Star Trek movie reviews

[WarpGirl]

SPOILER!!!:

But she was already glimmering BEFORE she fell. Doesn't that mean they had a lock?

OK leave the movie hate aside, this is a technical question about transporters.

[Aquarius]

OK leave the movie hate aside, this is a technical question about transporters.

Thank you!

[WarpGirl]

So does that mean I'll get an answer?

[Aquarius]

Mmmmmmm.....s'pose so. I'm not really a techie so I'm not the person to ask every little nuance of how it works. What I CAN tell you about plot points and devices, so the importance of being still was mentioned earlier in order to establish A) just how good Chekov is and B) the difficulties in getting/maintaining a lock on a person in motion. I know in some of the shows, locks are gotten and lost all the time. Can't tell you why she was sparkling, but maybe the lock wasn't complete. Don't know. I kind of never gave it any thought because I was satisfied that if the lock was good, she wouldn't have died.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

All right, I'm not a moderator, but I created this thread for reviewing all the other Trek movies, NOT Abrams Trek, so can we please discuss Abrams's movie in one of the threads dedicated to that. I'd appreciate that, thank you.

[WarpGirl]

Oooops. I got mixed up sorry.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

The other day I realized I hadn't made a review for TUC. I thought I had but in fact I had not. So here goes...


Star Trek VI - The Undiscovered Country
Reviewed by Kevin Thomas Riley

The original series had no real finale, it just ended, and that with a rather lacklustre episode. So in many ways The Undiscovered Country is the real finale for the original crew. And what a great finale it is! It's probably the best finale - and the best Trek movie of them all. At any rate it's definitely on par with The Wrath of Khan in my book.

Aside from being a great send-off for the original cast it also has cool battle scenes, an intriguing murder mystery, a conspiracy, political manoeuvrings, a prison break, character reflections and one of the best Trek villains ever seen - General Chang. It's everything you could wish for and more, especially considering the huge letdown of the previous movie.

The movie is an allegory of then current events. In fact the end of the Cold War was taking place at the time of shooting, mirroring in the decline of the Klingon Empire. Only a couple of weeks after the premiere the Soviet Union crumbled. The mirroring of real-life events were perhaps a bit too obvious, with the destruction of the Klingon moon Praxis as a stand in for Chernobyl, and even Chancellor Gorkon's name was deliberately created to evoke the name of Gorbachev. But it worked anyway. And the idea of a conspiracy between hardliners on both sides have been explored in contemporary settings too, such as in the movie The Package. But it's also a means to bridge the settings of the original series with that of the next generation, where there is peace between the Federation and the Klingons, and the Klingon Worf is a Starfleet officer (his ancestor with the same name, also played by Michael Dorn, even makes an appearance as Kirk'a and McCoy's defence attorney).

Other fun tie-ins with today were Spock quoting, tongue-in-cheek, the old "Vulcan" proverb "only Nixon could go to China" meaning Kirk, with his certified hatred of Klingons, would be a logical choice to meet Gorkon's ship as much as Nixon, with his impeccable anti-communist credentials, was the only one who could go and meet Mao. And Chang's line "don't wait for the translation" during the show trail echoed Adlai Stevenson to Soviet ambassador Zorin in the UN during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

All too often in Trek the Klingons come off as thugs, especially in the later incarnations, so I'm pleased with the portrayal we got here. So they're warriors, but that doesn't mean they have to be stupid brutes. Here we get sophisticated Klingons who read and quote Shakespeare "in the original Klingon", and that goes both for Gorkon the peacemaker and Chang the cold warrior. ("In space all warriors are cold warriors!")

David Warner was criminally wasted in The Final Frontier but he made an excellent Gorkon. But the real stand-out character belongs to Christopher Plummer's Chang. He belongs right up there among the few true magnificent bastards Trek has offered, together with the likes of Khan and Gul Dukat. It's almost a pity he had to be killed in the end, but his demise is perfectly fitting. He's smart enough to realize the inevitable even if the conspiracy had succeeded. He just wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, yelling "cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war" for all to hear. Of course Chang/Plummer chews the scenery whenever he's there, but dammit, he's so good!

One of the few faults in the movie is the character of Valeris, who was pretty underdeveloped and her motives for taking part in the conspiracy aren't that clear. Her betrayal also didn't have enough impact, as the character was pretty much set up to do what she did, being a new addition and all. Originally this was supposed to be Saavik, which would have had a much greater emotional impact since she'd been with us since The Wrath of Khan. Valeris, like Saavik, was something of a Spock protégé. If they could have Admiral Cartwright reprise his role and be a conspirator, why not Saavik?

Also, Spock's forceful mind meld on Valeris, which was effectively a mind rape, was rather disturbing. And it took place in full view on the Bridge no less! The more violent phase of it was also unnecessary, as they just acquired the coordinates to the peace conference from Sulu on the Excelsior the minute after.

The sets and effects were very good for the most part. Once again I must commend director Nicholas Meyer for infusing a more realistic and "naval" feel to the Enterprise. Props and costumes were also great, and let's not forget the awesome makeup for Chang, bald, small ridges and bolted eye-patch! Both the attack on Kronos One, with the eerie feel with the boarding assassins, and the final battle between Chang's cloaked Bird-of-Prey and the Enterprise were outstanding.

Cliff Eidelman's dark score is perfect for this movie, and it actually rivals those of Goldsmith and Horner. I wonder what happened to him, as he never became as well known as those other two. He certainly deserves more attention unless he somehow radically changed his style.

There is just no way I can give The Undiscovered Country anything less than a grade of 10+ on my 10-graded scale. It alternates with The Wrath of Khan as my favourite Trek movie, and I think it might more often be the favourite one.



*****

This concludes (for now at least) my Trek movie reviews as I'm in no mood to do the TNG ones.

[WarpGirl]

Great review as always. Frankly I can't say I disagree with anything, but I have to say I'm glad it wasn't Saavik who was the traitor. I still like Search For Spock best though.

[CX]

If I'd done it, I totally would've had Saavik as the traitor so the betrayal would have had that much more punch to it. I would have ditched the more intense part of the mind-rape, though. Talk about character derailment.

[WarpGirl]

Well I like a punch of drama but in ST I don't want the punch to be so hard I can't recover. You know I never really thought about that melding scene too much but now that I do it's incredibly creepy. Maybe it didn't impact me because I have ALWAYS hated Kim Katrall.