Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Spacedock scene FIXED

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is an amazing film. Not only is it still (by far) the best Star Trek film, it was the most efficient. After the huge cost overruns of the first motion picture it had to be made on almost a TV movie-of-the-week budget. Several effects shots of the Enterprise had to be reused from the first film. Notably the sequence where Kirk and party board the Enterprise from their travel pod. Using almost shot for shot from the 1st motion picture, Kirk’s pod approaches the Enterprise in “Spacedock.” However the Enterpise can clearly be seen in its refit dry dock. The glorious Spacedock Model wouldn’t be built by ILM until the next film, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. To that end I decided to recomposit the Enterprise into Earth’s Spacedock using rotoscoping and new matte paintings I created for this sequence. First Kirk journeying into Spacedock to meet Spock and his trainee crew for inspection. Then the ship powering up to leave on its fateful mission. While i’m not one to mess with a masterpiece like this film I will say the one area it may improve the film is the character Saavik. When Spock lets her command the ship out of Spacedock it is played for tension. Kirk seems very uneasy at her piloting the ship. In the original cut all the ship has to do is thrust straight forward. Now in this new version there’s a bit more jeopardy if she can successfully navigate out of the huge hanger bay they are docked in. That said there have been a few attempts at this type of sequence made by designers over the years. However none used the original optical shots of the models and relied on lower fidelity home made CG models. The refit Enterprise is one of my favorite models of all time and still looks amazing. I built this very model when I was 10 years old. It was a lot of fun to play with this model again.

[noneedmen]

I didn’t realize until midway that the space dock wasn’t the original, couldn’t tell what was changed. Good work. To be fair I’m pretty high though.

[andysmith-vibo]

This movie came out in a simpler time of life, when I see clips of this movie and hear the music I remember vmy childhood and how much I miss those less complicated never grow up it's a trap

[chevalierjd]

Not only was this the best ST movie on terms of the storyline and plot, but the music is INCREDIBLE! Especially when the Enterprise sneaks up from below/behind the Reliant. Thank you, James Horner!

[lasprince]

I like the fact Saavik took the Enterprise the same way Kirk would have and always did: over the speed limit.

[jaymac]

The way the Enterprise left space dock is like backing out a stingray corvette at 60 mph before the garage door even opens lmaoo

[jaredcolon]

"Mr sulu you may indulge yourself." "Eye sir setting course for Klingon space."

[slighter]

Nice to see that you took on the "full impulse" order and let the ship go quick through the dock. Really fits the reaction of that one guy in the observation lounge.

[STNeish]

Beautiful work! My only criticism is the inclusion of the Excelsior; based on Kirk's dialog from STIII, the rest of the crew hadn't seen her before.

[Phantanos]

James Horner's Music gave Star Trek it's mojo back and electrified the fans worldwide!

[GoogleUser-sktn]

Wonderful job. The enhanced colors and editing overall would have won you several awards had you done this in '82.

[a.j.leonard]

Id love to see the look on that guys face in the lounge when the Enterprise flys by like a bat out of hell. Lol. One thing I can say after all these years the Enterprise is still a beauty.

[benphillips]

It really hammers it out of space dock there. I appreciate the compositing and maintaining continuity with III, but the slower, lingering, graceful exit fits the mood better. You'd think they were trying to skip out on a cheque they leave so quickly in this edit.

[PersuaderboatsGoFast]

Thrusters only in space dock! Now I understand that line, it didn't really fit when you are pulling out of basically a metal cage. But here, dang that's like wreckless driving or something. Definitely against regulations.

[aidanodonnell]

This is magnificent work. What I like is that you've significantly improved the original, while remaining completely respectful to it in every way.

[DarkStarX]

Nick this is truly fantastic work! I wish my uncle, Gary Nardino were still around so we could’ve seen this. He was in charge of all things Star Trek at Paramount from 1978-1984. Everything about Star Trek II WAS OF COURSE, FIX THE MISTAKES OF THE MOTION PICTURE AND REALLY GET STAR TREK BACK ON COURSE. One of the ways they saved money was to get ILM to do all the special effects. If they had done it, in-house would’ve been twice as much and probably a quarter as good. But the work you did here was absolutely excellent. You should be very proud of. I thank you for taking the time to doing this.

[AckzaTV]

bones getting his crew addicted to valium on the first day

[Star-Explorers]

You just know Sulu wanted to blast the Spacedock doors with photon torpedoes when he was smiling. :)

[EvandroBarra]

I don't know if I've ever written it here, but it's worth all the praise every time I write it again, because you've done an exceptional job! the Enterprise's movement on the dock, the camera shots, even why 1/4 thrust is fast for a space dock, you've thought of everything, and the sequence is magnificent! Hopefully one day we can see it on the big screen! congratulations from a brazilian fan!

[hoosez]

Strangely enough, your cut makes better continuity. It flows better.
Didn't even notice that it was much changed from the original, it was that good
🖖

[hadorstapa]

With that shot of the Excelsior, it would be really cool to have Sulu’s cut dialogue reinserted there.