STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN
© 2002 Paramount Home Entertainment

Mania Grade: A
Disc Grade: B+
Reviewed Format: DVD
Rated: PG
Stars: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Bibi Besch, Merritt Butrick, Paul Winfield, Kirstie Alley, Ricardo Montalban
Writer: Jack B. Sowards, story by Harve Bennett and Jack B. Sowards
Director: Nicholas Meyer
Distributor: Paramount Home Video
Original Year of Release: 1982
Retail Price: $29.99
Extras: two-disc set; director's edition; widescreen anamorphic; Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound; Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; audio commentary; text commentary; featurettes; trailer; original interviews; storyboards; French Stereo; English and French subtitles
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STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN THE DIRECTOR'S EDITION

So here we have the so-called "best" film of the STAR TREK series in a brand new DVD incarnation, dubbed the "Director's Edition" and with all the trimmings and special features that a two-disc package calls for. Trekkies and non Trekkies alike have been invoking STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN as the cream of the crop of TREK movies pretty much since the film was released 20 years ago, and this director's edition collectionthe latest in Paramount's push to give all the TREK pictures special editionsprovides us with the perfect opportunity to reevaluate the film.

So does it hold up to scrutiny? Pretty much, yeah. And is it the best of the TREK films? Well, yeah, I guess it is.

Which isn't to say that the film hasn't aged, because it has. The visual effects are still very effective, if quaint at times. Some of the sets are a bit, well, cardboard looking (director Nicholas Meyer and producer Harve Bennett didn't have the big money to spend that their predecessors had on STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE). And it's amazing how young everyone still looks here. When watching THE MOTION PICTURE today, you sort of expect everyone to look young because the film had such a different design than the rest of the movies in the series'70s jumpsuit polyester and muted colors everywhere, as opposed to the Navy-like burgundy tunics the Enterprise crew adopted here amid the overall brash tones of the ship interior, and heck, even space itself (the Mutara Nebula, anyone?). Somehow, I always associate the much superior tunic look with the older Shatner, Nimoy and company, but here the group are still looking relatively fitwhich is funny, since the film is largely about the fact that the team was aging, particularly Admiral Kirk, who is going through a bit of a mid-life crisis in WRATH OF KHAN.

But that's the hook right there. Nick Meyer was a STAR TREK neophyte who really didn't give a rat's ass about the TREK zeitgeist when he came on and saved the then-sagging sequel to the lackluster THE MOTION PICTURE (he actually rewrote the film, free of charge and without credit, in order to get the picture before cameras in time rather than let it get axed altogether). Up until this point, STAR TREK was much like many other film and TV franchises whose creators simply couldn't bring themselves to alter the status quo of their brainchilds. Remember that HONEYMOONERS episode where Ralph Kramden comes home with a half dozen dogs who he couldn't help but adopt? Well, where were the dogs when the next episode started? Never to be seen againand with nary a mention of their fate, toobecause it would have changed the status quo to suddenly have all these dogs living with Ralph and Alice. STAR TREK was much the same in this regard. Kirk never kept the dogs into the next episode.

But Meyer changed all that. He came to STAR TREK a layman, but a layman full of questions about Gene Roddenberry's world. And he answered those questions with WRATH OF KHAN, while posing even more. In the process, he gave Kirk's universe a real world humanityamid the space battles and aliens and photon torpedoesthat represents the best of what TREK is about, and an element that was sorely missing from the first film. In so doing, Meyer not only rejuvenated the franchise, which was in danger of slipping into oblivion again after THE MOTION PICTURE, but he also set a tone and a standard that all future TREK incarnations would be measured against.

The film starts off with a bang as the entire crew of the Enterprise is killed during a rescue mission into the dangerous Neutral Zone. Of course, it's all a test for Lt. Saavik (a young and sexy Kirstie Alley doing a great Vulcan), who is training along with the rest of her classmates onboard the Enterprise. When Admiral Kirk, tied to his desk at Starfleet Command and pondering his bygone salad days, comes onboard for an inspection, the ship is diverted to investigate an emergency involving Space Station Regula One. The scientists at Regula One have created a device called Genesis which is capable of turning a dead planet into a living, thriving one in a matter of hours. But this potentially destructive mechanism has fallen into the hands of Kirk's old enemy, Khan (a delicious Ricardo Montalban), who wants Kirk deadand has come by a starship of his own which just might make that possible.

Of course, this is all STAR TREK 101 for most of you out there. The thing about this film is that it really does still keep one interested in the story, even if you've seen it 100 times (or more, for some us) before. And that's because of the character play that Meyer has laced the picture with. While the shootouts and action scenes and sci-fi staples are all still quite excellent, that's not simply what makes the film the best of the series. Rather, it's moments like the classic banter between Spock and McCoy, the difficulty Kirk encounters when he meets the son he never knew before, the painful death of a beloved character... Wait a minute, we'll stay mum on that tidbit of info, just for the .0001% of you out there who haven't seen the film yet.

As for the DVD itself, this two-disc set follows the format of THE MOTION PICTURE director's edition fairly closelyexcept, of course, that that film actually was new and improved (however slightly), whereas this "director's cut" is actually closer to the TV version of WRATH OF KHAN. It seems the TV cut of the film adhered closer to Meyer's intent because it included a few extra minutes, mainly involving Scotty's nephew Peter Preston (Ike Eisenmann, of ESCAPE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN fame) who comes to work, briefly, in the engine room with his uncle. Paramount cut these scenes from the theatrical version of the film, but Meyer restored them for the broadcast cut and now you can see them again on DVD. The director himself downplays this dubious "director's edition" distinction, however, simply saying it's nice to have the scenes restored but by no means essential to the overall quality of the film.

So while the Peter Preston fans celebrate, the rest of us can be happy just to have the film in widescreen anamorphic with Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Surround audio options. Of particular interest among the extra features is the audio commentary from Meyer, who remains somewhat baffled by all the hoopla surrounding his film. The director says he doesn't see why people would be interested in hearing him talk about the movie for two hours either, but he is apparently not a good judge of his ability to entertain. This track is informative, frank and funand must-listening for TREK fanatics.

There's also an onscreen text commentary from Michael Okuda, co-author of THE STAR TREK ENCYCLOPEDIA and a technical consultant on several of the TREK films and television series. His commentary is the flipside of Meyer's: equally interesting and worthwhile, but more concerned with the tech ins and outs and minutiae of the film.

Disc two offers several featurettes that range in length from about 20 minutes to a half hour each. "The Captain's Log" features new interviews with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Meyer, Montalban and Bennett, and is also very interesting since there's really been very little firsthand behind the scenes info to be had on this film in the past (though Shatner acts particularly strange during this segment, even for him). "Designing Khan" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before: The Visual Effects of Star Trek II: THE WRATH OF KHAN" are perhaps even better, focusing as they do on the design and visuals of the picturewithout the nuisance of Shatner's cheeky comments. Comments from the likes of production designer Joe Jennings and special visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston are interspersed with test footage, production photos and other goodies.

The "original interviews" are about ten minutes worth of brief clips from the time of the film's release, featuring Shatner, Nimoy, Montalban and DeForest Kelley. Nimoy is his usual intelligent self, and Montalban as impressive as ever, but otherwise these segments more or less serve as a laugh because they're so datedcheck out the suit Nimoy has on, for example. Also included is an original trailer, an abundance of storyboards, and one last featurette called "The Star Trek Universe." Featuring self-proclaimed professional Trekkie and STAR TREK novelist Greg Cox (and to a lesser extent, fellow novelist Julia Ecklar), this segment just might be enough to scare away newcomers to the franchise. The two authors, who discuss the books they've penned related to events that take place in WRATH OF KHAN, are examples of the lucky fans who have actually parlayed their love for the show into careers. But Cox, God bless him, comes across like something out of a SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE skit about Trekkies, and is just too much to take after 30 minutes. Red alert!