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Kirk has to overcome a lifelong prejudice against Klingons in the marvellous, best-in-series film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country |
Director: Nicholas Meyer
Cast: William Shatner (Captain James T Kirk), Leonard Nimoy
(Captain Spock), DeForest Kelley (Dr Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy), James Doohan
(Scotty), Walter Koenig (Commander Pavel Chekov), Nichelle Nichols (Commander
Uhuru), George Takei (Captain Hikaru Sulu), Christopher Plummer (General
Chang), Mark Lenard (Ambassador Sarek), David Warner (Chancellor Gorkon), Kim
Cattrell (Lt Valeris), Rosana DeSoto (Azetbur), Kurtwood Smith (Federation
President), Brock Peters (Admiral Cartwright), Michael Dorn (Colonel Worf),
John Shuck (Klingon Ambassador), Iman (Martia)
This will sound ridiculous, but there are few films that
have had such an impact on me as Star
Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. How bizarre is that? But not only can I
trace my love of all things Trek to
this film, but it was also my basic introduction to Shakespeare, whose plays in
various shapes and forms have been a big part of my life ever since. Throw into
the mix that it sparked an interest in the Cold War and you’ve got quite a coup
for this sixth film in (I’ll be honest!) a hit-and-miss franchise.
This film follows the final mission of Kirk (William
Shatner) and company. There has been a disaster on the Klingon moon Praxis,
which has devastated the Klingon economy and left them with no choice but to
enter peace negotiation with the Federation, to try and end the Cold War that
has existed for generations between the two powers. Sound familiar? While Spock
(Leonard Nimoy) has been one of the leading negotiators with Klingon Chancellor
Gorkon (David Warner), Kirk is reluctantly roped in to provide an escort for
the Klingons to a peace conference. Kirk, and many of his crew, are weighed
down with decades of prejudice and suspicion of Klingons (attitudes that erupt
in a tense dinner between the Enterprise
crew and many of the equally suspicious Klingons). Kirk and McCoy (DeForest
Kelley) however find themselves in trouble when Gorkon is assassinated and the
two men are arrested and put on trial by the Klingons. Will Spock save them?
Can they save the peace talks? Time for one last adventure.
Star Trek VI very
nearly didn’t happen. The previous film, written and directed by Shatner, was a
disaster, a messy, strange, flat-footed, cheap-looking adventure that was a
huge flop, won several Razzies and nearly killed the series off. So it’s great
that the cast got a chance to have one final swan-song in their parts – and
that this basically turned into the most intelligent film they had made since Star Trek II. No surprise that Nicholas
Meyer, an articulate, literate and intelligent novelist turned film-maker, was
the common link between them. Not weighed down by Star Trek lore, nor the breezy “I’m above this” contempt that other
directors in the series have had, Meyer understands what makes good Trek – a strong story, compelling
character arcs, intelligent writing and a good balance between adventure and
themes that resound with contemporary depth.
Star Trek VI was
written as the Berlin Wall fell, and it’s a neat commentary on the sort of
attitudes you would have seen in America and Russia at the time. Gorkon’s name
even echoed Gorbachev (and Lincoln as well). But this isn’t just a historical
parallel with the modern world. Instead Meyer also uses this to explore the
attitudes of his characters. Like Star
Trek II, this works into a neat deconstruction of Kirk’s persona. Kirk has
to confront not age here (as in that film) but instead his own out-of-step
anger, prejudices and refusal to change. At the same time, the film also
explores Kirk as a man who can overcome his instinctive hostility, to make
himself a better man. It’s such rich complexity that it’s no wonder I got
sucked into a life-long love for Star
Trek.
All this makes a fabulous framework for the strongest, most
high-stakes entry in the franchise. Meyer’s direction is spot on: simmering
with tension in the first half, investing every scene with a creeping intensity
and rumbling sense of disagreement. He also works brilliantly with the regular
cast, who turn in some of their best performances in this film: Shatner in
particular reins in (mostly) the ham for a thoughtful and intelligence
performance, while Kelley mixes deadpan snarks with a world-weary resignation.
Nimoy also goes further than he has for a long time with Spock, who struggles
under the surface with a host of emotions, from hope, pride, guilt and fury all
bubbling away under that cool Vulcan façade. The rest of the cast also get
moments to shine.
This is a film that barely puts a foot wrong in its entire
first act. From the opening explosion of Praxis – with a hugely exciting sense
of danger as Sulu’s Excelsior
starship gets caught up in the shockwave – through to the trial of Kirk and
Bones, this film is tonally spot on. We understand completely the hostility and
distrust Kirk feels towards the Klingons, just as we appreciate on a deeper
level his desire to make the peace talks work. The awkward encounters with the
Klingons simmer with an unspoken racism from the Federation characters (many of
the cast reported being uncomfortable with the imperialist and superior tone
their characters had to take), and a hostile resentment from the Klingons. The
eventual assassination attempt has a grim inevitability about it, but is
expertly shot and edited (a zero-gravity assault by two assassins on Gorkon’s
disabled ship). The show-trial itself is like a nightmare of injustice. It’s
scintillating and compelling stuff.
While the pace does slacken slightly when Kirk and McCoy
find themselves in a Klingon prison camp – we are, by the way, introduced to
the prison camp via a speech from the commandant eerily reminiscent of the
greetings handed out in Bridge on the
River Kwai – it never loses the audience’s attention. And it powers back up
for a brilliant all-action, at first totally one-sided, fight between the
Enterprise and a Klingon ship en route to the peace conference. A large measure
of the film’s atmospheric success should also be given to the extraordinary
score by Cliff Eidelman, a brilliant combination of familiar themes and
fast-paced orchestral work, one of my favourite film scores.
And Shakespeare? Where does he come into it? Largely through
Christopher Plummer, playing General Chang, the man who emerges as principal
antagonist. Plummer’s exuberant performance is perfect for this
larger-than-life warrior – a man who loves nothing more than reading
Shakespeare “in the original Klingon” (one of many examples of the film’s wit).
Plummer lets rip throughout the film, quoting endlessly from virtually every
Shakespeare play you could imagine, just this side of ham. Plummer is also, for
my money, the best villain this series had. But how could you not love a film
where the villain rotates round in his command chair shrieking gleefully “Cry
havoc and let loose the dogs of war!” Or says farewell to Kirk early on with a
cheeky “we have heard the chimes at midnight…”. It’s possibly the best
introduction to how great Shakespeare is that you can have.
But then that’s just part of Meyer’s witty, literate script,
which throws in quotes from Conan Doyle and JM Barrie to Adlai Stevenson and
Neville Chamberlain, and has Spock tells Kirk he’s the perfect choice for a
mission to the Klingons as “there is an old Vulcan saying: only Nixon can go to
China”. With stuff like that how can you not enjoy the film? It also
understands the warmth between the main cast, their sense of character. The
whole film combines an elegiac tone with a triumphant final mission, the
passing of an era – with the final moments of the film capturing this, from its
Peter Pan quote (“First star to the left and straight on until morning”), to
the signatures of the cast appearing on the screen, literally signing off on
their Star Trek careers.
The whole film is perfectly pitched like this. Every moment
works from the off, and the action and adventure is balanced by some wonderful
comic moments and beats of high tension and drama. The film’s use of the Cold
War in Space as a backdrop works really well, and sheds a new light on
attitudes in the franchise that have never really been touched before. It’s well
acted, directed with flair and skill (the final space battle is brilliantly
assembled), and the score is fantastic. There is a reason why I inflicted this
film on my best man and ushers the morning before my wedding: it’s got a
special place in my heart and it always will.
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