The best part of Nicholas Meyer’s director commentary for “Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan” is when he explained that the trick to getting a good performance out of William Shatner is to do take after take until he’s too tired to overact.

The fact that Kirk carries around the birthday book that Spock gave him for about 80% of Wrath of Kahn just makes it that much more tragic like jesus christ he loves the present Spock THAT much that he’s unnecessarily carrying it with him ONTO THE BRIDGE AND PRETTY MUCH EVERYWHERE HE PRACTICALLY DOESN’T PUT IT DOWN I NEED 5 YEARS OR SO TO RECOVER JUST FORM THIS ONE DETAIL GODDAMNIT THIS MOVIE IS PAIN. 

Actually, these are the ones that break your heart. That Jim continues to try and read the book, glasses broken, even after Spock dies.

The book is A Tale of Two Cities, Jim’s favorite. Consider how the final lines of the book mirror Spock’s sacrifice of his life for the ship:

“It is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known.”

Here’s what really gets to me: when the glasses break, notice that only one of the lenses breaks

I think of this as a visual metaphor for Kirk and Spock’s relationship in this moment. One has perished, while the other is still intact. But even so, if only one has broken, the whole has broken as well. While Spock has died, and Kirk is alive, they’re relationship has been broken by death.

“Botany Bay...? Botany Bay!? Oh no!”

Early CGI in STAR TREK films. The “rolling fire” Genesis effect and the Reliant’s targeting computer (II), the dogfight game that’s glimpsed in III (spot the red and green planes), and the dreamlike time warp sequence in IV.

The latter was storyboarded by Ralph McQuarrie, some examples below: