Star Trek Revisited Part IV
Decided to re-watch the Star Trek films in order. It's been some time since I've seen them, and I never did watch the last two Next Gen films. Here's a few quick thoughts:
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country: Back when this movie came out, Dennis Miller did a bit on SNL's Weekend Update that went something like: "The latest flick in the Star Trek Franchise came out this week. Star Trek VI: The Apology..." Well, apology accepted. Star Trek V was so bad that there was really no way they could have screwed this one up unless maybe Shatner wrote & directed it. Instead, they invited back Nicholas Meyer in the hopes of re-creating the magic mojo that made Wrath of Khan such a hit. They fairly succeeded. This being the final film featuring the original series cast, the film is heavy with finality for all of them. Sulu is a Captain, master of the Excelsior, where Christian Slater is apparently the coolest cadet in the galaxy. Kirk & Company prepare to retire, or something. At least Scotty is. He claims to have bought a boat, though I thought there was no money in Roddenberry's perfect Socialist utopia. After the goofball humor of IV and the awfulness of V, The Undiscovered Country attempts to re-balance and walk that fine line between earnest seriousness and character humor, and it mostly succeeds. You can tell this film is serious business because it doesn't start with any sort of jubilant fanfare, but ominous music and an explosion so awesome, George Lucas ripped it off for the Star Wars Special Edition versions of the original trilogy. Finally admitting the long-standing analogy between Federation/Klingon and United States/Soviet Union, this film takes all of its political cues from the times it was made: detente and the end of the Cold War. When the Klingon moon Praxis blows up, causing devastation on their homeworld, the Federation extends an olive branch to their longtime enemies in the hopes of bringing an end to the endless conflict between them. With David Warner returning (he was in part five as a Federation attache/brainwashed victim of Sybok, where he mostly stood around on the Enterprise bridge alternately looking subdued and macking on the Romulan attache, who, oddly, looked nothing like a Romulan) as a stand-in for Gorbachev, and Christopher Plummer on hand as Kirk's Klingon opposite, General Chang (there's a subtle Red China metaphor for you), we have the most severely articulate, British Klingons to date, refined in their eloquence and quoting Shakespeare. All of the nasty Klingons the Enterprise crew so disdainfully mock are all subordinates. Gene Roddenberry got to see at least the final script before his death and commented he found much of the film apocryphal. I imagine it's the vehement racism espoused by various beloved Socialist Utopia characters he created that he took umbrage over. Kirk's anger is understandable--Klingons killed his only known child not long after that child entered his life--but everyone else seems to have very little reason for such venom, other than the script calls for it. Granted, they have a long history of antagonism with Klingons, but the outright racist remarks seem appalling and undue, even if used as parallel and analogy for our own current problems. Of course, things go wrong. After a disastrous diplomatic dinner, the Enterprise appears to fire photon torpedoes at the Chancellor's ship, and who men in Starfleet life support suits and magnetic boots beam on board and murder Klingons willy-nilly until they assassinate the Chancellor. Purple blood. LOLS. Hadn't they already established Kling blood is red like ours?* Whoops! As the mystery deepends, Kirk and McCoy are captured when they attempt to help and the Chancellor dies while McCoy--confessing to not knowing enough about Klingon anatomy to properly help him--tries to save him. They are whisked away to a show trial where they are saddled with Worf's ineffective grandfather as their legal representative. Worst lawyer ever. But yay! Michael Dorn! This film is rife with cameos. Janice Rand finally gets some major screen time, but almost no dialogue, as Sulu's communications officer. As mentioned already, Christian Slater gives a cameo. John Schuck is back as the Gayest Klingon Ever. Rene Auberjonois, who would star on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as Odo, plays a Starfleet conspirator. Kurtwood Smith, yeah the dad from That 70's Show, plays the Federation president while Brock Peters returns as Admiral Cartwright(and he would later portray Captain Sisko's dad on DS9). Kim Cattrall, later to be one the hos on Sex and the City, plays Valeris. And here's my first huge problem with this flick. This should have been Saavik. It was supposed to be Saavik. It was written as Saavik, but apparently Robin Curtis was busy, or wanted lots of money, or something, and Cattrall didn't want to be the third woman to play that character, so they just made her someone else. Sadly, all of the "a lie?" dialogue exchanges between her and Spock mean nothing. If it had been Saavik as intended, it would have been much more meaningful considering their exchange in Wrath of Khan. Cattrall is all wrong, just wrong, wrong, wrong, in this role. She all but ruins the movie for me. This being Star Trek, however, I just paste Kirstie Alley's face on her in my mind and get on with it. Of course, everything is resolved. There's some plot holes big enough to drive a bus through, sure. There's some cheese and some ham, as usual. But, overall, this film rocks it pretty hard, on par with Chest of Khan for the most part. Kirk gets a parting macho bit in the Klingon gulag and gets to make out with David Bowie's future wife, model Iman, as a shapeshifting stooge in a plot to off Kirk & McCoy. In a fun bit, she turns into a copy of Kirk and they have to duke it out, so Kirk finally gets to beat himself up. There's lots of fun dialogue, lots of clever bits, and some truly dumb shit like Uhura, Scotty and Checkov having to thumb through what looks like some really old library books to translate Klingon and give a personal response to a Klingon outpost as they make their way deep into Klingon territory to rescue Kirk & McCoy. The excuse given is that the Klingons would recognize a response given by the universal translator. Sure, fine, I can swallow that, but didn't anyone think to just have the computer translate the Klingon speech and provide text for Uhura to read? Those are the dumbest Klingons ever for falling for that. I also really don't buy McCoy not knowing Klingon anatomy. After 70+ years of animosity, I'd think Starfleet Medical would have a pretty good idea of the inner goop inside a Klingon. Don't buy it. I also hated the fact that they added a galley. Dumb dumb dumb. The Grand Heroic Ending is cheesy, as is the Star Trek Convention lineup, but I forgive them. I forgive them because as unnecessary as all this cast worship and cheese is, the movie is tight, fun, and a really good adventure. One of the best things in this movie is the two-fisted mind meld from Spock to Valeris to dig out her secrets. Nimoy is such a consummate actor that he can relay Spock's pain with an inflection, and manufacture totally believable gravel in his voice to convey it. When his hands come off her face and he tells Kirk she doesn't know where the super secret peace conference is being held, the pain of what he just did to her is more than evident. Chills, dude. Chills.
