Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Dir. Nicholas Meyer
While TNG was kicking ass on TV, TOS returned to the big screen for one last old-crew hurrah.
And it went out in style. From the dramatic opening to the bitter-sweet ending it rarely puts a booted-foot wrong. I don't understand why it so often gets overlooked by many people.
Writer/Director Nicholas Meyer, having co-worked on the screenplays of II and IV, did the same for VI but took the helm as director, too.
Thematically, the end product is darker than Star Trek often dared to go. The optimism is still evident but it's bullied by heavy political issues, prejudices and ingrained racism, all of which are dissected and put under a microscope.
And it went out in style. From the dramatic opening to the bitter-sweet ending it rarely puts a booted-foot wrong. I don't understand why it so often gets overlooked by many people.
Writer/Director Nicholas Meyer, having co-worked on the screenplays of II and IV, did the same for VI but took the helm as director, too.
Thematically, the end product is darker than Star Trek often dared to go. The optimism is still evident but it's bullied by heavy political issues, prejudices and ingrained racism, all of which are dissected and put under a microscope.
On the political side of things, peace talks with the Klingons, longstanding enemies of the Federation, are beginning to take shape. It's largely due to the Klingon Empire having suffered a catastrophic celestial event, not the result of any large scale societal change of heart - they're a 'warrior race', after all. Even so, there are some who want, and even publicly push for, the treaty to be made.
Unsurprisingly, on the flip side, less publicly, are a collective of conspirators who attempt to sabotage the proposed union, and are willing to stop at nothing to achieve that goal.
- A gavel fashioned with a claw? The Klingons mean business! -
It's not just shadowy figures in the background that have issues with the proposals - Captain Kirk (William Shatner), too, is ill at ease. His past troubles with individual Klingons manifests as a hatred of all Klingons. The starship captain has been characterised by his emotions many times in the past, but in some parts of ST VI he's written as being almost completely ruled by them.
Among the actors under the ridged brow make-up are Christopher Plummer as General Chang, and David Warner as Chancellor Gorkon, a senior member of the High Council. Both men feature in a scene around a dinner table that effectively explores the differing levels of prejudice felt on both sides, from latent mistrust to an actual paraphrasing of one of history's most vile tyrants.
Happily, it’s not all cold war parallels and gloom. Amid the many tensions are some light-hearted moments to remind us that the light of life needs all colours of the spectrum if it's to be enjoyed.
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