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Harve Bennett famously screened all seventy
nine episodes of the television series in order to
familiarize himself with "Star Trek."
"Space Seed", he felt, was the best candidate from a
number of episodes to base a sequel on. Similarly, Ricardo
Montalban (Khan) re-watched the episode in order to
re-familiarize himself with the character. |
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After
reading an early version of the script, William Shatner
(Kirk)
told Nicholas Meyer that he didn't like certain aspects
of it. As a result, Meyer rewrote some of the script and
sent it to Shatner. Shatner loved the changes and left
an ecstatic message on Meyer's answering machine
praising Meyer's talent. Nicholas kept the message and
played it on the set any time Shatner didn't like the way
he was shooting something. |
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While this film was Kirstie Alley's
(Saavik) first film role, she had actually appeared as a
contestant on "Match Game '79" before becoming an actress.
From here, she would gain notoriety for portraying the
character Rebecca Howe on "Cheers" (alongside future Trek
guest stars Bebe Neuwirth and Kelsey Grammer). |
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Kirstie Alley (Saavik) was so fond of the Vulcan ears that she
slept with them on. |
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In the movie "Look Who's Talking Now",
Kirstie Alley's character, while working as an elf in a
shopping mall, claims she's not an elf, but rather a
Vulcan, a reference to her role as Saavik. |
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The
background noise for the Enterprise was recorded from a
heating/air conditioning duct beside a screening room on
the Paramount lot. |
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Original titles for the film included "The
Undiscovered Country" (which would later be used for
"Star
Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country") and "The Vengeance
of Khan." The latter was the set title for the film for a
short time, until it was learned that the sequel to "Star
Wars" was to be titled "Revenge of the Jedi" (it was later
renamed "The Empire Strikes Back"). To avoid confusion,
the title of the film was finally changed to "The Wrath of
Khan." |
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Due to the budget for
"Star
Trek: The Motion Picture" spiraling severely out of
control, this film was given a much lower budget (the
lowest to date of all the "Star Trek" films) |
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As part of the budget constraints,
director Nicholas Meyer had to rely on stock footage
from the previous film in several scenes, including:
- The Kobayashi Maru scene - the
Klingon ships were recycled.
- The shuttlecraft scene - the
approach of Kirk's shuttle was recycled.
- The drydock scene - the shots of
the Enterprise lighting up and exiting the drydock
were recycled.
- "So much for the little training
cruise" - when the Enterprise jumps to warp, the
warp effect is recycled
Additionally, many props and models
from the first film were reused as well. The Enterprise
bridge is the same set, slightly altered and rearranged,
the Reliant bridge is a redress of the Enterprise bridge
with brown upholstery on the chairs and the Regula I
model is the orbital office model from the previous
film, turned upside down. The environmental suits used
by Chekov and Terrell are the thruster suits from the
previous film. The phaser weapons were retained from the
previous film, though the communicators were redesigned
to appear more like they did in the television series. |
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The cast demanded that if they were to
return for another "Star Trek" film, that the
monochromatic uniforms from the previous film would have
to be replaced. |
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In the opening scene, there is a "NO
SMOKING" sign visible on the bridge of the Enterprise
mock-up. Gene Roddenberry, reassigned as "Executive
Consultant", demanded that it be removed, claiming that
smoking would not exist in the 23rd century. The sign
was removed, however, several instances of smoking would
crop up in later productions, such as
TNG: "The Big Good-bye",
"Star
Trek V: The Final Frontier", and
"Star
Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country." |
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The
Genesis Effect shown in Dr. Marcus' proposal was the
first all-digital CG sequence to appear in a film. |
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When Mr. Spock and Saavik speak to each
other in Vulcan, the actors are actually saying the lines
in English, with similarly pronounced Vulcan words being
dubbed in later. |
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Judson Scott (Joachim) goes uncredited in
the film due to his agent, who believed he could get a
bigger salary and higher billing if he held out. He proved
mistaken and the agent was summarily dismissed. Scott
would guest star in
TNG: "Symbiosis" (alongside Merritt Butrick [David
Marcus]) and
VOY: "Message in a Bottle", being credited both times. |
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Paul Winfield (Captain Terrell) would later
guest star as Captain Dathon in
TNG: "Darmok." |
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The tank used by the special effects team
to create the Mutara Nebula was also used to create the
illusion of a nuclear mushroom cloud in the chilling ABC
television movie "The Day After" (also directed by
Nicholas Meyer and featuring Bibi Besch [Carol Marcus]). |
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The Reliant is the first non-Constitution
class Federation ship to be seen in a live-production of
"Star Trek." It was designed with the impression in mind
that audiences would believe the Enterprise and the
Reliant were part of the same fleet, yet, clearly
different in appearance. |
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Leonard Nimoy agreed to appear as Mr. Spock
after producer Harve Bennett asked him "How would you like
to have a terrific death scene?" There was much
speculation at the time that Nimoy hated "Star Trek" and
did not want to play Mr. Spock anymore (Nimoy's biography
"I Am Not Spock" only fuelled such speculation). However,
by Nimoy's own account in later years, that was not the
case and fully embraces what "Star Trek" and Mr. Spock had
done for both his career and life. |
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In the original cut of the film, Mr. Spock
died on a note of finality. However, it was perceived to
be too much of a downer. As a result, the "Remember" scene
was inserted as was the shot of Mr. Spock's casket laying
on the surface of Genesis as it was believed those two
elements were vague enough for any number of possible
sequels to stem from them. |
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Gene Roddenberry was furious when he
learned that Mr. Spock would perish in the film. As a
result, he leaked the plot twist to the media before the
film's release, in the hopes that it would enrage "Star
Trek" fans to the point that they would boycott the film.
To combat this, Mr. Spock was scripted to "die" along with
the rest of the Enterprise crew in the opening of the film
in the Kobayashi Maru scenario in order to throw off
audiences. |
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Visible in Admiral Kirk's apartment in a
Commodore computer, for which William Shatner was an
endorser of at the time. |
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Dr. McCoy was originally scripted to say
"He's dead, Jim" in the Engine Room after Kirk rushes in,
but, DeForest Kelley refused to say the line as he felt it
would be perceived as funny to the audience and ruin the
moment. |
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Filmed and cut from the film was a line
explaining that Saavik was half-Romulan, which explains
why she is seen shedding tears at Mr. Spock's funeral.
Also cut was a brief scene on the bridge of the Enterprise
in the coda which hints at a relationship between Saavik
and David. Neither scene was restored in the 2002
Director's Edition DVD. |
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Long since lost from the lore of the film
is the notion of Khan's baby, which was filmed, but
ultimately cut from the movie. Two photos that were taken
were publicized in several magazines of the day depict the
baby; one which shows the small child looking out a window
of the Botany Bay on Ceti Alpha V which catches Chekov's
attention, but the child quickly scurries away. In the
other, after Khan activates the Genesis Device, the baby
is seen walking towards it in the transporter room,
mesmerized by the flashing colours and whatnot. |
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