Classic Scene: Kirk Meets Khan Once Again

Kirk Meets Khan Once Again

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Directed by Nicholas Meyer

The Scene: Once again finding himself in the captain’s chair of the Enterprise, James T. Kirk (William Shatner) finds himself confronted with another ship from the fleet, the Reliant. When his supposed allies do not respond to any communications, the captain turned admiral suspects something is wrong. In fact it is, as the Reliant is now under the command of his arch-enemy Khan (Ricardo Montalban) who is eager to deserve him a cold dish of revenge. Flipping back and forth between the two bridges we see Kirk consult with Spock (Leonard Nimoy) while Khan flippantly exercises his strategic brilliance. The second before Kirk can raise shields, Khan blasts phasers directly into the engine room. As the Enterprise officers scramble in reaction to this the super soldier at the helm of the Reliant continues his assault until he finally reveals himself to the man who stranded him on another world all those years ago. After an exchange of words, reminding Trek fans of the intense chemistry between these two characters, Khan slips up in granting Kirk 60 seconds to decide on his terms of surrender. Proving he is no slouch in the tactical thinking department, he uses this limited time to hack into the Reliant‘s system and takes down their own shields leaving them as vulnerable as they are and returns fire. Beyond the surface level damage, this is an exploitation of Khan’s ignorance of Starfleet’s more advanced operating procedures forcing him to retreat and lick his wounds….for now. The brief relief felt on the bridge of the Enterprise is interrupted as Scotty (James Doohan) emerges from the engine room with a reminder of the true cost of this rivalry between these two men.

The Breakdown: Whereas most space battles on film pride on themselves on spectacles and scope, this scene works because it is steeped in tension filled with suspense and character moments. While James T. Kirk is pondering the strange behavior of the Reliant, we as the audience know that onboard the ship his greatest foe waits to strike. Through Sergio Leone-esque close-ups the suspense rises as one of Starfleet’s greatest ponders his next move oblivious to the fact that an enemy is waiting for the perfect chance to blast the Enterprise full of phasers blasts. Initially we see that with every action Kirk takes, Khan is one step ahead of him, outthinking the admiral culminating with firing on the Enterprise right before they can raise shields. But once the time comes, Kirk proves he has his own strategic methods that are more based on quick thinking and catching the enemy by surprise. Amplifying the mood of this showdown is James Horner’s score as he switches between the more regimented and melodic motif of the Enterprise and the heavy sound of Khan’s theme to tell this story through sound. While Nicholas Meyer’s deft directing and Horner’s stellar score has often received most of the applause as to why this scene works, screenwriter Jack B Sowards deserves some of that as well. While Star Trek had many devoted fans, there were countless people in the theater who did not know a Gorn from a Romulan. Yet with a few brief bouts of dialogue traded between the characters of Kirk, Spock, and Khan all the information anyone needed to know about the weaponry used and the relationship between Kirk and Khan is laid out for newcomers and Trekkies alike.

The Best Bit: It had been fifteen years since Ricard Montalban had played Khan in the famed Star Trek episode “Space Seed”, but any doubts that he may have forgotten how to play the characters goes out the window with his delivery of Khan’s take on an old Klingon proverb “revenge is a dish best served cold….and it is very cold in space”.