Poster concepts for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan by Bob Peak.

Leonard Nimoy offers the camera a terse smile between takes during the filming of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. 

Source unknown.

Star Trek II artwork by J.K. Moore, who would later become the cover artist for DC’s various Star Trek comics. The artist, whose likenesses were never short of exemplary, took the unfinished art to a convention, where it was autographed by Majel Barrett and Bibi Besch. 

(Source: deviantart.com)

This is happening. The Director’s Cut of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is being released on blu-ray in June.  I have no idea if this is a new remastering of the movie or if they’re recycling the original too-sharpened one from the 2009 blu-rays, but the presence of a director’s cut (which adds a handful of scenes that provide a little more context to events like Peter Preston’s death) gives me hope. I’m also glad that the text commentary by the Okudas has returned - I love that feature on the original DVDs.

Unfortunately (kind of), I’ll be in Barcelona for work the week it comes out so unless I get a review copy ahead of time, I won’t be able to offer any kind of review as quickly as I’d like.

Anyway, here’s the press release:

Director’s Edition of Classic Star Trek Film Arrives on Blu-ray^™ for the First Time Ever

STAR TREK II
The Wrath of Khan

Debuting June 7, 2016, Blu-ray Includes Digitally Remastered Film, Plus a Brand New Documentary on the Making of the Fan-Favorite Movie

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise will boldly go where they have never gone before when STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN Director’s Edition arrives for the first time ever on Blu-ray June 7, 2016 from Paramount Home Media Distribution. As part of the 50^th anniversary celebration of the Star Trek franchise, this classic film has been digitally remastered in high definition with brilliant picture quality and will be presented in both Nicholas Meyer’s Director’s Edition and the original theatrical version. The Blu-ray also includes a brand-new, nearly 30-minute documentary entitled “The Genesis Effect: Engineering The Wrath of Khan,” which details the development and production of this fan-favorite film through archival footage, photos and new interviews.

In addition to the new documentary, the STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN Director’s Edition Blu-ray is bursting with more than two hours of previously released special features including multiple commentaries, original interviews with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Ricardo Montalban and DeForest Kelley, explorations of the visual effects and musical score, a tribute to Ricardo Montalban, storyboards and much more.

Captain Kirk’s Starfleet career enters a new chapter as a result of his most vengeful nemesis: Khan Noonien Singh, the genetically enhanced conqueror from late 20^th century Earth.  Escaping his forgotten prison, Khan sets his sights on both capturing Project Genesis, a device of god-like power, and the utter destruction of Kirk.

STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN Director’s Edition Blu-ray

The Blu-ray is presented in 1080p high definition with English 7.1 Dolby TrueHD, French 2.0 Dolby Digital, Spanish Mono Dolby Digital and Portuguese Mono Dolby Digital with English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.  The disc includes the following:

Blu-ray
• Director’s Edition in high definition
• Theatrical Version in high definition
• Commentary by director Nicholas Meyer (Director’s Edition & Theatrical Version)
• Commentary by director Nicholas Meyer and Manny Coto (Theatrical Version)
• Text Commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda (Director’s Edition)
• Library Computer (Theatrical Version)
• The Genesis Effect: Engineering The Wrath of Khan—NEW!

Production
• Captain’s Log
• Designing Khan
• Original interviews with DeForest Kelley, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and Ricardo Montalban
•  Where No Man Has Gone Before: The Visual Effects ofStar Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
• James Horner: Composing Genesis

The Star Trek Universe
• Collecting Star Trek’s Movie Relics
• A Novel Approach
• Starfleet Academy: The Mystery Behind Ceti Alpha V
     • Farewell
• A Tribute to Ricardo Montalba
• Storyboards
• Theatrical Trailer

A totally sensible, 100% necessary purchase arrived today while I was sick at home.

When production designer Joe Jennings and art director Mike Minor got to create the first Federation starship besides the Enterprise to be featured in a Star Trek movie, they tackled the project and its problems with gusto. 

“In the dogfight, you had to instantly recognize which ship you were looking at, so they had to look different,” Joe Jennings told Star Trek: The Magazine in 2002. “At the same time, you had to make them look like they came from the same culture and had the same technology. We had long postulated that the circular saucer said, ‘This is Starfleet navy,’ and it used engines that looked pretty much like those on the Enterprise.” 

From these starting points, they developed a ship that was shorter, lacking a secondary hull. They sent sketches of the new ship to executive producer Harve Bennett who approved them, but not quite the way they imagined.

“We were mailing everything over to him and getting him to approve it and mail it back to us,” graphic designer Lee Cole told Star Trek: The Magazine, “so we did our first sketch of the ship and mailed them off to him. When he got it in the mail he took it out of the package upside down, I guess, and wrote out on the bottom, ‘Yes, this looks very good, proceed.’ So when we got it back we realized he’d approved it upside down.” 

The design team was unable to reach Bennett (who was out of the country) to clarify his decision and instead opted to simply the flip their design and add a “roll bar” to create the Reliant we now see in the Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

images scanned from the They Boldly Went archives. If you appreciate our ongoing mission to provide unique Star Trek content, please consider supporting this blog on Patreon.