BACK COVER SYNOPSIS: It is the 23rd Century. The Federation Starship USS Enterprise is on routine training manoeuvres, and Admiral James T Kirk (William Shatner) seems resigned to the fact that this inspection may well be the last space mission of his career. But Khan is back. Aided by his exiled band of genetic supermen, Khan (Ricardo Montalban) - brilliant renegade of 20th Century Earth - has raided Space Station Regula One, stolen a top secret device called Project Genesis, wrested control of another Federation starship, and now schemes to set a most deadly trap for his old enemy Kirk... with the threat of a universal Armageddon! Co-starring Kirstie Alley in her stunning motion picture debut.

FILM REVIEW: There's a lot to like about "Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan", least of which being that it is superior in every department to its predecessor, and even non-Star Trek fans will get a kick out of the depth of drama, character, action and suspense present in this riveting revenge tale that sees Admiral Kirk and his crew face their ultimate foe. This film is not a sequel to the first film; rather it is a sequel to one of the original television series episodes, 'Space Seed', in which the title character Khan tried to take over the Enterprise then but ended up being stopped by Kirk and his crew and exiled to a backwater planet. In addition to returning the nature of the characters and story back to their roots from the television show, this film also has a stand-out performance from Ricardo Montalban as the villain Khan, who also featured in one of the original episodes of the TV show. Ask any fan which film is the best in the series and they will always point you in the direction of Star Trek II; and it's not hard to see why. In the words of director Nicholas Meyer, "it's a page-turner".

The film begins with a training simulation run by Captain Spock, although it doesn't appear to be a simulation. During the scenario, the trainee in command, Lt. Saavik (Kirstie Alley) presides over a no-win situation where her ship is defeated by Klingons. For any of you who know the history of this movie, a lot of controversy surrounded the fact that 'Spock' was to be killed off, and the filmmakers decided to make fun of this by making him appear to have been killed in this simulation, but when Kirk shows up, bringing it to an end, everyone in the audience breathed a sigh of relief. And the filmmakers went one step further with Kirk asking Spock, "Aren't you dead?". Of course, this tied in beautifully with the ending when he really does give his life to save the Enterprise, and plays in to a theme of mortality, a lesson which Kirk learns throughout the course of the film. He proudly proclaims to Saavik at one point in the film that he doesn't believe in the no-win scenario, but by the end of the film, he comes to realise that he has to face death at some point, after all, the Enterprise may have escaped but it was at the cost of Spock's life. This makes for a touching and very moving end scene where Kirk and Spock are separated by a protective radiation screen in Engineering as they say they're final goodbyes to each other.

Now that I've ruined the ending for you, I'll turn to another major plus working in this film's favor: Khan, played with delight and relish by Ricardo Montalban. Every time he shows up on screen he takes command of it in every way, and not just because he's physically imposing but also mentally. No more is this demonstrated in his first scene where he drops two eel-like creatures with teeth on to the faces of Chekov and Captain Terrell (played by Paul Winfield) where they proceed to enter in to their ears, eventually turning them in to slaves for Khan to do his bidding. It's a nail-on-a-chalkboard type scene but you find yourself unable to look away and it sets up how far Khan is willing to go to get what he wants. Khan also has some great monologues as well. Arguably the best one is when he starts by saying to Kirk, "I've done far worse than kill you, I've hurt you..." It ends with him telling Kirk that rather than kill him he'll bury him alive on a dead planet which leads to the infamous line by Kirk, "KHHAAANNNN!!!!".

It's great to see all the characters back to their great selves again after their watered-down versions that appeared in the first film. We get some excellent Spock-McCoy banter, Scotty is running around trying to work miracles in the engine room, Chekov gets a major upgrade in his story compared to the television series by being one of the first people to encounter Khan and become an unwilling servant, with Sulu and Uhura also having some nice moments. The additional cast members, Bibi Besch who plays Kirk's former flame Carol Marcus and Merritt Butrick who plays their son David are excellent, as is Paul Winfield as poor Captain Terrell who gets a lot more than he bargained for on his trip to investigate Ceti Alpha VI, a planet system which is apparently devoid of life but is home to Khan.

The action sequences are first rate. You can clearly see that director Nicholas Meyer took a lot of his inspiration for the battle scenes between the Enterprise and the Reliant from submarine battle sequences. They may move around slowly but the explosions and weapons-fire is strong and jarring, particularly when Khan (on the Reliant) attacks the Enterprise for the first time, leading to many casualties and damage. This culminates in an epic battle in the Mutara Nebula (a blue-red-purple cloud formation in space) where the Enterprise and the Reliant duck and weave, play hide and seek and battle each other for supremacy eventually leading to Khan denotating the Genesis device and the Enterprise barely escaping. What's so great about all of these scenes is that they keep you on the edge of your seat, particularly in the final countdown when you know that they really have no hope of escape and they can only sit there while the Genesis torpedo slowly counts down to explode.

Star Trek has always been strong with science-fiction concepts and the 'Genesis' device is an excellent idea to explore. Not only is its scientific angle intriguiging (a torpedo that when denotated in the atmosphere of a dead planet can transform it into a living one), it also has vast moral and ethical implications where are explored in the film. Who are the human race to play God with such a device? If it got in to the hands of our enemies, would they use it on a living planet like Earth? It's strong stuff and elevates the film beyond a mere sci-fi action adventure.

Perhaps the only negative point that one could pull out of this film, and it's only minor, is that the film is a little slow in the beginning. Much of the setup of the film goes toward showing how these characters have aged, what's been going on in the intervening years, and generally setting up a tone which plays in to the theme of mortality. All very necessary, but a little slow in parts. This all becomes mute however as soon as Khan makes his first appearance.

A spectacular, intelligent film that seamlessly combines an action-adventure extravaganza with strong character and plot. You will be glued to your seat right until the very end.

TECHNICAL REVIEW: The transfer of this film on to this DVD is quite good for the most part but the picture does appear soft and grainy in a places. The audio is also quite good, but at times it struggles to capture that full surround sound effect, with space-ship sounds containing a crisp, clear quality to them, but the dialogue is reminiscent of the original mono soundtrack. It's a shame that although the transfer is quite decent that it wasn't better. But then, the film is over 25 years old and there are no other editions available on DVD.

EXTRAS REVIEW: The extras on this disc are quite extensive, with approximately two hours of behind the scenes video material including an excellent making-of documentary featuring retrospective cast and crew interviews, original interviews with the cast from 1982, featurettes on the production design and visual effects, an informative and witty director's commentary, theatrical trailers, storyboard archives and a featurette that interviews two fans who have written Star Trek books. With the exception of the last extra, we have an excellent collection of material that will keep you entertained for quite some time after you have finished watching the film.

BOTTOM LINE: Worth having in the collection.