It seems a sudden neighborhood of the old enemy of Admiral Kirk appeared in middle age. It seems that this old enemy is looking for vengeance and a potentially devastating device. He is a person named Khan who has returned with a strong return with his exiled team of Gladiators. Khan is still planning to raid the RegulaOne space station and steal a secret device called the Genesis Project. In addition to grabbing control of another federal vehicle, and is now planning to beat his old Kirk.
There is something comfortable, even old-shoeish, about the new film, a sense, appropriate to its theme of coming to terms with middle age, that all aboard are pleasurably rediscovering their best selves.
The merely curious are warned. If Star Trek: The Motion Picture showed little of the Enterprise of the culty TV series, this sequel is at times a flat-out Khan-job.
Although I liked the special effects in the first movie, they were probably not the point; fans of the TV series wanted to see their favorite characters again, and Trek II understood that desire and acted on it.
If only director Nicholas Meyer had grasped the implications of his tale more fully and enthusiastically, this might have become a classic piece of cornball SF poetry, but as it stands the tepid acting and one-set claustrophobia take a heavy toll.
It was Star Trek II that put the franchise on the right track as the spirit of Gene Roddenberry's 60s television series was harnessed to spectacular effect.
