While wrapping up a survey mission, Captain Sulu--now commanding officer of the U.S.S. Excelsior--and his crew are witness to a devastating shock wave from a distant explosion, the size and magnitude of which is rarely seen. A further check reveals that one of the moons of the capital planet of the Klingon Empire has exploded, causing mass destruction and deaths. However, all offers by Captain Sulu to aid the Klingons in the rescue mission have been tersely turned down. Sometime later, Kirk and the rest of the commanding officers of the Starship Enterprise have been called to an important meeting at Starfleet headquarters.
To Kirk’s surprise, Spock is one of the key speakers at the meeting, and he had been quietly working behind the scenes to forge a peace treaty between the Federation and their most hated enemies, the Klingons. Chancellor Gorkon, the supreme ruler of the Klingon Empire, has expressed a desire for peace with the Federation. But Kirk, who still holds the Klingons responsible for the death of his only son, thinks this is a very bad idea. He considers the Klingons to be nothing more than barbarous animals, and when Spock tells him they are dying as a race, Kirk replies, "Let them die."
The Undiscovered Country was the sixth Star Trek film made in 1991, and it should
have been just another by the numbers sequel in a film series that had steadily
been growing very tired. However, by using the then-present day collapse of the
Cold War as inspiration, Director Nicholas Meyer (who co-wrote the script) had revitalized the final cinematic Trek of the original cast into a rousing adventure. Channeling the real-life historic events of the end of the Cold War into the end of hostilities between the Federation and the Klingons, the viewer gets a sense of watching a truly epic adventure unfolding before his eyes.
And, as if this storyline gravitas wasn’t enough, we also get Christopher Plummer,
who steals the film with his stirring performance as Klingon General Chang. A
one-eyed, smooth-talking, cold-hearted warrior who constantly taunts Kirk by
quoting Shakespeare at him, Chang is one of the more memorable Star Trek foes
whom Kirk and company have had the displeasure of running across. Everyone in
the cast each get their moment to shine in Meyer’s past-paced film, and the conspiracy plot that’s revealed is taunt and exciting to watch unfold. The original crew of the Starship Enterprise couldn’t have picked a better film to bow out on. --SF
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