Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country directed by: Nicholas Meyer

 

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country stars William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Kim Cattrall, David Warner, and Christopher Plummer.  It is directed by: Nicholas Meyer, written by: Nicholas Meyer and Denny Martin Flinn, from a story by: Leonard Nimoy, Lawrence Konner, and Mark Rosenthal, and is produced by: Ralph Winter and Steven-Charles Jaffe.  It was released theatrically December 6, 1991.

 

This is the end.  My first viewing of Star Trek has finally reached the ending of the original crew, all together for one last adventure in a film celebrating the franchise’s 25^th anniversary.  Like all the films up to this point, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country had a long road to production.  Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was both a critical and commercial disappointment, in my estimation it is one of the weakest outings for the cast and just a bad film all around, so the producers thought to genuinely end the story there and do a prequel for the anniversary with a new cast playing younger versions of the crew.  As an idea, this is honestly not a bad one since Star Trek: The Next Generation had aired multiple seasons at this point so the thought process believed audiences would have likely accepted a new cast.  However, the idea made it to Star Trek fans who reacted with a backlash so Leonard Nimoy suggested an idea of the fall of the Berlin Wall but in space.  This is the germ of the idea for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.  Nimoy was initially approached to direct the film, but he declined (partially to avoid the clause that would have given William Shatner a second film to direct as well) instead staying on as executive producer and Nicholas Meyer was brought in after his work directing Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and co-writing Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.  Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is one of those films that went through several drafts, each main cast member getting input and the focus of the film being a one last hurrah to say goodbye to this cast.

 

The title of the film is taken from Hamlet, quoted with other Shakespeare quotes within the film, the major theme of the film is changing with the times.  The Klingons and the Federation are coming together to dismantle the Neutral Zone, there is a conference coming to facilitate this, and universal peace is coming.  That is the backdrop of the film, the conflict becoming an assassination on the Klingon chancellor Gorkon, played by David Warner working much better with the brief material here than in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, framing the Enterprise and specifically Kirk and McCoy who are exiled to a harsh mining colony while Spock and company on the Enterprise defy orders to unmask the conspirators.  The film is particularly reflective on the political situation of the unity being allowed, William Shatner as Kirk is portrayed in this film as understandably stubborn about the Klingons being integrated, partially reflected in minor Klingon characters equally worried about losing their culture and identity in the integration.  The Klingon perspective sadly isn’t nearly as well explored in the film, however due to this being filmed during the fifth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, it is likely that that perspective is there in the post-integration world.  Shatner plays Kirk as at the very end of his career when everything is said and done, he has made his legacy known but he cannot grow past the death of his son at the hands of the Klingons in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.  This is the point that damns him and McCoy to their fates while it also informs the way he acts towards the Klingons throughout the film.  The dinner sequence in the first act of the film is probably where Shatner gets his best performance in the film, despite Shatner not entirely liking the tension he had to portray, but he played it well.  While Kirk and McCoy are in exile, DeForest Kelley is used largely for comedy, though their trial has a cameo from Michael Dorn playing an ancestor of his character from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

 

The Kirk and McCoy plotline which becomes a prison break featuring a very fun performance from Iman, is sadly slightly less interesting than the plot on the Enterprise as Leonard Nimoy as Spock gets to be in command, playing off Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, and James Doohan to maneuver the politics and discover who the real assassins are.  It’s essentially a murder mystery in space tinged with political thriller.  George Takei as Hikaru Sulu (being given a first name for the film) has the least amount of scenes in the film, though his role is still important as Captain of the Excelsior.  Sulu has the least to do in terms of the original cast members, but it still feels like a nice button for his character, growing to lead his own ship.  On the Enterprise proper, like in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Uhura and Chekov get elevated roles because they are the ones being used as the replacements for the missing Kirk and McCoy, both Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig giving great performances.  Nichols in particular gets to shine by being on top form in terms of comedic wit while James Doohan as Scotty gets to be the more outrageous comedic relief.

 

