Vietnam Tribune – News Reports from around Vietnam

Library Computer
Easily the coolest new feature on this Blu-Ray set, the “Library Computer” effectively replaces the text commentary by Michael Okuda, coauthor of The Star Trek Encyclopedia, with a more thorough, graphically intensive, and user-controlled interface. Essentially, this is an interactive experience that allows you to access information about the Star Trek universe while watching the film. The Blu-Ray creates a frame around the film with constantly shifting icons that represent different categories of information related to whatever is on screen at that moment: Culture, Science & Medicine, Starfleet Ops, Life Forms, Planets & Locations, People, Technology, Ships, and Miscellaneous. At any given point there can be six or seven of these icons available for clicking, and you also have access at all times to an Index that includes every term in the computer. A real geek fan’s delight.

Audio commentary by director Nicholas Meyer and Star Trek Enterprise producer Manny Coto
Honestly, I’m not entirely sure why they felt the need to record a new audio commentary with Meyer given that the previously included one was quite good, but here it is anyway. Meyer is joined by Star Trek: Enterprise producer Manny Coto, who takes the opportunity to ask the director pressing questions and share a few laughs. There is some obvious redundancy with the previous commentary, but some good new stuff, as well.

“James Horner: Composing Genesis” featurette (HD)
This new 10-minute interview fills in one of the real gaps in the original DVD supplements by allowing composer James Horner, who arguably wrote the best score of any Star Trek movie, to talk about his work and his inspirations.

“A Tribute to Ricardo Montalban” featurette (HD)
It is great that they wanted to honor the late great actor (who died earlier this year), but this 5-minute featurette is little more than an awkward setpiece in which director Nicholas Meyer rather stiffly (but sincerely) gives tribute to Montalban and his often underappreciated gifts as an actor.

“Collecting Star Trek’s Movie Relics” featurette (HD)
Much more interesting is this 11-minute featurette hosted by Alex Peters, CEO of Propmax. Peters shows us dozens of props, models, and costumes from his own collection and also talks with several other avid Star Trek collectors who display some of their own holdings, which stretch across all the films and television series.

“Starfleet Academy SCISEC Brief 002: Mystery Behind Ceti Alpha VI” featurette (HD)
It’s hard to describe this three-minute faux training film about the demise of Ceti Alpha VI as anything other than pure filler.

And, of course, all of the original DVD supplements are also here:

Audio commentary by director Nicholas Meyer
Director Nicholas Meyer has quite a bit to offer in this screen-specific audio commentary. He seems to be less interested, though, in discussing specific aspects of making the movie (though he does talk quite a bit about the details of the production) than he is in ruminating on more general elements of filmmaking, working in the Star Trek universe, and his own philosophical approach (sample: “In the specificity, you will find universality. But, in universality, you will only find cafeteria food.”). He has a relaxed, easy tone, and he isn’t afraid to point out what he doesn’t like (such as his lack of attention to Spock’s cabin) and the extensive amount of recycling he employed (of sets, costumes, props, etc.) to make the budget go as far as possible. Meyer is clearly an intellectual, as he likes to discuss Wrath of Khan as a film about aging and death, and he is given to quoting from Tolstoy and Dante. Come to think of it, he may have identified more with Khan than with Kirk ...

“The Captain’s Log” featurette
This 27-minute retrospective featurette includes video interviews with director Nicholas Meyer, producer Harve Bennett, and actors William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and Ricardo Montalban. While there is no behind-the-scenes footage, a few production photos are included, as well as a few brief scenes from the original 1967 Star Trek episode “Space Seed” (it’s really too bad, though, that whole episode couldn’t have been included as a supplement). Presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1).

“Designing Khan” featurette
This 24-minute featurette focuses specifically on the various design elements of the movie, from the sets, to the costumes, to the ships, to the symbols for the ranking hierarchy within the Starfleet. While it is primarily composed of video interviews with production designer Joe Jennings, costume designer Robert Fletcher, art director Lee Cole, director Nicholas Meyer, and producer Harve Bennett, there are also some interesting behind-the-scenes photographs of the Ceti Alpha V set. Presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1).

“Where No Man Has Gone Before: The Visual Effects of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” featurette
This 18-minute featurette is a quick, but comprehensive overview of the various special effects used in the film. These include elaborate models for the ships, prosthetic and puppetry effects for the eels sequence, the creation of the Mutara Nebula, and the then-groundbreaking use of computer-generated imagery for the Genesis Project demonstration. The featurette includes behind-the scenes photographs and effects test footage along with video interviews with special visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston, computer graphics experts Ed Catmul and Loren Carpenter, model maker William George, supervising model maker Steve Gawley, model electronics expert Marty Brenneis, and director Nicholas Meyer. Presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1).

Original Interviews
The interviews included in this segment, which include actors William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, and Ricardo Montalban, were originally recorded in 1982 as part of the film’s theatrical promotion. These interviews are historically interesting, although it’s sometimes hard to take them seriously because they have such an amusingly dated quality, with each actor wearing some atrocious variation of ’70s-disco-going-on-’80s-new-wave fashion: Shatner’s smarmy open shirt collar and protruding chest hair, Nimoy’s striped suit and matching pink shirt and tie, and Kelly’s inexplicable green suede scarf. There are also a few odd moments, such as a long segment of Nimoy’s interview in which the actor is almost drowned out by police sirens in the background. The eight minutes of interviews are followed by a montage of production and behind-the-scenes photographs. Presented in full-frame (1.33:1).

“The Star Trek Universe: A Novel Approach” featurette
This 29-minute featurette won’t be much of a revelation to longtime fans who understand the centrality of original creative production to fandom. But, for those not steeped in the details of the enormous Star Trek universe, this is an interesting look at how two fans have parlayed their knowledge into full-time jobs. The featurette focuses on Greg Cox and Julia Ecklar, both lifelong Trekkers who have for many years written officially licensed spin-off Star Trek novels. Cox is the more interesting of the two, if only because his trilogy of novels is about Khan, tracing his life from birth, through his rise to dictator amid the Eugenics Wars, to his exile on Ceti Alpha V. The featurette also includes clips from the “Space Seed” episode, as well as a fantastic montage of every cheesy-looking alien creature to ever appear on the TV series. Presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1).

Storyboard Archives
This section includes an extensive array of black-and-white storyboards for 13 major sequences in the film. Presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1).

Original theatrical trailer
Presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1).