Goofs

During the docking with the Enterprise, shuttle control gives them permission to dock at the torpedo launching bay. Instead, the shuttle is clearly shown to dock near main engineering. In addition, Kirk and Co. clearly board the ship through the torpedo bay. The shuttlepod docking sequence, as well as additional visuals of Enterprise in and departing from drydock, are reused footage from Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979).

After David Marcus says, "We can't just sit here," Admiral Kirk puts on his glasses and checks his watch, saying, "Oh, yes we can." In the very next shot, the glasses are gone.

Several monitors on the bridge of the USS Reliant show ship diagrams that don't match the actual shape of the ship as we see it elsewhere in the movie - a result of the bridge set being used for both the Reliant and the Enterprise. Indeed, at least one of the diagrams is for a third design.

The footage of the Enterprise leaving dry dock shows an arboretum on the port side of the ship. This is absent from the ship for the rest of the film, as the dry dock footage was reused from Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979).

Much of the film footage of the Enterprise in space dock is from Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). This is evident when the ship's deflector dish changes color when shown leaving space dock and when the Enterprise is shown only in space. The dish color changes from blue to a golden color.

After Khan's first attack, Scotty's nephew is mortally wounded; but Scotty takes him by turbolift to the bridge and not to sick bay for emergency treatment. The turbolift may have malfunctioned.

It would have been very difficult, if not impossible, for the USS Reliant to mistake Ceti Alpha V for Ceti Alpha VI. Not only would the ship have the information on the star system, including orbits of the planets from previous ship's scans, probes, etc. in the computer, the remnants of explosion of Ceti Alpha VI would still be quite visible to the ship's sensors, given the distances between planets in space.

When the Enterprise approaches the Reliant for the first time and each ship drop speeds to one-half impulse power, the stars can be seen moving in the background at a rate much faster than the Starships are traveling towards each other. The stars should appear motionless when the two ships are shown approaching each other in the same scene.

Khan tells about how on the Botany Bay he and the ship's company were in cryogenic freeze. This last term is used incorrectly, as often happens in media. The practice of freezing one's body for later reanimation is called cryonics, so the correct term would be cryonic freeze.

Kirk's eulogy for Spock says he gave his life to "protect and nourish" a new world, but his actions to fix the warp drive only saved the lives of the Enterprise crew, and the Genesis wave would've transformed the planet regardless of whether they were caught in its wake or not.

Chekov and Khan recall having met each other. Although Chekov was not a bridge officer when Khan came on the Enterprise in Space Seed (1967), it should be remembered that when Khan first took over Enterprise, he started with the engineering deck. Chekov was engineering ensign at the time, and mounted resistance against Khan, according to the movie's novelization. Surprisingly, Sulu was also absent from Space Seed, a point which no one ever brings up.

Kirk seems to order "Phasers starboard," and the Enterprise turns to starboard, then opens fire with the port phasers. In fact, Kirk says "evasive starboard," which is confirmed by the novel and screenplay (the DVD subtitles are in error). When Kirk says, "Fire!" THEN the port phasers are shown firing.

Saavik, a female, is referred to as "Mr. Saavik". In the Trek universe, Starfleet Officers are referred to as Mister, regardless of sex or gender. This is true even in today's modern U.S. Navy.

Khan quotes a Klingon proverb (which is actually a human proverb). Khan and his crew left Earth in 1996, were found in suspended animation by the crew of the Enterprise in Space Seed (1967) and were subsequently abandoned in the Ceti system. By the time they are rediscovered, they have still had no contact with anyone since leaving Ceti Alpha V other than the Enterprise crew and the crew of the Reliant. Khan would not have previously been aware that Klingons exist, let alone be quoting their proverbs. However, in 'Space Seed', he did spend a lot of time reviewing the Enterprise's records and could easily have learned about Klingons then. However, it is still unlikely that he would have learned much about Klingon proverbs.

Several characters mention that because he reprogrammed the computer, allowing him to defeat the Kobayashi Maru test, Kirk has never faced a no-win situation, including the Admiral himself. However, Kirk only reprogrammed the Kobayashi Maru test the third time that he took the test, so he faced the no-win scenario twice before. Correction: this goof uses information from the new Star Trek film series. As that is a different timeline, the situation cannot be claimed as a certainty. The Chris Pine Kirk would have done things differently.

When Chekov steps out of the Botany Bay into a blinding sandstorm and sees the robed survivors, their robes are resting still - there is no wind around them. This may have been a deliberate artistic choice on the filmmakers' part.

In one shot on the Reliant bridge, when the turbolift doors are open, a ship diagram for the Enterprise can be seen inside the lift. This is because the same set was used for both bridges.