Thematically the reveal of those responsible for the assassination is one of those that is slightly obvious, a new Vulcan character of Valeris played by Kim Cattrell is part of the conspiracy and is close to Spock as his potential replacement.  The motivation of the conspiracy is a stronger stubbornness to accept change than Kirk’s.  Cattrell’s performance is fascinating, her emotion is intentionally subtle but not too subtle to not be there.  The main threat of the film is the Klingon commander Chang, played by Christopher Plummer giving his usual caliber of performance.  Despite being under a lot of makeup Plummer is still quoting Shakespeare the most of anyone in the film, and because it is Christopher Plummer it seems entirely natural.  Chang is the most obvious conspirator: he is disappointed he never got to face Kirk as a warrior in battle and is adamant on finding him and McCoy guilty for the assassination.  Importantly, while Valeris provides some commentary on Federation having deeper layers of mistrust, the third conspirator is a higher up in Starfleet: Admiral Cartwright, a minor character from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home played by Brock Peters once again.  Now there is one final aspect of the film underneath the compelling characters and Nicholas Meyer’s direction and the almost haunting score from Cliff Eidelman and that’s while it deals with its themes nicely there is a slight sense that it doesn’t quite grapple with the allegory entirely well.  Early in the film, Chekov says “Guess who’s coming to dinner?”, a line originally meant for Uhura that Nichelle Nichols rightly refused to say.  The Federation conspirators are motivated largely by xenophobia and racism, which is a little uncomfortable hearing racist tirades coming from Brock Peters, whose most famous as Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird.  Peters apparently expressed discomfort at some of the dialogue as well.  This is not enough to entirely bring down the film, at least for me, but it adds this layer of seemingly intentional discomfort that doesn’t quite understand the complexities of racism.  Then again Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country isn’t really about race, it’s about unity and going into that undiscovered country of the future (and not death as the original line in Hamlet details).

 

Overall, the one last hurrah nature of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is only succeeded by Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in terms of a film.  It’s close to a pure distillation of everything that this particular cast of characters are and succeeds at, with each of them getting a happy ending (even Janice Rand gets a slightly larger cameo with Grace Lee Whitney returning to the role).  It’s all about looking to the future and albeit retroactively is the perfect setup to open the doors to the new era of Star Trek which I will be boldly going into.  9/10.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier directed by: William Shatner

 

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier stars William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, and George Takei.  It is directed by: William Shatner, written by: David Loughery, from a story by: William Shatner, Harve Bennett, and David Loughery, and is produced by: Harve Bennett.  It was released theatrically June 9, 1989.

 

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is the definition of an unnecessary film.  The first four cinematic Star Trek installments are each films that cover the same ground thematically and in terms of character development, all with the overarching theme of the Enterprise crew as a family going out to explore space with the end of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.  The film only came about because of a favored nations clause in the contracts of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy during the filming of the original series, meaning that Shatner and Nimoy would be offered the same opportunities.  Nimoy directed Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and when being selected to direct Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home it was agreed William Shatner would direct Star Trek V.  Now going into the production of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier does show that there were production problems outside of the control of Shatner: the budget was cut causing the climax to be redesigned, there was both a Writer’s Guild of America and Teamsters Strike, the production itself was rushed to completion, and the effects teams at Industrial Light & Magic were too busy with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to work on this film.  Shatner also had no experience directing film before this point, though Leonard Nimoy was also an untested director when selected for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

 

William Shatner is actually a good actor, despite his reputation in pop culture for over the top delivery and outbursts.  His performances in the original series and the previous films is enough to show this because Captain Kirk is a character fully in depth and Shatner gives him life.  William Shatner is not, however, a good director.  While there were plenty of production problems outside of Shatner’s control, his directorial style could best be described as amateur.  Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, despite a large budget of $33 million looks incredibly cheap, with the sets of the Enterprise being over lit and the general shot composition of the film being basic.  Some of this can be explained away from Shatner’s previous directorial work, mainly television episodes of his own show T.J. Hooker which is a show I have never seen an episode of, but the way the film is directed feels like how television was shot especially during the 1980s.  That and a general mix of admiration and pale imitation of popular films from the late 1980s: there are sequences straight out of Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark but without the filmmaking experience or magic of George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg.  The opening 30 minutes is where a lot of Shatner’s directorial decisions can be put on full display, the first big sequence of the film being incredibly oddly paced as Shatner attempts to establish the villain Sybok, played by Laurence Luckinbill, the planet Nimbus III in the Neutral Zone, and his general motivation.  The expository dialogue in the sequence is incredibly off kilter, the lighting is overdone with the sun of the planet in the background in what Shatner is attempting to display a prophetic idea as this is a film largely concerned with religion.

 

Things only get more awkward from there with the introduction of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy all on shore leave.  Now Shatner, Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley are giving fine performances, good especially for Shatner who is juggling acting and directing, but again this is a sequence that keeps cutting from Kirk and Spock on a mountain and McCoy watching.  The cuts to McCoy are placed awkwardly throughout the scene.  The film thematically wants to have the arc of Kirk over everyone else realize that his crew is in fact his family.  There is a scene in the first act around a campfire with a painfully unfunny round of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” which has a great idea of Kirk being isolated and scared of dying alone.  This is after the initial four films having a cohesive arc culminating in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home having the Enterprise crew as an actual family in the end.  This just adds to the pointless nature of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Kirk doesn’t actually have an arc because he has already learned what the character arc is attempting to teach him.  It does not help that between Shatner being in charge of the story and the screenplay from David Loughery doesn’t understand Spock as a character.  Spock is the alien in the film.  He is back to being completely emotionless and his dialogue is particularly stilted throughout, his familial relation to Sybok being a particular twist that means they must respect each other for no real reason.  Again the previous four films have had Spock have an arc throughout where he genuinely has love for both Kirk and McCoy, that was the point of his sacrifice in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and his arc of integrating back to life in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. 

