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Technical Information
Studio: Paramount
Home Entertainmentt
Year of Theatrical Release: 1991
Disc Format: 2
single-sided, Dual Layer
Image Format: Anamorphic
Widescreen
Aspect Ratio: 2.05:1
Region
Encoding: 1
Sound
Format: Dolby
Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0 (pro logic)
Running Time:
113 minutes
Director: Nicholas
Meyer
Stars: WIlliam
Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Nichelle Nichols, George
Takei, Kim Cattrall, Christopher Plummer
MPAA Rating: PG
Disc
Supplements:
- Audio commentary with director/writer Nicholas
Meyer and screenwriter Denny Martin Flynn
- Text commentary with Denise and Michael Okuda
- Stories from Star Trek VI featurettes
- Star Trek Universe featurettes
- The Perils of Peacemaking featurette
- DeForest Kelley: A Tribute
- Cast and Crew Interviews
- Theatrical trailers
- Nicholas Meyer 1991 convention presentation
- Production gallery
- Storyboards
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Sometimes, the opportunity to replace cut
scenes in a film for the home video releases results in a more
coherent, more satisfying story.
And then there are cases where the additional
scenes take a film that was great and reduce it nearly to ridiculous
farce. The home video version of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered
Country adds in only a few scarce moments of footage, but what
wretched footage it is.
I'm getting ahead of myself.
The Star Trek franchise was in serious trouble.
Treks III and IV were pretty good, but no where near the grandiose
achievement of Wrath of Khan. However, Star Trek V was so horrific
that the fact that Paramount was willing to give the franchise
another chance is evidence of their extreme blind faith in Roddenberry's
baby. On the bright side, the studio could at least be assured
that it would be next to impossible to create another film as
bad as Shatner's directorial debut.
Who would have thought that Star Trek VI:
The Undiscovered Country would wind up being one of the best
films of the series, surpassed only by outing number II?
The film opens, literally, with a bang. The
Klingon energy production planet of Praxis explodes in a disaster
resulting from over-production. The resulting explosions sends
shockwaves, both figuratively and literally, throughout the
galaxy. (Of note, the opening explosion special effect has become
such an over-used cliche following this movie that it is now
known in the industry as the "praxis effect."). With
their production capabilities all but wiped out, the Klingons
can no longer afford their war with the Federation. Decades
of hostility come to an abrupt end as the Klingons ask for peace
and assistance.
The Federation, wishing to show their sincere
commitment to ending the hostilities, send their flagship star
ship, the Enterprise, to escort Klingon ambassadors to the peace
negotiations. The only trouble is that the captain of the Enterprise,
James T. Kirk (William Shatner), doesn't exactly feel sorry
for the Klingon predicament. Aside from decades of war, Klingon
renegages killed Kirk's only son and he doesn't feel he can
ever forgive them. When told the race is dying, Kirk's response
is as blunt as it is emotional: "Let them die," he
says. Still, for the good of the many, he agrees to the mission.
Following a strained dinner date with the
Klingons, in which a little too much alcohol leads to a few
less-than-restrained words, the fledgling peace between the
races seems off to a shaky start. Things go quickly to uncomfortable
to just plain bad when the Klingon ship is attacked and all
evidence seems to place responsibility right at the Enterprise.
Kirk, admitting that as captain he is responsible for everything
that happens aboard his ship, is quickly taken into custody
and put on trial. Kirk and McCoy (DeForest Kelley), who had
the unfortunate luck of being with Kirk at the time of his arrest,
are sentenced to life inprisonment on the hostile gulag, Rura
Penthe.
The attack on the Klingons and the subsequent
imprisonment of Kirk and McCoy threatens to destroy the peace
treaty. The only hope is for Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and crew
to correctly deduce who really fired on the Klingon ship and
why, so they can stop further attacks.
It is about at this point that the added footage
for home video threatens to destroy the film. Theatrically,
Trek VI was an effective whodunit and a pretty darn good space
action film. In short, the story worked and was satisfying.
The new footage seeks to increase the scope of the conspiracy,
but does so in a way that is not only forced, but thoroughly
absurd. The new plot elements culminate in an "unmasking"
scene right out of the very worst episodes of Scooby-Doo. This
moment shatters the climax and if you can watch the scene without
hearing "and I would have gotten away with it, too, if
it wasn't for that meddling Spock" rattle around in the
back of your mind, then you have a stronger will than I.
During its theatrical run, Star Trek VI: The
Undiscovered Country was one of the best films in the Trek franchise.
The home video version isn't entirely bad, but it's not nearly
as great as it was.
