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Stars: William Shatner, Leonard
Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, George
Takei, Kim Cattrall, David Warner, Christopher Plummer, Michael Dorn, Grace Lee
Whitney, Brock Peters, Kurtwood Smith, Todd Bryant, Mark Leonard, John Schuck,
Christian Slater, and Iman
Writers: Nicholas Meyer and Denny
Martin Flinn
Based On A Story By: Leonard Nimoy,
Lawrence Konner, and Mark Rosenthal
Director: Nicholas Meyer
Feature length: 113 minutes
Extras: Audio Commentary By
Writer/Director Nicholas Meyer and Co-Writer Denny Martin Flinn, Text Commentary
By Michael & Denise Okuda, Stories From Star Trek VI: Six Part Featurette,
The Star Trek Universe Featurettes: Conversations With Nicholas Meyer, Klingons:
Conjuring The Legend, Federation Operatives, Penny’s Toy Box, Together Again,
The Perils Of Peacemaking Featurette, DeForest Kelley: A Tribute Featurette,
Original Cast Interviews, Theatrical Teaser, Theatrical Trailer, 1991 Convention
Presentation By Nicholas Meyer, Production Footage, Storyboards
Languages: English Dolby Digital
5.1 Surround Sound and English and French Language Dolby Surround Sound
Subtitles: English Captions and
Closed Captions and French Language Subtitles (For Select Disc Two Bonus
Features Only)
Packaging: Two-Disc Alpha Keep
Case
Chapter Stops: 15
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Sound and Dolby Surround Sound
Year of Theatrical Release: 1991/DVD
Release: 2004
Theatrical Distributor: Paramount
Pictures
Home Video Distributor: Paramount
Home Entertainment
MPAA Rating: PG
Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera
At last we come to the “Special
Collector’s Edition” of “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.”
Arguably one of the best entries in the ten feature film and counting series,
“The Undiscovered Country” was obviously inspired by the events that had
occurred in Eastern Europe in the later half of the 1980s and early 1990s and
thus does what “Star Trek” has always done best, which is reflect the
concerns of the time using the sci-fi characters and situations as a metaphor.
The Klingon moon Praxis has almost entirely exploded leaving the Klingon home
world of Qo’noS (pronounced Kronos) with roughly 50 years until the planet
will no longer be habitable. Since the Klingon Empire’s economy is centered on
a military buildup, this ecological disaster has created a unique opportunity
for the United Federation of Planets and The Klingon Empire to end their “cold
war” and begin the lengthy process of relocating the Klingons to a new home
world and building a bond of trust that will eventually lead to the alliance
that the two galactic powers share circa “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”
Spock (Leonard Nimoy) has
volunteered Kirk (William Shatner) and his senior crew to serve on one last
mission before their retirement from Starfleet. The Enterprise-A is to
meet up with Klingon Chancellor Gorkon (Warner) and escort “Qo’noS One”
back to Earth for the opening of diplomatic relations. Kirk is livid to say the
least and still holds a great grudge for the death of his son on Genesis at the
hands of the Klingons. However the stalwart Captain follows through on his
assignment only to become implicated in the assassination of the Chancellor and
sentenced along with Director McCoy (DeForest Kelley) to life on a Klingon penal
colony on the arctic world of Rura Penthe while Spock and the rest of the crew
attempt to find evidence of Kirk’s innocence and stop a conspiracy that could
lead to war between the Federation of the Klingons.
In many ways “Star Trek VI: The
Undiscovered Country” delivers on promises eluded to in “Star Trek IV.”
Though the reasons are different, Kirk finally does face a trial by the Klingons
and though this is the overture to peace between the Klingons and the
Federation, fans of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” know that the alliance
formed between the two nations would not occur until the mortal sacrifice of the
crew of the Enterprise-C defending a Klingon colony against the Romulans
as detailed in the episode class Next Generation episode “Yesterday’s
Enterprise.” I mention this because it is important to realize that by this
time Kirk was believed to have been lost after a whiplash energy bolt struck the
Enterprise-B as seen in the prologue sequence in the seventh film in the
series “Star Trek: Generations.” Thus the Klingon Ambassador’s words
warning the Federation President that “There shall be no peace so long as Kirk
lives” comes to fruition in a way since as far as everyone is concerned in
“Star Trek: The Next Generation” Kirk is dead. So while none of these
actions were exactly written down in some grand outline between “Star Trek IV:
The Voyage Home” and “Star Trek: Generations,” the sixth film fits in
pretty well as both a resolution for the original cast feature films and a
prologue to the 24th Century world fans have enjoyed in three “Star
Trek” TV series and the four feature films that have since followed. Another
plus is that one does not have to have seen “Star Trek V: The Final
Frontier” to enjoy “The Undiscovered Country.” The sixth film works just
as well as the next chapter after “The Voyage Home.” As a matter of fact one
does not have to have seen any of the previous feature films that preceded
“Star Trek: VI: The Undiscovered Country” though viewers will get a lot more
out of it if they are familiar with the previous films and TV series.