 

The rest of the Enterprise crew also give generally good performances despite this film reverting to the problem of rarely giving them things to do.  Nichelle Nichols and James Doohan are paired early on, with some dialogue that is oddly flirtatious for Uhura and Scotty (which is explicit but goes absolutely nowhere) though they at least get things to do early on, while George Takei and Walter Koenig are paired though given even less to do then be comic relief and Chekov becomes a distraction at one point.  Koenig’s portion in the comic relief is particularly bland.  The Enterprise itself is also falling apart for some reason, mainly for comic relief for the film which is more tedious than anything and makes the film feel slower than it is.  The rest of the film’s cast really does not excel under Shatner’s direction.  Luckinbill as Sybok, revealed to be Spock’s half-brother for attempted drama, is not a good villain nor is giving a good performance, though he at least delivers his lines the best he can.  David Warner has a smaller role where it’s clear that he is bored in the role but he’s David Warner so he is still quite fun to watch.  The whole idea of finding God who is essentially a televangelist is another of those ideas that could make an interesting film but again this is a film with a plot by William Shatner who does not understand how to execute the ideas.  The climax of the film is structurally similar to the climax of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, yet somehow executed more poorly than that film’s already messy climax.  It’s got some fun lines for Shatner and goes on far too long because the final scene needs to ram home the poorly defined theme of family.

 

Overall, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is a poorly defined film.  The direction is from an amateur, the themes are just outright stated in stilted dialogue, the performances don’t actually have anything to happen.  There’s also some really random moments added in for sex appeal that just feels wrong.  There are points where it is outright aping imagery from other films and while there are decent ideas for commentary, Shatner is rightfully angry at televangelists, but this is just a slog to get through.  This is through and through a bad film from a bad director with really a score from Jerry Goldsmith and actors attempting to work through it to work.  3/10.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home directed by: Leonard Nimoy

 

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home stars William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, and Catherine Hicks.  It is directed by: Leonard Nimoy, written by: Steve Meerson, Peter Kirkes, Nicholas Meyer, and Harve Bennett, from a story by: Harve Bennett and Leonard Nimoy, and is produced by: Harve Bennett.  It was released theatrically on November 26, 1986.

 

It's genuinely quite surprising that Leonard Nimoy would be asked to return to direct another Star Trek film, mainly because any follow up to Star Trek III: The Search for Spock would bring the challenge to Nimoy of directing a film where he is a main character.  There are obviously challenges having to direct yourself, but Nimoy was attached to the fourth Star Trek film before there was even a script developed.  Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home had a particularly odd development, starting life as a potential prequel due to the potential of William Shatner dropping out though he would be signed on after negotiation.  Like Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home would be afforded a budget increase from the previous film and uniquely much of the film would be shot on location, largely in California though not entirely San Francisco where the majority of the film is actually set.  This above everything else is what gives the film its unique atmosphere and tone, it’s very different to see our characters interacting with real locations and not the science fiction sets.  Robert Fletcher returned from the previous three films to provide the costumes and his work on the film is integral in making the futuristic costumes work in the modern setting.  Yes, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is a time travel film where Kirk and company in their stolen Klingon vessel (rechristened the Bounty after Mutiny on the Bounty) have to go back to the 1980s to steal some humpback whales because an alien probe is causing havoc on Earth by emitting the call of humpback whales.

 

The actual premise to get our characters to travel back in time when you think about it is utterly ridiculous, there is no explanation as to why an alien signal would even be Earth humpback whales.  This, of course, doesn’t matter.  The film needs to have a plot to end the trilogy of reflection on ideas of humanity’s needs and the sacrifices that are made to meet them.  The first act of the film, before the time travel slingshot maneuver gets these themes right out in the open.  Jane Wyatt and Mark Lenard as Amanda Grayson and Sarek are integral to this, the former giving her son advice while the latter advocates for clemency towards the Enterprise crew for the actions in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.  In terms of roles, they’re quite small, Wyatt doesn’t even get to appear in the film’s denouement, but they both provide the film the harmony that Star Trek so often represents thus making the film work.  There’s a knock on effect of making Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home feel like an ending for the Star Trek films, despite two more being produced with the original cast (though it’s possible they would have stopped here with the production of Star Trek: The Next Generation beginning after this film was released).  There’s a finality in the production even down to the score, Leonard Rosenman being brought in and basing everything on variations both obvious and subtle of Alexander Courage’s original television theme.  Rosenman’s theme work for the film is potentially among the franchise’s best and most interesting so far, even above the stellar work of Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner (legendary composers in their own right).

