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Word to the wise: I apologize in advance for any really bad Star Trek puns that may be made and any technical information, jargon, or lingo that I muck up.

Observation number one: In retrospect, the six weeks encompassing June and the first half of July 1982 proved to be particularly fertile ground for science fiction features, both smash hits and future cult classics. Out of the eleven wide releases that debuted in the top ten during that stretch, over half could be classified in that genre.

To be fair, they ran the gamut from audience-pleasing concoctions assembled with equal dollops of sentimentality and action (E.T. and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) to bleak considerations of man’s capacity for deception and betrayal (Blade Runner and John Carpenter’s The Thing) to a mix of the former and the latter (Poltergeist). And last but not least there was the distinctly uncategorizable Tron, a film so ahead of its time it took them nearly 30 years to finally pull a sequel together. Question to consider: Is it a Walt Disney Pictures-approved take on cyberpunk and future shock or simply the threadbare Kurt Russell slapstick college comedies of the early 1970s (i.e. The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes) made virtual, shiny, and foreign?

Observation number two: Ricardo Montalban’s latter-day career was marked by a preponderance of sequels as well as the luck of starring in successful projects. Montalban made only three feature films in the 1980s, two of which were Chapter Twos (Wrath of Khan and Cannonball Run II) and two which opened at number one at the box office (Khan and The Naked Gun). Both those films grossed nearly identical amounts: $78.9 million for the second Star Trek and $78.7 for the Police Squad! spinoff. He also played the grandfather in the second and third Spy Kids movies and starred in two television series between 1978 and 1987: Fantasy Island, spun off from a pair of made-for-TV movies, and The Colbys, the soapier and trashier spinoff of the soapy and trashy (and campy) Dynasty. This leads me to ponder the question: who would win in a suave-off - Montalban or John Forsythe?

Observation number three: Star Trek: The Motion Picture was a financial success, grossing over $80 million domestically. However, it was also quite costly, with an estimated budget of at least $35 million, apparently brought about by creator/producer Gene Roddenberry’s constant rewrites and a desire for the best special effects money could buy. To put this in perspective, the first Star Trek cost just $1 million less than the budgets of Jaws, Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back combined.

The studio balked at spending that much again and found a new producer who promised he could bring it in for less, much less. The budget for The Wrath of Khan was $11 million, nearly 2/3 less than its predecessor. This may be one of the only times in Hollywood history where a hit film was rewarded with a sequel on the condition that it be made for cheaper. By grossing only a few million under the first one, it proved to be a far greater success from a financial standpoint. For a brief time, The Wrath of Khan held the opening day and weekend box office titles. (Geek trivia: It wouldn’t be until First Contact in 1996 that the budget of a Star Trek installment would exceed that of the first film.)

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