I thought you all might like to read @KRAD 's review of The Undiscovered Country for tor.com, part of his years-long series of reviews of almost all of trek for them. He raises some very good points, although VI, because it does take the crew to dark places, remains my favourite of the series. Anyway, his review:
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Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Written by Leonard Nimoy and Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal and Nicholas Meyer & Denny Martin Flynn
Directed by Nicholas Meyer
Release date: December 6, 1991
Stardate: 9521.6
Captain’s log. We open with the explosion of Praxis, a Klingon moon, and the location of their primary energy production facility. The subspace shockwave from the explosion travels all the way to Federation space, where the U.S.S. Excelsior, under the command of Captain Sulu, is returning from a three-year survey of the Beta Quadrant, charting gaseous anomalies. The Excelsior is hit by the wave, which Science Officer Valtane traces to Praxis—but while he can confirm the location of Praxis, he can’t confirm the existence of Praxis. Most of the moon is gone. Sulu has Communications Officer Rand send a message asking if they require assistance. A distress call from the moon is overlaid by Brigadier Kerla, who responds to Sulu’s offer of help with a definitive “no,” calling it an “incident” that they have under control. Sulu is, to say the least, skeptical and has Rand report this to Starfleet Command.
Two months later, Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, and Chekov are summoned to a classified briefing at Starfleet Headquarters. This surprises them, as they’re due to stand down and retire in three months. The other attendees are all admirals and captains. The Starfleet commander-in-chief announces that the Klingon Empire has only fifty years of life left, then turns the briefing over to the Federation Special Envoy: Spock. He explains that the destruction of Praxis will render the Klingon homeworld uninhabitable within five decades, and that Spock—at Sarek’s behest—has reached out to Chancellor Gorkon to discuss a peace treaty.
Cartwright is dead set against this course of action, and so is Kirk, feeling the Klingons are untrustworthy. So the captain is rather surprised to find that Spock has volunteered the Enterprise to escort Gorkon’s flagship to Earth for negotiations.
The meeting breaks up, leaving Kirk and Spock alone. Kirk is livid that Spock volunteered him, as he doesn’t trust the Klingons. When Spock points out that they’re dying, Kirk’s rather appalling response is, “Let them die.”
However, Kirk takes command, meeting Lieutenant Valeris, one of Spock’s protégés, who has volunteered to serve as helm officer. Valeris later overhears the end of Kirk’s log entry because Kirk left the door to his cabin open for no compellingly good reason. The log in question discusses how Kirk has never trusted the Klingons and how he can’t forgive them for the death of David.
Later, Valeris meets with Spock in his quarters to share a drink. He indicates that he’s grooming her to serve on the Enterprise, eventually to take command of her, as he will be retiring from Starfleet and entering diplomatic service. He also reminds her that logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end of it.
The Enterprise rendezvouses with Kronos One. Kirk muses that he’s never been this close to a Klingon ship, having apparently forgotten that he’s been on one in each of the last three films. Kirk and Gorkon speak, and Kirk invites Gorkon to dinner on the Enterprise, then grumbles, “I hope you’re happy” at Spock like a sullen teenager after the chancellor accepts. Chekov mutters, “Guess who’s coming to dinner?” and Valeris offers to have Romulan Ale be served at the dinner. (Kirk’s approving response: “Officer thinking, Lieutenant.”)
Gorkon, his daughter Azetbur, Kerla, General Chang, and two bodyguards beam aboard. Chang fangoobers Kirk, and after he takes them off for a tour, the two security guards, Burke and Samno, make racist comments about how Klingons all look alike and smell bad, until they are rebuked by Valeris.
At the dinner, the Klingons are befuddled by the silverware, and then Gorkon offers a toast to “the undiscovered country”—which makes everyone uncomfortable, until he explains that he’s referring to the future, not death, as Hamlet was. It’s the first of several Shakespeare quotes, including Chang saying, “to be or not to be” in Klingon.
Attempts at conversation are hesitant and awkward, with the humans far more uncomfortable than the Klingons or the half-Vulcan. Kirk at one point even Godwins the conversation by noticing that Chang makes a comment about needing breathing room, which Kirk cites as a Hitler quote.
After dinner, the Klingons beam off, with Gorkon telling Kirk that he knows the captain doesn’t trust him, and that if there is to be a brave new world, it is their generation that will have the hardest time of it.
Once they dematerialize, the Enterprise crew sighs with relief, Uhura and Chekov decrying the Klingons’ table manners, Spock tartly reminding them that their own behavior was pretty damned wretched. Kirk wanders off to sleep the evening off, asking folks to let him know if there’s another way they can screw the evening up. He makes a note to the galley that Romulan Ale is never to be served at diplomatic functions.
Spock summons Kirk to the bridge, as he is detecting a large amount of neutron radiation. Then a torpedo fires on Kronos One, seemingly from the Enterprise, quickly followed by another. The second shot knocks the gravity out on the Klingon ship. Even as Scotty reports that the Enterprise still has all its torpedoes, two people in Starfleet security armor (complete with magnetic boots) beam to the Klingon ship, killing or maiming dozens of Klingons along the way before finally getting to Gorkon and assassinating him.
The assassins beam back. Chang accuses Kirk of firing on them without provocation, and Spock verifies that the Enterprise did fire, even though they have all their torpedoes. Kirk surrenders and beams over with McCoy, refusing to start a war on the eve of peace. Spock very deliberately touches Kirk’s shoulder in a manner that we’re supposed to notice. That will probably be important later.
Kerla almost fires on Kirk and McCoy as soon as they dematerialize, but he is willing to give Kirk’s denial the benefit of the doubt and bring them to Gorkon. The ship’s surgeon is also dead, so McCoy offers to try to revive the chancellor. Azetbur and Chang agree, but McCoy is unable to save him. Gorkon’s last words are to ask of Kirk, “Don’t let it end this way, Captain.”
Chang has Kirk and McCoy arrested for assassinating the chancellor. Spock assumes command, tells Uhura to fill Starfleet in and then he works to determine what, precisely, happened.
The Klingon ambassador meets with the Federation president. The president is not happy about Kirk and McCoy’s arrest, but both Sarek and Romulan Ambassador Nanclus concur that their arrest was legal. The president therefore abides, and the Klingon ambassador departs. Even as he goes, the Starfleet C-in-C, Cartwright, and Colonel West enter. They object to Federation citizens being abducted, but the president reminds them about that pesky rule of law. West displays a plan to rescue them with “acceptable” loss of life. When the president asks about the possibility of war, West boasts that Starfleet will “clean their chronometers.” The president, however, dismisses the Starfleet personnel—and Nanclus, who was inexplicably allowed to remain in this meeting that discussed military strategy despite being a diplomat from a hostile power.
The Enterprise is ordered to return to Earth. At Valeris’s suggestion, Uhura and Chekov fake a malfunction so they can’t receive communications. Scotty and Spock try to figure out why they have all their torpedoes, yet the sensors say they fired twice.
Azetbur and the president agree to try the peace conference again in one week’s time at a neutral location—but that location should be kept secret, and the conference will only happen if Kirk and McCoy are allowed to stand trial and no attempt at a rescue is made. Kerla and Chang are as eager to go to war as West and Cartwright were, but Azetbur wishes to do what her father wanted.
Kirk and McCoy stand trial. Chang himself prosecutes, with Colonel Worf defending. The trial is broadcast all over the galaxy, and when the magnetic boots are mentioned, Spock immediately starts a search for them. The president and some of his staff, as well as Sarek, watch from his office, as does the crew of Excelsior; Sulu has Rand send a message to the Enterprise offering assistance. Meanwhile, Chang accuses McCoy of being drunk and/or incompetent when he tried to save Gorkon, and then he uses Kirk’s earlier personal log against him to prove malice toward the Klingons on his part. He also admits that as captain, he is responsible for the conduct of his crew.
They’re found guilty, but in the interests of peace, they are not sentenced to death. Instead, they are sentenced to life in prison on Rura Penthe in the dilithium mines there.
Spock and the rest of the crew continue their investigation. They determine that there must have been a small Klingon ship that can fire while cloaked positioned beneath the Enterprise. He then has Valeris conduct a search—either the assassins came from the Enterprise, or the people who sabotaged the computer to make it look like they fired did. Or both. Either way, the saboteurs need to be found.
Kirk and McCoy arrive at the frozen wasteland of Rura Penthe. They befriend a woman named Martia, who informs them that there’s a contract out for their deaths. McCoy is, to say the least, thrilled.
Spock’s investigation continues, but there is no sign yet of the boots. He has Scotty pretend that the warp drive is down so they can’t return to Spacedock as ordered by Starfleet.
Kirk gains the respect of the other prisoners by beating one of them up, and then he and Martia smooch, because we must make sure all prison movie clichés are checked off. She has a way off the planet, but she needs a partner, and she thinks Kirk is the first person to come through Rura Penthe who can swing it.
Chekov finds traces of Klingon blood on one of the transporter platforms, and then they find magnetic boots in the locker belonging to Crewman Dax. Unfortunately, Dax is from an alien species with oversized feet, so he couldn’t possibly be the culprit.
