Most Star Trek fans agree that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was the best of all six films featuring the original cast. The original film came out in the summer of 1982 with a re-edited television version that came out a few years later.
In early August, director Nicholas Meyer released the version of the movie that he wanted, a combination of both depictions. The movie features William Shatner as Admiral James T. Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as Captain Spock, Ricardo Montalban as Khan Noonian Singh, and introducing Kirstie Alley (“Cheers”) as Lieutenant Saavik.
Based on the episode “Space Seed” from the original series, the movie is set fifteen years in the future. Khan Noonian Singh returns as the leader of a race of humans, genetically engineered in the 1990’s and placed in hibernation, until Captain Kirk woke them up. After a failed attempt to take over the starship Enterprise, Khan took one of Kirk’s officers as his wife and, accompanied by his fellow mutants, started a new life on Seti Alpha 5. Fifteen years later, Khan hijacks the U.S.S. Reliant to get back at Kirk for putting him on a planet that had turned into a wasteland and for the death of his wife.
While pursuing Kirk, Khan learns about and steals the Genesis Project, a device created by both Kirk’s ex-lover and their son, which transforms dead planets into living ones. Kirk’s mission is to take Khan into custody and retrieve Project Genesis. In the end, what most people call the best scene in Star Trek history, comes the death of Spock.
The special edition DVD features behind the scenes footage which includes demonstrations of how they did the special effects, original interviews with Shatner and Nimoy, plus new interviews with Shatner, Nimoy, Montalban, director Meyer, and executive producer Harve Bennett.
Even if you’re not a Trekkie, this movie is a must see. The only problem with the movie, in comparison to the director’s edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, is that some of the battle scenes need to be re-shot with modern techniques.