 

So much of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home can be described as an incredibly fun time.  While the premise is ridiculous, it’s a vehicle to allow the cast to have some of the best interactions and for the supporting cast the deepest characterization.  The film is one that is carried by a script full of some of the best one liners and character interactions that the franchise has done.  Nimoy’s portrayal as Spock is characterized as the stiffest and most logical he has ever been, rationalized as an effect of his resurrection in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock for better and for worse.  By the end he is back to the character familiar to viewers and there are especially good interactions with the fish out of water setting of 1980s San Francisco, but Nimoy is perhaps given the weakest material, likely reflecting Nimoy pulling double duty of acting and directing.  Everyone else on the other hand is clearly relishing the chance to play against the typical supporting material.  Each character has a mission in San Francisco to capture the two humpback whales, a pair set to be released into the wild.  This is where some of the film’s best lines and ideas come about: from Walter Koenig just blatantly asking people where he can find nuclear vessels, to DeForest Kelley being intensely angry about 20^th century medical practices, to James Doohan causing a bootstrap paradox to get materials in a smug way only James Doohan could.  Nichelle Nichols is also clearly relishing the chance to be the authoritative figure in her own plotline, being largely paired with Koenig and getting some of the best pieces of face acting she’s had to pull.

 

William Shatner is still the leading man of the film as Kirk, for the first time in these films being given a love interest in Catherine Hicks as Dr. Gillian Taylor, a marine biologist who has fallen in love with the whales.  This is where the script’s dialogue equally sparkles, the roundabout way Kirk gets to the point is a particular masterstroke before culminating in the line “I’m from Iowa, I only work in outer space.”  There is this pop cultural depiction of Kirk as incredibly sexually active, but Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home avoids that.  The relationship between Kirk and Taylor is one that grows over the film, but never actually spills out into proper, explicit romance.  Despite Taylor ending the film in the 23^rd century with her precious whales, the ending is explicit that their romance really wasn’t a romance at all.  The film makes the decision to not frame this as disappointing for either party, handling it with an adult sensibility that really works.  It helps that Hicks is perfect at playing the straight man to a lot of the film’s future comedy, especially as it goes on and she is embroiled in the science fiction plot.  It’s another aspect that really builds the film and helps end things in a satisfying way that the series probably should have ended here.

Overall, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home can be described as an incredibly fun film.  Somehow, each installment of the Star Trek films has had a radically different tone and plot, yet each feel like an aspect of Star Trek.  This review couldn’t possibly encompass everything that makes the film work, especially with how strong the script is in terms of comedy while not ever letting the viewer or characters lose the tension.  The premise is just a tad too ridiculous and in terms of drama it obviously doesn’t become as emotionally satisfying of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, but it is certainly a satisfying film just to let watch over you.  It’s a funny adventure with huge stakes and the cast giving it their all under a director they already love working with and the quality reflects what makes that work.  8/10.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock directed by: Leonard Nimoy

 

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock stars William Shatner, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, Merritt Butrick, and Christopher Lloyd.  It is directed by: Leonard Nimoy, written and produced by: Harve Bennett, and was released theatrically June 1, 1984.

 

It’s honestly weird that an actor like Leonard Nimoy would ever return to the role of Spock after his powerhouse performance in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, however, that film reignited his love of the character.  Add to this the fact that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was a success at the box office, a sequel would be greenlit and Paramount Pictures decided that Nimoy would direct the film after Nicholas Meyer refused to return for a sequel on grounds of not liking the idea of resurrecting Spock.  This is one of those stances that I have to at least agree with Meyer being at the very least wary of, when telling a story death being reversible can often lower the stakes and deflate the tension of a story.  Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is a film that wraps its entire narrative around the idea of Spock coming back, being lost and only reappearing in the final scene with writer Harve Bennett starting with what would essentially be the final line of the film and working backwards from there when writing the script.  Bennett’s script is largely contemplative, in its best moments focusing on what happens when the Enterprise crew has to deal with the hole left by the death of Spock.  Gone is the swashbuckling tone from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and in its place is a film that feels slower despite being eight minutes shorter.  Much of this is down to Leonard Nimoy’s style of direction, attempting to create this sense of mystery as to what is actually occurring in the plot while Meyer was more interested in bringing out the space adventure.  The back half of the film becomes essentially a quest narrative when discovering where Spock lies, the film to this point being split between an A, B, and C plot.

