If you haven’t yet checked out our review of the new WRATH OF KHAN Director’s Cut Blu-ray (arriving today!), we mentioned a lot of large color corrections, but also a small content change – the deletion of two short lines inserted for the 1985 ABC television broadcast.

Some eagle-eyed viewers who received their new disc early noticed one additional issue that we (and everyone else, it seems) missed in the review, from the Kobayashi Maru simulation that opens the film – an apparent editing error in the early moments of the movie.

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The Enterprise approaches Gamma Hydra, Section 15; Sulu projects a ‘parabolic course’ to avoid entering the Neutral Zone.

As ‘Captain’ Saavik learns the details of the Kobayashi Maru…

…she calls for Sulu to plot an intercept course into the disputed area.

On the 2009 Blu-ray (and the 2002 Director’s Cut DVD), Sulu then turns to Saavik, beginning to protest the order: “May I remind the captain that if a starship enters the zone…”

Meanwhile, the Kobayashi Maru data begins to fade off of the viewscreen, one character at a time.

In this new release, while Sulu voices his protest, he remains facing forward – and that ‘parabolic course’ graphic seen about a minute earlier in this scene is used instead… though the dialogue audio in place is correct.

Following this shot, both versions of the film return to the historically-established shots of Saavik shutting down Sulu’s protest, and his annoyed reaction as he turns back to his monitor.

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This is certainly a strange thing to have happened – it seems that the editing team on the remaster may have accidentally re-used the same over-the-shoulder shot from before the Kobayashi Maru was even detected.

We’ve reached out to Paramount Home Entertainment to see if we can learn anything about what may have happened here – whether it was an intentional choice, for some reason, or an error – as soon as we have any more information we’ll update you all here.