The destruction of the Klingon moon, Praxis, leads to peace negotiations between the Klingon Empire and the Federation. But the assassination of the Klingon Chancellor, blamed on Captain Kirk, threatens that peace, and Spock and crew must determine the truth while Kirk and McCoy must escape their prison.
The Undiscovered Country is a fine final outing for the Original Series crew. Not a great final, but a fine one. All the regular players do what we’ve learned to expect from them—no more and no less. It had been clear for several films that Paramount was finished doing anything interesting with Star Trek, nor were they likely to change anything. Here, even in a finale, everything is as expected. It’s a bigger budget episode of the old show. A good episode, to be sure, but an episode. Everything we expect will happen. Kirk learns a lesson about humility and Spock learns one about humanity. Bones is grumpy and Uhura says wise things while not being allowed to do much. There’s a fist fight, a space battle, the bad guys die. Kirk even kisses an alien girl. It’s a greatest hits movie.
Luckily, the greatest hits of Star Trek are fun. Spock’s sleuthing is engaging. The emotional moments almost have weight…almost. The jokes are humorous for the most part and the action is exciting if not meaningful.
If Star Trek VI stands out in any way, beyond being a massive improvement over its predecessor, it is in its supporting cast. Kim Cattrall’s Vulcan navigator has excellent interactions with the rest of the cast and Rosanna DeSoto makes a powerful and emotional Klingon Chancellor/Chancellor’s daughter. Even better is David Warner as Klingon Chancellor Gorkon who steals every scene except when Christopher Plummer is stealing the scenes from him. Plummer is the joy of this picture. He’s acting large here, but Plummer is an expert at that.
Which leaves us with a good episode with fine crew performances and an above average villain.