STAR TREK VI:
THE LAST HURRAH?
The Classic Cast may not be ready to pass the baton to The Next Generation.
By Sheldon Teitelbaum
Though STAR TREK VI is widely perceived as the swan song for its Classic Cast of characters--and was so conceived by Paramount Pictures—a source close to the production indicates that the studio may have had a change of heart. Paramount is said to be so high on the film that
Klingon, had beendone to death on TV, and would hardly sustain what should amount to a fond and respectful adicu to the vintage cast. Or maybe Meyer was making up the entire business to keep the hounds off the scent.
Whatever transpired, the film now works as a fairly obvious parable of perestroika, heralding the impending breakup of the
they have removed Kirk's voice-over log that was to
An Efrosian trom STAR TREK Vi, an alien race first introduced to the series in scenes in STAR TREK IV.
Klingon empire after one of its key energy resources
end the picture and pass the baton to “a new generation.” Big boxoffice December 13 will make VIlasurety.
Last January, Nicholas Meyerdescribed his forthcoming film, STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY as “a small story about Spock in love.” It would not, he declared from his office at Paramount, function as a noisy curtain call for the feature franchise. “I would not like to create a movie that ends witha bang or pulls too much on the heartstrings,” he said. “I just want to tell a good story that seems to relate to today.”
But by mid-April, when the film moved into production, the film’s romantic theme—if it ever had one—had been deleted. Perhaps Paramount differed with Meyer over his minimalist thematic intentions. Certainly the budget was minimalized—the film is being made fora paltry $26 million—witha goodly portion of that doled out to the principals—and was shot on redressed sets of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION (except for the bridge) to save money.
Maybe someone more familiar with the original series realized that unlikely romantic interludes between Spock and women, variously human, Vulcan and
goes kerblooey ina far-future version of the disaster at Chernobyl Starfleet is informed that the Klingon Empire will not last the century, and that its breakup will prove detrimental to the Federation, not to mention Starfleet, which faces imminent mothballing. Fortunately, a Klingon Gorbachev called Gorkon emerges, and he appears to favor forging a loose alliance with the Federation. But Gorkon is assassinated before the alliance can be locked in place, and blame for his murder falls upon Captain Kirk who, still grieving for his son (killed by Klingons in STAR TREK III), finds himself hard-put to support the coming rapproachment. Indeed, with only three months before standing down for retirement, the Enterprise crew as a whole finds itself in a snit over this last mission. Whether anyone is sufficiently peeved to kill becomes the movie's central mystery. STAR TREK VI began shooting on location in Los Angeles Griffith Park during the first week of April. Principal photography ended nearly three months later. Apart from the series regulars, the film guest stars actor David Warner, wasted as an outpost governor in STAR TREK V, now back as Gorkon, John Schuck also
Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock with Kim Cattrall as Valera, the Vulcan officer aboard the Enterprise who plots to prevent Klingon from joining the Federation.
reprises his Klingon persona from STAR TREK IV. Kim (MANNEQUIN) Cattrall plays Valera, a Vulcan officer aboard the Enterprise initially written in as Saavik (and written out when Meyer was unable to secure Kirstie Alley for the part), Christopher Plummer stars as the Klingon leader Chang. Gorkon’s daughter is played by Rosanna DeSoto. A shapeshifting alien is played by black model Iman (NO WAY OUT). Kirtwood (ROBOCOP) Smith appears as the Federation’s commander-in-chief. Morgan Shepherd plays a Klingon prisoncommandant.
ILM was commissioned to perform the film's optical effects
As is evident from the final log of the Enterprise, which may well have been rewritten at this juncture, STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY is intended to function asa linking vehicle to a spate of new feature movies using the cast and setting of THE NEXT GENERA- TION. Indeed, one of its minor Klingon characters is a Colonel Worf— Kirk and Bones’ defense attorney—ostensibly Lt. Worf's great-grandfather, and played by Michael Dorn, shorn of his goatee and nose appliance.
STAR TREK V1 is appropriately reverential, both to the times and the competition. In one scene, Leonard Nimoy, as Spock, attempts to allay Kirk’s initial rage at being finagled into paving the way for Camp David-like peace talks with an old Vulcan proverb: “Only Nixon could go to China.” In another, Kirk is observed necking with an apparently comely female ona Klingon prison planet. McCoy, weary of
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