Martia turns out to be a shapeshifter. In the form of a different alien, she accompanies Kirk and McCoy to a mining detail, then changes her shape to that of a little girl, thus sliding out of her leg irons. They sneak out through a bit of ductwork (because there’s always ductwork) and up a big rock to the surface, and thence past the magnetic field’s influence, thus freeing them to be transported.
Uhura has been keeping an eye on the transponder that Spock put on Kirk when he touched his shoulder earlier, and once she detects that it’s outside the shield, Spock has Chekov set course for Rura Penthe. Uhura bluffs her way past a listening post by using dozens of books of the Klingon language, because it’s been a few minutes since we had a scene with forced laughter, and then they proceed.
Once Kirk, McCoy, and Martia have settled down with a flare, Kirk slugs Martia. The whole escape was far too convenient. He just hopes Spock arrives before Martia’s employers, who have promised her a full pardon in exchange for getting them out. Having them killed while trying to escape will make the most convincing cover story. The warden tracks them down, shoots Martia (who has assumed Kirk’s shape, which leads to Kirk fighting himself) and is about to tell them who’s responsible before Spock beams them up. Timing is everything.
Scotty finds the uniforms used by the assassins. The uniforms belong to Burke and Samno, and their bodies are found in a corridor. They were killed by phasers used on stun at close range to their heads.
There’s at least one more saboteur, however, and Kirk thinks he knows who it is. He puts out a PA announcement, asking for a court reporter to report to sickbay to take a statement from Burke and Samno. Valeris then goes to sickbay armed to finish what she started when she killed the two yeomen. Spock is livid, and Valeris admits that she is part of the conspiracy, undertaken because Klingons can’t be trusted. As if to prove it, there are Klingons and Starfleet officers alike who are working together to keep peace from happening. Valeris refuses to name her co-conspirators, so Kirk orders Spock to forcibly mind-meld with her, and Spock agrees to do it, thus utterly destroying any vestige of heroism on the part of either character.
Spock forcibly grabs her, yanks her closer to him by the arm, and keeps her from moving away from him. The hand that doesn’t activate the meld has a tight grip on her hair. And when Spock probes deeper to find the location of the conference, she screams in agony.
While she doesn’t actually know the location of the conference, she does reveal that Cartwright, Chang, and Nanclus are all part of the conspiracy, and that Chang’s experimental Bird of Prey that can fire while cloaked is the only one. Uhura contacts Sulu on Excelsior, and he reveals that the new location of the conference will be Camp Khitomer. Both ships proceed there at maximum warp.
When the Enterprise arrives at Khitomer, Chang contacts Kirk from his cloaked ship and starts taunting Kirk and also firing on him. Spock and Uhura hit on the idea of detecting the ionized gas the Klingon ship must exhaust while at impulse, and Spock and McCoy modify a torpedo so that it can detect those gasses. Chang fires on both Enterprise and Excelsior when it arrives, but then the modified torpedo does its job and exposes Chang’s ship. Both Enterprise and Excelsior fire on it and destroy it.
Meanwhile on Khitomer, the president and Azetbur discuss the peace process. A Klingon gets up and walks out of the conference, setting up a sniper rifle, intending to kill both the president and Azetbur. Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Chekov, Uhura, and Valeris beam down—the latter there mainly as evidence of her confession—as does Sulu with a landing party of his own. Cartwright and Nanclus are taken into custody, and Scotty shoots the sniper—who turns out not to be Klingon. Worf and the C-in-C unmask him to reveal West. Kirk makes a speech about how the future shouldn’t be the end of history and how important it is to finish Gorkon’s work. Everyone applauds.
Sulu says it’s good to see Kirk in action one last time, and Excelsior buggers off. Uhura reports that they’ve been ordered to return to Earth for decommissioning. Spock says that if he were human, his response to those orders would be, “Go to hell.” Kirk orders Chekov to set a course for the second star to the right and straight on til morning. Then he gives a benedictory log entry that wishes well to the next folks who command a ship called Enterprise, boldly going where no man—where no one has gone before.
Can’t we just reverse the polarity? The Klingons have developed a ship that can fire while cloaked, because the plot won’t work otherwise.
Fascinating. Spock is the one who—at Sarek’s urging—starts the dialogue with Gorkon following Praxis’s destruction. He, like most of the rest of the crew, is retiring, and he’s obviously getting ready to enter the diplomatic service, like his father, as seen in TNG when he’s an ambassador.
