I'll always prefer VI to TWOK. I love it for many reasons, the cinematography, the last hurrah of the original cast and for its cleverness. We were still in an age where films had 1 or 2 stand-out VFX sequences - rather than modern movies where incredible special effects are a given. We got the morph, we got that explosion effect that was copied by Star Wars and the cool assassination scene.
Revisionist Trek historians will tell you that the TOS movies were not that popular BUT Star Trek VI would be the 15th highest grossing film of 1991 and have the best opening weekend of any movie up to that date. Star Trek VI had a worldwide take of around a hundred million dollars from a twenty five million dollar budget. This profit excludes VHS, DVD and now Blu-Ray sales and UHD and streaming come to think of it.
And now, if anyone is interested - I shall go on a rant about why I love the movie so very much.....
Star Trek VI is notable as one of the first movies to deal (allegorically at least) with the collapse of the Soviet Union. As such, the movie is important, for it deals not only with the ending of an important peice of popular culture, but aims for historical significance as well. In one early exchange, Kirk is upset that he is to be the first olive-branch to peace as he is so close to retirement. Spock retorts with the line “Only Nixon could go to china…” meaning that as Kirk is infamous in the Klingon Empire, no-one could accuse him of being sympathetic to the Klingon cause or doubt the sincerity of the Federation towards peace.
Furthermore, General Chang’s line, “Don’t wait for the translation! Answer me now!” is a reference to Adlai Stevenson’s similar demand of Soviet Union representative Valerian Zorin at the United Nations in 1962 whilst debating over the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Further depth is added to the film by having the Klingon General Chang declaring that ‘You have not read Shakespeare unitl you have read it in the original Klingon’. According to director Nicolas Meyer, this was a reference to Nazi Germany’s attempts to claim the bard as their own. The use of Shakespeare underscores the political nature of the plot.
When General Chang states that ‘no peace in our time…once more unto the breach, dear friends’, the character is mocking British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who in a speech regarding the Munich Agreement said that “I have returned from Germany with peace in our time.” Ironically of course, less than a year later, Germany declared War on the Allies.
One of the major themes of the film is change, and how people react to it. By the end of the film Kirk has realised how predjudiced he was against the Klingons and was initially reluctant to attend the peace talks. Even Spock, who saw the logic in peace asks of Kirk “is it possible that we two, you and I, have grown so old and so inflexible that we have out-lived our usefulness. Would that constitute….a joke?”. An especially nice line of dialog as it could equally well refer to the ending of the original Star Trek movies and be construed as Nimoy asking the question of Shatner.
The actors who began playing their roles in the Kennedy/Vietnam years went out holding a mirror up to the then new era of Gorbachev, Glasnost and Clinton. Speaking of the actors, the original cast members all get a chance to shine and put in great performances. The supporting cast of David Warner, Christopher Plummer and Kim Cattrall also make their mark.
I love how well this movie ties into multiple plot strands on The Next Generation, from Unification Part 1 and 2 to Yesterdays Enterprise and more episodes besides. Star Trek had developed into a modern myth that was neatly bound together in Homeric fashion. How much of this was by accident or by design I am not sure.
The film is replete with allusions to death, endings, and time’s passage. For instance, Chang quotes from Henry IV when he leaves the Enterprise: “Have we not heard the chimes at midnight?” This lends a melancholic feel to the denonument of the movie and a sense of regret that we won’t see the original cast together again. The stirring music accompanied by the cast literally signing off is quite emotional.
For me, Star Trek VI is the best of the Original Series movies, a culmination of all the movies that came before it. It combines the epic scale and ideas driven plot of The Motion Picture with the action and excitement of The Wrath of Khan, the emotional heart of The Search For Spock, the humour of The Voyage Home and the sense of family that was explored in The Final Frontier. Its the perfect swansong for the Original Series and elegantly passes the baton on to The Next Generation.
Ugh. And Hicks too.
