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Valeris is a female Vulcan and Pilot in the Star Trek universe. She is the secondary antagonist in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country .

She was portrayed by Kim Cattrall .

History [ ]

As a child she and her mother were abducted by renegade Klingons as part of a plot to seize a border world. When her father refused to negotiate the Klingons killed several people in front of her eyes and severely injured her mother. Valeris and the remaining hostages were rescued by a Starfleet team from the USS Ark Royal commanded by then Captain Lance Cartwright , but the trauma fostered a deep hatred and mistrust of the Klingons. Valeris convinced herself that her feelings towards the Klingons were logical and based in reason.

As a student at Starfleet Academy Valeris wrote a paper outlining a case against pursuing peaceful relations with the Klingons. By then an Admiral, Cartwright learned of the paper and had Valeris summoned to his office at Starfleet Headquarters. There he convinced her to delete the paper before it became public knowledge and damaged her career potential. At that meeting Cartwright revealed that he felt as she did about the Klingons. In the years that followed she would serve as an agent for Cartwright as he pursued his own agenda.

Early in her Starfleet career, Valeris became a protégé of Captain Spock . Lt. Saavik , who felt that Valeris was bigoted and arrogant nevertheless gave a full recommendation for Valeris out of her loyalty to Spock. However Saavik's conflicted feelings over recommending Valeris caused a rift to develop between Spock and Saavik, and Saavik transferred off the Enterprise at that point.

Following the destruction of the key Klingon energy production center of Praxis, Valeris became part of the conspiracy of Klingon, Federation, and Romulan individuals who stood to lose should the Klingons sue for peace.

Valeris was placed on board the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) with two others, Yeomans Burke and Sammo. Encountering Captains Kirk and Spock, she explained that she was informed the Enterprise needed a helmsman so she volunteered. She spent the time between leaving spacedock and the initial meeting with Chancellor Gorkon's ship planting programming in the ship's computer and moving supplies around to prepare for the boarding of Gorkon's ship. When she learned that Captain James T. Kirk had expressed his own dislike for the Klingons in a personal log she made sure to make a copy of the log as she felt it would be useful later.

After Gorkon's ship was boarded instead of fighting it out with the Klingons as Valeris expected Kirk instead went to offer aid to the Klingons. Doctor Leonard McCoy went with him, and when McCoy could not save the chancellor the pair was arrested by General Chang - himself another conspirator. In the following trial the log Valeris made a copy of was provided to the Klingons, and Change made great use of the log in the trial.

Kirk and McCoy were eventually rescued. Realizing that Burke and Samno could expose her and the others Valeris murdered the two men with a phaser set at stun at close range. Encountering the bodies of the two men Kirk pieced it all together and realized that Valeris was the traitor. At Kirk's orders Spock entered into a mind meld with Valeris and dragged the rest of the conspiracy into the light.

General Chang attacked the Enterprise after the ship arrived at Khitomer, however using a modified torpedo the Enterprise crew was able to defeat him and destroy his ship. The senior staff beamed down in time to prevent the death of the Federation President. Spock beamed down with Valeris, and presented her to the gathered officials. McCoy announced they had a full confession from her.

Following the return of the Enterprise to Earth Valeris was sentenced to life imprisonment on Jaros II. She proved resistant to rehabilitation while on the colony - despite the efforts of the prison psychologist and covert Section 31 agent to draw her out. After the death of Lance Cartwright in 2298 Valeris was the only known survivor of the conspiracy.

Valeris was recruited in 2300 to assist with a Starfleet intelligence operation to prevent Kriosian terrorists from destroying Qo'noS. During this operation Klingon intelligence agent Kaj penetrated the shell Valeris had drawn around herself and Valeris was finally able to put her hatred of the Klingons behind her. For her role in preventing the destruction of Qo'noS Valeris was given her freedom and a new identity. As T'leris she became a civilian pilot on a Vulcan colony. When news of Spock coming to the colony to give a speech came up, the colony's director informed T'leris, expecting her to want to hear such a prominent individual speak. To his suprsie, T'leris declined to attend Spock's speech.

• Kim Cattrall had auditioned for the role of Saavik for The Wrath of Khan . However, she had lost the role to the late Kirstie Alley.
• Initially the plan was to bring back Saavik and have her betray Kirk, Spock, and the Federation, but that idea proved very unpopular. Additionally, producers did not want to bring Robin Curtis back and Alley was unavailable, and they did not want to cast a third actress to portray Saavik. In response the character of Valeris was created to replace Saavik in the movie.

Navigation [ ]

• 1 The Boiled One
• 2 Bill Cipher

Valeris (Kim Cattrall)

Character analysis.

Over the course of The Undiscovered Country , Lieutenant Valeris goes from being Spock's right-hand-lady to a political terrorist. It's not such a good look.

Not only did Spock sponsor Valeris, a fellow Vulcan, when she was in Starfleet Academy, but he's also training her to be his replacement on Enterprise . That's huge. It's like a young rapper getting a co-sign from Jay Z.

So why does she betray him? Well, according to Valeris, it's not a betrayal at all:

VALERIS: Klingons cannot be trusted. Sir, you said so yourself. They killed your son. Did you not wish Gorkon dead? [...] And you were right. They conspired with us to assassinate their own Chancellor. How trustworthy can they be? Valeris is a walking example of how fear can prevent us from making the "undiscovered country" of the future a better place for everyone. Influenced by the prejudices of Kirk and his generation, Valeris sincerely believes that she's doing the right thing by fighting against peace.

Spoiler: she's not.

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W hy's T his F unny?

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

" The battle for peace has begun. "

An interstellar cataclysm cripples the Klingon Empire's homeworld, leading to their Chancellor seeking peace with the Federation. But covert acts attempt to thwart the peace process with the assassination of the Klingon Chancellor. With Captain James T. Kirk and Dr. Leonard McCoy as the prime suspects, the Starships Enterprise -A and Excelsior must attempt to uncover the truth before the conspirators can plunge the Federation and Klingon Empire into fullscale war!

• 1.1 Prelude
• 1.2 Act I – The Mission and Catastrophe
• 1.3 Act II – The Trial and Spock's Investigation
• 1.4 Act III – The Rescue and Revelation
• 1.5 Act IV – Realizations and Confrontations
• 1.6 Epilogue
• 2 Log entries
• 3.1.1 Hamlet
• 3.1.2 Julius Caesar
• 3.1.3 King Henry IV, Part II
• 3.1.4 King Henry V
• 3.1.5 The Merchant of Venice
• 3.1.6 Richard II
• 3.1.7 Romeo and Juliet
• 3.1.8 The Tempest
• 3.2 General quotes
• 4.1 Landmarks
• 4.3 Story and production
• 4.4 Sets, props, and costumes
• 4.5 Miscellaneous
• 4.7.1 Concept art
• 4.7.2 Production gallery
• 4.8 Merchandise gallery
• 4.9 Production history
• 4.10 Different versions
• 4.11 Apocrypha
• 5 Awards and honors
• 6.1.1 Opening credits
• 6.1.2.1 Second Unit Photography
• 6.2.1 Library computer references
• 6.2.2 Unused Material
• 6.2.3 Unreferenced material
• 6.3 Timeline
• 6.4 External links

Summary [ ]

Prelude [ ].

" I cannot confirm the existence of Praxis. "

An explosion erupts, creating a massive subspace shock wave .

Aboard the USS Excelsior , Captain Hikaru Sulu takes a sip of tea , reads a report handed to him by his science officer Dimitri Valtane , and records his log :

Excelsior emerges from the shockwave

Suddenly, red alert klaxons sound on the bridge as the subspace shockwave reaches the Excelsior , throwing Sulu and his crew to the deck. Sulu orders helmsman Lojur to turn Excelsior into the wave and the ship clears the disturbance. At his post, Valtane locates the origin of the shockwave – Praxis , a Klingon moon , which Sulu notes is the Empire 's key energy production facility. Sulu orders communications officer Janice Rand to hail the moon and offer their assistance, then asks Valtane for more data. Valtane, perplexed, says that he can confirm Praxis's location... but not its existence. An image appears on the viewscreen: Praxis, or rather barely half of it, ripped in two by some catastrophe, to the disbelieving horror of Sulu and the rest of the bridge crew. Rand reports that she has intercepted a message from Praxis and puts it up: the viewscreen is filled with the grisly image of a Klingon officer , standing on a deck heaving beneath his feet and surrounded by flames, shouting desperately at the pickup. The message abruptly cuts off and is replaced by an official transmission from Klingon Brigadier General Kerla , speaking for the Klingon High Command . Kerla explains that there has been an "incident" on Praxis, but that everything is under control and Federation assistance is not required, warning the Excelsior to obey treaty stipulations and remain outside the Neutral Zone .

Rand asks Sulu if they should notify Starfleet and Sulu simply replies: " Are you kidding?! "

Act I – The Mission and Catastrophe [ ]

" Ladies and gentlemen, the C-in-C. "

Two months later on Earth , the senior crew of the USS Enterprise -A assembles for a meeting at Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco . The C-in-C of Starfleet opens the meeting, bluntly stating that the Klingon Empire has only fifty years of life left in it. Federation Special Envoy Spock announces that the destruction of Praxis has polluted the Klingon homeworld 's ozone so badly that the planet has only fifty years remaining without diverting resources from its significant military expenditures. At the behest of Vulcan ambassador Sarek , Spock has opened a dialogue with Klingon Chancellor Gorkon , who wishes to end all hostilities between the Empire and Starfleet, proposing the dismantling of all starbases in and around the Neutral Zone. The Military aide asked Bill that are they talking mothballing the Starfleet, but Bill said that their "exploration and scientific programs would be unaffected." Admiral Cartwright interrupts, vehemently objecting, saying the Klingons must not be offered safe haven in Federation space, suggesting Starfleet use military force in order to dictate terms from a superior position. Captain Kirk agrees that giving the Klingons free reign in Federation space is a "terrifying idea." However, Spock counters, arguing that they must act now to support the Gorkon initiative before conservative elements in the Klingon Empire can seize control and try to fight to the death.

Spock has volunteered the Enterprise and its crew to welcome Gorkon and his aides aboard and escort their ship to a peace meeting on Earth. Kirk protests that he is hardly the man for the job but is overruled and commanded to extend full diplomatic courtesy. Verbally sending the Enterprise on its way, the commander in chief thanks the assembled Starfleet officers and reminds them the meeting they've just had is classified, dismissing them too.

At this point, Kirk is left alone with Spock, who reminds him of an old Vulcan proverb that " only Nixon could go to China . " Kirk is angry that Spock would volunteer the Enterprise without consulting him. Spock states that his father requested he open the negotiations with the Klingons. Though Kirk knows that Spock's father is the Vulcan ambassador, Kirk is furious at Spock for forcing him to treat the Klingon "animals" like honored guests after what they did to his son ; Spock knows how he feels about the Klingons, but reminds Kirk they are dying. Kirk snaps, " Let them die! " Upon Spock's somewhat startled reaction, Kirk asks Spock if he has realized that the Enterprise crew is due to stand down in just three months time, saying that they have all done their "bit for king and country" and Kirk says that Spock should have trusted him. They stand in the conference hall in silence, looking at each other from opposite ends of the long conference table.

" Regulations specify thrusters only while in spacedock. "

Soon after, Captain Kirk and party are ferried to the Spacedock One aboard SD-103 and board the Enterprise . Upon arriving at the bridge, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy meet Lieutenant Valeris , a young Vulcan female and the first Vulcan to graduate at the top of her class at Starfleet Academy , who is volunteering as helmsman. " Let's get this over with. Departure stations, " Kirk announces to his crew. After an awkward moment when Kirk orders Valeris to depart Spacedock at one quarter impulse power despite regulations specifying thrusters only, the Enterprise departs Spacedock and the Sol system to rendezvous with Gorkon's battle cruiser , Kronos One .

A photo of Kirk's son David Marcus

Valeris then interrupts Kirk in his quarters. She informs him that the Enterprise is almost upon arrival at the rendezvous point. Valeris then tells Kirk how much of an honor it is to serve with him. Kirk tells her she piloted well out of Spacedock and Valeris tells him she has always wanted to try it.

" History is replete with turning points, lieutenant. You must have faith. "

Later, Valeris discusses logic and philosophy with Spock in his quarters in terms of their current mission. Spock says history is replete with turning points and she must have faith that the universe will ultimately unfold as it should. When Valeris begins to ask if that is logical, Spock points out a simple fact that has taken him a lifetime to learn; logic is only the beginning of wisdom and not the end. Spock is soon to retire, with this being his last voyage on the Enterprise as a member of the crew and he intends for Valeris to replace him. Valeris states that she could only succeed Spock. Upon this, an announcement is made through the ship's intercom that all hands are to report to duty stations as a Klingon battlecruiser has arrived off the Enterprise 's port bow.

Upon rendezvous with Gorkon, Captain Kirk reluctantly, but formally, invites the Chancellor and his staff to have dinner aboard the Enterprise at 1930 hours as guests of the Federation. Valeris then suggests opening up the supply of Romulan ale that is aboard, thinking it may help the evening progress more smoothly. Kirk compliments her thinking and leaves the bridge. " Guess who's coming to dinner? ", Commander Chekov quietly says.

Later, in the transporter room , Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scott are on hand to greet Gorkon and his party. All behave cordially on the surface. Gorkon introduces his daughter, Azetbur , his military adviser, Brigadier General Kerla , and General Chang , his chief of staff . While Gorkon is dignified and gracious, offering Spock his sincere gratitude for his actions towards peace, Chang, who has an especially smug, obnoxious demeanor, tells Kirk that he has so wanted to meet the great Captain Kirk, " warrior to warrior " out of admiration. " Right, " Kirk coldly replies. He leads the Klingon delegation out of the room, thinking they might enjoy a brief tour of the vessel.

" I offer a toast – the undiscovered country – the future. "

Shortly afterward, both Kirk and Gorkon's staff dine together. Gorkon gives a toast to "the undiscovered country – the future". Spock recognizes the line from Hamlet , specifically from act III, scene I, and Gorkon tells Spock that one has never read Shakespeare properly until reading the text in "the original Klingon." McCoy diplomatically offers a toast to Gorkon, calling him " one of the architects of our future. " The dinner proceeds with surface pleasantries gradually melting to reveal angry hostility. In particular, Chekov says the Federation believes all worlds have the sovereign claim to inalienable Human rights and Azetbur points out that this statement is racist and that the Federation is little better than a homo sapiens only club, " present company excepted, of course, " Chang adds. Chang tells Kirk that they all need breathing room, which Kirk points out is the same thing Hitler said in 1938 , which offends Chang. Thinly masking his disappointment, Gorkon simply quips that they have a long way to go.

As the Klingons prepare to leave, Kirk sarcastically jokes that they must do this again sometime. Gorkon says he knows Kirk doesn't trust him, and offers that " if there is to be a brave, new world, our generation is going to have the hardest time living in it. " Chang walks up to Kirk before leaving, telling him " parting is such sweet sorrow, " and steps onto the transporter platform while Kirk shakes his head. Once the Klingons are safely beamed off the ship, the entire senior staff relaxes, observing that the Klingons exhibited poor manners; Spock notes that they were little better. " I'm going to sleep this off. Please let me know if there's some other way we can screw up tonight, " Kirk says before leaving. McCoy announces he is going to find a pot of black coffee . Spock raises his eyebrow.

" We're hit…! "

Lying down to sleep, and nursing a terrible hangover, Kirk is summoned to the bridge by Spock. Sensors are picking up an enormous amount of neutron radiation which appears to be emanating from Enterprise (which an equally hungover Chekov painfully jokes that it is only the size of his head). A photon torpedo shoots out and strikes Kronos One . The entire bridge crew immediately jumps into action, as a second photon torpedo knocks out the gravity. Kirk asks Scotty if Enterprise actually fired and Scotty denies it as according to the inventory the ship still has her entire complement of torpedoes.

As the Klingons begin floating helplessly about, a transporter beam engages and two men in Starfleet uniforms with closed helmets and gravity boots begin walking through the corridors, shooting every Klingon they come in contact with, including Gorkon.

" Why that cunning little Vulcan. "

When auxiliary gravity is restored on Kronos One , Gorkon is discovered, mortally wounded. A furious Chang accuses Kirk of defiling the peace they're striving to work for, and saying that he'll blow them out of the stars. Kirk denies that they fired, although the ship's data banks say they did according to Spock. Kirk orders that the Enterprise surrender, much to the surprise of the bridge crew. He prepares to board Kronos One leaving Spock in command – where he'll be able to get Kirk out of trouble. Spock subtly slaps a small black patch on Kirk's back. McCoy decides to go too in case they need a doctor. " Uhura, tell them we're coming and tell them we're unarmed! ", Kirk says.

When they materialize on Kronos One , Kerla asks if Kirk has "lost his mind." Kirk swears they genuinely do not know what has happened and that they only want to help. Kerla reluctantly allows them to follow him to Gorkon, who is badly wounded. Chang tells him about the torpedoes, the gravity, and the assassins. McCoy tries to save Gorkon but fails due to his lack of knowledge of Klingon anatomy. Before dying, Gorkon reaches up to Kirk, grasping the back of his head, and begs him not to let it end this way. General Chang has Kirk and McCoy arrested for murder under article 184 of Interstellar Law .

Act II – The Trial and Spock's Investigation [ ]

On the Enterprise Uhura relays the news of their arrest. Spock then formally assumes command of the ship and begins a full-scale investigation. When Chekov asks what will happen if they cannot piece together what transpired, Spock says then " in that case, Mr. Chekov, it resides in the purview of the diplomats. "

" This President is not above the law! "

On Earth, the Klingon Ambassador is speaking with the Federation President in his office in Paris , defending his government's decision to arrest Kirk and McCoy for the assassination of Chancellor Gorkon. The president has ordered a full-scale investigation too, but the Klingon ambassador says that by the articles of interstellar law Kirk and McCoy must stand trial in a Klingon court. Sarek and Romulan ambassador Nanclus concur. As the Klingon Ambassador leaves, the commander-in-chief, Admiral Cartwright, and Colonel West enter. They propose a plan they call Operation Retrieve , to rescue Kirk and McCoy, West states that they could go in and get Kirk and McCoy in less than 24 hours with acceptable losses in manpower and equipment. The president asks what would happen then if they precipitate a full scale war and West frankly states " Then Mr. President, we can clean their chronometers. " Nanclus tells the president that the Klingons are vulnerable and there would never be a better time to strike them. Cartwright says that the longer they wait, the less accessible the hostages become. The president then dismisses everyone saying he'll keep all this in mind. Everyone except for Sarek leaves the president alone. At the door, the C in C stops and reminds the president that Kirk and McCoy have literally saved the planet . The president knows this and tells the C in C that they are now going to save it again… by standing trial.

Uhura receives a message from Starfleet Command ordering them to return to Earth immediately. Both she and Chekov agree they cannot abandon the captain and Dr. McCoy. Valeris tells the both of them how 400 years ago on the planet Earth, when workers felt threatened by automation, they flung their wooden shoes called sabots into the machines to stop them, thus coining the word " sabotage ." Uhura comes up with a response that Enterprise 's backup systems are all inoperative. " Excellent. I-I-I mean, too bad, " Chekov says.

Azetbur, now Klingon Chancellor, communicates with the President. She says in one week she will attend a peace conference at a neutral, secret site on the condition that they will not extradite Kirk and McCoy and that the Federation will make no attempts at a military extraction. If they do so, the Klingons will consider it an act of war.

" War is… obsolete. As we are in danger of becoming. "

After ending the transmission to the Federation President, Azetbur's advisors (including Kerla) suggest attacking the Federation now while they still can, or else the Federation will take advantage of Praxis' destruction and enslave them. Azetbur stands up to them, saying that war is obsolete, as they are in danger of becoming. One of her advisors sneers, "better to die on our feet than live on our knees!" Azetbur firmly says that her father wanted peace, and Chang, standing aside in the corner, speaks for the first time, reminding her gently that her father's wishes got him killed. Azetbur stands her ground, saying the peace process will go forward, but adds, with resolve, that Kirk will pay for her father's death.

Spock's investigation is proceeding. The computer says that Enterprise fired and the torpedo inventory says they didn't, so they'll have to inspect each torpedo visually.

" If the gravitational field was not functioning, how could these men be walking? "

The trial begins, with Chang as prosecutor and Colonel Worf as Kirk and McCoy's defense attorney. In a Klingon trial on Qo'noS, the prosecution and defense question witnesses at the same time. The first witness says the murderers were wearing magnetic boots, a fact which, while viewing the trial back on the bridge of the Enterprise gets Spock to thinking. Chang then begins questioning McCoy, starting with McCoy's current medical status, to which McCoy jokes " other than a touch of arthritis, I'd say, pretty good! " Chang tries to impugn McCoy's medical competence and questions whether he really tried his best to save Gorkon. McCoy says he desperately tried to save Gorkon as he was the last best hope for peace. The judge then excuses him.

Chang then turns to Kirk and calls him "the architect of this tragic affair." Chang accuses Kirk of plotting to kill Gorkon as revenge for the death of his son, a charge Kirk denies. Worf objects, stating Kirk has not been identified as the assassin. Chang enters into the record an excerpt from Kirk's personal log:

Kirk admits that he did indeed say this. Chang uses a number of examples from Kirk's record to show that it's possible he arranged for Gorkon's murder, such as his demotion from admiral to captain for insubordination. Kirk is maneuvered into stating that of course he is responsible for the actions of every member of his crew. The judge finds both guilty as charged, which carries a death penalty. Worf argues that the bulk of the evidence against his clients is circumstantial and begs the court to consider this upon sentencing. The judge agrees then commutes their death sentences to life without parole on the penal asteroid of Rura Penthe , known throughout the galaxy as the aliens' graveyard .

On Excelsior , where Sulu and his crew have also been watching the trial, the captain directs that a message be sent to Enterprise , telling them that Sulu and the crew of Excelsior stand ready to assist them.

With the trial concluded, Spock asks Valeris to replay the footage of the torpedo launch. Scott insists that all the Enterprise torpedoes have been visually accounted for, and there is no way the ship could have fired. Spock repeats a maxim of one of his ancestors: " once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. " If Enterprise could not have fired, it must have come from a cloaked ship, probably a Bird-of-Prey , hiding underneath Enterprise . Scotty objects that a Bird-of-Prey cannot fire its weapons while cloaked, but Spock rejoins that apparently this one can. Unfortunately, they have no evidence, only a theory which happens to fit the facts available. Chekov argues that if there was a cloaked ship, the assassins must have beamed onto Gorkon's ship from there, not Enterprise , but Spock reminds him that someone was responsible for firing the torpedoes or making the false entry in the ship's data banks; either way, the person or persons responsible are aboard Enterprise . Spock puts Valeris in charge of a search for two pairs of gravity boots.

" … only a magnetic shield prevents beaming. "

Kirk and McCoy are taken from Qo'noS, along with a group of other prisoners, to the frozen wasteland of Rura Penthe, an appropriately harsh place protected only by a magnetic shield. On arrival at the prison, they are greeted by the warden, who warns them that escape is quite impossible, and that anyone who is disobedient or fails to work hard enough will be punished via exile from prison to the surface where nothing can survive; a fact which is graphically demonstrated when a naked prisoner is dragged out and thrown into the snowy wastes to rapidly freeze to death. Inside the prison, Kirk almost immediately has an altercation with a large alien, but is rescued by an exotic looking woman, Martia .

In the galley, Spock and Valeris observe the search going on. When Chekov asks Valeris why the assassins didn't simply vaporize the boots, she pulls a phaser out from a weapons locker and vaporizes a nearby pot. An alarm goes off and she deactivates it, explaining to Chekov that you cannot fire an unauthorized phaser set to vaporize aboard a starship. Scotty and Uhura come in wanting to know who triggered the alarm by firing the phaser. They continue to stall for time by claiming malfunctioning equipment. Uhura reminds Spock that they have lost all contact with Kirk and McCoy. Spock notes this but says that if he knows Kirk well, by this time he is deep into planning his escape.

" Not everyone keeps their genitals in the same place. "

Meanwhile, Kirk is engaged in hand-to-hand combat with another alien, and is surprised when he wins. Kirk informs McCoy and Martia that he was lucky the brute had knees. Martia tells Kirk that that was not his knee, noting that not all species have their genitals in the same place. Martia offers to help Kirk and McCoy escape. That night in their bunks, Kirk admits he'd gotten so used to hating Klingons and that it never even occurred to him to take Gorkon at his word. Martia comes in, gives Kirk a big kiss and tells him where to meet her to plan an escape.

Act III – The Rescue and Revelation [ ]

Aboard Excelsior , Sulu's officer tells him that Starfleet wants to know what has happened to the Enterprise . Sulu states that he nor the Excelsior personnel know anything about the Enterprise and dismisses the officer. Now Sulu is getting really worried.

" If the shoe fits, wear it! "

In the transporter room, Chekov finds some small dried remains on the transporter platform and takes a sample of it to Spock, who discovers that it is Klingon blood, which must have been floating through the Klingon ship and got tracked back to Enterprise by the assassins walking through it. Spock notes this as the first piece of evidence to corroborate their theory and therefore expands the search to include all uniforms aboard ship. Valeris eventually finds the magnetic boots; however, they are in the locker of a crewman whose feet are shaped differently from Humans'; the boots couldn't possibly be his much to Chekov's surprise.

Martia as the Brute: " They don't take girls. "

Martia, appearing as a small Human girl

Kirk and McCoy get into a lift for mining duty and discover that Martia is a shapeshifter. She changes bodies several times in the course of leading them out of the range of the magnetic shield. Uhura and Spock have noted Kirk's exit from the beaming shield as well. Spock orders the ship to Rura Penthe. It seems that what he put on Kirk's back was a viridium patch which enabled him to track the captain.

" We is condemning food… things and… supplies to Rura Penthe… over… "

The Enterprise passes into Klingon space and gets the attention of a Klingon listening post. If they respond while using the universal translator , the sentries would pick it up. In badly broken Klingon , Uhura identifies her ship as a freighter, IKS Ursva , headed to Rura Penthe to "condemn" food, supplies and "things." The Klingons at the listening post are fooled and end up making a Klingon joke, in which the Klingons and the Enterprise crew forcibly laugh at.

" Not me, you idiot, him!"

As Martia produces warm clothes and other supplies and lights a flare for heat, Kirk realizes that Martia is setting him and McCoy up to be killed. She's spoken previously of a huge reward to the person who gets them, and the flare is a dead giveaway. Martia changes into a duplicate Kirk and they fight, rolling all over the snow before being stopped by a jackal mastiff , Klingon guards, and the warden. Kirk and Martia (still appearing as Kirk) stand next to each other. Kirk convinces the warden to shoot Martia, since they don't want any witnesses. Kirk then asks who wanted them killed. Just before the warden can identify the culprit, Kirk and McCoy are beamed out of the cave – with Kirk swearing the whole way up.

Materializing on the transporter pad, Kirk asks Spock if he couldn't have waited just two more seconds, as the warden was about to explain the whole thing. When Chekov sheepishly asks if they want to go back, McCoy answers " Absolutely not! " Kirk adds, " It's cold. " Chang finds out about this from the commandant and prepares to intercept the Enterprise .

Sitting in the Enterprise 's officers' mess , Scott discovers two sets of uniforms with Klingon blood on them. Scott runs up to Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Chekov in a corridor and they subsequently find Yeomen Burke and Samno , both dead, killed by a phaser stun at close range. They were the ones on guard in the transporter room when Gorkon and party first beamed aboard the Enterprise . To lure out the assassin, an announcement is made over the ship's intercom ordering the court reporter to sickbay and that statements will be taken from Burke and Samno, as if they are merely injured. Someone walks into the darkened sickbay with phaser in hand – it is revealed to be Valeris. Valeris is stunned to see Kirk and her mentor Spock in the bio-beds instead of the dead crewmen. Hurt and angry over her betrayal, Spock challenges Valeris to shoot him (while Kirk prefers she doesn't), and violently slaps the phaser out of her hand. McCoy emerges from the shadows and informs her that the operation is over.

On the bridge, Valeris claims that as she did not fire the crew has no proof against her, but Kirk does. He reminds her that his personal log was used as evidence against him at the trial; she must have recorded him talking on his personal log that night when Valeris was standing outside his doorway. Valeris dodges the accusation by accusing Kirk and the entire ship of betraying Starfleet. When McCoy calls her on it and asks her what she thinks she's been doing, she says she's been working to save Starfleet. She doesn't believe Klingons can ever be trusted, and reminds Kirk that they killed his son and how he said to " let them die " rather than help, and Kirk can't help but feel ashamed that he made such a statement. She reveals that some Klingons conspired with Starfleet officers to kill their own Chancellor – how trustworthy can they be? McCoy ponders the concept of peace between the Klingons and Federation being so unacceptable to members of both sides that they worked together to prevent it (while implying the irony that the conspiracy actually proves that Humans and Klingons actually can coexist and work together). Kirk demands the names of her co-conspirators, and Valeris claims she does not remember. " A lie? ", Spock asks. " A choice, " she replies.

"Names , lieutenant! "

Spock slowly walks up to Valeris near the viewscreen and forces her into a mind meld , discovering that the conspirators include Admiral Cartwright, General Chang, and the Romulan Ambassador, Nanclus. Kirk asks where the peace conference will be held, so Spock looks further into her mind to the point it causes her physical pain, but Valeris ultimately does not know where the peace conference is. The Enterprise contacts the Excelsior and Sulu tells Kirk that the conference will be held at Camp Khitomer , beginning later that day.

Act IV – Realizations and Confrontations [ ]

Later, in Spock's quarters, Kirk admits that he couldn't get past the death of his son and that it took Gorkon's death to get him to realize how prejudiced he was. Spock admits he was prejudiced by Valeris's accomplishments as a Vulcan and speculates that he and Kirk – with their inflexible thinking – are obsolete.

The Khitomer conference begins, as Enterprise drops out of warp and races towards the planet at impulse. If Chang's ship is there, it's cloaked, and the only means of detecting it would be the same surge of neutron radiation that occurred when Gorkon's ship was fired upon. Tension mounts on board the ship as they get ever closer to transporter range. With just over 40 seconds to go, Chang contacts Kirk over subspace and asks him, " warrior to warrior ," to admit that Kirk prefers for the Federation and Klingons to remain enemies, and continue slaughtering each other in glorious combat: " Once more unto the breach, dear friends… "

Then, with another quote of "to be or not to be…" in Klingon, Chang signals his gunner, and the Bird-of-Prey opens fire with photon torpedoes . With the cloak in place, Enterprise's shields take a pounding, but they cannot return fire. Although Chang continues to taunt Kirk, Uhura tries but fails to locate the source of his transmissions.

Excelsior is hurtling to Khitomer at maximum warp. Aboard the bridge, which is trembling with the force of acceleration, helmsman Lojur warns, " She'll fly apart! " Sulu retorts, " Fly her apart then! "

On Khitomer, Azetbur's speech has begun and a Klingon stands up and walks out carrying a briefcase. Admiral Cartwright nervously watches, sweat dripping down his face.

" Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war! "

In space, Enterprise continues to take heavy damage, and Scott warns their shields are collapsing. A minor explosion on the bridge prompts Kirk to order auxiliary power, but Spock reports that the auxiliary circuits have been destroyed. Watching Enterprise attempting to evade, Chang quotes The Merchant of Venice :

Spock realizes that even with her cloak in place, the Bird-of-Prey's impulse engines will still vent plasma exhaust ; Uhura suggests using the equipment they have on-board to catalog gaseous anomalies as a guidance system. Spock asks McCoy to help him "perform surgery" on a photon torpedo to enable it to do so. " Fascinating! ", the physician says. Kirk continues to order evasive maneuvers in an attempt to mitigate the torpedo impacts across the hull.

Enterprise continues to suffer heavy damage, but before she can be crippled, Sulu arrives with Excelsior , taking some of the pressure off Enterprise as Chang chooses to divide his attacks between opponents. However, Chang has merely been slowed down: with his ability to fire while cloaked, Chang is still running circles around both ships.

At Khitomer, the Klingon who left has found a vantage point on an upper level and is cutting a small hole in one of the glass panes to aim a weapon at the President.

Chang relentlessly fires Shakespeare quotations such as:

and continues firing torpedoes, weakening Enterprise 's shields to the point that it takes a direct hit on the ventral-port side of the saucer section that ruptures the hull. Spock and McCoy complete their modifications to the photon torpedo, and with a great deal of satisfaction, Kirk gives the order to fire. It homes in on the cloaked Bird-of-Prey and lands a direct hit, but not before Chang gives his last Shakespeare quote from Hamlet :

Enterprise and Excelsior then target the location of the explosion, unleashing a barrage of torpedoes that destroy Chang's now decloaked (and shield-less) ship.

" It's Colonel West! "

The Enterprise crew beams down just in time for Kirk to knock the president out of the way of the would-be assassin's phaser rifle blast. He identifies himself to the dazed president. Cartwright orders them arrested and Spock retorts "Arrest yourself!" displaying a handcuffed Valeris. McCoy says that they have a full confession just as the Klingon assassin is about to shoot Valeris. At that moment, Scott kicks in the door to the assassin's hiding place, and shoots him just before he can kill Valeris. He falls through the glass pane to the floor. The Commander In Chief and Colonel Worf rush to the body and find out that it's not a Klingon; it's Colonel West. Cartwright takes advantage of the ruckus and tries to flee but is thwarted when Sulu, armed and accompanied by two security guards, transports from Excelsior and holds him there.

The Khitomer Conference saved

A confused and angry Azetbur demands to know what is going on. Kirk tells her this is all about the future and that history has not ended quite yet. Thinking of Gorkon's reference to the future as "the undiscovered country," Kirk notes that people can be very frightened of change. Azetbur tells Kirk he's restored her father's faith and Kirk tells her she's restored his son's. At that moment, the room breaks out into applause as the remaining Enterprise officers (including Sulu) walk up and join Kirk on the platform.

Epilogue [ ]

As Enterprise and Excelsior rendezvous above Khitomer , Kirk and crew reenter the bridge and exchange pleasantries with Captain Sulu. " Nice to see you in action one more time, Captain Kirk. Take care, " Sulu says as Excelsior moves away from the Enterprise , departing Khitomer. " By God, that's a big ship, " McCoy says. " Not so big as her captain, I think, " Scott adds. Chekov muses, " So… this is good-bye. "

The last flight of the Enterprise

" I think it's about time we got underway ourselves, " Kirk mentions. Uhura then tells Kirk that they've received direct orders from Starfleet Command to return Enterprise to Spacedock for decommissioning. The crew looks around at each other, emotional that their time together as a crew is now coming to an end.

Spock contemplates that for a moment and then remarks, " If I were Human, I believe my response would be 'Go to Hell .' If I were Human. " When Chekov asks for a course heading, Kirk tells him " Second star to the right, and straight on 'til morning. "

Uhura steps over near Scott and everyone watches as Enterprise heads off toward the stars on one final voyage.

Log entries [ ]

• Sulu: " Stardate 9521.6, Captain's log, USS Excelsior , Hikaru Sulu commanding. After three years , I have concluded my first assignment as master of this vessel, cataloging gaseous planetary anomalies in Beta Quadrant . We're heading home under full impulse power. I'm pleased to report that ship and crew have functioned well. "
• Kirk: " Captain's log , stardate 9522.6. I've never trusted Klingons, and I never will. I can never forgive them for the death of my boy. It seems to me our mission to escort the Chancellor of the Klingon High Council to a peace summit is problematic at best. Spock says this could be an historic occasion, and I'd like to believe him, but how on Earth can history get past people like me? "
• Kirk: " The Enterprise hosted Chancellor Gorkon and party to dinner last night; our manners weren't exactly Emily Post. Oh, note to the galley: Romulan ale no longer to be served at diplomatic functions. "
• Kirk:" Captain's log, stardate 9529.1. This is the final cruise of the starship Enterprise under my command. This ship and her history will shortly become the care of another crew ; to them and their posterity will we commit our future. They will continue the voyages we have begun and journey to all the undiscovered countries, boldly going where no man – where no one – has gone before. "

Memorable quotes [ ]

Shakespeare [ ].

" I thought I would assume a pleasing shape. " (Act II, Scene II)

" The undiscovered country. " (Act III, Scene I)

" To be, or not to be. " (Act III, Scene I)

Julius Caesar [ ]

" Cry havoc! And let slip the dogs of war! " (Act III, Scene I)

" I am constant as the northern star. " (Act III, Scene I)

King Henry IV, Part II [ ]

" Have we not heard the chimes at midnight? " (Act III, Scene II)

King Henry V [ ]

" Once more unto the breach, dear friends. " (Act III, Scene I)

" The game's afoot. " (Act III, Scene I)

The Merchant of Venice [ ]

" Tickle us, do we not laugh? Prick us, do we not bleed? Wrong us, shall we not revenge? " (Act III, Scene I)

Richard II [ ]

" Let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings. " (Act III, Scene II)

Romeo and Juliet [ ]

" Parting is such sweet sorrow. " (Act II, Scene II)

The Tempest [ ]

" Our revels now are ended. " (Act IV, Scene I)

General quotes [ ]

" Do we report this, sir? " " Are you kidding? "

" I must protest. To offer Klingons safe haven within Federation space is suicide. Klingons would become the alien trash of the galaxy. "

" I don't know whether to congratulate you or not, Jim. " " I wouldn't. "

" There is an old Vulcan proverb. Only Nixon could go to China. "

" Don't believe them! Don't trust them! " " They're dying. " " Let them die! "

" You must be very proud. " " I don't believe so, sir. " " She's a Vulcan all right. "

" I've never trusted Klingons and I never will. I can never forgive them for the death of my boy . "

" History is replete with turning points, Lieutenant. "

" Logic is the beginning of wisdom, Valeris, not the end. "

" Guess who's coming to dinner? "

" I offer a toast. The undiscovered country … The future. "

" In space, all warriors are cold warriors. "

" Human rights. Why the very name is racist. The Federation is no more than a homo sapiens only club. "

" We need breathing room. " " Earth, Hitler, 1938. " " I beg your pardon. "

" If there is to be a brave new world, our generation is going to have the hardest time living in it. "

" Did you see the way they ate?! " " Terrible table manners! " " I doubt that our own behavior will distinguish us in the annals of diplomacy."

" Valeris, do you know anything about a radiation surge? " " Sir? " " Chekov? " " Only the size of my head. " " I know what you mean. "

" We come in peace and you BLATANTLY defile that peace! And for that, I shall blow you out of the stars! " " We haven't fired! " " Captain, according to our databanks we have. Twice. "

" Don't let it end this way, Captain. "

" This president is not above the law. "

" Then, quite frankly, Mister President, we can clean their chronometers. "

" Sir… Those men have literally saved this planet. " " Yes, Bill, I know that. And now they're going to save it again. By standing trial. "

" I'll bet that Klingon bitch killed her father! "

" Doctor McCoy, would you be so good as to tell me your current medical status? " " Aside from a touch of arthritis, I'd say pretty good! "

" James Tiberius Kirk… What would your favorite author say, Captain? Let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings. Tell us your sad story Kirk, Tell us how you planned to take revenge for the death of your son. " " That's not true. " " Objection! Captain Kirk has not been identified as the assassin! " " Sustained. "

" Do you deny being demoted by these charges?! Don't wait for the translation!! Answer me now!! " " I cannot deny it. " " You were demoted? " " Yes. " " For insubordination? " " On occasion, I have disobeyed orders. "

" An ancestor of mine maintained that if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. "

" This is the gulag Rura Penthe. There is no stockade. No guard tower. No electronic frontier. Only a magnetic shield prevents beaming. Punishment means exile from prison to the surface. On the surface, nothing can survive. Work well, and you will be treated well. Work badly, and you will die. "

" If my surmise is correct, those boots will cling to the killers' necks like a pair of Tiberian bats. "

" I'm Martia. You're Kirk and McCoy, I presume. " " How did you know that? " " We don't get many presidential assassins. "

" I was lucky that thing had knees. " " That was not his knee. Not everybody keeps their genitals in the same place, Captain. "

" What is it with you, anyway? " " Still think we're finished? " " More than ever. "

" Perhaps you know Russian epic of Cinderella? If the shoe fits, wear it! "

" Mr. Scott, start your engines. " " Aye, aye sir. "

" Leave me. I'm finished. " " No! Bones, I'm wearing a viridium patch on my back. Spock slapped it there just before we went on Gorkon's ship. " " Why, that cunning little Vulcan. "

" An accident wasn't good enough. " " Good enough for one. Two would've looked suspicious. Killed while attempting escape … now that's convincing for both. "

" I can't believe I kissed you. " " Must have been your lifelong ambition. "

" Isn't it about time you became something else? " " I like it here. "

" Kill him! He's the one! " " Not me, you idiot! HIM! "

" Who? Who wanted us killed? " " Since you're all going to die, anyway, why not tell you? His name is…! "

" Couldn't you have waited just two more seconds!? " " Captain? " " He was just about to explain the whole thing! " " You want to go back!? " " Absolutely not!! " " It's cold! "

" First rule of assassination. Kill the assassins. "

" You have betrayed the Federation. All of you. " " And what have you been doing? " " Saving Starfleet! "

" Then we're dead. " " I've been dead before . "

" Thank you, Captain Sulu. " " Don't mention it, Captain Kirk. "

" You were right. It was arrogant presumption on my part that got us into this… situation. You and the Doctor might have been killed. " " The night is young. "

" You're a great one for logic. I'm a great one for rushing in where angels fear to tread. "

" Is it possible that we two, you and I, have grown so old and so inflexible that we have outlived our usefulness? "

" Do you want to know something? Everybody's Human. " " I find that remark… insulting. "

" Let us redefine progress to mean that just because we can do a thing it does not necessarily follow that we must do that thing. "

" I can see you, Kirk. " " Chang. " " Can you see me? Oh, now be honest, Captain, warrior to warrior. You do prefer it this way, don't you, as it was meant to be? No peace in our time. "Once more unto the breach, dear friends. "

" Come on. Come on! " " She'll fly apart. " " Fly her apart, then! "

" Doctor, would you care to assist me in performing surgery on a torpedo? " " Fascinating! "

" I'd give real money if he'd shut up. "

" We've got a heartbeat! "

" Where's that damn torpedo? " " It's ready, Jim. Lock and load! "

" Some people think the future means the end of history. Well, we haven't run out of history quite yet. "

" You've restored my father's faith. " " And you've restored my son's. "

" Once again we've saved civilization as we know it. " " And the good news is, they're not going to prosecute. "

" Nice to see you in action one more time, Captain Kirk. Take care. "

" So… this is goodbye. "

" Captain, I have orders from Starfleet Command. We're to be put back into Spacedock immediately. To be decommissioned. " " If I were Human , I believe my response would be: Go to hell! If I were Human. "

" Course heading, Captain? " " Second star to the right. And straight on 'til morning. "

Background information [ ]

Landmarks [ ].

• This is the second of two Star Trek productions (the other being Star Trek V: The Final Frontier ) between 1986 and 2005 to be produced without any involvement from Rick Berman .
• Although this is the final Star Trek film to feature the entire Star Trek: The Original Series cast together, only Nichelle Nichols ( Uhura ) and DeForest Kelley ( McCoy ) make their final official Star Trek appearances in this film (Kelley's appearance as an admiral in TNG: "Encounter At Farpoint" the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation had occurred four years previously). James Doohan ( Scotty ) would appear in TNG : " Relics ", and then with William Shatner ( James T. Kirk ), and Walter Koenig ( Pavel Chekov ) in Star Trek Generations . George Takei ( Hikaru Sulu ) appeared in VOY : " Flashback " and Leonard Nimoy ( Spock ) appeared in TNG : " Unification I " , " Unification II ", Star Trek , and Star Trek Into Darkness .
• Chronologically, McCoy, Spock and Scotty appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation long after the events of this film.
• This movie is the first canon instance of Sulu's first name, Hikaru (Japanese for "shining"), being stated. Prior to the film, it was commonly used in the novels (and reportedly approved by Gene Roddenberry and George Takei ( citation needed • edit ) ), but had never been made official.
• This is currently the only Star Trek movie shot in Super 35 format instead of anamorphic . ( citation needed • edit )
• The film was nominated for two Academy Awards . It was nominated for "Makeup" and "Sound Effects Editing." It was also nominated for the Hugo Award for "Best Dramatic Presentation" and five Saturn Awards , winning for "Best Science Fiction Film."
• Leonard Nimoy co-wrote the story for this final outing of the TOS cast. Likewise, the final outing of the TNG cast ( Star Trek Nemesis ) was co-written by one of its cast members, Brent Spiner .
• The film confirms Kirk's middle name, which had previously been established in the animated series episode " Bem " as "Tiberius," for the first time in live action production.
• Finally, just before the closing titles roll, the signatures of the seven main cast members from The Original Series are displayed one by one, writing themselves on the starfield.

Members of the film's cast with Nick Meyer

• Rene Auberjonois ' role as Colonel West was cut from the theatrical release, as Gene Roddenberry was uncomfortable with ideas that were presented in his scenes. ( citation needed • edit ) The scenes were later restored for the VHS, LaserDisc, and DVD release, but the BluRay release contains the theatrical cut. Auberjonois later played Constable Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine .
• Michael Dorn only found out he had a role in this film as Worf's grandfather when Nicholas Meyer and Herman Zimmerman were walking past the soundstages for Star Trek: The Next Generation and informed him about it. [1]
• The only actors, aside from the original cast, to appear in both this film and in Star Trek: The Motion Picture are Grace Lee Whitney ( Janice Rand ) and Mark Lenard . In both films, Whitney appeared as Janice Rand, whereas Lenard appeared as Sarek in The Undiscovered Country and a Klingon captain in The Motion Picture . This was the penultimate appearance of Rand, who went on to appear in the Star Trek: Voyager episode " Flashback ". She is a lieutenant jg in this film, although "Flashback" incorrectly depicts her as a lieutenant commander at the time of the film's setting. Some of the comics set around the time of Sulu taking command of Excelsior not only support her lieutenant commander rank, but imply that she was also the Excelsior 's first officer.
• Rand was supposed to be the character that wakes up Sulu to inform him that Starfleet was looking for the Enterprise instead of Christian Slater 's character. Slater was a huge fan of the show and his mother – Mary Jo Slater , the movie's casting director – petitioned heavily to get him a part. ( citation needed • edit )
• Rene Auberjonois, Michael Dorn and Kurtwood Smith would later star together in the Deep Space Nine fifth season episode " Things Past ", where Auberjonois plays Odo, Dorn plays Worf and Smith plays Thrax .
• This is Rene Auberjonois and John Schuck 's fourth film together. The first was MASH , followed by Brewster McCloud , and McCabe & Mrs. Miller .
• Merritt Butrick appears posthumously as David Marcus , via a photo in Kirk's quarters.

Story and production [ ]

• The Undiscovered Country was almost never made as a Star Trek film, not only due to the dismal box office receipts of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , but also for an unbroken string of, for Paramount Pictures , disappointing yet very expensive film releases as well, leaving the studio deeply in the red, only aggravated by a worldwide recession . However as seen on the Star Trek VI DVD set and also according to William Shatner 's Star Trek Movie Memories , Paramount, specifically its president Frank Mancuso, Sr. – who had been intimately involved with Star Trek ever since Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan – , did not really want to end the Original Crew run on The Final Frontier low note, especially with the 25th anniversary of the Star Trek franchise coming up, and wanted one more film, but found himself seriously hampered by the strictest of budget limitation: under NO conceivable circumstance was a potential new film to exceed the budget of The Final Frontier , not even by one dollar. It was at this point that Harve Bennett proposed his Starfleet Academy prequel , featuring a brand new, and thus far cheaper, cast, and was green lighted by Mancuso to go into pre-production, and proceeded as such, until Gene Roddenberry vehemently objected, and with him the fanbase and the secondary cast. But it was only when the (at the time) head of Paramount Communications (formerly Gulf+Western, owner of Paramount Pictures), Martin Davis , found out about the Academy concept and furiously demanding an Original Crew film be made, that Bennett's project was scrapped on the spot. Because nobody had thought of informing the highest boss, nearly eighteen months of valuable pre-production time had been lost. Because he wanted to do the prequel, and Mancuso no longer dared to continue, Harve Bennett left Star Trek after a decade with the franchise. ( Star Trek Movie Memories , 1995, pp. 347-348; Cinefantastique , Vol 22 #5, pp. 24-30)
• Earlier, a revised draft of Bennett's script featured a scene in which Kirk flashed back to his days at Starfleet Academy , allowing William Shatner and others to reprise their Original Crew roles as cameos – Bennett's effort to appease Roddenberry's ( et al. ) criticisms, before his project was scrapped altogether. ( Star Trek Movie Memories , 1995, pp. 343-345)
• Thoroughly chastized by his boss Davis, Mancuso subsequently turned to Leonard Nimoy in May 1990 to get a completely new film, featuring the entire Original Crew , started. It was during this meeting that Nimoy suggested the contemporary real world Gorbachev / Perestroika / Glasnost events as an allegory for the Federation and the Klingon Empire as basic story line, which was enthusiastically embraced by Mancuso. Informed that Bennett had gone, Nimoy requested to return Nicholas Meyer into the fold as co-writer and director, which was also embraced by Mancuso. In the early summer Nimoy and Meyer had an extended meeting at his holiday address in Cape Cod where they essentially hammered out the details as eventually featured in the film, though they became seriously hampered by studio politics through trying to burden the pair with the woefully inadequate dilettante Konner / Rosenthal "writing" duo. ( Star Trek Movie Memories , 1995, pp. 349-363) As the upper studio echelons were at the time, for the aforementioned reasons, embroiled in a tumultuous and very messy power struggle, derisively called the "The Studio Shuffle" in the contemporary press, the executive sponsors, Sid Ganis and Teddy Zee , of the Konner/Rosenthal duo were a short time later kicked out, and so were they, without having made a single noteworthy contribution whatsoever – according to both Nimoy and Meyer, what little they did turn in, immediately and literally trashed by (other) executives upon reading, was blatant plagiarism of their own story outlines. Yet Nimoy and Meyer (their relationship having actually become strained because of executives playing the one against the other in this matter, as it only became later apparent to both men) were too premature in their relief of being rid of the interloping duo, as the latter, near the end of the production, started legal procedures against both men for writing credits, partially succeeding, and nearly stripping Nimoy of any and all creative credit. ( see below ) Incidentally, Paramount veteran of 31 years Mancuso was also gone less than a month after he had approached Nimoy, unceremoniously fired over the telephone by Davis. [2] (X)
• When Nimoy was reaching out to Meyer, the latter was working in London, UK, working as writer/director on the MGM film Company Business (featuring Kurtwood Smith , he to subsequently play the President of the United Federation of Planets in The Undiscovered Country ), which ironically, had a similar glasnost theme. However, Meyer felt that the producers had "butchered" the film, and being vocal about it, it had at the time led in the industry grapevine to the rumor that it was this that led him to recycling the theme in The Undiscovered Country . For the remainder of the year Nimoy and Meyer, now reinforced by scriptwriter Denny Martin Flinn (he actually wanted, as it was Meyer who brought him in), communicated with each other by phone, fax and the early email, which however, made them susceptible to the studio politics as played by Ganis and Zee. ( Cinefantastique , Vol 22 #5, pp. 28, 30; [3] ) Incidentally, before Nimoy even contacted Meyer at his holiday address, Meyer had already been informed by Davis and Mancuso, when the latter two were in London, that a "thirty million dollars" sixth Star Trek film was green-lighted. ( Star Trek Movie Memories , 1995, pp. 354-358, )
• When the Klingons return to their ship after the dinner on the Enterprise , Chang speaks a Klingon phrase into his communicator (without English subtitles). Chang says "daHmacheH" which, in English, means "Ready to return now." During the dinner, Azetbur says a unsubtitled Klingon phrase that, when translated to English, means "Daddy" or "Father."
• Originally, a prologue was planned for the film, in which it was established that, before they all got the call to reassemble: Kirk was in a revitalized relationship with Carol Marcus ; McCoy was making a nuisance of himself by showing up drunk at medical celebrity events (as he despises the hypocrisy of it all); Spock's status was "classified;" Uhura had become a radio show hostess; Scotty was working as an engineering professor; Chekov was competing as a not altogether successful chess grandmaster (losing to Betazoids – which was another attempt to tie in the Original Crew franchise with that of Star Trek: The Next Generation ); and Sulu was working as a taxi driver on some backwater alien colony . A fully worked-out prologue sequence, approved for shooting, had already been scripted by Co-Script Writer Flinn. Last-minute mandatory budget limitations, however, forced the creative production team, much against their grain, to scrap the entire prologue sequence, leaving only the introductory Original Crew scene at Starfleet Command instead. ( Cinefantastique , Vol 22 #5, p. 26; Star Trek Movie Memories , 1995, pp. 376-378)

Element from a proposed scene from storyboard

• An early storyboard draft featured HMS Bounty in spacedock being disassembled by Starfleet engineers, under the supervision of Professor of Engineering Scott, before he got the call to meet up with his fellow former crew-members. This actually was part of the above-mentioned planned prologue of the film.
• It was originally intended for the Vulcan traitor to be Lt. Saavik , but the role was instead assigned to Lt. Valeris as a new character. According to William Shatner's Star Trek Movie Memories , this change was vehemently resisted by Gene Roddenberry , who felt that Saavik was too popular a character to be handled this way. Meyer (thoroughly fed up with the disruptive and incessant interlopings of Roddenberry, ever since he came aboard Star Trek , a decade earlier), could not care less what Roddenberry's thoughts on the matter were, rightfully claiming that the character was his creation, not Roddenberry's, and proceeded as planned. Yet, Meyer wanted only Kirstie Alley to reprise the role, but as she was at the peak of her popularity with Cheers at the time and her asking price was far too high. Only when Alley turned out to be unavailable, was it then decided to change the character, instead of casting yet another actress for the same part. Kim Cattrall initially refused the role as she was under the false impression that she had to portray Saavik, but jumped at the opportunity when she learned that that was not to be the case, as she considered Saavik "just a girl", whereas Valeris was a woman. Ironically, Cattrall had auditioned for the role of Saavik for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . To her big disappointment, Robin Curtis had never been considered to reprise the role of Saavik for this film. ( Cinefantastique , Vol 22 #5, p. 31; Star Trek Movie Memories , 1995, pp. 374-375) Other stories say that Kirstie Alley refused Nicholas Meyer's requests that she reprise the role, as she was uncomfortable about her weight, and that she did not want to look overweight onscreen in the form-fitting uniforms. ( citation needed • edit )
• Many of General Chang's quotes and the subtitle, "The Undiscovered Country," come from Hamlet's " To be or not to be " soliloquy, by William Shakespeare . Chang also quotes or paraphrases Richard II , Julius Caesar , The Merchant of Venice , Henry IV, Part II , Henry V , and The Tempest .
• Chang's demand, " Don't wait for the translation! Answer me now! " is a reference to Adlai Stevenson 's similar demand of Soviet Union representative Valerian Zorin at the United Nations during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. ( Star Trek Encyclopedia )
• Nichelle Nichols objected to the scene in which the crew desperately searches through old printed Klingonese translation dictionaries in order to speak the language without the standard universal translator being used. It seemed more logical to her that Uhura, being the ship's chief communications officer, would know the language of the Federation's main enemy, or at least have the appropriate information in the computer. However, director Meyer bluntly overruled her. Chekov can be heard explaining at the beginning of the scene that " a universal translator would be recognized ". ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (Special Edition) DVD -special feature, " text commentary ") In the alternate reality of Star Trek Into Darkness, Uhura — who may have had a different education from that of the Prime Uhura — does speak Klingonese (or as she and Captain Kirk refer to it, "Klingon").
• Uhura originally had a line " Would you let your daughter marry one? " (that is, a Klingon), but the line had to be cut because Nichols absolutely refused to say it. Chekov's line " Guess who's coming to dinner? " was also originally Uhura's, but Nichols considered it also to be racist and declined to say it. The line was moved to Chekov. It was a reference to Guess Who's Coming to Dinner , the first major film to deal with interracial marriage, in which Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, and Sidney Poitier starred. ( Star Trek Movie Memories , 1995, pp. 365-366; Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (Special Edition) DVD-special feature, "text commentary")
• On the Special Edition release of Star Trek VI , it was revealed that Brock Peters ' scene in the council chamber had to be shot in numerous takes, as he was very uncomfortable with the racial undertones in his lines that the Federation take the opportunity to "bring them to their knees", which was itself, a reference to another film in which that line was said about African Americans.
• The perceived racism toward the Klingons was of great concern to Roddenberry as well, as he felt there was no place for it in his Star Trek universe, but his considerations were entirely ignored by both Meyer and Nimoy. Aghast, he then summoned a meeting, even though Roddenberry had no formal say in the film whatsoever. Complete with heavy legal representation, a very charged meeting followed between the two sides, which quickly turned into a shouting match as Meyer finally unleashed his years of pent up frustration with Roddenberry in full. In later years Meyer came to regret his behavior. " He was not well, and maybe there were more tactful ways of dealing with it, because at the end of the day, I was going to go out and make the movie. I didn't have to take him on. Not my finest hour. ", a rueful Meyer recounted in 2011. Roddenberry died a few months later. ( [4] (X)  ; Star Trek Movie Memories , 1995, pp. 366-367) Meyer remained regretful of his behavior as he reiterated the incident as recent as 2016 when he retold the story in Roger Lay, Jr. 's 50th anniversary documentary Star Trek: The Journey to the Silver Screen (Chapter 5: "End of an Era: Charting the Undiscovered Country") .
• In December 1990 a finalized script draft was turned in to the studio, and this version was approved to go into production. Meyer, finished in London, relocates to Los Angels later that month. ( Cinefantastique , Vol 22 #5, p. 30)
• However, less than a month later in early January 1991, the original, immovable studio budget restriction decree reared its ugly head in full force, as David Kirkpatrick , who had replaced Teddy Zee as the Paramount Motion Picture Group President in another round of "The Studio Shuffle", demanded a detailed budget breakdown for the script as submitted. Somewhat falsely reassured by the remarks Davis and Mancuso made to him in London the previous spring, Meyer came back with a total figure of US$40 million dollar. Kirkpatrick's reply was short and to the point; It would not do. ( Cinefantastique , Vol 22 #5, pp. 33-35)
• A desperate scramble among the creative staff ensued to trim as much as possible of the budget as possible; the entire prologue was (albeit painfully) scrapped, scenes were trimmed, all planned set construction for new starship interiors was abandoned (though a new Kronos One corridor set did get build ultimately), the planned live-action shoots in Alaska for the Rura Penthe scenes were scrapped as were plans for new studio models and other visual effects elements. Starship sets were to be entirely recycled from Star Trek: The Next Generation , which was concurrently in production, but was slated for its summer hiatus, when filming of The Undiscovered Country was planned to start, and only existing studio models were to be used. Major cast and crew even agreed to deferred payment of (part of) their wages. ( Cinefantastique , Vol 22 #5, pp. 35-36)
• Co-Producer Steven-Charles Jaffe , a former Trekkie , was so desperate to see the film come to fruition that he even went as far to suggest dropping Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) as the visual effects vendor for the film, instead going for a cheaper company. However the Associates & Ferren visual effects debacle for the previous film was still very much fresh on the minds of his colleagues, and no one was willing to go that far. However, the planned 110 visual effects cuts were whittled down to just 51. ( Cinefantastique , Vol 22 #5, p. 35)
• With an absolute, rock-bottom downward revised budget of US$30 million dollar Meyer returned to Kirkpatrick & co. and vigorously and emotionally made a case for it. Kirkpatrick strictly adhered to the US$25 million dollar the previous film had originally been budgeted at, but was willing to up the budget with US$2.5 million to the total that film had actually cost, but not a penny more. Moved to tears, Meyer knew that the film could not be made for that amount and continued to make a passionate plea for it. After Kirkpatrick had deliberated with his colleagues, the verdict came back: The film was canceled. ( Star Trek Movie Memories , 1995, pp. 368-371)
• Yet, a few weeks later, with all activity on the film halted and production crews sent home, Meyer received a call from interim Paramount Pictures President Stanley R. Jaffe (not related to producer Jaffe), standing in for the released Mancuso, who had heard that the production was in trouble. Informed by Meyer that he could not make the film as he was shy of US$2.5 million dollars, Jaffe succinctly retorted, " Okay, you've got it, " effectively canceling Kirkpatrick's cancellation decision. Instead, it became Kirkpatrick who got "canceled" in April as a result of yet another round in "The Studio Shuffle". ( Star Trek Movie Memories , 1995, pp. 371, 393)
• One of the major reasons Meyer could not budge from his budget was that there was one of the most expensive sets that absolutely had to be built, and that there was no way around it: the refit- Enterprise bridge set . The original set had a few months earlier been temporarily stored on the outside studio parking lot, in order to make room for other sets. A freak weather event completely wrecked the set beyond salvation, save for some parts such as the two turbolifts . ( Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (Special Edition) DVD-special feature, "text commentary") However, once rebuilt, the set had to do double duty as the USS Excelsior bridge as well by means of reshuffling the variable wall panels, as the original, more cavernous Excelsior bridge set had already been struck years earlier, shortly after its use in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock . Ironically, the Excelsior bridge scenes were shot first, before it became the Enterprise bridge. ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (Special Edition) DVD-special feature, "text commentary") Aside from his intimate familiarity with The Next Generation sets (which he had helped design and built), it was one of the most overriding reasons why Production Designer Herman Zimmerman was brought in, as he was the one who had been responsible for the bridge redesign as featured in The Final Frontier . In the process, it has also explained why The Next Generation 's USS Enterprise -D received a new battle bridge , as it had been the (heavily re-dressed) original refit-bridge that had stood in for it in the early seasons of the series. ( Cinefantastique , Vol 22 #5, p. 35)
• Trimming down the visual effects cuts to 51 turned out to be too ambitious, as 30 of the originally jettisoned effects sequences had to be produced by ILM and inserted after all, in order to make the film "cut" well. ( Cinefantastique , Vol 22 #5, p. 35)
• While the studio had no budget from new studio models, one was actually constructed as something of a labor of love by ILM staffers John Goodson and Bill George , the SD-103-type . The script had a scene featured which both men felt needed embellishment, and so, of their own volition, they constructed the model. ( Cinefex , issue 49, p. 48) The model went on to later become the Sydney -class . It has made The Undiscovered Country the feature in which the fewest new Star Trek starship designs were featured. George incidentally turned out to be a stickler for detail; As he was aware that the Excelsior now a new and smaller bridge, he made the effort to replace the originally larger bridge module on the Excelsior -class filming model with a smaller one, in order to reflect the change. ( American Cinematographer , January 1992, pp. 58-59)
• Reportedly, William Shatner was champing at the bit to assume the director's role for the film in order to redeem himself for The Final Frontier , but as writer Flinn had dryly noted, " It's amazing what three million dollars will accomplish. " As Shatner had, already since Star Trek: The Original Series days, entered into a mutual "favored-nation clause" covenant with Nimoy which stipulated that, simply put, what the one got so did the other, this meant that Nimoy was to receive the same remuneration for his portrayal of Spock alone – and thereby discounting his writer's fee. However, it was also the reason why Nimoy, already being two for one in director's chores, declined the original offer by Mancuso to direct the film himself, instead opting for Meyer. It is not only for Star Trek that star cast salaries had habitually inflated exponentially with each sequel, and it had been one of the overriding reasons why Bennett's "Academy"-project was green-lighted originally, but also one of the reasons why Meyer could not give in any further to the budget demands of Kirkpatrick. ( Star Trek Movie Memories , 1995, pp. 244, 350; Cinefantastique , Vol 22 #5, p. 30)
• Also on the DVD (and in his memoir Star Trek Movie Memories ), William Shatner stated that he was unhappy with the final cut of his interchange with Spock in the Council Chamber, as he felt that it made Kirk seem too cynical and bitter. He originally had done the scene in one take, adding a dismissive wave after his comment to " Let them die! " which was subsequently edited out of the final film despite Meyer promising Shatner that he wouldn't do that, according to Shatner.
• The dinner scene in the officers' mess as scripted was originally longer, and filled with a bit more build up and escalating comments between the Federation and Klingon crews. The scene was originally to build almost to blows, when Gorkon says the line " It seems we have a long way to go. " [5] (X)
• The first scene at Rura Penthe was heavily influenced by The Bridge On the River Kwai , where the commandant of the POW camp gives a similar speech to the new British prisoners.
• According to Denny Martin Flinn in a 2003 audio commentary for The Undiscovered Country , Martia's alien language exclamation " Fendo pompsky " became a popular gag among the crew. Used in place of certain expletives, the line was even embroidered on the inside of the production crew jackets.
• The romantic comedy Frankie and Johnny was filming at nearby soundstages on the Paramount Pictures lot during production. Director Garry Marshall arranged for William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , and DeForest Kelley to appear in full Star Trek costume and makeup, out of camera shot, behind a door in one scene, to elicit genuine surprise from star Al Pacino when he opened it. [6]
• The poster artwork for the film was designed by John Alvin , who took over from previous Trek poster artist Bob Peak . Alvin was asked to design the poster in the style of Peak's.
• Co-producer Ralph Winter provided the film with a remarkable coda. Though understandably proud of what he and the creative team had achieved, he had second thoughts on Bennett's abandoned "Academy"-project, reasoning in hindsight that it would have instituted a long-term studio strategy for a sustainable Star Trek live-action production line, as opposed to the somewhat chaotic, spur-of-the-moment planning as hitherto employed. " With a long term plan you could milk this forever, " Winter mused. ( Cinefantastique , Vol 22 #5, p. 35) As it so happened, Winter got his wish sooner than even he could have foreseen, as David Kirkpatrick's immediate studio successor turned out to be Brandon Tartikoff . Brought in at the tail-end of the production of The Undiscovered Country , Brandikoff was yet to leave his mark on Star Trek by exactly doing that, what Winter had imagined.

