Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

The glowering foreboding of Cliff Eidelman’s soundtrack accompanying the opening credits of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country sets the tone for a return to darker Star Trek territory after the frivolity of the previous film, The Final Frontier. A darkness that is accentuated by the work of cinematographer Hiro Narita, in which the most intense and effective dramatic scenes are played out in shadowy, enclosed spaces. When the Klingon moon Praxis explodes, jeopardising the very existence of the Klingons' home planet, they sue for peace with the Federation, negotiating with it the small matter of the standing down of Starfleet to create a balance in the universe between long-time adversaries. But nobody trusts nobody and the cracks are there for all to see when Kirk and crew entertain the Klingon Chancellor Gorkon (David Warner, morphed from his previous role as a Terran ambassador in the previous film) and his Chief of Staff, Chang (Christopher Plummer).  The title takes its name from Act III, Scene I of Hamlet: ‘The undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn/No traveller returns’. The Klingons have never looked so good in their brutish ugliness. Chang, smiling a lot and sporting a patch fastened with studs to his eye socket is fond of quoting that Klingon literary genius, Shakespeare - when he isn’t quoting Hitler on ‘breathing room’. The unwise inclusion of some Romulan ale during the meal on the Enterprise ensures that détente reaches an all time low and an assassination strike for dessert against Gorkon and the Klingon battle cruiser nearby sees Kirk and McCoy found guilty of treachery in a Kanger-Klingon court. They are banished to the notorious penal colony Rura Penthe, a frozen asteroid in which hard-worked prisoners can only survive underground, if they’re unlucky. For good measure there is Spock’s Vulcan protégé Valeris (Kim Cattrall) and the other-worldly beauty of Rura Penthe prisoner Iman as a cigar-smoking alien who takes it upon herself to ‘punish’ Kirk in her own unique way.

Compelling stuff until the plot literally goes cold when it crash lands on Rura Penthe, an interlude that seems much longer than it actually is and comes dangerously close to dissipating much of the dark intensity built up during the first third of the film. It doesn’t take an Oxbridge don to figure out at least one Shakespearean villain on stage, even without the aid of dramatic irony, but after the cold snap of the middle section of the film things hot up again for Act III and there is a surprise or two in store.  And any Star Trek film with the line: “What is required now is a feat of legerdemain and a degree of linguistic intrepidity,” by Spock, who also gets to be a Starship Sherlock Holmes employing Ockham’s Razor; has ray guns; big fat globules of blood floating in zero gravity; Kirk (once again) wrestling with brute alien creatures on an hospitable planet and not one but two final confrontations ending with a bang, has plenty going for it. The last reel has a fitting valedictory feel as the original crew sign off. Towards the end of their swan song Kirk says: “Well, we haven’t run out of history quite, yet.” Finally, the Enterprise sets off once more to where it exists for all time, seeking out new life forms, boldly going among the stars. The original storyline mooted for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was intended to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the original series. It was a prequel involving Kirk, Spock, McCoy and all as mere whippersnappers, charting their formative experiences as the met and bonded together at Starfleet Academy. It was dropped. Crazy idea, anyway.