 

The A plot is following the rest of the Enterprise crew as they head home and discover along the way what has happened to Spock’s soul, the B plot and C plot both involve the Genesis planet.  The B plot involves Saavik (played here by Robin Curtis) and David Marcus cataloging the life on the Genesis planet discovering a rapidly aging young Spock, while the C plot is our villain’s wish to take control of the Genesis planet for the Klingon Empire.  The villain Kruge is played wonderfully by Christopher Lloyd under the intense but now recognizable Klingon makeup, largely dialing in a performance under what he would usually give.  Lloyd’s general history as an actor in comedy could have led to him going too over-the-top, but he has the range as an actor to pull off a villain.  He’s taking the material largely straight, especially when he has to deal with Klingon dialogue which as a conlang began to be properly constructed for this film, though it would be refined throughout the sequels.  Lloyd’s performance is largely overcoming one of the weaker aspects of the film and that is both plotlines involving the Genesis planet.  Kruge’s motivations are muddled and reduced poorly to wishing to expand the Klingon empire and start a war for glory, something that feels while not out of character for a Klingon but almost shallow and to be expected.  Star Trek III: The Search for Spock has a major issue of the B and C plots not integrating well enough in the main plot to the greatest effect.  While the effects work on the Genesis planet of the rapidly evolving life forms is quite nice, a lot of the revelations to Saavik and David don’t parallel nearly as nicely as with the main plot as Kirk and company discover that Spock’s soul, called a katra here, is inside Bones causing him to act increasingly erratically and eventually try to escape Earth to reunite with Spock’s body.  There is also the decision to have David killed in what should be a dramatic moment for Kirk and Saavik, and while Robin Curtis plays it well, Shatner despite his best efforts doesn’t feel nearly as connected to David as Kirk’s son.  There is also the issue of the film repeating itself on the events of Spock’s death, being replayed twice, once at the beginning and once in the film proper which would have been far more effective without the recap at the top.

 

When the film switches from a mystery to a quest narrative with Kirk and company stealing the Enterprise and breaking McCoy out of prison it comes at a surprise that the tonal shift doesn’t cause many problems.  It’s a sequence of the film where the rest of the supporting cast outside of Shatner and DeForest Kelley are able to shine, especially in actually pulling off the heist to take control of the Enterprise.  There’s also a gambit near the climax of the film to set the Enterprise to self destruct allowing James Doohan and Walter Koenig a chance to stretch their gravitas to a dire situation, great especially for Doohan whose wry comic relief adds fun to much of the rest of the film.  Nimoy not being in the film also means as a director he is able to get truly great performances out of Shatner and Kelley, though some of the minor characters don’t fair so well with the occasional line delivery that is particularly awkward.  Shatner throughout the film is largely in the mode he was at the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, incredibly serious and pushing himself through to fix his problem and saving his friend, the script paralleling Spock’s final words by turning them on their head so that the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many.  The scene he shares early on with Mark Lenard as Sarek is particularly interesting because it allows Kirk to reflect deeply on his friendship with Spock.  Kelley on the other hand gets to play McCoy as essentially deteriorating and disoriented through the film, a tricky needle to thread by allowing both characters shine through at moments without really changing too much in his vocal delivery.  Having it be McCoy in possession of the katra is also a brilliant reflection on the mirror between him and Spock as characters, and an expression of their deep friendship despite the outwards animosity in their relationship.

 

Overall, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is clearly not as good as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, but having to follow-up to that film was always going to be a difficult task.  The characters are excellent and the actual way Spock comes back is particularly excellent (with a small role from Judith Anderson).  Leonard Nimoy’s direction is slick and handles the different tones of the film quite well while he gets some of the best performances out of his main cast, even if some minor roles suffer underneath it.  It’s quite the good time, but is held back almost too much by the unevenness of the plotlines and not really having the strongest showing from an antagonist due to a lack of thematic linkage to the main thrust of the film.  6.5/10.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan directed by: Nicholas Meyer

 

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan stars William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Bibi Besch, Merritt Butrick, Paul Winfield, Kirstie Alley, and Ricardo Montalban.  It is directed by: Nicholas Meyer, written by: Jack B. Sowards, from a story by Harve Bennett and Jack B. Sowards, and produced by: Robert Sallin.  It was released theatrically June 4, 1982.

 

Looking at the original pitch of Star Trek the phrase ‘Wagon Train to the Stars’ is thrown around as to what the series would be.  A series about being on the outer frontiers of the galaxy, spreading humanity out to the vast reaches of space and the stars.  In adapting the series from television to film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is exclusively about that exploration and the discovery of the unknown.  It was also a film that was overbudget for Paramount Pictures and was released to mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike, though the box office returns did make up for this and led to the development of a sequel.  For the sequel, Gene Roddenberry was early on placed into the role of “executive consultant” despite writing his own potential script about time travel and ensuring the Kennedy assassination occurs.  Roddenberry’s influence on the films from this point would largely stay in the role of consultant, though he would have far more control and influence on the early seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation when that entered production in 1987.  Paramount was insisted that the second Star Trek film would be made on a tight budget of $12 million and producer Harve Bennett was brought on board to ensure this happened and suggested the use of Khan as the main villain of the film.  Several iterations of the script would occur before up-and-coming director Nicholas Meyer was brought on board.  Meyer and Bennett are the two men largely responsible for making Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan the film that it is.