Sets, props, and costumes [ ]

• General Chang's eyepatch had the Klingon crest painted on the heads of each rivet. The makeup artist painted them on for fun and they were never intended to be seen. ( citation needed • edit )
• Kirk and Spock 's quarters (Data's quarters, which were originally Kirk's quarters from Star Trek: The Motion Picture )
• Transporter room ( Enterprise -D transporter room)
• Sickbay ( Enterprise -D sickbay)
• Laboratory ( Beverly Crusher 's office)
• Officers' mess hall (the dining room, redress of Enterprise -D observation lounge )
• Engineering (clear redress of the Enterprise -D engineering; they simply replaced the display graphics and repainted some surfaces)
• Corridors (retouched with more metallic appearance)
• Galley (redress of Counsellor Troi's Office, later the USS Sutherland bridge)
• Captain Kirk's quarters featured two different maps of the Milky Way galaxy created for early TNG episodes ( TNG : " Conspiracy ", " The Emissary ")
• Captain Sulu's coffee table was a bit more than a cute addition to the Excelsior bridge. Beneath it was the support for an apparatus used to shake the whole bridge set during the Praxis explosion. As a side note, you may also notice the coffee cup that broke had no markings on it like the one Sulu was drinking from moments earlier. It was such a nice cup, the prop department didn't want it damaged. A similar table, likely for the same reason, can also be seen on the Enterprise bridge as well, between the captain's chair and the helm/nav console. ( citation needed • edit )
• Pfaltzgraff made the china used in the film, and sold 3,000 sets of reproductions. The company logo can be seen at the bottom of the aforementioned broken cup. [7]

Federation President's office in Paris

• The office of the Federation President is a redress of Ten Forward . A viewscreen is located in place of the art ornament behind the bar counter, and the walls are painted with some shade of brown. ( Star Trek Encyclopedia , 2nd ed., p. 502) The doors for the set accidentally retained the TNG style insignia during filming, and this can clearly be seen in the film.
• One of the models of the original USS Enterprise in Kirk's quarters was built by writer Ronald D. Moore when he was eleven.
• The book used by Uhura while frantically searching for a linguistic reference of the Klingon language while entering Klingon territory is actually the 1951 catalog for the "Alloy Steel Products Company, Inc.". ( citation needed • edit ) Interestingly, the title of the modified book states Introduction to Klingon Grammer , in which "grammer" should be spelled as "grammar".
• Several props and costumes from this movie were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay, including a Rura Penthe miner's mask [8] , a Vulcan Khitomer attendee's costume [9] , a Klingon court attendee lot [10] , a Klingon canteen [11] , and a Klingon uniform lot, partially worn by Scott Leva . [12] Also sold off was a desk lamp, which was featured during the Starfleet staff meeting. It was designed by F.A. Porsche and labeled as model "Jazz". [13]

Miscellaneous [ ]

• Gene Roddenberry saw the movie two days before he died . According to William Shatner 's Star Trek Movie Memories (1995, p. 394), Roddenberry, after seeing the film, gave thumbs up all around, and then went back and phoned his lawyer, Leonard Maizlish , angrily demanding a full quarter-hour of the film's more militaristic moments be removed from the film, but Gene died before his lawyer could present his demands to the studio.
• Originally, director Nicholas Meyer wanted to bring back composer James Horner , whom he worked with on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan to score The Undiscovered Country . However, Horner turned the offer down, saying his "career had moved past Star Trek ." Meyer then offered the film to composer Jerry Goldsmith , but he turned it down, citing the poor results of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , which he had also worked on. The film eventually went to composer Cliff Eidelman . According to the liner notes for the soundtrack album, Meyer's original concept for the score was to adapt Gustav Holst's The Planets , but getting the rights to the music proved too expensive. (Eidelman's score therefore pays homage to Holst, most notably in the opening credits where the score bears a close resemblance to "Mars," the first movement from The Planets .) An excerpt from The Planets was used a few years later in the trailer for Star Trek Generations . Eidelman was picked because of his extensive knowledge of Holst's "The Planets", having written his master's thesis on the complete suite.
• This movie and Star Trek: The Motion Picture are the only Star Trek films released before the alternate reality films not to use the opening fanfare from the " Theme from Star Trek " in the main title music.
• According to William Shatner's Star Trek Movie Memories , the original story credits for the film were to be " Story by Leonard Nimoy and Nicholas Meyer, Screenplay by Denny Martin Flynn " as nothing from the original submission by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal were used in the final film. According to Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, Konner and Rosenthal went to the Writers Guild of America for arbitration as they felt they should deserve story credit. The WGA spoke to Nimoy and he showed them his notes where he had initially come up with the story idea for the film and they initially sided with Nimoy. However Konner and Rosenthal appealed again and eventually the WGA changed the credits to " Story by Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal , screenplay by Nicholas Meyer and Denny Martin Flynn, " leaving Nimoy out of the credits. An incensed Nimoy contacted his lawyer and said if this weren't resolved by the end of the upcoming weekend, he would immediately sue Paramount and the WGA over the matter. Nimoy's lawyer reportedly worked non-stop over the weekend, working with Meyer's attorney, with Konner and Rosenthal's attorney, until finally coming up with a credit which was acceptable to all: " Story by Leonard Nimoy and Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal, Screenplay by Nicholas Meyer & Denny Martin Flynn. "
• The galley scene was quickly written into the movie just to demonstrate that you can't fire a phaser (set to kill) on board the ship without triggering an alarm. (This raises the question as to why a phaser locker is in the galley. The answer could be found as early as " The Corbomite Maneuver ". While the Enterprise is being towed by Balok 's ship, Yeoman Janice Rand brings hot coffee to the bridge. Dr. McCoy asks her how she made coffee when the "power was out" in the galley. Her pragmatic answer was, " I used a hand phaser and zap – hot coffee. ")

Is this worth $240?

• The blue food at the dinner scene was so disgusting that actors had to be bribed to eat it. Each actor was offered twenty dollars for every bite. Shatner did it, and won $240, before throwing up. (According to Leonard Nimoy, it was chunks of squid treated with blue food coloring.) Reportedly, Shatner was the only member of the cast able to swallow any of it, and the first time Shatner ate the colored squid, he turned and looked right at Nick Meyer and said, " Where's my twenty? " Meyer called " cut! " and pulled out the twenty and gave it to Shatner. ( William Shatner's Star Trek Movie Memories )
• Spock attributes the quote " If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth " to an ancestor. This quote (and numerous variations) derives from the Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle . Fans, noting the similarities between the characters of Spock and Holmes, have long speculated that Spock might be a descendant (on the side of his Human mother, Amanda Grayson ) either of the fictional Holmes or the historical Doyle; the first such speculation is found in a Ruth Berman article in Spockanalia in 1966. ( citation needed • edit ) Writer/director Nicholas Meyer, a Holmes fan, wrote the well-received Sherlock Holmes novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution and adapted it into an Academy Award-nominated screenplay.
• During the search of all uniforms on board the Enterprise , a crewman takes off the cover of a power conduit. When he moves to put the cover down, you can see production markings on the back.
• At the dining room, you can see paintings of many dignitaries, including Surak, founder of Vulcan philosophy and American President Abraham Lincoln . The Enterprise crew met recreations of both of them in TOS : " The Savage Curtain ". Another painting is of an unnamed Andorian dignitary.
• After the first day of shooting, someone noticed that Valeris 's jacket was trimmed in Sciences division gray, not cadet and trainee red, to match her cadet red turtleneck undergarment. Since re-filming would have been too expensive, it was quickly decided to just let it pass. ( citation needed • edit )
• Valeris also wears the incorrect rank insignia of lieutenant commander , although exclusively being referred to in both dialogue and credits as a lieutenant .
• During the Battle at Khitomer, Uhura mentions that the Enterprise is carrying equipment to study gaseous anomalies. In the beginning of the film, Sulu states that the Excelsior is also on a mission to study gaseous anomalies. It is not clear whether this is done intentionally, as the Enterprise 's mission is strictly escort duty for the Chancellor's ship.
• The sets for the Excelsior and Enterprise- A bridges were redresses of the same set, which were made up of modules to be rearranged, as needed.
• In the final shot of the Enterprise bridge crew, the helmsman's chair is left empty, symbolizing that Sulu is not present.
• In the credits at the end of the movie, Uhura is misspelled " Uhuru ."
• The final scene also has the characters standing in a staged lineup. The producers wanted it known that it was the last movie.
• The final captain's log was actually shot on the bridge of the Enterprise . This, however, was the last scene shot. Instead of using a dubbed log, they recorded it live. ( citation needed • edit )
• The Khitomer hall was represented by the Brandeis-Bardin Institute , located in southern California.
• The footage of the Enterprise -A in spacedock is actually modified footage from Star Trek IV (budgetary constraints, as well as the disappearance of the spacedock interior miniature from ILM's archives, dictated its use). This marks the second time that footage shot for a previous film was re-used for a second time (the other being the Genesis sequence from Star Trek II , which also appeared in Star Trek III and Star Trek IV ).
• The Bird-of-Prey explosion from this film was later used in Star Trek Generations .
• For some unknown reason, the art on the label for the special features disc of some editions of the Special Collector's Edition features an upside-down close-up image of the Enterprise -B while still in drydock from the film Star Trek Generations ; Paramount Home Entertainment later corrected this problem by reissuing it as a silver labeled DVD. A similar error occurs on the HD and Blu-ray editions of the film, with the Enterprise -B on the back cover.
• During the dinner scene, Kirk says that having Romulan ale is " One of the advantages of being a thousand light years from Federation Headquarters . " Given that 78 years later, a faster and more advanced USS Voyager would expect to take seventy years to travel seventy thousand light years, one may infer that it would take far longer than a year for the Enterprise to reach the rendezvous point with Kronos One . It is more likely that Kirk was speaking metaphorically and not quoting an exact figure.
• A scene in the script and novelization took place on Excelsior just after Sulu's conversation with Kirk, where Valtane was to have told Sulu, " Do you realize you've just committed treason, sir? " Sulu was supposed to reply something along the lines of " I always hoped that if I ever had to choose between betraying my country or betraying my friend, I'd have the courage to betray my country. " This exchange remained in the novelization.
• The events of this film were later revisited in VOY : " Flashback ", in which it is established that Tuvok served as an ensign aboard the Excelsior . External footage of the Excelsior and the Praxis explosion wave were reused directly from the film, but all other scenes were specially re-shot, partly to include Kate Mulgrew and Tim Russ, who had not appeared in the film originally, but also because the movie's actors had aged significantly since the film was shot, meaning new footage of the actors filmed for the episode would not have matched any of the reused movie footage.
• As with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , this film shows Spock having full command of the Enterprise . In fact, this is the only film in which Spock actually gives Kirk orders.
• Spock references the events of this film during TNG : " Unification II ", citing his guilt over committing Kirk to be a negotiator in the Klingon peace talks and the consequences that followed.
• After TOS : " Whom Gods Destroy " and TAS : " The Survivor ", this marks the third time that a shapeshifter has assumed the form of Captain Kirk.
• A similarly extended, establishing prologue was later envisioned for the subsequent movie, Star Trek Generations , but it too, though partially filmed, was scrapped for budgetary reasons, as well as for running-time considerations.
• NBC, Star Trek' s former network, fittingly premiered Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country on November 6, 1994, a good 12 days in advance of Star Trek Generations 's nationwide release. It was the first time any kind of Star Trek was seen on The Peacock Network since Star Trek: The Animated Series in 1973.

In Star Trek VI , during his trial, Bones says that he has been the ship's surgeon for 27 years. He took the post from Mark Piper at some point in 2265 , after " Where No Man Has Gone Before ", or in early 2266 , before " The Corbomite Maneuver ". This statement establishes a time frame for the film from 2292 to 2293 .

The film ends with the last voyage of the ship and crew. The prologue of Star Trek Generations is set more precisely in 2293, or 78 years before 2371 . In the prologue, a news reporter and Scotty talk with Kirk about how he has settled down into his retirement, suggesting that the retirement from the previous film is still a very recent thing for him.

StarTrek.com , Star Trek Chronology , and Star Trek Encyclopedia , 3rd ed., p. 691 use the year 2293. Memory Alpha uses this year as well.

Behind the scenes [ ]

Concept art [ ].

Production gallery [ ]

Merchandise gallery [ ]

Production history [ ]

• 5th draft script: 28 December 1990
• Start of principal photography: 11 April 1991
• End of principal photography: 2 July 1991
• Screening for Gene Roddenberry (2 days before his death): 22 October 1991
• Hollywood, California premiere: 3 December 1991
• US theatrical premiere: 6 December 1991
• CD soundtrack : 10 December 1991
• Comic adaptation : 1991
• Australia theatrical premiere: 1 January 1992
• Novelization : 1992
• UK theatrical premiere: 14 February 1992
• Japan theatrical premiere: 28 February 1992
• Germany theatrical premiere: 5 March 1992
• Hungary theatrical premiere: 1 May 1992
• Netherlands theatrical premiere: 5 June 1992
• Spain theatrical premiere: 19 June 1992
• US LaserDisc: 25 June 1992
• France theatrical premiere: 22 July 1992
• Japan LaserDisc: 10 February 1993
• VHS: 25 August 1993
• UK network television premiere: 7 January 1995 on BBC1
• UK LaserDisc: 1996
• France LaserDisc: 1996
• Widescreen VHS: 2 April 1997
• Region 1 DVD: 26 January 1999
• Special Edition Region 1 DVD: 27 January 2004
• Special Edition Region 2 DVD: 1 March 2004
• iTunes Store: 2006
• Blu-Ray: September 2009

Different versions [ ]

• Aspect ratios. The film was originally filmed and edited in Super 35 (4-perf). It was composed for multiple aspect ratios (meaning that all the important action had to be centered in a fairly small part of the frame). Every release is a reduction (croppings) from the original, never-released full frame using so-called "soft mattes". For theatrical release, the master was reduced to the usual 2.39:1 aspect ratio used for anamorphic 35mm projection (all the other Trek movies were filmed in this ratio, using anamorphic lenses instead of Super 35). A 2.20:1 version was also prepared for 70mm release (the same was done with all the previous Trek films). The film has never been commercially available in either theatrical aspect ratio, until the Blu-ray release. The non-widescreen television broadcasts and VHS releases were reduced to the 1.33:1 aspect ratio, thus easing up the matte on the top and bottom, but cropping some of the sides. Early widescreen VHS and laserdisc transfers and the first DVD release were opened up to yet another ratio, 2.00:1, and then centered high on the screen with space at the bottom for subtitles, but was non-anamorphic. The Special Edition DVD release was opened up to the same 2.00:1 ratio, but was anamorphicly enhanced for widescreen TVs. Which portion of the full frame is used varies from shot to shot, rather than being a purely mechanical reduction – and the choices are made differently in each release, including the two 2.00:1 releases. Apparently the 2.00:1 is the director's preferred aspect ratio. However, for the May 2009 Blu-ray release, the film was made available in its original theatrical ratio of 2.39:1 for the first time.
• Extra scenes and edits. Until 2009 , the theatrical cut had never been released commercially in English (however has aired on TV a few times before then). The original 1992 home video release added back in the "Operation Retrieve" scenes (originally, the scene in the president's office ended with the line " This president is not above the law "), the scene between Spock, Scotty and Valeris directly before the trial, and the unmasking of Colonel West on Khitomer (just a few shots are added: Colonel Worf touching West's blood and saying " This is not Klingon blood " between Cartwright trying to escape and Sulu stopping him, the actual unmasking and the C-in-C and Worf looking at each other directly after). These scenes remained in all subsequent commercial releases until 2009 . The 2003 Special Edition DVD release re-edited the scene when Scotty is drinking coffee from a mug and drawing on a blueprint (using alternate shots) and added in flash frames of Cartwright, Chang, and Nanclus during Spock and Valeris' mind meld and slight alternate takes during her interrogation on the bridge. The original cut, albeit with the 2.00:1 aspect ratio, was present on the 1993 dubbed German VHS release. It was also released on iTunes, cut at 2.00:1 (640x320). The various releases of the movie on Blu-ray Disc and DVD in 2009 featured the original theatrical cut in its original aspect ratio.
• The end credits had a different format for the theatrical version. It featured the Starfleet Insignia at the top and the screen split between a white background and dark lettering and the other side with a dark background with white lettering.

Apocrypha [ ]

• Star Trek VI was adapted into novelization by Jeanne M. Dillard .
• A comics adaptation was written by Peter David and drawn by Gordon Purcell and Arne Starr .
• A novel and comic sequel to the events of this film, The Ashes of Eden , written by William Shatner and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens , depicts a plot created by a Klingon-Romulan alliance, staged in Chal, a homeworld populated by a race of genetically-engineered Klingon-Romulans. Kirk is called there by a native of the planet, Teilani, to help her people with this crisis.
• The conference at Khitomer was explored again in the non-canon Star Trek novel Assignment: Eternity .
• The novel Provenance of Shadows established that McCoy started doing research at Starfleet Medical and other novels have had McCoy as Chief of Starfleet Medical as well. " Encounter at Farpoint " clearly establishes that McCoy was an admiral at that point in time .
• According to the novel The Star to Every Wandering , at the time of Star Trek Generations , Chekov was working a ground assignment on Earth waiting for an executive officer position to open up. It's likely he was assigned to Excelsior as executive officer shortly thereafter (according to the non-canon novel The Sundered , he took the post of executive officer on the Excelsior ), eventually commanding two starships on his own before becoming an admiral.
• In the movie, Uhura said she was supposed to be chairing a seminar at the Academy, and The Lost Era novels established that she was going to do that very thing when she was recruited for Starfleet Intelligence and eventually rising to become an admiral and head of Intelligence by 2360 at the latest.
• The Starfleet Corps of Engineers novels have established that Montgomery Scott eventually became the head of the Corps of Engineers and other books established Scott as having helped to design and work on building the USS Enterprise -E . In fact, the novel Ship of the Line , which dealt with the actual launch of the Enterprise -E, established that Scott was acting chief engineer for the ship's shakedown cruise with Geordi La Forge as his first assistant chief.

Awards and honors [ ]

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country received the following awards and honors.

Links and references [ ]

Credits [ ], opening credits [ ].

• William Shatner
• Leonard Nimoy
• DeForest Kelley
• James Doohan
• Walter Koenig
• Nichelle Nichols
• George Takei
• Mark Lenard
• David Warner
• Kim Cattrall
• Rosana DeSoto
• Christopher Plummer
• Kurtwood Smith
• Brock Peters
• Paul Rossilli
• John Schuck
• Leon Russom
• Michael Dorn
• Mary Jo Slater , CSA
• Cliff Eidelman
• Marty Hornstein
• Brooke Breton
• Ronald Roose
• Herman Zimmerman
• Hiro Narita
• Gene Roddenberry
• Leonard Nimoy and Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal
• Nicholas Meyer & Denny Martin Flinn
• Ralph Winter and Steven-Charles Jaffe
• Nicholas Meyer

Closing credits [ ]

• Kirk – William Shatner
• Spock – Leonard Nimoy
• McCoy – DeForest Kelley
• Scotty – James Doohan
• Chekov – Walter Koenig
• Uhuru [sic] – Nichelle Nichols
• Sulu – George Takei
• Lt. Valeris – Kim Cattrall
• Sarek – Mark Lenard
• Excelsior Communications Officer – Grace Lee Whitney
• Admiral Cartwright – Brock Peters
• Chief in Command – Leon Russom
• Federation President – Kurtwood Smith
• Chang – Christopher Plummer
• Azetbur – Rosana DeSoto
• Chancellor Gorkon – David Warner
• Klingon Ambassador – John Schuck
• Klingon Defense Attorney – Michael Dorn
• Kerla – Paul Rossilli
• Klingon Judge – Robert Easton
• Klingon Officer – Clifford Shegog
• Klingon Commander – W. Morgan Sheppard
• General Stex – Brett Porter
• Excelsior Officer – Jeremy Roberts
• Excelsior Engineer – Michael Bofshever
• Excelsior Navigator – Angelo Tiffe
• Helmsman Lojur – Boris Lee Krutonog
• Excelsior Communications Officer – Christian Slater
• Martia – Iman
• The Brute – Tom Morga
• Klingon Translator – Todd Bryant
• Behemoth Alien – John Bloom
• First Klingon General – Jim Boeke
• Munitions Man – Carlos Cestero
• Young Crewman – Edward Clements
• Martia as a child – Katie Jane Johnston
• Prisoner at Rura Penthe – Douglas Engalla
• Second Klingon General – Matthias Hues
• Nanclus – Darryl Henriques
• Sleepy Klingon – David Orange
• Military Aide – Judy Levitt
• ADC – Shakti
• Crewman Dax – Michael Snyder
• Donald R. Pike
• Ed Anders (as Excelsior crewman in sleep wear )
• Jeff Bornstein (as Excelsior crewman in sleep wear )
• Eddie Braun (as Excelsior bridge crewman )
• Charlie Brewer (as stunt double for Brett Porter )
• Gary Baxley
• Brett Davidson (as Excelsior crewman in sleep wear )
• B.J. Davis (as Burke )
• Dorothy Ching-Davis (as Excelsior crewman in sleep wear )
• Maria Doest (as Excelsior crewman in sleep wear )
• Joe Farago (as Excelsior bridge crewman )
• Sandy Free (as Excelsior bridge crewman )
• Joy Hooper (as Excelsior crewman in sleep wear )
• Jeff Imada (as Stunt double for George Takei )
• Jeffrey S. Jensen
• Robert King
• Scott Leva (as Excelsior bridge crewman / Klingon transporter officer )
• Alan Marcus (as Samno )
• Cole McKay (as Excelsior bridge alien crewman )
• Eric Norris
• Noon Orsatti (as Excelsior bridge crewman )
• Deeana Pampena (as Stunt double for Grace Lee Whitney )
• Gary T. Pike (as Gorkon's soldier / Klingon officer )
• Donald B. Pulford (as Stunt double for William Shatner )
• Joycelyn Robinson (as Excelsior bridge crewman / Stunt double for Iman )
• Danny Rogers
• Don Ruffin (as Excelsior bridge crewman / Chang's assistant / Klingon officer )
• Spike Silver
• Erik Stabenau (as Excelsior bridge crewman / Stunt double for Rene Auberjonois )
• Douglas E. Wise
• Katy E. Garretson
• Nilo Rodis-Jamero
• Dodie Shepard
• Steven-Charles Jaffe
• William Hoy
• Scott Farrar
• Michael J. Mills
• Thomas R. Bryant
• Mickey S. Michaels
• Eugene C. Nollman
• Alan S. Kaye
• Louise Nielsen
• Ron Wilkerson
• Kirstin R. Glover
• Robert Morey
• Richard M. Stevens
• Gregory Schwartz
• John Beyers
• Charles Lang
• Keith Barber
• John Cybulski
• Ian Christenberry
• Jeff Durling
• Thom Embree
• Michael Katz
• Daniel Cook
• Dennis Flanderka
• Arnaud Peiny
• Gene S. Cantamessa
• Steve G. Cantamessa
• Mark R. Jennings
• Terry D. Frazee
• Donald E. Myers
• Donald Frazee
• Logan Frazee
• Eugene Crum
• Scott Lingard
• Joseph C. Sasgen
• Brian McManus
• Gilbert A. Mosko
• Gerald Quist
• Ron Walters
• Edward French
• Richard Snell Designs, Inc. ( Richard Snell )
• Greg Cannom
• Janice R. Alexander
• Carol A. O'Connell
• Don L. Hulett
• Jamie Buckley
• Richard Beck
• Edward G. Fitzgerald
• Elaine Maser
• Christine Heinz
• Joseph R. Markham
• Robert M. Moore
• Adrienne Childers
• Daniel Candib
• Scott Caldwell
• Michael Hofacre
• Richard Sellmer
• George Watters II
• F. Hudson Miller
• R. J. Palmer
• Frank Howard
• Bruce E. Bell
• Suhail F. Kafity
• Thomas Fucci
• Fred Stafford
• Bobbi Banks
• Victoria Martin
• Matthew Harrison
• Marva Fucci
• Maggie Ostroff
• Greg Thompson
• Marcy Stoeven Gibbens
• Jonathan Phillips
• Alan Howarth
• John Paul Fasal
• David Lee Fein
• Bunny Andrews
• Robin K. Eidelman
• Barbara Harris
• Jeffery J. Haboush
• Michael Herbick
• Greg P. Russell , CAS
• James Cavarretta
• Gary Ritchie
• Mark McKenzie
• William Kidd
• Carl Fortina
• Bob Bornstein
• Twentieth Century Fox
• Armin Steiner
• Rhonda Baer
• David Trotti
• Sheila Barnes
• Laurie Gauger
• Richard J. Bayard
• Cliff Bergman
• Mike Apperson
• Gary A. Clark
• Henry S. Coia
• Jan Glaser , CSA
• Wendy Engalla
• Chuck Maytum
• Michael McCusker
• Rebeca R. Brookshire
• Mary Beth Gentle
• Deborah L. Krainin
• Mary Jo Fernandez
• Brent Lon Hershman
• Brian Wensel
• Mindy Sheldon
• Debbie Tieman
• Scott Russell
• Michael H. Okuda
• Bob Hoffman
• Scott Benton
• Roland Armstorff
• R. Harrison Gibbs
• Russell Alan Steele
• Buffee Friedlich
• Aaron M. Albucher
• John Downer
• Gerald L. "Jerry" Sater
• Marc Okrand
• Brian Wallace

Second Unit Photography [ ]

• John V. Fante
• Christopher T. Gerrity
• Andrea Walzer
• Frank Del Boccio
• Frank Parrish
• Bob Crockett
• Clinton O. Johnson
• Cinema Research Corporation

Negative Cutting

• Theresa Repola Mohammed
• David Oliver Pfeil
• Industrial Light and Magic , a Division of LucasArts Entertainment Company Marin County, California
• Peter Takeuchi
• William George
• Bradley Kuehn
• Jil-Sheree Bergin
• Michael McGovern
• Peter Daulton
• Patrick Sweeny
• David Hanks
• Katie O'Neill
• Patrick Turner
• Robert Hill
• Scott Anderson
• Eric Armstrong
• John Berton
• Richard Cohen
• Joe Letteri
• Jim Mitchell
• Joe Pasquale
• Alex Seiden
• Gail Currey
• Jon Alexander
• Donald Clark
• Jeffrey Doran
• Selwyn Eddy III
• Keith Johnson
• Patrick Repola
• Kenneth Smith
• David Karpman
• Jennifer Lee
• Thomas Rosseter
• John D. Whisnant
• Debra Wolff
• Michael Ellis
• Robert Fernley
• Nelson Hall
• Lisa Vaughn
• Bruce Walters
• Charlie Clavadetscher
• John Graves
• Steven Reding
• Eric Swenson
• Thomas Bertino
• Kathleen Beeler
• Rebecca Petrulli-Heskes
• Sandy Houston
• Terry Molatore
• Jack Monogovan
• Ellen Mueller
• Carolyn Rendu
• Wes Ford Takahashi
• Gordon Baker
• Christopher Green
• Peter Crosman
• Shari Malyn
• Joshua Pines
• Randall K. Bean
• George Gambetta
• Timothy Greenwood
• Preston Richards
• Lawrence Tan
• Jon Foreman
• Brian Gernand
• Jon Goodson, Jr.
• Richard Miller
• Alan Peterson
• Eben Stromquist
• Paul Theren
• Wim Van Thillo
• Charles Wiley
• Richard Demolski
• Robert Finley, Jr.
• Ross Lorente
• Craig Mohagen
• David Morton
• Charles Ray
• Carol Lee Griswald
• Alia Almeida Agha
• Nancy Luckoff
• Tina Matthies
• Matte World – Marin County, California
• Craig Barron
• Michael Pangrazio
• Krystyna Demkowicz
• Paul Oehlke
• Joel Hladecek
• Wade Childress
• Peter Kuran
• Al Magliochetti
• Kevin Kutchaver
• Linda Henry
• Tim Segulin
• Rick Hannigan
• David Tucker
• Jacqueline Zietlow
• Pacific Data Images
• Les Dittert

Production Support

• Karen Logan
• Barbara Cimity
• Cliff Boule
• Nina Salerno
• Randy Weeks
• Craig Newman
• Katie O'Hara
• Pete Martinez
• Monte Swann
• Jeffrey Harstedt
• WildFire, LA
• Foam Tec, Inc.

