Directed by: Nicholas Meyer
Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Christopher Plummer, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Mark Lenard, Christian Slater, Michael Dorn, Kim Cattrall, David Warner
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is the last Star Trek film featuring the original cast, which is having a ball on their final voyage of the starship Enterprise. William Shatner would appear in Star Trek: Generations (1994), and maybe the rest of the cast made appearances in future Star Trek shows and movies, but Star Trek VI is the last hurrah of the famed original cast. It is the proper sendoff.
Star Trek VI is lighthearted adventure despite its contemporary subject matter for the time (i.e. the end of the Cold War). A Klingon moon explodes which will cause the Klingon race to die out within fifty years. Star Fleet assigns Captain Kirk the task of accompanying the Klingon chancellor (Warner) and his staff to a summit meeting where the Klingons and their former enemies can forge a path to peace. Kirk still blames Klingons for his son's death and doesn't trust them. When he asks Spock why he is the one chosen to help the Klingons, Spock replies with an old Vulcan proverb: "Only Nixon can go to China,"
Chancellor Gorkon is sincere about his desire for peace, but his Chief of Staff General Chang (Plummer), donning a leather eyepatch, is itching for war and extolls Shakespearean lines to Kirk. "You should hear Shakespeare in the original Klingon," says Chang. After a tense dinner with the Klingons, the chancellor is assassinated after their starship is attacked. The weapons database of the Enterprise says they fired the torpedoes, but that is not the case. Kirk and Bones McCoy are arrested for the crime and sentenced to life imprisonment on a freezing mining moon, while Spock attempts to deduce what happened and why before Kirk and McCoy are killed in prison. It's a mystery Agatha Christie could have written herself.
Star Trek VI relies more heavily on pop culture references than any of its predecessors. It is fun and the cast brings energy which radiates throughout the entire movie. Plus, you have built-in suspense as the Enterprise tries to prevent an assassination to the Klingon chancellor's daughter, who has taken the reins from her father and going ahead with a universal summit meeting. Plummer is a terrific villain and Shatner ever the resourceful captain, setting up a last battle of Enterprise vs. Klingons. Star Trek VI doesn't quite match the creativity and sheer joy of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (the one where they travel back in time to capture two humpback whales), but it's pretty close.
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