Hornet Rating:

Starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Ricardo Montalban, Bibi Besch, Merritt Butrick, Paul Winfield and Kirstie Alley

Directed by Nicholas Meyer

Produced by Robert Sallin

Screenplay by Jack B. Sowards

Available from Paramount Home Entertainment

116 mins.

Rated PG

If I were exiled to a deserted planet with a solar-powered entertainment system, and could only bring a few DVDs to help wile away time, the director’s edition of “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” would be one of them.

In the original Star Trek episode “Space Seed,” Capt. Kirk (William Shatner) and company came across an old ship full of genetically enhanced humans. Their leader, Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban), lulled Kirk and his crew into a false sense of security and attempted to take over the Enterprise. Kirk thwarted Khan’s efforts and exiled him and his followers on an uninhabited planet called Ceti Alpha 5.

Fast-forward 15 years, when “Wrath of Khan” takes place. A survey ship, the U.S.S. Reliant, gets assigned to find a dead planet that will be used to test the Genesis Device, a machine capable of creating life on a planet where none exists. The crew of the Reliant encounters Khan when they mistake Ceti Alpha 5 for Ceti Alpha 6. Khan and his people commandeer the Reliant and set out on a hunt for Kirk.

The “Wrath of Khan” is an atypical Mobey Dick-like revenge tale set in the Star Trek universe. Khan takes the role of Captain Ahab to Kirk’s white whale. What’s Khan’s motivation for revenge? He blames Kirk for the death of his wife.

Instead of using harpoons for weapons, the two duke it out with phasers and photon torpedoes. The cinematic sequences used during the battle scenes mesmerize by melding the elements from in-your-face dog-fighting jousts to submarine-like hide and seek, stuff typically seen in old WWII movies.

One of the most entertaining combat sequences between the Reliant and the Enterprise comes midway through the flick. The ships slowly drift towards each other from opposite directions. Enterprise opens a communication channel and sends out a friendly hail but Reliant ignores it. Kirk’s intuition tells him something’s not right but doesn’t give the order to raise shields in time. When the ships pass each other, Reliant unleashes a barrage of weapons fire and cripples Enterprise. The Reliant swings back around for another pass while Enterprise tries to limp away.

The two DVD director’s edition of “Wrath of Khan” comes with the usual disk enhancements. English audio comes out coded in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround or Dolby Digital Surround, as well as a French stereo audio track. English subtitles can also be toggled. The DVD uses an anamorphically-enhanced version of the widescreen format for the video and the results are stunning.

The director’s edition of “Wrath of Khan” does have a few neat little extra features. A text commentary by Michael Okuda (the scenic art supervisor for “Enterprise,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” six of the Trek films and co-author of the “Star Trek Encyclopedia” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual”) can be activated during movie playback. Okuda shares his unique insight about the movie’s production and special effects.

The second disc’s featurettes about the movie’s visual effects and the designing of Khan were also nifty. Interviews with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy (Spock) and Ricardo Montalban add a lot of depth to the movie. You get a feel for what the actors wanted to accomplish in certain scenes and the trials they experienced during the process.

The DVD’s menu animation and graphics really disappointed me. I’ve seen better computer generated graphics from a Nintendo 64 game console. I expected more from a big movie company like Paramount. The DVD holds a thrilling story about a legendary 23rd century crew and deserves an appropriately stunning menu and graphics.

Some people may like the commentary by director Nicholas Meyer. I didn’t. He wanders off on wild tangents during his commentary. I like hearing how a director tries to get the most from a movie’s budget, not what his philosophy of life is. I often found myself wondering if Meyer purposefully rambled just to hear his own voice.

If the rest of the movie somehow sucked, which it doesn’t, the DVD set would still be worth having. The explosive ship battles made crisp by digital technology would easily make up for any deficiencies in the writing or acting.