Rear Screen Projection Compositing by

• MCA Compact Discs and Cassettes
• Music by Alexander Courage
• Technicolor ®
• Panavision ®
• Alaska Film Commission
• Alaska Helicopter Company
• Dave Archer Studios
• Pfaltzgraff
• Durand International
• August Amarino as presidential adviser
• David Keith Anderson as Enterprise -A crewmember
• Rene Auberjonois as Colonel West
• Lena Banks as Federation president's assistant
• Terrence Beasor as Klingon voices
• Robert Bruce as Klingon officer
• Faith Burton as Starfleet flag officer
• Eddie Caldwell as Romulan
• Max Cervantes as Daz
• Barron Christian as Klingon assistant to Commandant
• Dragon Dronet as Klingon spectator
• Andre Dukes as Klingon Rura Penthe guard
• Douglas Dunning as Alien delegate
• Joe Durrenberger as Klingon officer
• Farrel as Klingon General
• Mark Gonzaga as Vulcan delegate
• Trent Christopher Ganino as Klingon judge
• Clay Hodges as Klingon officer
• Klingon officer
• Klingon helmsman
• Bruce Koski as Alien delegate
• Tony Lawson as Klingon
• Susan Lewis as Enterprise -A officer
• Beau Lotterman as Romulan delegate
• Daryl F. Mallett as Rura Penthe prisoner
• James Mapes as Zelonite official
• Marin as Enterprise -A crewman
• Patrick Michael as Enterprise -A crewman
• Claude Nemeth as Klingon Rura Penthe guard
• Dennis Ott as Knee Jerk Alien
• Jim Portnoy as Starfleet flag officer
• Khitomer flag bearer
• Klingon spectator
• Evans Ricciardi as Starfleet flag officer
• Denise Lynne Roberts as Enterprise -A crewmember
• Richard Sarstedt as Romulan delegate
• Eric A. Stillwell as Klingon spectator
• Geraldine Sylvester-Bush as Vulcan delegate
• Kevin G. Tracey as presidential adviser
• Roma Lee Tracy as silver tube amazette alien dignitary
• Guy Vardaman as Klingon officer
• J.D. Walters as Klingon
• Clint Zehner as Rura Penthe prisoner
• Five Klingon Kronos One crewmen
• Three presidential advisers
• Three Klingon Rura Penthe guards
• Klingon judge
• Romulan delegate
• Tellarite delegate
• Zelonite ambassador
• Zelonite official
• Female USS Excelsior security officer
• Male USS Excelsior security officer

Uniforms for each of these named officers, each including a name tag, were sold off at the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay.

• Greg Gault as stunt double for David Warner
• Dennis Madalone as a Klingon officer
• Stunt double for Christopher Plummer
• Patrick Michael as stand-in for Leonard Nimoy
• Joycelyn Robinson as stand-in for Iman
• Lita Stevens
• Kenny Studer
• Jim Thompson
• Martin Valinsky
• Philip Weyland as stand-in for William Shatner
• David Abbott – Special Makeup Effects Artist
• Aaron Albucher – Assistant Production Accountant
• Dave Archer – Artwork Provider: Paintings
• Margaret Bessara – Prosthetic Makeup Artist: David Warner , Kurtwood Smith , and Robert Easton
• Tom Boyd – Musician: Oboe
• Barney Burman – Special Makeup Effects Artist
• Rob Burman – Special Makeup Effects Artist
• Mary Burton – Makeup Artist: Iman
• Cogswell Video Services, Inc. – Visual Effects Unit Video Assist Company
• Danna Edwards – Costumer
• Robert Fletcher – Costumes Design
• Christopher Gilman and Dilligent Dwarves Effects Lab – Prop and Wardrobe Creator and Provider
• Kristin R. Glover – Camera Operator
• Nancy J. Hvasta Leonardi – Assistant Makeup Artist
• Jeff Kleeman – Development and Production Executive for Paramount Pictures
• Norman Ludwin – Musician: Bass
• Iain McCaig – ILM Storyboard Artist
• Mike McCarty (for Dilligent Dwarves Effects Lab ) – FX artist: Ran parts for Klingon costumes
• Steve Neill – Special Makeup Effects Artist
• Scott Schneider – Model Maker
• Marlene Stoller – Hair Artist
• Rick Stratton – Makeup Artist
• Todd Tucker – Special Make-Up Effects Artist
• Danny Valencia – Hair Stylist
• Karen Westerfield – Prosthetic Makeup Artist
• Philip Weyland – Dialogue Coach

References [ ]

19th century ; 1938 ; 2223 ; 2266 ; 2290 ; 2343 ; 24-hour clock ; Aamaarazan ; abduction ; accident ; act ; act of war ; Adam and Eve Expelled from Paradise ; address ; admiral ; admiration ; advocate ; aft ; agenda ; aide-de-camp ; alarm ; alien ; Alpha Quadrant ; ambassador ; ambition ; amount ; anatomy ; ancestor ; annals ; answer ; architect ; arrest ; arthritis ; article ; artificial gravity ; ash ; assassin ; assassination ; automation ; attack ; author ; auxiliary circuit ; auxiliary gravity ; auxiliary power ; back ; back-up system ; battle cruiser, Klingon ; battle stations ; beaming ; beaming shield ; bearing ; behavior ; Beta Quadrant ; Beta Quadrant sector ; black ; blood ; " bloody "; boat ; boatswain's whistle ; " Bones "; bow ; bridge ; brigadier ; Brotherhood of Aliens ; bug ; Burke ; Camp Khitomer ; capital ; cardiac arrest ; career ; chairing ; chameloid ; chain of command ; Chancellor of the Klingon High Council ; Chang's Bird-of-Prey ; charge ; chief of staff ; chimes ; China ; choice ; Christ, Jesus ; chronometer ; Cinderella ; circuit A ; circumstantial evidence ; citizen ; citizenship ; civilization ; client ; cloaking device, Klingon ; close range ; club ; coat ; Code blue ; coffee ; cold warrior ; colleague ; colonel ; commander in chief ; commandant ; communications station ; commutation ; computer ; comrade ; Concise History of the Klingon Empire, A ; condolences ; conference ; confession ; confiscation ; conspiracy ; Constitution -class ; Constitution II -class ; control tower ; conversation ; Coon, G.L. ; coordinates ; course ; court ; court reporter ; creature ; crew quarters ; crewman ; cruise ; crime ; damage report ; data ; data banks ; daughter ; Davis ; day ; death ; death sentence ; decommissioning ; deflector shield ; degree ; demotion ; departure stations ; depiction ; dialogue ; dilithium ; dinner ; diplomacy ; diplomat ; diplomatic corps ; diplomatic function ; dockmaster ; doctor ; Earth ; Earth Cold War ; Earth year ; echo bar ; economy ; Efrosian ; electronic frontier ; energy production facility ; engine room ; Enterprise -A, USS ; epic ; error ; evening ; evidence ; Excelsior -class ; Excelsior , USS ; excerpt ; exile ; existence ; exoneration ; exploration ; exploration program ; explosion ; extradition ; extremist ; eyepatch ; fact ; faith ; father ; Federation ; Federation headquarters ; Federation members ; Federation President ; Federation-Klingon Cold War ; Federation space ; feeling ; feet ; first officer ; flag of truce ; flare ; flatbed shuttle ; forgery ; " for king and country "; France ; free will ; freighter ; friend ; fuel ; full ambassador ; future ; galley ; gang ; Garden of Eden ; gas ; gavel ; general ; generation ; genitals ; " give real money "; graveyard ; gravitational field ; gravity ; gravity boot ; ground ; guard tower ; guest ; guilt ; gulag ; hailing frequency ; Hamlet ; hand ; handcuffs ; head ; hearing ; heart ; heartbeat ; helm ; helmsman ; Henry IV, Part I ; Henry IV, Part II ; Hitler, Adolf ; Holmes, Sherlock ; hostage ; hostility ; hour ; Human ( homo sapiens ); Human rights ; idea ; idealism / idealist ; idiot ; "If you eliminate the impossible..." ; ignorance ; impulse power ; information ; insubordination ; intercept course ; interstellar law ; Introduction to Klingon Grammer ; jackal mastiff ; joke ; judgment ; Julius Caesar ; K't'inga -class ; key ; kiss ; Khitomer ; Khitomer Accords ; Khitomer Conference ; Khitomer conspiracy ; kill setting ; king ; Klingon Bird-of-Prey ; Klingon Empire ; Klingons ; Klingon High Command ; Klingon frontier ; Klingon history ; Klingon Neutral Zone ; Klingon Defense Force uniforms ; Klingon space ; Klingonese ; knee ; Kobayashi Maru scenario ; Kronos One ; laughter ; level ; Lincoln, Abraham ; " linguistic legerdemain "; light ; light year ; listening post ; listing ; livelihood ; location ; logic ; lunatic ; lying ( lie ); machine ; madam ; magnetic boots ( gravity boots ); Marcus, David ; master ; medical status ; medical tricorder ; meeting ; Megazoid ; Merchant of Venice, The ; meteor shower ; midnight ; Milky Way Galaxy ; military advisor ; military budget ( budget ); military operation ; mine ; mission ; mission of peace ; model ; money ; month ; moon ; mooring ; morning ; Morska ; mothballing ; motive ; multiple choice ; murderer ; mythology ; name ; NAR ; neck ; negotiation ; neutral zone ; neutron radiation ; news ; night ; Nixon, Richard M. ; Northern Star ; obedience ; objection ; officers' mess ; Okrand ; Okrand's Unabridged Klingon Dictionary ; olive branch ; Operation Retrieve ; opportunist ; order ; oxygen ; ozone ; pair ; pardon ; Paris ; parole ; patricide ; peace ; peace conference ; peace summit ; peace talks ; peace treaty ; penal asteroid ; penal colony ; permission ; personal log ; Pfaltzgraff ; phaser ; photon torpedo ; physics ; piano ; place ; plasma ( ionized gas ); plasma exhaust ; plate ; pollution ; port (facility); port (side of ship); port gate ; Post, Emily ; pot ; Praxis ; prejudice ; president ; prison ; prisoner ; progress ; problem ; prototype ; proverb ; pulse ; punishment ; Qo'noS ; question ; quarters ; rank ; reality ; refuse ; rendezvous ; report ; reprieve ; resource ; result ; retirement ; revenge ; reward ; risk ; Romulan ; Romulan ale ; Romulan government ; Romulan border ; rose ; rudder ; Rura Penthe ; Russian ; sabot ; sabotage ; Saboteurs ; safe haven ; safety precaution ; Salak ; Samno ; San Francisco ; saucer ; scene ; science station ; scientific program ; Scots language ; screaming ; SD-103 ; SD-103 type ; second ; secret ; sector ; Sector 70 ; seminar ; sensor ; sentence ; service record ; Shakespeare, William ; ship's bell ; ship's surgeon ; shoe ; shouting ; show trial ; sickbay ; silent running ; size ; slave ; smell ; smoking ; sniper rifle ; son ; sorrow ; space station ; Spacedock One ; special envoy ; species ; speculation ; Spoken Languages of the Klingon Empire ; sponsor ; starbase ; starboard ; Starfleet ; Starfleet Academy ; Starfleet Command ; Starfleet Command Intelligence Database ; Starfleet Headquarters ; Starfleet regulations ; state dinner ; statement ; stern ; stockade ; story ; stun setting ; subspace ; subspace channel ; subspace message ; subspace transmission ; subspace shock wave ; suicide ; surface ; surgeon ; surgery ; surrender ; table ; table manners ; tail pipe ; targ ; tear ; tear duct ; Tempest, The ; terrorism ; territory ; theory ; thing ; thousand ; three-year mission ; thruster ; Tiberian bat ; tickling ; toast ; torpedo bay ; torpedo launcher ; torpedo room ; touch ; tour ; translation ; transporter pad ; transporter range ; transporter room ; trash ; trial ; truth ; universal translator ; universe ; Ursva ; value ; vessel ; viridium patch ; volunteer ; Vulcan ; mind meld ; walking ; warp drive ; warrior ; weapons locker ; web ; week ; wisdom ; Wise, D. ; witness ; wood ; word ; worker ; wound ; year ; Z-axis ; Zelonite

Library computer references [ ]

• Starship Mission Assignments : Ahwahnee , USS ; Challenger , USS ; Constellation , USS ; Eagle , USS ; Emden , USS ; Endeavour , USS ; Helin , USS ; John Muir , USS ; Kongo , USS ; Korolev , USS ; Lantree , USS ; Oberth , USS ; Potemkin , USS ; Republic , USS ; Scovill , USS ; Sector 21185 ; Sector 21186 ; Sector 21290 ; Sector 21399 ; Sector 21803 ; Sector 21835 ; Sector 21836 ; Sector 21837 ; Sector 22849 ; Sector 22858 ; Sector 22956 ; Sector 22958 ; Sector 23094 ; Springfield , USS ; Starbase 24 ; Starship Mission Assignments ; Whorfin , USS
• Operation Retrieve star chart : Alpha Bayard ; Alpha Beaird ; Alpha Cooper ; Alpha Crum ; Alpha Glover ; Alpha Johnson ; Alpha McCusker ; Alpha Meyers ; Alpha Saunders ; Alpha Suhr ; Apperson's Asteroid ; Arnold's Planet ; Baber Nebula ; Barnes Nebula ; Barnett's Star ; Bergman's Planet ; Beta Christenberry ; Beta Cook ; Beta Flinn ; Beta Friedlich ; Beta Garretson ; Beta Gonzales ; Beta Lingard ; Beta Michaels ; Beta Penthe ; Beta Penthe I ; Beta Penthe II ; Beta Penthe III ; Beta Penthe IV ; Beta Penthe V ; Beta Penthe VII ; Beta Penthe system ; Beta Schwartz ; Beta Sternbach ; Breton's Planet ; Brookshire's Planet ; Buckley's Planet ; Cantamessa's Star ; Cole's Star ; Constitution II -class; Cybulski's Planet ; Delta Hart ; Downer's Star ; Excelsior -class ; Farrar's World ; Foster Nebula ; Frazee's Nova ; Friedlich Nebula ; Gamma Fitzgerald ; Gauger Star ; Gullory Nebula ; Harstedt's Planet ; Hershman's Star ; Hodges Nebula ; Jaffeworld ; Latonaworld ; Meyer's Star ; Molly's Star ; Moreyworld ; Narita's Planet ; Nimoy's Star ; Nollman's Planet ; Nuzzo Station ; Operation Retrieve star chart locations ; Okrand Colony ; Rao-Beyers ; Rooseworld ; Sasgen's Star ; Sector 21166 ; Sigma Trotti ; Stevens Nebula ; Theta Gentle ; Theta Hulett ; Wenselworld ; Winter's Nova ; Wise Nebula ; Zimmerman's Star
• Federation star chart ("The Explored Galaxy") : Aldebaran ; Alfa 177 ; Alpha Carinae ; Alpha Centauri ; Alpha Majoris ; Altair VI ; Andor ; Ariannus ; Arret ; Babel ; Benecia ; Berengaria VII ; Beta Aurigae ; Beta Geminorum ; Beta Lyrae ; Beta Niobe ; Beta Portolan ; Camus II ; Canopus III ; Capella ; Daran V ; Delta Vega ; Deneb ; Eminiar ; Fabrini ; First Federation ; Gamma Canaris N ; Gamma Trianguli ; Holberg 917G ; Ingraham B ; Janus VI ; Kling ; Kzin ; Lactra VII ; Makus III ; Marcos XII ; Manark IV ; Memory Alpha ; Mudd ; Omega IV ; Omega Cygni ; Organia ; Orion ; Pallas 14 ; Phylos ; Pollux IV ; Psi 2000 ; Pyris VII ; Regulus ; Remus ; Rigel ; Romulan Neutral Zone ; Romulus ; Sarpeid ; Sirius ; Talos ; Tau Ceti ; Theta III ; Tholian Assembly ; Vulcan

Unused Material [ ]

democracy ; economics ; employment ; gunboat diplomacy ; prerogative

Unreferenced material [ ]

Arc ; Bayard, D. ; Brookshire, R. ; Cantemessa, G. ; Downer, J. ; Flinn, D.M. ; Garretson, K. ; Glover, K. ; Hulett, D. ; Jaffe, S.C. ; Michaels, M. ; Morey, R. ; Narita, H. ; Rodis, N. ; Sector 21185 ; Sector 21290 ; Sector 21399 ; Sector 21803 ; Sector 21835 ; Sector 21837 ; Sector 22849 ; Sector 22956 ; Sector 23006 ; Tathwell, D. ; Thomas, C. ; Wise, D. ; Zimmerman, H.

Timeline [ ]

External links [ ].

• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country at Wikipedia
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country at the Internet Movie Database
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country script  at Star Trek Minutiae
• " Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country " at MissionLogPodcast.com
• 2 Daniels (Crewman)
• 3 Bell Riots

Memory Beta, non-canon Star Trek Wiki

A friendly reminder regarding spoilers ! At present the expanded Trek universe is in a period of major upheaval with the continuations of Discovery and Prodigy , the advent of new eras in gaming with the Star Trek Adventures RPG , Star Trek: Infinite and Star Trek Online , as well as other post-57th Anniversary publications such as the ongoing IDW Star Trek comic and spin-off Star Trek: Defiant . Therefore, please be courteous to other users who may not be aware of current developments by using the {{ spoiler }}, {{ spoilers }} OR {{ majorspoiler }} tags when adding new information from sources less than six months old (even if it is minor info). Also, please do not include details in the summary bar when editing pages and do not anticipate making additions relating to sources not yet in release. THANK YOU

• Memory Beta articles sourced from websites
• Starfleet personnel
• USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) personnel
• Starfleet lieutenants
• Starfleet commanders
• Starfleet personnel (23rd century)
• Starfleet helmsmen and flight controllers

Valeris was a female Vulcan who lived in the 23rd century .

Biography [ ]

At age 13, she was living with her parents on the planet Nidrus Gamma . Her father, Ambassador Sepel successfully negotiated a trade agreement for the native minerals. The Klingon representative, K'Darg captured Valeris and her mother, T'Kio , threatening their lives if Sepel did not rescind the Federation's treaty with the Nidrusi. Although the hostages were rescued by a strike team from the USS Ark Royal under the command of Lance Cartwright , the incident left Valeris with a deep mistrust of Klingons.

While attending Starfleet Academy , Valeris authored a paper which was deeply hostile towards the Klingons, and was highly critical of peace overtures made by the Federation . She was summoned before Cartwright, now an Admiral, who revealed that he shared much of her views, but convinced her not to submit the paper. ( TOS novel : Cast No Shadow ) Valeris eventually became the first Vulcan to graduate from Starfleet Academy at the top of her class ( TOS movie : The Undiscovered Country ). After graduation, she was posted to the USS Bonhomme Richard . ( TOS novel : Cast No Shadow )

She was mentored by Captain Spock , who did not show her favoritism by immediately assigning her to the USS Enterprise -A . Instead, Cartwright arranged for her posting there. Spock decided that she was a good candidate to replace him and thus watched over her career.

As part of her first training cruise aboard the Enterprise , she was supervised by Saavik . Despite Saavik's belief that Valeris was arrogant and bigoted, she decided to give her a full recommendation out of loyalty to Spock. ( TOS comic : " A Question of Loyalty ")

In 2293 , Valeris was a lieutenant , but wore the uniform of a trainee lieutenant commander . She requested an assignment as helmsman aboard the USS Enterprise when that vessel was assigned to escort Gorkon , chancellor of the Klingon High Council , to Earth .

It was later revealed that Valeris was ordered to volunteer by Admiral Lance Cartwright as part of a conspiracy to assassinate Gorkon. Valeris represented Cartwright in meetings with Kriosian intermediaries between Cartwright and the Klingon conspirators. ( TOS novel : Cast No Shadow )

She also was responsible for the falsification of the Enterprise 's computer records, indicating that the vessel had torpedoed Gorkon's flagship , IKS Kronos One , when in fact that vessel was fired upon by a cloaked Bird-of-Prey . The conspiracy had calculated that Kirk would attack the crippled Kronos One when it threatened to fire at them, but they underestimated Kirk's fundamental nature as an explorer rather than a warrior and he and his crew instead tried to save the negotiations. Valeris' duplicity was exposed by Kirk and Spock, and she was subsequently apprehended and charged. ( TOS movie : The Undiscovered Country , ST website : StarTrek.com )

Following her arrest and trial, Valeris was sentenced to imprisonment in the Jaros II penal colonly. During her incarceration, Valeris proved resistant to attempts to rehabilitate her. In 2300 , the Kriosian intermediaries, known as The Thorn , attempted to destabilize the Khitomer Accords by attacking Federation and Klingon targets with an isolytic subspace weapon . As the only surviving member of the conspiracy, Valeris was remanded to the custody of Darius Miller of Starfleet Intelligence in an advisory role. Following Miller's death in an attempt to stop the terrorists, Valeris, Lieutenant junior grade Elias Vaughn and Klingon Imperial Intelligence operative Kaj were able to prevent the deployment of a third weapon in the remains of Praxis . During the mission, Valeris's confrontation and mind-meld with a leader of the Thorn forced her to recognise that her issues with the Klingons had been based around her own hatred stemming from her childhood trauma rather than a logical assessment of them as a major threat to the Federation, this epiphany being reinforced when Kaj noted that Valeris was judging all Klingons by those few she had met as a child where Kaj judged the Federation based on the actions of men like Miller. With the mission concluded, Valeris was given a new identity of T'Leris and served as a civilian pilot on Sigma Draconis V , Vaughn noting that her current actions didn't excuse her past but did give him faith that she could move on. ( TOS novel : Cast No Shadow )

Connections [ ]

• Valeris article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• Valeris article at Star Trek Expanded Universe
• 1 Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
• 2 Odyssey class
• 3 Typhon class

• Paramount Pictures

Summary On the eve of retirement, Kirk and McCoy are charged with assassinating the Klingon High Chancellor and imprisoned. The Enterprise crew must help them escape to thwart a conspiracy aimed at sabotaging the last best hope for peace.

Directed By : Nicholas Meyer

Written By : Gene Roddenberry, Leonard Nimoy, Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal, Nicholas Meyer, Denny Martin Flinn

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Where to watch.

William Shatner

Leonard nimoy, deforest kelley, james doohan, walter koenig, nichelle nichols, george takei, kim cattrall, lt. valeris, mark lenard, grace lee whitney, excelsior communications officer, brock peters, admiral cartwright, leon russom, chief in command, kurtwood smith, federation president, christopher plummer, rosanna desoto, david warner, chancellor gorkon, john schuck, klingon ambassador, michael dorn, klingon defense attorney, paul rossilli, robert easton, klingon judge, critic reviews.

• All Reviews
• Positive Reviews
• Mixed Reviews
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User Reviews

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Star trek vi has spock's most controversial mind meld.

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Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country features Captain Spock (Leonard Nimoy) performing an unwanted mind meld on Lt. Valeris (Kim Cattrall), a controversial scene that has not aged well. The final film to feature the entire cast of Star Trek: The Original Series , The Undiscovered Country centers on a conspiracy to thwart peace talks between the United Federation Of Planets and the Klingon Empire, the latter of which has become hobbled by a catastrophic mining accident. Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan director Nicholas Meyer returned to helm the TOS crew's final cinematic voyage.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is not without controversy. Some took offense to the raw, angry racism Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) expresses toward the Klingons early on, as he still blames the entire species for the death of his son in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock . Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry , who by that point was gravely ill and near the end of his life, reportedly hated the movie, even engaging in a heated meeting with Meyer to express his reservations about the film's dark tone and certain character motivations. And yet the movie's most enduring controversy remains Spock's shocking actions near the end of the film.

Related: Spock & Sarek Are Star Trek’s Most Tragic Father-Son Relationship

Why Spock's Star Trek VI Mind Meld With Valeris Was So Controversial

After it's revealed that Spock's Vulcan protégé onboard the USS Enterprise-A, Lt. Valeris, is a part of the vast conspiracy to stop peace talks between the Federation and the Klingons, Kirk demands to know the names of the other conspirators. After Valeris declines to name her associates, Spock forces her into a Vulcan mind meld , essentially ripping the names from her mind. It's a tense, quiet scene, underscored by a haunting heartbeat, with Spock and Valeris whispering the conspirators' names in unison. When Spock presses her on the location of the secret peace conference, Valeris screams out in pain and terror, unable to offer up information she doesn't know.

Spock's voice shakes as he ends the mind meld, with the Vulcan clearly regretting his actions on some level. His actions weren't completely unwarranted; Valeris was, at the very least, a murderer who conspired against the Federation. Not only that, her betrayal clearly had a profound effect on Spock. That said, the forced mind meld feels like nothing less than an assault, the sort of violation the heroes of Star Trek don't perpetrate. It's a black mark on an otherwise great finale for the TOS crew .

Star Trek VI's Director Dislikes The Mind Meld Scene

Nicholas Meyer was crucial to the development of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , not only directing the film, but coming up with the initial story idea with star and producer Leonard Nimoy. The strong-willed Meyer never had a problem pushing Star Trek into territory it had never been before, occasionally to the annoyance of his co-creators and almost always to the chagrin of Gene Roddenberry, who thought Meyer fundamentally misunderstood Star Trek . More often than not, Meyer's instincts were right, and he's responsible for a handful of the best Star Trek stories ever.

And yet Meyer has recently expressed some level of regret over the forced mind meld scene. Meyer compared the scene to watching someone be waterboarded and believes he'd make a different decision regarding the treatment of Lieutenant Valeris now. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country stands as a near-masterpiece hindered by one poorly considered scene.

More: 11 TOS Characters Who Returned In Star Trek’s TNG Era

• Star Trek: The Original Series (1966)

Why Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Is The Best Star Trek Movie

The Star Trek  phenomenon is now almost 60 years old. While it started on TV — and lately has flourished there once again with  Discovery , Picard , and Lower Decks — the franchise also has a long and mostly well-regarded cinematic history, with Star Trek: The Motion Picture  debuting in 1979, and regular entries hitting theaters throughout the 1980s and '90s. The movie series took a hiatus after the poorly received Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002, but returned in 2009 with J.J. Abrams' acclaimed reboot, starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, and Zoe Saldana as Kirk, Spock, and Uhura, respectively. Dubbed the "Kelvin" timeline for how it rejiggered events within the existing Star Trek universe, the reboot delivered three films, bowing out in 2016 with Star Trek Beyond . While a number of possible Star Trek films have been discussed since, including an entry by Trek fan Quentin Tarantino , Paramount Pictures has yet to announce anything official.

While Trekkers await news of a new film, they engage in the age-old practice of ranking the existing films . Such rankings invariably place the vaunted Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan at the top, and one could argue that it is the best in terms of pure cinema. But in honor of the late Christopher Plummer — who played the classic Klingon villain, General Chang, in the film — we argue that Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country  is the best film embodiment of Star Trek , and everything fans love about the original series.

It best reflects Star Trek's original Cold War allegory

Gene Roddenberry imagined Star Trek as a " Wagon Train to the Stars ," with Earth settlers boldly exploring the final frontier of space. But he also conceived of it as a Cold War allegory, one in which the United Federation of Planets represented NATO, the Klingon Empire stood in for the Soviet Union, and the Romulans were the red Chinese . A number of episodes of the original series allegorize Cold War conflicts, including "Errand of Mercy," "Friday's Child," "Elaan of Troyius," "The Omega Glory," and " Balance of Terror ."

Producer Harve Bennett's  "holy trilogy"  –  The Wrath of Khan , The Search for Spock , and The Voyage Home –  explored the relationships and trials of the Enterprise crew and the sacrifices they made for one another. But when Paramount brought back Wrath of Khan writer/director Nicholas Meyer to make one final film with the original series cast, he and Leonard Nimoy took Star Trek back to its Cold War roots, imagining "the fall of the Berlin Wall in space," and its aftermath. Specifically, they wanted to dramatize the hard work of achieving peace in a world that is used to hate, paranoia, and xenophobia. The plot, about a coup that attempts to derail a galactic peace conference, mirrored the real events of the summer of 1991 so accurately — with Russian hardliners trying to restore the old Soviet Union — that Paramount even tried to rush the film into theaters before it was ready. 

It has the most eloquent dialogue

Maybe because he started out as a novelist , Nicholas Meyer has a real gift with dialogue. Sure, he borrows some of the dialogue in his Star Trek movies from classic works of Western Civilization , but he's good at using those works to underscore his themes. Star Trek II , for example, opens with Spock giving Kirk an antique copy of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, a novel about sacrifice . Later in the film, Kirk quotes the novel, reflecting on Spock's sacrifice for the greater good. In  The Undiscovered Country , Meyer has the Klingon character Chang lay claim to Shakespeare and constantly quote the Bard throughout. The  Undiscovered Country also weaves in references from  Brave New World , Sherlock Holmes , and Peter Pan .

But Meyer also writes excellent dialogue of his own . The  Undiscovered Country is about people confronting the rigidity and prejudice of their own thinking, and the way in which Kirk and Spock acknowledge their own shortcomings and mistakes is very poignant. "How on Earth can history get past people like me?" Kirk asks himself at one point. Later Spock asks, "Is it possible that we two, you and I, have become so old and inflexible that we have outlived our usefulness?" "You're a great one for logic," Kirk responds. "I'm a great one for rushing in where angels fear to tread. We're both extremists." Their self-reflective dialogue allows for meaningful character change that makes The  Undiscovered Country the best Star Trek film.

Christopher Plummer plays a classic villain

If you are going to write a script bursting with lines from Shakespeare, then you had better give them to Shakespearean actors. Meyer does just that in The Undiscovered Country , casting Royal Shakespeare Company veteran David Warner as Chancellor Gorkon, a Klingon ambassador trying to forge peace with the Federation, and Christopher Plummer as the villainous Klingon General Chang, who spearheads a conspiracy to sabotage the peace process. Plummer was as famous for his work on the Shakespearean Stage  as he was for roles in films such as The Sound of Music , and he is right at home intoning quotes from Hamlet , Henry V , Julius Caesa r, and The Merchant of Venice while he taunts Kirk and company.

Plummer gives a famously flamboyant performance here. Star Trek , after all, is a space opera , and opera calls for vigorous portrayal — which Ricardo Montalban understood as Khan in Star Trek II . But while Plummer goes big as Chang, he is fully committed to the role, never mocking it or playing it at a winking reserve, as though embarrassed to be encased in all that sci-fi makeup. In fact, Plummer had been a Star Trek fan when the show debuted in the 1960s. He had also worked with William Shatner in the Canadian theater before Shatner had become a star. The future Captain Kirk was Plummer's understudy in...wait for it... Henry V — just one of the many ways that The Undiscovered Country brings Star Trek full circle.

It has the most impressive cinematography and visual effects

Despite the fact that  Industrial Light and Magic  worked on both,  Star Trek movies were not as renowned for their visual effects as Star Wars . This is partially because viewers forever associated Trek with the low budget aesthetic of the original television show. Still, the movies featured some impressive spectacle — the space battle inside the pink clouds of the Mutara Nebula in Wrath of Khan ; the Enterprise self-destructing and burning up in The Search for Spock ; the Klingon Bird of Prey hovering over a whaling ship in The Voyage Home .

