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FILM 6 OF 14 · 199106
STAR TREK VI

The Undiscovered Country

NOMADIC PICK · ESSENTIAL VIEWINGA fitting farewell for the original crew.
US RELEASE
6 December 1991
UK RELEASE
14 February 1992
RUNTIME
110 minutes
DIRECTED BY
Nicholas Meyer
MUSIC
Cliff Eidelman
BUDGET
$30 million
BOX OFFICE (WORLDWIDE)
$97 million
FIRST STARDATE
9521.6

WRITTEN BYScreenplay by Nicholas Meyer & Denny Martin Flinn; story by Leonard Nimoy and Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal

PRODUCED BYRalph Winter, Steven-Charles Jaffe

IN BRIEF

SPOILER-FREE

When a disaster cripples the Klingon Empire, Kirk must escort its chancellor to peace talks, but an assassination leaves him framed and imprisoned while his crew race to expose a conspiracy.

SYNOPSIS

SPOILERS
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSISHIDE SYNOPSIS

In 2293 the Klingon moon Praxis, a vital energy source, explodes, and Captain Sulu's ship Excelsior is caught in the shock wave. Facing ruin, the Klingon Empire reaches out for peace. Spock volunteers Kirk, close to retirement, to escort Chancellor Gorkon to talks on Earth, even though Kirk has never forgiven the Klingons for his son's death. A stiff dinner aboard the Enterprise goes badly, and that night the Enterprise appears to fire on Gorkon's ship. Two figures in Starfleet spacesuits beam across and shoot the chancellor. Kirk surrenders to avoid war, and despite McCoy's efforts Gorkon dies.

A Klingon court convicts Kirk and McCoy of the murder and sends them to the frozen prison planetoid Rura Penthe. There a shape-shifter named Martia offers them an escape that is really a trap to have them killed while fleeing. Spock, left in command, defies orders to return home, tracks the pair and beams them out at the last moment.

Gorkon's daughter Azetbur, now chancellor, keeps the peace conference alive at Khitomer. Spock's investigation exposes his own protégé, Lt Valeris, as one of the plotters, and a forced mind meld reveals conspirators on all sides, including Admiral Cartwright and General Chang, united by fear of a changing galaxy. The torpedoes came from Chang's Bird of Prey, a prototype that can fire while cloaked. Racing to Khitomer, the Enterprise and Excelsior are battered by Chang, who quotes Shakespeare as he attacks, until the crew adapts a torpedo to home in on his ship's exhaust. Together the two ships destroy him, then beam down in time to stop an assassin killing the Federation President. With peace secured, Starfleet orders the Enterprise home to be decommissioned, and Kirk sets one last course: second star to the right, and straight on till morning.

BEHIND THE CAMERA

After The Final Frontier disappointed, producer Harve Bennett's idea of a Starfleet Academy prequel was dropped following a poor reaction from the cast and fans. Paramount asked Leonard Nimoy for a farewell story for the original crew, and he suggested a Cold War parallel: what if the wall came down in space? Nicholas Meyer, director of The Wrath of Khan, returned to direct and co-wrote the script with Denny Martin Flinn, modelling Gorkon on Mikhail Gorbachev. Gene Roddenberry disliked the film's military tone. The budget was cut from about $41 million to $30 million, so many sets were redressed from The Next Generation. Roddenberry died in October 1991, weeks before release, and the film carries a dedication to him. Reviews were warm and audiences responded well.

DID YOU KNOW?

  1. 01The title comes from Hamlet's “To be, or not to be” speech, where the undiscovered country means death. In the film it comes to mean the future.
  2. 02Christian Slater, a keen fan, has a cameo as an officer aboard the Excelsior. His mother, Mary Jo Slater, was the film's casting director.
  3. 03Michael Dorn plays Colonel Worf, the Klingon lawyer who defends Kirk and McCoy, conceived as the grandfather of his Next Generation character.
  4. 04Valeris was created after objections to making Saavik, a familiar character, the traitor.
  5. 05Composer Cliff Eidelman was in his twenties and little known when Nicholas Meyer chose him.

CONNECTIONS

  • The Voyager episode “Flashback” (1996) revisits the Praxis disaster aboard the Excelsior, where a young Tuvok served under Captain Sulu.
  • Kirk's son David, whose death fuels his distrust of Klingons here, was killed by Klingons in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984).
  • Spock's father Sarek, again played by Mark Lenard, first appeared in the original series episode “Journey to Babel” (1967).

AWARDS

Two Academy Award nominations (makeup, sound effects editing); Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film; Hugo Award nomination

SOURCES WE CHECKED