So sorry for the delay in getting to this review! Where I'm actually watching Star Trek is a little bit ahead of where my reviews are at, so often times I need to go back and review my notes or literally pull myself away from the TV screen before I can get to writing these! Right now things are finally starting to get interesting on The Next Generation, and I am completely glued to the screen.

(In case you didn't know, this is the latest in a series of reviews I'm writing for ALL of the Star Trek franchise that I'm doing along with my mega rewatch of it! The list is getting a little lengthy now, and I'll probably compile all of these into one convenient place to find them eventually, but if you're interested in reading my past installments, check out my full blog page. Also be sure to follow me on Bluesky or on jiggyflyjoe.com for more fun commentary and things!)

I'm going to level with you, fellow Trekkies. After being disappointed with The Final Frontier, the wind got a little knocked out of my sail with the original cast's movies and I was not really looking forward to watching this one. I wanted to move on to The Next Generation series already. I have to stomach Shatner again? What does The Undiscovered Country even mean??1 In fact, I even remember asking myself, “Do you think anyone will mind if I just skip ONE movie?” The completionist in me decided that I had to, though, so here we are. With the fifth movie having been received so poorly, Paramount was also understandably concerned that Star Trek would never recover.

As I mentioned in the review for the previous film, I'm actually somewhat surprised because my feelings about both of these last two movies were very different when I was a younger person. I used to really enjoy The Final Frontier because I thought the concept of finding God out in the middle of the universe was super interesting and much more exciting than whatever was going on in this sixth movie, or even in “the one with the whales.” However, I know that I've definitely grown and my interests have changed, because I'm much more aligned with the traditional Trek fan. I wound up really enjoying The Voyage Home (the one with the whales) and The Final Frontier was just a hot mess express. Surprisingly, I did find that The Undiscovered Country was a massive improvement, but I was also found myself a little bored halfway through it. And then I loved it all over again by the end. I guess it's a bit of a slow burn. Let's revisit it together! (Oh, Kim Cattrall's in this???2 And was that Christian Slater???3 But at least we also get Christopher Plummer, yay!)

The final shot of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country's cast on the bridge of the Enterprise.

Written by Leonard Nimoy, Lawrence Konner, and Mark Rosenthal, with Nicholas Meyer returning to direct, we get a pretty incredible story here. Nimoy came up with the concept as a parallel to the Cold War after having inquired about what would happen “if the Wall came down in space.” As such, the story begins with Captain Sulu now commanding his very own starship (well deserved!), the U.S.S. Excelsior, taking minor damage in a shockwave that occurs after the explosion of the Klingon moon Praxis.4 It's later reported that Praxis is a mining colony, and that with its loss and the damage taken from its destruction, the Klingon Empire will face extreme hardship. Unable to continue a war with the Federation, the Klingons reach out to Starfleet to begin peace negotiations. Naturally, the Enterprise-A is the ship Starfleet sends to rendezvous with Chancellor Gorkon, the leader of the Klingons. I mean, what would our valiant crew be doing otherwise?

Shortly after inviting the Klingon delegation aboard for dinner, they return to their ship only for the Enterprise to open fire on the Klingon ship, unbeknownst to the Captain or seemingly anyone else aboard. The only system damaged during the torpedo fire is the Klingon ship's artificial gravity, allowing two unknown traitors from the Enterprise to beam aboard and assassinate Gorkon. His daughter, Azetbur, then becomes the new Chancellor and has both Kirk and Bones arrested and sent to the Klingon penal colony Rura Penthe for their part in the bloodshed. This is honestly the part of the film that I started getting bored with, since it's just a lot of Kirk and McCoy trying to escape from Rura Penthe, while Spock, who has taken command of the Enterprise in Kirk's absence, simultaneously conducts a rescue mission and investigates the identity of the traitors he still has on board. Kirk and Bones are eventually beamed back up to the Enterprise after escaping the mines with the help of a shapeshifter named Martia (played by supermodel Iman, hello?!5), even though Martia was also in on all the whole conspiracy and was trying to get them killed. Once they're back on board, the leading trio sets up an entire ruse to unmask the traitors behind Gorkon's assassination. It turns out that the new helmsman, the Vulcan Valeris (Kim Cattrall!!! I should have known!!!) was behind the entire ordeal. Spock grills her for more info (almost literally, he forces a mind-meld!), and discovers who else in the crew assisted her and that the entire ordeal is literally a conspiracy from the top: Federation, Klingon, and Romulan politicians are behind the entire ploy to prevent peace, and even plan on assassinating the Federation President during negotiations!

So, okay, now the movie's getting good! I enjoy political intrigue stories when they aren't just bogged down with a ton of dialogue, and the race back to Earth delivers. The Enterprise gets seriously damaged during battle with General Chang6, but later gets an assist from the Excelsior, due to its Captain's loyalty to his former comrades. Spock and Uhura eventually notice that Chang's cloaked ship is emitting some kind of exhaust that they can track, and create a torpedo that can target said exhaust. The Enterprise and Excelsior blow Chang and his cronies out of the water (so to speak), and then continue on their trip to Earth where they prevent the assassination of the President. Afterward, Starfleet decides to decommission the Enterprise, while Kirk & Co. fly off toward the sun.

Captain Kirk directs the Enterprise-A toward the "second star to the right and straight on 'til morning."

I need to express, in response, that while I did not love the entire run with this original series cast, and I've never been a fan of William Shatner, I'm really sad that this will be our final outing with this crew. I love all of these characters, and have even kinda grown to love hating on Shatner's version of Kirk. After three seasons of the original show, two seasons of an animated whatever-that-was7, and six films, it brought a little tear to my eye to see this cast quite literally fly off into the sunset just before the credits ran. We will see most of them again here and there throughout future Star Trek projects, but it's bittersweet seeing them all together for the last time with their Enterprise. Also, as I mentioned before, this movie has never been one of my favorites among the collection of six that this cast did together, but it was far more enjoyable than I remembered it being. The metaphors referencing the Cold War weren't something that my younger self would have really picked up on or appreciated, but as an older adult, I can see how it was very topical at the time of production and it still resonates in today's climate, too.

All things considered, though, The Undiscovered Country does a fine job of keeping things interesting while also tying things up with this cast with a shiny bow. Kirk's voiceover toward the end even mentions that their legacy will continue onward with new generations of explorers, which is so very poignant as we move on to start covering Star Trek: The Next Generation in my next review! See y'all there! 🖖