 

While Roddenberry’s vision for Star Trek was largely a western, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan takes larger cues from adventure stories.  Herman Melville’s Moby Dick is alluded to throughout the film as this is Khan’s quest for revenge against Kirk and the Enterprise for leaving him on Ceti Alpha V which due to the random destruction of Ceti Alpha VI, leading to ecological destruction on Ceti Alpha V, six months after the events of “Space Seed”.  While this tone for the film may not be what Roddenberry envisioned for Star Trek, it is not something foreign to the franchise.  The episode “Balance of Terror” in particular is a precursor to the naval thriller tone that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan employs.  Nicholas Meyer in the director’s seat is given the genuinely difficult task to make an adventure film with a rather limited range of sets, mostly interior sets of the Enterprise and the Reliant, with long stretches of the film taking place on the bridges of these two ships (or a simulation of the bridge).  Meyer’s direction never makes these sets feel particularly stale, despite the similarities between them and their muted color palettes.  The score by a young James Horner adds to the swashbuckling adventure tone of the film by populating it with wholly unique themes that aid in telling the story.  There are other sets of course, Ceti Alpha V is the most impressive set of the film, at least for how it depicts the destruction and uses sand to great effect for the oppressive atmosphere.  It’s only used for an early sequence in the film, but using it and the lush forest for the final shots of the film creating the visual parallel for the film’s theme of death and rebirth.

 

Going into Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, I was already familiar with how the film ended, with Leonard Nimoy’s Spock sacrificing himself for the greater good.  Nimoy and William Shatner as Admiral Kirk give fantastic performances in the final twenty minutes of the film in a sequence that has entered the general pop culture consciousness for a good reason.  The subsequent funeral for Spock is discussed less, but it is just an emotional sequence as the death of Spock.  Shatner gets a small amount of dialogue, but outside of that the effectiveness comes from Meyer’s direction and the emotional pause to come to terms with the death of Spock.  The death itself is elevated by it being the second death of Spock in the film, in the opening sequence of the film Spock is killed by Klingon weapons attacking the Enterprise.  This is a simulation for the Kobayashi Maru test, a no-win scenario outlining the entirety of the film as a no win for Kirk and the Enterprise.  Kirk is a man who does not believe in the no-win scenario as a possibility and much of his arc in the film involves the no-win scenario of aging.  After the simulation there is a sequence involving Kirk’s birthday, Shatner playing the part as unsure of his place in Starfleet and uncomfortable with aging.  This is a film that puts Kirk with a younger generation in general: Kirstie Alley plays Saavik, a commander-in-training used to question Kirk’s methods and someone for Spock to be a mentor to and Merritt Butrick as David Marcus, Kirk’s son from a relationship with Bibi Besch’s Carol Marcus.

 

This makes the film in many ways one of letting go and having the younger generation willing to take over, allowing the change of the world to take place.  DeForest Kelley as McCoy, while not essential to the plot and largely filling his role in the main trio of characters as he would were this a televised episode of Star Trek, is the character who has changed and learned to go with the flow of the world, allowing himself amazement when being shown the results of the terraforming Genesis device.  Khan as a character is driven by his static villainy, he has not changed since the end of “Space Seed” and has really allowed himself to fester in his need for revenge.  Ricardo Montalban returns to the role and relishes every scene he gets to play.  Most of the discussion about Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is largely about the interplay between Khan and Kirk, something that yes is both important and the best aspect of the film, but in viewing it I noticed his early scenes to be more interesting.  His introduction is against Walter Koenig as Chekov and Paul Winfield as Clark Terrell.  While Koenig wasn’t in “Space Seed”, Chekov is used here as an introduction to Khan’s revenge and static nature, he is stuck in the past and is motivated by a clearly unjust revenge.  Koenig actually plays the scene equally well, despite being against such a strong personality of Montalban, and it is the strongest Chekov has ever been characterized.  Meyer also excels at the subtle body horror of the sequence as Chekov and Terrell are infected with eel larvae that allow Khan to control their actions.  Montalban is also an incredibly physical actor, despite not having much to do physically, the blocking of his scenes are always showing the viewer exactly where his mind is at and how many steps ahead he is.

