Phenomenal Films to Leave You Flabbergasted #3

I had to go back to my nerdy roots sooner or later. I love a lot of drama films, I love a lot of action films, I love animated, comedies, etc. Most importantly however, I love sci-fi films. Specifically, the two most epic sci-fi sagas known to hit the big screen. Star Wars and Star Trek. I could tell you to watch Star Wars but if you haven’t already… well, something is wrong with you. No, I’m rooting for the other side for this review. I consider this the second best of the original series films, and a great movie all on its own. Behold the badassery of:

# 3 Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

As a Star Trek film with a number in the title, it belonged to the mostly continuing plot of II, III, and VI (The Final Frontier didn’t happen), but it managed to stand alone fairly well. The only background info that you really need is explained through dialogue ,even a bit of background reasoning for the main characters’ feeling the way that they do about the situation.

The film is a lot easier to appreciate if you know a bit about the cold war and the fall of the iron curtain. The political issues between the Klingons and the Federation purposely parallel the circumstances that the Soviet Union and United States were experiencing at the time. Beginning with the destruction of the mines on Praxis (a key energy production facility for the Empire, meant to represent the Chernobyl disaster) and ending the same way that the citizens of the U.S. wanted to see the endless cold war with the Soviets to end – however it misses some of the parallel due to the fact that by the time that the script was completed the Union hadn’t officially fallen yet (nor by the premier of the film)

The Undiscovered Country starts off showing fans of the series that one of the crew members of the Enterprise has achieved his own command. Sulu, now in command of the Excelsior, opens off the film with a familiar face and a strong presence. We get a solid intro to story, we get a line or two that makes us chuckle as George Takei shows us his rather corny sense of humor, we’re good. Fast forward into the future and we get something that hadn’t really been seen in Star Trek before – an introduction into some of the inner workings of Starfleet. As well for the first time, we get to see Starfleet treating things as a military, which makes the story a bit easier for non-Trek fans to swallow. This is a crisis facing the greatest enemy of Earth because they’ve overworked their empire to keep up with the Federation (and like the Soviets, the Klingons generally considered a bigger weapon more important than a new ally). What else can they do but throw down their guns and say “help us”?

Now I have to be clear on a few technical aspects of this movie first. Anything in the Star Trek that Nicholas Meyer has worked on has been good. He’s credited with beginning the “odd & even” theory of Trek movies, that only movies with an even number are good. Meyer was brought in after the abysmal failure that was Star Trek V, written and directed by William Shatner. It was one bad idea after another, and while there was potential for it to be good – Shatner had no idea how to explore the themes he had introduced, or even work with the characters that he had. That movie is the definition of Shatner’s ego. The Final Frontier was intended to be the end of the original series cast career, but it was clear that they couldn’t go off on such a terrible note. Even Gene Roddenberry disliked it, and he was pretty out there…

One thing that Meyer has a flair for is the roots of a good story. Wrath of Khan borrows so much from great literary classics, and made excellent use of them within the story. The Undiscovered Country is no exception to this, and while it’s a bit more obvious, it’s just as effective. Shakespeare is the predominant literary figure this time, and an interest with him is put to good use with not one, but two characters who both manage to provide a strong on-screen presence (along with the line, “you can’t truly appreciate Shakespeare until you’ve heard him in the original Klingon”.)

Amazingly, I’ve gone this far without even mentioning the main storyline. Obviously, Kirk, Spock and McCoy are the main characters and while the rest of the crew is there, aside from conversations with these three, they’re around for little more than presence and plot devices (as they should be, a film can only have so many main characters). Kim Cattrall, cast alongside as a new crew member, a Vulcan whom Spock watches with in admiration as a potential successor. For someone who went on to do Sex & the City, she plays a good Star Trek role, and her conversations with Spock offer us a look into just how much his character has developed over the years. Also… before she started playing a perpetually single career woman, she looked pretty good, too. Allegedly, she did a nude photoshoot on the bridge set, which nobody seems to ever have seen. Nuts.

Spock opens negotiations with the Klingons after the disaster, and as the Enterprise gets ready to stand down, the crew to retire and the ship to be decommissioned, he decides to give it one last send off, by personally selecting Kirk to escort the Klingon Chancellor (played by the remarkable David Warner) to the peace negotiations. After an unofficial diplomatic dinner with the Klingons, in which we’re introduced to General Chang (masterfully and chillingly played by Christopher Plummer), hosted on the Enterprise, the two crews retire to their respective ships – and on screen, two torpedoes are seen being fired from the Enterprise to their Chancellor’s ship. In the rush to figure out what’s going on and who ordered or initiated the attack, two unidentifiable people transport to the Klingon ship, shooting everyone in sight before murdering the Chancellor in cold blood.

The fact that they’re being set-up is obvious on the Enterprise, but as Chang hails them, confused and very angry over the sudden attack, the effects of the framing become clear. Kirk surrenders himself to the Klingons and, with McCoy, transports to the Klingon ship to try to offer some sort of mercy effort. The rest of the movie plays out as a very deep whodunnit, as the lies and deceit of the plot to destroy the peace slowly unravel (not revealing themselves in the open until the very end), and indeed, I shan’t ruin it for you.

On its own, the movie plays out as a marvelous whodunit, perhaps the outcome being even more of a mystery for the non-trekkies. However the fact that The Next Generation had been going strong for a number of years prior to this film, it was largely ignored. The reviews were good, the opinions were strong, but everyone wanted to see a bald English actor pretend to be a Frenchman, instead. After near 25 years, the original cast could finally stop being the original cast, move on to bigger and better things, like a roast of Shatner, and doing interviews about their work on Trek, and coming out of the closet. A send-off deserving of praise… at least until Star Trek Generations came out, and ruined EVERYTHING.

–Jeff “DanyLektro”

P.S. Behold the badassery of my new title card, too.