The Undiscovered Country  is the most sustained visual achievement of the original movie series. If the space battles aren't quite as exciting as those in Wrath of Khan , it outdoes the previous films in other ways, as with the mammoth  opening explosion of the Klingon mining moon and the giant purple shock wave that engulfs Sulu's ship, the Excelsior . There's a terrific action sequence set on a gravity-disabled Klingon flagship when two masked assassins gun down the Klingons onboard, sending their fuchsia blood floating in neon globules through the zero-G environment. Star Trek VI is also a huge prosthetic show, with more alien masks and makeup on display than the rest of the films combined, giving the galaxy a sense of being diversely populated. Finally, Meyer and cinematographer Hiro Narita elect for low lighting throughout that gives the film a burnished glow, as well as a sense of foreboding and menace.

It has the best complement of guest characters

Every Star Trek movie introduces new characters to the existing mix, and the quality of the films often mirrors the strength of the new characters. For example, Star Trek II added one of cinema's great villains in Khan , as well as the popular half Romulan-half Vulcan Starfleet officer Saavik , played by Kirstie Alley. The wretched  Star Trek V , conversely, features Spock's forgettable half brother, Sybok .

Star Trek VI balances out the main cast with a wealth of memorable new faces. In addition to Chang and Gorkon, the movie fills out its large contingent of Klingons with Gorkon's fierce daughter, Azetbur (Rosanna DeSoto), as well as the grandfather of Star Trek: The Next Generation 's Worf (played by the same actor, Michael Dorn). Other sharply drawn characters include a shapeshifting alien named  Martia (the model Iman) , and Kurtwood Smith as the Federation President. Even Christian Slater shows up for a cameo.

Besides Chang, the best new character is Lt. Valeris, Spock's Vulcan protege (a pre- Sex and the City Kim Cattrall ), who is loyal to Starfleet in ways that end up haunting Spock. Like Saavik before her — whom she replaced when Alley wasn't available — Valeris has more scenes than most of the Trek regulars, and the movie is better for the freshness and vitality of her character. She and Chang, along with many other new characters, help make the Star Trek universe feel densely and diversely populated.

Sulu gets his own command

Fans had been clamoring to see this on film for a while before it actually happened, as novelizations and other ancillary Trek  material had long established Sulu's (George Takei) promotion to captain. It just became a matter of giving him a command (and a gorgeous Starfleet tea set ). His ship, the USS Excelsior , had actually been introduced in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock  as one of a new generation of starships that would replace the Enterprise . When Kirk goes rogue in that movie, Starfleet sends the Excelsior to apprehend him, but it fails because Scotty has sabotaged the transwarp drive. Despite that, fans found the ship cool, and it was unsurprising to see it show up under Sulu's command a few films later.

Narratively, adding another Starfleet ship widens the scope of the film, and it gives one of the primary original characters something to do besides hang around on the Enterprise bridge. Sulu and the Excelsior feature prominently in the dramatic opening of the film, as well as the exciting climax. As they race at Warp 10 to help the Enterprise save the galactic peace conference, a junior officer warns, "She'll fly apart," to which Sulu barks, "Fly her apart then!" You can practically feel Takei's relish at getting a line this exciting after "yes sirring" Captain Kirk all those years. 

The storytelling is first rate

The famous film critic Pauline Kael, reviewing Star Trek II for the New Yorker , wrote, "the pieces of the story fit together beautifully." The same can be said for The Undiscovered Country , an ambitious film that explores a number of themes, and moves the action all over the galaxy, from a doomed Klingon mining moon, to an alien gulag, to a vast ice shelf that threatens to freeze our heroes to death.

The action is breathless and exciting. Star Trek VI also deftly blends genres. Meyer, a Sherlock Holmes aficionado (he wrote The Seven Percent Solution ), shoehorns an old-fashioned country house mystery into the larger space opera plot: The Enterprise crew races the clock to figure out who has framed them for an act of international terrorism that has killed the Klingon ambassador and jeopardized the peace conference. Meyer and co-writers Leonard Nimoy and Denny Martin Flynn also add a juicy courtroom trial, an elaborate banquet scene, and a prison escape for good measure, along with all the space battles, phaser fights, and philosophical discussions fans had come to expect. Like the plot-heavy  Wrath of Khan before it, somehow the disparate parts don't "fly apart" as the story warp speeds towards its big climax in which all the plot threads are resolved at the big galactic peace conference. 

It has the highest stakes

In Star Trek II , Spock saves the Enterprise and her crew at the expense of his life. In Star Trek III , the Enterprise crew returns the favor but sacrifices the ship. In Star Trek IV , the stakes include the survival of Earth and all its people. By The Undiscovered Country , the fate of the entire galaxy hangs in the balance. Can humans and alien species work together to preserve the fragile goal of peace? Or is the galaxy doomed to perpetual war? These are the highest stakes of the series so far, and they account for the great tension in the story, as well as the viewer's heightened investment.

But the movie dramatizes the highest personal stakes of the series as well. The characters do a good job of saving each other in previous movies. But in The Undiscovered Country , they are tasked with saving themselves. Will they be able to see the error of their ways before it's too late? They certainly try. Spock admits that it was "arrogant presumption" on his part that got them into the story's mess in the first place, as well as his belief in the inherent superiority of Vulcans. Kirk meanwhile confesses that he was so used to vilifying Klingons, it never even occurred to him to believe they might actually want peace. "Gorkon had to die before I understood how prejudiced I was," he says. "People can be very frightened of change."

It leans more fully into Star Trek's nautical roots

The starships in The  Undiscovered Country feel more like ships at sea, or even submarines, with low lighting and claustrophobic spaces, than the brightly lit flying living rooms of, say, The Next Generation . This fits with Gene Roddenberry's original vision of Starfleet as a navy, with an academy and naval ranks. The officers use nautical directions such as port and starboard. And of course, the U.S.S. Enterprise was meant to be the descendant of the many real ships designated "Enterprise," including the famous WWII aircraft carrier. For his part, Meyer embraced Roddenberry's vision of Star Trek as fictional British naval hero  Horatio Hornblower  in space. In Star Trek VI , the director leans into the concept even more fully than he had in Star Trek II , putting the crewmen together in cramped bunkrooms, referring to the kitchen as the galley, and using torpedoes during warfare.

All these elements come together in The Undiscovered  Country , creating the sense that the Enterprise crew really is out on the open sea, far from any shore, with only each other to depend on. Meyer epitomizes the theme beautifully with Kirk's great final line. When asked for a course heading, he paraphrases Peter Pan : "Second star to the right, and straight on 'til morning." Of course, Peter Pan was an adventure set on ships, but the line also suggests the eternal pull of the horizon, which had always informed the hopeful vision of Star Trek .

It perfectly ends the original series

Star Trek VI is extremely meta , commenting on its own Trekness throughout. In our current age of globalized mass entertainment — in which the boundaries between producers and consumers are more blurred than ever — it's common, even expected, for popular franchises to wink at their fans, referencing elements outside of a given story . Though it wasn't as common in 1991,  Star Trek VI engages in the practice throughout. At one point, when Scotty suggests that their situation is so dire that "we're dead," Spock quips, "I've been dead before." Meanwhile, tackling the theme of aging directly engages the cultural jokes about the Enterprise crew saving the galaxy in walkers and wheelchairs.

But the fan service in this film is never at the expense of the story. Nor does the movie try to retcon the franchise to appease some vocal contingent . The only responsibility the filmmakers feel is to make a good final movie, especially after the  disappointment of Star Trek V . Star Trek VI sends off the original cast and crew, but it's also a send-off to the fans that made it all possible, the passionate people that saved Star Trek from cancellation and kept it alive in the lean years and through some bad movies. The movie ends the original series with great eloquence and poignancy, while at the same time suggesting that  Star Tre k will live forever. Its greatest gift to fans is saving the best for last.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country ( Paramount Pictures , 1991 ) is the sixth feature film based on the popular Star Trek science fiction television series . It is the last of the films based solely on Star Trek: The Original Series cast and it presents their final mission together.

• 1 James T. Kirk
• 2 General Chang
• 5 External links

James T. Kirk

• Captain's Log, Stardate 9522.6: I've never trusted Klingons, and I never will. I can never forgive them for the death of my boy. It seems to me our mission to escort the Chancellor of the Klingon High Council to a peace summit is problematic at best. Spock says this could be an historic occasion, and I'd like to believe him. But how on Earth can history get past people like me?
• [last lines] Captain's Log, Stardate 9529.1: This is the final cruise of the Starship Enterprise under my command. This ship and her history will shortly become the care of another crew. To them and their posterity will we commit our future. They will continue the voyages we have begun and journey to all the undiscovered countries, boldly going where no man - where no one - has gone before.

General Chang

• Tickle us, do we not laugh? Prick us, do we not bleed? Wrong us...shall we not revenge?
• [Paraphrased, The Merchant of Venice, Act III , Scene i.]
• [at Kirk and McCoy's trial] Indeed, the record shows that Captain Kirk once held the rank of admiral, and that Admiral Kirk was broken for taking matters into his own hands in defiance of regulations of the law! Do you deny being demoted for these charges?! Don't wait for the translation! Answer me now!
• [Similar words were originally spoken by Adlai Stevenson to Valerian Zorin in an emergency session of the United Nations during the Cuban Missile Crisis .]

External links

• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country quotes at the Internet Movie Database
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country at StarTrek.com

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Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

"There is an old Vulcan proverb: only Nixon could go to China ." — Spock

The One With… the Cold War IN SPACE!

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is the sixth movie in the Star Trek film series, released in 1991.

It is a grand finale for the classic Trek crew ( as played by the original actors, at least ) which resolves the previously ongoing conflict between the Federation and the Klingons with a Tom Clancy IN SPACE! storyline. In part because of its more political themes and real-world connections, The Undiscovered Country is Darker and Edgier than its predecessors.

After an environmental calamity, the Klingons' infrastructure collapses and their leader sues for peace. Does this remind you of the end of the Cold War? It should. The Iron Curtain was coming down at the time of production and the Klingons had always been stand-ins for the Soviets. Kirk, ever the cynical cowboy, still doesn't trust the Klingons but is volunteered by Spock to escort their leader to the peace talks without asking him first. But Kirk is not the only one who never wanted peace — a mysterious conspiracy with accomplices from both sides of the conflict means to drive the Federation and Empire into a full-scale war, framing Kirk and McCoy for murder in the process.

Nicholas Meyer, the director of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , returned to the helm for this one. As evidenced by the page quote, the film lacks anything resembling subtlety, but its tongue-in-cheek satire and heavy-handed morality tale are just as good if not better that way. If nothing else, it's considered much better than The Final Frontier . In any case, most fans consider it a worthy send-off for the original cast.

While this is the finale for the majority of the TOS cast, Kirk, Scotty, and Chekov appear in the next film to "pass the torch" of the film franchise to The Next Generation .

The Undiscovered Country includes examples of the following tropes:

• 2-D Space : Subtly averted. When the Enterprise and Kronos One first rendezvous, they are not aligned in the same plane. Enterprise very diplomatically adjusts to match the Chancellor's ship. Later, the Bird-of-Prey fires one of its torpedoes perpendicularly to the plane of the saucer section of the Enterprise , damaging it extensively, and indicating that Chang is constantly moving his ship around Enterprise to attack it from all angles. It's especially prominent on the one hit we see the Excelsior take; at an almost perpendicular vector to her ventral saucer.
• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene : Before the climactic battle, Kirk and Spock wonder if they've both gotten too old to still be useful in a changing galaxy.
• Actually Pretty Funny : During the trial, Chang asks McCoy for his "medical status." McCoy replies "Aside from a touch of arthritis, pretty good." One Klingon in the audience laughs uproariously, everyone else is dead silent. . . but Chang grins in response and congratulates McCoy on his "singular wit", a Stealth Insult that McCoy has used up all of his.
• Alien Blood : The Klingons have Pepto-Bismol pink blood in this film (and only this film until Lower Decks used it as well), in order to keep a PG rating. Becomes a minor Chekhov's Gun in the final act when an assassin is identified as not being Klingon because he has red blood, but only in the extended cut. The Star Trek staff (particularly Mike Okuda) Hand Waved this by claiming the pigment change to be a side-effect of microgravity.
• All There in the Manual : The bizarre joke the Klingon border guard makes is smuggler's code; he knows they aren't who they say they are but thinks they're just illegal traders and just can't be bothered to bust them.
• And the Adventure Continues : The end narration: Kirk: Captain's Log, Stardate 9529.1. This is the final cruise of the starship Enterprise under my command. This ship and her history will shortly become the care of another crew. To them and their posterity will we commit our future. They will continue the voyages we have begun and journey to all the undiscovered countries, boldly going where no man, where no one , has gone before.
• Apocalypse How : One destroyed mining planet and the near-irrevocable atmospheric desolation of the Klingon homeworld (which, thanks to the Federation, would ultimately be saved).
• For her part, when Excelsior takes a hit on the chin, we see the shields dissipate the impact with no visible damage to the hull, although an interior shot demonstrates that her crew has gone into Damage Control mode. note  And when you consider what happened when this movie was revisited in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Flashback", where the Excelsior took a lot of damage, this is also a Downplayed Trope as well.
• Scotty does note "She's packing quite a wallop," indicating the Bird-Of-Prey's weapons are more powerful than Klingon standard. Though also note, this design of starship could No-Sell V'Ger's One-Hit Kill plasma bolts.
• Artificial Gravity : A rare example where artificial gravity actually fails.
• Artistic License – History : Valeris repeats as truth the story that the word "sabotage" comes from Luddites throwing their wooden sabot shoes into the machinery during the Industrial Revolution. This is a popular folk etymology, but it is not true. "Sabotage" is derived from the noise and clumsiness wearing the shoes had, which would have a possibility of fouling equipment, but by accident, not deliberately.

• Ask a Stupid Question... : When Janice Rand asks if they're going to report the destruction of Praxis to the Federation, Sulu whirls on her incredulously and asks, "Are you kidding ?!"
• Burke and Samno are killed by Valeris after the attempt to hide the evidence backfires. Lampshaded in the same scene. Kirk: First rule of assassination: kill the assassins.
• Similarly, the commandant of Rura Penthe offs Martia the shapeshifter as soon as their role in Kirk and McCoy 's "attempted escape" is fulfilled.
• Bad Vibrations : Captain Sulu's vibrating teacup heralds the shockwave from the exploding Praxis at the beginning of the film.
• The strategy works because Chang doesn't have any choice but to fire on Excelsior too. Chang's goal isn't to destroy Enterprise , though he'd be happy to do so, he just needs to keep reinforcements away from Khitomer until the Federation President is dead. To accomplish this he has to keep both ships under fire to prevent them from lowering their shields and beaming security forces to the planet to stop the assassination.
• Kirk's plan to draw out the mole (Valeris) by having a "court reporter" summoned to Sick Bay urgently to take statements from the (actually already dead) assassins Burke and Samno .
• A failed Batman Gambit exists in the conspirators' original plan. They were banking on Kirk getting gun-happy after Chang got Kronos One back in fighting shape, shooting back, and destroying Kronos One. What happens instead? Kirk surrenders in a hasty attempt to de-escalate the situation. The Conspirators counted on Kirk's hatred of Klingons to escalate to shooting for real, they did not account for his sense of duty refraining him from doing so. Chang then has to engage in Xanatos Speed Chess to compensate.
• The assassins specifically kill Kronos One 's chief surgeon, which leaves Gorkon's fate in the hands of a physician who doesn't know much about Klingon physiology, Dr. McCoy .
• Beam Spam : Zigzagged. There are plenty of hand phaser shots, but when it comes to spaceborne combat, only torpedoes are used in the film note  This is justified, at least for Chang; leaving his phasers on long enough to do damage would allow the Enterprise to target the beam's source. With torpedoes, he can fire and immediately change course to a new location, giving his enemy no time to react and target him .
• Big Bad Duumvirate : Though Chang acts as the main villain for most of the movie, he's part of a larger conspiracy which includes Lieutenant Valeris, Admiral Cartwright, Colonel West, and the Romulan Ambassador.
• Sulu and the USS Excelsior swooping in to even up the fight against General Chang and his Bird-of-Prey. While the original plan was to play this trope straight, the end result is a slight subversion; Excelsior doesn't do much but provides a second target at first, giving the Enterprise a much-needed breather. Once Chang's ship is revealed by the first hit on its hull, though, Sulu takes full advantage of the reveal to add his ship's weight to the fight. Sulu states quite explicitly that he knows all the Excelsior is on their arrival is another duck in Chang's shooting gallery. Captain Sulu: Alright... now we've given them something else to shoot at.
• In the novelization, Enterprise is specifically described as trying to hold out until Excelsior can arrive with better sensors and stronger shields. Compare Wellington deciding to hold on at Waterloo until Blucher could arrive with the necessary reinforcements to beat Napoleon, but it being the British who, in shooting Napoleon's Old Guard to a standstill, triggered the French rout.
• Big "OMG!" : Sulu's reaction to the incoming Planar Shockwave . "My... God ! Shields! Shields! "
• Bluffing the Murderer : "Code Blue Urgent: Court reporter to Sickbay. Statements to be taken..."
• Brigadier Kerla responds to Excelsior 's message after the explosion of Praxis. Kerla: There has been an incident on Praxis, however, everything is under control, we have no need for assistance.
• Starfleet orders the Enterprise to report back after the assassination, but they are still trying to root out the assassins. Uhura: We are experiencing technical malfunction; all backup systems inoperative. Chekov: Excellent. I-I mean — too bad.
• The Enterprise wasn't the only one pulling this. Kirk: You realize that by even talking to us, you're violating regulations. Sulu: I'm sorry, Captain. Your message is breaking up. Kirk: Bless you, Sulu.
• Borrowed Catchphrase : When Spock invites Doctor McCoy to help him rig up a plasma-seeking torpedo to take down Chang's cloaked Bird of Prey. McCoy : Fascinating!
• Broken Pedestal : Valeris to Spock, and vice versa.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer : The main difference between Valeris and Saavik is that Valeris has a tendency to defy regulations. For example, she fires a phaser on the kill setting, which triggers every alarm on the Enterprise , in order to demonstrate why the conspirators didn't just disintegrate the magnetic boots and uniforms used in the assassination. She is also the one who suggests breaking out the very illegal Romulan Ale for dinner with the Klingons. It also counts as Foreshadowing , showing that Valeris is reckless and doesn't seem to care much for rules... or for the safety of her shipmates. Someone like that shouldn't be trusted.

