...his was the most... human.

There's a rumor, I honestly don't know how true it is, that goes like this:

The "Kobayashi Maru" scenario at the beginning of The Wrath of Khan was thrown in there because Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock, wanted to quit the franchise, and word had gotten out that Spock was going to be killed off. So the scenario was thrown in at the beginning of the film, fake-out killed not only Spock but the entire crew, and (apparently) threw movie-goers off the scent.

I don't believe that story. Or, rather, if that story is true, then it certainly wasn't done at the last minute. The Kobayashi Maru is essential to all the goodness of The Wrath of Khan. Kirk is this space-cowboy character who laughs in the face of danger because he, as Saavik tells him at one point, has never actually faced death. Kirk cheated on the KM test, survived the Original Series on luck and balls (see, e.g., "The Corbomite Maneuver"), and thought he was invincible. By having the KM test, the film can incorporate the fact that Kirk cheated - has never faced the no-win scenario, ever. He straight-up says he doesn't believe in it. Even when he's in the Genesis Cave right before the final battle, Kirk still thinks he can simply outsmart Khan again.

He can't.

He got lucky with the computer codes during their initial encounter. But it's Spock's idea to run to the Mutara Nebula. It's Spock's observation that Khan has mistook space for an ocean and is just operating in two dimensions. And it is, of course, Spock who sacrifices himself at the end.  

The Wrath of Khan is so great because it shows never-grow-up Kirk* coming face-to-face with mortality, both in the "midlife crisis" subtext running throughout the film, and in Spock's death at the end. Cut out the references to the Kobayashi Maru, the no-win scenario, and all of that is cheapened.

*Let's not forget that Kirk's final line in The Undiscovered Country - and therefore in the entirety of the Original Series adventures - is a quote from Peter Pan.

So as I said, I don't believe that story.

The Wrath of Khan is one of my favorite movies ever. One of the things that's particularly (sorry) fascinating about it is that even though it's Kirk who has/suffers all the character development/deconstruction over the course of the film, Spock is the film's actual hero. (Another think I like, not particularly pertinent to this post, is that because they thought it was going to be the last one, they were willing to do two things they'd never done before: damage the Enterprise model, and kill off a major character.)

Leonard Nimoy, 1931-2015

He lived long, and he prospered.