The Revenge of Khan

It's interesting to ponder whether the STAR TREK franchise would have ended had KHAN not been a monster. Certainly the movies would have ended, and NEXT GENERATION mightn't have been born, or at least not in the incarnation we know (which also might have ended the party). Would the swelling of TREKdom have slowly faded, or would the franchise have been given another shot (on big screen or small) sometime in the 90s, perhaps?
The fact that KHAN saved the franchise cannot be doubted. Nimoy only agreed to do the film on the condition that it be his last (a fantastic death scene didn't hurt, either). It was a curious enterprise from the start. Not many people realize that after the over-budget, under-brilliant STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, roddenberry was in essence fired by the studio. He was given a consultant position, and the producer's reigns were handed to harve bennett, a man whose importance to the franchise has never been properly celebrated. Several decades of producing TV movies and shows prepared him for KHAN. The role of producer is one that is generally dismissed and misunderstood by the public. Many have minimal creative input, but all of them have complete control once the shooting stops (a fact that has caused no small number of outraged directors to have their name removed from the finished product). Harve was hands-on all the way, including the writing (a dual role he would continue through STAR TREK V). It was harve and nimoy who set up spock's resurrection at the end of KHAN, a choice that director nick meyer had no part of, and would have fought.
And mr. meyer? So many top-tier directors were banging down Paramount's door to do this one (ahem), that the position was given to this man with one directing credit (he had also written the novel THE SEVEN PER-CENT SOLUTION). But it would be hard to overstate how much this dedicated storyteller meant to the most crucial and compelling TREK movie. He would also return to helm the excellent UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. I'll quibble over a couple of his choices (would i be a trekkie if i didn't?)...his belief that STAR TREK was about gunboat diplomacy was wrong on any number of levels. He made KHAN more militaristic, an effect that unfortunately rippled. And his desire to have a "no-smoking" sign on the bridge was fortunately shot down by roddenberry. But in the big picture, meyer took a pittance of a budget and turned in a blazingly sharp film that set the TREK standard. He steered both montalban and shatner past bad acting choices. The budget went from 43 million for TMP, to 11 million for KHAN...which then grossed 97 million. It remains the smallest TREK film budget, and the biggest success.
Curiously, the title was changed so as to not copy a space fantasy that was being filmed at the same time, REVENGE OF THE JEDI. Another unplanned consequence that now feels so much better than than the original idea.
Khaaaaaaaaannn!!!