A legendary Star Trek producer has revealed his favorite film in the series

Of the 13 existing “Star Trek” feature films, it is widely agreed upon Nicholas Meyer’s 1982 sequel Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is considered the best.. Many cruisers love the outsized personality of Khan and Ricardo Montalban’s equally expansive performances, as well as the film’s thrilling, exciting ship-to-ship combat sequences. To remind readers, “Khan” culminates when the eponymous character hijacks a Starfleet ship called the USS Reliant and uses it to fight Admiral Kirk (William Shatner), who is aboard the USS Enterprise. You see, Kirk left Khan behind on the planet Ceti Alpha V in the original series episode “Space Seed,” unaware that an environmental catastrophe had turned the entire planet into a desert wasteland. Khan barely survived, and when he finally escaped from City Alpha V, he only thought about revenge.

“The Wrath of Khan”, which features a story credited to Harvey Bennett and Jack B. Soward (who is also credited as a screenwriter), deals objectively with facing the consequences. Kirk was once an outspoken but reckless Captain who rarely dealt with the repercussions of his actions. “The Wrath of Khan” not only faces a forgotten enemy, but also learns that he has an adult son (Merrit Butrick) whom he has never met. It’s all about growth and re-evaluating one’s life. Then, in the end, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) dies, showing that there will always be consequences. Youth will not last forever, and one can never get over the past.

Bennett was not only a story writer on The Wrath of Khan, but also a Star Trek producer who joined the franchise in 1980 after the financial disappointment of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. He would go on to produce several films in the franchise after that.

In 2010, Bennett interviewed… Star Trek.com Naturally when asked which “Star Trek” movie he liked the most. Perhaps it was natural for him to say that it was “The Wrath of Khan.”

It’s worth noting that Leonard Nimoy’s 1986 film “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” was, by a wide margin, the most financially successful “Star Trek” film, at least until the release of JJ Abrams’ “Star Trek” film in 2009. Tempted Bennett, the producer, immediately called “Voyage Home” his favorite film for just that reason. But then, after a moment’s thought, he had to admit that he, along with most of the Triki in the world, preferred “The Wrath of Khan.” In his own words:

“My instinct is to say, ‘You bet, IV is my favorite,’ but then I have to stop and say I love ‘IV,’ but ‘II’ will always have a special place in my heart for the reasons we discussed and more.”

Bennett wasn’t a Trekkie when he was hired to work on The Wrath of Khan, and he had to go back and watch every episode of the original series to prepare. “Space Seed” episode “It spoke to him and left him wondering what Khan would look like 25 years after those events,” he explained in an interview with StarTrek.com. Interestingly enough, it took a non-Trekkie to create the story of one of the most beloved “Star Trek” movies of all time.

But then, Bennett had a lot to say about “The Voyage Home,” which also had a new concept. This is the movie in which the Enterprise crew, after they hijack a Klingon ship and rename the bounty in “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock,” travel back in time to 1986 to retrieve a pair of humpback whales. A mysterious and powerful space probe in the future seems to be emptying Earth’s oceans in search of a few humpback whales, and the planet has been in chaos ever since humanity hunted whales to extinction centuries ago. Bennett also loved this movie, as did most moviegoers.

As noted above, “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” was a commercial disappointment, so a new creative team (sans “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry) was brought in for the sequel. Bennett, a novice, struck gold with his “The Wrath of Khan” idea, but it was risky at the time. If The Wrath of Khan had failed, it could have been the final Star Trek film. Fortunately, both that film and “The Search for Spock” did well, and as Bennett puts it, “By the time we got to IV, we were confident in ourselves.” Bennett felt that the film’s time-travel plot was a great way to appeal to a wider audience outside of Trekkies.

You succeeded. Bennett loved the movie, and would love for everyone to see it. “The Wrath of Khan” may have been his favorite, but “Voyage Home” got more verbiage from the producer. As he put it:

“Back to the present created something that nothing else could do, which was to introduce Star Trek to a non-Trek viewing audience. All you have to do is remember those scenes on the streets of San Francisco. People didn’t remember them.” I don’t relate to the characters as “Star Trek” stars, but kind of like another lunatic in San Francisco, I adore the lady’s reaction to Chekov when he asks her “Where can I find the nuclear ships?” This whole scene is “Star Trek.” In conjunction with people who had never heard of it before, which is why it was the biggest hit and most popular of the things I’ve done in many ways.

The “nuclear fuel” reference comes from Chekov (Walter Koenig) who has been searching for nuclear power for his spacecraft, but has no idea where to get it. He knows the nuclear-powered marine craft have what he needs, but he doesn’t know where they are. So, he just starts by asking passers-by (Including an extra who only got the part because the film production towed her car), with a Russian accent, where he might find “nuclear media”. In 1986, during the Cold War, this was especially funny.