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| Star Trek sure loves its rainbow covers. |
I was pretty surprised as to McIntyre’s approach. She
writes the events of the movie, it’s all there. There are significant portions
of the dialogue that are the same as in the movie (sadly, the movie’s
“KHAAAAAAAN!!” was a simple “Khan!” in the novel). That makes sense because it
fits with my preconceived idea of what a movie novelization is but I think few
people would agree that a novelization should limit itself to simply rehashing
the film it’s based on. What surprised me is that McIntyre embellished and
added to the movie experience. She did this primarily by developing characters,
some of which don’t even appear in the theatrical release, such as Peter
Preston.
In McIntyre’s capable hands, Saavik is an actual
character, not just a new face on the bridge of the USS Enterprise. She gives her a background story and she gives the
reader a fascinating look inside her teacher/mentor relationship with Spock.
It’s quite the shame that actress Kirstie Alley never got a chance to develop
the character on screen because novel-Saavik is far more interesting than
movie-Saavik. In my revisionist history of the making of the Star Trek films, Alley didn’t return to
her role as Saavik because she read McIntyre’s novelization of The Wrath of Khan and was pissed about
who novel-Saavik is and just how much more interesting she is. The same can
easily be said for Dr. David Marcus, Captain Kirk and Dr. Carol Marcus’ son.
Remember how there are some strange looks that are made between Saavik and
David at the end of the movie? That’s because they’re been flirting since they
met. His budding romance with Saavik gives the fans a chance to see a different
side of David. As it turns out he’s not solely concerned with the news that
Kirk is his father. He has a life and he’s also aware of other things going on
around him. McIntyre gives us the chance to spend some time in David’s head too
and it was pretty great. I’ve always found him rather annoying in the movie but
novel-David is interesting because he isn’t uni-dimensional. Other characters
also get some time to shine such as the many scientists who worked on the
Genesis Project and Peter Preston, the nephew of Montgomery Scott.
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| Cute (and smart) couple. |
That’s really the secret as to what makes The Wrath of Khan a successful
novelization. McIntyre isn’t focused solely on hitting all the plot points and
writing descriptive action scenes or technically heavy descriptions of the
workings of all the advanced technology. Similarly to the movie, the focus was
also quite heavily put on the characters. The second Star Trek films isn’t the best because Khan is the best villain,
it’s because Khan is a great character and the juxtaposition of Kirk and Khan
is a fascinating to watch. McIntyre also did a great job writing Khan.
The Wrath of Khan
is often considered a great revenge story and while it certain is that, it’s
also much more. It’s the story of how 15 years of hardship broke Khan and his
final self-destructive moments where everything around him crumbles not despite
his actions but because of them. McIntyre shows us just how deeply Khan cares
about his people and that’s the main reason he’s so angry at Kirk. He’s not a
megalomaniac, he’s angry that he’s failed his people. His desire for revenge is
fuelled by his love for his people who he wants to protect and lead them to a
better life. The death of his wife, Lieutenant McGivers pushes him over the
edge and he’s unable to focus on anything other than causing Kirk pain and
suffering. He has to deal with his hatred of Kirk before he can return his
attention to the well-being of his people. At heart, he’s a good if harsh man
but the difficulties he faced while on Alpha Ceti V proved to be too difficult
for him.
McIntyre brings forth this side of Khan by allowing the
reader to spend some time in Joachim’s head. As one of Khan’s people and one of
his close followers, he noticed firsthand the transformation that Khan went
through while on Alpha Ceti V. At one point he realises that Kahn will regain
his focus once he’s been able to deal with Kirk but that, of course, ends in
tragedy.
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| This part was pretty heart-wrenching. Kind of sad it only made it in the Director's Cut version of the movie. Poor Peter Preston. |
One of the things I really like about Khan is how well he
plays off of Kirk. His wrath may have truly begun with the death of his wife
but it continues to grow during his showdown with Kirk and finally consumes
him. Khan puts Kirk in an extremely difficult situation which is something Kirk
unknowingly did to Khan. He’s plotting Kirk’s humiliation and death but he’s
not doing it with any measurable amount of success other than by stealing the
Genesis missile and that’s no consolation. Stealing Project Genesis was never
Khan’s goal, it was a tool which allowed him to lure Kirk into a dangerous
situation. Aside from the frustration of failing to successfully put an end to
his rival, Khan also has to deal with the fact that Kirk is being selfless.
Kirk is being exactly the kind of man Khan (presumably used to be in regard to
his people and putting their needs before his own. Kirk even offered to give
himself up to Khan in order to protect his senior officers and the training
crew above the Enterprise. Khan is
raging because the very man he’s trying to destroy is demonstrating his worth
as an individual and as a leader making Khan look like a fool. Despite his
enhanced physique and his advanced intelligence, Kirk is the better man because
he puts his aging body and his mind at work with the goal of protecting and
defending the men and women he cares about. If you set aside Khan’s
enhancements, he and Kirk and very much the same person, both leaders who were
put in difficult situations but one of them decided to act in the interest of
the people he cares about and the other decided to act on his own desires and
forgo the safety of his people.
The comparison extends beyond Kirk, though since other
characters show that have a greater sense of duty and responsibility towards
those who look up to them than Khan. Spock is a great example of this.
Spock: Don't grieve, Admiral. It is logical. The needs of the many, outweigh...
Kirk: The needs of the few.
Spock: Or the one.
It’s fascinating that Khan takes one approach and Spock
another. For Khan, despite his previous devotion to this people, believes that
his personal revenge is more important than any of the other needs, be they
personal or collective, of his people. As for Spock, he believes that the needs
of his friends and crew are more important than his need to survive or keep on
living. It’s even more interesting when you consider the events of the third
movie, Star Trek: The Search for Spock,
in which Spock’s friends collectively agree that his needs are more important
than the needs of the group. They prove it with their actions and it’s great to
see the same quote flipped on its head with equally emotional results (though
one is negative and the other is positive).
The Wrath of Khan is one of the best novelizations I’ve
ever read. Granted, it’s not a very long list, but McIntyre is able to present
the events of the movie without adding unnecessary fluff. She doesn’t repeat
the movie in further detail but she embellishes it by presenting smaller,
character driven stories that take place in between the events that were
included in the film. Lucky for me (and other Star Trek fans) she’s written two others novelizations, The Search of Spock and The Voyage Home. I’m very curious to see
if she was able to write equally good novels out of the other films but there’s
only one way to find out for sure. Either way, it’s clear that McIntyre’s got a
great grasp of the characters and the universe of Star Trek and I’ll definitively be checking out more of her tie-in
novels.
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