I’m a doctor not an escalator. McCoy tries heroically to save Gorkon even though he professes right there as he’s doing it that he doesn’t know much about Klingon anatomy. So how much good was he supposed to be doing, exactly? He also helps Spock modify the torpedo, because why use an engineer to do technical work when you can have one of your main characters violate his Hippocratic Oath?
Ahead warp one, aye. Sulu finally gets the command he got in the script for The Wrath of Khan, as the movie opens with him in charge of the Excelsior, and also has him play a critical role in the climax.
Hailing frequencies open. Uhura inexplicably has absolutely no knowledge of the Klingon language whatsoever, nor is the Enterprise computer programmed with any information about it, since she and a half-dozen others are poring over a ton of codex books about the language.
I cannot change the laws of physics! Scotty accuses Azetbur of killing Gorkon herself, calling her “that Klingon bitch,” and opining to Spock that Klingons don’t value life “the way we do.” Yeah.
It’s a Russian invention. While he, Spock, and Valeris are searching the galley, Chekov doesn’t understand why the saboteurs didn’t just vaporize the boots. Valeris grabs a phaser (they keep phasers in the galley????) and vaporizes a stewpot, which immediately sets off an alarm. Chekov is supposed to be chief of security, you’d think he’d know this. Adding insult to injury, both Uhura and Scotty enter the galley asking if someone fired a phaser set on vaporize, so they both know this, and Chekov doesn’t?
Go put on a red shirt. Burke and Samno prove the perfect fall guys for Valeris, as they think all Klingons look alike and smell bad, and so she easily conscripts them to commit regicide and then she can later murder them with impunity, as they’re racist, murdering assholes.
No sex, please, we’re Starfleet. After Martia kisses Kirk, McCoy just stares at him and asks, “What is it with you?”
Channel open.
“She doesn’t know.”
“Then we’re dead.”
“I have been dead before.”
–Spock determining that Valeris doesn’t have a vital bit of intel, Scotty lamenting this, and Spock making a funny.
Welcome aboard. The big guests are master thespians David Warner and Christopher Plummer playing Klingons, the former as Gorkon and the latter as Chang. Warner previously appeared in the last film as Talbot and will be on TNG as Gul Madred in the “Chain of Command” two-parter.
Back from The Voyage Home are Mark Lenard as Sarek, Brock Peters as Cartwright, and John Schuck as the Klingon ambassador. It’s the final appearance by all three as those characters, though Lenard has two chronologically later appearances on TNGthat predate this movie, in “Sarek” and “Unification I.” The character of Sarek will subsequently be seen in the 2009 Star Trekplayed by Ben Cross and the upcoming Discovery played by James Frain, both chronologically prior to this film. Peters will next appear as Joseph Sisko in DS9‘s “Homefront,” while Schuck will next be in DS9‘s “The Maquis Part 2” as a Cardassian legate.
The Federation president is the first of three Trek roles for Kurtwood Smith, who will return on DS9 as Thrax in “Things Past” andVoyager as Annorax in “Year of Hell.” The C-in-C is the first of two Trek roles for Leon Russom, who will play Vice Admiral Todman in DS9‘s “The Die is Cast.” The Rura Penthe warden is the second of four Trek roles for W. Morgan Sheppard, who played Ira Graves in TNG‘s “The Schizoid Man” and will go on to play Qatai in Voyager‘s “Bliss” and the head of the Vulcan Science Council in the 2009 Star Trek.
Rosanna DeSoto plays Azetbur, Kim Cattrall plays Valeris, Paul Rossilli plays Kerla, and Iman plays Martia.
Michael Dorn appears as the Klingon lawyer assigned to defend Kirk and Spock. Credited only as “Klingon Defense Attorney,” he is named “Colonel Worf” in dialogue, and it was always the intention of both scriptwriters that he be the grandfather of the same-named character Dorn played on TNG and DS9.
Rene Auberjonois plays West. All his scenes were deleted from the theatrical release, but were restored on home video. Auberjonois would two years later be cast in the regular role of Odo on DS9, and also play Ezral in Enterprise‘s “Oasis.”
Christian Slater, the son of casting director Mary Jo Slater and a longtime Trek fan, makes an uncredited cameo as a member of the Excelsior crew. Also appearing as Excelsior crew are Jeremy Roberts as Valtane and Boris Lee Krutonog as Lojur, who both will return in Voyager‘s “Flashback.”
And, finally, we have the usual suspects of James Doohan, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, and Walter Koenig, as well as Grace Lee Whitney. Doohan will next be seen in TNG‘s “Relics,” and both Takei and Whitney will next be seen in “Flashback.”
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