Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Plot

In 2293, the Federation starship Excelsior, commanded by Captain Hikaru Sulu, discovers that the Klingon moon of Praxis has been destroyed in a mining accident. The loss of Praxis and the ecological devastation of the Klingon homeworld throws the Klingon Empire into turmoil. No longer able to afford war with the Federation, the Klingons pursue peace. Starfleet sends the Federation starship Enterprise to meet with the Klingon Chancellor Gorkon and escort him to negotiations on Earth. Enterprise Captain James T. Kirk, whose son David was murdered by Klingons, opposes peace and resents the assignment.

Enterprise and Gorkon's battlecruiser rendezvous and continue towards Earth, with the two command crews sharing a tense meal. Later that night, Enterprise appears to fire torpedoes at the Klingon ship, disabling its artificial gravity. During the confusion, two men wearing Starfleet spacesuits and magnetic boots beam aboard the Klingon vessel, kill two crew members, and mortally wound Gorkon before escaping. Kirk surrenders to avoid armed conflict and beams aboard with Doctor Leonard McCoy to try and save Gorkon's life. The chancellor dies, and Gorkon's chief of staff, General Chang, arrests Kirk and McCoy for his assassination. A Klingon court finds the pair guilty and sentences them to life imprisonment on the frozen planetoid Rura Penthe. Gorkon's daughter Azetbur becomes the new chancellor and continues diplomatic negotiations; the conference is relocated for security, and the new location is kept secret. While several senior Starfleet officers want to rescue Kirk and McCoy, the Federation president refuses to risk full-scale war; Azetbur likewise refuses to invade Federation space.

Kirk and McCoy arrive at the Rura Penthe mines and are befriended by Martia, a shapeshifter, who offers them an escape route; in reality, it is a ruse to make their arranged deaths appear accidental. Once her betrayal is revealed, Martia transforms into Kirk's double and fights him, but is killed by the prison governor to silence any witnesses. Kirk and McCoy are beamed aboard Enterprise by Spock, who has assumed command and launched an investigation in Kirk's absence. Determining that Enterprise did not fire the torpedoes, the crew searches for the assassins. Kirk and Spock set a trap to draw out the accomplice in sick bay and discover that the killer is Spock's protégé, Valeris. To find the identity of the other conspirators, Spock initiates a forced mind-meld and learns that Federation, Klingon, and Romulan officials conspired to sabotage the peace talks. The torpedoes that struck Gorkon's cruiser came from Chang's ship, which has the unique ability to fire its weapons while cloaked.

Cast

The Undiscovered Country is the final appearance of all the major cast members from the original television series as a group. For the new characters, casting director Mary Jo Slater loaded the film with as many Hollywood stars as the production could afford, including a minor appearance by Christian Slater, her son. Meyer was interested in casting actors who could project and articulate feelings, even through alien makeup. Producer Ralph Winter said, "We were not looking for someone to say 'Okay, I'll do it', but people who were excited by the material [...] and would treat it as if it [were] the biggest picture ever being made."

William Shatner as James T. Kirk, the captain of the USS Enterprise. Despite his personal hatred of the Klingons for killing his son David, Kirk is ordered to escort the Klingon High Chancellor to Earth. Shatner felt that though dramatic, the script made Kirk look too prejudiced.

Leonard Nimoy as Spock, the Enterprise's science officer and second-in-command. Spock first opens negotiations with the Klingons after the destruction of Praxis and volunteers Kirk and the Enterprise to escort Chancellor Gorkon to Earth.

DeForest Kelley as Leonard McCoy, the chief medical officer of the Enterprise. Kelley's appearance as McCoy in The Undiscovered Country was his last live-action role before his death in 1999. With Leonard Nimoy as the film's executive producer, the 71-year old Kelley was paid US$1 million for his role, assuring a comfortable retirement for the actor. Kelley and Shatner shot their prison scenes over the course of six to eight nights; the two actors got to know each other better than they ever had.

James Doohan as Montgomery Scott, chief engineer aboard Enterprise. Scott discovers the assassins' clothing hidden in the dining room shortly before the two men are found dead.

