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Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country ( Paramount Pictures , 1991 ) is the sixth feature film based on the popular Star Trek science fiction television series . It is the last of the films based solely on Star Trek: The Original Series cast and it presents their final mission together.

• 1 James T. Kirk
• 2 General Chang
• 5 External links

James T. Kirk [ edit ]

• Captain's Log, Stardate 9522.6: I've never trusted Klingons, and I never will. I can never forgive them for the death of my boy. It seems to me our mission to escort the Chancellor of the Klingon High Council to a peace summit is problematic at best. Spock says this could be an historic occasion, and I'd like to believe him. But how on Earth can history get past people like me?
• [last lines] Captain's Log, Stardate 9529.1: This is the final cruise of the Starship Enterprise under my command. This ship and her history will shortly become the care of another crew. To them and their posterity will we commit our future. They will continue the voyages we have begun and journey to all the undiscovered countries, boldly going where no man - where no one - has gone before.

General Chang [ edit ]

• Tickle us, do we not laugh? Prick us, do we not bleed? Wrong us...shall we not revenge?
• [Paraphrased, The Merchant of Venice, Act III , Scene i.]
• [at Kirk and McCoy's trial] Indeed, the record shows that Captain Kirk once held the rank of admiral, and that Admiral Kirk was broken for taking matters into his own hands in defiance of regulations of the law! Do you deny being demoted for these charges?! Don't wait for the translation! Answer me now!
• [Similar words were originally spoken by Adlai Stevenson to Valerian Zorin in an emergency session of the United Nations during the Cuban Missile Crisis .]

Dialogue [ edit ]

Cast [ edit ], external links [ edit ].

• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country quotes at the Internet Movie Database
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country at StarTrek.com

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Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

• On the eve of retirement, Kirk and McCoy are charged with assassinating the Klingon High Chancellor and imprisoned. The Enterprise crew must help them escape to thwart a conspiracy aimed at sabotaging the last best hope for peace.
• After an explosion on their moon, the Klingons have an estimated 50 years before their ozone layer is completely depleted, and they all die. They have only one choice - to make peace with the Federation, which will mean an end to 70 years of conflict. Captain James T. Kirk and crew are called upon to help in the negotiations because of their experience with the Klingons. Peace talks don't quite proceed, and Kirk and McCoy are convicted of assassinating the Klingon High Chancellor, and imprisoned on Rura Penthe, a snowy hard-labor prison camp. Will they manage to escape? And will there ever be peace with the Klingons? — Colin Tinto <[email protected]>
• After a lunar cataclysm brings the Klingons to their knees, the foreign concept of peace with the Federation may be finally within reach. After 70 years of hostility, the Federation and the Klingon Empire prepare for a peace summit. Ironically, Captain James T. Kirk has been assigned as the first emissary to broker that peace. However, the prospect of intergalactic glasnost with sworn enemies is an alarming one. When the Klingon flagship is attacked and the USS Enterprise is held accountable, the dogs of war are unleashed again, as both worlds brace for what may be their final, deadly encounter. — Robert Lynch <[email protected]>
• As a Klingon moon, Praxis, explodes without warning, the star ship USS Excelsior, commanded by Captain Hikaru Sulu, is struck by the shock wave and its crew discovers that much of the moon has been obliterated. The loss of their key energy production facility and the destruction of the Klingon home world's ozone layer throws the Klingon Empire into turmoil. The explosion was caused by over mining and in-sufficient safety precautions. No longer able to maintain a hostile footing, the Klingons sue for peace with their longstanding enemy, the United Federation of Planets. Accepting the proposal before the Klingons revert to a more belligerent approach, Starfleet sends the USS Enterprise-A to meet with the Klingon Chancellor, Gorkon, and escort him to negotiations on Earth. Enterprise's captain, James T. Kirk (William Shatner), whose son David was murdered by Klingons years earlier, opposes the negotiations and resents his assignment. Other officers include Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Medical officer, Montgomery Scott (James Doohan) engineer, helmsman Hikaru Sulu (George Takei), Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) After a rendezvous between Enterprise and Gorkon's battle cruiser they continue towards Earth, with the crews sharing a tense meal aboard Enterprise. Later that night, Enterprise appears to fire on the Klingon ship with a pair of photon torpedoes, disabling the artificial gravity aboard the Klingon vessel. During the confusion, two figures wearing Starfleet suits and gravity boots beam aboard the Klingon ship and grievously wound Gorkon before beaming away. The situation is chaotic on the Enterprise, Scotty confirms that all Torpedoes are in place, yet the data banks suggest that the Enterprise has fired twice upon the Klingon ship. Kirk surrenders to avoid a fight, and beams aboard the Klingon ship with Doctor Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) to attempt to save Gorkon's life. The chancellor dies, and Gorkon's chief of staff, General Chang, puts Kirk and McCoy on trial for his assassination. The pair are found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment on the frozen asteroid Rura Penthe. Gorkon's daughter, Azetbur, becomes the new chancellor, and continues diplomatic negotiations; for reasons of security, the conference is relocated 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, stating that only Kirk and McCoy will pay for her father's death. Kirk and McCoy arrive at the Rura Penthe mines and are befriended by a shape Shifter named Martia, 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 she is killed by the prison guards to silence any witnesses. Just before the prison warden reveals who set them up, Kirk and McCoy are beamed aboard Enterprise by Captain Spock (Leonard Nimoy), who had assumed command and undertaken an investigation in Kirk's absence. Determining that Enterprise did not fire the torpedoes but that the assassins are still aboard, the crew begins looking for them. The two assassins are found dead, but Kirk and Spock trick their accomplice into believing they are still alive. When the culprit arrives in Sickbay to finish off the assassins, Kirk and Spock discover that the killer is Spock's protege, Valeris (Kim Cattrall). To discover the identity of the conspirators, Spock initiates a forced mind-meld, and learns that a group of Federation, Klingon, and Romulan officers plotted to sabotage the peace talks, fearing the changes their success might bring (the titular "undiscovered country"), and Chang is one of the conspirators. The torpedoes that struck Gorkon's cruiser came from a prototype Bird of Prey that can fire while cloaked and hovered just below Enterprise at the time of the assassination. The crew contacts Sulu, who informs them the conference is being held at Camp Khitomer. Both ships head for the talks as fast as they can. As Enterprise nears the planet, Chang's cloaked Bird of Prey moves to intercept. With Enterprise unable to track his ship's position, Chang inflicts severe damage on Enterprise and then Excelsior. At the suggestion of Uhura, the Enterprise's communication officer, Spock and McCoy modify a photon torpedo to home in on the exhaust emissions of Chang's vessel, using equipment originally intended to study gaseous anomalies. The torpedo impact reveals Chang's location, and Enterprise and Excelsior destroy the Bird of Prey with a volley of torpedoes. Crew from both ships beam to the conference and halt an attempt on the Federation president's life. Kirk pleads for those present to continue the peace process. Having saved the peace talks, Enterprise is ordered back to Earth by Starfleet Command to be decommissioned, but the crew decide to take their time on the return voyage. As Enterprise cruises towards a nearby star, Kirk proclaims that though this mission is the final cruise of Enterprise under his command, others will continue their voyages.

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At the end their signatures are written large across the screen: William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley and the others who have been playing the crew of the Starship Enterprise for the past 25 years. The implication is that the original voyage of “ Star Trek ” has come to an end--that the characters and players of the first television series and the six “Star Trek” movies will now go where no “Star Trek” actor has gone before, into retirement, and that if there is another “Star Trek” movie it will star, perhaps, the cast of TV’s “Star Trek” The Next Generation.”

I am not so sure, however. This sixth “Star Trek” film has so much more life and interest than the dreary “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier” that perhaps it will tempt Paramount into still another story for Captain Kirk and his crew (perhaps a training voyage for the new generation?). “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” begins, as so many “Star Trek” stories do, with a story set in the future but parallel to contemporary developments. In this case, as the Klingon empire begins to self-destruct after a Chernoble-type explosion on one of its moons, the obvious reference is to the disintegration of the Russian empire.

As the Klingons sue for peace, the Enterprise is assigned to go out to the edges of Federation space and negotiate with them. Captain Kirk is bitterly reluctant; he doesn’t believe the Klingons can be trusted, ever. But Mr. Spock informs him of an alleged ancient Vulcan proverb: “Only Nixon can go to China.”

There are a lot of lines like that in the script by Nicholas Meyer and Denny Martin Flinn, and a lot of lines by Shakespeare, too, who supplies not only the movie’s subtitle but also many references from “Hamlet” and elsewhere (“He is better in the original Klingon,” one of the enemy snorts.) At one point two of the supporting actors, the distinguished Shakespearians David Warner and Christopher Plummer , seem to be trading familiar quotations instead of dialog, but the strange thing is, it’s effective; in its pop-culture way, “Star Trek” has taken on a kind of epic quality over the years, and such references help establish the notion that the story really does take place in a future that remembers the past.

If the dialog is from Shakespeare, the plot seems borrowed more from an old British country house mystery; one or more disloyal members of the Enterprise crew fire on a Klingon star cruiser and then port themselves on board to murder those who have come to ask for peace. Through plot complications that would have made Agatha Christie proud, the clues to the identify of the killers depend on bloody boots and bootprints, and figuring out who was where, and when.

“Star Trek” has always been more allegory than science fiction. There is a kind of integrity, indeed, in the deliberately low-tech sets; the movies have always remained true to the klutzy art direction of the TV series, and in a post-”2001” and “Star Wars” age the bridge of the Enterprise still looks as if it were made out of old Captain Video props and a 1950s housewares show.

It doesn’t matter, because the movies aren’t really based on sets, or even much on action; they’re about ideas and relationships and here we see the old friendships of the Enterprise tested, and hear new versions of the same old jokes about how Vulcans don’t understand jokes. It’s entertaining, and reassuring.

Why on earth (or anywhere else) would Paramount want to retire this crew, which is as familiar and comforting as old family friends, and which does its job with the effortless grace of long familiarity? In Shakespeare, the “undiscovered country” is death. And elsewhere trhe bard refers to one who dies as being like an actor who goes off to “study a long silence.” I don’t know if that will work here. I doubt frankly that the crew of the Enterprise can stop talking long enough to die.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

113 minutes

Walter Koenig as Chekov

Nichelle Nichols as Commander Uhura

William Shatner as Capt.Kirk

Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock

Produced by

• Steven-Charles Jaffe
• Ralph Winter
• Cliff Eidelman
• Nicholas Meyer

Photographed by

• Hiro Narita
• Ronald Roose

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Published Dec 6, 2015

Star Trek VI Opened 24 Years Ago Today

It was on December 6, 1991 that Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country debuted in movie theaters across the country. And, for all intents and purposes, it capped the TOS era and the big-screen adventures of the original Enterprise crew. It did so in style, of course – with a meaningful, often action-packed conspiracy/assassination story that allowed William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei and Walter Koenig take their final bows.

