not be returned to Vulcan.

• If someone died on Hellguard, and their body was not watched, it would be gone by morning.  Stripped by scavengers and torn apart by hungry animals.

• Peter and Spock were the only two people Saavik ever cared about.

• Saavik does not believe in souls or the afterlife.

• Kirk’s eulogy for Spock: "We have assembled here in accordance with Starfleet traditions, to pay final respects to one of our own. To honor our dead …and to grieve for a beloved comrade who gave his life in place of ours. He did not think his sacrifice a vain or empty one, and we cannot question his choice, in these proceedings.  He died in the shadow of a new world, a world he had hoped to see. He lived just long enough to know it had come into being.  Of my friend, I can only say that of all the souls I have encountered his was— the most human."

• The Enterprise heads to Alpha Ceti V to pick up Reliant’s survivors.

• “The way one faces death is at least as important as how one faces life."

• One cannot buy anything on board the Enterprise.

• David is proud to be Kirk’s son.

• "I feel…I feel young, Doctor, believe it or not. Reborn. As young as Carol's new world."

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Overall, this is an amazing read.  I have now read it twice and still love it more than ever.  Regardless of whether or not you enjoy Star Trek, I recommend this book for anyone.  The Wrath of Khan is an amazing story that just happened to take place in the Star Trek universe.

Highest Recommendation.

On to Book #102: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock by Vonda N. McIntyre.