ButStar Trek: The Next Generationfortunately found its feet not long after, and the franchise survived.
But what of the aging original cast?
They were unwanted, unloved, too old, and too much of a financial risk.
Whether he left of his own accord or was fired isnt clear.
Other stories did the rounds.
Nothing really took hold.
In short, the fact thatStar Trek VI: The Undiscovered Countryeven exists is something of a miracle.
But who could pull off such a miracle?
Who could reinvigorate the original movie series one last time?
Nimoy had directed two movies, so contractually Shatner would have to direct another one before Nimoy could.
Meyer returning to the chair was a situation that was acceptable to all parties.
Star Trek VI, therefore, is much closer in tone toStar Trek II, Meyers previousStar Trekmovie.
This is not a bad thing.
It also focuses more on the characters than previous installments.
This is also not a bad thing.
This too is not a bad thing.
Its also why I like all the odd numbered films and dont like the even numbered films as much.
Bear with me on this.
Replace the Enterprise with a submarine and you basically haveThe Hunt For Red October.
But ifStar Trekcan only be continued by not beingStar Trek, what is the point ofStar Trek?
To underline the point thatThe Undiscovered Countryisnt quiteTrek, we have the Cliff Eidelman score.
Search and you will not find a bad word spoken about it.
And it is wonderful music; listen to it on its own and its marvellous.
But as a score to a specific movie?
It could be anything at all.
There will undoubtedly be someone reading this who thought James Horner actually did do the score.
Why cant this franchise get any sort of musical continuity going?
So, the wall comes down in space, but first, space Chernobyl explodes, polluting space Russia.
Praxis, a moon of Qonos, explodes, contaminating Qonos upper atmosphere.
How does a mine explode that badly that the whole bloody moon explodes?
What the hell were they mining that could explode that badly?
Space Corbyn being Chancellor Gorkon, played byStar Treks most prolific hey-its-that-guyDavid Warner.
Gorkon was meant to be space Lincoln, the great slave-freer and being-shot-in-the-theatre-man.
The problem is,Undiscovered Countrygoes for easy targets and very soft allegory.
As it is, this is an allegory in broad strokes.
Kirk is at least two of those, and accused of the third.
His reaction to the Klingon plight is a shockingly dark let them die.
Hell, he was having Romulan ale with Klingon generals only in the previous film after calling God out.
Now hes suddenly a racist wholl happily commit genocide by omission.
After all, being better is whatTrekis all about.
Peace is logical, cold war is the status quo.
One the undiscovered country, the other the horrible pair of underpants you keep because its comfortable.
Yet his logic is entirely flawed.
Have the envoy of peace be someone the Klingons view as historys greatest monster?
Spock, are you really that stupid?
Thats not logical, not justifiable, and not even a good idea accidentally.
Thats like employing Tony Blair as Middle East peace envoy.
Only Nixon can go to China though.
Such a weird justification.
Its something that makes less sense each time you think about it.
Its the antithesis of what does God need with a starship?
fromStar Trek V. The truism rendered false, versus the obvious rendered profound.
Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war.
To be, or not to be.
Bang, and the dirt is gone.
Nevertheless, we find Kirk et al dining with the Klingons in charged scene of allegorical stew.
Lots of Shakespeare quoted simply for the sake of quoting Shakespeare.
Reductio ad Hitlerem before the internet made that a thing.
Fascinating, but ultimately slightly hollow.
Its in the aftermath of this that Gorkon is assassinated, right in the theater.
Enough intrigue to sustain the bulk of the film, the conspiracy-thriller-whodunnit-prison-break… in space!
and a Worf cameo.
Oooh, those pesky Klingons and their backwards ways, with their trials and their due process.
The rest of the film writes itself.
They search the whole ship for gravity boots.
Then they find them but theyve been hidden in someone elses locker.
Then they find the dead killers.
After the special effects packed opening, this is where the restricted budget shows.
Competent, but unspectacular.
Kirk meanwhile gets back to some semblance of Kirkness by seducing his way out of prison.
She takes them under her wing.
But oh no, she betrays them.
The prerequisite mid-movie twist.
Thats classicTrek, right there.
Come on, shes got a red collar and everything.
But then something really, really odd happens.
Something actually quite distasteful.
Even nu-Spock wouldnt stoop that low, and that guy tried to murder nu-Kirk.
Of course, its all the Romulans fault.
And its over in typicalTrekfashion, with someone making a speech about ideals and new worlds and obsolescence.
Which is the successful heart of the movie.
Kirk et al have not changed.
But they are useless.
The world around them has changed.
They are vastly experienced in things irrelevant, competent at tasks that are no longer required.
They have outlived their usefulness.
A stage of life we must all go through, and one the film handles very well.
As we see, Sulu has already moved on, and soon the Enterprise itself will too.
Worlds change even when people dont is the theme here.
So this is it.
Not quite the finest hour but very far from the worst.
Its an enjoyable and rewatchable sci-fi allegory.
Heavy handed and often predictable, but still with that special something.
Perhaps a fitting end to an inconsistent but trailblazing iteration of the franchise.
But the end is not the end.
In an absolutely wonderful touch, the cast and characters are given their own send off.
A tribute from Captain Sulu, and a family photo for the characters, and then the sign off.
The sign off at the end is the most wonderful way for the cast to go.