The plot, with its political intrigue involving the Vulcans, Federation and Klingons, mirrored the realities of the time, most specifically the Cold War, but also perestroika. Rura Penthe is unmistakably a gulag. Spock even invokes a Vulcan proverb: “Only Nixon could go to China.” Meanwhile, Kirk contemplates his own prejudices and the possibility of a universe without an enemy against which to wage war. Further, Nicholas Meyer, who’d helmed The Wrath of Khan , returned to the director’s chair, working from a script he co-wrote (with Denny Martin Flinn) based on an idea developed by Leonard Nimoy. And Meyer made the most of state-of-the-art technology, including the very-cool CGI that enabled Martia (Iman) to morph. At the time, the effect was only just starting to impress people who'd seen it put to use in the music video for Michael Jackson's song “Black or White” and in the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day .

Star Trek VI guest stars included Kim Cattrall as the duplicitous Lt. Valeris, David Warner as Klingon Chancellor Gorkon and Christopher Plummer as the Shakespeare-quoting General Chang. Memorable grace notes included the sight of George Takei as Captain Sulu racing to assist the Enterprise and Captain Kirk, and appearances by Michael Dorn (as Colonel Worf), Mark Lenard (as Sarek), John Schuck (reprising his Star Trek IV role as the Klingon Ambassador) and Brock Peters (reprising his Star Trek IV role as Admiral Cartwright).

Make no mistake, Star Trek VI is far from perfect. It’s a bit dated and a tad slow. Many of the costumes worn by the original cast seem worn out, as if they were simply pulled off a hanger and dry cleaned rather than remade for the latest production.

• There’s lots more to love and to debate. We'll start the ball rolling with the following:
• "If I were human I believe my response would be 'Go to hell.'... If I were human."
• Kirk against Kirk, mano a mano
• Uhura saves the day (“The thing must have a tailpipe.”) Great moment for Nichols and the Uhura character, but, really? A tailpipe on a starship?

• Montgomery Scott, action hero
• Fuschia blood... or hot pink or purple... or... what color is that, actually? (Whatever it was, it was a digital effect)
• Christian Slater’s cameo
• “I’d give real money if he’d shut up”

• References to not just Shakespeare, but Sherlock Holmes and Peter Pan
• “Must have been your lifelong ambition”
• Just how great was Cliff Eidelman's score?
• "Is it possible that we two, you and I, have grown so old and so inflexible that we have outlived our usefulness?"
• "You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon."
• The cast’s farewell signatures during the end-credit sequence

OK, what's your opinion of Star Trek VI ? How does it hold up? Where does it rank amongst the TOS fetaures? What are your favorite/least favorite aspects of the film?

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Film / Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

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"There is an old Vulcan proverb: only Nixon could go to China ." — Spock

The One With… the Cold War IN SPACE!

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is the sixth movie in the Star Trek film series, released in 1991.

It is a grand finale for the classic Trek crew ( as played by the original actors, at least ) which resolves the previously ongoing conflict between the Federation and the Klingons with a Tom Clancy ''IN SPACE!'' storyline. In part because of its more political themes and real-world connections, The Undiscovered Country is Darker and Edgier than its predecessors.

After an environmental calamity, the Klingons' infrastructure collapses and their leader sues for peace. Does this remind you of the end of the Cold War? It should. The Iron Curtain was coming down at the time of production and the Klingons had always been stand-ins for the Soviets. Kirk, ever the cynical cowboy, still doesn't trust the Klingons but is volunteered by Spock to escort their leader to the peace talks without asking him first. But Kirk is not the only one who never wanted peace — a mysterious conspiracy with accomplices from both sides of the conflict means to drive the Federation and Empire into a full-scale war, framing Kirk and McCoy for murder in the process.

Nicholas Meyer, the director of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , returned to the helm for this one. As evidenced by the page quote, the film lacks anything resembling subtlety, but its tongue-in-cheek satire and heavy-handed morality tale are just as good if not better that way. If nothing else, it's considered much better than The Final Frontier . In any case, most fans consider it a worthy send-off for the original cast.

While this is the finale for the majority of the TOS cast, Kirk, Scotty, and Chekov appear in the next film to "pass the torch" of the film franchise to The Next Generation .

The Undiscovered Country includes examples of the following tropes:

• 2-D Space : Subtly averted. When the Enterprise and Kronos One first rendezvous, they are not aligned in the same plane. Enterprise very diplomatically adjusts to match the Chancellor's ship. Later, the Bird-of-Prey fires one of its torpedoes perpendicularly to the plane of the saucer section of the Enterprise , damaging it extensively, and indicating that Chang is constantly moving his ship around Enterprise to attack it from all angles. It's especially prominent on the one hit we see the Excelsior take; at an almost perpendicular vector to her ventral saucer.
• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene : Before the climactic battle, Kirk and Spock wonder if they've both gotten too old to still be useful in a changing galaxy.
• Actually Pretty Funny : During the trial, Chang asks McCoy for his "medical status." McCoy replies "Aside from a touch of arthritis, pretty good." One Klingon in the audience laughs uproariously, everyone else is dead silent. . . but Chang grins in response and congratulates McCoy on his "singular wit", a Stealth Insult that McCoy has used up all of his.
• Alien Blood : The Klingons have Pepto-Bismol pink blood in this film (and only this film until Lower Decks used it as well), in order to keep a PG rating. Becomes a minor Chekhov's Gun in the final act when an assassin is identified as not being Klingon because he has red blood, but only in the extended cut. The Star Trek staff (particularly Mike Okuda) Hand Waved this by claiming the pigment change to be a side-effect of microgravity.
• All There in the Manual : The bizarre joke the Klingon border guard makes is smuggler's code; he knows they aren't who they say they are but thinks they're just illegal traders and just can't be bothered to bust them.
• And the Adventure Continues : The end narration: Kirk: Captain's Log, Stardate 9529.1. This is the final cruise of the starship Enterprise under my command. This ship and her history will shortly become the care of another crew. To them and their posterity will we commit our future. They will continue the voyages we have begun and journey to all the undiscovered countries, boldly going where no man, where no one , has gone before.
• Apocalypse How : One destroyed mining planet and the near-irrevocable atmospheric desolation of the Klingon homeworld (which, thanks to the Federation, would ultimately be saved).
• For her part, when Excelsior takes a hit on the chin, we see the shields dissipate the impact with no visible damage to the hull, although an interior shot demonstrates that her crew has gone into Damage Control mode. note  And when you consider what happened when this movie was revisited in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Flashback", where the Excelsior took a lot of damage, this is also a Downplayed Trope as well.
• Scotty does note "She's packing quite a wallop," indicating the Bird-Of-Prey's weapons are more powerful than Klingon standard. Though also note, this design of starship could No-Sell V'Ger's One-Hit Kill plasma bolts.
• Artificial Gravity : A rare example where artificial gravity actually fails.
• Artistic License – History : Valeris repeats as truth the story that the word "sabotage" comes from Luddites throwing their wooden sabot shoes into the machinery during the Industrial Revolution. This is a popular folk etymology, but it is not true. "Sabotage" is derived from the noise and clumsiness wearing the shoes had, which would have a possibility of fouling equipment, but by accident, not deliberately.

• Ask a Stupid Question... : When Janice Rand asks if they're going to report the destruction of Praxis to the Federation, Sulu whirls on her incredulously and asks, "Are you kidding ?!"
• Burke and Samno are killed by Valeris after the attempt to hide the evidence backfires. Lampshaded in the same scene. Kirk: First rule of assassination: kill the assassins.
• Similarly, the commandant of Rura Penthe offs Martia the shapeshifter as soon as their role in Kirk and McCoy 's "attempted escape" is fulfilled.
• Bad Vibrations : Captain Sulu's vibrating teacup heralds the shockwave from the exploding Praxis at the beginning of the film.
• The strategy works because Chang doesn't have any choice but to fire on Excelsior too. Chang's goal isn't to destroy Enterprise , though he'd be happy to do so, he just needs to keep reinforcements away from Khitomer until the Federation President is dead. To accomplish this he has to keep both ships under fire to prevent them from lowering their shields and beaming security forces to the planet to stop the assassination.
• Kirk's plan to draw out the mole (Valeris) by having a "court reporter" summoned to Sick Bay urgently to take statements from the (actually already dead) assassins Burke and Samno .
• A failed Batman Gambit exists in the conspirators' original plan. They were banking on Kirk getting gun-happy after Chang got Kronos One back in fighting shape, shooting back, and destroying Kronos One. What happens instead? Kirk surrenders in a hasty attempt to de-escalate the situation. Chang then has to engage in Xanatos Speed Chess to compensate.
• The assassins specifically kill Kronos One 's chief surgeon, which leaves Gorkon's fate in the hands of a physician who doesn't know much about Klingon physiology, Dr. McCoy .
• Beam Spam : Zigzagged. There are plenty of hand phaser shots, but when it comes to spaceborne combat, only torpedoes are used in the film note  This is justified, at least for Chang; leaving his phasers on long enough to do damage would allow the Enterprise to target the beam's source. With torpedoes, he can fire and immediately change course to a new location, giving his enemy no time to react and target him .
• Big Bad Duumvirate : Though Chang acts as the main villain for most of the movie, he's part of a larger conspiracy which includes Lieutenant Valeris, Admiral Cartwright, Colonel West, and the Romulan Ambassador.
• Sulu and the USS Excelsior swooping in to even up the fight against General Chang and his Bird-of-Prey. While the original plan was to play this trope straight, the end result is a slight subversion; Excelsior doesn't do much but provides a second target at first, giving the Enterprise a much-needed breather. Once Chang's ship is revealed by the first hit on its hull, though, Sulu takes full advantage of the reveal to add his ship's weight to the fight. Sulu states quite explicitly that he knows all the Excelsior is on their arrival is another duck in Chang's shooting gallery. Captain Sulu: Alright... now we've given them something else to shoot at.
• In the novelization, Enterprise is specifically described as trying to hold out until Excelsior can arrive with better sensors and stronger shields. Compare Wellington deciding to hold on at Waterloo until Blucher could arrive with the necessary reinforcements to beat Napoleon, but it being the British who, in shooting Napoleon's Old Guard to a standstill, triggered the French rout.
• Big "OMG!" : Sulu's reaction to the incoming Planar Shockwave . "My... God ! Shields! Shields! "
• Bluffing the Murderer : "Code Blue Urgent: Court reporter to Sickbay. Statements to be taken..."
• Brigadier Kerla responds to Excelsior 's message after the explosion of Praxis. Kerla: There has been an incident on Praxis, however, everything is under control, we have no need for assistance.
• Starfleet orders the Enterprise to report back after the assassination, but they are still trying to root out the assassins. Uhura: We are experiencing technical malfunction; all backup systems inoperative. Chekov: Excellent. I-I mean — too bad.
• The Enterprise wasn't the only one pulling this. Kirk: You realize that by even talking to us, you're violating regulations. Sulu: I'm sorry, Captain. Your message is breaking up. Kirk: Bless you, Sulu.
• Borrowed Catchphrase : When Spock invites Doctor McCoy to help him rig up a plasma-seeking torpedo to take down Chang's cloaked Bird of Prey. McCoy : Fascinating!
• Broken Pedestal : Valeris to Spock, and vice versa.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer : The main difference between Valeris and Saavik is that Valeris has a tendency to defy regulations. For example, she fires a phaser on the kill setting, which triggers every alarm on the Enterprise , in order to demonstrate why the conspirators didn't just disintegrate the magnetic boots and uniforms used in the assassination. She is also the one who suggests breaking out the very illegal Romulan Ale for dinner with the Klingons. It also counts as Foreshadowing , showing that Valeris is reckless and doesn't seem to care much for rules... or for the safety of her shipmates. Someone like that shouldn't be trusted.