Story: Fun, relevant to the times, and a good mix of serious/comedy and heroism. Like Wrath of Khan, it hits on almost all the cylinders most of the time. When it misses, you can forgive it.
Effects: Finally, some decent fucking special effects. I loved the bridge design. Most of the ship sets are redressed next Generation sets, but it looks good. They threw some money in it this time.
Acting: As mentioned, there's a bit of ham & cheese, but, overall, good solid work all around. Plummer seems to really relish is turn is a Klingon, and Warner is appropriately Lincoln-like. Nimoy is spot-on, as usual. He was even decent with he had to work with in Final Frontier Somebody give this guy an award already. Love me some Nimoy. All the cast is good in this one. Sulu rocks. This movie cemented my Sulu-love.
Redshirts Sacrificed: Oh, dear, this movie is rife with Klingon redshirts biting the big one. The Starfleet assassins get their due, too. Presumably, no one dies when Chang attacks Kirk Enterprise and Sulu's Excelsior, but Chang and his crew go up in scientifically inaccurate space flames.
Chekov Injury: Shockingly, none. He gets to wear a real uniform through the whole film, and doesn't get burnt, fall off anything, or get an alien worm stuck in him. You go, Pavel!
*I could be wrong about this, but I remember a big stink about this amongst the Trekkies when this movie came out.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country: Back when this movie came out, Dennis Miller did a bit on SNL's Weekend Update that went something like: "The latest flick in the Star Trek Franchise came out this week. Star Trek VI: The Apology..." Well, apology accepted. Star Trek V was so bad that there was really no way they could have screwed this one up unless maybe Shatner wrote & directed it. Instead, they invited back Nicholas Meyer in the hopes of re-creating the magic mojo that made Wrath of Khan such a hit. They fairly succeeded. This being the final film featuring the original series cast, the film is heavy with finality for all of them. Sulu is a Captain, master of the Excelsior, where Christian Slater is apparently the coolest cadet in the galaxy. Kirk & Company prepare to retire, or something. At least Scotty is. He claims to have bought a boat, though I thought there was no money in Roddenberry's perfect Socialist utopia. After the goofball humor of IV and the awfulness of V, The Undiscovered Country attempts to re-balance and walk that fine line between earnest seriousness and character humor, and it mostly succeeds. You can tell this film is serious business because it doesn't start with any sort of jubilant fanfare, but ominous music and an explosion so awesome, George Lucas ripped it off for the Star Wars Special Edition versions of the original trilogy. Finally admitting the long-standing analogy between Federation/Klingon and United States/Soviet Union, this film takes all of its political cues from the times it was made: detente and the end of the Cold War. When the Klingon moon Praxis blows up, causing devastation on their homeworld, the Federation extends an olive branch to their longtime enemies in the hopes of bringing an end to the endless conflict between them. With David Warner returning (he was in part five as a Federation attache/brainwashed victim of Sybok, where he mostly stood around on the Enterprise bridge alternately looking subdued and macking on the Romulan attache, who, oddly, looked nothing like a Romulan) as a stand-in for Gorbachev, and Christopher Plummer on hand as Kirk's Klingon opposite, General Chang (there's a subtle Red China metaphor for you), we have the most severely articulate, British Klingons to date, refined in their eloquence and quoting Shakespeare. All of the nasty Klingons the Enterprise crew so disdainfully mock are all subordinates. Gene Roddenberry got to see at least the final script before his death and commented he found much of the film apocryphal. I imagine it's the vehement racism espoused by various beloved Socialist Utopia characters he created that he took umbrage over. Kirk's anger is understandable--Klingons killed his only known child not long after that child entered his life--but everyone else seems to have very little reason for such venom, other than the script calls for it. Granted, they have a long history of antagonism with Klingons, but the outright racist remarks seem appalling and undue, even if used as parallel and analogy for our own current problems. Of course, things go wrong. After a disastrous diplomatic dinner, the Enterprise appears to fire photon torpedoes at the Chancellor's ship, and who men in Starfleet life support suits and magnetic boots beam on board and murder Klingons willy-nilly until they assassinate the Chancellor. Purple blood. LOLS. Hadn't they already established Kling blood is red like ours?