Film Review
After the unmitigated disaster that was
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier,
Paramount had every reason to bury the franchise or else link up with
Star Trek: The Next Generation,
the increasingly popular television successor to Gene Roddenberry's
original cult series. Instead, mindful of the show's impending
25th anniversary, they decided to give the original crew of the
Enterprise one last fling, and with one of the best storylines so far
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
was to be a more than adequate send-off. By this stage, the
binary curse of the series had become well-recognised, the odd-numbered
films being far less watchable and successful than the even-numbered
films. By this logic, film number VI had to be a winner, and sure
enough it was.
The decision to appoint Nicholas Meyer to direct the film was a good
starting point. Meyer had already directed one of the better
films in the franchise,
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
(1982), and appeared to have a good understanding of what made a decent
Star Trek movie, good visuals, well-paced action scenes and plenty of
intelligent character interaction. Having overseen the script
development on the most impressive
Star
Trek film so far -
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home -
Leonard Nimoy was invited to repeat this role on
Star Trek VI. Nimoy was
interested in drawing parallels with contemporary political
developments in our world, namely the end of the Cold War and the
prospect of a new world order. This provided an effective way of
linking up with
ST:TNG, in
which the Federation had ended their feud with the Klingon
Empire. The film's title, taken from Shakespeare's
Hamlet, was originally intended to
be used for the second Star Trek film, but it is equally effective as a
metaphor for what mankind perhaps fears the most, the future.
Far darker in tone than the previous
Star
Trek films,
Star Trek VI: The
Undiscovered Country really does convey the impression that we
have reached the end of an era. The crew of the Enterprise are about
to receive their pension books and the Klingons have no choice but to
give up their life of space villainy. The wind of change is
definitely in the air, and the question is whether Kirk and his buddies
will live to see the future they so evidently fear. This is
Kirk's darkest hour - not only must he thwart a fiendish plot to plunge
the galaxy into a fullscale war, he must also overcome his own
deep-seated prejudices, and it is obvious which is going to be the
greater challenge.
With a vastly improved screenplay, the
Star Trek regulars are all at their
best and it is with some sadness that we see them sign off.
Leonard Nimoy proves himself to be a far more dependable captain of the
Enterprise than William Shatner, and you can't help wishing Spock had
committed mutiny several films back (if only to spare us the agony of
Star Trek V). Despite the
darker mood, there are plenty of lighter moments, humour of a far more
sophisticated calibre than on the previous films. "You have not
experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original
Klingon", remarks a Klingon warrior, although, for some reason, the
main Klingon villain prefers to recite his Shakespeare in the original
English when he goes into battle against the Enterprise. The film
ends with a quote not from the Bard of Avon, but from J.M. Barrie's
Peter Pan, begging the question whether Kirk and his chums are still
out there, exploring brave new worlds, with their usual gusto and ever-dwindling supplies of
hair dye.
After the exceedingly lukewarm reception of its predecessor, the
critical and commercial success of
Star
Trek VI came as something of a surprise. It took just
under 100 million dollars at the box office worldwide and was the first
film in the franchise to receive the Saturn Award for Best Science
Fiction Film. After Gene Roddenberry's death, just before the
film's premiere, a last minute dedication was added, a fitting tribute
to the man who had created Star Trek and, in doing so, played a pivotal
role in the development of science fiction on the small and big
screen. The success of the sixth
Star Trek film and the growing
popularity of
ST:TNG (which
was about to spawn several spin-offs) ensured the concept still had a
long, long way to run. As they say on Vulcan, live long and
prosper.
© James Travers 2012
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