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.