Movie Club: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

WELCOME EVERYBODY TO THE LATEST DISCUSSION THREAD OF THE NEW MOVIE CLUB, DESIGNED TO RUN PARALLEL WITH R.O.C.K.S.
A big thanks to everyone that are joining us through all of this.

After we did the original Star Wars trilogy in the summer, it's now the turn of Star Trek to get some Movie Club focus, and after the trilogy of 2-3-4 the last few weeks, we're rounding off the Trek saga with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Remember any ideas for films to discuss are most welcome, and should be made on the Movie Club Introduction thread (the sticky one), and anyone is welcome to add their thoughts about movies already discussed on their respective threads.

Just a friendly reminder to everyone that, whilst fans are obviously welcome to passionately discuss and give their views on these movies, please remember to keep things on a friendly footing and respect your fellow posters.
Also, please do not post where or how to find the full movie online. And do not post asking others to PM it to you. You are however allowed to watch the movie in whatever manner you want.

Wow. I really enjoyed this Star Trek movie.
I loved the assassination and prison escape plot.
Aside from the plot being really interesting this also had plenty of scenes. That is a major improvement over the previous films in the series.
I recall seeing bits of this film when I was quite young.
The ending was great.
Some great casting choices for this movie.
I liked The Wrath of Khan and The Search For Spock. The Voyage Home was okay.
The Undiscovered Country is now definitely my favourite Star Trek movie.

Admittedly, I am not a walking encyclopedia of everything that is Star Trek. I've seen all the movies, and some episodes of the original series and Next Gen. Other than that, I can't claim to be an expert.

From that more novice perspective, I can say that the odds and evens rule held up very well with the classic era Trek films. And Part VI is very very good. True, the Cold War analogy is a bit on the nose, but the drama is high and it was great to see certain things get referenced and brought back up to add to the story (like Kirk's son being killed off in Part III).

Everybody talks about Wrath of Khan as the best Trek film, and I agree, but I also feel this one gets unfairly overlooked sometimes and is definitely worth checking out for Trekkies and non-experts alike.

I've just watched this one again for the first time in waaaay too long.

This final outing for the original crew was James Doohan's favourite of the bunch, as he said in his autobiography "Beam Me Up Scotty". And while I have difficulty in picking a favourite, I can certainly see why this one has a strong case. It has the suspense and intrigue of II & III, coupled with the pace and action of IV & V. It's a worthy sendoff for the original cast.

Everyone again has their moment. Kirk and McCoy get plenty of spotlight time as they leave the ship and have their own escapades. Meanwhile on the Enterprise, Spock, Scotty, Chekov and Uhura all have plenty of things to do, and nobody is sidelined. Except perhaps Sulu, but that's because he's now a captain of a ship of his own, the Exclesior! Making a total of four of the regulars to have reached that rank. Kirk of course, Spock has been a captain since Wrath Of Khan, and Scotty was made captain of engineering in Search For Spock.

Ironically, Gene Roddenberry himself hated it because he felt it portrayed his characters as bigoted. In reality, it simply showed a natural wariness on both sides, the Federation and the Klingons have been at war for decades, nobody who's fought them for that long is going to just automatically accept that this old enemy is now a friend, of course they need a bit of convincing.

The angle was of course based on the Cold War, and Gorkon was representative of Gorbachev.

Kim Catrall's character Valeris was originally written to be Saavik. Ironically, she had auditioned for that part in Wrath Of Khan almost a decade earlier! It was eventually decided to change the character, apparently there was dissent from all sides at Saavik coming back as a traitor.

Christopher Plummer is excellent as General Chang, and David Warner gets to play a character with a bit more substance than he did in the previous movie. If there's one complaint I had about V, it's the lack of backstory given to the three ambassadors. Actually there's a few complaints that I have with it, but this is probably the main one from a character perspective!

Also there's a couple of nice cameos by other Star Trek actors, although one was technically making his first appearance. First off, Michael Dorn - Worf in the already-established and highly popular TNG - as his character's own ancestor, addressed as "Colonel Worf", he defends Kirk and McCoy at their trial (and is present again at the Khitomer conference, he is the one who notices that the dead assassin is not as Klingon as he first appears). Speaking of that assassin, Rene Auberjonois appears here as Colonel West, and a couple of years later would star in DS9 as the shapeshifter Odo. Actually there's a third, sort of. Leon Russom, who played the Commander in Chief in this movie, would play an admiral in an episode of DS9.

And then right at the end, the Enterprise does the outer space version of sailing off into the sunset . . . and Kirk even updates "where no man has gone before" to "where no one has gone before", in line with Patrick Stewart's version on the TNG credits. And then . . . those autographs really do set the seal on it. That's it, this is the end, we're not doing anymore.

And they were right to stop it there. It would have been difficult to top, and Gene Roddenberry's death also made it apt that it should stop. Rather like Only Fools & Horses, which ended in 1996, and then not long after, Buster Merryfield (Uncle Albert) died. That should have been it. They should never have brought it back for those three additional specials! Actually, by a strange coincidence, Only Fools & Horses and Star Trek both premiered on the same date, September 8th, albeit 15 years apart (Only Fools & Horses began in 1981, Star Trek in 1966).

In any events, great movie!