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