Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (Film Review)

1991 Paramount Pictures
Directed by: Nicholas Meyer; Written by: Nicholas Meyer and Denny Martin Flinn
Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Kim Cattrall, David Warner, and Christopher Plummer
MPAA Rating: PG; Running Time: 110 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Rating: 8/10

Just like a group of interstellar Roger Murtaugh's, the crew of the Federation ship, USS Enterprise, is on the cusp of retirement. The wrinkled old space codgers are about to fly off into the sunset, when the unthinkable happens: the Federation's greatest enemy, the Klingons, have suffered the loss of their energy production facility. Now, the Klingons can no longer survive on their own, and a peace must be brokered. The Enterprise, led by the Klingon-hating Captain Kirk, is sent to neutral space to broker that peace, with the Klingon Chancellor, Gorkon. The meeting doesn't go well, but no one gets murdered...until later that night when the Enterprise mysteriously appears to fire upon the Chancellor's ship, and two masked assassins board and kill Gorkon. Kirk and the Enterprise doctor, McCoy, are held responsible, and tossed onto a Klingon prison planet. Meanwhile, the rest of the Enterprise's crew have to race against time, not only to prove Kirk and McCoy's innocence, but to stop the real assassins from interrupting the upcoming Federation/Klingon press conference...with violence.
While I have a deep affection for the often derided Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, the general consensus in the early 90's was that the original Star Trek crew could not go out on that note. Enter 1991's Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, which, while exploring some darker political thematic material, plays it fairly safe. There's no exploration of religion or faith here, just a solid Cold War allegory, and a last fun hurrah with the old timers. Sure, their make up is caked on thicker, but this geriatric group of space explorers still pack some potency, particularly Leonard Nimoy's Spock, who goes to some dark places for peace, and has the biggest epiphanies about his own bias, and how change is more difficult for the oldest generations.
Meanwhile, the Undiscovered Country-unique actors acquit themselves quite well. Christopher Plummer hams it up as the Shakespeare-quoting Klingon, General Chang, giving a fun performance that never quite goes too far over the top or falls into caricature. Kim Cattrall also gives a fun, early career performance as a the Enterprise's new, slightly mysterious Vulcan helmsman. Cattrall has a tense scene late in the film with Nimoy that's a highlight not just for the film, the series as a whole. However, as good as the newcomers are, the old crew are still holding down the fort, each as charming as the next, even the ones that have little to do. Sure, the film bogs down just a little bit in places, some of the humor is a little silly, and the budget isn't quite where it needs to be--but a series going into its sixth entry, with stars verging from their late 50's to early 70's, shouldn't be this fun. Under those circumstances, The Undiscovered Country sends Star Trek's original crew off with as much style as possible.