Star Trek [2 II: The Wrath Of Khan, Movie-Only Edition]

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"Star Trek" has always been about family and principles, and "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" knows this well. "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," as triumphant a return for the "Magnificent Seven" as it was, was all flash and noise and little substance. Most of the producers involved on the first film were more worried about keeping up with the visual standard that "Star Wars" had set two years previously than the element of human drama. This made for a film that was eye candy, to be sure, but that was also without a soul.

"Star Trek II" could have been subtitled "The Apology." Indeed, it seems to make up for all of the weaknesses of the first film while maintaining the same production values. Nicholas Meyer, the director of "II," seems to understand the principle of "less is more." The audience doesn't need to be wowed on a minute-to-minute basis by special effects; all that is required is a great story, and "The Wrath of Khan" achieves that goal with greater success than any other "Trek" film.

Harve Bennet, the producer of "Wrath of Khan," was assigned but one task: to bring back the magic and simplicity of the original series. Having never seen an episode, he sat down and watched practically every one to immerse himself in the mythology. A thought occurred to him: "What better way to emulate the formula of the series than to write a sequel to one of the episodes?" Of the seventy-nine original episodes, Harve chose a fan favorite, "Space Seed," upon which to build his film.

"Space Seed" was an episode about a sleeper ship found in deep space by the Enterprise. On board the ship were criminals from the Twentieth Century-genetically manipulated supermen that attempted to rule most of the Earth during the Eugenics War of the 1990s. Their leader, Khan, directs them in a takeover of the Enterprise, but the plan is thwarted and Khan and his followers are exiled to an unpopulated planet, Ceti Alpha V. Here they will sink or swim, and Spock prophetically comments, at the end of the episode, "It would be interesting, Captain, to return to that world in a hundred years and learn what crop had sprung from the seed you planted today."

In "Star Trek II," we get to find out. It is many years later, and Kirk is going through a mid-life crisis. He is discontented with his admiralty; he feels he is slowly being put out to pasture, and that he has little use anymore. The Enterprise is acting as a training vessel for a newer, younger class of cadets, and everyone aboard, particularly Kirk, feels the slow passing of the baton.

Meanwhile, in the Ceti Alpha system, the U.S.S. Reliant, with Chekov as first officer, is on a scientific mission to find a test planet for the Genesis Project (a project which is headed by Drs. Carol and David Marcus, Kirk's old flame and illegitimate son, respectively), a torpedo that when delivered to a barren planet can create flourishing life-and also destroy whatever was there before. Through a planetary mix-up, the Reliant encounters Khan, who then hijacks the starship and heads out on a mission to capture Genesis and destroy Kirk.