• A floor panel explodes in Spock's face, reminiscent of how he "died" in the Kobayashi Maru simulation .
• The shot where Spock speculates on the Bird-of-Prey's weakness is from the exact same angle as the one where he speculates on Khan's "two-dimensional thinking" .
• Romulan Ale, being both illegal and leaving a terrible hangover.
• When Spock wants to go to the Klingon ship but Kirk overrides him, Spock says "Perhaps you're right," and puts his hand on Kirk's shoulder like he's going to administer the nerve pinch... and puts the viridium patch on his shoulder.
• The Klingon Ham - bassador from The Voyage Home is back too. And this time, he actually has some valid points to assert instead of just bluster.
• The design of the makeup for Christopher Plummer shares a number of similarities with the design of the smooth-browed Klingons from the Original Series, particularly the moustache, and his more subdued ridges.
• In TNG's "Unification: Part II", which was made to promote this film , Spock tells Picard that because of how badly negotiating peace with Klingons almost went during this film, he opted to take matters into his own hands trying to negotiate unification between the Vulcans and Romulans . With Gorkon's assassination and Kirk and McCoy almost getting executed, Spock was unwilling to risk anybody's life but his own.
• Captain Sulu of the USS Excelsior has the honor of opening the movie this way.
• A log entry that Kirk makes early in the movie (about how much he hates Klingons) becomes a Chekhov's Gun when it's used against him at his trial, and a Chekhov's Boomerang when he realizes that Valeris was listening outside his door when he recorded it, and provided the quote to her fellow conspirators .
• Kirk ends the movie by recording his final log entry as captain of the Enterprise .
• This was at least partially a coincidence, as Brock had already played Admiral Cartwright earlier in the film series, Brock Peters plays an anti-Klingon racist. Brock actually had problems doing Cartwright's anti-Klingon rant during the classified meeting because it was morally unpleasant for him personally. Multiple takes had to be done and pieced together. (That is, he had problems getting the lines out. According to the DVD, he was supportive of the message itself.)
• William Shatner also got his start as a Shakespearian actor, and at one point was actually Christopher Plummer's understudy.
• Central Theme : Spock joins Kirk in feeling his age and disappointment in time passing them by, and Gene Coon’s Soldier vs Diplomat conflict comes back from the series, Chang taunting Kirk on how they’re both warriors, and Kirk trying to be a diplomat (and surrender instead of fight) proves a Spanner in the Works for the bad guy plan.
• Characterization Marches On : Sulu has adopted a more authoritarian, strict (but fair) personality as a captain, contrasting his easygoing, affable one in prior movies and the TV series.
• Kirk's personal log. It is initially used to incriminate Kirk at his trial, but comes back later when Kirk realizes that Valeris, who was outside of his quarters at the time of his recording, must have given it to the Klingons.
• The pink Klingon blood. Some of it floats into the path of one of the transporting assassins; later, it is discovered on the transporter pad by Chekov and Scotty. In the extended cut, when the "Klingon" sniper is shot at the peace conference, Worf quips that the (red) blood does not belong to a Klingon. It turns out that it is actually human blood, that of Colonel West.
• The Phaser Alarms. Firing a phaser on a kill setting triggers the alarms, as Valeris demonstrates in the kitchen when Chekov asks why the assassins didn't vaporize their incriminating clothing. When Burke and Samno are found dead , McCoy wonders why they were not vaporized and Chekov replies (while comically making it sound like a dumb question) that it would set off the alarm. Valeris had used a phaser on stun to the head at point blank range to kill them; her inability to dispose of the bodies leads Kirk to his plan to flush out the assassin by saying that they had survived and were willing to talk about everything.
• A Chekhov's Gun example is left hanging on the wall when Kirk pulls out a concealed pistol of identical make: in a Captain's Log , Sulu mentions the Excelsior is cataloging gaseous anomalies. Apparently, the Enterprise had been doing the same, since they have the equipment on board and use it to track the cloaked Bird-of-Prey. note  Legend has it that Excelsior was supposed to fire the modified torpedo but Shatner demanded that the Enterprise do it, hence the discontinuity.
• Burke and Samno, seen in the transporter room when Gorkon and his party beam aboard, are later revealed to be the two assassins responsible for his death. The extended cut takes this further: they make disparaging remarks about the Klingons after the party has left the room, only to be stopped by Valeris .
• Colonel West, seen only in the extended cut. He is the architect of the plan to rescue Kirk and McCoy from Rura Penthe, and is later the sniper shot dead by Scotty .
• Admiral Cartwright is another, albeit minor, example: his unease of peace with Klingons makes him a party of the plot to shoot the Federation President .
• Chewing the Scenery : Chang in the final showdown; especially " Cry havoc!!! ... and let slip the dogs of war!" where it's not so much that he's shouting it at the top of his lungs, but that he's shouting it at the top of his lungs while spinning in his self-rotating captain's chair . Chang: I am constant as the Northern Star! McCoy : I'd give real money if he'd shut up.
• Comic-Book Adaptation : By DC Comics.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like : If Spock had waited a few more seconds before his Teleportation Rescue , Kirk would have had the details of who wanted him killed. Kirk: Couldn't you wait for a few more seconds? He was about to explain the whole damned thing!! Chekov: You vant to go beck!? McCoy : Absolutely Not!!! Kirk: It's cold!!!
• Sulu mentions at the end of The Voyage Home that he hopes the ship they're being sent to is the Excelsior . In this film he turns up as a starship captain... commanding the Excelsior . Even earlier than that, when the ship is first shown in the beginning of The Search for Spock , Sulu is gawking in amazement at it. Scotty also continues his nonplussed attitude about the ship, preferring to tip his hat to her Captain instead.
• During Kirk and McCoy 's trial, General Chang brings up Kirk's demotion in Star Trek IV, simultaneously referring to the events of Star Trek III that precipitated it. Chang: Indeed, the record shows that Captain Kirk once held the rank of Admiral and that Admiral Kirk was broken for taking matters into his own hands in defiance of regulations and the law!! [whirls on Kirk] DO YOU DENY BEING DEMOTED ON THESE CHARGES?! DON'T WAIT FOR THE TRANSLATION!! ANSWER ME NOW!! note  Which is a great allegorical reference to the Cuban Missile Crisis , when UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson was questioning the Soviet ambassador as to whether the Russians were moving missiles to Cuba: "Don't wait for the translation, answer 'yes' or 'no'!"
• The Enterprise -A tracks the cloaked Klingon vessel using its emissions, in the same way, the Enterprise -D does in "The Emissary" , set over 70 years later. It's stated in the TNG episode that this is possible due to the age of the Klingon ship, suggesting that this incident might have quietly led Klingon R&D to figure out how to fix that little design flaw.
• Kirk takes his own advice from “Balance Of Terror” and keeps his bigotry to his own quarters. Unfortunately for him, Valeris is listening and gives the statement that he’s never forgiven Klingons to the other side.
• When Spock is being tested on Vulcan in The Voyage Home , one of the questions has to do with a starship being followed so closely that sensors show it occupying the same space as its pursuer. Here, the first sign anything is amiss comes when sensors pick up a surge in neutron radiation that seems to be coming from the Enterprise, when it's really from the cloaked Bird-of-Prey following her.
• Cool Old Guy : Pretty much the main cast.
• Cool Starship : Excelsior finally gets to strut her stuff after her Epic Fail three movies ago . McCoy : My God, that's a big ship. Scott: Not so big as her captain, I think.
• Covers Always Lie : The main poster has the Enterprise battling a Klingon K'Tinga cruiser and Bird-of-Prey at the same time. It only fights a Bird-of-Prey in the movie, although the K'Tinga cruiser attempts to engage earlier in the film.
• CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable : Bones, miracle doctor that he is, can revive someone with no pulse by straddling them and beating on their chest. But only after trying several more sophisticated techniques , including inserting some sort of medical device into the open chest wound. The Klingons who witness this are absolutely horrified. The patient dies after delivering his last words despite the doctor's best efforts.
• Crazy-Prepared : Gorkon, according to the novelization. He expected something to happen to him on his way to Earth, so he used his influence among his allies to ensure that Azetbur would succeed him as Chancellor. He also suspected Chang to have a part in a betrayal, hence why he tells someone to find him when Kronos One loses artificial gravity.
• Creative Closing Credits : The cast's signatures are written out on screen before the credits.
• Creator's Culture Carryover : As unlikely as it may seem, the Klingon court of the 23rd century is shown to be very similar to American courts of the 20th century, with the accused being questioned publically by the prosecutor, defense attorney Worf throwing in an "objection!" every now and then, the judge overruling them, etc.
• The space battle has Scotty doing his usual thing while the Enterprise is pummeled by torpedoes. We can also see crewmen running around with fire extinguishers on the Excelsior .
• Damage control of the political kind is shown in the opening scene. When Sulu and the Excelsior send a message offering assistance after Praxis explodes, a message from a Klingon miner screaming for help is blocked and replaced by a political response, acknowledging an internal incident, but refusing any assistance.
• Deadly Environment Prison : The underground Klingon labor camp Rura Penthe where Kirk and McCoy are imprisoned has nothing preventing prisoners from escaping — except the extreme cold and storms of the surface, where death by exposure would be a certainty (technically, there's also a magnetic field to prevent escape by transporter, but it only extends so far and it would be possible to walk out of it if not for the deadly climate). In fact, prisoners are threatened with expulsion to the surface if they don't work.
• Of Kirk again. This time, his Fantastic Racism makes him an easy Fall Guy for Gorkon's assassination.
• The Klingons in the original series were based on racist stereotypes and it wavered on whether Kirk and others were right to distrust them (with episodes like "Errand of Mercy" and "Day of the Dove" coming down on the side that Kirk isn't all that different from them), so they were the right candidates for a full-blown racism plot.
• Dedication : To Gene Roddenberry, who passed away weeks before the film's release.
• Defensive Feint Trap : Kirk attempts one of these when Chang's Bird of Prey attacks the Enterprise upon arriving at Khitomer. He orders the Enterprise into a reverse, confusing Chang momentarily, but only enough to give the Enterprise some breathing room and a few extra seconds for the Excelsior to arrive.
• Description Cut : After Kirk and Bones are sentenced to life imprisonment. Spock: If I know the Captain, he is already deep into planning his escape. [cut to Kirk getting his ass kicked]
• When meeting Valeris and hearing of her academy accomplishments. Kirk: You must be very proud. Valeris: I don't believe so, Sir. McCoy : She's a Vulcan, all right.
• During Kirk and McCoy's incarceration on Rura Penthe. McCoy : Three months before retirement... What a way to finish. Kirk: We're not finished... McCoy : Speak for yourself. One day, one night: [makes throat slitting sound] Kobayashi Maru . Kirk: Bones, are you afraid of the future? McCoy : I believe that was the general idea that I was trying to convey. Kirk: I don't mean this future. McCoy : What is this, multiple choice?
• During the battle with Chang, as the general's hammy snippets of Shakespeare are broadcast throughout the Enterprise . Chang: I AM CONSTANT AS THE NORTHERN STAR! McCoy : I'd give real money if he'd shut up.
• During the start of that same battle after the first torpedo hit. McCoy : Well this is fun.
• Deus ex Machina : The Enterprise is getting owned by the cloaked Bird-of-Prey, and then suddenly the crew realizes the ship just happens to have some never-before-mentioned equipment to catalog gaseous anomalies that can be used to totally obliterate the enemy ship. What makes this particularly bad is that Sulu and the Excelsior are the ones performing this task at the beginning of the film. The true explanation is a combination of executive and cast meddling (Shatner insisted that the Enterprise save itself). This is also explained in the novelization as being Starfleet's current ongoing giant research project of the past few years, so most ships other than Excelsior are carrying equipment for gaseous anomalies. The Star Trek Timeline also establishes this as well, with Enterprise and Excelsior specifically being mentioned so as to explain how Enterprise also had the equipment. Admittedly this could have been somewhat fixed by modifying Sulu's opening narration to something like "for the past three years we have been leading the fleet in cataloguing gaseous anomalies in planetary atmospheres", but alas, l'esprit de l'escalier...
• Disposable Woman : The book version has Carol’s settlement attacked by Klingons just as she and Kirk were getting closer (and she’s been avoiding him for three books), just to give him apparently more excuses to hate them.
• The whole film is an allegory about the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. It was released less than a few weeks before the Soviet Union actually fell. The coup that briefly deposed Mikhail Gorbachev happened in Real Life while the film was still in production. Gorkon is a clear expy of Gorbachev, as both were reform-minded leaders of a dying empire who felt co-operation with the Federation (or the West) was key for their survival.
• In addition, Praxis exploding and contaminating the Klingon homeworld is a clear reference to Chernobyl , which Gorbachev said bankrupted the Soviet Union due to containment and decontamination.
• Don't Answer That : Colonel Worf tells Kirk this during the trial. The judge insists otherwise.
• Dramatic Downstage Turn : Occurs when Kirk and McCoy are lying in their prison beds.
• Dramatically Missing the Point : Spock initially doesn't get Valeris's concern over this upcoming peace. Nicholas Meyer described the scene in Spock's quarters as Valeris having a mental breakdown, which, being a Vulcan, happens so subtly that even Spock fails to notice.
• Dramatic Shattering : Sulu's tea cup rattles off the captain's coffee table and falls to the deck when the Excelsior gets buffeted by the shockwave. Not a moment after it's in pieces on the deck, alarms and klaxons start blaring. Notably, it is not the same teacup which Sulu drinks from — the decoration was seen by the prop team as too nice to ruin.
• After the disastrous dinner, several still-drunk senior officers immediately return to duty. Chekov, in particular, is noticeably struggling to make it through his watch. Later, Chang uses this as evidence against Kirk and Bones during their trial. Kirk : Valeris, you know anything about a radiation surge? Valeris: Sir? Kirk: Chekov? Chekov : Only the size of my head. Kirk: (rubbing his head) I know what you mean.
• The watchman at the Klingon observation post is clearly hammered, which makes Uhura's task easier when she has to bluff her way past him in Klingon without the aid of the universal translator.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom : The explosion of Praxis that kicks off the events of the movie. Excelsior's visual enhancement shows that more than half the moon has been vaporized. The real-world analogue is the Chernobyl plant disaster that weakened the Soviet Union just enough to get the ball rolling.
• Eiffel Tower Effect : The Office of President of the Federation is in Paris.
• Elderly Ailment Rambling : Invoked by McCoy when he and Kirk are on trial for murdering Chancellor Gorkon, and he's asked about his medical standing. He replies, "Aside from a touch of arthritis, I'd say pretty good." His effort at levity actually does get one Klingon to laugh.
• In-Universe , this is the end of the cold war between the Federation and Klingon Empire, which has defined Alpha Quadrant politics for decades. Going forward, the Federation and Klingons will be occasionally frosty, but ultimately solid friends and allies.
• Out of universe, this movie marks the end of the TOS era. Going forward, the TOS characters are largely relagated to cameos and guest roles on future Star Trek productions, at least until the reboot (which is an Alternate Universe created by time travel anyways).
• End-of-Series Awareness : While the films that continued in the original timeline after this would focus on the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast and there's later be Kelvin timeline 's Continuity Reboot , this film was the last adventure that the entire original crew would have together and, as seen by Kirk's final lines, it wasn't subtle about it, either.
• Engineered Public Confession : During the trial, Kirk's log entry in which he says, "I have never trusted Klingons, and I never will. I've never been able to forgive them for the death of my boy," is presented as proof of his motive for assassinating Gorkon. This fact is later used to incriminate Valeris as a conspirator, since it was she who was outside his quarters' open door unnoticed at that moment.
• For all the Jerkass tendencies that Kirk has about "letting the Klingons die", he turns a complete 180 when Gorkon's ship is attacked, and not of his own doing either. While Shatner's recoil was cut, Spock's aghast reaction makes Kirk look down, still ashamed of himself.
• Valeris falls for a trap that exposes her as the mole. Spock is part of the trap. He tells her that logically she must shoot him to have a chance of getting away. She cannot bring herself to do it.
• The conspirators need to get rid of the magnetic boots, but can't throw them out or destroy them. Rather than let a random innocent be accused, they hide the boots in the locker of a crewman whose species' feet are so large and abnormally shaped (compared to humans) that it is flatly impossible that he could have worn them.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good : The first thing that throws a wrench into the conspirators' plan- they assumed that, with Kronos One bearing down on him preparing to fire with a snarling General Chang spitting vitriol at him, noted Military Maverick and Klingon-hater James T. Kirk would leap at the chance to fight the Klingons again. They underestimated Kirk's actual sense of duty and dedication to the ideals of the Federation, preferring to surrender if it was the only way to prevent a war.
• The Romulans are also involved, likely just to destabilize the other two major powers of the Alpha Quadrant.
• Evil Twin : Martia, the shapeshifter who takes on Kirk's shape during their fight.
• Explosive Overclocking : The Excelsior is really bookin' it to Khitomer in the climactic scene, with galactic peace hanging in the balance. (The entire ship is rumbling from exceeding maximum safe warp speed.) Sulu: In range? Helmsman: Not yet, sir. Sulu: Come on, come on! Helmsman: She'll fly apart! Sulu: Fly her apart, then!
• Valeris, for Saavik.
• In relation to Sherlock Holmes mysteries, Spock is Holmes and Chekov is his Watson.
• Eye-Dentity Giveaway : No matter which form she takes, Martia the shapeshifter keeps her eye color.
• Face Death with Dignity : Chang. Offering only a resigned, "to be, or not to be."
• Face Palm : Uhura's response to Chekov believing he has the culprit and missing the very obvious fact that their suspect can't fit in the incriminating boots.
• "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner : Chang : "To be..." ( seeker torpedo careens about on the view screen looking for a target) Chang : "Or not..." (seeker torpedo gets a bead on their ship's exhaust trail, bridge crew braces for impact) Chang : "To be...?" (seeker torpedo flies straight towards the viewscreen's point of view, Chang averts his gaze, the whole bridge explodes on the torpedo's impact)
• Faking Engine Trouble : Starfleet orders the Enterprise to return to Spacedock, but since Chancellor Gorkon's assassins are on board, to keep them from escaping the crew keep coming up with reasons not to return, at one point telling Starfleet Command the warp drive is malfunctioning.
• False Flag Operation : The two assassination attempts. General Chang's special Bird-of-Prey makes it look like the Enteprise fired on Kronos One . Towards the end, Colonel West disguises himself as a Klingon and attempts to shoot the Federation President.
• Fantastically Challenging Patient : When Bones tries to save the wounded Klingon Gorkon, he doesn't actually cut Gorkon open, but he does insert some sort of medical device into the open chest wound. As Bones points out while trying to treat Gorkon, Klingon anatomy is not the same as Human anatomy, and Bones has no medical training in helping Klingons. Gorkon ends up dying of his wounds .
• The film really runs with this, which even caused some behind the scenes problems for most of the cast. In the film, it provides Character Development for some, especially Kirk. He goes from " Let them die" and "I never could forgive them for the death of my boy," to "I was used to hating Klingons" and "Gorkon had to die before I realized how prejudiced I was." By the end Kirk realizes that while he didn't kill Gorkon, he had an indirect involvement in his murder due to his reputation. Gorkon's sincere wish for peace and imploring of Kirk to see it through with his last breath moves Kirk to re-evaluate the Klingons as a whole, as well as himself.
• With regards to the behind the scenes problems, according to director Nicholas Meyer, Brock Peters found Admiral Cartwright's words during the briefing scene to be so offensive he needed several takes to get them all out note  Though he was supportive of the message itself, and apparently agreed having his character voice it would add to the impact . In a similar vein, Nichelle Nichols refused to speak the line "Guess who's coming to dinner?" — an intentional reference to Guess Who's Coming to Dinner — which is heard prior to the Klingons' visit to the Enterprise . The line was instead given to Walter Koenig.
• Fate Worse than Death : Being sent to Rura Penthe . Uhura: (quietly) Rura Penthe? Chekov: Known throughout the galaxy as "The Aliens' Graveyard". Scotty: Better to kill 'em now and get it over with.
• Likewise — or at least during the original release in late 1991 — it was a foregone conclusion that Bones and Spock will at least both survive the events of the film given their crossover appearances decades later in TNG's Pilot episode and "Unification".
• While Kirk and Spock are arguing about the mission after the briefing, notice the figure standing in the shadows behind Kirk? It's Valeris, setting up her role in the movie.
• After the Klingon party leaves the transporter room, crewmen Burke and Samno make vaguely racist comments about the Klingons until Valeris starts bossing them around. All three are conspirators.
• Gorkon has a pretty good idea as to who betrayed him once the shooting starts.
• Spock and Scotty discuss the possibility that someone has hacked the Enterprise 's computers. Then Valeris slides down into the room.
• Kirk's Captain's Log entry about how much he hates Klingons is used against him at his trial. Who heard him recording that log? Valeris.
• One of the missing magnetic boots is found in Dax's locker, seemingly implicating him in the assassination...except his bizarre feet prove that he couldn't have worn it. Guess whose visibly dismayed look the camera focuses on. It's...well, you get it by now...
• Final Speech : Gorkon begs Kirk with his dying breath to save the peace process, leaving Kirk shocked by cognitive dissonance. It also serves as emphasis to the foreshadowing above. He knows Kirk didn't pull this stunt. Gorkon: [weakly] Don't let it end this way, Captain...
• Freeze-Frame Bonus : As Kirk declares that he needs to board Kronos One after the torpedo hits, watch Spock's right hand as he slips a viridium patch on Kirk's shoulder. It's easy to miss as you are likely to pay more attention to Kirk ordering Uhura to tell Kronos One that he is coming aboard to assist.
• From Bad to Worse : Disaster steadily builds throughout the film, with Kirk and Spock arguing over saving the Klingons, a drunken dinner that goes very badly, the Enterprise firing on the Klingon ship, a Kangaroo Court for Kirk and McCoy's trial, them only getting out thanks to a Bed Trick played on Kirk, and Spock having to Mind Rape Valeris, looking like he’d rather die than have to do it.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy : The Klingon border guards are shown to be quite amused at the crew's stumbling Klingon, but then make a weird joke about it and send them on their way anyway. The explanation didn't make its way into the movie, but basically they're just lazy ( and drunk ) and think the crew is part of a smuggling ring that's bribing them.
• Gender Is No Object : Scenes of the crew quarters aboard both Enterprise and Excelsior reveal that enlisted crew share bunk space regardless of gender, rather than having segregated male and female berths.
• General Ripper : Chang. And Admiral Cartwright too, it seems.
• The Girl Who Fits This Slipper : Subverted. The boots of the conspirators are found in the locker of Crewman Dax ( no relation )... who has large webbed feet that don't fit. Chekov: Perhaps you know Russian epic of Cinderella ? If shoe fits, wear it. [drops magnetic boot at Dax's feet and smiles triumphantly] Spock: Mr. Chekov... [gestures at Dax's decidedly nonhuman feet. Uhura facepalms.]
• Glass Cannon : Chang's Bird-of-Prey may be able to use its weapons while cloaked, but it still can't use shields at the same time. Although it's able to do quite a lot of damage to both the Enterprise -A and Excelsior while they're unable to effectively fight back, once they do pinpoint its location, they make short work of it.
• Godwin's Law : Kirk makes a comparison between the Klingon's request for "living space" with Hitler's demands for Lebensraum at the diplomatic dinner (whilst not being very diplomatic). Needlessly to say, this comparison goes down really really badly. Becomes worse when the two Klingons most likely to get it are the traitorous conspiratorial one obsessed with Earth culture and the one who had probably done his research on their planet and history for the forthcoming peace talks. I.e. the two worst of the group to offend with the comparison. However, the latter understood Kirk's old prejudice perfectly and didn't hold it against him, and the former probably goaded Kirk to say that.
• Got Volunteered : Kirk and the Enterprise are volunteered to escort Chancellor Gorkon to the peace conference without his knowledge, with Spock "personally vouching" for him. He is not amused. Spock: I have personally vouched for you in this matter, Captain. Kirk: You have personally vouched...? [...] How could you vouch for me? That's...arrogant presumption.
• Grand Finale : Advertised as such, with Star Trek: The Next Generation going strong and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in development, this movie was intended as a swan song and made explicit in the end. The following Trek movie Star Trek: Generations serves as more of a coda for Kirk.
• Groin Attack : Kirk gets in a fight with a big blue alien and ends it by kicking the alien in the knee. Or so he thinks. Martia: That was not his knee. [beat, Kirk and McCoy look confused] Martia: Not everybody keeps their genitals in the same place, Captain. Kirk: Anything you wanna tell me? Martia: [big grin]
• Gunship Rescue : Downplayed, as the Excelsior arriving on the scene in the climax doesn't do much more than give Chang another target (although it does take some heat off the battered Enterprise ). Once they find a way around the cloak, however, their combined firepower makes short work of the Bird-of-Prey. Sulu: Target that explosion and fire .
• William Shatner vs. Christopher Plummer. The survivors likely envy the dead.
• At one point it's Shatner vs. Shatner, which reaches hamageddon levels. Kirk: I can't believe I kissed you. Martia-as-Kirk: Must have been your life-long ambition!
• Hangover Sensitivity : Poor Chekov is visibly struggling to make it through his bridge watch after the Romulan Ale-soaked diplomatic dinner; prompting Kirk to grumble about his own hangover.
• Hard-Work Montage : The crew of the Enterprise searching for uniforms with Klingon blood.
• The Heavy : General Chang is the most prominent antagonist for the Enterprise , but he is really only the enforcer of an interstellar conspiracy, not its leader. It's not even clear if he is the most highly-ranked Klingon who is party to it, or which side initiated the conspiracy in the first place.
• Heel Realization : Kirk realizing his intolerance of the Klingons made him the perfect patsy for Chancellor Gorkon's assassination . During his prison stay, Gorkon's last words haunt him as well. Kirk: Gorkon had to die before I realized how prejudiced I was.
• He Knows Too Much : The assassins are killed before they can be discovered and interrogated. Valeris is nearly killed herself at the end, when she's presented as evidence against the conspiracy, but Scotty shoots the would-be assassin first.
• High-Tech Hexagons : Sulu's tea table on the Excelsior 's bridge is an illuminated oblique hexagonal prism. note  Behind-the-scenes, this helped mask one of the gimbals used to shake the bridge set.
• His Name Is... : The warden of Rura Penthe engages in a little Just Between You and Me with Kirk and McCoy , but an inopportune rescue by Spock ruins the reveal.
• Hoist by His Own Petard : Kirk and McCoy would have never escaped if Chang hadn’t ordered the Gulag warden to help them escape. Instead, Kirk and McCoy would have simply languished in prison, the Enterprise would have been waiting around in Klingon space for nothing, the Federation President’s assassination would have gone on as planned, and Chang and his crew would have lived... at least until the Federation–Klingon War.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs : Colonel West: ...Now, we have the technology to— President Ra-ghoratreii: Yes, yes I know. But suppose you precipitate a full-scale war? Colonel West: Then quite frankly, Mr. President, we can clean their chronometers * clocks .
• Homage : The speech that the warden gives Kirk and McCoy upon their entry to Rura Penthe is a paraphrase of Colonel Saito's speech to captured British P.O.W.s in The Bridge on the River Kwai . For comparison: Colonel Saito: If you work hard, you will be treated well. But if you do not work hard, you will be punished! A word to you about escape. There is no barbed wire, no stockade, no watchtower. They are not necessary. We are an island in the jungle. Escape is impossible. You would die. Rura Penthe Warden: This is the gulag Rura Penthe. There is no stockade. No guard tower. No electronic frontier. Only a magnetic shield prevents beaming. Punishment means exile from prison, to the surface. On the surface, nothing can survive. Work well, and you will be treated well. Work badly, and you will die.
• Spock's briefing indicates that saving Qo'noS is economically impossible for the Klingon Empire, which spends far too much on the military, not that it's technologically impossible, echoing a common understanding of reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union. With the peace treaty and eventual integration into the Federation, saving Qo'noS presumably became a more realistic prospect.
• Homing Projectile : Enterprise is only able to counterattack Chang's cloaked Bird of Prey by mounting equipment for gaseous anomaly tracking into a photon torpedo's guidance system. Once launched, the torpedo follows the invisible trail of plasma exhaust from the Bird of Prey's impulse engines until it hits its target.
• Honor Before Reason : General Chang hailing Captain Kirk before attacking counts as this as well, as he risked sacrificing the element of surprise to do so even considering his ship's advanced cloaking device. Then again, he considers Kirk a Worthy Opponent and presumably saw it fitting to formally challenge him before engaging him.
• Human Outside, Alien Inside : As Bones points out while trying to treat Gorkon, Klingon anatomy is not the same as Human anatomy, and Bones has no medical training in helping Klingons. Gorkon ends up dying of his wounds.
• Valeris argues that the Klingons are untrustworthy because they've conspired with the Federation to assassinate their own chancellor, when that very same conspiracy plans to assassinate the Federation president. Not to mention the fact that she herself is in on the conspiracy...
• Azetbur accuses the Federation of this in her Inhumanable Alien Rights rant, saying they profess a dedication to equality but are really a " Homo sapiens only " club. Another Klingon immediately acknowledges the presence of Spock, who is half-Vulcan (and identifies as Vulcan rather than human). But then again, getting into the reasons why Spock serves with a human crew and not a Vulcan crew wouldn't help the Federation's case either.
• I Did What I Had to Do : Spock's reaction to the forced mindmeld with Valeris is made entirely of this trope.
• Identical Grandson : Michael Dorn portrays Colonel Worf, the grandfather and namesake of his TNG -era character. There was going to be a scene showing Colonel Worf talking with his young son, Mogh, but it was unfortunately cut. Downplayed in that the make-up for Dorn was significantly different than the TNG Worf note  TNG Klingon make-up generally enlarged the size of their head with large crests, whereas Klingons in this film were more subdued which in turn makes it more of a family resemblance than actually being identical.
• IKEA Weaponry : The sniper rifle used at the conference.
• Inciting Incident : The Praxis explosion and resulting Planar Shockwave .
• Inconvenient Summons : Kirk and McCoy are caught by the warden of Rura Penthe trying to escape, and are about to be executed, so Kirk figures he might as well ask who's behind the conspiracy. The warden decides to oblige. Hilarity Ensues . Kirk: "Killed while trying to escape." McCoy : Damned clever if you ask me. Kirk : It's a classic. Klingon Warden : That's what he wanted. Kirk : Who? Who wanted us killed? Klingon Warden : Since you're all going to die anyway, why not tell you ? His Name Is... Enterprise : (transporter beam!) Kirk: [dematerializing] Oh! Not... SON OF A... Klingons : [start shooting futilely] Kirk : [rematerializing back on the Enterprise ] OF A BI... BI... BI... Dammit to hell! Of all the... son of a... Couldn't you have waited two seconds? Spock : [utterly perplexed] Captain...? Kirk : He was just about to explain the whole thing! Chekov : You vant to go beck!? McCoy : Absolutely not! Kirk : ...It's cold!
• I Need a Freaking Drink : Just after the diplomatic dinner on the Enterprise , McCoy leaves the transporter room proclaiming, "I'm going to go find a pot of black coffee." Ironically, he's already drunk at the time, making this "I need to sober up" .
• Instant Emergency Response : Valeris firing a phaser set to disinergrate not only sets off an alarm, but summons security along with half the ship.
• Though it has been pointed out that the Germans made the same claim in the 1930s and that in conjunction with Chang's echoing of Nazi talking points was an intentional choice to by the production staff to lead into Kirk's retort.
• Likewise, Spock's deadpan humor is on display when he says that "Only Nixon could go to China" is an "old Vulcan proverb."
• Spock gets in another one when he quotes Sherlock Holmes as something an ancestor of his said. Either he's saying a Vulcan had the same thought, or he's related to Arthur Conan Doyle on his mother's side.
• Chekov gets one more "invented in Russia" gag in this, the final TOS movie. Chekov: Perhaps you have heard Russian epic of Cinderella ? If shoe fits, wear it!
• Incoming! : Chekov when the Bird-of-Prey is blasting away at them. Rather than shouting it, he mutters it with resignation .
• Incoming Ham : "I can see you, Kirk. Can you see me?"
• Invisibility Flicker : Klingon warships have to decloak before they can fire. Except Chang's. Even then, the exception is briefly lit up by its own torpedoes every time it fires one.
• Several times Valeris asks Spock, "A lie?" and he responds that it is something else (e.g. "An error"). After she is caught as a traitor , he asks her, "A lie?" and she responds, "A choice." Which is a callback to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan : Saavik: You lied? Spock: I exaggerated.
• When Kirk and Chang first meet, Chang says "I've always wanted to meet you, Captain. One warrior to another?" Later, during Chang's Incoming Ham moment he says, "Now be honest Captain, warrior to warrior. You do prefer it this way, don't you? No peace in our time, as it was meant to be." His last sentence is also a Call-Back to Kirk calling him out on demanding "breathing room" earlier via Godwin's Law .
• Ironic Echo Cut : Spock: "If I know the Captain, by this time, he is deep into planning his escape." Cut to Kirk getting the crap kicked out of him in a prison brawl.
• Irony : The conspiracy to prevent Klingon/Federation cooperation proves Klingon/Federation cooperation is possible.
• Kirk believes this, for not taking Gorkon at his word, and also for his prejudice as a whole against Klingons.
• Spock blames himself for being too idealistic and putting Kirk in a nearly untenable position, and for being blinded by pride for his protege, who turned out to be a traitor .
• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine : William Shatner was once Christopher Plummer's understudy. Here they play enemies.
• General Chang was actually confused over his silverware napkin roll until he watched the Federation delegation use theirs.
• Jerkass Has a Point : The Klingon ambassador is an ass, but even Sarek has to admit that he's correct in his legal interpretation that the Klingons have every right to try Captain Kirk and Doctor McCoy for Gorkon's assassination. Of course, that was General Chang's plan all along.
• Just Between You and Me : Subverted; Kirk and McCoy are beamed out before the warden can give them a name.
• Kangaroo Court : Kirk and McCoy's "trial". At least their defense lawyer (Worf's Identical Grandfather and namesake, Colonel Worf) is actually trying. Indeed, his efforts are likely the only reason they aren't executed immediately.
• The Kingslayer : The assassination of Klingon Chancellor Gorkon threatens to derail the burgeoning peace process between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. While Kirk initially takes the fall for it, Spock launches an investigation aboard the Enterprise to find the two hitmen, which he does... though only after they've been killed to protect the rest of the conspirators.
• Kirk Summation : Happens one last time. Kirk and Spock set a trap for The Mole on the Enterprise sabotaging peace talks between the Klingon Empire and the Federation. Spock sees it's Valeris. Spock: You have to shoot. ( Valeris stares in shock ) Spock: If you are logical, you have to shoot. Valeris: ( pause ) I do not wish to . ( Spock gets out of of the biobed and imposes himself at Valeris, daring her to shoot him square in the chest ) Spock: What you want is irrelevant , what you've chosen is at hand ! Kirk: (popping up out of another biobed) I'd just as soon you didn't. ( Spock angrily smacks the phaser from Valeris' hands ) McCoy : (emerging from shadows) The operation is over.
• Large Ham : Christopher Plummer as Chang, rivaling even Khan. Lampshaded when McCoy exclaims, "I'd give real money if he'd shut up."
• Laser Cutter : The prisoners on Rura Penthe are shown using laser guns to burn away the rock around dilithium crystals.
• Latex Perfection : The Klingon assassin is Starfleet's Colonel West with some rubber on his forehead .
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall : The TOS cast was aware that this would be their last story together, and it shows in the film.
• Lensman Arms Race : The Fire-While-Cloaking device is a game-changer, allowing klingon ships to not even need to decloak to engage a target. A klingon warship so equipped could simply fire just one torpedo and move to another position to become untouchable, as the Enterprise and Excelsior experienced. Unfortunately, it was doomed before the end of its first real engagement: Not only did peace breaking out make it unneeded, but Starfleet ingenuity developed a hard counter on the fly with off-the-shelf parts in the first engagement by adapting gaseous anomaly cataloguing sensors to a photon torpedo guidance system , homing in on the impulse exhaust trail that not even cloaked ships can avoid emitting.
• Lethal Harmless Powers : Even when set on "stun", a phaser can be deadly at extreme close range. Yeomen Burke and Samno find this out the hard way.
• Like a Surgeon : The modification of a torpedo to target a cloaked ship is treated like a surgery, mainly to justify McCoy assisting Spock with it and to toss in some jokes.
• Literary Allusion Title : To William Shakespeare . Allusions to Shakespeare were a regular occurrence in episode titles in The Original Series . The Undiscovered Country was likely intended to be a nod to tradition. Gorkon's Title Drop during the dinner on board the Enterprise directly references this allusion.
• Macross Missile Massacre : Once Chang's Bird-of-Prey is revealed, the Enterprise and the Excelsior torpedo the hell out of her until she explodes. Downplayed, as it's something like a total of seven torpedoes.
• Magic A Is Magic A : It's once again emphasized that a bird-of-prey must decloak before it can attack. The existence of a bird-of-prey that isn't so limited is a major game-changer and a dire threat that our heroes are scrambling to overcome.
• Make It Look Like an Accident : Subverted. Once outside the Rura Penthe shield, Kirk notes that they couldn't just have himself and McCoy killed in an "accident". Martia clarifies that an accident would have only been reasonable for one, so the conspirators required a more "convincing" alternative. Kirk: An accident wasn't good enough. Martia: Good enough for one. Two would have looked suspicious. Killed while [transforms into Kirk] attempting to escape? Now that's convincing for both .
• Make Sure He's Dead : Part of Kirk's effort in Bluffing the Murderer . Valeris is forced to enter sick bay in order to "finish" the job of "killing" Burke and Samno, who are actually already dead.
• Make the Bear Angry Again : A Recycled In Space variant.
• Sulu and everyone else on the Excelsior bridge at the beginning, when they see the Praxis Shockwave hurtling towards the ship: Sulu: My... God! Shields! SHIELDS!
• The entire senior staff of the Enterprise has one at around midnight, all severely hung over (Except perhaps Spock). Spock talks about a peculiar sensor signature, they all commiserate about their hangovers... and then a torpedo comes seemingly out of the Enterprise and slams into Kronos One . Kirk: What's happened?! Spock: We have fired on the Chancellor's ship! (Bridge crew all start scrambling at their stations to assess the situation)
• When Kirk's log entry, in which he says "I have never trusted Klingons, and I never will..." is played in the trial, everybody in the Federation realizes how screwed Kirk and McCoy are now. (Not to mention revealing that The Mole is aboard the Enterprise .)
• Chang and his crew slowly gets this look all over their faces during the finale when the Enterprise fires out the Homing Projectile that gradually works its way toward them...
• Meaningful Name : "Praxis" is an accepted custom or practice. When the Klingon moon Praxis is obliterated, it makes the Klingon Empire reconsider their longtime hostilities with the Federation, making them do the same towards them.
• Metaphorically True : Spock says that his lies are "An error" and "An omission." Valeris then says that her lie is "A choice."
• In the novelization, it's very different: Valeris is terrified by the knowledge that Spock could force his way into her mind with his superior mental training, but Spock doesn't do this. He gently inquires telepathically and she is so relieved that she yields without resistance. As to whether the threat of mind rape is morally superior to actual mind rape, YMMV.
• In a promotional interview for the film, Cattrall revealed that her character and Nimoy's have a mind meld, and then crowed "I got to have safe sex with Mr. Spock!" Um...yeah, not so much.
• It has to be added that the actual scene is not as bad as this exchange makes it sound. Nimoy's acting make it painfully apparent that it isn't something Spock takes on lightly, and he is almost as badly affected as Valeris. His voice cracks badly as he delivers the information ( especially when concluding after deep-digging that she doesn't know the conference's location), and he is clearly struggling to hold it together himself.
• The Mole : Valeris.
• Mood Whiplash : Kirk and his officers are on the bridge, struggling to make it through their shift while in the grip of a Romulan ale hangover, when a photon torpedo suddenly hits Qo'noS One .
• Morton's Fork : Chang gets Kirk to admit that he's disobeyed orders in the past, then asks him if he was either obeying or disobeying orders when he arranged the assassination of the Chancellor. Such a blatant trap is easily avoided by Kirk (he cannot speak to actions he did not witness), but in turn allows Chang to lead him into admitting that he would be responsible if his men were involved (which they were).
• Murder by Inaction : Kirk refuses to help the Klingon by proclaiming they can just die for all he cares.
• Spock has this aura to him after he Mind Rapes Valeris to get the information to spot the Presidential assassination.
• In a more minor example, Kirk has this reaction after he bites out "LET them die!", especially when the words are later thrown back in his face by Valeris .
• The novelization, at least, provides a slightly more rational explanation for why they were scrambling to look up Klingon phrases in old paper books, instead of using the Universal Translator — namely, that the same saboteur(s) who had altered the ship's logs to make it look like the Enterprise had fired on the Chancellor's ship also wiped the Klingon language data from the memory banks to keep the Enterprise from crossing Klingon space without giving themselves away as soon as someone tried to establish communications with them. The books were part of Uhura's personal collection, not part of the ship's library, so the saboteur presumably didn't know about them, or didn't have any opportunity to destroy them.
• Nichelle Nichols has previously pointed out the obvious logical flaw about the scene: Given that Uhura was the ship's communications officer, and that the Klingon Empire was a hostile foreign power, she would have learned the Klingon language as part of her training. It simply makes no sense that Starfleet would send the Enterprise on such a delicate diplomatic mission without proper preparation.
• Worf's Identical Grandfather .
• Bones' exasperated, "What is it with you?!'' after Kirk kisses Martia . Kirk: Still think we're finished? Bones: More than ever.
• This exchange: Kirk: I can't believe I kissed you! Martia (as Kirk): Must have been your life-long ambition!
• Near-Villain Victory : The Big Bad nearly destroys the Enterprise and the conspirators nearly succeed in assassinating the Federation President, but the Excelsior helps buy the Enterprise time to complete its Plasma-Seeking Torpedo to find and kill Chang so they can get to the planet in time to save the day .
• Never Trust a Trailer : Trailers for the movie showcased a scene of Kirk getting phasered and vaporizing . Turns out it was just a shape-shifter . Also, the shot used in the trailer lasts a lot longer than the near-instant fate of the character involved.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain : Kirk and McCoy wouldn't have been able to escape Rura Penthe if not for the villains' plot to engineer an escape attempt to have an excuse to kill them.
• No Gravity for You : One Klingon tactic involves doing this to an entire boarded ship.
• No-Paper Future : Subverted when Uhura is trying to pass for a Klingon ship at Morskika Post. Since she can’t use the Universal Translator , she and the crew flip through Klingon books to formulate a proper Klingon response.
• No, You : When Admiral Cartwright demands the crew of the Enterprise arrested for crashing the Khitomer Conference, Spock responds by saying, "Arrest yourself!" while holding up Valeris, revealing to him that they know everything .
• No OSHA Compliance : This is cited as one of the reasons for Praxis exploding. Overmining and under-regulation turned it into a disaster waiting to happen, just like its real-life inspiration .
• Noble Bigot : Despite their grievances against the Klingons, the Enterprise crew, including Kirk, who initially was unable to forgive the Klingons for his son's death , still pursue their crusade for interstellar peace between Starfleet and the Klingons.
• Brigadier Kerla's voice is full of panic when trying to communicate to the Excelsior and telling them not to intervene.
• Spock is legitimately angry when Valeris is revealed to be The Mole and it shows when he slaps the phaser out of her hand with a clear look of anger on his face.
• Official Presidential Transport : The Klingon battlecruiser that carries Chancellor Gorkon to the rendezvous with the Enterprise is Kronos One ( Qo'noS Wa '), Kronos (also rendered as Qo'noS) being the name of the Klingon homeworld.
• That Ominous Klingon Chanting is actually Hamlet's To be, or not to be? in its original Klingon .
• KIRK! KIRK! KIRK! KIRK! KIRK! KIRK!
• Kirk gets two of them during the movie: Once, when McCoy tells him that he doesn't know anything about the Chancellor's anatomy, let alone if the Klingon leader will live, and the second when he is being questioned and Chang forces him to admit to guilt by association in the Chancellor's death.
• When Crewman Dax is questioned about the assassination after the gravity boots were found on his locker, the crew realize his webbed feet cannot possibly fit into those boots. Cut to Valeris having a dismayed reaction on her face. We later find out that she too was in the plot, and her face was actually a very subdued Oh, Crap! when she realizes Burke and Samno clumsily disposed of evidence that can now be used against (potentially) all three of them. This sets her off to kill both Burke and Samno in an effort to hide her role in the assassination. She gets another one of these moments when she is exposed as The Mole in Sick Bay.
• Chang has a brief moment when Enterprise fires the torpedo that can home in on his ship...but rather than freak out about it, he decides to Face Death with Dignity .
• Admiral Cartwright has this expression when Spock shows up with Valeris in tow, as the whole conspiracy is about to be revealed. And then again when he tries to book it , only for Captain Sulu and two of his men to beam down with phasers drawn, cutting off his escape.
• Older and Wiser : The TOS crew by this time. Spock shows this in his private conversation with Valeris: Spock: History is replete with turning points, Lieutenant. You must have faith. Valeris: Faith? Spock: That the universe will unfold as it should. Valeris: But is that logical? Surely we must— Spock: Logic, logic, logic ... logic is the beginning of wisdom, Valeris, not the end.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations : Kirk and Spock's chat before the final battle. Kirk is regretting that his distrust towards Klingons made him the perfect patsy for the assassination and made refuse to see Gorkon as earnest, while Spock is beating himself up about being too biased towards Valeris and her achievements to notice her hidden agenda. .
• Only One Finds It Fun : When McCoy is on the witness stand during the trial, he is asked about his medical status. He answers, "Aside from a touch of arthritis, I'd say pretty good." One Klingon laughs, but everyone else is silent.
• Only One Plausible Suspect : Towards the end of the movie we discover there's a traitor aboard the Enterprise . Since the movie has only one major character among the Enterprise crew who's not a series regular , it's not very hard to guess who the traitor could be. If they'd gone with the original plan for Valeris to be Saavik instead it might have been harder to predict, not to mention considerably more shocking.
• Only Sane Man : Chancellor Gorkon.
• The Klingon miner on Praxis shouting for help just before the moon's explosion. In the novelization , Sulu reflects that he's never seen abject terror on a Klingon's face before and never thought he would.
• Later, when he's about to interrogate Valeris via a non-consensual mind-meld , he roughly yanks her around to face him, and pulls her close when she tries to get away.
• When Kronos One recovers from the attack it turns around ready to attack the Enterprise , with Chang vowing revenge. Kirk immediately surrenders rather than raise shields, as submitting to them is the only course of action to continue peace talks. The crew knows the reasons why, but are stunned because this is Captain James Tiberius Kirk surrendering to the enemy.
• Orbital Shot : The forced Mind Meld.
• Our Presidents Are Different : President Target of the United Federation of Planets and Chancellor Target of the Klingon Empire.
• Kirk surrendering the fight when the Klingon ship recovers and prepares to return fire. The Enterprise almost certainly would have won, but in doing so would have kicked off a war between the two powers (undoubtedly the conspirators' plan). He is doing everything possible to keep the chance for peace alive after what happened. Uhura's response says it all. Kirk: Signal our surrender. Uhura: Captain!? Kirk: We surrender!
• Spock is legitimately hurt and angry over Valeris' betrayal, and makes no attempts to hide it. Even throwing logic in her face by outright daring her to shoot him. You can see the scorn on his face as he slaps the phaser out of her hand.
• During the climax as the conspirators are preparing to kill the Federation president, one of them, Admiral Cartright , is shown with sweat soaking his face.
• One of the engineers in the Enterprise 's engine room is dripping nervously as well, as an invisible foe is probably lurking around Khitomer, waiting to tear the Enterprise apart.
• Peace Conference : The First Khitomer Accord, ending decades of hostility between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner : Sulu: Target that explosion and fire.
• Precision F-Strike : Though remarkably tame, it is certainly one for Spock after hearing the Enterprise is to be decommissioned : Spock: If I were human, I believe my response would be, "go to hell." ... If I were human.
• Prevent the War : The Enterprise 's crew has to figure out the plot to assassinate Gorkon and jail Kirk in order to save the peace conference and stop war from breaking out.
• Properly Paranoid : In a subtle moment, Spock refuses to explain how Enterprise will be able to track Kirk and McCoy , only that they can, no doubt holding his cards close to the vest since he knows Enterprise has a mole on board. As it turns out, he's standing in front of the mole without even realizing it, making any such paranoia even more justified.
• Public Domain Canon Welding : Hinted at when Spock states that, "An ancestor of mine maintained that when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." This is, of course, a Sherlock Holmes quote. Since Holmes is established as fictional in other Star Trek media, fans usually interpret this as Spock declaring himself to be a descendant of Arthur Conan Doyle via his mother.
• Questionable Consent : The book makes it more explicit that Martia pushes themself on Kirk, kissing and “spooning”, and he doesn’t resist due to wanting to get out of there, but still feels sick whenever they touch him or leer after.
• Realpolitik : Kirk is among the more skeptical officers when it came to the Klingon peace treaty, but is volunteered by Spock to lead the first diplomatic envoy. The fact Kirk was anti-Klingon was being used to give legitimacy to the peace talks, a more compliant officer would have made the Klingons question their commitment and the Federation would worry about being too submissive. When Kirk objects, Spock quotes an Old Vulcan Proverb "Only Nixon could go to China," making it absolutely clear what the movie was trying to reference.
• Recycled In Space : Although the theme of the movie is an allegory for the end of the Cold War , the plot is basically the trope Make the Bear Angry Again (a popular plot in contemporary thrillers) applied to the Klingon empire.
• Revenge Before Reason : Kirk certainly walks the line at first. Kirk: They're animals! Spock: Jim, there is an historic opportunity here. Kirk: Don't believe them! Don't trust them! Spock: They're dying. Kirk: Let them die!
• Revision : This is the first Trek production to establish "Chancellor" as the title of the leader of the Klingon empire — in the second-to-fourth seasons of TNG note  chronologically after this film, of course, but made and released before it , Klingon leaders K'mpec and Gowron had been referred to only as "Leader of the High Council". note  In fact, the title of chancellor wouldn't resurface until DS9 's The Way Of The Warrior . It's also the first time the Klingon homeworld is named as "Qo'nos" (Kronos); an early TNG episode had previously suggested it was called " Kling ".
• After Gorkon and his staff leave the transporter room on the Enterprise, the two Starfleet security officers left behind begin talking to each other about how disgusting the Klingons are , only to be brought up short by a disapproving Valeris who tells them to get on with their work. Watching it with the knowledge that these two, Burke and Samno, would be the assassins of Gorkon and Valeris is their superior in the conspiracy means that what Valeris actually means is "Stop clowning around making yourselves look suspicious and get ready to carry out your mission".
• After it's shown that Crewman Dax, whose locker the magnetic boot was found in, couldn't possibly have been the one who wore it, we cut to Valeris, who has a look of obvious dismay on her face. Knowing the above point about her role in the conspiracy, it's likely she was thinking "Those idiots !"
• Riding into the Sunset : In this case, going to warp toward a nearby star. Or Neverland , as Kirk alludes.
• Rousing Speech : Kirk, in the aftermath of averting the assassination, though it's rather more poignant than rousing. Azetbur: What's happened? What's the meaning of all this? Kirk: It's about the future, Madam Chancellor. Some people think the future means the end of history. But we haven't run out of history just yet. Your father called the future "the undiscovered country." People can be very frightened of change. (Azetbur glances at Lt. Valeris held in Spock's custody) Azetbur: You've restored my father's faith. Kirk: And you've restored my son's.
• Running Gag : Multiple people come charging into the galley wondering why a phaser discharge alarm sounded in there after Valeris demonstrates to Chekov how the assassins couldn't simply vaporize their incriminating footwear with a phaser; Uhura, Scotty, a security offer decked out in armor with his own phaser in hand... Chekov spends the rest of the scene having to tell everyone it's alright each time it happens. It does conveniently bring Uhura down with news about Starfleet Command's increasingly demanding order to return to port, as well as Scotty so Spock can solve the problem by order him to "have trouble with the warp drive" .
• Scenery Porn : The aerial shot of Kirk, McCoy and Martia trudging across the wastes of Rura Penthe (in actuality the Knik Glacier in Alaska) is stunning.
• Praxis must be really close to the neutral zone in order for the Excelsior to have been caught in the Planar Shockwave . (It is said to be a subspace shockwave rather than a plain old STL shockwave.)
• The Excelsior is said to be returning home on impulse power, which is unlikely unless they were already near their destination (or taking some time to perform maintenance on their warp drive). It would take years to travel between stars at sublight speeds note  The distances are so great, in fact, that any sublight travel is, effectively, not traveling at all compared to warp speed . This is likely out of necessity to the plot as it would be the ship being hit by the Planar Shockwave . note  During production of Star Trek: The Next Generation , there were a lot of shots of the Enterprise -D on impulse power, and a behind-the-scenes Technical Manual explained that warp speeds can only be sustained for periods of time before they need to drop out of warp and recalibrate. The producers indicated that warp effects were actually expensive to produce which is why these stock impulse shots were used. Presumably the Excelsior needs to do this as well, given that it is an earlier vessel than the Enterprise -D.
• The image is obvious CG. It’s not an actual photo of Praxis, but a computer representation of what remains of Praxis given various data available from the sensors.
• Screen Shake : Present as usual for Trek — and also enforced , as the bridge sets were built on gimbals to allow them to actually shake.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here : Admiral Cartwright tries to high-tail it as The Plan to assassinate President Ra-ghoratreii falls apart — only to run into Captain Sulu and his team, phasers at the ready.
