For characters who debuted in Star Trek: The Original Series, see Characters.Star Trek The Original Series
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Enterprise Crew
Lieutenant Saavik
Lieutenant Saavik
Played by: Kirstie Alley (Wrath of Khan), Robin Curtis (Search for Spock and Voyage Home)
Dubbed in French by: Sylvie Feit
Appearances: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan | Star Trek III: The Search for Spock | Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
A Vulcan cadet serving as Spock's second in command.
- The Apprentice: Spock's protégé.
- Bothering by the Book: Has the audacity to cite Starfleet regulations at Admiral Kirk. After the Enterprise is nearly destroyed because Kirk ignored her advice, Kirk orders her to keep on citing regulations at him.
- Dark and Troubled Past: The novelisation explains that she was sired by a Romulan from a Vulcan prisoner, and grew up on the fringes of the colony as a starving child thief until Spock rescued her.
- Demoted to Extra:
- She is a major character in The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock, makes a brief appearance in only one scene in The Voyage Home, and then is never seen again.
- She was intended for a major role in The Undiscovered Country, but between casting difficulties and objections by Gene Roddenberry over an established character becoming a traitor, her name was simply used as a placeholder for Kim Catrall's character, Valeris.
- Green-Skinned Space Babe: Downplayed. Attractive, yes, but dressed rather conservatively for the trope. (A Starfleet uniform is hardly Victoria's Secret.)
- Naïve Newcomer: Her role in Wrath of Khan, in which she's the main representative of the young trainee crew.
- Not So Stoic: She's young, so it comes as no surprise that she's often barely keeping a lid on her emotions. She's skittish and prickly during the Kobayashi Maru test, and she's clearly nervous later when talking to Kirk in the elevator. In a
Deleted Scene, Spock tells Kirk she's half Romulan, but the canonicity of that has been debated ever since (the novelization confirmed this and expanded further on her background, but novelizations always come second to the movies themselves in terms of canon). - Replacement Goldfish: In his bio, Spock makes a lot of parallels between her and Michael Burnham. While Saavik is half-Romulan instead of all human, he still takes her on in part to make up for the mistakes he made as a child with his adopted sister.
- The Stoic: She's a Vulcan, so it comes with the territory. The novelisations have her Not So Stoic due to her Romulan half-blood, but it's downplayed in the films.
Midshipman Peter Preston
Midshipman Peter Preston
Played by: Ike Eisenmann
Dubbed in French by: François Leccia
Scotty's nephew and Starfleet cadet.
- Ensign Newbie: Just like the other cadets.
- Nerves of Steel: While Engineering was in chaos, he helped save at least one of the other engineers. As his uncle said:Scotty: He stayed at his post while the trainees ran.
- Sacrificial Lamb: His death hammers in how seriously Kirk screwed up in his first showdown against Khan.
Regula I Personnel
Dr. David Marcus
Dr. David Marcus
Played by: Merritt Butrick
Dubbed in French by: Jean Pierre Leroux (Star Trek II), William Coryn (Star Trek III)
Appearances: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan | Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
- Armies Are Evil: He's very ambivalent about working with Starfleet due to concerns with how they would use his research.
- Cynicism Catalyst: Kirk never liked Klingons throughout TOS. After David's death in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, it gets much worse, which almost lands him and the Federation in trouble in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
- Fatal Flaw: Impatience and impulsivity. David's impatience with the Genesis Project led him to use protomatter, a highly unstable compound, to expedite its progress. This ultimately results in the Genesis Planet becoming unstable. To top it off, David's impulsive act of bravery to save Saavik leads to his death.
- Heroic Sacrifice: He tries to stop Saavik from being executed by a Klingon.
- Horrible Judge of Character:
- He has an epically dim view of Kirk, partly because he's never met the man, but also because Kirk is Starfleet. And it's not because of anything on his mother's part, since at one point she chastises him for his incorrect view.
- He refuses to believe Kruge and his crew would kill for the Genesis data. Kruge cuts in to inform Kirk that he absolutely would. And does.
- Like Father, Like Son: Lampshaded by Saavik in The Search for Spock. When David admits he used dangerously unstable protomatter in Project Genesis, she points out that like Kirk with the Kobayashi Maru, David "changed the rules".
- Lampshaded by his mother in the Search for Spock novelization, as she points out that she never told David about Kirk for fear that he would want to go off and join him on adventures and, immediately after learning about Kirk, he hops aboard the U.S.S. Grissom to go do science.
- Luke, You Are My Father: The son Kirk had never met. Unlike many other examples, David and Kirk knew of each other, but Kirk stayed away, respecting Carol's wishes.
- Mirror Character: To Khan, as someone who comes from mistakes made in Kirk’s past and returning to haunt him. But where Khan can’t see past his own hatred, David eventually realises Kirk is decent (just emotionally a bit wrecked and devoted to his job) and they can reconcile.
