Review of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) by Tero H — 16 Oct 2012

One my favorite classic Star Trek scifi-adventures. The movie has an exciting and clever plot and has a very finished feeling to it. This is not surprising, since the movie was created largely as the 25th anniversary film of Star Trek science-fiction franchise. Special effects are the best of the first six Star Trek films. One thing caught my attention, though: They use paper illustrations, there are no plasma views or screens anywhere, since there were no such things when the movie was made. That is really the only thing that reveals that the movie isn't very recent. The music is great and has a major role in creating the film's atmosphere.

The dialogue is very witty. Excerpts: 'There is an old Vulcan proverb: Only Nixon could go to China'. Lots of classics are quoted, such as the Shakespeare quotes by the Klingon general Chang and Spock's Arthur Conan Doyle-quote. I might be mistaken, but the Klingon chancellor's daughter seemed to have an irish accent! The Klingon characters seemed quite 'human' to me. Perhaps it was intentional though, since the common theme in this movie is the sameness underlying all races. A strong anti-racism theme is present as an undercurrent throughout the movie.

Comedy and all the fun elements are there. The jokes do not make the cast look silly though, a delicate balance one must admit. McCoy's humor is the same it used to be back in the '60's Trek. Excellent space adventure which doesn't lack intelligence or action.

This is very convincing Star Trek. The cast is familiar Trek, and fans of the show will recognize more familiar details. Indeed, remarkable attention to detail labels this 25th anniversary product. There is one downside, if one could call it that, to the presence of Trek in the movie: Star Trek fans will get more out of the movie's details and feeling than non-'Trekkies'. I watched this movie with my friend first in the movie theatre when it was released. Enjoying the movie so much that I wouldn't leave the theater until all the end credits were over.

We contemplated after the movie whether there would be planets around other stars, and came to the conclusion that there must be. Later hundreds of large gas planets have been found around other stars. On the eve of those magnificent future discoveries, all the Undiscovered Countries, I give this favorite film of mine a full five stars.