“Star Trek: VI: The Undiscovered
Country” was shot using Super 35mm film and presented theatrically in a matted
(2.35:1) aspect ratio. For the DVD release the film is presented so that it will
fit the standard (1.78:1) 16 by 9 television width of widescreen TVs as
Co-Writer and Director Nicholas Meyer intended. Therefore there is a larger
amount of space above and below the original theatrical aspect ratio
presentation that is visible to home video users. Originally presented as a
letterboxed DVD a few years back, “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country”
is finally presented in an anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio. The difference is
quite clear to see with colors appearing more vivid and solid and far less
compression grain than the original release. An ambient English Dolby Digital
5.1 Surround Soundtrack that makes good use of the rear channels and subwoofer
is provided along with English and French Language Dolby Surround Soundtracks
and English Captions and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired encoded onto
the first disc as options. English and French Language Subtitles are also
available as options for the most of the extra value features found on disc two.
Co-Writer and Director Nicholas
Meyer and Screenwriter Denny Martin Flinn share a feature length audio
commentary that reiterates a few points noted on the featurettes on disc two,
but also goes into great detail regarding the evolution of the screenplay and
making of the film. At times Meyer can seem a bit subdued by tone of his voice,
but overall this is an informative and interesting audio commentary track.
Michael and Denise Okuda provide another text commentary filled with trivia,
anecdotes and facts about the film. This “Special Collector’s Edition” DVD
release is actually slightly different from the previous home video releases
though were it not for reading the commentary track I would not have noticed all
of the changes. Aside from a few close-ups replacing a long shot of characters
interacting, the only noticeable change is that we see images of the
conspirators when Spock names them out during the mind meld scene. Some might
like this since it does make it clearer for those who may not know already
exactly who the architects behind the murder of the Chancellor and the framing
of Kirk and McCoy are. However I personally never had any problem associating
the faces with the names Spock says in the previous cut of the film and feel the
inclusion of the images kind of dumbs down the scene and is unnecessary. Other
than that, this is still more or less the same cut of the film that has been
available on home video since 1992.
The extra value features on disc
two include “The Perils Of Peacemaking” (26:31), which has various political
analysts comparing the events of the film to events that had occurred not only
recently, but also as far back to the assassination of President Lincoln. Next
is a six part documentary that can be viewed as individual featurettes or a
whole (57:18) and are detailed as “It Started With A Story,”
“Prejudice,” “ Director Nicholas Meyer,” “Shakespeare And General
Chang,” “Bringing It To Life,” and “Farewell And Goodbye.” Through
these featurettes one learns of how the sixth film came to be including some
sketches from an as yet unproduced “Star Trek” feature film that would have
been a prequel to the series focusing on how Kirk and Spock met during their
days at Starfleet Academy through the development of the screenplay that would
eventually become “The Undiscovered Country,” which was the original title
Meyer had in mind for “Star Trek II.” Christopher Plummer muses about being
a fan of the series and how much he enjoyed incorporating the various literary
references into his villainous character.
Next are a series of featurettes
under the banner “The Star Trek Universe” that include “Conversations With
Nicholas Meyer” (9:31), which is essentially an extended freestyle interview
with the Director and “Klingons: Conjuring The Legend” (20:44), which
features interviews with Christopher Plummer, Michael Dorn, and William Campbell
regarding the development of the Klingons from the original “Star Trek” to
the present. “Federation Operatives” (4:32) is a somewhat silly short that
shows how some of the actors in “The Undiscovered Country” have made
multiple appearances as other characters in other Star Trek films and or TV
shows. Penny’s Toy Box” (6:05) features a tour of the props by none other
than Paramount’s resident “Star Trek” archivist Penny Juday while
“Together Again” (4:56) is a separate interviews with Christopher Plummer
and William Shatner discussing their early days as Canadian actors and at times
ribbing each other.
A “Tribute To DeForest Kelley”
(13:18) and interview clips from the production with William Shatner (5:04),
Leonard Nimoy (6:25), DeForest Kelley (5:02), James Doohan (5:32), Nichelle
Nichols (5:38), George Takei (5:27), Walter Koenig (5:30), and Iman (5:06) along
with the theatrical teaser (1:29), trailer (2:23), and a silly 1991 Convention
Presentation with Nicholas Meyer (4:49) are also incorporated. A montage of
production footage (3:24) and four storyboard galleries that include one not
filmed wrap up the extra features on disc two.
The menus on disc one take the
viewer to the court where Kirk and McCoy faced trial while the second disc takes
the viewer through the gulag on Rura Penthe and all of the interactive menus on
both discs are easy to navigate. This may be an isolated occurrence and
certainly not a hindrance toward enjoying the two-disc set, but the image on
disc two is actually an upside down image of the Enterprise-B parked in
space dock with Earth in the background from “Star Trek Generations” and
there is no insert with information inside the white two-disc keep case. Neither
will hurt the enjoyment of the set, but personally I hope Paramount will not
abandon placing an insert within a DVD keep case as some studios have since in
my opinion it just cheapens the packaging somehow and no “Special
Collector’s Edition” should ever appear that way from any studio. Please
note the set I was provided to review may differ from the product retailers will
carry and lack of an insert or the error on the face of disc two could simply be
a separate case. I must stress that in no way should this keep fans from adding
this set two their "Star Trek" DVD collections.
“Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered
Country: Special Collector’s Edition” will debut on DVD-Video at retailers
on and offline on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 from Paramount Home Entertainment.
Once this DVD set is available, the only Star Trek feature film unavailable in
anamorphic widescreen will be “Star Trek Generations” and I’d love to see
a “Special Collector’s Edition” of that film with the deleted scenes and
original ending for “Generations” too so hopefully it will happen.
© Copyright 2004 By Mark A.
Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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