• A floor panel explodes in Spock's face, reminiscent of how he "died" in the Kobayashi Maru simulation .
• The shot where Spock speculates on the Bird-of-Prey's weakness is from the exact same angle as the one where he speculates on Khan's "two-dimensional thinking" .
• Romulan Ale, being both illegal and leaving a terrible hangover.
• When Spock wants to go to the Klingon ship but Kirk overrides him, Spock says "Perhaps you're right," and puts his hand on Kirk's shoulder like he's going to administer the nerve pinch... and puts the viridium patch on his shoulder.
• The Klingon Ham - bassador from The Voyage Home is back too. And this time, he actually has some valid points to assert instead of just bluster.
• The design of the makeup for Christopher Plummer shares a number of similarities with the design of the smooth-browed Klingons from the Original Series, particularly the moustache, and his more subdued ridges.
• In TNG's "Unification: Part II", which was made to promote this film , Spock tells Picard that because of how badly negotiating peace with Klingons almost went during this film, he opted to take matters into his own hands trying to negotiate unification between the Vulcans and Romulans . With Gorkon's assassination and Kirk and McCoy almost getting executed, Spock was unwilling to risk anybody's life but his own.
• Captain Sulu of the USS Excelsior has the honor of opening the movie this way.
• A log entry that Kirk makes early in the movie (about how much he hates Klingons) becomes a Chekhov's Gun when it's used against him at his trial, and a Chekhov's Boomerang when he realizes that Valeris was listening outside his door when he recorded it, and provided the quote to her fellow conspirators .
• Kirk ends the movie by recording his final log entry as captain of the Enterprise .
• This was at least partially a coincidence, as Brock had already played Admiral Cartwright earlier in the film series, Brock Peters plays an anti-Klingon racist. Brock actually had problems doing Cartwright's anti-Klingon rant during the classified meeting because it was morally unpleasant for him personally. Multiple takes had to be done and pieced together. (That is, he had problems getting the lines out. According to the DVD, he was supportive of the message itself.)
• William Shatner also got his start as a Shakespearian actor, and at one point was actually Christopher Plummer's understudy.
• Central Theme : Spock joins Kirk in feeling his age and disappointment in time passing them by, and Gene Coon’s Soldier vs Diplomat conflict comes back from the series, Chang taunting Kirk on how they’re both warriors, and Kirk trying to be a diplomat (and surrender instead of fight) proves a Spanner in the Works for the bad guy plan.
• Characterization Marches On : Sulu has adopted a more authoritarian, strict (but fair) personality as a captain, contrasting his easygoing, affable one in prior movies and the TV series.
• Kirk's personal log. It is initially used to incriminate Kirk at his trial, but comes back later when Kirk realizes that Valeris, who was outside of his quarters at the time of his recording, must have given it to the Klingons.
• The pink Klingon blood. Some of it floats into the path of one of the transporting assassins; later, it is discovered on the transporter pad by Chekov and Scotty. In the extended cut, when the "Klingon" sniper is shot at the peace conference, Worf quips that the (red) blood does not belong to a Klingon. It turns out that it is actually human blood, that of Colonel West.
• The Phaser Alarms. Firing a phaser on a kill setting triggers the alarms, as Valeris demonstrates in the kitchen when Chekov asks why the assassins didn't vaporize their incriminating clothing. When Burke and Samno are found dead , McCoy wonders why they were not vaporized and Chekov replies (while comically making it sound like a dumb question) that it would set off the alarm. Valeris had used a phaser on stun to the head at point blank range to kill them; her inability to dispose of the bodies leads Kirk to his plan to flush out the assassin by saying that they had survived and were willing to talk about everything.
• A Chekhov's Gun example is left hanging on the wall when Kirk pulls out a concealed pistol of identical make: in a Captain's Log , Sulu mentions the Excelsior is cataloging gaseous anomalies. Apparently, the Enterprise had been doing the same, since they have the equipment on board and use it to track the cloaked Bird-of-Prey. note  Legend has it that Excelsior was supposed to fire the modified torpedo but Shatner demanded that the Enterprise do it, hence the discontinuity.
• Burke and Samno, seen in the transporter room when Gorkon and his party beam aboard, are later revealed to be the two assassins responsible for his death. The extended cut takes this further: they make disparaging remarks about the Klingons after the party has left the room, only to be stopped by Valeris .
• Colonel West, seen only in the extended cut. He is the architect of the plan to rescue Kirk and McCoy from Rura Penthe, and is later the sniper shot dead by Scotty .
• Admiral Cartwright is another, albeit minor, example: his unease of peace with Klingons makes him a party of the plot to shoot the Federation President .
• Chewing the Scenery : Chang in the final showdown; especially " Cry havoc!!! ... and let slip the dogs of war!" where it's not so much that he's shouting it at the top of his lungs, but that he's shouting it at the top of his lungs while spinning in his self-rotating captain's chair . Chang: I am constant as the Northern Star! McCoy : I'd give real money if he'd shut up.
• Comic-Book Adaptation : By DC Comics.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like : If Spock had waited a few more seconds before his Teleportation Rescue , Kirk would have had the details of who wanted him killed. Kirk: Couldn't you wait for a few more seconds? He was about to explain the whole damned thing!! Chekov: You vant to go beck!? McCoy : Absolutely Not!!! Kirk: It's cold!!!
• Sulu mentions at the end of The Voyage Home that he hopes the ship they're being sent to is the Excelsior . In this film he turns up as a starship captain... commanding the Excelsior . Even earlier than that, when the ship is first shown in the beginning of The Search for Spock , Sulu is gawking in amazement at it. Scotty also continues his nonplussed attitude about the ship, preferring to tip his hat to her Captain instead.
• During Kirk and McCoy 's trial, General Chang brings up Kirk's demotion in Star Trek IV, simultaneously referring to the events of Star Trek III that precipitated it. Chang: Indeed, the record shows that Captain Kirk once held the rank of Admiral and that Admiral Kirk was broken for taking matters into his own hands in defiance of regulations and the law!! [whirls on Kirk] DO YOU DENY BEING DEMOTED ON THESE CHARGES?! DON'T WAIT FOR THE TRANSLATION!! ANSWER ME NOW!! note  Which is a great allegorical reference to the Cuban Missile Crisis , when UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson was questioning the Soviet ambassador as to whether the Russians were moving missiles to Cuba: "Don't wait for the translation, answer 'yes' or 'no'!"
• The Enterprise -A tracks the cloaked Klingon vessel using its emissions, in the same way, the Enterprise -D does in "The Emissary" , set over 70 years later. It's stated in the TNG episode that this is possible due to the age of the Klingon ship, suggesting that this incident might have quietly led Klingon R&D to figure out how to fix that little design flaw.
• Kirk takes his own advice from “Balance Of Terror” and keeps his bigotry to his own quarters. Unfortunately for him, Valeris is listening and gives the statement that he’s never forgiven Klingons to the other side.
• When Spock is being tested on Vulcan in The Voyage Home , one of the questions has to do with a starship being followed so closely that sensors show it occupying the same space as its pursuer. Here, the first sign anything is amiss comes when sensors pick up a surge in neutron radiation that seems to be coming from the Enterprise, when it's really from the cloaked Bird-of-Prey following her.
• Cool Old Guy : Pretty much the main cast.
• Cool Starship : Excelsior finally gets to strut her stuff after her Epic Fail three movies ago . McCoy : My God, that's a big ship. Scott: Not so big as her captain, I think.
• Covers Always Lie : The main poster has the Enterprise battling a Klingon K'Tinga cruiser and Bird-of-Prey at the same time. It only fights a Bird-of-Prey in the movie, although the K'Tinga cruiser attempts to engage earlier in the film.
• CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable : Bones, miracle doctor that he is, can revive someone with no pulse by straddling them and beating on their chest. But only after trying several more sophisticated techniques , including inserting some sort of medical device into the open chest wound. The Klingons who witness this are absolutely horrified. The patient dies after delivering his last words despite the doctor's best efforts.
• Crazy-Prepared : Gorkon, according to the novelization. He expected something to happen to him on his way to Earth, so he used his influence among his allies to ensure that Azetbur would succeed him as Chancellor. He also suspected Chang to have a part in a betrayal, hence why he tells someone to find him when Kronos One loses artificial gravity.
• Creative Closing Credits : The cast's signatures are written out on screen before the credits.
• Creator's Culture Carryover : As unlikely as it may seem, the Klingon court of the 23rd century is shown to be very similar to American courts of the 20th century, with the accused being questioned publically by the prosecutor, defense attorney Worf throwing in an "objection!" every now and then, the judge overruling them, etc.
• The space battle has Scotty doing his usual thing while the Enterprise is pummeled by torpedoes. We can also see crewmen running around with fire extinguishers on the Excelsior .
• Damage control of the political kind is shown in the opening scene. When Sulu and the Excelsior send a message offering assistance after Praxis explodes, a message from a Klingon miner screaming for help is blocked and replaced by a political response, acknowledging an internal incident, but refusing any assistance.
• Deadly Environment Prison : The underground Klingon labor camp Rura Penthe where Kirk and McCoy are imprisoned has nothing preventing prisoners from escaping — except the extreme cold and storms of the surface, where death by exposure would be a certainty (technically, there's also a magnetic field to prevent escape by transporter, but it only extends so far and it would be possible to walk out of it if not for the deadly climate). In fact, prisoners are threatened with expulsion to the surface if they don't work.
• Of Kirk again. This time, his Fantastic Racism makes him an easy Fall Guy for Gorkon's assassination.
• The Klingons in the original series were based on racist stereotypes and it wavered on whether Kirk and others were right to distrust them (with episodes like "Errand of Mercy" and "Day of the Dove" coming down on the side that Kirk isn't all that different from them), so they were the right candidates for a full-blown racism plot.
• Dedication : To Gene Roddenberry, who passed away weeks before the film's release.
• Defensive Feint Trap : Kirk attempts one of these when Chang's Bird of Prey attacks the Enterprise upon arriving at Khitomer. He orders the Enterprise into a reverse, confusing Chang momentarily, but only enough to give the Enterprise some breathing room and a few extra seconds for the Excelsior to arrive.
• Description Cut : After Kirk and Bones are sentenced to life imprisonment. Spock: If I know the Captain, he is already deep into planning his escape. [cut to Kirk getting his ass kicked]
• When meeting Valeris and hearing of her academy accomplishments. Kirk: You must be very proud. Valeris: I don't believe so, Sir. McCoy : She's a Vulcan, all right.
• During Kirk and McCoy's incarceration on Rura Penthe. McCoy : Three months before retirement... What a way to finish. Kirk: We're not finished... McCoy : Speak for yourself. One day, one night: [makes throat slitting sound] Kobayashi Maru . Kirk: Bones, are you afraid of the future? McCoy : I believe that was the general idea that I was trying to convey. Kirk: I don't mean this future. McCoy : What is this, multiple choice?
• During the battle with Chang, as the general's hammy snippets of Shakespeare are broadcast throughout the Enterprise . Chang: I AM CONSTANT AS THE NORTHERN STAR! McCoy : I'd give real money if he'd shut up.
• During the start of that same battle after the first torpedo hit. McCoy : Well this is fun.
• Deus ex Machina : The Enterprise is getting owned by the cloaked Bird-of-Prey, and then suddenly the crew realizes the ship just happens to have some never-before-mentioned equipment to catalog gaseous anomalies that can be used to totally obliterate the enemy ship. What makes this particularly bad is that Sulu and the Excelsior are the ones performing this task at the beginning of the film. The true explanation is a combination of executive and cast meddling (Shatner insisted that the Enterprise save itself). This is also explained in the novelization as being Starfleet's current ongoing giant research project of the past few years, so most ships other than Excelsior are carrying equipment for gaseous anomalies. The Star Trek Timeline also establishes this as well, with Enterprise and Excelsior specifically being mentioned so as to explain how Enterprise also had the equipment. Admittedly this could have been somewhat fixed by modifying Sulu's opening narration to something like "for the past three years we have been leading the fleet in cataloguing gaseous anomalies in planetary atmospheres", but alas, l'esprit de l'escalier...
• Disposable Woman : The book version has Carol’s settlement attacked by Klingons just as she and Kirk were getting closer (and she’s been avoiding him for three books), just to give him apparently more excuses to hate them.
• The whole film is an allegory about the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. It was released less than a few weeks before the Soviet Union actually fell. The coup that briefly deposed Mikhail Gorbachev happened in Real Life while the film was still in production. Gorkon is a clear expy of Gorbachev, as both were reform-minded leaders of a dying empire who felt co-operation with the Federation (or the West) was key for their survival.
• In addition, Praxis exploding and contaminating the Klingon homeworld is a clear reference to Chernobyl , which Gorbachev said bankrupted the Soviet Union due to containment and decontamination.
• Don't Answer That : Colonel Worf tells Kirk this during the trial. The judge insists otherwise.
• Dramatic Downstage Turn : Occurs when Kirk and McCoy are lying in their prison beds.
• Dramatically Missing the Point : Spock initially doesn't get Valeris's concern over this upcoming peace. Nicholas Meyer described the scene in Spock's quarters as Valeris having a mental breakdown, which, being a Vulcan, happens so subtly that even Spock fails to notice.
• Dramatic Shattering : Sulu's tea cup rattles off the captain's coffee table and falls to the deck when the Excelsior gets buffeted by the shockwave. Not a moment after it's in pieces on the deck, alarms and klaxons start blaring. Notably, it is not the same teacup which Sulu drinks from — the decoration was seen by the prop team as too nice to ruin.
• After the disastrous dinner, several still-drunk senior officers immediately return to duty. Chekov, in particular, is noticeably struggling to make it through his watch. Later, Chang uses this as evidence against Kirk and Bones during their trial. Kirk : Valeris, you know anything about a radiation surge? Valeris: Sir? Kirk: Chekov? Chekov : Only the size of my head. Kirk: (rubbing his head) I know what you mean.
• The watchman at the Klingon observation post is clearly hammered, which makes Uhura's task easier when she has to bluff her way past him in Klingon without the aid of the universal translator.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom : The explosion of Praxis that kicks off the events of the movie. Excelsior's visual enhancement shows that more than half the moon has been vaporized. The real-world analogue is the Chernobyl plant disaster that weakened the Soviet Union just enough to get the ball rolling.
• Eiffel Tower Effect : The Office of President of the Federation is in Paris.
• Elderly Ailment Rambling : Invoked by McCoy when he and Kirk are on trial for murdering Chancellor Gorkon, and he's asked about his medical standing. He replies, "Aside from a touch of arthritis, I'd say pretty good." His effort at levity actually does get one Klingon to laugh.
• In-Universe , this is the end of the cold war between the Federation and Klingon Empire, which has defined Alpha Quadrant politics for decades. Going forward, the Federation and Klingons will be occasionally frosty, but ultimately solid friends and allies.
• Out of universe, this movie marks the end of the TOS era. Going forward, the TOS characters are largely relagated to cameos and guest roles on future Star Trek productions, at least until the reboot (which is an Alternate Universe created by time travel anyways).
• End-of-Series Awareness : While the films that continued in the original timeline after this would focus on the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast and there's later be Kelvin timeline 's Continuity Reboot , this film was the last adventure that the entire original crew would have together and, as seen by Kirk's final lines, it wasn't subtle about it, either.
• Engineered Public Confession : During the trial, Kirk's log entry in which he says, "I have never trusted Klingons, and I never will. I've never been able to forgive them for the death of my boy," is presented as proof of his motive for assassinating Gorkon. This fact is later used to incriminate Valeris as a conspirator, since it was she who was outside his quarters' open door unnoticed at that moment.
• For all the Jerkass tendencies that Kirk has about "letting the Klingons die", he turns a complete 180 when Gorkon's ship is attacked, and not of his own doing either. While Shatner's recoil was cut, Spock's aghast reaction makes Kirk look down, still ashamed of himself.
• Valeris falls for a trap that exposes her as the mole. Spock is part of the trap. He tells her that logically she must shoot him to have a chance of getting away. She cannot bring herself to do it.
• The conspirators need to get rid of the magnetic boots, but can't throw them out or destroy them. Rather than let a random innocent be accused, they hide the boots in the locker of a crewman whose species' feet are so large and abnormally shaped (compared to humans) that it is flatly impossible that he could have worn them.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good : The first thing that throws a wrench into the conspirators' plan- they assumed that, with Kronos One bearing down on him preparing to fire with a snarling General Chang spitting vitriol at him, noted Military Maverick and Klingon-hater James T. Kirk would leap at the chance to fight the Klingons again. They underestimated Kirk's actual sense of duty and dedication to the ideals of the Federation, preferring to surrender if it was the only way to prevent a war.
• The Romulans are also involved, likely just to destabilize the other two major powers of the Alpha Quadrant.
• Evil Twin : Martia, the shapeshifter who takes on Kirk's shape during their fight.
• Explosive Overclocking : The Excelsior is really bookin' it to Khitomer in the climactic scene, with galactic peace hanging in the balance, and Captain Sulu's old friends on the ropes against their invisible foe. (The entire ship is rumbling from exceeding maximum safe warp speed.) Sulu: In range? Helmsman: Not yet, sir. Sulu: Come on, come on! Helmsman: She'll fly apart! Sulu: Fly her apart, then!
• Valeris, for Saavik.
• In relation to Sherlock Holmes mysteries, Spock is Holmes and Chekov is his Watson.
• Eye-Dentity Giveaway : No matter which form she takes, Martia the shapeshifter keeps her eye color.
• Face Death with Dignity : Chang. Offering only a resigned, "to be, or not to be."
• Face Palm : Uhura's response to Chekov believing he has the culprit and missing the very obvious fact that their suspect can't fit in the incriminating boots.
• "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner : Chang : "To be..." ( seeker torpedo careens about on the view screen looking for a target) Chang : "Or not..." (seeker torpedo gets a bead on their ship's exhaust trail, bridge crew braces for impact) Chang : "To be...?" (seeker torpedo flies straight towards the viewscreen's point of view, Chang averts his gaze, the whole bridge explodes on the torpedo's impact)
• Faking Engine Trouble : Starfleet orders the Enterprise to return to Spacedock, but since Chancellor Gorkon's assassins are on board, to keep them from escaping the crew keep coming up with reasons not to return, at one point telling Starfleet Command the warp drive is malfunctioning.
• False Flag Operation : The two assassination attempts. General Chang's special Bird-of-Prey makes it look like the Enteprise fired on Kronos One . Towards the end, Colonel West disguises himself as a Klingon and attempts to shoot the Federation President.
• Fantastically Challenging Patient : When Bones tries to save the wounded Klingon Gorkon, he doesn't actually cut Gorkon open, but he does insert some sort of medical device into the open chest wound. As Bones points out while trying to treat Gorkon, Klingon anatomy is not the same as Human anatomy, and Bones has no medical training in helping Klingons. Gorkon ends up dying of his wounds .
• The film really runs with this, which even caused some behind the scenes problems for most of the cast. In the film, it provides Character Development for some, especially Kirk. He goes from " Let them die" and "I never could forgive them for the death of my boy," to "I was used to hating Klingons" and "Gorkon had to die before I realized how prejudiced I was." By the end Kirk realizes that while he didn't kill Gorkon, he had an indirect involvement in his murder due to his reputation. Gorkon's sincere wish for peace and imploring of Kirk to see it through with his last breath moves Kirk to re-evaluate the Klingons as a whole, as well as himself.
• With regards to the behind the scenes problems, according to director Nicholas Meyer, Brock Peters found Admiral Cartwright's words during the briefing scene to be so offensive he needed several takes to get them all out note  Though he was supportive of the message itself, and apparently agreed having his character voice it would add to the impact . In a similar vein, Nichelle Nichols refused to speak the line "Guess who's coming to dinner?" — an intentional reference to Guess Who's Coming to Dinner — which is heard prior to the Klingons' visit to the Enterprise . The line was instead given to Walter Koenig.
• Fate Worse than Death : Being sent to Rura Penthe . Uhura: (quietly) Rura Penthe? Chekov: Known throughout the galaxy as "The Aliens' Graveyard". Scotty: Better to kill 'em now and get it over with.
• Final Speech : Gorkon begs Kirk with his dying breath to save the peace process, leaving Kirk shocked by cognitive dissonance. It also serves as emphasis to the foreshadowing below. He knows Kirk didn't pull this stunt. Gorkon: [weakly] Don't let it end this way, Captain...
• Likewise — or at least during the original release in late 1991 — it was a foregone conclusion that Bones and Spock will at least both survive the events of the film given their crossover appearances decades later in TNG's Pilot episode and "Unification".
• While Kirk and Spock are arguing about the mission after the briefing, notice the figure standing in the shadows behind Kirk? It's Valeris, setting up her role in the movie.
• After the Klingon party leaves the transporter room, crewmen Burke and Samno make vaguely racist comments about the Klingons until Valeris starts bossing them around. All three are conspirators.
• Gorkon has a pretty good idea as to who betrayed him once the shooting starts.
• Spock and Scotty discuss the possibility that someone has hacked the Enterprise 's computers. Then Valeris slides down into the room.
• Kirk's Captain's Log entry about how much he hates Klingons is used against him at his trial. Who heard him recording that log? Valeris.
• One of the missing magnetic boots is found in Dax's locker, seemingly implicating him in the assassination...except his bizarre feet prove that he couldn't have worn it. Guess whose visibly dismayed look the camera focuses on. It's...well, you get it by now...
• Freeze-Frame Bonus : As Kirk declares that he needs to board Kronos One after the torpedo hits, watch Spock's right hand as he slips a viridium patch on Kirk's shoulder. It's easy to miss as you are likely to pay more attention to Kirk ordering Uhura to tell Kronos One that he is coming aboard to assist.
• From Bad to Worse : Disaster steadily builds throughout the film, with Kirk and Spock arguing over saving the Klingons, a drunken dinner that goes very badly, the Enterprise firing on the Klingon ship, a Kangaroo Court for Kirk and McCoy's trial, them only getting out thanks to a Bed Trick played on Kirk, and Spock having to Mind Rape Valeris, looking like he’d rather die than have to do it.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy : The Klingon border guards are shown to be quite amused at the crew's stumbling Klingon, but then make a weird joke about it and send them on their way anyway. The explanation didn't make its way into the movie, but basically they're just lazy ( and drunk ) and think the crew is part of a smuggling ring that's bribing them.
• Gender Is No Object : Scenes of the crew quarters aboard both Enterprise and Excelsior reveal that enlisted crew share bunk space regardless of gender, rather than having segregated male and female berths.
• General Ripper : Chang. And Admiral Cartwright too, it seems.
• The Girl Who Fits This Slipper : Subverted. The boots of the conspirators are found in the locker of Crewman Dax ( no relation )... who has large webbed feet that don't fit. Chekov: Perhaps you know Russian epic of Cinderella ? If shoe fits, wear it. [drops magnetic boot at Dax's feet and smiles triumphantly] Spock: Mr. Chekov... [gestures at Dax's decidedly nonhuman feet. Uhura facepalms.]
• Glass Cannon : Chang's Bird-of-Prey may be able to use its weapons while cloaked, but it still can't use shields at the same time. Although it's able to do quite a lot of damage to both the Enterprise -A and Excelsior while they're unable to effectively fight back, once they do pinpoint its location, they make short work of it.
• Godwin's Law : Kirk makes a comparison between the Klingon's request for "living space" with Hitler's demands for Lebensraum at the diplomatic dinner (whilst not being very diplomatic). Needlessly to say, this comparison goes down really really badly. Becomes worse when the two Klingons most likely to get it are the traitorous conspiratorial one obsessed with Earth culture and the one who had probably done his research on their planet and history for the forthcoming peace talks. I.e. the two worst of the group to offend with the comparison. However, the latter understood Kirk's old prejudice perfectly and didn't hold it against him, and the former probably goaded Kirk to say that.
• Got Volunteered : Kirk and the Enterprise are volunteered to escort Chancellor Gorkon to the peace conference without his knowledge, with Spock "personally vouching" for him. He is not amused. Spock: I have personally vouched for you in this matter, Captain. Kirk: You have personally vouched...? [...] How could you vouch for me? That's...arrogant presumption.
• Grand Finale : Advertised as such, with Star Trek: The Next Generation going strong and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in development, this movie was intended as a swan song and made explicit in the end. The following Trek movie Star Trek: Generations serves as more of a coda for Kirk.
• Groin Attack : Kirk gets in a fight with a big blue alien and ends it by kicking the alien in the knee. Or so he thinks. Martia: That was not his knee. [beat, Kirk and McCoy look confused] Martia: Not everybody keeps their genitals in the same place, Captain. Kirk: Anything you wanna tell me? Martia: [big grin]
• Gunship Rescue : Downplayed, as the Excelsior arriving on the scene in the climax doesn't do much more than give Chang another target (although it does take some heat off the battered Enterprise ). Once they find a way around the cloak, however, their combined firepower makes short work of the Bird-of-Prey. Sulu: Target that explosion and fire .
• William Shatner vs. Christopher Plummer. The survivors likely envy the dead.
• At one point it's Shatner vs. Shatner, which reaches hamageddon levels. Kirk: I can't believe I kissed you. Martia-as-Kirk: Must have been your life-long ambition!
• Hangover Sensitivity : Poor Chekov is visibly struggling to make it through his bridge watch after the Romulan Ale-soaked diplomatic dinner; prompting Kirk to grumble about his own hangover.
• Hard-Work Montage : The crew of the Enterprise searching for uniforms with Klingon blood.
• The Heavy : General Chang is the most prominent antagonist for the Enterprise , but he is really only the enforcer of an interstellar conspiracy, not its leader. It's not even clear if he is the most highly-ranked Klingon who is party to it, or which side initiated the conspiracy in the first place.
• Heel Realization : Kirk realizing his intolerance of the Klingons made him the perfect patsy for Chancellor Gorkon's assassination . During his prison stay, Gorkon's last words haunt him as well. Kirk: Gorkon had to die before I realized how prejudiced I was.
• He Knows Too Much : The assassins are killed before they can be discovered and interrogated. Valeris is nearly killed herself at the end, when she's presented as evidence against the conspiracy, but Scotty shoots the would-be assassin first.
• High-Tech Hexagons : Sulu's tea table on the Excelsior 's bridge is an illuminated oblique hexagonal prism. note  Behind-the-scenes, this helped mask one of the gimbals used to shake the bridge set.
• His Name Is... : The warden of Rura Penthe engages in a little Just Between You and Me with Kirk and McCoy , but an inopportune rescue by Spock ruins the reveal.
• Hoist by His Own Petard : Kirk and McCoy would have never escaped if Chang hadn’t ordered the Gulag warden to help them escape. Instead, Kirk and McCoy would have simply languished in prison, the Enterprise would have been waiting around in Klingon space for nothing, the Federation President’s assassination would have gone on as planned, and Chang and his crew would have lived... at least until the Federation–Klingon War.
• Later, as Spock is investigating: Spock: If I am correct those boots will cling to the killer's necks like a pair of Tiberian Bats.
• Homage : The speech that the warden gives Kirk and McCoy upon their entry to Rura Penthe is a paraphrase of Colonel Saito's speech to captured British P.O.W.s in The Bridge on the River Kwai . For comparison: Colonel Saito: If you work hard, you will be treated well. But if you do not work hard, you will be punished! A word to you about escape. There is no barbed wire, no stockade, no watchtower. They are not necessary. We are an island in the jungle. Escape is impossible. You would die. Rura Penthe Warden: This is the gulag Rura Penthe. There is no stockade. No guard tower. No electronic frontier. Only a magnetic shield prevents beaming. Punishment means exile from prison, to the surface. On the surface, nothing can survive. Work well, and you will be treated well. Work badly, and you will die.
• Spock's briefing indicates that saving Qo'noS is economically impossible for the Klingon Empire, which spends far too much on the military, not that it's technologically impossible, echoing a common understanding of reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union. With the peace treaty and eventual alliance with the Federation, saving Qo'noS presumably became a more realistic prospect.
• Homing Projectile : Enterprise is only able to counterattack Chang's cloaked Bird of Prey by mounting equipment for gaseous anomaly tracking into a photon torpedo's guidance system. Once launched, the torpedo follows the invisible trail of plasma exhaust from the Bird of Prey's impulse engines until it hits its target.
• Honor Before Reason : General Chang hailing Captain Kirk before attacking counts as this as well, as he risked sacrificing the element of surprise to do so even considering his ship's advanced cloaking device. Then again, he considers Kirk a Worthy Opponent and presumably saw it fitting to formally challenge him before engaging him.
• Human Outside, Alien Inside : As Bones points out while trying to treat Gorkon, Klingon anatomy is not the same as Human anatomy, and Bones has no medical training in helping Klingons. Gorkon ends up dying of his wounds.
• Valeris argues that the Klingons are untrustworthy because they've conspired with the Federation to assassinate their own chancellor, when that very same conspiracy plans to assassinate the Federation president. Not to mention the fact that she herself is in on the conspiracy...
• Azetbur accuses the Federation of this in her Inhumanable Alien Rights rant, saying they profess a dedication to equality but are really a " Homo sapiens only " club. Another Klingon immediately acknowledges the presence of Spock, who is half-Vulcan (and identifies as Vulcan rather than human). But then again, getting into the reasons why Spock serves with a human crew and not a Vulcan crew wouldn't help the Federation's case either.
• I Did What I Had to Do : Spock's reaction to the forced mindmeld with Valeris is made entirely of this trope.
• Identical Grandson : Michael Dorn portrays Colonel Worf, the grandfather and namesake of his TNG -era character. There was going to be a scene showing Colonel Worf talking with his young son, Mogh, but it was unfortunately cut. Downplayed in that the make-up for Dorn was significantly different than the TNG Worf note  TNG Klingon make-up generally enlarged the size of their head with large crests, whereas Klingons in this film were more subdued which in turn makes it more of a family resemblance than actually being identical.
• IKEA Weaponry : The sniper rifle used at the conference.
• Inciting Incident : The Praxis explosion and resulting Planar Shockwave .
• Inconvenient Summons : Kirk and McCoy are caught by the warden of Rura Penthe trying to escape, and are about to be executed, so Kirk figures he might as well ask who's behind the conspiracy. The warden decides to oblige. Hilarity Ensues . Kirk: "Killed while trying to escape." McCoy : Damned clever if you ask me. Kirk : It's a classic. Klingon Warden : That's what he wanted. Kirk : Who? Who wanted us killed? Klingon Warden : Since you're all going to die anyway, why not tell you ? His Name Is... Enterprise : (transporter beam!) Kirk: [dematerializing] Oh! Not... SON OF A... Klingons : [start shooting futilely] Kirk : [rematerializing back on the Enterprise ] OF A BI... BI... BI... Dammit to hell! Of all the... son of a... Couldn't you have waited two seconds? Spock : [utterly perplexed] Captain...? Kirk : He was just about to explain the whole thing! Chekov : You vant to go beck!? McCoy : Absolutely not! Kirk : ...It's cold!
• I Need a Freaking Drink : Just after the diplomatic dinner on the Enterprise , McCoy leaves the transporter room proclaiming, "I'm going to go find a pot of black coffee." Ironically, he's already drunk at the time, making this "I need to sober up" .
• Instant Emergency Response : Valeris firing a phaser set to disinergrate not only sets off an alarm, but summons security along with half the ship.
• Though it has been pointed out that the Germans made the same claim in the 1930s and that in conjunction with Chang's echoing of Nazi talking points was an intentional choice to by the production staff to lead into Kirk's retort.
• Likewise, Spock's deadpan humor is on display when he says that "Only Nixon could go to China" is an "old Vulcan proverb." Like all Vulcan humor it could, technically, be true - Nixon is 300 years in their past at this point. It's simply very unlikely.
• Spock gets in another one when he quotes Sherlock Holmes as something an ancestor of his said. Either he's saying a Vulcan had the same thought, or he's related to Arthur Conan Doyle on his mother's side.
• Chekov gets one more "invented in Russia" gag in this, the final TOS movie. Chekov: Perhaps you have heard Russian epic of Cinderella ? If shoe fits, wear it!
• Incoming! : Chekov when the Bird-of-Prey is blasting away at them. Rather than shouting it, he mutters it with resignation .
• Incoming Ham : "I can see you, Kirk. Can you see me?"
• Invisibility Flicker : Klingon warships have to decloak before they can fire. Except Chang's. Even then, the exception is briefly lit up by its own torpedoes every time it fires one.
• Several times Valeris asks Spock, "A lie?" and he responds that it is something else (e.g. "An error"). After she is caught as a traitor , he asks her, "A lie?" and she responds, "A choice." Which is a callback to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan : Saavik: You lied? Spock: I exaggerated.
• When Kirk and Chang first meet, Chang says "I've always wanted to meet you, Captain. One warrior to another?" Later, during Chang's Incoming Ham moment he says, "Now be honest Captain, warrior to warrior. You do prefer it this way, don't you? No peace in our time, as it was meant to be." His last sentence is also a Call-Back to Kirk calling him out on demanding "breathing room" earlier via Godwin's Law .
• Ironic Echo Cut : Spock: "If I know the Captain, by this time, he is deep into planning his escape." Cut to Kirk getting the crap kicked out of him in a prison brawl.
• Irony : The conspiracy to prevent Klingon/Federation cooperation proves Klingon/Federation cooperation is possible.
• Kirk believes this, for not taking Gorkon at his word, and also for his prejudice as a whole against Klingons.
• Spock blames himself for being too idealistic and putting Kirk in a nearly untenable position, and for being blinded by pride for his protege, who turned out to be a traitor .
• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine : William Shatner was once Christopher Plummer's understudy. Here they play enemies.
• General Chang was actually confused over his silverware napkin roll until he watched the Federation delegation use theirs.
• Jerkass Has a Point : The Klingon ambassador is an ass, but even Sarek has to admit that he's correct in his legal interpretation that the Klingons have every right to try Captain Kirk and Doctor McCoy for Gorkon's assassination. Of course, that was General Chang's plan all along.
• Just Between You and Me : Subverted; Kirk and McCoy are beamed out before the warden can give them a name.
• Kangaroo Court : Kirk and McCoy's "trial". At least their defense lawyer (Worf's Identical Grandfather and namesake, Colonel Worf) is actually trying. Indeed, his efforts are likely the only reason they aren't executed immediately.
• The Kingslayer : The assassination of Klingon Chancellor Gorkon threatens to derail the burgeoning peace process between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. While Kirk initially takes the fall for it, Spock launches an investigation aboard the Enterprise to find the two hitmen, which he does... though only after they've been killed to protect the rest of the conspirators.
• Kirk Summation : Happens one last time. Kirk and Spock set a trap for The Mole on the Enterprise sabotaging peace talks between the Klingon Empire and the Federation. Spock sees it's Valeris. Spock: You have to shoot. ( Valeris stares in shock ) Spock: If you are logical, you have to shoot. Valeris: ( pause ) I do not wish to . ( Spock gets out of of the biobed and imposes himself at Valeris, daring her to shoot him square in the chest ) Spock: What you want is irrelevant , what you've chosen is at hand ! Kirk: (popping up out of another biobed) I'd just as soon you didn't. ( Spock angrily smacks the phaser from Valeris' hands ) McCoy : (emerging from shadows) The operation is over.
• Large Ham : Christopher Plummer as Chang, rivaling even Khan. Lampshaded when McCoy exclaims, "I'd give real money if he'd shut up."
• Laser Cutter : The prisoners on Rura Penthe are shown using laser guns to burn away the rock around dilithium crystals.
• Latex Perfection : The Klingon assassin is Starfleet's Colonel West with some rubber on his forehead .
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall : The TOS cast was aware that this would be their last story together, and it shows in the film.
• Lensman Arms Race : The Fire-While-Cloaking device is a game-changer, allowing klingon ships to not even need to decloak to engage a target. A klingon warship so equipped could simply fire just one torpedo and move to another position to become untouchable, as the Enterprise and Excelsior experienced. Unfortunately, it was doomed before the end of its first real engagement: Not only did peace breaking out make it unneeded, but Starfleet ingenuity developed a hard counter on the fly with off-the-shelf parts in the first engagement by adapting gaseous anomaly cataloguing sensors to a photon torpedo guidance system , homing in on the impulse exhaust trail that not even cloaked ships can avoid emitting.
• Lethal Harmless Powers : Even when set on "stun", a phaser can be deadly at extreme close range. Yeomen Burke and Samno find this out the hard way.
• Like a Surgeon : The modification of a torpedo to target a cloaked ship is treated like a surgery, mainly to justify McCoy assisting Spock with it and to toss in some jokes.
• Literary Allusion Title : To William Shakespeare . Allusions to Shakespeare were a regular occurrence in episode titles in The Original Series . The Undiscovered Country was likely intended to be a nod to tradition. Gorkon's Title Drop during the dinner on board the Enterprise directly references this allusion.
• Macross Missile Massacre : Once Chang's Bird-of-Prey is revealed, the Enterprise and the Excelsior torpedo the hell out of her until she explodes. Downplayed, as it's something like a total of seven torpedoes. Sulu: Target that explosion and fire! (the Excelsior fires torpedoes) Kirk: Fire! (the Enterprise fires torpedoes; both ships pummel the bird-of-prey with torpedoes until it explodes)
• Magic A Is Magic A : It's once again emphasized that a bird-of-prey must decloak before it can attack. The existence of a bird-of-prey that isn't so limited is a major game-changer and a dire threat that our heroes are scrambling to overcome.
• Subverted. Once outside the Rura Penthe shield, Kirk notes that they couldn't just have himself and McCoy killed in an "accident". Martia clarifies that an accident would have only been reasonable for one, so the conspirators required a more "convincing" alternative. Kirk: An accident wasn't good enough. Martia: Good enough for one. Two would have looked suspicious. Killed while [transforms into Kirk] attempting to escape? Now that's convincing for both .
• Earlier in the film Chang is asked by Kirk if there are any doctors on his ship. Chang responds that the doctor had been killed in the attack. One has to wonder if the attack was what killed the doctor, or if the Klingon conspirators had eliminated him and any other personnel with medical knowledge aboard in order to prevent Gorkon from being saved by Klingon doctors.
• Make Sure He's Dead : Part of Kirk's effort in Bluffing the Murderer . Valeris is forced to enter sick bay in order to "finish" the job of "killing" Burke and Samno, who are actually already dead.
• Make the Bear Angry Again : A Recycled In Space variant.
• Sulu and everyone else on the Excelsior bridge at the beginning, when they see the Praxis Shockwave hurtling towards the ship: Sulu: My... God! Shields! SHIELDS!
• The entire senior staff of the Enterprise has one at around midnight, all severely hung over (Except perhaps Spock). Spock talks about a peculiar sensor signature, they all commiserate about their hangovers... and then a torpedo comes seemingly out of the Enterprise and slams into Kronos One . Kirk: What's happened?! Spock: We have fired on the Chancellor's ship! (Bridge crew all start scrambling at their stations to assess the situation)
• When Kirk's personal log entry, in which he says "I have never trusted Klingons, and I never will..." is played in the trial, everybody in the Federation realizes how screwed Kirk and McCoy are now. (Not to mention revealing that The Mole is aboard the Enterprise .)
• Chang and his crew slowly gets this look all over their faces during the finale when the Enterprise fires out the Homing Projectile that gradually works its way toward them...
• Meaningful Name : "Praxis" is an accepted custom or practice. When the Klingon moon Praxis is obliterated, it makes the Klingon Empire reconsider their longtime hostilities with the Federation, making them do the same towards them.
• Metaphorically True : Spock says that his lies are "An error" and "An omission." Valeris then says that her lie is "A choice."
• In the novelization, it's very different: Valeris is terrified by the knowledge that Spock could force his way into her mind with his superior mental training, but Spock doesn't do this. He gently inquires telepathically and she is so relieved that she yields without resistance. As to whether the threat of mind rape is morally superior to actual mind rape, YMMV.
• In a promotional interview for the film, Cattrall revealed that her character and Nimoy's have a mind meld, and then crowed "I got to have safe sex with Mr. Spock!" Um...yeah, not so much.
• It has to be added that the actual scene is not as bad as this exchange makes it sound. Nimoy's acting make it painfully apparent that it isn't something Spock takes on lightly, and he is almost as badly affected as Valeris. His voice cracks badly as he delivers the information ( especially when concluding after deep-digging that she doesn't know the conference's location), and he is clearly struggling to hold it together himself.
• The Mole : Valeris.
• Mood Whiplash : Kirk and his officers are on the bridge, struggling to make it through their shift while in the grip of a Romulan ale hangover, when a photon torpedo suddenly hits Qo'noS One .
• Morton's Fork : Chang gets Kirk to admit that he's disobeyed orders in the past, then asks him if he was either obeying or disobeying orders when he arranged the assassination of the Chancellor. Such a blatant trap is easily avoided by Kirk (he cannot speak to actions he did not witness), but in turn allows Chang to lead him into admitting that he would be responsible if his men were involved (which they were).
• Murder by Inaction : Kirk refuses to help the Klingon by proclaiming they can just die for all he cares.
• Spock has this aura to him after he Mind Rapes Valeris to get the information to spot the Presidential assassination.
• In a more minor example, Kirk has this reaction after he bites out "LET them die!", especially when the words are later thrown back in his face by Valeris .
• The novelization, at least, provides a slightly more rational explanation for why they were scrambling to look up Klingon phrases in old paper books, instead of using the Universal Translator — namely, that the same saboteur(s) who had altered the ship's logs to make it look like the Enterprise had fired on the Chancellor's ship also wiped the Klingon language data from the memory banks to keep the Enterprise from crossing Klingon space without giving themselves away as soon as someone tried to establish communications with them. The books were part of Uhura's personal collection, not part of the ship's library, so the saboteur presumably didn't know about them, or didn't have any opportunity to destroy them.
• Nichelle Nichols has previously pointed out the obvious logical flaw about the scene: Given that Uhura was the ship's communications officer, and that the Klingon Empire was a hostile foreign power, she would have learned the Klingon language as part of her training. It simply makes no sense that Starfleet would send the Enterprise on such a delicate diplomatic mission without proper preparation.
• Worf's Identical Grandfather .
• Bones' exasperated, "What is it with you?!'' after Kirk kisses Martia . Kirk: Still think we're finished? Bones: More than ever.
• This exchange: Kirk: I can't believe I kissed you! Martia (as Kirk): Must have been your life-long ambition!
• Near-Villain Victory : The Big Bad nearly destroys the Enterprise and the conspirators nearly succeed in assassinating the Federation President, but the Excelsior helps buy the Enterprise time to complete its Plasma-Seeking Torpedo to find and kill Chang so they can get to the planet in time to save the day .
• Never Trust a Trailer : Trailers for the movie showcased a scene of Kirk getting phasered and vaporizing . Turns out it was just a shape-shifter . Also, the shot used in the trailer lasts a lot longer than the near-instant fate of the character involved.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain : Kirk and McCoy wouldn't have been able to escape Rura Penthe if not for the villains' plot to engineer an escape attempt to have an excuse to kill them.
• No Gravity for You : One Klingon tactic involves doing this to an entire boarded ship.
• No-Paper Future : Subverted when Uhura is trying to pass for a Klingon ship at Morskika Post. Since she can’t use the Universal Translator , she and the crew flip through Klingon books to formulate a proper Klingon response.
• No, You : When Admiral Cartwright demands the crew of the Enterprise arrested for crashing the Khitomer Conference, Spock responds by saying, "Arrest yourself!" while holding up Valeris, revealing to him that they know everything .
• No OSHA Compliance : This is cited as one of the reasons for Praxis exploding. Overmining and under-regulation turned it into a disaster waiting to happen, just like its real-life inspiration .
• Noble Bigot : Despite their grievances against the Klingons, the Enterprise crew, including Kirk, who initially was unable to forgive the Klingons for his son's death , still pursue their crusade for interstellar peace between Starfleet and the Klingons.
• Brigadier Kerla's voice is full of panic when trying to communicate to the Excelsior and telling them not to intervene.
• Spock is legitimately angry when Valeris is revealed to be The Mole and it shows when he slaps the phaser out of her hand with a clear look of anger on his face.
• Official Presidential Transport : The Klingon battlecruiser that carries Chancellor Gorkon to the rendezvous with the Enterprise is Kronos One ( Qo'noS Wa '), Kronos (also rendered as Qo'noS) being the name of the Klingon homeworld.
• That Ominous Klingon Chanting is actually Hamlet's To be, or not to be? in its original Klingon .
• KIRK! KIRK! KIRK! KIRK! KIRK! KIRK!
• Kirk gets two of them during the movie: Once, when McCoy tells him that he doesn't know anything about the Chancellor's anatomy, let alone if the Klingon leader will live, and the second when he is being questioned and Chang forces him to admit to guilt by association in the Chancellor's death.
• When Crewman Dax is questioned about the assassination after the gravity boots were found on his locker, the crew realize his webbed feet cannot possibly fit into those boots. Cut to Valeris having a dismayed reaction on her face. We later find out that she too was in the plot, and her face was actually a very subdued Oh, Crap! when she realizes Burke and Samno clumsily disposed of evidence that can now be used against (potentially) all three of them. This sets her off to kill both Burke and Samno in an effort to hide her role in the assassination. She gets another one of these moments when she is exposed as The Mole in Sick Bay.
• Chang has a brief moment when Enterprise fires the torpedo that can home in on his ship...but rather than freak out about it, he decides to Face Death with Dignity .
• Admiral Cartwright has this expression when Spock shows up with Valeris in tow, as the whole conspiracy is about to be revealed. And then again when he tries to book it , only for Captain Sulu and two of his men to beam down with phasers drawn, cutting off his escape.
• Older and Wiser : The TOS crew by this time. Spock shows this in his private conversation with Valeris: Spock: History is replete with turning points, Lieutenant. You must have faith. Valeris: Faith? Spock: That the universe will unfold as it should. Valeris: But is that logical? Surely we must— Spock: Logic, logic, logic ... logic is the beginning of wisdom, Valeris, not the end.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations : Kirk and Spock's chat before the final battle. Kirk is regretting that his distrust towards Klingons made him the perfect patsy for the assassination and made refuse to see Gorkon as earnest, while Spock is beating himself up about being too biased towards Valeris and her achievements to notice her hidden agenda. .
• Only One Finds It Fun : When McCoy is on the witness stand during the trial, he is asked about his medical status. He answers, "Aside from a touch of arthritis, I'd say pretty good." One Klingon laughs, but everyone else is silent.
• Only One Plausible Suspect : Towards the end of the movie we discover there's a traitor aboard the Enterprise . Since the movie has only one major character among the Enterprise crew who's not a series regular , it's not very hard to guess who the traitor could be. If they'd gone with the original plan for Valeris to be Saavik instead it might have been harder to predict, not to mention considerably more shocking.
• Only Sane Man : Chancellor Gorkon.
• The Klingon miner on Praxis shouting for help just before the moon's explosion. In the novelization , Sulu reflects that he's never seen abject terror on a Klingon's face before and never thought he would.
• Later, when he's about to interrogate Valeris via a non-consensual mind-meld , he roughly yanks her around to face him, and pulls her close when she tries to get away.
• When Kronos One recovers from the attack it turns around ready to attack the Enterprise , with Chang vowing revenge. Kirk immediately surrenders rather than raise shields, as submitting to them is the only course of action to continue peace talks. The crew knows the reasons why, but are stunned because this is Captain James Tiberius Kirk surrendering to the enemy.
• Orbital Shot : The forced Mind Meld.
• Our Presidents Are Different : President Target of the United Federation of Planets and Chancellor Target of the Klingon Empire.
• Kirk surrendering the fight when the Klingon ship recovers and prepares to return fire. The Enterprise almost certainly would have won, but in doing so would have kicked off a war between the two powers (undoubtedly the conspirators' plan). He is doing everything possible to keep the chance for peace alive after what happened. Uhura's response says it all. Kirk: Signal our surrender. Uhura: Captain!? Kirk: We surrender!
• Spock is legitimately hurt and angry over Valeris' betrayal, and makes no attempts to hide it. Even throwing logic in her face by outright daring her to shoot him. You can see the scorn on his face as he slaps the phaser out of her hand.
• During the climax as the conspirators are preparing to kill the Federation president, one of them, Admiral Cartright , is shown with sweat soaking his face.
• One of the engineers in the Enterprise 's engine room is dripping nervously as well, as an invisible foe is probably lurking around Khitomer, waiting to tear the Enterprise apart.
• Peace Conference : The First Khitomer Accord, ending decades of hostility between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner : Sulu: Target that explosion and fire.
• Precision F-Strike : Though remarkably tame, it is certainly one for Spock after hearing the Enterprise is to be decommissioned : Spock: If I were human, I believe my response would be, "go to hell." ... If I were human.
• Prevent the War : The Enterprise 's crew has to figure out the plot to assassinate Gorkon and jail Kirk in order to save the peace conference and stop war from breaking out.
• Properly Paranoid : In a subtle moment, Spock refuses to explain how Enterprise will be able to track Kirk and McCoy , only that they can, no doubt holding his cards close to the vest since he knows Enterprise has a mole on board. As it turns out, he's standing in front of the mole without even realizing it, making any such paranoia even more justified.
• Public Domain Canon Welding : Hinted at when Spock states that, "An ancestor of mine maintained that when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." This is, of course, a Sherlock Holmes quote. Since Holmes is established as fictional in other Star Trek media, fans usually interpret this as Spock declaring himself to be a descendant of Arthur Conan Doyle via his mother.
• Questionable Consent : The book makes it more explicit that Martia pushes themself on Kirk, kissing and “spooning”, and he doesn’t resist due to wanting to get out of there, but still feels sick whenever they touch him or leer after.
• Realpolitik : Kirk is among the more skeptical officers when it came to the Klingon peace treaty, but is volunteered by Spock to lead the first diplomatic envoy. The fact Kirk was anti-Klingon was being used to give legitimacy to the peace talks, a more compliant officer would have made the Klingons question their commitment and the Federation would worry about being too submissive. When Kirk objects, Spock quotes an Old Vulcan Proverb "Only Nixon could go to China," making it absolutely clear what the movie was trying to reference.
• Revenge Before Reason : Kirk certainly walks the line at first. Kirk: They're animals! Spock: Jim, there is an historic opportunity here. Kirk: Don't believe them! Don't trust them! Spock: They're dying. Kirk: Let them die!
• Revision : This is the first Trek production to establish "Chancellor" as the title of the leader of the Klingon empire — in the second-to-fourth seasons of TNG note  chronologically after this film, of course, but made and released before it , Klingon leaders K'mpec and Gowron had been referred to only as "Leader of the High Council". note  In fact, the title of chancellor wouldn't resurface until DS9 's The Way Of The Warrior . It's also the first time the Klingon homeworld is named as "Qo'nos" (Kronos); an early TNG episode had previously suggested it was called " Kling ".
• After Gorkon and his staff leave the transporter room on the Enterprise, the two Starfleet security officers left behind begin talking to each other about how disgusting the Klingons are , only to be brought up short by a disapproving Valeris who tells them to get on with their work. Watching it with the knowledge that these two, Burke and Samno, would be the assassins of Gorkon and Valeris is their superior in the conspiracy means that what Valeris actually means is "Stop clowning around making yourselves look suspicious and get ready to carry out your mission".
• After Gorkon's ship is hit, there's a closeup of Valeris frantically imputing commands into the helm console while everyone on the bridge is trying to figure out what happened. On a second watch, it's apparent that she's actually falsifying the computer records to indicate that Enterprise fired the torpedoes.
• After it's shown that Crewman Dax, whose locker the magnetic boot was found in, couldn't possibly have been the one who wore it, we cut to Valeris, who has a look of obvious dismay on her face. Knowing the above point about her role in the conspiracy, it's likely she was thinking "Those idiots !"
• Riding into the Sunset : In this case, going to warp toward a nearby star. Or Neverland , as Kirk alludes.
• Rousing Speech : Kirk, in the aftermath of averting the assassination, though it's rather more poignant than rousing. Azetbur: What's happened? What's the meaning of all this? Kirk: It's about the future, Madam Chancellor. Some people think the future means the end of history. But we haven't run out of history just yet. Your father called the future "the undiscovered country." People can be very frightened of change. (Azetbur glances at Lt. Valeris held in Spock's custody) Azetbur: You've restored my father's faith. Kirk: And you've restored my son's.
• Running Gag : Multiple people come charging into the galley wondering why a phaser discharge alarm sounded in there after Valeris demonstrates to Chekov how the assassins couldn't simply vaporize their incriminating footwear with a phaser; Uhura, Scotty, a security offer decked out in armor with his own phaser in hand... Chekov spends the rest of the scene having to tell everyone it's alright each time it happens. It does conveniently bring Uhura down with news about Starfleet Command's increasingly demanding order to return to port, as well as Scotty so Spock can solve the problem by order him to "have trouble with the warp drive" .
• Scenery Porn : The aerial shot of Kirk, McCoy and Martia trudging across the wastes of Rura Penthe (in actuality the Knik Glacier in Alaska) is stunning.
• Praxis must be really close to the neutral zone in order for the Excelsior to have been caught in the Planar Shockwave . (It is said to be a subspace shockwave rather than a plain old STL shockwave.)
• The Excelsior is said to be returning home on impulse power, which is unlikely unless they were already near their destination (or taking some time to perform maintenance on their warp drive). It would take years to travel between stars at sublight speeds note  The distances are so great, in fact, that any sublight travel is, effectively, not traveling at all compared to warp speed . This is likely out of necessity to the plot as it would be the ship being hit by the Planar Shockwave . note  During production of Star Trek: The Next Generation , there were a lot of shots of the Enterprise -D on impulse power, and a behind-the-scenes Technical Manual explained that warp speeds can only be sustained for periods of time before they need to drop out of warp and recalibrate. The producers indicated that warp effects were actually expensive to produce which is why these stock impulse shots were used. Presumably the Excelsior needs to do this as well, given that it is an earlier vessel than the Enterprise -D.
• The image is obvious CG. It’s not an actual photo of Praxis, but a computer representation of what remains of Praxis given various data available from the sensors.
• Screen Shake : Present as usual for Trek — and also enforced , as the bridge sets were built on gimbals to allow them to actually shake.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here! : Admiral Cartwright tries to high-tail it as The Plan to assassinate President Ra-ghoratreii falls apart — only to run into Captain Sulu and his team, phasers at the ready.
• See the Invisible : Once the plasma-homing torpedo hits Chang's Bird-of-Prey, the Excelsior and the Enterprise are able to target the resulting explosion. Their continued fire soon knocks out the cloaking shield, rendering the Bird-of-Prey visible just before it comes apart.
• Shapeshifting Squick : Kirk is a little weirded out when the female alien he made out with shows up as a furry male alien. McCoy : What kind of creature is this? Last night, you two were— Kirk: Don't remind me.
• Ship Tease : Very subtly between Spock and Valeris, reflected in their UST-filled nightcap and his emotional response to her betrayal. This is likely a remnant of the original script, which was to have the established character of Saavik instead of Valeris (reflecting the fact Spock and Saavik were strongly implied to have mated in Star Trek III and a deleted scene in Star Trek IV had established that Saavik was pregnant with Spock's child; in the Expanded Universe novels, Spock and Saavik eventually marry.)
• The last line before the final voice over is a reference to the 1953 Disney film Peter Pan (the directions to Neverland). Kirk: Second star to the right ... and straight on till morning.
• To Sherlock Holmes , when Spock says, "One of my ancestors once said, 'When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'" Gene Roddenberry had established as part of Spock's Backstory that Arthur Conan Doyle , creator of Sherlock Holmes, was one of Spock's ancestors on his mother's side.
• Chang's demand that Kirk not wait for the translation of a question, but answer it immediately, is straight from an earlier (pre-TOS, in fact) US-Soviet confrontation, the Cuban Missile Crisis . In that case, it was Adlai Stevenson insisting that the Soviet delegate to the UN answer simply yes or no as to whether they were putting missiles in Cuba.
• The Warden's speech is almost a word-for-word paraphrasing of Saito's "There is no escape" speech from The Bridge on the River Kwai .
• The Translation Convention device listed below that demonstrates the Klingons at Kirk and McCoy 's trial are speaking their own language through interpreters. A very similar device was used several decades earlier in the 1961 film Judgment at Nuremberg (which incidentally featured a young William Shatner in a supporting role).
• Rura Penthe shares its name with the penal colony from the 1954 film adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea .
• Its very title is from Hamlet : "[D]eath — the undiscovered country, from whose bourne/No traveler returns". (III.i)
• Martia: I thought I would assume a pleasing shape.
• Gorkon: A toast. To the undiscovered country — the future!
• Chang: To be... or not... to be...
• Chang: Have we not heard the chimes at midnight? note  A slight misquote converting the original play's statement, "We have heard the chimes at midnight..." into a question.
• Chang: Once more unto the breach, dear friends.
• Chang: The game's afoot.
• Chang: Cry havoc! And let slip the dogs of war!
• Chang: I am constant as the northern star. note  Bones: I'd give real money if he'd shut up .
• Chang: Tickle us, do we not laugh? Prick us, do we not bleed? Wrong us, shall we not revenge? note  He abbreviates the delivery a bit and leaves out "Kill us, do we not die?".
• Chang: Let us sit upon the grass and tell sad stories of the death of kings.
• Chang: Parting is such sweet sorrow.
• Chang: Our revels now are ended.
• Silent Whisper : Right after the bodies of Chancellor Gorkon's killers are found, Kirk takes Spock aside and they have an inaudible conversation. At the end Spock says, "Possible." It turns out to be an idea to lure the killers' killer out.
• Sixth Ranger Traitor : Valeris.
• Slasher Smile : William Shatner gives a great one as Martia!Kirk, when saying, "killed while trying to escape."
• Slow Clap : After Kirk saves the peace summit, the participants all start up. Including the "Ass" in Ambassador who hates him.
• Snowy Screen of Death : From what's left of Praxis, followed by a transmission from Brigadier Kerla saying that everything's under control .
• So Once Again, the Day Is Saved : Having saved the Federation so many times, the TOS crew can joke about it: Kirk: Once again, we've saved civilization as we know it. McCoy : And the good news is, they're not going to prosecute!
• Space Cold War : One of the more blatant allegories to come out of this period.
• Nothing new to Trek , but this movie subtly does a lot to give the feeling that the Enterprise is a naval vessel in space, right down to the computerized ship's bell dinging in a few scenes.
• Even moreso for this movie's Bird-of-Prey, which is the only one in the entire franchise to use a large ship's wheel at the helm.
• The explosion of Praxis sends out the space equivalent of a tsunami, which happens to be at the exact height in space to hit the Excelsior .
• The climactic battle gives the impression of two surface warships attempting to hunt down an enemy submarine. It does have 3D aspects, as enemy fire comes from all directions and heights. No one ever saw, for instance, the saucer section of the Enterprise being struck from below . The torpedo tearing through the saucer is inspired by cannonballs tearing through wooden ships.
• If ships having to uncloak to attack are like a diesel submarine needing to surface for air and to run the engines, then a ship that can fire while cloaked is like a nuclear submarine, with no need to surface at all. Thus, the gas-seeking photon torpedo is like an acoustically-guided anti-sub torpedo.
• Azetbur's ascension to the Klingon Chancellery also ends up being a major wrench in the conspiracy. She continues the Gorkon initative rather than abandon it out of vengeance or wrath against the Federation for her father's murder. This, combined with Colonel Worf's defense, results in the Klingon Judge commuting Kirk and McCoy's death sentences to life imprisonment during the Trial in the interest of the peace process. Look closely at Chang's reaction after the Judge's commutation; he's not happy, and knows this has just made things more complicated for the conspirators.
• Spot the Imposter : The reason Martia is able to escape is the same reason the Warden is able to figure out she isn't Kirk when he kills her: she took off her leg cuffs. Of course, given the Warden's plans for Kirk and McCoy , it wouldn't matter if he chose wrong anyways. There are a couple other giveaways as well: Martia always has gold eyes, and she points above Kirk instead of at him, since she is used to being shorter than him.
• State Visit : In the aftermath of the Praxis explosion, the Federation extends an invitation to the chancellor of the Klingon Empire to come to Earth to initiate negotiations that would result in the end of the Space Cold War .
• Standard Female Grab Area : Spock to Valeris when they mind-meld and after she's revealed as the traitor .
• Sticky Shoes : The assassins boarding Kronos One after the artificial gravity is disabled wear magnetic boots, allowing them to calmly stomp around shooting everyone in their path as they flail about helplessly.
• The scene where the Enterprise glides towards the spacedock doors is a reuse of the "zoom in on Enterprise " shot from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , just with the Excelsior removed and the background tint changed to blue.
• The second trailer has a minor scene from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , of the Enterprise getting shot by a torpedo.
• The Excelsior racing at top speed and the Klingon Bird-of-Prey exploding are re-used as stock footage in the next movie, Star Trek: Generations .
• Suicide by Cop : The book has Kirk briefly consider suicide by fighting with Klingons, as it’s preferable to retiring and dying an old man in bed, before deciding he can’t drag his crew down with him.
• Kirk and his officers are visibly hung over at their bridge shift after drinking too much Romulan ale — until a photon torpedo suddenly hits Kronos One . Then again, nothing suddenly causes you to gain focus like the prospect of interstellar war starting on your watch...
• Unfortunately subverted in the case of Dr. McCoy trying to revive Gorkon. In combination wtih his lack of working medical knowledge of Klingons, his hands are unsteady and slightly clumsy, still affected by the Romulan Ale he drank during the state dinner. No matter how shaken awake by the whole diplomatic catastrophe unfolding he may be, his mental acuity and motor skills are still impaired by intoxication. Chang is quite ready to bring that up during the show trial .
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute : Valeris in place of Saavik.
• Swivel-Chair Antics : Chang is so hammy that he spins his chair in ecstacy during the battle. Chang: CRY HAVOC! And let slip the dogs of war! ( Evil Laugh )
• Tactful Translation : The subtitles compensate for the Klingon listening post operator's lazy apathy by translating his simple utterance of just the post's name (Morskika) into, "This is Listening Post Morskika."
• It's quite nicely worked in, but Kirk's remark in the end speech that "some people think change means the end of history" is likely a jab at neo-conservative Francis Fukuyama's proclamation (and epynonymous book) that the collapse of Soviet communism meant that liberal bourgeois democracy was the only option for developing countries and was, thus, "the end of history".
• Starfleet Colonel West is inspired by USMC Col. Oliver North, who was implicated in the Iran/Contra scandal.
• Teleportation Rescue : Kirk and McCoy are saved from their impending murder "for attempting escape" at the hands of the Rura Penthe warden by the transporters. Shame about the timing, though.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill : After the modified photon torpedo hits and disables the cloaked Bird of Prey, it is dead in the water but still intact. Sulu's response with the Excelsior , and then Kirk's with the Enterprise-A , is to then pound it with torpedo after torpedo until it is completely obliterated. Slightly justified though because while the torpedo crippled the Bird of Prey and, presumably, killed Chang, it was still cloaked — just briefly exposed by the explosion — and so could still potentially be a threat.
• When The Excelsior finally gets on the scene at Khitomer in the climax, Captain Sulu knows that all he and his ship and crew can do at that time is be another target for the invisible foe and take pressure off the battered Enterprise . True enough, moments later, Chang orders a torpedo strike that uppercuts right into Excelsior 's saucer section, sending damage control teams scrambling and emergency bulkheads dropping. Sulu: All right... now we've given them something else to shoot at.
• Non-Verbal example — as Chang speaks his "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner while a torpedo streaks towards them, two of his men can be seen behind him bracing themselves for the impact of the torpedo and the subsequent barrage to follow.
• Title Drop : Subtitle Drop. In the ill-fated dinner scene , Gorkon proposes a toast to "the undiscovered country," earning bemused stares from the audience as well as the main cast before he explains he meant "the future." The cause of the confusion is that within the context of Hamlet 's speech, "the undiscovered country" is death . Which Spock himself points out in the novelization. Gorkon's counter-argument has a good point. And, considering what happens to Gorkon in his next scene, actually makes quite a bit of sense .
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth : Chancellor Gorkon. Dr. McCoy describes him as "the last, best hope for peace."
• Too Good for Exploiters : The Klingons sue for peace, because their hostility toward the Federation is unsustainable in light of the accident on Praxis, their moon and previously-key-energy-production facility. Unfortunately, there are those on all sides, Humans, Klingons, and even the Romulans, that want the hostilities to continue, because they exploit the benefits, jobs, and even the control, that come with their current political position.
• Took a Level in Jerkass : Admiral Cartwright. He was previously shown in a more heroic light in Star Trek IV . However, here he comes off as a racist jerk during the briefing, and this is even before we find out he is a part of the conspiracy .
• Touch Telepathy : After Spock realizes that Valeris is a traitor and murderer , he grabs her by the head and performs a forced Mind Meld on her to learn the details of the conspiracy .
• Tracking Device : The viridium patch that Spock slaps on Kirk's back just before he and McCoy beam onto Kronos One .
• Trailers Always Spoil : The fact that there is a Bird-of-Prey involved, and that Chang is commanding it.
• During the trial, the Klingons begin in their own language, then the camera cuts to a box where translators are giving a running translation in English, which is being piped through radio-like devices that Kirk and McCoy are listening to. When the camera cuts back to General Chang, all spoken dialogue for the rest of the scene is in English, but it's still clear the Klingons are speaking their own language, particularly when Chang yells at Kirk not to wait for the translation before answering a question.
• This trope is mostly avoided for all other scenes involving the Klingons on their own, however. Subtitles are used in all-Klingon scenes in almost all movies.
• For some reason, it almost always switches to English whenever Chang starts talking, sometimes right after some untranslated Klingon. Maybe Christopher Plummer had trouble chewing scenery in Klingon.
• Tricked into Escaping : The villains want Kirk and McCoy dead, not just imprisoned, but don't want to be too obvious about it. They arrange for the pair to meet someone with whom they can team up in an "escape attempt", which the commandant can then violently quash. Kirk eventually realises that the situation didn't add up. (Kirk, of course, would certainly have attempted escape on his own, but it would have taken time to learn the layout and find his best option.) Kirk: She didn't need our help getting anywhere. Where did she get these convenient clothes? And don't tell me that flare is standard prison issue. It's to let them know where we are. [...] An accident wasn't good enough. Martia: Good enough for one. Two would have looked suspicious. [shape-shifts into Kirk] Killed while attempting escape? Now that's convincing for both.
• The first is Brigadier Kerla admitting that "there has been an incident on Praxis." Yeah, an entire moon exploding goes well beyond just "an incident."
• The second is Spock opening a briefing at Starfleet Command with "Two months ago, a Federation starship monitored an explosion of the Klingon moon Praxis." By "monitored," he means that the Excelsior was knocked off course and nearly shaken to pieces by the Planar Shockwave .
• Unwanted Rescue : At least not for a few more minutes after Kirk's captor explains the plans.
• Villain Has a Point : Both sides of the conspiracy to assassinate Chancellor Gorkon and the Federation President are partially proven to be correct in their paranoia, when Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine later show their fears coming true. The Federation does corrupt Klingon society to the point that a Starfleet officer later becomes the one to decide who would become the next Klingon chancellor, while the Klingons later betray the Federation and launch a war against them after abandoning the Khitomer Accords (albeit, largely due to the influence of a Changeling mole ).
• Wasn't That Fun? : After General Chang's Bird-of-Prey first opens fire on Enterprise at Khitomer: McCoy : This is fun.
• We Need to Get Proof : Spock logically figures out that the only ship that could have torpedoed Kronos One is a cloaked bird-of-prey, but as they're not supposed to be able to fire while cloaked, it will take more than their word to convince Starfleet. Valeris: We must inform Starfleet Command— Scotty: Inform them of what ? A new weapon that is invisible? "Raving lunatics", that's what they'll call us! They'll say that we're so desperate to exonerate the captain that we'll say anything. Spock: And they would be correct. We have no evidence. Only a theory which happens to fit the facts.
• We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future : Or at least the Klingons will on their prison planets. Then again, it's Rura Penthe, the Klingon equivalent of a gulag. The warden outright calls it "the gulag Rura Penthe" during his introductory resistance is futile speech. Hardly meant to be comfortable.
• "Signal our surrender." Derails the firefight between Enterprise and Qo'noS One that the scene appeared to be leading to. It even shocks the bridge crew: Uhura: Captain? Kirk: We surrender!
• During the last scene: Uhura: Captain, I have orders from Starfleet Command. We're to put back to Spacedock immediately... to be decommissioned.
• Wham Shot : The torpedo hitting Kronos One .
• Spock's disturbed reaction to Kirk's desire to see the Klingons die off. note  In commentaries, Shatner expressed dismay that they cut out a subsequent self-dismissive gesture from Kirk suggesting it was impulsively said.
• This was prompted by Spock "volunteering" the Enterprise and crew for the peacekeeping mission. Considering just two films ago, Kirk was accused by the Klingons of developing the Genesis device as a superweapon, he seems like a poor choice — but the implication is that the Klingons respect Kirk's legendary fighting abilities and will deal better with a tough guy than a nice guy. The conspirators have no problem leveraging this reputation to frame Kirk for Gorkon's murder.
• The dinner scene spreads a lot of the blame around to all of the main characters — with the exception of Spock, who really is trying — who drink too much Romulan ale and come off as bigoted against Klingons. That most of Enterprise 's senior staff returned to duty still drunk from dinner is used as evidence of gross negligence against Dr. McCoy in their trial.
• Spock seems to be giving himself one after he publicly Mind Rapes Valeris for information on the conspiracy .
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? : When the prison warden finds Kirk and McCoy outside, he shoots the shape-shifter who was helping him immediately, but inexplicably agrees to explain who is behind the conspiracy before shooting Kirk and McCoy . This gives them enough time to escape.
• Why Isn't It Attacking? : The climactic Battle of Khitomer has the Enterprise under attack from General Chang's bird-of-prey, which can stay cloaked while attacking, causing Kirk to initially order his ship to pull back. Both commanders on either side ask this question about the other: Kirk wonders why Chang does not press his advantage; Chang wonders if the Enterprise is backing up because they detect him, and wants to make sure they cannot ascertain his exact location before attacking the larger ship.
• Why We Are Bummed Communism Fell : The whole film is a metaphor for the fall of communism, and even seemed to predict the failed coup that preceded the final collapse of the USSR.
• Wicked Cultured : General Chang might be willing to plunge the quadrant into war, but damn if he can't quote Shakespeare with the best of them!
• Wild Hair : The Federation President's mustache almost earned its own acting credit.
• Worthy Opponent : In the novelization, Chang spends his last seconds reflecting on his own mortality, and that being beaten by the likes of Kirk is no disgrace. Even in the film, the mere fact that Chang considers Kirk a "warrior" is a testament to his respect for him as an adversary.
• Would Hit a Girl : Kirk punches Martia. Of course, she’s a shapeshifter, so he doesn’t know whether she’s really female or not.
• Wrong Genre Savvy : Kirk still thinks he can do what he did constantly in the original series, and seduce someone to help get out of a bad situation. Not so much, as she's a shapeshifter setting him up, and even calls him out for his narcissism.
• They are expecting Kirk to fight it out after the Chancellor is killed, but when he surrenders they put him in a show trial and schedule a new assassination attempt at the peace conference.
• They send Kirk to an inescapable Penal Colony but know he would probably find a way to escape, so they use a stooge to "help" him and betray him later.
• They believe Kirk would never find the location of the conference, but have a ship ready to deal with him if he does.
• You Cannot Kill An Idea : Gorkon's fight for peace continues on despite his assassination. His daughter Azetbur, who becomes chancellor, continues his efforts, and Gorkon's sacrifice challenges Captain Kirk's prejudice against Klingons. Gorkon: Don't let it end this way, Captain .
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame : A downplayed example, but Kirk is obviously not thrilled to be greeted by Chang "from one warrior to another".

