Listening to the Wrath of Khan soundtrack, I'm reminded of how nothing in this movie makes any sense when you think about it for 15 seconds, but it looks and feels so right that you buy it. This time, how Federation programs have a "backdoor;" reasonable, if not a mainstream concept in the early 80s, but Kirk only exploits it *after* they've otherwise written themselves into a corner. But there's all the other stuff; the parasite's life cycle which doesn't seem to depend on a predator like you'd think logical for something that really hampers a prey animal; the incredibly dangerous thing Spock winds up fixing, which is for some reason in a clear casing right in the middle of engineering; warships wading through space into broadside range like it's 1810. I think what's going on is that the writing hits the *exact* sweet spot of *possibility*. By comparison to say, Rise of Skywalker in which everything looks great, makes no sense if you think about it for 15 seconds, and yet it doesn't work.