• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

The Undiscovered Country...

2 of 10

2 of 10

Captain
Captain
Just finished watching The Undiscovered Country it's been a while since I saw this movie, and was surprised to see
several Trek regulars in the cast. Admiral Cartwright was played by Brock Peters, who plays Benjamin Siskos father,
Rene Auberjonois, who we all know as Odo plays Col. West and they are both traitors to the Federation. Other actors
of note are Kurtwood Smith, who plays the Federation President had a part on Voyager in the 2 part ep "Year Of Hell"
he was Annorax in that show. Christian Slater plays the Excelsior Communications Officer, and finally Christopher Plummer
plays General Chang. This is probably my third favorite Trek movie, what a great closing line, Kirk tells Chekhov
"Second star to the left, run till Morning" then as the film ends several of the starts sign on the screen and the signature
fades into space. For a bit of trivia Kit Cattrell who plays Valeris, was scheduled to be on Pan Am flight 103, the one that
went down over Lockerbie Scotland however, she was busy shopping in London and missed her flight.
 
Oso Blanco said:
And there is Michael Dorn as Colonel Worf!
Click to expand...
I was aware that Worf was the defense attorney, however since he always in Trek, and it would have been impossible to miss him,
I decided not to include him in my list of Characters who had parts in TUC, looking back I should have included him in the people who had parts, other then the roles in the series they appeared in. You are right and I should have included him in my list of characters, out of Character...
 
Yep Star Trek VI was a good one! I like the pipes that the door does thru, and the Next genration sets. I was sad that I didnt get to see that pirate ship weel room again. I would have loved seeing that thing get blown up and flying out a window into outer space.

No seriously, this film was good because non trek fans could understand it. And the huge clock radio on the bridge TV rocked too.
 
I liked TUC a lot, too. Generally, I feel it was a much better way for the TOS cast to go out than Nemesis was for the TNG cast. Also, there were a lot of nice genuine "Trek" moments in it. One of my faves is the serious convo between Kirk and Spock in Spock's cabin. Those are always good (See: Wrath of Khan and Amok Time).
 
I've wondered how it would have played as a straight Cold War movie rather than ST allegory.
I mean, substitute actual real world Commies for Klingons, and so on. It'd end up being a US Navy captain on trial for the murder of a Soviet premier, while at sea en route to the US. Then the US captain is tried and convicted and imprisoned. You can take it from there.

How would TUC stand up as a real world movie?
 
SchwEnt said:
I've wondered how it would have played as a straight Cold War movie rather than ST allegory.
I mean, substitute actual real world Commies for Klingons, and so on. It'd end up being a US Navy captain on trial for the murder of a Soviet premier, while at sea en route to the US. Then the US captain is tried and convicted and imprisoned. You can take it from there.

How would TUC stand up as a real world movie?
Click to expand...

Dang, somebody make that!
 
I could see some problems with the idea that an epic naval battle stands between Kirk and his attempt to rescue the US President from assassination...

In the scifi context, it's quite okay that the only way to deliver a response is to fly a starship from A to B. But in the real world, Bell invented the telephone and Marconi the wireless (okay, perhaps others did, too, but that's the first approximation). There's no way the Russian-Chinese villain skipper Chang could stop Kirk from phoning the Secret Service and protecting the President that way. Hell, if the ship couldn't get through and cybercomms were out, Kirk could always send a helicopter or a boat!

With a bit of fine-tuning, the setting could be moved to WWI or the sailing ship era easily enough. But WWII would already be stretching things on the message-delivery issue...

Timo Saloniemi
 
Star Trek VI leaves me cold. It's far too pretentious for it's own good. IMO the much-underrated Star Trek V was far superior. It was fun - just like the original series.
 
FormerLurker said:
It's "Second star to the right, and straight on 'til morning," a quote from J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan.
Click to expand...

True, but my copy of Peter Pan doesn't have the word "star" in the sentence. It really through me off when I was reading it for the first time last year. It just says "Second to the right...."
 
I liked TUC myself. My only real beef with the movie is the scene where they're trying to convince the Klingon that they're a Klingon ship and they had all kinds of books littering the bridge.

I don't mind Uhura not knowing Klingon, but the books simply were not necessary. The computer screen could've put the translation they need on screen then they could've spoken it properly.

Still, with all her years as a communications officer I think she should've known Klingon. It's kind of silly to think that after twenty years she wouldn't know any Klingon at all.
 
Last edited:
SchwEnt said:
...all for the sake of a gag. Just not worth the laugh.
Click to expand...

Sure it was worth it - given that the film was trying to appeal to the general audience who wouldn't necessarily have had any preconceptions one way or the other about (for example) Uhura's knowledge of klingoni*; that is to say, much of the audience I saw it with 20 years ago next month. Also: Books, especially massive ones, have more theatrical utility than getting the info from a computer terminal would have offered. How many movies (set in the present day) have unsuccessfully tried to develop a moment of tension from someone typing at a keyboard and looking at a monitor? Finally: Do you really think such a fateful and serious story would have been better unleavened by even one moment of levity?

*I always presumed this was the correct name (in English) of the language, as mentioned by Michael Pataki in the bar scene in "The Trouble with Tribbles."
 
Eh, for me... still not worth it.

I can appreciate a good gag, a break in the dramatic tension, a good laugh. And if it costs a little believability, if it's a bit of a stretch, I can go with that.

But in this particular case, the cost was too high for a laugh that delivered too little.
 
The most cringeworthy scene in any trek, in my opinion. Even though I loved the rest of the film, that scene alone keeps it from being my favorite. I hate that they were willing to throw away the veracity of a character with Uhura's history and following for a cheap laugh.
 
gottacook said:
More cringeworthy than Scotty konking his head just after his "...like the back of my hand" line in TFF?
Click to expand...

Glad someone else said it.

The bottom line is that a lot of the Trek flicks have some silly attempts at humor that are obviously aimed at viewers who are not hardcore Trekkers. IMHO, it only gets cringeworthy when they dominate a film rather than just rearing their ugly heads once in a while.
 
Timo said:
In the scifi context, it's quite okay that the only way to deliver a response is to fly a starship from A to B. But in the real world, Bell invented the telephone and Marconi the wireless (okay, perhaps others did, too, but that's the first approximation). There's no way the Russian-Chinese villain skipper Chang could stop Kirk from phoning the Secret Service and protecting the President that way. Hell, if the ship couldn't get through and cybercomms were out, Kirk could always send a helicopter or a boat!
Click to expand...
I see it still being able to work. Kirk's boat/sub/cruiser/whatever has had its antenna's knocked out by enemy fire, preventing communications (Crimson Tide, for example, is a movie entirely about comms being down). They can't send a boat or a helicopter, because their ship is under siege by an enemy supership with superior firepower. However the enemy supership is vulnerable to heat seeking torpedoes at the prop, which would sink the ship or something.

You're also ignoring that in the film, Kirk didn't know where the conference was, it was a secret. They had to find that out from Sulu. Kirk wouldn't have known how to get a hold of "Secret Service" without potentially alerting any conspirators that they were on their way. They had to beam down personally.

It would still be able to work.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top