George Takei as Hikaru Sulu, captain of the USS Excelsior; despite having taken his own command, Sulu remains loyal to his former comrades aboard the Enterprise. The Undiscovered Country marked the first canonical mention of Sulu's first name, which was first mentioned in Vonda McIntyre's 1981 novel The Entropy Effect. It was included when Peter David, author of the film's comic book adaptation, visited the set and convinced Nicholas Meyer to insert it.

Production

Development

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) was a critical and financial disappointment; Paramount Pictures was concerned that the Star Trek franchise would not be able to recover from the blow. With the looming 25th anniversary of the original series in 1991, producer Harve Bennett revisited an idea Ralph Winter had for the fourth film: a prequel featuring young versions of Kirk and Spock at Starfleet Academy. The prequel was designed to be a way of keeping the characters, if not the actors, in what was called "Top Gun in outer space". Bennett and The Final Frontier writer David Loughery wrote a script entitled The Academy Years, where Dr. Leonard McCoy talks about how he met Kirk and Spock while addressing a group of academy graduates. The script shows Kirk and Spock's upbringing, their meeting McCoy and Montgomery Scott at the academy and defeating a villain before parting ways. The script would have established that George Kirk, James T. Kirk's father, was a pilot who went missing—presumed dead—during a warp experiment with Scott. The script is set before the "enlightenment" of the Federation; slavery and racism are common, with Spock being bullied because he is the only Vulcan student. Nurse Christine Chapel cameos in the script's climax.

James Doohan claimed that Paramount chief Frank Mancuso, Sr. fired Bennett following negative reaction to the pitch from the core cast, Gene Roddenberry and fans. Bennett, meanwhile, says he left the franchise after Paramount rejected the Academy script even after rewrites to appease them. "My term was up. I was offered $1.5 million to do Star Trek VI and I said 'Thanks, I don't want to do that. I want to do the Academy,'" he said. Actor Walter Koenig approached Mancuso with a new script outline codenamed "In Flanders Fields"; in it, the Romulans join the Federation and go to war with the Klingons. The Enterprise crew, except Spock, are forced to retire for not meeting fitness tests. When Spock and his new crew are captured by a monstrous worm-like race of aliens (which Koenig described as "things that the monsters in Aliens evolved from"), the old crew must rescue them. In the end, all of the characters except McCoy and Spock die.

Mancuso asked Leonard Nimoy to conceive the new film to serve as a swan song for the original cast. Nimoy, Mark Rosenthal and Lawrence Konner suggested Kirk meeting Jean-Luc Picard, but Star Trek: The Next Generation's producers rejected the idea. Nicholas Meyer, who directed The Wrath of Khan and co-wrote The Voyage Home, was also approached for an idea for the sixth film, but had none. Ralph Winter was brought on to the project as producer shortly after Bennett's departure, and said Paramount's mandate was to produce a 25th anniversary film that would not cost a lot of money.

Writing

Meyer and his friend Denny Martin Flinn wrote the script by the nascent means of e-mail; Meyer lived in Europe while Flinn was based in Los Angeles. The pair worked out a system where Flinn would write all day and then send the draft to Meyer, who would read and make revisions. The script constantly changed because of demands made by the core cast and the supporting players. Flinn was aware that the film would be the last to feature the cast of the original television series, so he wrote an opening that embraced the passage of time. Each of the crew was to be rounded up out of unhappy retirement for one final mission. Flinn recalled that "the scenes demonstrated who [the characters] were and what they did when they weren't on the Enterprise. [...] It added some humanity to the characters. In early drafts, Spock plays Polonius in a Vulcan version of Hamlet, while Sulu drives a taxicab in a crowded metropolis. Another revision featured Captain Sulu bringing his friends out of their retirement. Spock's whereabouts are classified, while Kirk was to have married Carol Marcus (played by Bibi Besch in The Wrath of Khan), leading a settled life before a special envoy arrives at his door. McCoy is drunk at a posh medical dinner; Scott is teaching Engineering while the Bird of Prey from The Voyage Home is pulled from San Francisco Bay; Uhura hosts a call-in radio show and is glad to escape; and Chekov is playing chess at a club. The opening was rejected as too expensive to film; Flinn mentioned the exotic locales would have pushed the budget to $50 million. While they tried to hold on to the opening as long as they could, Paramount threatened to cancel pre-production unless the budget was reduced.

