Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country



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

- Spock

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. Perhaps due to its political intrigue plot, 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 doesn't want 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 moral is 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.

Tropes seen in The Undiscovered Country include:
"Chang: Dr. McCoy...Would you be so good as to tell me, what is your current medical status?
 * Actually Pretty Funny: McCoy's quip about feeling pretty good "aside from a touch of arthritis" is met with stone cold silence. Accompanied by one Klingon laughing his frigging ass off.
 * McCoy looks pleased by his reaction, too. Chang, however, was not amused.
 * Here's the situation: General Chang was inquiring as to what McCoy's status is as a medical practioner is. The way he asks it though, leaves it open to interpretation. Dr. McCoy is only happy to reply. Here is the full quote:

Bones: Aside from a touch of arthritis, I'd say pretty good!"

"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."
 * Alien Blood: The Klingons have Pepto-Bismol pink blood, in order to keep a PG rating.
 * The red blood only appears in the extended cut. The reason the Klingon blood is pink in the film was to avoid a rating higher than PG. Ironically, Klingon blood is quite red everywhere else save this film.
 * Klingon blood becomes red in all series taking place after the events of Star Trek VI. The Star Trek (particularly Mike Okuda) staff Handwaved this; saying Klingon blood only appears pink in microgravity.
 * And the Adventure Continues (The end narration:)

""In space, all warriors are cold warriors.""
 * Artificial Gravity: A rare example where the artificial gravity actually fails.
 * Bad Vibrations: Captain Sulu's tea cup at the beginning of the film.
 * Big Bad: General Chang.
 * Also,.
 * Big Damn Heroes: 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 subversion; Excelsior doesn't do much but provide a second target, giving the Enterprise a much-needed breather.
 * Bluffing the Murderer
 * Call Back: Klaa is the interpreter at Kirk and McCoy's trial. After his conduct in The Final Frontier, it would make sense that he's been demoted.
 * Casting Gag: 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.)
 * Brock Peters had til his death in 2005 done a ton of civil rights work, so playing a virulently racist character was problematic.
 * Chekhov's Gun: Subverted via Executive Meddling. At the film's start, we learn that the Excelsior has been cataloging gaseous anomalies... but in its Big Damn Heroes moment, it's the Enterprise that . Chekhov's Gun is left hanging on the wall, and Kirk pulls out a concealed pistol of identical make.
 * Chewing the Scenery: Chang in the final showdown; "Crryyyyyy HAVOK ... and let slip the dogs of war!"
 * Clear My Name: Kirk and McCoy.
 * Cold War: One of the more blatant allegories to come out of this period.

"Klingon Overseer: Since you're all going to die anyway, why not tell you. His name is -
 * Complaining About Rescues You Don't Like: Spock beams up Kirk and McCoy from Rura Penthe right in the middle of the Just Between You and Me. Kirk immediately bawls him out for rescuing them ten seconds too early.

[Kirk and McCoy get beamed up]

Kirk: [disintegrating] Son of a...

Kirk: [rematerializing] Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit all to hell... [to Spock] Couldn't you have waited a few more seconds? He was about to explain the whole thing!

Chekov: You vant to go back?

McCoy: Absolutely not!

Kirk: ...it's cold."

"Gorkon: Don't let it end this way, Captain..."
 * Continuity Nod - Sulu mentions at the end of IV 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.
 * This would have happened a lot sooner if ... everybody? ... William Shatner hadn't protested Sulu becoming Excelsior's captain in Star Trek II, where it was supposedly supposed to happen.
 * Hang on, the Excelsior debuted in Star Trek III. How does this work?
 * The novelizations of the previous movies explain it - Sulu's promotion has come through in Wrath of Khan, but he's still on the Enterprise training cruise as a favor to Kirk. Then, because Genesis and the events surrounding its creation result in such public backlash, Excelsior is given to the guy in The Search for Spock because Sulu needs to be kept 'available' for debriefings and such.
 * Cool Old Guy: Pretty much the main cast.
 * Credits Pushback: The signatures at the end generally get clipped thanks to this practice.
 * Description Cut
 * Deus Ex Machina:.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything: 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.
 * In addition, Praxis exploding and contaminating the Klingon homeworld is a clear reference to Chernobyl.
 * Dramatically Missing the Point: Spock initially doesn't get Valaris's concern over this upcoming peace.
 * 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
 * Evil Is One Big Happy Family: An ironic version. Despite their motives, are pretty unified in their goals. Though the vitriol is not far away given the comments from   about the others.
 * Evil Twin: Martia!Kirk.
 * Executive Meddling. Gene Roddenberry. Again. He had a hard time with  being the traitor.
 * Klingon blood is pink for the first and only time in the entire Star Trek property because had it been red, the film would have been slapped with an R rating.
 * Expy: Valeris, for Saavik.
 * Eyepatch of Power: Chang. Bolted directly to his face, no less.
 * 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: "To be, or not to be?"
 * Fantastic Racism: Kirk acts this way towards the Klingons at first. He's hardly the only one, though.
 * Foreshadowing: The Mole .
 * Gorkon had a pretty good idea as to who betrayed him once the shooting started.
 * Final Speech: Gorkon begs Kirk with his dying breath to save the peace process, leaving Kirk shocked by cognitive dissonance.
 * Gorkon had a pretty good idea as to who betrayed him once the shooting started.
 * Final Speech: Gorkon begs Kirk with his dying breath to save the peace process, leaving Kirk shocked by cognitive dissonance.