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The shapeshifting Martia takes on the form of Captain Kirk and fights the real one.

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Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is a masterpiece until it's a franchise movie

Entertainment Geekly's 'Star Trek' series looks at Nicholas Meyer's clever political fantasy.

2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the Star Trek franchise – and the release of Star Trek Beyond , the 13th feature film in the series. To celebrate this big year, and ponder the deeper meanings of Trek ‘s first half-century, the Entertainment Geekly column will look at a different Star Trek film each week , from now till Beyond. This week: The end of the Cold War, with more forehead ridges. Last week: William Shatner versus God . This Friday: Kirk meets Picard.

At the beginning of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , the opening credits play over a starscape. Opening credits always do that in Star Trek . But something’s gone wrong this time. Cliff Eidelman’s score is minor-key, insinuating, infesting . It puts you on edge. The final credit flashes onscreen: “Directed By Nicholas Meyer.” The name fades. The camera holds. The stars shine dark. And then the universe explodes.

There is no true form for a Star Trek movie, no single blueprint that can explain the architecture of the best adventures of the Enterprise . I hope that this column series is, in some ways, argument against the modern strain of enjoyment that demands all our branded content fall into some prefabricated cinematic style and narrative strategy: that strain of thinking that praises the karaoke achievements of Star Wars 7 and Jurassic Park 4 , the sanctimonious originalism that hails superhero movies for doing something “right” instead of doing something new, the sell-out intellectualism that didn’t get furious just now reading the phrase “branded content.”

What is a Star Trek movie? In the last few weeks, we have watched a dreamy lithium brain burp about consciousness and pajamas , a whimsical comedy about humanity’s unsteady relationship with the natural world , and a testosteronic action farce about whether God exists .

One of those movies is a perfect act of human endeavor; the other two are not, but I support their ambition and their lunacy, appreciate the chintzy let’s-solve-the-universe egotism of asking The Big Questions using bald space beauties and giant floating heads and purple space haze and “Row Row Row Your Boat.” In the grand scheme, the Enterprise starts to feel like the Clamp Center in Gremlins 2 : Less a place than a thousand states of mind piled atop each other. (Level 20 is where the crew gets funny; Level 31 is where Kirk feels sad; Level 42 is where they meet the Greek Gods; on Level 87 everyone quotes Shakespeare.) Star Trek can be everything, can take you anywhere: That’s how cinema is supposed to work.

I don’t think the franchise has had a more clear-eyed filmmaker than Nicholas Meyer – and I don’t think it has had a more sustained stream of excellence than the first 50 minutes of Undiscovered Country . Meyer made The Wrath of Khan , a clever epic composed out of faces and reaction shots. Meyer had a low budget, but Melville didn’t have special effects when he wrote Moby Dick . I love Khan , but Undiscovered Country begins on another level, thematically deeper, richer in its perspective on the personalities onscreen. The Klingons are in trouble: A moon has Chernobyl’d, they’re running low on energy, the whole civilization is dead in this generation or the next. Leave it to Meyer to make “the problem of limited resources” the inciting incident for his adventure. Resources shouldn’t factor much into Roddenberry’s utopia – but as Undiscovered Country makes clear, Meyer doesn’t believe in utopia, doesn’t trust Starfleet, doesn’t quite trust the dictionary definition of “hero.”

We cut to Starfleet headquarters. Another subtle sign that we’re in uncharted territory: We’ve gotten plenty of San Francisco establishing shots in this series, but this is the first time we’ve seen the Golden Gate Bridge at night, a gloaming settling over the Marin Headlands.