The script was finished by October 1990, five months after Nimoy was approached to write the story. Several months were spent working out the budget; because of the disappointing box office returns of The Final Frontier, Paramount wanted to keep the sixth film's budget approximately the same as the previous installment, although the script called for space battles and new aliens. Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley's salaries were cut with the understanding that they would share in box office profits. Meyer estimated that almost two months were spent fighting with the studio about money. "To some degree, almost every area of the production was affected by the cuts—but the script was the one thing that did not become a casualty," Meyer said. The original budget hovered around $41 million; while not expensive for a Hollywood production, this would have presented a risk due to Star Trek films' niche audience and lower international appeal. The final budget came in at $30 million.

Star Trek's creator, Gene Roddenberry, who wielded significant influence despite his ill health, hated the script. Meyer's first meeting with Roddenberry resulted in Meyer storming out of the room within five minutes. As with Meyer's previous Star Trek film (The Wrath of Khan), the script had strong military and naval overtones. In contrast to Roddenberry's vision of the future, the characters were shown as bigoted and flawed; Meyer thought there was no evidence that prejudice would disappear by the 23rd century. When Roddenberry protested about the villainization of Saavik, Meyer replied that "I created Saavik. She was not Gene's. If he doesn't like what I plan on doing with her, maybe he should give back the money he's made off my films. Maybe then I'll care what he has to say." After the stormy first meeting, a group including Meyer, Roddenberry, and producer Ralph Winter discussed the revised draft. Roddenberry would voice his disapproval of elements of the script line by line, and he and Meyer would square off about them while Winter took notes. Overall, the tone of the meeting was conciliatory, but the producers ultimately ignored many of Roddenberry's concerns. By February 13, 1991, the film was officially put into production with the agreement it would be in theaters by the end of the year.

Design

As he had when he directed The Wrath of Khan, Meyer attempted to modify the look of Star Trek to fit his vision. Cinematographer Hiro Narita's previous work had been on effects films such as The Rocketeer, where he had time and money to make a lavish period fantasy; with The Undiscovered Country, he was constantly under time and budgetary pressures. Though Narita confessed that he knew nothing about Star Trek, Meyer replied that he did not want him to have any preconceived notions about the look of the series.

Meyer had never been happy with the brightly lit corridors and feel of Enterprise, a dissatisfaction that extended to his work on The Wrath of Khan. For The Undiscovered Country, Meyer wanted the Enterprise interiors to feel grittier and more realistic; the metal was worn around the edges to look used without looking beat up. Wanting to avoid an overly bright, stage look, Narita focused on keeping lighting low and spotty. "By keeping the light down, you see a little less and it becomes more textural," visual effects supervisor Scott Farrar explained. To avoid making the Enterprise look like Klingon vessels, Narita avoided using smoke for atmosphere, instead focusing on high contrast lighting. Meyer acknowledged that had he been the creator of the franchise, "I would have probably designed a much more claustrophobic world because it's much more dramatic." The corridors were reduced in width and included angled bulkhead dividers, with exposed conduits added to the ceiling to convey a claustrophobic feel reminiscent of the submarine film The Hunt for Red October.

Narita's plans to transform the look of the Enterprise were complicated by the budget, which meant many of the Enterprise sets were redresses of those used in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Meyer and production designer Herman Zimmerman were only able to make minor adjustments to these sets, as the television series was still in production at the time of filming. Kirk and Spock's quarters used the same set with the addition of a central column to distinguish them. The set had originally been built as Kirk's quarters for Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979, and was being used as Data's room in The Next Generation. The transporter room set was also reused from The Next Generation, with alterations that included the addition of a glowing pattern along the transporter's walls inspired by one of Zimmerman's sweaters. The galley was Deanna Troi's office, the dining hall was the USS Enterprise-D's Observation lounge, and the Federation president's office was a redesign of the Ten-Forward lounge, the exterior doors to which accidentally retained their Enterprise-D markings. Alien costumes in the Rura Penthe prison were reused from The Next Generation's premiere episode, "Encounter at Farpoint". The Excelsior bridge was a redress of Enterprise's command center, with consoles taken from the battle bridge set of the Enterprise-D to convey the impression that the Excelsior was a more advanced ship.

Props and models

Paramount made the decision early on to use existing ship models for filming, meaning the old models—some more than a decade old—had to be refurbished, adapted, and reused. Electrical problems had developed in some models that had sat unused. The Klingon cruiser first seen in The Motion Picture was altered to suggest an important flagship, with a flared design applied to the underside of the vessel. Effects supervisor William George wanted to make it distinct from the earlier ships, since it was one of the few models that could be altered: "We did some research into military costuming, and came up with the concept that when these ships return victorious from battle, the Klingons build some sort of epaulet onto their wings or paint a new stripe on." The model was repainted brown and red and etched with brass.

Despite representing a new vessel, the Enterprise-A was the same model that had been used since 1979. Poorly regarded by earlier effects artists because of its complicated wiring and bulk, the Enterprise's hairline cracks were puttied and sanded down, and the internal circuitry was redone. The new model's running lights were matched to similar intensities, saving the effects artists time because the lights would look correct in a single camera pass, instead of the three passes required previously. One unfortunate byproduct of the fixes was the loss of the model's distinctive pearlescent finish. The elaborate sheen was never visible on screen (lighting schemes prevented reflections while filming so the ship could be properly inserted into effects shots) and so when the model was repainted with conventional techniques the effect was lost. The Bird of Prey had been damaged from work in The Voyage Home, where the ship was supposed to fly around the sun. To suggest singes, the model had been painted with black-tinged rubber cement, with the expectation that this application would rub off. The cement instead baked itself to the model surface and had to be scrubbed off.

Greg Jein, the builder of the alien mothership from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, was called on to build props for the film. Jein was a longtime Star Trek fan who had constructed props for The Final Frontier. He added references to the original television series and other science fiction franchises throughout the prop designs; the Rura Penthe warden's staff contained parts of a spaceship from Buck Rogers, while the frong was detailed with a prop from Buckaroo Banzai. Elements from The Final Frontier were modified and reused; a medical implement from the film became Chekov's blood tester, and the assault phasers first seen in The Final Frontier became standard issue. Other props had to be remade as they had disappeared in the time between the two films' production. Gorkon's staff was intended to be a massive bone from an alien creature he had killed, with the designs shaped out of green foam and approved by Meyer. Two copies were strong enough to support David Warner's weight; another two were designed to be light enough to be hung from wires for the zero gravity scenes. Since the Klingon phasers were redesigned for the third film, the original holsters no longer fit the weaponry; as a result, no Klingons had ever been seen drawing a phaser. Meyer was adamant about having the actors be able to unholster their weapons, so the existing pistols had to be redesigned. The Klingon sniper rifle was broken into sections, with parts modeled from real weapons.

Makeup

The Klingons received the first major revision in design since their appearance in The Motion Picture. Dodie Shepard designed new red and black uniforms for Chancellor Gorkon and his staff, as it was decided the chancellor would not wear common warrior garb. Another concern was that there was not enough of designer Robert Fletcher's The Motion Picture uniforms for all the Klingons in the film. While the important Klingons were given multi-layered prosthetics and unique head ridges, background characters wore ready-made masks, with minor touch-ups on the eyes and mouth. Since it was important for the actors' expressions to be visible through the makeup, the appliances were made as thin as possible using the latest glues and paints. Transforming an actor into a Klingon took three and a half hours. Hairstylist Jan Alexander designed braids and jewelry that suggested a tribal people with a long and treasured heritage.

The diversity of Klingon designs, hairstyles, and appliances for the film stemmed from the fact that there were more Klingons featured than in all the previous films combined. Eighteen unique designs were used for the main characters, with another thirty "A" makeups, forty "B" foam latex makeups, and fifty polyurethane plastic masks for background extras. Makeup artist Richard Snell was in charge of the principal Klingon actors' appliances. The designs for the foreheads came from Snell's own ideas and co-workers, but the actors were allowed input into their character's appearances. Christopher Plummer requested his character's forehead have more subdued spinal ridges than Klingons in previous films, to look unique and to humanize his character. Plummer asked during makeup tests that his character not have a wig, so Chang was given a small amount of hair swept into a warrior's topknot. Snell worked through several nights to redesign the back of Chang's head and add more detail. This design change meant only Plummer's front could be photographed during the first few days of filming while the makeup department created appliances to cover the back of his head. Azetbur, portrayed by Rosanna DeSoto, was initially conceived as having a barbaric appearance, but Meyer insisted on a more refined look. Like Plummer, DeSoto requested more subdued ridges, and the result was, according to artist Kenny Myers, a "very regal woman who just happened to be Klingon."

The design changes forced Kenny Myers to abdicate his other makeup job, that of Warner's Gorkon, to Margaret Bessera. Gorkon's appearance was of special concern to Meyer, who had two specific role models: Ahab and Abraham Lincoln. "[Meyer] loves to play the classics," Kenny Myers explained, "and incorporating these two images was really genius on his part. He wanted there to be uncertainty about Gorkon's true intentions. Did he want peace, or was there something sinister in his mind? From his appearance, it was impossible to tell if he was friend or foe. Subliminally, there were aspects of both."

Filming

Principal photography took place between April 16 and September 27, 1991. The film was shot in Super 35 instead of anamorphic format, because of the former's greater flexibility in framing and lens selection, larger depth of field, and faster lenses. Because of budget cuts, plans for filming were constantly revised and reduced, but Meyer and Zimmerman agreed that the constraints proved inspiring.

The film used a mix of fixed sets and on-location footage. The production suffered from a lack of available set space; the Starfleet Headquarters set was actually built a few blocks away from Paramount Pictures at the Hollywood Presbyterian Church. Meyer copied a technique used during filming of Citizen Kane, where the filmmakers let the set fall into darkness to save money on construction.

The dinner scene was shot in a revamped version of the Enterprise-D's observation lounge. Along the wall are portraits of historical figures including Abraham Lincoln, Spock's father Sarek (Mark Lenard), and an unnamed Andorian ambassador. The food prepared for the scene was colored blue so it would look alien. None of the actors wanted to eat the unappetizing dishes sitting under hot studio lights. Because of the multiple angles and takes required for a single mouthful of food, Meyer offered a bounty of $20 per every shot of a character eating. For Shatner, the incentive was enough that he became the only cast member to consume purple-dyed squid. The shoot lasted several days because of what Plummer called the "horror" of filming the dinner.

The Klingon courtroom where Kirk and McCoy are sentenced was designed like an arena, with high walls and a central platform for the accused. Originally planned for construction on the largest soundstage, cutbacks forced a smaller set to be constructed. Sixty-six Klingons were used for the scene, with six actors in custom makeups and an additional fifteen in "A-level" makeup; the high quality designs were used for the Klingons in the first row of the stands, while those actors to the rear used masks. The illusion of endless rows of Klingons was created by brightly lighting the accused in the center of the room with a blue light, then letting the rest of the set fall into shadow. To give the set a larger appearance, a shot from high above the courtroom was created using miniatures. Inspired by a scene in Ben-Hur, matte supervisor Craig Barron used two hundred commercially available Worf dolls sent by Ralph Winter. The illusion of throngs of angry Klingons was created by rocking the dolls back and forth with motors, waving sticks lit by twelve-volt light bulbs dyed red. The resulting courtroom miniature was 10 feet (3.0 m) long.

Effects

The majority of the visual effects were created by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) under the supervision of Scott Farrar, who previously served as visual effects cameraman on the first three Star Trek films. After receiving the script, ILM created storyboards for the effects sequences before meeting Meyer and producers Winter and Steven-Charles Jaffe to discuss the planned scenes. These discussions began before the film was greenlit. ILM's initial cost estimates were over Paramount's budget, so to save money the filmmakers redesigned some shots and outsourced some to other companies. Elements of the zero gravity scenes were handled by Pacific Data Images, while phaser beams and transporter effects were generated by Visual Concept Engineering, an offshoot of ILM that had contributed to The Wrath of Khan and The Final Frontier. Despite the overall count of effects shots being dropped from over 100 to 51, the project was still large, and required virtually the entire ILM staff to complete. Farrar's goal was to economize the remaining effects, trying to tell the story with as few shots as possible. Cheap animatics provided Meyer with placeholders to cut into the film and avoid costly surprises. Stock footage from previous films was used whenever possible, but it was often unfeasible to do so; as the original USS Enterprise had been destroyed in The Search for Spock, all shots of the USS Enterprise-A had to feature the updated ship registry.

ILM's computer graphics division was responsible for creating three sequences, including the explosion of Praxis. Meyer's idea for the effect was influenced by The Poseidon Adventure; Farrar used imagery of an immense wave hitting the Poseidon to inform the scale of their shock wave. The department built on a lens flare simulation to create a plasma burst composed of two expanding disc shapes with swirling detail texture mapped to the surface. Farrar settled on the preliminary look of the wave, and graphics supervisor Jay Riddle used Adobe Photoshop on a Macintosh to establish the final color scheme. Initially the team thought they would be able to use the same methods to create the wave that hits the Excelsior, but found that it did not convey the scale of the wave—in Riddle's words, "this thing had to look really enormous." The final shot was created by manipulating two curved pieces of computer geometry, expanding them as they approached the camera's view. Textures that changed every frame were added on top of the wave to give the impression of great speed. Motion control footage of the Excelsior was then scanned into the computer and made to interact with the digital wave. ILM's ring-shaped "Praxis Effect" shockwave became a common feature in science fiction films depicting the destruction of large objects, while astronomer Philip Plait assumed that in reality a spherical wave would be more likely.

Music

Meyer's original plan for the score was to adapt Gustav Holst's orchestral suite The Planets. This idea proved too expensive, and with both James Horner (composer for The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock) and Jerry Goldsmith (composer for The Motion Picture and The Final Frontier) turning the film down, Meyer began listening to demo tapes submitted by other composers. Meyer described most of the demos as generic "movie music", but was intrigued by one tape by a young composer named Cliff Eidelman. Eidelman, then 26, had made a career composing for ballets, television, and film, but despite work on fourteen features, no film had been the hit needed to propel Eidelman to greater fame.

In conversations with Eidelman, Meyer mentioned that since the marches that accompanied the main titles for the previous Star Trek films were so good, he had no desire to compete with them by composing a bombastic opening. He felt that since the film was darker than its predecessors, it demanded something different musically as a result. He mentioned the opening to Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird as similar to the foreboding sound he wanted. Two days later Eidelman produced a tape of his idea for the main theme, played on a synthesizer. Meyer was impressed by the speed of the work and the close fit to his vision. Meyer approached producer Steven Charles-Jaffe with Eidelman's CD, which reminded Jaffe of Bernard Herrmann; Eidelman was subsequently given the task of composing the score.

Eidelman began the project by creating a compilation of music from the past five Star Trek films, and he consciously avoided taking inspiration from those scores. "[The compilation] showed me what to stay away from, because I couldn't do James Horner as well as James Horner," he said. Since he was hired early on in production, Eidelman had an unusually long time to develop his ideas, and he was able to visit the sets during filming. While the film was in early production Eidelman worked on electronic drafts of the final score, to placate executives who were unsure about using a relatively unknown composer.

Eidelman stated that he finds science fiction the most interesting and exciting genre to compose for, and that Meyer told him to treat the film as a fresh start, rather than drawing on old Star Trek themes. Eidelman wanted the music to aid the visuals; for Rura Penthe, he strove to create an atmosphere that reflected the alien and dangerous setting, introducing exotic instruments for color. Besides using percussion from around the world, Eidelman treated the choir as percussion, with the Klingon language translation for "to be, or not to be" ("taH pagh, taHbe") being repeated in the background. Spock's theme was designed to be an ethereal counterpart to the motif for Kirk and the Enterprise, aimed at capturing "the emotional gleam in the captain's eye". Kirk's internal dilemma about what the future holds was echoed in the main theme: "It's Kirk taking control one last time and as he looks out into the stars he has the spark again [...] But there's an unresolved note, because it's very important that he doesn't trust the Klingons. He doesn't want to go on this trip even though the spark is there that overtook him." For the climactic battle, Eidelman starts the music quietly, building the intensity as the battle progresses.

Literary and historical themes

The Undiscovered Country's Cold War allegory and references to literary history were recognized among researchers and cultural historians. Scholars have noted that it is the Klingons, not the humans, who quote William Shakespeare; Gorkon claims at one point in the film that "You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon." In reality, the reverse—translating Shakespeare into Klingon—proved problematic because Marc Okrand had not created a verb for "to be" when he developed the language. Shakespeare scholar Paul A. Cantor argues that this association is appropriate—the warlike Klingons find their literary matches in the characters Othello, Mark Antony, and Macbeth—but that it reinforces a claim that the end of the Cold War means the end of heroic literature such as Shakespeare's. According to Kay Smith, the use of Shakespeare has meaning in itself and also derives new meaning (underscoring cultural politics in the film) by its rearticulation in a new form. Meyer said the idea for having the Klingons claim Shakespeare as their own was based on Nazi Germany's attempt to claim the Bard as German before World War II.

According to scholar Larry Kreitzer, The Undiscovered Country has more references to Shakespeare than any other Star Trek work until at least 1996. The title itself alludes to Hamlet, Act III, Scene 1, the famous "To be, or not to be" soliloquy. Meyer had originally intended The Wrath of Khan to be called The Undiscovered Country. Whereas the undiscovered country referred to in Hamlet (and its intended meaning in The Wrath of Khan) is death, Star Trek VI's use of the phrase refers to a future where Klingons and humans coexist in peace.

Chang recites most of the lines from Shakespeare used in the film, including quotes from Romeo and Juliet and Henry IV, Part 2 in his parting words to Kirk after dinner. During Kirk's trial, Chang mocks Kirk with lines from Richard II. The final battle above Khitomer contains seven references to five of Shakespeare's plays. Two references are drawn from the title character's lines in Henry V ("Once more unto the breach"/"The game's afoot"), while two more quotations are from Julius Caesar ("I am as constant as the Northern Star"/"Cry 'havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war"). There is a single reference to Prospero from The Tempest ("Our revels now are ended"), and Chang shortens the wronged Shylock's speech from The Merchant of Venice: "Tickle us, do we not laugh; prick us, do we not bleed; and wrong us, shall we not revenge?" The final line spoken by Chang before he is obliterated by torpedo fire is lifted from Hamlet's famous soliloquy: "to be, or not to be..." Flinn was initially unsure about the numerous classical quotations, but when Plummer was cast, Meyer enthusiastically added more. He said, "Whether it's pretentious or not, I think it depends on how it's used. [...] I don't quite agree with using too much of that sort of thing, but once you get Plummer, suddenly it's working."

Reception

Release

The Undiscovered Country was released in North America on December 6, 1991. The film was initially planned for release a week later on December 13. To promote the film and the 25th anniversary of Star Trek, Paramount held marathon screenings of the previous five films in 44 select U.S. and Canadian cities. The 12-hour showings included footage of The Undiscovered Country. The day before the film's release, the core cast was inducted into Grauman's Chinese Theatre, and signed their names on Hollywood Boulevard. Nimoy, who had earlier requested $1 million to cameo on The Next Generation, appeared in the two-part episode "Unification" that aired during November 1991 to increase interest in the feature film. The previous five films were released in collectors' box sets with new packaging; retailers were offered the chance to photograph their retail setups for a chance to win an expenses-paid tour of The Next Generation's set and tickets to an advance screening of The Undiscovered Country.

Roddenberry did not live to see the film's release, dying of heart failure on October 24, 1991. Before the film's release he viewed a near-final version of The Undiscovered Country, and according to the film's producer and Kelley's biographer, approved a final version of the film. In contrast, Nimoy and Shatner's memoirs report that after the screening he called his lawyer and demanded a quarter of the scenes be cut; the producers refused, and within 48 hours he was dead. Paramount considered spending close to $240,000 to send Roddenberry's ashes into space—a move that had the backing of fans—but decided against it; his remains would make it into space along with 22 others in 1997. The film's opening included a note to Roddenberry's memory; at early showings, the crowds of Star Trek fans applauded loudly. While the producers had begun work on the film anticipating it as the last film, by the premiere it was obvious the film would make money and that a Star Trek VII would soon be in the works. The cast was split on the possibility of a sequel; Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley said that the film would be their last, while the supporting cast strongly lobbied for another film. The consensus was for the next film to star the cast of The Next Generation. The seventh Star Trek feature, Star Trek Generations (1994), would blend the old and new casts.

The Undiscovered Country opened in 1,804 theaters in North America and grossed $18,162,837 in its opening weekend; the showing was a record for the film series and was the top-grossing film of the weekend. The film grossed $74,888,996 in North America, for a total of $96,888,996 worldwide. The Undiscovered Country's strong showing was one of the big successes of 1991, a year in which the film industry experienced disappointing box office results overall. The film was nominated in the Sound effects editing and Makeup categories at the 64th Academy Awards. The film won a Saturn Award for best science fiction film, making it the only Star Trek film to win the award. The film's novelization by J.M. Dillard was a commercial success, reaching the Publishers Weekly mass market paperback bestsellers list.

Critical response

The Undiscovered Country received a much kinder reception from reviewers and audiences than The Final Frontier. Critics approved of the blend of humor and adventure in the film. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A−" on scale of A to F. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 84% based on 61 reviews.

The Herald Sun reported that "those who found The Final Frontier weighed down by emotional gravity and over-the-top spiritualism [welcomed] the follow-up with its suspense, action and subtle good humor." The dialogue and banter were considered positive and defining aspects of the film. Janet Maslin of The New York Times said that "Star Trek VI is definitely colorful, but even more of its color comes from conversation, which can take some amusingly florid turns." Critic Hal Hinson commented that Meyer "[is] capable of sending up his material without cheapening it or disrupting our belief in the reality of his yarn," and called the one-liners an organic part of the film's "jocular, tongue-in-cheek spirit". Susan Wloszczyna of USA Today said that with Meyer directing, "this last mission gets almost everything right—from the nod to late creator Gene Roddenberry to in-jokes about Kirk's rep as an alien babe magnet."

Views on the acting of the main cast were varied. Lloyd Miller of the St. Petersburg Times said the characters "return to their original roles with a vigor and wit unseen in earlier episodes of the film series". Rob Salem of The Toronto Star quipped that though the actors looked silly on occasion, this was a benefit; "as their capacity for action has diminished, their comedic talents have blossomed [...] they have all become masters of self-deprecating self-parody." The Boston Globe's Matthew Gilbert called the actors' performances "photocopies" of previous films: "Shatner and Nimoy are respectable, but lack energy. There's nowhere else to go with their roles, and they know it. DeForest Kelley is oddly out of it." Plummer and Warner's portrayals of their Klingon characters were well-received; Maslin commented that "whenever a skilled actor [...] manages to emerge from behind all this [makeup] with his personality intact, it's a notable accomplishment." The other supporting characters received similar praise; H. J. Kirchhoff, writing for The Globe and Mail, said that the guest stars joined the "family fun" of the film as "zesty, exotic and colorful good guys and bad guys". A Cinefantastique retrospective review considered the film to have the finest guest stars ever assembled for a Star Trek film.

Home media

The Undiscovered Country was released on VHS and in widescreen and full screen formats on Laserdisc in June 1992; the release added a few minutes of new footage to the film. Because of a trend in supermarket video sales and rentals, Paramount offered rebates for the home video release of The Undiscovered Country through boxes of Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats. The Laserdisc version of the film was the tenth highest-selling video during 1992. The home video cut was later released for the film's 1999 DVD debut.

As with the other nine Star Trek films, The Undiscovered Country was re-released on DVD as a Special Edition in 2004. Meyer, who stated he dislikes director's cuts, nevertheless found "a couple of moments that I thought were not clear", and re-edited them as "I suddenly saw how to make them clear." Among the elements added for home video were a briefing with the Federation president where Admiral Cartwright and Colonel West unveil their plan for rescuing Kirk and McCoy, and a scene where Spock and Scott inspect the torpedoes. Some shots were reordered or replaced, with wide-angle shots replacing close angles and vice versa. The special features included a commentary track with Meyer and Flinn, featurettes detailing the special effects, production, and historical inspiration of the film, and a tribute to actor DeForest Kelley.

The film's original theatrical cut was released on Blu-ray Disc in May 2009 to coincide with the new Star Trek feature, along with the other five films featuring the original crew in Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection. The Undiscovered Country was remastered in 1080p high-definition from the 1999 DVD transfer. The film, like the others in the set, features 7.1 Dolby TrueHD audio. The disc contains a new commentary track by Star Trek screenwriting veterans Larry Nemecek and Ira Steven Behr. A 4K release with both versions of the film was released in 2022.