"Spock: If I know the Captain, he is already deep into planning his escape.
 * From a Certain Point of View: Spock.
 * General Ripper: Chang.
 * Gilligan Cut: After Kirk and Bones are sentenced to life imprisonment

[cut to Kirk getting his ass kicked]"

"Martia: That was not his knee. Not everybody keeps their genitals in the same place, Captain."
 * The Girl Who Fits This Slipper: Subverted. The boots of the conspirators were found in the locker of Crewman Dax (no relation)...who has large webbed feet that don't fit.
 * Giving Up On Logic: Spock shows the long term character growth version of this trope. He hasn't given up on logic at all, but he has accepted that it is not the be all and end all.
 * 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.

"Kirk: An accident wasn't good enough.
 * Ham to Ham Combat: William Shatner vs. Christopher Plummer. The survivors likely envy the dead.
 * At one point it's Shatner vs. Shatner, which reaches hamageddon levels.
 * Heel Realization: Kirk realizing his intolerance of the Klingons led to.
 * Homing Projectile: The torpedo that attempted to catalog the gaseous anomaly that was the fire-while-cloaked Bird of Prey's tail pipe.
 * Honor Before Reason: The Klingons are a violent, aggressive people whose Empire represents the antithesis of every Federation value. "Let them die" would be the expected response from anyone short of a saint. And yet the Federation offers them an olive branch anyway.
 * Let them weaken themselves more first so we can be in a stronger position and force them to accept our way of life, maybe. But it doesn't take anywhere near a saint to not wish an entire space empire dead.
 * I Did What I Had to Do: Spock's reaction to the forced mindmeld with  is made entirely of this trope.
 * Identical Grandson: Worf's grandfather, Colonel Worf (also played by Michael Dorn of course).
 * IKEA Weaponry
 * 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".
 * In the Original Klingon: Trope Namer.
 * Incoming Ham: "I can see you, Kirk. Can you see me?"
 * Invisibility Flicker: Klingon warships have to do this.
 * Ironic Echo: Several times Valeris asks Spock "A lie?" and he responds that it is something else (e.g. "An error"). After she is, he asks her "A lie?" and she responds "A choice."
 * 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 proves.
 * Jabba Table Manners: The Klingons disgust the Federation's delegation with their eating habits.
 * Just Between You and Me: Subverted, Kirk & 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 grandfather) was actually trying.
 * And doing pretty well under the circumstances. If he hadn't, it's almost certain Kirk and McCoy would have been executed.
 * Large Ham: Christopher Plummer as Chang, rivaling even Khan.
 * Lampshaded when McCoy exclaims, "I'd give real money if he'd shut up."
 * Latex Perfection:
 * Literary Allusion Title
 * And if not for those pesky, meddling executives, this would have been the title for Star Trek II.
 * Allusions to Shakespeare was a regular occurrence in episode titles in The Original Series. The Undiscovered Country was likely intended to be a nod to tradition.
 * Make It Look Like an Accident: A variation: once outside the Rura Penthe shield, Marta mentions this as such but the conspirators required a more "convincing" alternative.

Marta: Good enough for one. Two would have looked suspicious. (transforms into Kirk) Killed while trying to escape. Now that's convincing enough for both."

"Kirk: Still think we're finished?
 * Mind Rape: Galactic peace hung in the balance. Spock knew they needed that information now. .
 * On the DVD Commentary, Nicholas Meyer and screenwriter Denny Martin Flinn actually say that scene is "very erotic" and "sexy stuff". Some might consider that Squick, and some might consider that Fetish Fuel.
 * Of course some would consider it erotic. This is Kim Cattrall we're talking about, after all.
 * This scene is more difficult to regard lightly in the War On Terror era, though it may be more difficult to apply since a mind meld doesn't work in the way that torture does.
 * 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.
 * A similar act in Enterprise is very much depicted as rape, and with rather a lot of consequences.
 * 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, and he is clearly struggling to hold it together himself.
 * The Mole:
 * Moral Dissonance: Words to this effect have also been leveled at the public Mind Rape of  on the bridge of the Enterprise by Spock, although it could be considered an example of I Did What I Had to Do since the Federation and Empire were on the precipice of war. It was... logical.
 * My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: Uhura, "expert linguist", attempting to communicate with the Klingon ship.
 * 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, had also wiped the Klingon language data from the memory banks specifically 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 get to them and destroy them.)
 * Mythology Gag: Worf's identical grandfather.
 * Bones' exasperated, "What is it with you?!'' after he kisses Martia.