There is a top-secret meeting of Starfleet’s top people: Classified. The Klingons have opened up a line of diplomacy. They want to negotiate for peace, or something like it. Meyer takes Starfleet seriously as a force that is deep-down a military concern. So if you come to Undiscovered Country from The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine or even the last few movies — where Starfleet is a place that finances adventures for families and friends, essentially some combination of the French Government and Google that employs everyone to do whatever they would like to do — you might be a bit dizzy to hear how the top brass talks about Starfleet in this scene. (Meyer admires the terse toughness of bureaucratic soldier lingo: “C-in-C” instead of “Commander-in-Chief.”)

What does it mean, if they aren’t at war anymore? “Are we talking about the mothballing of Starfleet?” someone asks. There is immediate, angry debate. One Admiral voices opposition. Peace is madness; if the Klingons are weak, we strike now . We are immediately aware that there are two sides to this argument, and see how Meyer positions those two sides, with two familiar faces at the center:

Spock doesn’t just advocate peace: He is the reason for these negotiations, the Federation Special Envoy to the Klingons. Kirk didn’t know that, and is shocked by this whole meeting. “This is a terrifying idea,” says Kirk. “The Klingons have never been trustworthy.” He’s entitled to his opinion. But Captain Kirk, hero of the galaxy, isn’t sitting at the table because Starfleet wants his wisdom. They need his brand recognition. They are sending Kirk to meet with the Klingon chancellor and escort him through Federation space. What a statement that will make: The enemy of the Klingons, welcoming them with open arms. This will be his final mission: A glorified escort mission.

“I have personally vouched for you in this matter, Captain,” says Spock. “ You ,” Kirk spits. “Have personally,” he sputters. “ VOUCHED?” he demands, decades of friendship betrayed in a moment. See how Meyer gracefully moves into a close-up: Kirk looking up and offscreen left, the camera ever-so-slightly above him, so that he looks small and cornered; Spock staring down and offscreen right, the camera staring up at him, so that he looks frustratingly imperious.

And see how, as the meeting breaks up, Meyer leaves them on opposite sides, never further apart.

Undiscovered Country cost more than Wrath of Khan , but if you’re looking, you can feel the same stretching. After Final Frontier ‘s soft box office, the budget for this film was cut down — shades of the budgetary reduction from the bloated Motion Picture to the lean Khan . There are sets in this film redressed from The Next Generation ; Kirk’s bedroom is also Spock’s bedroom (wasn’t it always, teehee.) None of that matters for Meyer; it might even be a boon for him. He knows how much mileage you can get out of two well-motivated characters.

“They’re animals ,” Kirk yells. “Don’t believe them! Don’t trust them!” Spock is droll. He quotes an old Vulcan proverb: “Only Nixon could go to China.” But Spock is also clear, and poignantly human. He calls Kirk “Jim.” He says, plainly: “They’re dying.”

“Let them die ,” says Kirk.

We’re used to the idea of “darkness” now, as a mode of entertainment. Most of that darkness is aesthetic, shadows and dirt and shaky cameras. Sometimes that darkness actually permeates the movie — but even then, it can feel like a pose, an abstraction of political reality. (See how much fun we have debating if The Dark Knight is liberal or conservative!) Undiscovered Country is clear on its politics. This is the end of the Cold War, rendered spaceward. Spock believes the point of war is peace; Kirk thinks war ends when there’s only one side left. Think of how so many big movies this year bend over backward to find some way for their heroes to fight; think of how, minutes into Undiscovered Country , Captain Kirk hates Mr. Spock.

It’s not that simple, of course. Nothing in this movie is. Kirk is angry, but ruminative. We find him on the Enterprise , in his quarters, pacing in a circle. “I’ve never trusted the Klingons,” he monologues. “And I never will.”

You notice things in this scene. The cruddy smallness of Kirk’s room, for one: a gray dormitory with some ornate artwork hung on bland walls, a small bed with little comfort for a man cusping on 60. And that’s another thing. In Wrath of Khan , Kirk worried about getting old. He doesn’t voice that now, but only because there’s no use worrying; he is just old . His hair gone gloriously gray, his belt buckled too-tight against his stomach. There is nothing pitiful about this: Quite the opposite. Shatner-as-Kirk looks majestic in Undiscovered Country , like any god in ruins. In the shadows of his cruddy cabin, he looks like a man who thought he was free until he woke up imprisoned. “How on earth can history get past people like me?”

Meyer’s camera shoots with clarity, but as a writer he loves grand statements, references, clear-cut homages. We cut to Spock in his own room, where he is talking to his latest apprentice: a young Vulcan officer named Valeris, an avatar of the younger generation played with helplessly seductive wit by Kim Cattrall. We find her looking at Spock’s painting: Marc Chagall’s Adam and Eve Expelled From Paradise .

Soon enough, there are Klingons aboard the Enterprise . Their leader is Gorkon, his name an explicit blending of Gorbachev and Lincoln; he is even styled to look like Abraham Lincoln, and the first great surprise of the film is how David Warner plays this role with softness, charm, even a bit of whimsy. He is a graceful guest: “You have my thanks,” he tells Kirk. He has brought his daughter with him: You feel immediately that he is proud of her, not just as a father but as a fellow politician. You may feel, in fact, that Gorkon is — in this moment, in this movie — a far more convincing leader than Kirk, someone who smiles at this curious new moment in history instead of raging against the dying of the light.

The next scene is, I think, my favorite scene in any of these Star Trek movies. It’s a close call, truly, a race between Spock’s sacrifice in Khan and the V’Ger odyssey toward meta-orgasmic cosmic awareness in The Motion Picture and everything on Earth in Voyage Home and Kirk asking what in the world God could do with a starship in Final Frontier and the Borg Queen seducing Data in First Contact and Worf saying “Assimilate This” in First Contact and Chris Hemsworth saying “Let’s call him Jim” in Star Trek ’09 .

But: There is a dinner. The camera starts on Kirk, looking a bit too rehearsed and stiff as the waiter pours Romulan Ale into his glass.

The camera pulls back, and we get a balanced image of two people: Christopher Plummer’s Chang on the left, Kirk on the right. These characters have only just met, but note how Meyer ever-so-subtly establishes them as equals here — and how he contrasts Kirk’s stiffness with Chang’s caveman-at-the-dinner-table curiosity.

Chang doesn’t seem to understand the purpose of a napkin — and as the camera pulls back, Kirk unfurls his own napkin. It is one of the best single pieces of physical acting Shatner has ever done: You can feel patrician disgust, and you marvel at all of Kirk’s barely-bottled aggression coming uncorked.

The camera keeps moving back across the table, so we see the two sides. They are dining together, separated.

The shot ends at the far end of the table. If Kirk is on one end, Gorkon must be on the other — and, with perfect timing, the waiter comes around to fill his glass. But you can look closely and see Gorkon’s warm smile. His costume is more ornate than Kirk’s, but he seems more comfortable. We pay attention to this strange Klingon. Kirk seems so petulant; we have the strangest feeling, helped along by Meyer’s framing, that Kirk is boy at a table for grown-ups.

He gives a toast: “To the undiscovered country.” It’s a reference, Spock informs us: “ Hamlet , Act Three, Scene One.” Sometimes, when characters in a movie call out the movie’s reference, it can feel too cute, or on-the-nose. But in Nicholas Meyer’s Star Trek , characters call out references because they are smart, and they are delighted by how smart the other characters are. And in Meyer’s view, with intelligence comes dry wit: “You have not experienced Shakespeare,” says Gorkon, “Until you have read him in the original Klingon.”

The conversation that follows flows, patiently and logically. McCoy and Scotty try to make welcoming small talk. One of the Klingons praises Kirk’s Draper game: Isn’t Romulan ale illegal? Chang tests Kirk: Would he be willing to give up Starfleet? Shatner and Plummer were old pals — Bard obsessive Meyer must have loved that his hero and villain performed together at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival — and you can feel their delight as equals, and you can feel that Chang and Kirk see each other clearly, and know that they don’t quite belong at this table, and don’t want to.

Kirk tries to change the topic of conversation; he says something diplomatic. “Come now, Captain,” says Chang. “There’s no need to mince words. In space, all warriors are cold warriors.” The tone of the conversation changes, like ripples turning into waves. Gorkon’s daughter has a philosophical dislike for the Federation: It’s a homo sapiens club. (Oh sure, Spock, a half-human — and he’s the only alien sitting on Starfleet’s side of the table.) The Klingons believe that Starfleet wants to annihilate them — if not their species, then their culture. Chang quotes Shakespeare: “To be or not to be.” He tells Kirk: “We need breathing room.”

Kirk can’t help himself. “Earth, Hitler, 1938.” Explaining that gag takes a while — it refers to Spock’s line about Hamlet , it refers to Hitler and the concept of “ lebensraum ” — but what you feel most of all in that moment is how completely Kirk has failed. Chang smiles: He has forced the Captain of the Enterprise to reveal his petty side. Gorkon smiles too, but much more sincerely, and sadly: “I see we have a long way to go.”

The Klingons leave, but not before Gorkon gives Kirk a personal message. “You don’t trust me, do you?” he says, always smiling that sad smile, as if he’s seen this movie before but takes great relish in watching it again. “I don’t blame you,” he tells Kirk. “If there is to be a Brave New World, our generation is going to have the hardest time living in it.”

Our generation: What a thing to say! What a moment of unity! You may dislike how completely Undiscovered Country rips its central story from the headlines, you may yearn for science fiction with a less clear allegory, but the joy of this film is how it makes the Klingons Soviet only to make some of the most convincing, fully-fleshed-out, three-dimensional Soviet characters ever to appear in a Hollywood entertainment. Consider that, circa 1991, the Russian bad guy was merely being pushed into a new phase — now renegade Cold Warriors instead of official party members — and consider how, up until this point of the movie, the most likable character has been the onscreen symbol of everything our heroes used to fight against.

As if to underline just how diminished Kirk is, we cut to his quarters. It might be the next morning, although who can tell in space. There’s no complicated way to say this: He is hungover, the kind of hungover where you go to sleep with your clothes on.

And then it all goes to hell. On the bridge, Kirk looks out his viewscreen and sees something impossible: A photon torpedo coming out of the Enterprise , without his command, without any torpedoes leaving the torpedo bay. They hit the Klingon ship and cripple it. Gravity departs, and the Klingons float: fearsome warriors made to look silly, the primitive effects only heightening their own diminishment. Onboard, two men dressed in Engineer attire go on a killing spree.

The assassination scene is strange and haunting and arguably marred by gloopy primordial floating-blood special effects, but it has a kooky power. One Klingon’s arm gets shot off, and he’s too horrified to even make a correct sound. Then the assassins shoot Gorkon, and we can see blood pour out of both sides of his body, and we leave him floating in air, his insides out.

Gravity returns; the Klingons are furious. Kirk is desperate to salvage whatever is left of this mission, so he beams over with McCoy — a show of good faith, an attempt to bring real medical help to beings in need. They bring the still-breathing Gorkon onto a table. The way Meyer frames the shot, you’re reminded of some of those illustrations from your history books, of the dying Lincoln surrounded by desperate men.

By all visible signs, the Klingons’ good faith has been betrayed. The Federation needed Kirk to go on this mission as a sign of good faith, and now, as another sign of good faith, the Federation must stand back as Kirk gets brought up on war crimes. What follows is a grand and merry gag of justice; one character calls it a “show trial.” What a show! Chang is the Grand Inquisitor, forming a coherent case against Kirk. They know he hates Klingons; they have the Captain’s Log to prove it. (We didn’t use this language back then, but how remarkable that, here in his last adventure as Captain, Kirk gets hacked.) The set is a mockery of justice, with Kirk and McCoy under a spotlight, and the assembled Klingons arranged as a mob from the Reign of Terror.

“It’s a goddamn show trial,” says a Starfleet Admiral. Soon enough, we’ll discover that the Admiral who says that is a traitor — that, in fact, Kirk has been set up by a traitorous cabal on all sides of the neutral zone. But we remember how this movie began with Kirk being set up — by Spock, his nominal friend, to be a hero of peace against a nemesis Kirk would rather eradicate. Anyone who declares that Undiscovered Country is a dated remnant of Cold War politics is missing the movie’s deeper, smarter point.

This isn’t a movie about the end of the Cold War, no matter all the savvy references therein. (At one point, Chang quotes Adlai Stevenson from the Cuban Missile Crisis: “Don’t wait for the translation, answer me now !” At another point, Kirk quotes Fukuyama: “Some people think the future means the end of history …”) It’s a movie about the start of the period after the Cold War, when things will be less certain. Undiscovered Country is the movie where you can spot the beginning of the rebooted Battlestar Galactica , developed by Ronald D. Moore, a Star Trek renegade, like Meyer fascinated by the military, like Meyer frustrated by the antiseptic and stilted inhumanity of Roddenberry’s utopia. Consider that, in Undiscovered Country , Spock uses his mind meld not for empathy nor mutual understanding, but as a weaponized form of interrogation. See how Meyer’s camera tilts as Spock digs into his apprentice’s mind; see the horror on her face, and see how everyone else on the Enterprise looks on, in quiet affirmation.

Consider, too, some deeper truth about the Valeris arc. Spock considers her his successor; she is his great hope for the future, and she is the only person onscreen young enough to represent some next generation of Starfleet. But she is a traitor. She has followed the path of logic — and logic tells her that only one side can triumph. You recall how, in Sopranos , the show constantly positioned Tony as an elder looking down on a new generation: Christopher Moltisanti, Brendan Filone, Matt Bevilaqua, Jackie Junior. And you recall how many of those young men wound up dead — some of them by Tony’s hand! — so that The Sopranos really did feel like the end of history, with old men raging against their dying light just long enough to kill all the sons and daughters who could replace them.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Undiscovered Country doesn’t go that far, or that deep. Maybe it can’t. The show trial is the movie’s high point, a hilarious mockery of justice witnessed by the whole galaxy. Then Kirk and McCoy go to space prison, and the film never quite recovers.

I should be clear: This film is never bad, and it is a wild romp. This is the rare politically minded work that actually deserves some comparisons to The Manchurian Candidate . There is the sniper assassin, sure, but there is also the familiar Manchurian nightmare logic that powers the conspiracy. Why, exactly, is the Starfleet cabal in bed with the Klingon cabal, if all both sides want to do is eliminate each other? Isn’t it ironic that, in attempting to stop the talks that will unite their societies, they are actually the first real proof that a Klingon-human union is possible?

“They conspired with us to assassinate their own chancellor,” explains Valeris. “How trustworthy can they be?” We asked them to be evil, and they were evil, which proves they are evil : a loop-de-loop of logic which feels more honest about our shaky ethical realities than any coherent argument ever could be.

Meyer has great fun with Kirk and McCoy on one last away mission, and even seems to be making light fun of the Kirk-ian hero’s journey. In the space gulag, Meyer constantly shoots Kirk up against a much taller alien being. A beautiful come-hither prisoner played by Iman tongue-wrestles Kirk like a moth to a flame — but that’s just a gag, because Iman is actually a tall androgynous beast-changeling.

Kirk’s riotous freak-out at this revelation has a poignant subtext: He thought he still had it with the ladies, but maybe the ladies have had it with him. But Meyer is also sensitive enough to let Kirk and Spock have a final one-on-one conversation, both of them commanding the frame.

“We’re both extremists,” says Kirk. “Reality is probably somewhere in between us.” Imagine that: Here at the end, Kirk and Spock seem to finally understand what they have always symbolized. “Everybody’s human,” says Kirk. “I find that remark insulting,” zings Spock. In another movie, in the hands of a lesser filmmaker, with two lesser actors, this might all feel too cute, too self-aware. But history permeates this conversation, and sadness, and hard-won truth.

(Compare this to, say, Civil War, when Iron Man says he used to be Captain America’s friend, and Captain America does everything for his friend Bucky, and you find yourself struggling to remember any time these characters have just been friends , onscreen, humans who seem to know each other, not chess pieces getting pushed around a three-dimensional board.)

But I find that the ambition departs Undiscovered Country at the midpoint. You feel so much under the surface in the first half: Kirk vs. Spock, Klingons vs. Humans, the old generation vs. the new one, extremists vs. moderates, the audacity of hope vs. the way wisdom slipstreams helplessly into cynicism. You yearn to see some sort of reckoning for all these issues. Instead, this happens:

That is Captain James T. Kirk pulling an In the Line of Fire to rescue the Federation president. Consider the distance between Kirk in that moment — a diving headfirst jump, a daring act of action-heroism — and the Kirk who soliloquizes in his quarters, a lonely old man pondering his place in the cosmic joke of history, no longer able to hold his liquor, incapable of holding back his own bias. The back half of Undiscovered Country reminds you a bit of the back half of The Magnificent Ambersons , when scenes get longer and the staging gets more stilted — The Motion Picture director Robert Wise started directing!

It’s not that bad, really: I love how, in the final battle, Chang can only speak in quotes: Now Henry V , now Neville Chamberlain, now Hamlet one last time. I love how the film finds room for the graceful send-off of Sulu, now a Captain in his own right.

Without ever underlining the point, Meyer makes it clear that Sulu is the next generation: a Captain who is patient, and clever, and who is willing to bend the rules but perhaps less offensively Kirk-ian about breaking them. (When we meet Sulu on the Excelsior , he spent three years “cataloging gaseous planetary anomalies in the Beta Quadrant.” You imagine Kirk would get bored with that work — but Sulu looks happy, peaceful, positively thrilled to catalog the cosmos.)

But Undiscovered Country becomes less impressive as a single film when it becomes more recognizable as franchise production. Of course Kirk starts getting into fights and jumping through the air: Isn’t that just so Kirk ? At the film’s beginning, the political situation is so tense that even within Starfleet — even at a Starfleet meeting where the Commander-in-Chief declares that they have won , that the Klingon Cold War is over — hostility reigns, arguments flourish, conspiracies are formed. By the film’s end, Kirk gives a short speech, and the assembled cosmos cheer him.

It’s like watching The Manchurian Candidate become Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , but I don’t imagine those terms apply for most viewers or the filmmakers. You can feel the ceiling of ambition that a franchise descends upon drama. Sure, you can ask some provocative questions, but in the end, the answer is Kirk.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

And yet I love Star Trek , and I am moved to tears by the final sequence, and so maybe I am part of the problem. The film ends happily for all of our favorite people, but Meyer knows how to ground that joy in melancholy, how to earn the sense of an ending. Kirk and his crew walk onto the bridge — and it takes us a second to notice that the bridge is empty besides our old favorites, that all the background Enterprise crewpeople have given them space for final act. Uhura relays the message from HQ: The ship should return to Earth and be decommissioned. The look on Kirk’s face is one of the most wonderfully sad images I can think of.

But the look doesn’t last. Spock makes a joke, and Kirk has a line: “Second star on the left right…and straight on till morning.” Uhura stands up to get a better look out the viewscreen, and Meyer’s camera gracefully advances forward. It is a lovely send-off, quiet like blockbuster movies are never quiet now, framed just right.

Franchise machinery so often triumphs over the cinematic machinery. You watch Undiscovered Country and suspect there was a more complete version of the movie. Perhaps a version where Kirk and Spock were not fated to agree, or a version where the end of the Fake Cold War doesn’t lead to what appears to be complete galactic peace. Maybe that version of the film would note further how Valeris takes her inspiration from Kirk — and would wonder how Spock, as a tutor, could inadvertently guide his apprentice in the wrong direction. If we’re to believe the trailers, Star Trek Beyond wants to ask some serious questions about Starfleet. Actually, when I interviewed Simon Pegg, he mused generally about the film’s ideas: “Is the Federation a good idea? Is it just colonialism?” Those questions get brought up in that great dinner scene — and then get forgotten.

But: If I condemn Undiscovered Country just a bit for hitting familiar notes, can I also praise it for hitting those notes so perfectly? For letting the Enterprise sail off into space, and fade into history? We praise Roddenberry rightfully for his supreme hopefulness — his vision of a future where everything went right. But maybe we should also praise Meyer for the more brutal, tough, sensitive optimism he brought to his movies. At the beginning of Undiscovered Country , the camera holds on a starscape, and there is a blinding light, and an explosion, and then all falls to chaos.

At the end, a great ship moves into a starscape, and fades from our view. Like before, there is a great light. But it does not blind us. It reaches out, in love and friendship, welcoming us home.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

A brief postscript:

I haven’t paid much attention to Uhura, Scotty, Chekov, Sulu, or even McCoy. In part, that’s because the movies also don’t always pay much attention to them. McCoy gets some good lines, but he’s never quite the third opponent you want in the ring with Spock and Kirk. There are whole movies that only use Sulu and Uhura for reaction shots — which is still a better fate than the much-abused Chekov, who gets burned in Motion Picture and brainbugged in Wrath of Khan and goes tumbling into a head injury in Voyage Home . Scotty is Scotty, and only in the brief sorrowful aftermath of the attack in Khan does he get called upon for anything besides boisterous vaudeville.

None of this is a problem, really, and their collective chemistry gives Voyage Home its unique energy (and provides Final Frontier with a barely-earned goofy charm.) Much is often made about how Star Trek ‘s vision was multicultural and progressive from the beginning, but yesterday’s liberalism becomes tomorrow’s conservatism, and I suspect you could watch some of these movies now with a raised eyebrow. (Seriously, how come Uhura doesn’t go on the mission in Search for Spock ? No girls allowed?)

This is all just to say that, in Undiscovered Country , Meyer uses several different strategies for making the crew feel like a real crew again. The film doesn’t have as many showcase standout moments for the supporting cast as Voyage Home — which Meyer helped to write — but it incorporates them all together more than any other film. There’s the scene where someone fires a phaser onboard the ship, and first Uhura and then Scotty both run into the room, yelling “Did someone fire a phaser?” There’s the scene where the whole crew attempts to help Uhura understand Klingon on a radio. There’s a graceful shot after the Klingon envoy leaves, and the camera holds on Kirk’s officers as they unclench, unzip their tight clothes, generally all look ready to go to bed.

The movies never entirely treat the rest of the crew as complete characters. (Even McCoy doesn’t have much to do besides provide moral support for Kirk.) And every actor has their own fascinating story. Uhura was supposed to give a big speech in Undiscovered Country in perfect Klingon, but instead there’s the wacky scene with the Klingon dictionaries — oddly reductive, when you consider that such a great communications chief can’t speak the language of Starfleet’s main rival. (The new movies give Uhura a “xenolinguistics” specialty.) In her memoir, Nichelle Nichols recalls how uncomfortable she was with some of the film’s overtones, and how she flat-out refused to say the phrase, “Guess who’s coming to dinner.”

In his own memoir, George Takei is more open about his frustrations with Star Trek and with the frequently shabby treatment received by Sulu (and anyone not named “Kirk” or “Spock”) by various studio heads. After Undiscovered Country , some of the Trek crew retired and some receded; time passed, and some died. Takei has only ascended in the last quarter-century, such that there may come a time — maybe it’s already here! — that Sulu is considered a more central part of Trek iconography than McCoy. Much as I love Takei in these movies, I think his finest turn as Sulu came years later, in the Voyager episode “Flashback.” It’s a sidequel to Undiscovered Country , focusing on Sulu’s actions onboard the Excelsior. It’s not a great episode of television, but it’s a thrill to see Takei in the Captain’s Chair. Oddly, Sulu as a commander has most in common with Gorkon: They both have a way of smiling in the face of their enemies.

These movies didn’t always service the supporting cast — and you could argue, carefully, that a couple of the movies simply didn’t need them. ( Search for Spock would be a better movie if Kirk went off on his rescue mission alone — if even his closest friends and crewmates didn’t support him.) But they were an important part of the series, providing this franchise with the kind of texture you used to get from character actors in the studio era. The last couple films have overcorrected, maybe too much, turning the crew into a banter-y band of Shondabots. I adore the straightforward work of Nichols, Takei, DeForest Kelley, Walter Koenig, and James Doohan: Their professionalism becomes their characters’ professionalism.

In conclusion, in The Undiscovered Country , Nichelle Nichols gives a masterful performance with a GIF for all occasions.

THE WHOLE MOVIE IN A NUTSHELL:

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Kim Cattrall's Only Star Trek Complaint Was About A Lack Of Leg

People old enough to remember the "Police Academy" movies may recall a scene in Hugh Wilson's 1984 original might recall a scene wherein the irascible horndog Carey Mahoney (Steve Guttenberg) sidled up to fellow cadet Karen Thompson ( Kim Cattrall ) and asked to see her thighs. Karen was too flustered in the moment to respond, but was eventually won over by Mahoney's comedic charm and loose manners in the face of the Metropolitan Police training facility. She eventually donned a pair of jogging shorts and, of her own accord, playfully showed them off to Mahoney while in the middle of her morning run. 

The "Police Academy" movies are, naturally, horrendously dated in their attitudes today, but Kim Cattrall likely didn't object to the jogging shorts scene as, it so happens, she is quite fond of her own legs. It was that fondness, it seems, that led to a minor disappointment when Cattrall agreed to appear in Nicholas Meyer's 1991 film "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country." In that film, Catrall played the Vulcan helmsperson Valeris, a brilliant young officer who is being trained as a replacement for Spock (Leonard Nimoy) when he retires. Valeris is a confident, intelligent, almost brash character who, it will eventually be revealed, has secrets of her own. She is a great addition to the cast. 

Valeris, like most Starfleet officers, wore the usual red shirt/black slacks uniform while on duty. Long gone are the days when female Starfleet officers would wear go-go boots, black leggings and solid-colored minidresses. It seems that this costume change wasn't to Cattrall's liking as, well, she wanted a minidress. In the book "The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years," edited by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, Cattrall reminisced.

Listen all y'all it's a...

Cattrall recalls growing up with "Star Trek," and was very fond of the fashions therein. For the three seasons "Star Trek" was on the air, the uniforms remained largely the same; color-coded tunics and black slacks for the men, minidresses for the women, notably for Uhura (Nichelle Nichols). It wouldn't be until  "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" in 1979 that the uniforms would be changed, and it wouldn't be until Meyer's 1982 sequel, "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," that the red-shirt, more militant uniforms would be codified for the era. 

Meyer's militant uniforms look nice, but they are also thick and boxy with high collars and multiple layers; there's a Christmas sweater quality to them. Cattrall hated the thick-and-boxy look, preferring clothing and costumes that were more form-fitting and revealing. Meyer was a little bit taken aback by Cattrall's request to show off her own legs. She said: 

"I told Nick I really wanted to wear a skirt, like Uhura, since I have great legs. He said, 'Kim, if I put you in a skirt, people will be looking at your legs.' And I said, 'So?' The uniforms are nice, but they were made in 1982 for someone else. I really wanted a new uniform, but when they fitted me for a costume they told me they couldn't get any more material. I didn't want to sweat in someone's old jacket. I had to completely reshape it so I'd look like a woman."

Cattrall didn't get to wear the skirt, but one might note that Valeris' uniform is indeed cut slightly differently than the other chatacters'. 

Gendered uniforms

Cattrall continued: 

"I wasn't into hiding things at that point in my life. I feel good about the way I look and as a woman I enjoy feeling sexy. I think in science fiction, women should look great ... and so should men. That's why people go to the movies." 

Cattrall, of course, makes a basic point about cinema that some filmmakers often adhere to: in a visual medium, why not cast the people you find to be the most attractive? Joel Schumacher once said very frankly that casting attractive actors and dressing them well is one of the basic appeals of film. Cattrall seems to share that belief. Meyer, meanwhile, seemingly wanted to lean into a more formalized version of "Star Trek" wherein the uniforms were less gendered. 

"Star Trek" has struggled with gendered uniforms for decades. The minidresses were briefly repurposed for "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in 1987 when several male officers were seen wearing them, implying that it was a mere uniform style choice and not a gendered mandate from Starfleet. That, however, didn't stick. Eventually, "Next Generation" made its way to a one-size-fits-all type of uniform, perhaps following the ethos laid down by Meyer with "Star Trek II," five years earlier. 

Cattrall, however, wanted to defy the utilitarian nature of Starfleet uniforms, and make them more fashionable. One can admire her dream, although it wouldn't necessarily have fit in with the terse, socio-political tone of "Star Trek VI," a film about governmental turmoil, Cold War, and assassinations. 

Her performance remains quite good, however.

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• „Star Trek“-Doppelrückkehr: Sci-Fi-Film „Section 31“ beschert euch besondere Wiedersehen

„Star Trek“-Doppelrückkehr: Sci-Fi-Film „Section 31“ beschert euch besondere Wiedersehen

Nächstes Jahr erwartet uns ein neues „Star Trek“-Filmabenteuer. Der Streifen bringt dabei zwei Wesen zurück, die in den letzten Jahren eher in Vergessenheit gerieten.

Vor einer Weile wurde der erste Trailer zu „Star Trek: Section 31“ veröffentlicht, der euch ein Wiedersehen mit Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) aus „Star Trek: Discovery“ beschert. Doch darüber hinaus werden wir laut ScreenRant zwei außerirdische Spezies wiedersehen, die wir seit geraumer Zeit nicht mehr zu Gesicht bekommen haben.

Ewiger „Star Trek“-Rückkehrer: Dieser Star hat die meisten Rollen im Sci-Fi-Franchise gespielt

In „Star Trek: Section 31“ wird Philippa Georgiou als Teil einer Sternenflotten-Spezialeinheit auf eine Mission geschickt, um die Vereinigte Föderation der Planeten vor drohenden Gefahren zu beschützen. Dabei führt die Geschichte zwei Figuren ein, die jeweils einer Spezies angehören, die in den letzten „Star Trek“-Produktionen allem Anschein nach in Vergessenheit gerieten.

„Star Trek: Section 31“ wird dabei einen Delta-Charakter einführen, der von Humberly González („In the Dark“) gespielt wird. Die erste Delta-Figur sahen wir in „Star Trek: Der Film“ aus dem Jahr 1979. Anschließend waren Vertreter*innen der Spezies in drei der Film-Fortsetzungen zu sehen sowie in einer Episode von „The Next Generation“ . Der bislang letzte Delta-Auftritt erfolgte in der ersten Episode von „Star Trek: Picard“ Staffel 2 .

Ihr möchtet euer Trekkie-Wissen um ein paar spannende Fakten erweitern?

„Star Trek“-Spezies kehrt nach 33 Jahren zurück

Neben den Deltaner*innen wird allerdings noch eine weitere Spezies ihr „Star Trek“-Comeback feiern: die Chamäleonid*innen . Die menschenähnlichen Formwandler*innen sind durch „Star Trek VI: Das unentdeckte Land“ aus dem Jahr 1991 bekannt, wo die erste und bislang einzige Chamäleonidin auftauchte und zwar die Schurkin Martia (Iman). In „Star Trek: Section 31“ werden wir dann mit der von Sam Richardson ( „Veep“ ) gespielten Figur einen männlichen Vertreter der Spezies sehen.

„Star Trek: Section 31“ erscheint 2025 bei Paramount+ . Wenn ihr euch bis zum Release noch die anderen „Star Trek“-Produktionen ansehen möchtet, empfehlen wir euch das Angebot von waipu.tv , mit dem ihr nur noch für kurze Zeit ein Jahr Paramount+ geschenkt bekommt.

Ihr seid versierte Trekkies? Dann solltet ihr alle Fragen in unserem Quiz korrekt beantworten können, oder?

Weltraum und Sci-Fi: Nur echte Fans schaffen dieses „Star Trek“-Quiz

Hat dir "„Star Trek“-Doppelrückkehr: Sci-Fi-Film „Section 31“ beschert euch besondere Wiedersehen" gefallen? Diskutiere mit uns über aktuelle Kinostarts, deine Lieblingsserien und Filme, auf die du sehnlichst wartest – auf Instagram und Facebook .