Here’s a thought for you.
It’s 30 years this month since Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty Sulu, Uhura and Chekov filmed their final scenes for the last of the classic crew movies.
While admittedly the last time they were all on the Enterprise together was The Final Frontier, this would mark not just the first 25 years of what is now a 55 year old franchise but also the last adventure for this cast. In an odd twist it would only be 2018’s Destination Star Trek Birmingham where Sulu and Chekov would be seated at the helm and navigation console once more - and Kirk in the captain’s chair.
Aside from Nichelle Nichols, all of the cast played their roles in at least one other official production, five of them however after The Undiscovered Country finished filming.
Deep Space Nine would miss out on an actual TOS crew appearance although classic Klingons and the Mirror Universe would be more than enough homage by the time we got to The Emperor’s New Cloak. Sulu dropped in once more for a retread of Star Trek VI from his perspective in Flashback to commemorate 30 years of the franchise. Honest opinion, it’s a mixed bag that was easily trounced by the superlative Trials and Tribble-ations.
Kirk. Scotty and Chekov would return for Generations (including classic Scotty continuity-with-Relics gaff) and Nimoy finally in 2009 and 2013 for the first two JJ Abrams reboots and still their legacy lives on.
By the time that The Undiscovered Country closed filming, it marked the end of a long path to return Star Trek to the small screen with Star Wars initally scuppering that plan in the late '70s. The original cast were (by their own admissions on screen and off) coming to the natural end of their journey in 1990/1. It was time and they'd been talking about aging ever since The Wrath of Khan 9 years earlier. But could the franchise survive without them all turning up occasionally for another movie? It had worked on TV with The Next Generation slipping into view thanks to the popularity of the movies but...could it... could there ever be Star Trek without this crew around? We were about to find out and I think we can agree it did although they are in no small way responsible for the continued success of Star Trek to this day - down to the very DNA of shows such as Lower Decks and Discovery which have tipped their hats more than once to Those Old Scientists.
Thirteen Trek movies have been produced over a period of 38 years so far (1978-2016) and notably just under half featured the full TOS crew, four with TNG and three Kelvin and again the influence of those initial six run right the way through even more noticeably in Into Darkness and the badly aging Beyond. Even now you know that if there was a choice to stick on a Star Trek movie you would be hard-pressed not to choose one and on this, the 30th anniversary of the end of the original era, it's well worth revisiting one crew's final, emotional and amazing cinematic adventure. Great to see you out there one last time...
My favourite movie of all time.
ReplyDeleteStar Trek VI is notable as one of the first movies to deal (allegorically at least) with the collapse of the Soviet Union. As such, the movie is important, for it deals not only with the ending of an important piece of popular culture, but aims for historical significance as well.
In one early exchange, Kirk is upset that he is to be the first olive-branch to peace as he is so close to retirement. Spock retorts with the line “Only Nixon could go to china…” meaning that as Kirk is infamous in the Klingon Empire, no-one could accuse him of being sympathetic to the Klingon cause or doubt the sincerity of the Federation towards peace.
Furthermore, General Chang’s line, “Don’t wait for the translation! Answer me now!” is a reference to Adlai Stevenson’s similar demand of Soviet Union representative Valerian Zorin at the United Nations in 1962 whilst debating over the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Further depth is added to the film by having the Klingon General Chang declaring that ‘You have not read Shakespeare unitl you have read it in the original Klingon’. According to director Nicolas Meyer, this was a reference to Nazi Germany’s attempts to claim the bard as their own. The use of Shakespeare underscores the political nature of the plot.
When General Chang states that ‘no peace in our time…once more unto the breach, dear friends’, the character is mocking British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who in a speech regarding the Munich Agreement said that “I have returned from Germany with peace in our time.” Ironically of course, less than a year later, Germany declared War on the Allies.
I have such passion for this film. It was the first Star Trek movie that I saw at the cinema....and it made me a life long trekkie.
ReplyDeleteOne of the major themes of the film is change, and how people react to it. By the end of the film Kirk has realised how predjudiced he was against the Klingons and was initially reluctant to attend the peace talks. Even Spock, who saw the logic in peace asks of Kirk “is it possible that we two, you and I, have grown so old and so inflexible that we have out-lived our usefulness. Would that constitute….a joke?”. An especially nice line of dialog as it could equally well refer to the ending of the original Star Trek movies and be construed as Nimoy asking the question of Shatner.
Cliff Eidelman provides the film with an excellent muscial score, that accompanies the on-screen action to great effect. The music reflects the darker, more serious tone of the film well, with a somber and ominous opening. In the more sentimental sequences, where the crew are basically saying goodbye, Eidelman’s sparing use of the Alexander Courage Star Trek fanfare is perfectly used. I lament that Cliff Eidelman does not get enough credit for the musical score that he provided for Star Trek VI.
Star Trek VI is also the first of the Star Trek movies to really utilise digital surround sound effects. For sure, it’s the only original series movie that will test your home cinema system.
The actors who began playing their roles in the Kennedy/Vietnam years went out holding a mirror up to the then new era of Gorbachev, Glasnost and Clinton. Speaking of the actors, the original cast members all get a chance to shine and put in great performances. The supporting cast of David Warner, Christopher Plummer and Kim Cattrall also make their mark.
I love how well this movie ties into multiple plot strands on The Next Generation, from Unification Part 1 and 2 to Yesterdays Enterprise and more episodes besides. Star Trek had developed into a modern myth that was neatly bound together in Homeric fashion. How much of this was by accident or by design I am not sure.
The film is replete with allusions to death, endings, and time’s passage. For instance, Chang quotes from Henry IV when he leaves the Enterprise: “Have we not heard the chimes at midnight?” This lends a melancholic feel to the denonument of the movie and a sense of regret that we won’t see the original cast together again. The stirring music accompanied by the cast literally signing off is quite emotional.
valeris
Spock explains that the painting shows the expulsion from paradise, it is a reminder that all things end.
For me, Star Trek VI is the best of the Original Series movies, a culmination of all the movies that came before it. It combines the epic scale and ideas driven plot of The Motion Picture with the action and excitement of The Wrath of Khan, the emotional heart of The Search For Spock, the humour of The Voyage Home and the sense of family that was explored in The Final Frontier. Its the perfect swansong for the Original Series and elegantly passes the baton on to The Next Generation.
The studio’s desire to make this the last original series movie was, in my opinion a terrible marketing move. Star Trek VI would be the 15th highest grossing film of 1991 and have the best opening weekend of any movie up to that date. Star Trek VI had a worldwide take of around a hundred million dollars from a twenty five million dollar budget. This profit excludes VHS, DVD and now Blu-Ray sales.