The book scene was pretty dang funny, but I have to admit, I see Nichols' side of it, the Macintosh scene doesn't by default make Scotty look like an idiot. The translation scene in VI does makes everyone involved look rather foolish at best.
Yes, but that's not the distinction I was trying to make. Both the Scotty scene in TVH and the Uhura scene in TUC make us wonder what the character is supposed to already know (or not know) when confronted with a novel situation, such as working a first-generation Macintosh or conversing in Klingon. But the risk of taking the audience out of the story to wonder about this is balanced by the humor of the situation, so it's worth it. (Also, the crew in the TUC scene didn't look that foolish by comparison to Scotty walking into a bulkhead in the previous movie, and the TUC scene was a lot funnier to boot.)
I agree with most TUC is second ONLY to TWOK to me. The most successful........TVH has always been my least favorite. Too much camp for me in that one.
About the only thing that I didn't like about TUC was the scene where everybody ends up in the kitchen.
I enjoyed TUC, however it is far from my favorite. A lot of the time, the movie felt forced...with too many scenes that were 'cute' and contrived to give the characters something to do. Trek 6 never fully recovered from the mis-step of Trek 5. The characters somehow felt less real. It felt like, ok...this is a Trek movie so we have to hit this point, this point and this point. Fan service. I'm just not into that.
I see your point but in a way there was a turning point in the story of the TOS characters in the movies but it was not in STVI it was much earlier and I hate to say it but in some ways this is Nimoy's fault. Hear me out, I love the guy and I am glad they brought him back in STIII. But I get the impression that STII was introducing the idea that the old crew was making way for a younger crew or as Kirk put it "galavanting about the galaxy is a game for the young." Now the movie proved that he was not that old, but in later movies they might have passed the torch slowly. Spock had already did that with Saavik essentially. We would have likely seen that with other characters in future movies. NOW Spock came back and in the process the Enterprise is destroyed and in a way the movies just seem to try to give the crew the proper send off. STIV was a possible ending but the pushed their luck with STV and failed so they tried for one big send off with STVI. It does a great job But as mentioned before there about ending the story not really about growing the characters. There is a strong need to put a bow on the saga. It works in the immediate but as one reflects on it the sadness of what might have been sets in.
As it's my favorite Trek film, and as not everyone seems to share that opinion, I'd say it's extremely underrated.
It sort of came to my attention more recently, I guess. I'm in a sci-fi club here in town, but we mostly talk about Trek. In our discussions of the films, it seems that while everyone agrees the stronger of the films are the even-numbered ones, VI always seems to rank on the lower end. A lot of my friends there feel it's a weaker film when compared to the rest. And even when I discuss Trek films with other people, VI NEVER seems to come up as a favorite of anyone's or is ever really highly-regarded. Maybe it's just me. I like the film just fine.
Albeit it was interesting to see that the 1701-A galley had a weapons locker filled with type-2 assault phasers.
Quark: I'm not going to any emergency shelter! This is my bar and I'm going to defend it. Odo: Really? And how do you plan to do that? Quark: With this. (holds up a closed box) Odo: You're going to hit them with a box? Quark: No, this is my disruptor pistol, the one I used to carry back in the old days when I was serving on that Ferengi freighter. Odo: I thought you were the ship's cook. Quark: That's right, and every member of that crew thought he was a food critic.
That would have been a stupid idea to not use TOS characters for the TOS films. Instead they decided to do a sequel on television with TNG, which ended up being the right call.
Those issues always irk me too, but it is still one of my favorites. Sometimes your opinions about a particular work of medium are less about the piece itself than where your head was when you came to it. Which to my mind explains things like N'Sync and anything with Adam Sandler.
If anything, I'd say it's overrated. Don't get me wrong, I love it! IMO, it just missed on a couple of things: It was done on the cheap, and it shows in spots. (sme of the FX shots over Khitemer, the prison planet set) Some of the acting was poor. (not Nichelle, Walter or Jimmy's best performances) They missed a great story opportunity with the Saavik character, but went with new character Valeris instead. And the ending on Khitemer was just CHEESY.