[A little break in Oscar week for a guest post by John Perich about Star Trek II. Leave your Kahn-ments below. --Ed.]

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is widely considered the best of the Trek movies, and certainly better than the original. The original Star Trek series was adolescent fantasy – man travels to exotic locales, makes out with hot aliens, and solves complex problems by punching or shooting the right people. Wrath of Khan is the first Trek story to deal with death and change. Kirk pays for the mistakes of his past and must, for the first time, cope with loss.

So we already know that Wrath of Khan is a deeper movie than we anticipated. But is there a chance it’s deeper still?

There are two moderate plot holes early in Wrath of Khan, both on the planet Ceti Alpha V. Left as is they make for a few hiccups in the story. Interpreted properly, they shed a whole new light on the real puppetmasters of Star Trek II.