44 Years Ago, Star Trek Delivered the Sequel Story No One Expected (And It Changed Everything)

It has been 44 years since Star Trek delivered a sequel to a television episode that no one could have expected, and it set the bar for every movie in the franchise that was released since. Star Trek had a tough start as a franchise, and it took letter-writing campaigns from fans to help Star Trek: The Original Series reach three seasons and 79 episodes. After NBC canceled the show in 1969, it exploded in popularity a few years later when it hit syndication, leading to an animated series with the original cast returning to voice the characters, and then Star Trek: The Motion Picture arrived in 1979.

However, when Star Trek returned with its second movie three years later, it did something no one expected. It made the movie into a sequel to one episode of TOS, and it ended up making Star Trek one of the hottest sci-fi franchises in the world in movies and on television.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Delivered a Surprising Sequel to a TOS episode

On June 4, 1982, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan hit theaters, and no one could have seen this story coming to a movie. That is because this movie is a sequel to a single episode from the first season of Star Trek: The Original Series, called “Space Seed.” This episode, which aired on February 16, 1967, featured Ricardo Montalbán as the villain, Khan Noonien Singh, who attempted to take control of the Enterprise. Unlike many Star Trek villains, Khan is a genetically engineered superhuman who controlled more than a quarter of Earth during the Eugenics Wars of the 1990s. After being revived from suspended animation in 2267, he attempted to capture the Enterprise, but Captain Kirk stopped him.

This led to the shocking moment in 1982 when Star Trek chose to bring back this one-shot villain for a follow-up story in the franchise’s second movie. Set 15 years after “Space Seed” (which is the same length of time between the episode and the movie), Khan escapes his exile, and this story is one where he seeks revenge. His main goal, other than getting revenge on Kirk, is to get a terraforming device called Genesis.

Montalbán’s star status had risen since his first appearance on Star Trek: The Original Series, as he had become the main star of the popular ABC television series Fantasy Island, where he led the series as Mr. Roarke for seven seasons (1977 to 1984). With Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan coming out in the middle of that show’s run, it gave fans a chance to see the actor in a very different role than they were used to in the 1980s. This was also a huge movie because it started a three-film story arc that played out in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).

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The Wrath of Khan Remains a Highlight of All Star Trek Movies

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was a monster critical success. The first movie in the franchise was a cerebral sci-fi story that was more like 2001: A Space Odyssey than Star Wars, but the second movie took a different direction and allowed the crew of the Starship Enterprise to actually go on an adventure and have the space battles fans loved so much. However, the movie also showed that it could still be as smart as the first movie, even when adding in the action beats and tension that a villain like Khan brings. It was a financial success, making $97 million on a $12 million budget, and while this was a step down from the first movie’s box office, it was made for much less money than the original’s $45 million budget.

However, the big thing about this movie was that it created an iconic villain that fans would remember for decades to come, and it would create a trilogy for the original crew, thanks to the shocking death at the end of Wrath of Khan. To save Captain Kirk and help stop Khan, Spock sacrificed his own life and died at the end of the movie. No one expected a major and beloved character to die, but it did lead to the sequel two years later in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, where he returned to life. This then led to the third part in the story in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, where Kirk and his crew stood court-martial for rescuing Spock.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was such a beloved chapter in the franchise’s movies that J.J. Abrams’ attempt to bring back Khan in the Kelvin timeline was met with complaints from fans and critics alike. Abrams made some major changes to the villain in Star Trek Into Darkness, and it never hit the same levels of critical acclaim and acceptance as the original versions from the television series and its surprise sequel. The 87% Rotten Tomatoes score for Wrath of Khan is third behind only Star Trek: First Contact and Abrams’ first Star Trek reboot, but 44 years later, it remains one of the movies most fans point to when calling out the highlights of the franchise.

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