| Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) | |
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Rating: 7.2/10 (80,707 votes) Director: Nicholas Meyer Writer: Gene Roddenberry, Leonard Nimoy, Lawrence Konner Stars: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley Runtime: 110 min Rated: PG Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi Released: 06 Dec 1991 |
| Plot: On the eve of retirement, Kirk and McCoy are charged with assassinating the Klingon High Chancellor and imprisoned. The Enterprise crew must help them escape to thwart a conspiracy aimed at sabotaging the last best hope for peace. | |
The sixth film, and the last to contain a numbering in the titles, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country stands as a perfect closure to the original crew’s adventures, and was ably directed by Nicolas Meyer, who helmed Wrath of Khan also. Beginning with an explosion of a Klingon energy production moon, Praxis, the story is an analogy of the collapse of the iron curtain, and a conspiracy tale about those opposed to peace. With their primary refinery destroyed, the Klingon Empire is forced to look to end the hostilities against the Federation, and broker peace if they hope to survive.
Enterprise is sent to escort the Klingon Chancellor’s ship to Earth for negotiations, which Kirk’s own feelings towards Klingons (who murdered his son in Search for Spock) may get in the way of. However, after a tense meal between the crews, Enterprise appears to fire upon the Klingon vessel, and two assassins beam aboard and fatally wound Chancellor Gorkon. Kirk and McCoy are taken and put on trial by the Klingons, whilst Spock and the rest of the crew try to get to the bottom of the mystery as to what really occurred – a mystery that will uncover a huge conspiracy.
From the offset this film feels like the epic finale to the franchise that the last film failed to be. Drawing upon threads from previous films, with references to Spock’s death, Kirk’s son being killed, and the crew’s actions in betraying their orders to return to Genesis, it takes care to ensure any loose threads left over and covered, and by the end of the film, as the ship flies off into the sunset, you feel that this was a great closure to the series. Sulu is now in charge of his own ship, Excelsior, and there are hints that the intention was for this to be a film to hand the franchise over to that crew (which would not come to fruition as the decision was instead taken to bring the Next Generation to the big screen instead), which results in the only moment of the film that feels out of place (the bridge crew of Excelsior lined up on a view-screen image in a rather poorly forced ‘new crew’ pose). The rest of the film is packed with intrigue, mystery, action, humour drama, and Shakespeare. Christopher Plummer gives Kirk and adversary to rank alongside Khan, and Kim Cattrall plays Valeris, a protege of Spock who is serving on the bridge of Enterprise, in among a plethora of other support cast who all sell the tale well.
The Undiscovered Country closes with Enterprise being recalled to be decommissioned, Kirk ordering to set a course “Second star to the right and straight on ’til morning,” and a voice-over saying that a new crew would take over the legacy of Enterprise. A more perfect closure to a series has never been crafted, and in a way, it is a shame that on the next film it was felt that they had to do a handover between the crews as this ending said all that needed to be said.
