Review of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) by Kate H — 10 May 2013

A worthy send off for the original crew of the Enterprise that more than apologizes for the havoc that was The Final Frontier. It also sets things up wonderfully to see how we go from Kirk's era to Jean-Luc Picard's era.

This film takes place at least three years following the events of the Final Frontier, I'm going to bet with five years considering Sulu's status as Captain of the USS Excelsior and the retirement of the senior officers. I personally highly doubt that Chekov is retiring since Sulu's still out and about but whatever. Peace with the Klingons is being tabled and everyone is instantly distrustful. It makes sense considering the lovely history that the Federation has with the Klingon Empire but it is shocking to see our characters thinking and saying some of the things that they do. Just goes to show that no matter how advanced the society, there is always some amount of prejudice lurking around.

Spock second career ends of to be one of diplomacy and we see the beginnings of that with his working for peace and volunteering his ship and crewmates for the task of escorting the Klingon High Chancellor to Earth. It's a spat that haunts the film, especially with Spock taking a very human personal responsibility for the situation. Of course, like all things with these two, things work out.

The situation is tense with strong opinions and bigotry on both sides. It's meant to be uncomfortable and it is. Only Spock seems to be the one above it all and that makes sense. Christopher Plummer does a wonderful job with Shakespeare quoting Chief of Staff General Chang. It is just lovely in how devious he is. How theatrical and how awesome.

The film basically becomes a murder mystery in space as Kirk and McCoy are sent to the penal asteroid of Rura Penthe for the murder of the Chancellor while Spock and the rest of the crew work to solve the mystery of who or what we're dealing with here. The ending may be obvious, the culprit perhaps even more so in retrospect, but it is great fun and a wonderful send off to our heroes.