I’m about halfway through watching Star Trek: Into Darkness (spoiler alert, sort of). My first observation is that Benedict Cumberbatch is no Ricardo Montalbán. (I am decidedly of the opinion that Montalbán es más macho.)

What blew my mind, in regard to Montalbán’s reprise of the character in 1982’s The Wrath of Khan, was this:

At no point during The Wrath of Khan are Khan and Kirk face to face; they speak to each other only over communication links such as view screens. This was due in part to the fact that the set of the Reliant was a redress of the Enterprise bridge, and the two actors’ scenes were filmed four months apart. Montalbán recited his lines with a script girl instead of to William Shatner.

In dozens, if not hundreds of viewing over the past 31 years, I never really appreciated the fact that the two characters never met face-to-face. While the “Khaaaaaaaaan” scream will live on forever in movie history, the world would undeniably be a better place had the film included a 40-something on 60-something fight scene…….in space.