* Whoops! As the mystery deepends, Kirk and McCoy are captured when they attempt to help and the Chancellor dies while McCoy--confessing to not knowing enough about Klingon anatomy to properly help him--tries to save him. They are whisked away to a show trial where they are saddled with Worf's ineffective grandfather as their legal representative. Worst lawyer ever. But yay! Michael Dorn! This film is rife with cameos. Janice Rand finally gets some major screen time, but almost no dialogue, as Sulu's communications officer. As mentioned already, Christian Slater gives a cameo. John Schuck is back as the Gayest Klingon Ever. Rene Auberjonois, who would star on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as Odo, plays a Starfleet conspirator. Kurtwood Smith, yeah the dad from That 70's Show, plays the Federation president while Brock Peters returns as Admiral Cartwright(and he would later portray Captain Sisko's dad on DS9). Kim Cattrall, later to be one the hos on Sex and the City, plays Valeris. And here's my first huge problem with this flick. This should have been Saavik. It was supposed to be Saavik. It was written as Saavik, but apparently Robin Curtis was busy, or wanted lots of money, or something, and Cattrall didn't want to be the third woman to play that character, so they just made her someone else. Sadly, all of the "a lie?" dialogue exchanges between her and Spock mean nothing. If it had been Saavik as intended, it would have been much more meaningful considering their exchange in Wrath of Khan. Cattrall is all wrong, just wrong, wrong, wrong, in this role. She all but ruins the movie for me. This being Star Trek, however, I just paste Kirstie Alley's face on her in my mind and get on with it. Of course, everything is resolved. There's some plot holes big enough to drive a bus through, sure. There's some cheese and some ham, as usual. But, overall, this film rocks it pretty hard, on par with Chest of Khan for the most part. Kirk gets a parting macho bit in the Klingon gulag and gets to make out with David Bowie's future wife, model Iman, as a shapeshifting stooge in a plot to off Kirk & McCoy. In a fun bit, she turns into a copy of Kirk and they have to duke it out, so Kirk finally gets to beat himself up. There's lots of fun dialogue, lots of clever bits, and some truly dumb shit like Uhura, Scotty and Checkov having to thumb through what looks like some really old library books to translate Klingon and give a personal response to a Klingon outpost as they make their way deep into Klingon territory to rescue Kirk & McCoy. The excuse given is that the Klingons would recognize a response given by the universal translator. Sure, fine, I can swallow that, but didn't anyone think to just have the computer translate the Klingon speech and provide text for Uhura to read? Those are the dumbest Klingons ever for falling for that. I also really don't buy McCoy not knowing Klingon anatomy. After 70+ years of animosity, I'd think Starfleet Medical would have a pretty good idea of the inner goop inside a Klingon. Don't buy it. I also hated the fact that they added a galley. Dumb dumb dumb. The Grand Heroic Ending is cheesy, as is the Star Trek Convention lineup, but I forgive them. I forgive them because as unnecessary as all this cast worship and cheese is, the movie is tight, fun, and a really good adventure. One of the best things in this movie is the two-fisted mind meld from Spock to Valeris to dig out her secrets. Nimoy is such a consummate actor that he can relay Spock's pain with an inflection, and manufacture totally believable gravel in his voice to convey it. When his hands come off her face and he tells Kirk she doesn't know where the super secret peace conference is being held, the pain of what he just did to her is more than evident. Chills, dude. Chills.
Story: Fun, relevant to the times, and a good mix of serious/comedy and heroism. Like Wrath of Khan, it hits on almost all the cylinders most of the time. When it misses, you can forgive it.
Effects: Finally, some decent fucking special effects. I loved the bridge design. Most of the ship sets are redressed next Generation sets, but it looks good. They threw some money in it this time.
Acting: As mentioned, there's a bit of ham & cheese, but, overall, good solid work all around. Plummer seems to really relish is turn is a Klingon, and Warner is appropriately Lincoln-like. Nimoy is spot-on, as usual. He was even decent with he had to work with in Final Frontier Somebody give this guy an award already. Love me some Nimoy. All the cast is good in this one. Sulu rocks. This movie cemented my Sulu-love.
Redshirts Sacrificed: Oh, dear, this movie is rife with Klingon redshirts biting the big one. The Starfleet assassins get their due, too. Presumably, no one dies when Chang attacks Kirk Enterprise and Sulu's Excelsior, but Chang and his crew go up in scientifically inaccurate space flames.
Chekov Injury: Shockingly, none. He gets to wear a real uniform through the whole film, and doesn't get burnt, fall off anything, or get an alien worm stuck in him. You go, Pavel!
*I could be wrong about this, but I remember a big stink about this amongst the Trekkies when this movie came out.