DVD
Review | Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (Special Collector's
Series)
Written by: Kage
Alan
Aside from “The Lost Boys,” I believe this may be
the only other movie I’ve ever gone to see twice opening day. A
fellow English tutor and I went out early in the afternoon to buy
tickets for a large group of us to see the film that night and made
the mistake of arriving 10 minutes before the first showing. Oops.
We were weak. I admit it. We were weak, but we were SATISFIED! We
saw it first (heh heh), then we went back and saw it again later on.
How could we not? This was the last film with the entire original
cast.
The crew of the starship Enterprise is gearing up
for retirement and a much-needed rest when a catastrophe in the Klingon
Empire changes everything. It seems that Spock (Leonard Nimoy) seizes
an opportunity to end hostilities between the Federation and Klingons by
reaching out to the enemy with an offering of peace. Surprisingly
enough, they accept and a resentful, reluctant Kirk (William Shatner) is
soon en route to meet the Chancellor (David Warner) and escort him to
Earth.
Kirk isn’t the only one skeptical about the
possibility of a treaty, though, and a major conspiracy begins to
unfold. A few hours after dinner, the Enterprise appears to fire on the
Klingon vessel, the Chancellor is assassinated, Kirk and McCoy (DeForest
Kelley) are framed and imprisoned while the rest of the crew must put
the pieces together and figure out what really happened. The tagline on
the poster, “The Battle for Peace Has Begun,” sums things up perfectly.
“Star Trek VI” is a wonderful final film for our
original cast members and sends them off in style. There’s intrigue,
action, drama, humor, reflection about aging, realization, redemption
and a lovely wrap-up during the final moments that brought tears to many
of our eyes (myself included). The rest of the cast — James Doohan,
Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols and George Takei — is complemented by
the likes of Kim Cattrall, Mark Lenard, Brock Peters and the incredible
Christopher Plummer. With a top notch cast, an excellent script and a
director who understands what makes a movie worth watching, “The
Undiscovered Country” ends an era in Star Trek that has yet to be
captured in the “Next Generation” films.
Paramount has released “Star Trek VI: The
Undiscovered Country in an extremely solid looking Widescreen transfer.
These films have always benefited from Widescreen and the Dolby Digital
audio bring it all together. Right, now on to the extras! First up is
an excellent audio commentary with Director Nicholas Meyer and
Screenwriter Denny Martin Flinn coupled with another insightful text
commentary compliments of Michael & Denise Okuda. Beyond that, we have
lots of other goodies; “The Perils of Peacemaking” (26 ½ min) with its
focus on world events that inspired plot points in the film, then
there’s “Stories from Star Trek VI” (6 chapters totaling 57 ¼ minutes),
“The Star Trek Universe” (“Conversation With Nicholas Meyer” (9 ½ min),
“Klingons: Conjuring the Legend” (20 ¾ min), “Federation Operatives” (4
¾ min), “Penny’s Toy Box” (6 min) and “Together Again” (5 min)),
“Farewell” (“DeForest Kelley: A Tribute” (13 ¼ min) and “Original
Interviews” with Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley, Doohan, Nichols, Takei, Koenig
and Iman), “Promotional Material” (2 trailers and an introduction by
Nicholas Meyer) and “Archives” (“Production Gallery” (3 ¼ min) and four
areas of “Storyboards”).
I still get a warm feeling all over when I watch
any of the first six Star Trek films. There’s a sense of family that
many of the newer generations probably get from the “Next Generation,”
“DS-9” and “Voyager” casts. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the later
series or films, but nothing has ever quite captured the heart like this
original one did. If only “Star Trek: Nemesis” had been able to do for
that cast what “The Undiscovered Country” did for this one. When all is
said and done, this is how I will choose to remember Star Trek.
Film Rating:
A-
DVD Special Features: A
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