[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
[Spoilers]
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: This is a farewell to the original crew
in a minor political thriller about Klingon perestroika and
the old-line Cold Warriors who do not want to accept change.
True fans of STAR TREK will be amazed at how closely the fall
of the Soviet Union predicted what was going to happen in
STAR TREK VI. Not the best of the series, but it is
entertaining. Rating: +1 (-4 to +4).
Dearly beloved, we are gathered for the final adventure of the original crew of the starship Enterprise. The remote control has been passed to a new generation who are less and less interested in seeing swash-buckling heroes the age of their grandparents. And if the truth be known, Captain Kirk, Scotty, and Uhura are all sporting spare tires around the middle these days. Bones looks old. Spock seems to be ageing the best of the original crew and comes the closest to still being dashing. I guess on at least some level that is not surprising. We always knew there was something very different about Spock and it just sort of rubbed off on Leonard Nimoy.
So what sort of adventure is the final outing? The title implies that the plot in a major way involves "death--the undiscover'd country, from whose bourn no traveller returns," an allusion to the "To be or not to be" speech from Act III, Scene 1 of HAMLET. So did the filmmakers have the courage to kill off someone we loved and make that death meaningful, or did they find some way to cop out? Well, that would be telling! In any case, the main story is an end-of-the-Cold-War thriller, much like THE PACKAGE but reset in the "Star Trek" universe.
When the film opens, a Klingon Chernobyl incident has convinced the evil empire that the time has come for perestroika. On each side there are hard-liners who still live with the paranoia of the past, and new-liners who want to see a reconciliation and a new universe order. One Federation hard-liner is that crusty old Cold Warrior, Captain James Kirk (played somewhat against type by William Shatner). One of the new-liners is an old associate of his, Commander Spock (played this time around by Leonard Nimoy). The plot then proceeds to set up a fairly intriguing mystery and puzzle. An incident occurs that seems totally inexplicable. Kirk is framed to appear to have sabotaged the peace. This is the high point of the film. Unfortunately, the mystery's solution is very unconvincing. It is nearly as bad as the strategy puzzle in STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN. That one was solved by the scriptwriter saying, "Oh, didn't you know? The Enterprise has the power to shut down the shields on other federation ships!" The solution to the puzzle here is not as bad as that of the WRATH OF KHAN problem, but it is bad. I will explain why in a spoiler after the review.
Other touches were irritating, like repeated allusions to both Shakespeare and Sherlock Holmes. It is a strange and unlikely touch that Klingons revere William Shakespeare and even claim him as a Klingon.
With the exception of one violent scene in zero gravity the special effects are not particularly new or creative, though many of the exteriors in space are still quite beautiful. Occasionally narrow-angle shots were used when showing a new locale on a planet. This was probably to save on the creation of sets since less would be within the range of the camera, but it is a stark contrast to earlier chapters.
Two problems in casting were minor problems. The first was an unaccountable resemblance between the Klingon David Warner played in STAR TREK VI and the kidnapped diplomat he played in STAR TREK V. Also, Christian Slater plays the kid who has won a contest and got to play in a scene of a real "Star Trek" movie. He has one brief, no-talent-needed scene.
All told, this is a minor thriller and a just okay entry in the series. I give it a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
**SPOILER**
Spoiler: For two reasons I think that the solution to the mystery torpedo problem is bad. First, it assumes a new piece of technology to come along at a perfect but unlikely moment. That is possible but it seems a plot contrivance. What bothers me more is the geometry of the situation. A photon torpedo travels in a straight line. If that line does not intersect your torpedo tubes, it was not your torpedo. It would be hard to position another torpedo tube so the trajectory could be close enough to fool the bridge. Ideally the attackers would want to be in front of your torpedo tubes, but they could not because of the instantaneous loss of cloaking. Their would have to position themselves so that their torpedo would fly in just the right plane. Even then, if the trajectory was observed from elsewhere on the Enterprise, the jig would have been up. If the victim ship were watching the Enterprise, they would have seen an impossible torpedo trajectory and also, for an instant, the ship that was firing on them.
Question: if a shape-changer wanted to prove she was a shape changer, wouldn't she just change her shape? Evelyn asked this one.
Mark R. Leeper
att!mtgzy!leeper
leeper@mtgzy.att.com
.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews