Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Movie: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Watched with: You really think I could get anyone else to watch Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country? Maybe Angelo...But no. It was just me.
I've seen this about a zillion times, but I actually didn't remember it well.
As it opens, the Klingon moon "Praxis" explodes and it is concluded that their empire will soon collapse. Considering this movie was released in 1991, even the densest scifi geek would have to comprehend the Cold War allegory.
Scifi stories evoke real world events, for purposes of satire or just generating plausible detail. The allegory works pretty well here, and I think it makes for a really interesting movie (and what's probably the most thoughtful in the series).
What it isn't, however, is Star Trek.
That's not a problem, exactly, but it makes it weird to watch.
If you've seen a single episode, you know that the purpose of the Enterprise is "To explore strange new worlds"--they may use a naval structure, but Starfleet isn't really a military per se.
In Undiscovered Country, the collapse of the Klingon-pire makes Uhura ask, "Are we talking about mothballing the Starfleet?"
Did they actually build all these ships for space age brinkmanship?
Similarly, the Klingons are not the noble warriors developed for the previous few years on The Next Generation but, essentially, space Russians. They're proud, slightly mysterious, and love to drink.
And as Wikipedia notes with its characteristic subtlety--
As the film was an allegory for the fall of the Soviet Union... ["penal asteroid"] Rura Penthe can be seen as an allegory for Soviet gulags when Captain Kirk and McCoy are brought to the camp the administrator (with an obvious Russian accent) says "Welcome to the gulag Rura Penthe".
The allegory becomes downright silly at times? Remember sneaky ole Colonel North of Iran/Contra fame?
Well, Star Trek VI would like you to meet Colonel freakin' West!
All of this is kind of silly, but more or less effective. It's pretty inarguably one of the best movies to bare the "Star Trek" name, but it seems like some kind of satirical post-modern variant, rather than an actual part of the franchise.
Which is fine.
Watched with: You really think I could get anyone else to watch Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country? Maybe Angelo...But no. It was just me.
I've seen this about a zillion times, but I actually didn't remember it well.
As it opens, the Klingon moon "Praxis" explodes and it is concluded that their empire will soon collapse. Considering this movie was released in 1991, even the densest scifi geek would have to comprehend the Cold War allegory.
Scifi stories evoke real world events, for purposes of satire or just generating plausible detail. The allegory works pretty well here, and I think it makes for a really interesting movie (and what's probably the most thoughtful in the series).
What it isn't, however, is Star Trek.
That's not a problem, exactly, but it makes it weird to watch.
If you've seen a single episode, you know that the purpose of the Enterprise is "To explore strange new worlds"--they may use a naval structure, but Starfleet isn't really a military per se.
In Undiscovered Country, the collapse of the Klingon-pire makes Uhura ask, "Are we talking about mothballing the Starfleet?"
Did they actually build all these ships for space age brinkmanship?
Similarly, the Klingons are not the noble warriors developed for the previous few years on The Next Generation but, essentially, space Russians. They're proud, slightly mysterious, and love to drink.
And as Wikipedia notes with its characteristic subtlety--
As the film was an allegory for the fall of the Soviet Union... ["penal asteroid"] Rura Penthe can be seen as an allegory for Soviet gulags when Captain Kirk and McCoy are brought to the camp the administrator (with an obvious Russian accent) says "Welcome to the gulag Rura Penthe".
The allegory becomes downright silly at times? Remember sneaky ole Colonel North of Iran/Contra fame?
Well, Star Trek VI would like you to meet Colonel freakin' West!
All of this is kind of silly, but more or less effective. It's pretty inarguably one of the best movies to bare the "Star Trek" name, but it seems like some kind of satirical post-modern variant, rather than an actual part of the franchise.
Which is fine.
posted by Kane Lynch at
1:33 AM
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