- Properly Paranoid: Doesn't like working with Starfleet because of how the Genesis research could be abused as a weapon. Sure enough, the Genesis project staff are largely murdered and the device stolen to be used as a weapon by Khan, which wouldn't have happened if the USS Reliant hadn't stumbled across his Lost Colony while doing scout work for the Genesis Project.
- Sacrificial Lion: He's slated to die so that even though Kirk gets Spock back, he still has to lose someone, and contributes to his breakdown throughout the films.
- So Proud of You: By the end of Wrath, he's at least mellowed out enough towards Kirk to say he's proud to be his kid.
- Sour Supporter: Is eager to express his displeasure with the situation, both before and after Khan makes his appearance.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: His death. Being Kirk's son doesn't count for aught in a fight, especially when he's a scientist with no fighting experience against a Klingon. He's quickly overpowered, stabbed and dies instantly.
- Walking Spoiler: Mostly centering around the events of The Search for Spock.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Saavik verbally kicks his ass when she finds out that he cut corners to solve a few logistical problems with Genesis and pointedly blames him for the deaths of the crew of the Grissom. Poor David spends the rest of his life in a Heroic BSoD.
Dr. Carol Marcus
Dr. Carol Marcus
Played by: Bibi Besch
- A God I Am Not: Fully realizes the Genesis Device's destructive potential. Insists that "There can't be so much as a microbe, or the show's off," since she rationalizes what would have happened to humans if such a device had been used on Earth.
- Badass Bookworm: Obtained a doctorate in Molecular Biology which helped her and her (and Kirk's) son develop the Genesis device.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: She's never seen again after her first appearance despite the Genesis Project going on to have a key role in the next film. When Kruge watches the report on the Genesis Device in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Carol Marcus's lines were re-recorded with Kirk, with the Hand Wave of Kirk giving a report on the project to Starfleet, and the film acts if David was the sole creator of the project. Word of God indicates the character was dropped due to a combination of budget cutbacks and an inability to properly integrate her into the plot (along with the implication that she was complicit with David adding protomatter into the Genesis mixture). Executive Meddling nixed proposed returns in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Countrynote and Star Trek: Generations. Carol would not appear onscreen again in the franchise until the inclusion of her younger alternate self in Star Trek Into Darkness...who would be subjected to this again in the sequel.
- Married to the Job: She's as devoted to her job as Kirk is to his, and it’s one of the many reasons why they love each other but it just can’t work out between them.Dr. Marcus: Were we together? Were we going to be? You had your world, and I had mine. And I wanted [David] in mine.
- New Old Flame: Never mentioned before Wrath of Khan, but is generally believed to be "that little blonde lab tech" that Gary Mitchell set Kirk up with, as a distraction for Kirk's class at Starfleet Academy.
- Schrödinger's Canon: A retroactive example with her family history shown in Star Trek Into Darkness, which identifies her father as a Starfleet Admiral named Alexander Marcus and her mother's last name as Wallace.
- Silk Hiding Steel: A sweet, kind woman, a good mom and regularly calls out Kirk on his self-obsession and running away from his problems.
Other Characters
Joachim
Joachim
Played by: Judson Scott
Dubbed in French by: Richard Darbois
One of the Augments serving under Khan.
- Battle Butler
- Expy: He's the Starbuck to Khan's Ahab.
- Foil:
- To David Marcus. Both are younger men subordinate to an older man who acts as a parental figure to them, but while David is brash and wants nothing to do with Kirk (at first), Joachim is reserved and has Undying Loyalty to Khan.
- While the film leaves it ambiguous whether Joachim is meant to be Khan's son or not, the Expanded Universe explains he's his adopted son, raised by Khan after his parents (his father being Joaquin from "Space Seed") were killed in battle.
- Also a foil to Saavik. A younger crewmember who tries to be the voice of reason to their overconfident leader, only to be ignored with disastrous results. The key difference is that Kirk first ignores and then listens to Saavik, while Khan first listens to and then later ignores Joachim.
- Mook Lieutenant: Not really physically intimidating to be The Dragon, as Khan does all his own interrogations. He just exists to allow Khan to awesomely monologue to someone.
- Morality Chain: Joachim tries to be this to Khan, but it doesn't really take.
- Only Sane Man: Notably much more level-headed than Khan is. Granted, he's the only speaking member of Khan's crew so we never really find out what his other followers think, but he's certainly the only one who actually stands up to Khan.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Played with, he is a very willing accomplice to the theft of the Reliant, and does go with Khan's plans to attack the Enterprise, but it's pretty clear he would just as soon take the Reliant and Genesis and take that as a win without hurting anyone.
- Or just as validly, he could see where Khan's destructive obsession with Kirk would lead, and was trying desperately to steer his leader away from potential suicide. He was just too loyal to Khan to flat-out pull a Screw This, I'm Outta Here on him.
Captain Clark Terrell
Captain Clark Terrell
Played by: Paul Winfield
Dubbed in French by: Marc de Georgi
The commanding officer of the USS Reliant.
- Heroic Suicide: He kills himself rather than taking Khan's orders to kill Kirk.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He and Chekov inadvertently come across Khan and his followers on Ceti Alpha V.
