[I am posting five reviews of STAR TREK VI. I could easily swamp the group with reviews of this movie, so I will probably not post any more unless they say something very different than those posted here (e.g., a review of the fashions in STAR TREK VI :-) ). Followups are directed to rec.arts.startrek to keep the discussion in the appropriate group. -Moderator]
STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY
A film review by Mark Santora
Copyright 1991 Mark Santora
Okay, so the last(?) Star Trek film has opened. Well to start off with something like, it's better than TREK V would be kind of be like saying TREK II was better than I. Anyway, it opens, and deserves to open big.
We start approximately three years after TREK V, or at least three years since Sulu took over command of the Excelsior. Anyway, a Klingon moon explodes and this sets the stage for the Klingons coming to the Federation for help, and peace. Then Spock volunteers the Enterprise and Kirk to go to meet the Klingons. However, when the Klingon ship is attacked, Kirk is blamed. Bones and Kirk beam over to help the wounded and are accused of killing the Klingon Diplomat.
Plot-wise, the story moves quickly in TREK VI. This I give credit to the wise mind of Nicholas Meyer. Meyer has had his hand in the two biggest successes in the TREK movie series (II and IV). His direction is obviously geared toward the intensity of the scenes. He also manages to capture a little of the claustrophobic feel that space and the Enterprise has.
The sets, even the redressed Next Generation ones, are quite good. There is one I must take issue with, however. The design of the Klingon "Hoth" planet prison. I found it very human. It lacked any of the feel that would be associated with the Klingon Empire that we have seen before. I would also like to take this time to make point with the fact that I found the time spent on the planet too short. It in fact just managed to get by. There was not a lot of time associating it to any real prison.
Michael Dorn in TREK VI is wasted. He is on the screen for a matter of minutes. It is not that his character was bad. It was just that all of the sudden he was there. There is no background for WHY he is there. I guess it was left on the cutting room floor.
The special effects, which I took heavy issue with in TREK V, are top-notch ILM effects. There are the standard effects, including a great one of the Enterprise getting whipped by a photon torpedo. But there are also some great shots when some imitation Federation Marines go around killing Klingons and their floating blood, which by the way is computer-generated.
The Music: No film review would be complete without a quick listen to the music. Anyway, the music by Cliff Eidelman is very good. It takes off in a new direction from the previous scores by Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, and Leonard Rosenman. Remember that it was Meyer who brought on Horner who composed, I believe, my favorite music from the STAR TREK series (II and III). My only problem with the score for TREK VI, was the fact that the traditional fanfare that is *always* before the opening of the films was curiously absent. The score would have been greatly enhanced by the use of it.
Overall, I find STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY to be a worthy of the fandom that Star Trek has created over the years. While I find it to be lacking sometimes, all films do. This is not the best of the series--see STAR TREK II for that--this is high up there. And to paraphrase one of my favorite quotes from another Trek film, "...they'll never be gone, as long as we remember them."
For Gene Roddenberry
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