 

Overall, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a film that unlike Star Trek: The Motion Picture goes against the vision of Gene Roddenberry in favor of taking the characters of the franchise and making them the focus from start to finish.  This wraps the film up in an adventure story about sacrifice and allowing oneself to age and evolve.  Thematically the film is as deep as the best episodes of Star Trek and it is just put into the packaging that would make it work best for the general audiences and for being a film as a whole.  It’s immediately a contender for one of the best adventure blockbusters ever made and one of the best Star Trek stories there are.  10/10.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture directed by: Robert Wise

 

Star Trek: The Motion Picture stars William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Majel Barrett, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, Persis Khambatta, and Stephen Collins.  It is directed by: Robert Wise, written by: Harold Livingston, from a story by: Alan Dean Foster, and produced by: Gene Roddenberry.  It was released theatrically on December 7, 1979.

 

The road to the production and release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture was a long one, proposed as early as 1968 as an origin story for the series.  Gene Roddenberry’s development on the script for a proposal began in 1975 and would go through several iterations before Roddenberry was approached to relaunch Star Trek on television with a pilot written by producer Harold Livingston from a story by Alan Dean Foster.  Contracts for the cast were written up, other episode scripts were prepared, and then in 1977 two films, Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind were released as cultural phenomena so Paramount cancelled the television series and asked to convert the pilot back to a two hour film.  Star Trek: The Motion Picture would adapt the script to include the entire original cast including Leonard Nimoy who had declined to appear in the rebooted series, but was fine taking on the role of Spock for a film.  In terms of talent behind the production, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is stacked, from two time Academy Award for Best Picture winner Robert Wise in the director’s chair, to Jerry Goldsmith composing the score, Ve Neill working as one of the makeup artists, and the special effects by Douglas Trumbull and up and comer John Dykstra, the production was clearly assembled with care to bring the franchise to the big screen.

 

The talent behind the camera means that the film is a visual feast for the eyes for its entire runtime.  Obviously the special effects team of Trumbull and Dykstra have a reputation, especially for Trumbull’s work on 2001: A Space Odyssey, work that is largely reflected here.  The special effects are largely framed to give the viewer a sense of the vastness of space and the eerie phenomena occurring in the film’s actual plot.  Look no further than the way that the film treats the reveal of the Enterprise to Kirk and Scotty in the film’s first act, it’s a nearly dialogue free sequence allowing Goldsmith’s score alone to enhance the panorama shots of the genuinely impressive model.  While I am not in Star Trek fan circles, a common criticism of the film is that it is too slow, but I would strike back at that notion.  When the film looks good, it is up there with some of the best visuals in terms of filmmaking, a lot of the actual plot being communicated on-screen visually without dialogue.  The aforementioned reveal of the Enterprise tells the story and uses the visuals with Goldsmith’s score is saying more than any of the dialogue could actually state.  There is however an issue with some of the visuals, while the models are incredibly impressive, the compositing has a tendency to be incredibly hit or miss, especially whenever there are spacesuits as the focal point of shots.  The third act of the film is where these issues become the most apparent, with Leonard Nimoy’s spacesuit being perhaps the worst offender though that may be because it’s the spacesuit that has the most screentime.

 

Robert Wise as a director is also incredibly good at getting some excellent performances from his cast.  Every returning character is given some extra element of depth beyond anything that was done on the original television series.  William Shatner as Kirk undergoes an incredible arc of learning to actually loosen his grip on the Enterprise and adapt to the time that has passed him by.  Much of the film he is foiled by Stephen Collins as Willard Decker, his replacement.  Shatner’s best moment is actually portraying Kirk’s big mistake in demoting Decker from his position as captain to take over.  It’s a pretty subtle performance from Shatner, and it elevates Stephen Collins’ performance.  Collins and Persis Khambatta as Ilia (and the probe of V’ger) are actually the weak links in the cast, stilted delivery even outside of where it would make sense in Khambatta’s case really brings down the film.  In fact, there are several issues with the script to Star Trek: The Motion Picture, mostly originating in the fact that this was a television pilot converted into a featured film.  Harold Livingston’s experience was as a television producer and writer, and has written a script from a story by Alan Dean Foster who worked primarily as a novelist.  There is also the general influence of Gene Roddenberry, the film itself is perhaps the purest distillation of Roddenberry’s vision of the future for better and for worse.  The dialogue throughout the film has a tendency to tell and not show, even when Wise is explicitly showing on screen what is being said.