Bones: More than ever."

"Kirk: I can't believe I kissed you!
 * This exchange:

Martia!Kirk: Must have been your life-long ambition!"

"Sulu: My... God! Shields! SHIELDS!"
 * Near Villain Victory: The Big Bad nearly destroys the Enterprise and the conspirators nearly.
 * Network to The Rescue The film might have never been made had the new head of Paramount not been a friend of Nick Meyer's.
 * No Gravity for You: One Klingon tactic involves doing this to an entire boarded ship.
 * Ominous Klingon Chanting
 * That Ominous Klingon Chanting is actually Hamlet's To be, or not to be? in its original Klingon.
 * KIRK! KIRK! KIRK! KIRK! KIRK! KIRK!
 * Oh Crap:
 * 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.
 * Sulu at the beginning, when he sees the Praxis Shockwave hurtling towards his ship:

"Spock: Jim, they are dying.
 * 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.
 * Peace Conference
 * Planar Shockwave: Thanks to this movie, it's commonly known as the "Praxis Shockwave".
 * Plot Induced Stupidity: So, Commander Uhura, veteran communications officer and linguist extraordinaire, never bothered to learn the common language of one of the galaxy's major powers?
 * Nichelle Nichols brought this up but director Nicholas Meyer shot her down. Being an avid fan of literature, Meyer wanted to show books on a Starship. So, yeah.
 * The fact that Uhura explicitly mentions that she can speak three obscure dialects of Romulan in the 2009 Star Trek movie could be considered a Take That to this scene.
 * Praxis Shattering Kaboom: The event that kicked off the events of the movie. The real-world analogue is the Chernobyl plant disaster that weakened the Soviet Union just enough to get the ball rolling.
 * Pre-Asskicking One-Liner : "Target that explosion and fire."
 * Revenge Before Reason: Kirk certainly walks the line at first.

Kirk: Let them die!"

"Kirk: Second star to the right... and straight on till morning."
 * Riding Into the Sunset
 * Scenery Porn: The aerial shots of Kirk, McCoy and Martia trudging across the wastes of Rura Penthe are stunning.
 * Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: Praxis must be really close to the neutral zone in order for the Excelsior to have been caught in the Planar Shockwave.
 * Shapeshifting Squick
 * Shown Their Work: Watch the film again - you can see when Spock slaps the patch on Kirk's back.
 * Shout Out:
 * The last line before the final voice over is a reference to Peter Pan (the directions to Neverland).

"McCoy: I'd pay real money if he'd shut up."
 * The line in the actual book was "second to the right, and straight on till morning", so technically Kirk was referencing the 1953 Disney film.
 * There is also a Shout Out 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.
 * Shout Out to Shakespeare: The title, and 75% of General Chang's dialogue.

"McCoy: Well, this is fun."
 * Slow Clap
 * Space Is an Ocean: 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 Excelsior.
 * Spot the Imposter: The same reason Martia was able to escape is the same reason the Warden was able to figure out she wasn't Kirk and killed her: She took off her leg cuffs.
 * Stock Footage: The scene where Enterprise glides towards the spacedock doors is a reuse of the "zoom in on Enterprise" shot from Star Trek IV and Star Trek V, just with the Excelsior removed and the background tint changed to blue.
 * The second trailer has a scene from Star Trek III but it's minor (Enterprise getting shot by a torpedo).
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute. Valeris in place of Saavik.
 * Take That: 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".
 * (Sub)Title 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.
 * Which, considering what happens to Gorkon in his next scene, actually makes quite a bit of sense.
 * Trailers Always Lie: Trailers for the movie showcased a scene of . Turns out.
 * Translation Convention: 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 has trouble chewing scenery in Klingon.
 * Two 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.
 * Wasn't That Fun: After General Chang's Bird-of-Prey blasting away at the helpless Enterprise with yet another Screen Shake:


 * We Will Use Manual Labor in The Future: Or at least the Klingons will on their prison planets. Then again, it's Rua Penthe, the Klingon equivalent of a gulag. Hardly meant to be comfortable.
 * What the Hell Hero: Spock's disturbed reaction to Kirk's desire to see the Klingons die off.
 * 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 Enterprize and crew for the peace keeping 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.
 * Why Were 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 moustache almost earned its own acting credit.
 * You Look Familiar: Chancellor Gorkon is played by David Warner, who played St. John ("sinjin") Talbot in the previous film.
 * How many lights are there, Chancellor?
 * Again, Worf. Who, of course, does what he does best—get owned. Except this time, in court.
 * Rene Auberjonois, who would go on to play Odo on Star Trek Deep Space Nine, plays Colonel West.
 * If Admiral Cartwright looks a lot like Joseph Sisko, that would be because they were both played by Brock Peters.
 * In another life, the Federation President is screwing around with the timeline to get back his home colony and, by extension, his wife.
 * "This President is not above the law, Dumbass!"