In the computer image of the Genesis probe approaching the planet, the camera is about to collide with a mountain when a narrow canyon blinks into existence to let it through. During a talk at SIGGRAPH shortly after the movie's release, one of the animators of the clip showed the clip and explained that (at one hour/frame being rendered on a VAX 11/780), they'd rendered every 64th frame of their fractal landscape, checked for obvious issues, then rendered every 32nd frame that was not already rendered. They continued down to every 16th, 8th, 4th, and then every remaining frame. It was only at that point that they discovered that four frames were inside a mountain, and they didn't have the time to rerender with a different trajectory or a different initial landscape, so they papered over the mistake with the magically-appearing valley.

Wires are visible attached to Chekov's uniform when Khan lifts him up with one hand. If the viewer plays close attention, the wire(s) can be seen for a brief moment in the reverse POV shot (the left corner of Chekov's suit once Khan has lifted him to the highest point).

The Reliant chooses a planet in the Ceti Alpha system and yet no one acknowledges the stranding of Khan there a little over 2 decades earlier. The computer, whose memory should be infallible does not note the events of decades earlier when it scans the system in advance of the Genesis test.

It is never mentioned that Khan's wife was a Starfleet officer who resigned her commission to join Khan in exile. One would think Starfleet would want to monitor her.

When Spock does the neck pinch on Bones, he takes the gloves from Scotty who is unconscious, then goes in to the reactor chamber. Both Bones and Scotty suddenly wake up and start yelling at Spock.

In "Space Seed", Khan, with close to 70 of his people, desperately tried to recruit the crew to join him as he said he needed them to help him with operating a starship as complex as the Enterprise. Yet here, Khan and his followers end of marooning the crew of the Reliant on Ceti Alpha V, and are able to operate that ship with ease.

There is a "No Smoking" sign on the bridge of the Kobayashi Maru simulator. This clearly appears onscreen during the early part of the scene. Gene Roddenberry had them removed but not until some footage had already been filmed. According to director Nicholas Meyer in the DVD commentary, Roddenberry felt that smoking would not be part of the 23rd century.

Early-'80s EXIT sign hanging outside Kirk's apartment door. This may be part of Kirk's collection of antiques.

When Scotty and McCoy are yelling at Spock not to open the main energizer, Scotty's and McCoy's mouths are not moving in sync with the words being spoken.

When Spock and Saavik are speaking Vulcan, their mouths are speaking English.

When the debris falls on Joachim.

While the Enterprise is flying towards the Mutara Nebula, Torpedo Bay 4 is shown being loaded. The Enterprise has only two forward-facing torpedo bays.

After Carol Marcus calls the Enterprise to determine why Admiral Kirk was allegedly taking Genesis, Kirk contacts Starfleet, then tells Spock that Starfleet has ordered them to go to Regula I because the Enterprise is the "only ship in the quadrant."

But Starfleet knew that Reliant was close to Regula I and working closely with the science station. Starfleet should have tried to contact Reliant first. And when Reliant failed to respond, Starfleet should have warned Kirk.

Instead, Kirk is surprised by Reliant's presence near Regula I.

When the Genesis device was activated, the Enterprise should have used the transporter. As established in Wolf in the Fold (1967), the transporter can be set to disperse the atoms and thus render the object essentially non-existent. Alternatively, it could have been left in the pattern buffer where its pattern would degrade and no longer be possible to reintegrate.

Kirk never reminds Khan that he did not maroon him and his followers on a hostile planet. Khan freely accepted exile there rather than go to prison for attempting to take over the Enterprise. He was grateful to Kirk to be given the choice.

Reliant is apparently having a very difficult time finding a test planet free of life on which to test Genesis. If finding just a test planet for it is difficult, it would be a nearly useless device when they need to find enough actual planets for practical use.

The Kobayashi Maru simulator is a failure in logic. Every cadet in the academy knows about the simulation and that it is a no-win simulation. There is no challenge, nothing is learned because there is nothing to lose.

When Khan first meets Terrell and Chekov, he tells them that "200 years ago on Earth, I was a prince," and "these people have sworn to live and die at my command 200 years ago." The movie, however, is set in the year 2285, and Khan started his explanation by saying that the Botany Bay launched in 1996 -- three hundred years ago.

After disabling the USS Reliant, Kirk turns to find out the damage only to find Scotty on the bridge with the young trainee, badly burned, instead of taking him to sickbay.

When Spock directs Lt. Saavik to pilot the Enterprise out of space dock, everyone acts as if this were a difficult first step for her to take. Kirk in particular looks so nervous that one wonders if he is mentally engaging in the 60s sexist trope of "women drivers". Yet all Saavik actually does is give two completely generic directives to Sulu, who is presumably the person actually guiding the ship. if there is any guiding to be done at all.

In the transporter room of the Regula I space station, Kirk contacts Spock, who apprises him of the Enterprise's condition "by the book", which we learn later is meant to make their condition sound direr than it really is knowing Khan was monitoring their communications. Khan and his people are genetically engineered superhumans with above-average intelligence comparable to Vulcans. Spock using the words "by the book" should seem suspicious even to someone not familiar with Starfleet protocol.

Kirk slightly misquotes the final sentence of "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens: "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."