 

This has a knock-on effect at key moments in the climax, a climax that is intentionally not action oriented, to undercut the emotional effect when the visual medium of a film should be able to rely on the visuals.  The first half of the film really does this incredibly well, but the second half of the film is where Star Trek: The Motion Picture really does begin to fall apart.  The central premise of a mysterious object heading towards Earth that the Enterprise needs to investigate, with the original crew coming out of retirement to do so, is honestly a perfectly good premise.  Each character introduction is also a great way to push the idea that this is pushing the crew into the future, from Nimoy as Spock being ready to give up his emotions, to James Doohan as Scotty giving the support to the engines, to Walter Koenig, George Takei, and Nichelle Nichols all getting more personality than the original series, to DeForest Kelley as McCoy being pressed back into surface (and sporting a great hippie dad look).  Once the film gets going and the Enterprise gets to the anomaly, V’ger, later revealed as Voyager VI, the pace of the film almost runs out of steam and doesn’t actually know where to go until we get to the reveal of what V’ger is.  Ilia becoming a probe could push the ideas forward, it does start to crystalize the theme of humanity’s progress and eventual ascension to a higher level of being, but the connecting tissue to get there and show the humanity still in Ilia doesn’t actually work.  The necessary beats aren’t hit to allow the ending of the film where both Ilia and Decker ascend to become higher life forms and the Enterprise is back, including the crew’s camaraderie being restored.

 

Overall, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a feast for the eyes and in terms of filmmaking it is a beautiful film.  The first half has some genuinely stunning visual storytelling courtesy of Robert Wise, and even the second half is beautiful if several sequences need to be shortened to really elevate what the film was doing.  The film works its best when the original cast are being brought back together and pushing together their relationships as a view of humanity and it doesn’t work when the sweeping romance between Decker and Ilia is used as an ascension of humanity theme.  Robert Wise is a director I have nothing but admiration for, Jerry Goldsmith a composer who elevates the entirety of the film with one of his best scores (good enough to have its main theme reused for Star Trek: The Next Generation).  There is a masterpiece buried in this film, but in terms of the theatrical cut doesn’t end properly for the film to work as the masterpiece it could have been.  Still, it’s a film I’m going to be revisiting.  6/10.

The Counter-Clock Incident by: John Culver and directed by: Bill Reed

 

“The Counter-Clock Incident” is written by: John Culver, a pseudonym for Fred Bronson, and is directed by: Bill Reed.  It was produced under production code 22023, was the 6^th episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series Season 2, was the 22^nd episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series, and was broadcast on October 12, 1974.

 

Like the original series before it, Star Trek: The Animated Series did not end on an intentional finale episode.  The series completed its commissioned episode count and then went off the air when it was not renewed, a common fate for animation at the time.  As such, “The Counter-Clock Incident” is an episode from a first time writer for Star Trek, though one who would work on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and in terms of its plot draws on ideas from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” with the Enterprise on collision course with a ship from another universe where people age backwards.  The Enterprise is also carrying its first captain, Commander Robert April and his wife Sarah, played by James Doohan and Nichelle Nichols respectively, as the commander is at the age Starfleet mandates retirement.  The conflict of the episode is two-fold: first the Enterprise avoiding the collision which resolves with the Enterprise slipping into the alternate universe which leads to the second conflict of the crew beginning to age backwards rapidly, enough that only the Aprils can pilot the Enterprise.  This second idea of conflict is utterly ridiculous, writer Fred Bronson was actually the NBC publicist and it’s clear he has not thought through the science fiction implications of his premise.  This does mean we get to see the crew as teenagers and then children which is an equally ridiculous image, but still an incredibly fun image to ponder over.

 

Where “The Counter-Clock Incident” actually succeeds, outside of the few scenes of worldbuilding on Arret, that is the Earth as Terra spelled backwards, is the way Bronson treats Robert and Sarah April.  Star Trek before this point had a tendency to use advanced age as a source of terror, the episode “The Deadly Years” from the original series is perhaps the most explicit example of that.  It comes as a relief that Bronson actually treats the advanced age of the April’s as not a hinderance to their character: Robert is only retiring because it is mandated and the episode actually ends with Starfleet informing him his retirement will be reversed so he can keep serving as an ambassador.  It’s a nice reward after Robert resisted the temptation to leave the Enterprise crew as children (or not fully reversing the effects so he and Sarah can stay young and keep doing their work).  This dilemma is fairly brief because the deaging is only a plot point beginning after the halfway point of the episode so there isn’t much time to actually grapple with the question being posed, but it does show maturity and a progressive mindset to actually examine how the elderly are treated.

 

Overall, “The Counter-Clock Incident” may be ridiculous in terms of the science fiction ideas on display, but it’s actually a very solid ending for Star Trek: The Animated Series.  It’s got some very interesting things to say about aging and is actually one of the more progressive entries for the series.  It’s a nice way to say goodbye to the original series’ cast on television before transitioning to the films.  It’s also a nice little look at the history of the Enterprise and feels in a way like the groundwork is being laid for the major cast changes coming in the next series.  7/10.

 

Bottom 5 Worst Episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series:

5. The Eye of the Beholder

4. The Time Trap

3. The Survivor

2. Bem

1. The Ambergris Element

 

Top 5 Best Episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series:

5. The Terratin Incident

4. How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth

3. More Tribbles, More Trouble

2. The Slaver Weapon

1. Yesteryear