In “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” Admiral James T. Kirk ponders his own mortality and, at least when the movie starts, is ready to step back and let a younger generation take over.

William Shatner, who was about 50 years old when he filmed those scenes as Kirk, has kept boldly going and going in the 40-plus years since “Wrath of Khan” was released in 1982.

He’ll return to Packard Music Hall, where he appeared in a Kenley Players production of “Arsenic and Old Lace” in 1973, for a screening of “Khan” followed by conversation about the film and his career Sept. 26.

The movie also is filled with many of the props created by John Zabrucky, the Warren native who founded Modern Props and donated more than 500 of the company’s creations to the Trumbull County Historical Society. Handheld communicators, like the one Kirk uses throughout the film, and “the Most Important Device in the Universe,” which can be seen in the scenes in the Genesis Project lab, are among the more visible items from the collection in the film.

With 10 minutes available — Shatner had a dozen interviews scheduled Monday in a two-hour block at 10-minute intervals — there wasn’t much time to dig deep, but Shatner touched on the enduring appeal of “Khan,” a career that includes more than 250 acting roles and the impact of visiting space after decades of playing a traveler of the galaxies.

The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

TICKET: What is it about “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” that has made it a favorite in the “Star Trek” canon?

SHATNER: The film is popular because it harkens back to the show itself. It deals with humanity. It deals with loss. It deals with laughter. It’s very tempting to do special effects and forget about the humanity, which is the problem with a great many science fiction films. They get so hung up on the beauty — and it is beautiful, the special effects — and forget about the humanity. In “The Wrath of Khan,” we have human beings with joy and laughter and sorrow. It’s a lovely humanities film, if you will, and that’s why I chose it.

The film has been refurbished in sound and color. You’ll see it at the theater on a large screen, and then I’ll come out afterward and answer questions and tell stories and have a wonderful time with the audience. It’s really a unique evening in that the actor comes out after the movie and discusses with the audience the movie, and I’ve done this in the past, and we’ve had a wonderful time doing it.

TICKET: How did the character of James T. Kirk evolve over the decades that you played him?

SHATNER: Of course, I got older, DeForrest (Kelly, who played Bones) got older. We dealt more in ideas than smacking people around.

I think he evolved quite a bit, actually. We were very conscious of the fact that time had passed by as these movies went on, and there were one or two movies that dealt with his aging. And had it continued, I would have dealt more and more about a man of action, a hero getting old, getting older. It’s an interesting subject.

TICKET: Well, “Wrath of Khan” is one of the movies that does that, where you’re dealing with questions of mortality and aging with that character. You were about 50 when you made that film. At that age, could you imagine having gone on to do the things you’ve done in the 42 years since it was released?

SHATNER: Well, you know, your life is a mystery. You’re writing your book as you live it. And then you look back, read the book, and you think, ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t know that happened’ … You don’t know where your next step is going to take you, and it’s an interesting thing to keep in mind, not only where you’re walking, but where and how you’re living. Nothing is permanent. Everything is in flux, and that change, which is always going to happen, shouldn’t catch you by surprise.

TICKET: “Star Trek” has spawned movies, prequels, spin off series, a lot of projects that you were involved with, even more that you weren’t. None of those would have happened had the original series and the movies that followed not worked as well as they did. Do you take some pride in that legacy beyond just the pieces that you were involved in?

SHATNER: You know, I do realize that. We made that one motion picture, which they ultimately decided to call “(Star Trek): The Motion Picture.” It didn’t do that well, and management was deciding not to do any more Star Treks. And by some fluke — not quite sure how, but I tell a story of my conjecture of how it worked. But by some fluke, they decided to make this movie “The Wrath of Khan,” give it one more chance, give it to the television department to make and not the movie department, so they could make it for less money, and that’s what we did. We went back to the human stories of the series, and it became a very successful film.

TICKET: In your book “Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder,” you talked about your experience going into space on the Blue Origin craft and the grief and overwhelming sadness you felt viewing the Earth from that perspective. Next month will be the third anniversary of that flight. What has been the lingering impact of that experience?

SHATNER: I still feel as deeply, if not more so, about the destruction of the world around us, but I’ve come around to looking at the variety of projects that human beings are taking on to mitigate the effects of global warming. And there are many and varied. I’m sitting in Los Angeles right now, and yesterday it was 111 degrees. You think, ‘Oh, my God, it’s terrible. Well, you know, it’s going to get cooler. It’ll cool off, and it’ll get better.’ It’s not going to get better. Everywhere in our country and everywhere in the world, is getting hotter and hotter. We’re burning up, and that could get worse not get better. Ours is a matter of how quickly we get to work on mitigating that.

If you go …

WHAT: A screening of “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” followed by a conversation with William Shatner.

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 26.

WHERE: Packard Music Hall, 1703 Mahoning Ave. NW, Warren.

HOW MUCH: Tickets range from $39.75 to $99.75 through Ticketmaster with VIP tickets also available.