Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

After the miserable failure of “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier,” everyone thought that the franchise knew that they had a limited chance of success to set things right. The series’ original cast was getting older past the age of reasonably another huge sci-fi adventure, yet no one wanted “The Final Frontier” to be their final movie. Also, “Star Trek” was approaching its 25^th Anniversary, and that was a positive moment too good to look past. Paramount gave them another film. Leonard Nimoy, who had Executive Produced the final movie, approached director Nicholas Meyer, who directed “The Wrath of Khan. Together, they came up with a story idea where the longstanding fight between Starfleet and the Klingon Empire would work as a political story for the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union.

“Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country,” released in 1991, opens with a literal crash. On a routine scientific expedition, the starship Excelsior is shot by an energy shockwave coming from a huge explosion near the Klingon home planet. What has happened is that the Klingons’ main energy production factory on their moon of Praxis has had a Chernobyl-type catastrophe. The Klingons at first refused help from the Federation, but is soon forced to admit that their empire is falling because of economic ruin and public unrest. Their current leader, Chancellor Gorkon, played by David Warner, starts to talk in order to end hostilities with the Federation. On the Blu-Ray review, it states that, “A new age of Glasnost (however that may translate in Klingon) is emerging.”

As their first step, Starfleet assigns its battleship, the U.S.S. Enterprise, to meet the Chancellor and escort him to a peace conference. Captain Kirk, whose son was murdered by the Klingons, grudgingly accepts the tasks and tries to hide his inner prejudice against the Klingons. He thinks that a difficult diplomatic dinner will be the hardest part of the mission. However, strangely, the Enterprise has opened fire on the Klingon vessel without Kirk’s command. General Chang, played by Christopher Plummer, the Chancellor’s hard-nosed right-hand-man, has Kirk and Bones arrested and put on trial for trying to start a fight. Spock and his new Vulcan apprentice, Valeris, played by Kim Cattrall, must look through the Enterprise and find out what conspiracy was attempted to interfere with the peace process.

The review stated, “Though I hadn't been too impressed with Meyer's script for the series' fourth movie, 'The Undiscovered Country' is a welcome and much needed return to form for the 'Trek' franchise.” The same director of “The Wrath of Khan” is back at the top of his game. The film not only has the expected sci-fi action, but also parts of a political thriller, murder mystery, courtroom drama, and prison camp escape movie. Somehow, they blend perfectly with every spaceship, photon torpedoes and latex makeup.

The director keeps the pacing sharp and the production values high. Trying really hard not to repeat the laughable special effects from “Star Trek V” (which was stated as “outsourced to the lowest bidder”), the team at Industrial Light & Magic have come back into the chair. Their work here returns to the franchise’s previous look. The Blu-Ray review states, “The shockwave blast from the Praxis explosion proved so influential that the visual (thereafter known as the "Praxis Effect") was later reused in numerous sci-fi movies, including George Lucas' wretched 'Star Wars Special Editions.'” In his most motivated scene, Meyer gives a zero-gravity assault inside the Klingon ship. The CGI drops of floating blood were quite impressive for 1991 (if a little dated now), as were the shapeshifting effects (all the rage at the time) of a shapeshifter alien played by model/actress Iman.

Gone is any silly comic relief that had poisoned the last two movies. “Star Trek VI” has a focused and thematically-rich screenplay with hilarious dialogue and multi-dimensional characterizations. The review stated that “Plummer's Shakespeare-spouting Chang is a juicy villain.” One of the nice things is that Sulu, who has been underused, is not the captain of the Excelsior in “Star Trek IV,” and this promotion makes him play a critical part of the movie’s climax. The rest of the team, who has really showed their ages in recent movies, seem especially alert and energized here, no doubt responding to the better material they had to work with.

The review states that, “Acknowledging that this was to be the original crew's last adventure, the film has many themes of retirement, outliving one's usefulness, passing of the torch, and death, all handled eloquently and with proper respect.” Wrapping up 25 years under their belt, “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” makes a very stylish finale for our favorite crew of the starship Enterprise.

“Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered County” is a welcome return after the failure of “Star Trek V” and a worthy finale for the original Enterprise crew. Too bad the producers couldn’t help but to bringing Kirk back for the disappointing “Star Trek: Generations,” but we’ll get to that this Friday. It gives the reason that Paramount will probably re-release this film in its longer “Director’s cut” format. How long that will take is only what time will tell. The Blu-Ray review ended by saying, “To be honest, the theatrical cut is superior, if only for the removal of the dumb plot twist at the end. Even so, this Blu-ray's video quality is problematic. I would welcome any excuse for a fresh remaster. The audio is pretty good, though, and the disc has plenty of bonus features.”

I would strongly suggest that everyone watch this movie. You will absolutely love this, especially since it was released at the 25^th Anniversary of “Star Trek.” If you saw “Star Trek V,” and I would feel bad if you did, “Star Trek VI” will wash that bad taste out of your mouth. This movie was a great final entry of the Original cast.

Check in Friday when we talk about the disappointing next entry in “Star Trek Month.”