One of the best lines from one of the best movies ever.

Director Nick Meyer swears to this very day that Ricardo was not wearing fake chest muscles.

why did they think Ceti Alpha Five was Ceti Alpha Six? Did these retro astrometric computers not know how to count?

...sorry

Hey, if you'd been mistaken for a particle of pre-animate matter, you might get a little cranky too.

That was a little lame. Ceti Alpha Six "exploded"...for no reason that we are given. And after that, Ceti Alpha Five just sort of drifted into the exact same elliptical orbit as Ceti Alpha Six once enjoyed? And no one aboard the USS RELIANT noticed the absence of entire fucking planet in the system? One that the UFP had charted at least 15 years earlier?

Okay, maybe it was more than just a little lame.

But god damn, what a great movie.

That's because Section 31 blew up Ceti Alpha VI in an attempt to eliminate Khan and his supermen, but make it appear to be a natural disaster. Then they altered the official Starfleet records of the system and buried Kirk's logs. However, it didn't occur to them that genetically-altered supermen might actually survive those hellish conditions.

Well, he'd only be caught in the matrix for a little while. I'm sure it's something they can transplant.

Why wouldn't Section 31 have just blown up Ceti Alpha V in the first place?

Signed,
Dave "SpoilSport" Carr

A. Ceti Alpha VI was a wasteland, a rock in space. Easy to fake a geological disturbance that results in destruction. Much harder to explain when the world in question is a thriving planet capable of supporting life. Or.....

B. They're so used to machiavellian plots that simpler solutions were beyond their ken. Or...

C. Because then Star Trek II would have been really boring.

Section 31 is a retcon.

Well, sure; inserting it into the Trek II backstory is a retcon. But it's FUN!!

For you, maybe. I tend to be too much of a TOS purist. And a "what's on screen is what counts" purist. And an anal retentive prick.

Is this your idea, KB? Or has it been posited in one of the ST books? Because it works.

It also works if Section 31 blows it up to create tougher supermen they can later use to their advantage. Or to set things up to get rid of that meddlesome do-gooder, Kirk. I'm sure as soon as Khan left the planet Section 31 was down there scooping up those mind control worms.

What' s Section 31?

Also, I was never sure if the Wrath of Khan Supermen were the same "supermen" from the television show (other than Khan that is). They seemed much younger than they should have been in the movie, way younger than Khan, almost as they were all second generation with Khan as the lone survivor.

That movie is filled with great lines. Even Jerry Seinfeld knows this.

Section 31 is the unofficial designation of a rogue and officially nonexistent intelligence and defense organization resembling secret police or a black-ops organization. The organization appears, or is mentioned, across eight episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

The introduction of Section 31 has been controversial among Star Trek fans, some of whom feel it goes against the ideals of creator Gene Roddenberry.

Section 31 exists outside Starfleet Intelligence's influence and deals with threats to Earth's and, later, the Federation's security (DS9: "Inquisition").

Its operating authority stems from an obscure provision of the Starfleet charter — Article 14, Section 31, from which its name is derived — that makes allowances for "bending the rules" during times of extraordinary threats (ENT: "Affliction"). While the original intent may have been to give Starfleet personnel some leeway when it comes to unusual or extreme circumstances, some Federation Council and Starfleet officials have taken it a step further and secretly created a standing organization able to respond to any threat, preemptively if need be. Section 31 is similar to the Romulan Tal Shiar or Cardassian Obsidian Order in that it operates covertly; unlike those organizations, however, Section 31 does not exist to punish traitors or enforce the will of the state (the Tal Shiar and Obsidian Order were greatly feared among their populaces, but most Federation citizens never know that Section 31 even exists at all).

Something they can transplant? Something they can transplant?

I'm torn about Section 31. It does make for some interesting story possibilities, but I agree that it kind of flies in the face of what the Federation is supposed to be about.

But then, Gene Roddenberry rejected the idea that there would be any conflict of any kind whatsoever among humans in the future, and I never liked that concept, either. Hard to have drama without conflict.

Here's where I get all anal-rententive about Star Trek II.

How does Khan know so much about the future?

He was frozen and sent into space in 1996, yet he knows all about Klingon proverbs, the moons of Nibia, the Antares Maelstrom, etc. Did the Enterprise leave him a bunch of reference material to pass his time on Ceti Alpha V?

Yup. Her name was Marla McGivers.

Yes, and he read extensively while on the Enterprise. While it's not canon and would be dismissed by some as not "counting", the STII novel adaptation fills in a lot of these gaps. Also changes the exploded planet to be a moon, IIRC.

For lines like this one alone, Trek will always trump Star Wars:

Khan,

Khan, you've got Genesis but you don't have me!
You were going to kill me, Khan!
You're going to have to come down here!
You're going to have

to

come

down

here!