Square Roots of Cool

FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON 1998, HBO, unrated, $119.98

This four-disc boxed set of Tom Hanks' Emmy-winning miniseries is easily the most lavish and desirable DVD package yet. (The fact that it's not yet available on cassette -- except through Columbia House -- makes it that much more special.) Housed in a compact silver slipcase, the 12-part miniseries, like the space program itself, is both wildly ambitious and a straightforward, nuts-and-bolts endeavor. Each episode tracks the space race from a different angle: the scientists and academics behind the scenes, the social upheaval of the era, and, of course, the various missions. The series can and should be watched as a whole, but each segment stands on its own. One segment stars Dave Foley as an aw-shucks astronaut just happy to be along for the ride; another, directed by Sally Field, details the pressure on astronauts' wives. My favorites are ''Spider,'' about the engineers who design the spacecraft, and ''We Interrupt This Program,'' about the media. Seen together, these offbeat tales pack a cumulative punch. The fourth DVD brims with extras, including two featurettes, 12 trailers, 3-D models of the ships that you can manipulate and zoom in on, and a tour of the solar system that lets you skip from planet to planet at will. Those with a DVD-ROM can access even more. Let's hope Ken Burns checks out this elegant package before releasing The Civil War and Baseball on DVD. A -- Michael Giltz

LIBERACE 1998, RHINO, UNRATED, $59.95

When you watch this three-volume collection, a few questions spring to mind. Could tens of millions of us really have spent decades adoring the first real glam-rock star -- a proto-Elton whose catchphrase was ''Do you mind if I slip out of this into something more spectacular?'' -- without venturing a thought as to what else was in his closet? If so, what planet were we on? And more important, was there really an era when a concert pianist could be afforded valuable prime time to perform Chopin, Strauss, and Rachmaninoff without network heads rolling the next day?

A tape of Liberace performing the classics with the London Philharmonic two years before his 1987 death is a helpful reminder that he wasn't just famous for being famous. Even with most of his digits weighted down by Plymouth-size rocks, his playing in this unusually dignified twilight performance is light and effortlessly precise. Decorum hardly figures into the other two specials, shot in Vegas in the late '70s -- not with Debbie Reynolds hoofing through ''(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher'' with a bevy of boys in wide-collared jumpsuits, or inexplicable guest shots from Sandy Duncan and Lola Falana -- but even here there's slight ivory nutritional value amid all the mega-furs. And as he does his kitsch-virtuoso thing in front of the Hilton's ''dancing waters'' (entertaining against all odds), you'll maybe forgive him for not wanting to be old or out because mostly he just wanted to be wonderful. And sometimes was. B -- Chris Willman

BOB HOPE'S ENTERTAINING THE TROOPS: THE VIETNAM YEARS 1998, REAL ENTERTAINMENT, UNRATED, $79.99

Judged strictly on entertainment terms, these nine tapes of Hope's visits to cheer up the troops are mild and formulaic. When Ann-Margret inquires if he's ever been to a love-in, Hope responds: ''Love-in? My doctor doesn't even let me watch Laugh-In.'' On tape after tape we see Hope asking the reigning Miss World to tell appreciative soldiers her measurements, and a celebrity of sorts like Anita Bryant lead youthful, clean-cut GIs in ''Silent Night.'' After one soldier, in 1970, gets to hug a visiting Hollywood beauty, he confesses that he feels ''like I only had one potato chip.''

But as history, as a window onto America's increasingly uneasy involvement in Vietnam, the tapes grow curiously compelling, and unexpectedly poignant. If we left Vietnam, Hope the Hawk vows in 1964, ''it would be like saying to the Commies 'Come and get it.''' Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky assures viewers in 1967 that within a year, the country would have freedom and peace. And Hope is telling GIs he'd like to see the ''peaceniks'' who are burning draft cards back in the U.S. ''come over here, and Charlie will burn them for them.'' But in 1968, even he admits worrying that ''we were trapped in a kind of quicksand.'' In 1970, he naively vows that when the war is finally over, ''we'll have the satisfaction of knowing that we preserved the freedom of not only South Vietnam but also of Southeast Asia.'' By 1971, he acknowledges that the war's eroded ''deeply the fabric of our society.'' In the final tape, there are no boasts of what we've accomplished. Most GIs, Hope says simply, have at least come home from Vietnam; how many came home in body bags, and to what purpose, goes unremarked. B -- Chip Deffaa

THE AVENGERS '67 COLLECTION 1998, A&E, UNRATED, $29.95 EACH

Pity poor Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman. Their big-screen Avengers wasn't just up against memories of the '60s TV spy spoof -- it also had to contend with the British original's much-anticipated video debut. Digitally remastered and looking better than ever, The Avengers' entire 1967 season -- arguably the peak of its 1966-69 run -- is now available on four boxed sets. That's 25 episodes' worth of blithely spirited camp, as gentleman agent John Steed (Patrick Macnee) and high-kicking partner Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) swap bons mots and quaff champagne while dueling diabolical masterminds and deadly man-made monsters. Macnee's dapper, proper Steed makes an improbably perfect pairing with Rigg's ultra-mod Emma, an action heroine ahead of her time. They send up the genre with such consistent style and wit that you can't go wrong with any of these sets, each including several high points, from ''Venusian'' invaders (set 1) to killer kitties (set 2) to sinister nannies (set 3) and murderous ''cybernauts'' (set 4, which is available only through the website -- www.originalavengers.com -- until its Feb. 4 street date). Set 4 also features Rigg's farewell episode, ''The Forget-Me-Knot.'' But you needn't tip your bowler goodbye to her yet: Coming in 1999 is the 1965-66 season, also starring the future Bond girl and Mystery! host, frequently in that infamous leather catsuit. Now you know what to put on next year's shopping list. A -- Michael Sauter

[BOX]

ASSEMBLY REQUIRED OUR GIFT SUGGESTIONS

Just as store-bought presents are less precious than those forged from the giver's toil, boxed sets have nothing on improvised tokens of affection. We still recall rushing to the tree on one early-'80s dawn to find a VHS copy of Citizen Kane tied to a sled. Though we cursed Santa then (we had a Betamax player), we hope his spirit lives on in these ideas.

Starship Troopers and... an ant farm

Men With Guns and... a puppy

Titanic and... bath salts

A Shari Lewis tape and... tube socks

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and... a rug... a shag rug, baby!

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