From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhtsa!ihnss!ihuxl!rjnoe
Newsgroups: net.movies
Title: Star Trek II **SPOILER**
Article-I.D.: ihuxl.196
Posted: Fri Jun 25 16:49:44 1982
Received: Mon Jun 28 06:10:39 1982

     So many good questions came in overnight I decided to answer them
today rather than waiting until more built up.

(1)  George Otto was absolutely correct in answering that Khan found the
coordinates of the Genesis device from being in contact with Terrell (he
was wearing a wrist communicator).  Khan did need Kirk to identify the
device for him.  What bothers me about this scene is when Terrell shoots
himself with his phaser.  It's one thing for the phaser to disappear (he
was holding it at the time) but his wrist communicator, which he removed
before shooting himself, also seemed to disappear.  I thought he just
dropped it, but I didn't see it on the floor.  What happened to it?

(2)  Khan was far from senile in his hatred for Kirk, he was possessed with
the idea of hurting Kirk.  (Remember seeing "Moby Dick" on Khan's bookshelf?)
His obsession was so overpowering, he made several blunders in spite of the
warnings of Joachim.

(3)  Khan did not beam Kirk up and phaser him on the Reliant because Khan
believed that leaving Kirk entombed beneath the surface of a dead planetoid
for all eternity was "better" than a quick death of any sort.  (By the way,
I think that some of the best acting in the entire movie is done by William
Shatner in this scene.)
     When David Marcus rushed Captain Terrell, Lt. Saavik tackled David to
keep him from getting killed.  Terrell fired anyway, hitting, I believe,
Jedda, one of the scientists from Regula I (the only one beside Carol and
David to escape from Khan).  I think it was Jedda who said "Phasers down!"
when David attacked Kirk.

(4)  We do not know in fact that the Ceti eels kill their "hosts" by growing
in and around the cerebral cortex, all we have is Khan's word for it.  I
believe that they might just go in for a while and then depart the same way
they came in.  This explains the pain both Chekov and Terrell felt when they
were about to kill Kirk.  Once they got Chekov up to sick bay on board the
Enterprise, he was given a thorough examination which revealed only a
punctured eardrum and some of the symptoms of a concussion.  It is not
significant that Chekov did not hold a phaser again in the movie, because
once all the people were off Regula and back on the Enterprise, NO ONE held
a phaser again in the movie!  The person who observed this failed to note
that Kirk asked Chekov to take control of the Enterprise's phasers (and all
other weaponry), the biggest phasers in the whole picture.

(5)  No mention is made in the film of the computer games the Regula I
scientists had, something which is in the novelization.  Note also that the
book had two Deltan scientists on Regula I (remember Ilia from ST-TMP?) which
were changed to humans of Indian extraction in the film.  Yet another
difference is that in the movie, Ceti Alpha V did not have a poisonous
atmosphere which explains why Khan and his people could survive outside the
shelters without life support apparatus and why the shelters had no airlocks,
only doors.

(6)  In response to UTCSRGV!KRAMER, of *course* Starfleet uses charts, or at
least the computerized equivalent.  However, there are (as Carl Sagan would
say) billions and billions of stars in the section of the galaxy patrolled
by Starfleet.  It would take a LONG time for humans to have gone everywhere
and thus have no more places to which no one has gone before.  In my previous
article I explained how Khan was happened upon.  It should be obvious why the
Star Trek stories we know of involve so many of Kirk's acquaintances--the
stories are more interesting that way and this is, after all, merely fiction.
I wouldn't be so certain that no planet in our own star system other than
earth is completely devoid of ALL life forms.  Certainly three centuries
from now we will be better able to distinguish forms of life and its pre-
cursors than we are able to do now.  Besides, Carol Marcus had requirements
for the target of Genesis in addition to total lifelessness.  This explains
why they couldn't just look on a star chart to find a completely lifeless
planet.  Why would anyone before ever have examined for TOTAL absence of
life and pre-biotic forms?


     Here's one more trivia question for you (perhaps these belong on one
of the trivia newsgroups, but I think they are fitting here):  From the
entries to the captains' logs, what stardates span (approximately) the
duration of the movie?  Again, DO NOT SEND YOUR ANSWERS IN TO THIS NEWSGROUP
AND DO NOT SEND THEM TO ME IN THE MAIL!!  I will respond in a week or so
with the answers.  As always, if you have questions about the content of
my answers above, I will see them in net.movies or you may send them by
mail to     ihnss!ihuxl!rjnoe.
                                              Roger Noe