:::back to
top |
The original DVD release of Trek
VI was non-anamorphic and non-spectacular. Keeping with the tradition
of Paramount's special edition treatment of the franchise, this
new release has been completely revisited with a new, digitally
remastered transfer. It's been better than a decade since I saw
this film in the theater due to the various home video incarnations,
I had honestly forgotten just how great this film looked. It may
seem odd for a "space" movie, but Trek VI boasted a really
vibrant color palette and this disc captures it perfectly. From
the bright maroons of the crew uniforms to the smoke-filled drudgery
of the Klingon courtroom, this film just looks spectacular. Contrasts
and black levels are very, very good and the source material suffers
from minimal grain and dust. Furthermore, the transfer seems free
of any digital problems. In short, this is just a great looking
disc.
:::back to top |
I knew I was in for something special
from the opening explosion of Praxis. As the shockwave roared outward,
I could feel the subwoofers rumbling the house. The sound rushed
from the front speakers to envelope the entire listening area, and
then it was in the rears and fading rapidly in the distance. I wanted
to look behind me to see if the shockwave truly had leapt from the
television and continued on behind the couch. This is easily the
best sounding Trek disc yet and a satisfyingly aggressive mix. Dialogue
is always clear and centered, allowing the sound effects and heroic
musical score to fill the remaining sound stage. In all honesty,
there are some other discs out there that sound better, but that
doesn't take away from the fact that this is a great sounding disc
in its own right.
:::back to top |
This special edition kicks off
the extras on disc one with two commentary tracks.
One is an audio commentary by writer/director Nicholas Meyer and
screenwriter Denny Martin Flynn and the second is a text-based commentary
by Michael and Denise Okuda.
Meyer's and Flynn's commentary is
not exactly fast-paced, but is very informative. These two don't
always stay completely screen-specific, but they do an extremely
good job of talking about their intent for the film and how they
came to be a part of it. Meyer discusses a bit some of the areas
in which his vision for the film differed quite a bit from Gene
Roddenberry's intent, particularly Meyer's inclusion of racist crew
members of the Enterprise. As he correctly points out, drama is
difficult to achieve without conflict and racism is an excellent
form of conflict. It should be noted that there are some inexplicable
drop offs in the commentary, most obvious being a complete lack
of commentary through almost all of chapter 6.
The text track is interesting in
the amount of trivia it offers, but it can be a bit boring to watch
just by itself as the comments come a little slow. Still, there
are some good details here, including several references to hidden
props and some set bloopers (for intance, where specific props from
The Next Generation television show appear in scenes).
Disc 2 is filled with supplements,
most of which take the form of featurettes. Kicking it off is Stories
from Star Trek VI, which runs nearly an hour, but is broken
up into 6 separate segments. These featurettes span the conceptualization
of the film through to the final day of filming and include both
new and old interviews. There is actually quite an impressive amount
of archived footage here, especially considering that when this
film was made recording content for home video release wasn't at
the forefront of anyone's minds.
Next up is The Star Trek
Universe, which dives in with 5 more featurettes. Where
the previous batch of featurettes were all pretty decent, this grouping
is a bit of a mixed bag. On the good side is a Conversation with
Nicholas Meyer and Penny's Toy Box, which is a quick view of the
Paramount Star Trek prop locker. Together Again features interviews
with William Shatner and Christopher Plummer, giving them the opportunity
to pat each other on the back in a sickeningly sweet featurette
that drags on way too long.
Next up is The Perils of Peacemaking,
a documentary that explores the ties this film has to the real life
current events at the time it was made. Most notably, the fall of
the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Communism. This is interesting
stuff, but a lot of these thoughts and sentiments were echoed in
the commentary track, making for some repeat listening.
DeForest Kelley: A Tribute
and Original Cast and Crew Interviews both take
a look many of the emotions and feelings going into and coming out
of what was the very last Star Trek creation to feature all of the
series' original actors. But more than that, this is also a tribute
to DeForest Kelley, who died a few years ago, much to the saddness
of the entire Star Trek community.
A Promotional Materials
section includes much of what you might expect, including trailers,
plus some archived footage of Nicholas Meyer teasing a Star Trek
convention with hints of the film.
Finally, the Archives
contains storyboards and production gallery, which is a montage
of behind-the-scenes footage..
:::back to top |
My one wish is that seemless branching technology
had been used to make the originaly theatrical version of this film
available. In my not-so-humble opinion, the original version had
the most impact and the subsequent changes, some made for the 1992
home video release and some brand new for this DVD only water down
a great story. Still, this is by far one of the best Star Trek films
and this special edition almost completely does it justice.
:::back to top |
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| Aside from some non-explicit
violence and a few innuendos, this, like all Star Trek stories, is
pretty safe for the entire family. What slight objectionable material
is present is more than offset by the overall positive message Star
Trek conveys about tolerance and peace. |
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| -- By Robert Wurth. Copyright
© 2004. |
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