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Yet in the end it ends up making Kirk look like a very arrogant man. The disaster that unfolds on board the Enterprise during Khan’s attack is a direct result of Kirk’s hubris, and this is something the Admiral is painfully aware of. But one of the things that puts such similar personalities on opposite sides of the moral compass is that men like Khan are incapable of mercy and forgiveness. Had Khan had been able to separate the nobility of Kirk’s gesture from his own crappy luck he might have just taken his stolen ship and headed for greener pastures. Instead, he used his supposedly superior noodle to cook up a violent revenge fantasy involving hundreds of innocent people. It makes you wonder whether sometimes all that separates good and evil is the ability to tell the difference. Despite their mutual flaws, Khan’s is a fatal one. Kirk agonizes when his decisions cost the lives of those around him. But Khan’s smug sense of superiority leads him to the self serving conclusion that winning isn’t as satisfying as rubbing your enemy’s face in it – no matter who gets hurt.

To sell a story like this requires good performances, and more than usual in Star Trek we get that from nearly the whole cast. Willam Shatner’s Shatner-ness is totally restrained here. Rumor has it that a little reverse psychology convinced him to take the part of a conflicted middle age man seriously. True or not, this is the best work the man’s ever done. Leonard Nimoy wears the part of Spock as well as an old bomber jacket, but Spock’s constantly dour ruminations on life and death are the sort of ominous foreshadowing that you don’t normally see in Star Trek, and Spock is the ideal character for it. A highlight of the cast is an impossibly young Kirstie Alley as Spock’s new protégé and female Mini Me. She’s actually very good. But without question the standout is Ricardo Montalban, whose interpretation of Khan’s tragically insatiable rage pretty much puts the Master Thespian stamp of approval on this film. It’s very credible as straight drama to the point that you almost forget you’re watching science fiction. There’s not an ounce of camp in this movie, and what humor there is serves as a way to release tension, instead of just a phony way to sell tickets.

Star Trek II tends to stand apart from the rest of the franchise, and contrary to what everyone would like you to think it’s about more than just having a strong villain. Early in the film, Kirk reminds a recruit that in their line of work, “how we face death is at least as important as how we face life”. He was being glib at the time but his words prove to be prophetic, since that sentence pretty much sums up the entire story. There are a lot of ideas in play here, and all of them coexist in what is basically a tightly woven nautical thriller set in space. Just think Master and Commander with space ships, minus the slow second act but retaining the pudgy guy in his 40s as Captain. This is the way Star Trek was meant to be, and the stories are at their best when they play to this concept. You might not buy this, but Wrath of Khan isn’t just a great Star Trek movie, it is simply a great movie. It’s superior to the 2009 reboot, although I admit to looking forward to J.J. Abrams' second time at bat. But had they ended it with just one nearly flawless sequel, it’s hard to believe the world would have been any worse off for it today. As it is we’re left to wonder what might have not been…like the nightmare that was Star Trek V, or that thing with Scott Bakula.

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