DVD Review HTF REVIEW: "Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan (Highly Recommended) (with screenshots) (1 Viewer)

[GeorgePaul]

And while this thread is still up on the front page, my two cents.
As much as I love this DVD, this release would have been out of the park had it included an isolated score. Yes, I know we don't see much of those anymore, but Wrath of Khan needs an extended edition soundtrack release badly. The original CD is 37 minutes long and is a shrill Dolby two-channel mix with many great tracks missing.
Any other support or news out there for the FULL digitally remastered soundtrack to Star Trek II?

 

[Rolando]

"Have you heard the Klingon proverb that says that revenge is a dish that is best served cold? It is very cold... in space!" cue score!

sorry, couldn't help it :b

 

[Aaryn Chan]

I got the DVD-5 version, is this it?

 

[Chris Brunner]

I would definitely pick up a special edition of the score. It is probably the only film score that I ever listened to while driving around in my first car 20 years ago. I had the album and original "cassette".
Excellent stuff!!
C

 

[Bill Williams]

The follwing is direct from StarTrek.com:

:
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Koenig got some of the biggest laughs talking about how Khan could recognize Chekov's face when his character was not around during the original incident. He said that when he read the script, "I immediately saw that Chekov could not have been recognized by Khan, because I was not in 'Space Seed.' I was faced with a real [dilemma] between professional ethics and personal survival. Naturally I chose the latter. I simply didn't mention it, hoping that it would go away."
But then Takei talked Koenig into giving his explanation as to how Khan recognized Chekov, one he used to tell at conventions, and Koenig fired it off rapidly and dramatically: "Actually I was in Space Seed... I was at the time suffering from [an ailment] called Malapropsky's Malady, which is a kind of 23rd-century version of Montezuma's Revenge, and I was ensconced in the bathroom and there for hours and hours, while poor Mr. Khan, genetically engineered kidneys about to explode, pounded pitifully on the bathroom door, banging, banging, and when the doors swung open, I stepped out, and he said..." (He went into an impression of Montalban) "Yoooou! Yoou, I will never forget!!"
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What makes it even funnier is that someone actually turned the whole joke into a short story for one of Pocket Books' "Strange New Worlds" anthologies!

 

[Kevin M]

The original CD is 37 minutes long and is a shrill Dolby two-channel mix with many great tracks missing.

Dolby 2 channel? Are you saying the CD was matrixed?

...anyway, as far as I know the original score was digitally recorded so remastering it for any CD re-release should be a rather easy thing to do...remixing it for a 5.1 DVD-A or SACD should be a breeze as well if the original raw digital tracks are intact.

 

[GeorgePaul]

Dolby 2 channel? Are you saying the CD was matrixed?

Not sure, Kevin...all I know is I can only hear two sides of the orchestra in every system, surround or not, I've ever played it in. Strings always sound muddy and horns sound ear-piercingly sharp, so either the CD was digitally recorded from an analog source or the sound was mixed to two channels only, as far as I can tell.

Besides, though, the disc needs a remaster not only for 5.1 sound but also to restore some of the great Horner cues that, for whatever reason, got left off the album (remember "Amazing Grace"? What I wouldn't give for a FULL version of that!).

 

[Kevin M]

Quote:

...so apparently your complaints of the recording being a bit shrill are not unusual, as is quite often the case in early digital recording...the engineers back then were rather over-enthusiastic in their use of the new format, they have since learned to restrain themselves..well..the good ones have anyway.

 

[Jay Pennington]

James Horner featured "Amazing Grace" in the score under protest. Since he produced the original album, it's not surprising he left it out.

 

[GeorgePaul]

James Horner featured "Amazing Grace" in the score under protest. Since he produced the original album, it's not surprising he left it out.

I had NO idea that was the case, Jay...why? It's an incredibly beautiful, though brief rendition--did he consider it a hack job?
And Kevin, sorry for the confusion. I'm no sound engineer so I possess only an amateur knowledge of mixing techniques. It IS a stereo recording, so perhaps the horns and strings were miked a bit too close on the original recording. All I know is that the difference between hearing the score for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan on the original CD and on the two-disc DVD--to me anyway--is like comparing the Star Wars OT soundtrack on VHS with the soundtrack on DVD. The soundscape is far more opened up in the latter, with no ear-piercing harshness from the principal instruments.

 

[Kevin M]

All I know is that the difference between hearing the score for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan on the original CD and on the two-disc DVD--to me anyway--is like comparing the Star Wars OT soundtrack on VHS with the soundtrack on DVD. The soundscape is far more opened up in the latter, with no ear-piercing harshness from the principal instruments.

Well yeah, you are comparing a two channel source to a 5.1 channel source, even if the original soundtrack wasn't mixed in surround-channel it can be expanded or sweetened by the film engineers to give the impression of a widened soundfield, however if you have Dolby Pro-logic II (or DTS-NEO:6) then I suggest you turn on the music mode and give the CD a listen...you might be surprised at the widened soundscape that PL-II (or NEO:6) can give a two channel source.

 

[Jay Pennington]

I had NO idea that was the case, Jay...why? It's an incredibly beautiful, though brief rendition--did he consider it a hack job?

No, but for whatever reason he didn't feel that the quote was the right artistic choice for the scene. Perhaps too "on the nose"?

But agreed, he did a good job with it anyway.

This info comes from various magazine interviews with Horner, Meyer, et. al. over the years. I think the point comes up in one of the DVDs...perhaps the commentary?