150 Word Review: 'Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country' (1991)
Once more unto the breach, dear friends
The sixth and second-best Star Trek movie, The Undiscovered Country, is about peace. When it came out, the Soviet Union had fallen. My favorite Star Trek stories explore contemporary issues through Gene Roddenberry's fairy tale of a distant future where humans mostly live happily ever after.
Nicholas Meyer directs, the man who also helmed The Wrath of Khan—peak Trek. In both flicks, battling starships move slowly like naval destroyers. The Undiscovered Country opens with a well-done zero-G assassination, then delivers a fantastic line: Spock tries to convince Kirk to negotiate with his foes, the Klingons, with a bit of wisdom: "There's an old Vulcan proverb: only Nixon could go to China." The whole Enterprise crew is back, paunchy and purposeful. Christopher Plummer is red hot as Chang, a one-eyed Klingon general hell-bent on war. Watching William Shatner go up against a luxurious cured ham like Plummer is a treat.
Love this movie. Distinctly remember going to see it in the theater, and being thrilled by the Worf (technically his grandfather?) cameo. Literally wrote about Star Trek myself this week, because of this Czech film "Ikarie XB-1" that Roddenberry must've seen: https://www.cognitivefilms.org/p/star-treks-secret-bohemian-origins?r=7wlij
Live long and prosper!
The Star Trek movies had an amazing roster of actors hamming it up as Klingons: John Larroquette, Christopher Lloyd, David Warner, Christopher Plummer.
Plummer intergalactically decolonizing Shakespeare was definitely the best.