"Second star to the right, ...and straight on 'til morning."

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

So was the intention that the audience believe the crew was mass mutinying once again and would just fly around space like roving adventurers/vigilantes with a stolen ship, trying to recapture their youth and keep the Enterprise until they all die?

Or that they'd ultimately follow orders, but in their own time, taking the scenic route home - once more around the track, so to speak, and if they didn't make it back, that would be more due to circumstances than their choice?

 

[FredH]

So was the intention that the audience believe the crew was mass mutinying once again and would just fly around space like roving adventurers/vigilantes with a stolen ship, trying to recapture their youth and keep the Enterprise until they all die?

Or that they'd ultimately follow orders, but in their own time, taking the scenic route home - once more around the track, so to speak, and if they didn't make it back, that would be more due to circumstances than their choice?

The latter. Kirk wouldn’t be talking about turning the ship over to a new generation, otherwise. Also, I doubt most of the crew would be pleased to know that they’d suddenly been shanghaied.

 

[XCV330]

It was a meaningless instruction anyway. Second star to the right of what? They were probably just cruising a bit longer till underway.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Of course, Kirk can always redefine the word "shortly" however he chooses.

 

[Nerys Myk]

So was the intention that the audience believe the crew was mass mutinying once again and would just fly around space like roving adventurers/vigilantes with a stolen ship, trying to recapture their youth and keep the Enterprise until they all die?

Or that they'd ultimately follow orders, but in their own time, taking the scenic route home - once more around the track, so to speak, and if they didn't make it back, that would be more due to circumstances than their choice?

None of the above

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Oh, so is it the decommissioning they disagree with? Not "we're not coming back and you can't make us", but, "yes, we're bringing the ship back, but we're going to make sure somebody else gets to have this ship, even if we can't anymore, rather than taking it out of service, because that would be a shame".

(BTW, in the ending to "Colorblind", Spock's about to object literally when Kirk means something figuratively)

 

[Nerys Myk]

It's just a quote from Peter Pan that that doesn't quite fit the scene,

 

[CoveTom]

It's just a quote from Peter Pan that that doesn't quite fit the scene,

Much like the title "The Undiscovered Country," it was something Nick Meyer had wanted to put into TWOK but didn't get to, so he shoehorned it in to TUC. Where it doesn't fit.

In TWOK, the quote would have made sense because it's from Peter Pan and Kirk is talking at the end of the film about how he has been rejuvenated ("I feel young.") Similarly, "The Undiscovered Country" is a Shakesperean reference to death, which ties into Spock's death. Both made sense there. They don't work nearly as well for TUC.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Or that they'd ultimately follow orders, but in their own time, taking the scenic route home - once more around the track, so to speak, and if they didn't make it back, that would be more due to circumstances than their choice?

That's essentially what happens in Diane Carey's Best Destiny. Kirk tells Starfleet Command they're not going into retirement right away.

Kirk tells Spock at the beginning of the film that the crew has three months until retirement. So, I figure they have about 10 weeks until they have to return to Earth, which happens in Michael Jan Friedman's Shadows on the Sun.