• See the Invisible : Once the plasma-homing torpedo hits Chang's Bird-of-Prey, the Excelsior and the Enterprise are able to target the resulting explosion. Their continued fire soon knocks out the cloaking shield, rendering the Bird-of-Prey visible just before it comes apart.
• Shapeshifting Squick : Kirk is a little weirded out when the female alien he made out with shows up as a furry male alien. McCoy : What kind of creature is this? Last night, you two were— Kirk: Don't remind me.
• Ship Tease : Very subtly between Spock and Valeris, reflected in their UST-filled nightcap and his emotional response to her betrayal. This is likely a remnant of the original script, which was to have the established character of Saavik instead of Valeris (reflecting the fact Spock and Saavik were strongly implied to have mated in Star Trek III and a deleted scene in Star Trek IV had established that Saavik was pregnant with Spock's child; in the Expanded Universe novels, Spock and Saavik eventually marry.)
• The last line before the final voice over is a reference to the 1953 Disney film Peter Pan (the directions to Neverland). Kirk: Second star to the right ... and straight on till morning.
• To Sherlock Holmes , when Spock says, "One of my ancestors once said, 'When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'" Gene Roddenberry had established as part of Spock's Backstory that Arthur Conan Doyle , creator of Sherlock Holmes, was one of Spock's ancestors on his mother's side.
• Chang's demand that Kirk not wait for the translation of a question, but answer it immediately, is straight from an earlier (pre-TOS, in fact) US-Soviet confrontation, the Cuban Missile Crisis . In that case, it was Adlai Stevenson insisting that the Soviet delegate to the UN answer simply yes or no as to whether they were putting missiles in Cuba.
• The Warden's speech is almost a word-for-word paraphrasing of Saito's "There is no escape" speech from The Bridge on the River Kwai .
• The Translation Convention device listed below that demonstrates the Klingons at Kirk and McCoy 's trial are speaking their own language through interpreters. A very similar device was used several decades earlier in the 1961 film Judgment at Nuremberg (which incidentally featured a young William Shatner in a supporting role).
• Rura Penthe shares its name with the penal colony from the 1954 film adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea .
• Its very title is from Hamlet : "[D]eath — the undiscovered country, from whose bourne/No traveler returns". (III.i)
• Martia: I thought I would assume a pleasing shape.
• Gorkon: A toast. To the undiscovered country — the future!
• Chang: To be... or not... to be...
• Chang: Have we not heard the chimes at midnight? note  A slight misquote converting the original play's statement, "We have heard the chimes at midnight..." into a question.
• Chang: Once more unto the breach, dear friends.
• Chang: The game's afoot.
• Chang: Cry havoc! And let slip the dogs of war!
• Chang: I am constant as the northern star. note  Bones: I'd give real money if he'd shut up .
• Chang: Tickle us, do we not laugh? Prick us, do we not bleed? Wrong us, shall we not revenge? note  He abbreviates the delivery a bit and leaves out "Kill us, do we not die?".
• Chang: Let us sit upon the grass and tell sad stories of the death of kings.
• Chang: Parting is such sweet sorrow.
• Chang: Our revels now are ended.
• Silent Whisper : Right after the bodies of Chancellor Gorkon's killers are found, Kirk takes Spock aside and they have an inaudible conversation. At the end Spock says, "Possible." It turns out to be an idea to lure the killers' killer out.
• Sixth Ranger Traitor : Valeris.
• Slasher Smile : William Shatner gives a great one as Martia!Kirk, when saying, "killed while trying to escape."
• Slow Clap : After Kirk saves the peace summit, the participants all start up. Including the "Ass" in Ambassador who hates him.
• Snowy Screen of Death : From what's left of Praxis, followed by a transmission from Brigadier Kerla saying that everything's under control .
• So Once Again, the Day Is Saved : Having saved the Federation so many times, the TOS crew can joke about it: Kirk: Once again, we've saved civilization as we know it. McCoy : And the good news is, they're not going to prosecute!
• Space Cold War : One of the more blatant allegories to come out of this period.
• Nothing new to Trek , but this movie subtly does a lot to give the feeling that the Enterprise is a naval vessel in space, right down to the computerized ship's bell dinging in a few scenes.
• Even moreso for this movie's Bird-of-Prey, which is the only one in the entire franchise to use a large ship's wheel at the helm.
• The explosion of Praxis sends out the space equivalent of a tsunami, which happens to be at the exact height in space to hit the Excelsior .
• The climactic battle gives the impression of two surface warships attempting to hunt down an enemy submarine. It does have 3D aspects, as enemy fire comes from all directions and heights. No one ever saw, for instance, the saucer section of the Enterprise being struck from below . The torpedo tearing through the saucer is inspired by cannonballs tearing through wooden ships.
• If ships having to uncloak to attack are like a diesel submarine needing to surface for air and to run the engines, then a ship that can fire while cloaked is like a nuclear submarine, with no need to surface at all. Thus, the gas-seeking photon torpedo is like an acoustically-guided anti-sub torpedo.
• Azetbur's ascension to the Klingon Chancellery also ends up being a major wrench in the conspiracy. She continues the Gorkon initative rather than abandon it out of vengeance or wrath against the Federation for her father's murder. This, combined with Colonel Worf's defense, results in the Klingon Judge commuting Kirk and McCoy's death sentences to life imprisonment during the Trial in the interest of the peace process. Look closely at Chang's reaction after the Judge's commutation; he's not happy, and knows this has just made things more complicated for the conspirators.
• Spot the Imposter : The reason Martia is able to escape is the same reason the Warden is able to figure out she isn't Kirk when he kills her: she took off her leg cuffs. Of course, given the Warden's plans for Kirk and McCoy , it wouldn't matter if he chose wrong anyways. There are a couple other giveaways as well: Martia always has gold eyes, and she points above Kirk instead of at him, since she is used to being shorter than him.
• State Visit : In the aftermath of the Praxis explosion, the Federation extends an invitation to the chancellor of the Klingon Empire to come to Earth to initiate negotiations that would result in the end of the Space Cold War .
• Standard Female Grab Area : Spock to Valeris when they mind-meld and after she's revealed as the traitor .
• Sticky Shoes : The assassins boarding Kronos One after the artificial gravity is disabled wear magnetic boots, allowing them to calmly stomp around shooting everyone in their path as they flail about helplessly.
• The scene where the Enterprise glides towards the spacedock doors is a reuse of the "zoom in on Enterprise " shot from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , just with the Excelsior removed and the background tint changed to blue.
• The second trailer has a minor scene from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , of the Enterprise getting shot by a torpedo.
• The Excelsior racing at top speed and the Klingon Bird-of-Prey exploding are re-used as stock footage in the next movie, Star Trek: Generations .
• Suicide by Cop : The book has Kirk briefly consider suicide by fighting with Klingons, as it’s preferable to retiring and dying an old man in bed, before deciding he can’t drag his crew down with him.
• Kirk and his officers are visibly hung over at their bridge shift after drinking too much Romulan ale — until a photon torpedo suddenly hits Kronos One . Then again, nothing suddenly causes you to gain focus like the prospect of interstellar war starting on your watch...
• Unfortunately subverted in the case of Dr. McCoy trying to revive Gorkon. In combination wtih his lack of working medical knowledge of Klingons, his hands are unsteady and slightly clumsy, still affected by the Romulan Ale he drank during the state dinner. No matter how shaken awake by the whole diplomatic catastrophe unfolding he may be, his mental acuity and motor skills are still impaired by intoxication. Chang is quite ready to bring that up during the show trial .
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute : Valeris in place of Saavik.
• Swivel-Chair Antics : Chang is so hammy that he spins his chair in ecstacy during the battle. Chang: CRY HAVOC! And let slip the dogs of war! ( Evil Laugh )
• Tactful Translation : The subtitles compensate for the Klingon listening post operator's lazy apathy by translating his simple utterance of just the post's name (Morskika) into, "This is Listening Post Morskika."
• It's quite nicely worked in, but Kirk's remark in the end speech that "some people think change means the end of history" is likely a jab at neo-conservative Francis Fukuyama's proclamation (and epynonymous book) that the collapse of Soviet communism meant that liberal bourgeois democracy was the only option for developing countries and was, thus, "the end of history".
• Starfleet Colonel West is inspired by USMC Col. Oliver North, who was implicated in the Iran/Contra scandal.
• Teleportation Rescue : Kirk and McCoy are saved from their impending murder "for attempting escape" at the hands of the Rura Penthe warden by the transporters. Shame about the timing, though.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill : After the modified photon torpedo hits and disables the cloaked Bird of Prey, it is dead in the water but still intact. Sulu's response with the Excelsior , and then Kirk's with the Enterprise-A , is to then pound it with torpedo after torpedo until it is completely obliterated. Slightly justified though because while the torpedo crippled the Bird of Prey and, presumably, killed Chang, it was still cloaked — just briefly exposed by the explosion — and so could still potentially be a threat.
• When The Excelsior finally gets on the scene at Khitomer in the climax, Captain Sulu knows that all he and his ship and crew can do at that time is be another target for the invisible foe and take pressure off the battered Enterprise . True enough, moments later, Chang orders a torpedo strike that uppercuts right into Excelsior 's saucer section, sending damage control teams scrambling and emergency bulkheads dropping. Sulu: All right... now we've given them something else to shoot at.
• Non-Verbal example — as Chang speaks his "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner while a torpedo streaks towards them, two of his men can be seen behind him bracing themselves for the impact of the torpedo and the subsequent barrage to follow.
• Title Drop : Subtitle Drop. In the ill-fated dinner scene , Gorkon proposes a toast to "the undiscovered country," earning bemused stares from the audience as well as the main cast before he explains he meant "the future." The cause of the confusion is that within the context of Hamlet 's speech, "the undiscovered country" is death . Which Spock himself points out in the novelization. Gorkon's counter-argument has a good point. And, considering what happens to Gorkon in his next scene, actually makes quite a bit of sense .
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth : Chancellor Gorkon. Dr. McCoy describes him as "the last, best hope for peace."
• Too Good for Exploiters : The Klingons sue for peace, because their hostility toward the Federation is unsustainable in light of the accident on Praxis, their moon and previously-key-energy-production facility. Unfortunately, there are those on all sides, Humans, Klingons, and even the Romulans, that want the hostilities to continue, because they exploit the benefits, jobs, and even the control, that come with their current political position.
• Took a Level in Jerkass : Admiral Cartwright. He was previously shown in a more heroic light in Star Trek IV . However, here he comes off as a racist jerk during the briefing, and this is even before we find out he is a part of the conspiracy .
• Touch Telepathy : After Spock realizes that Valeris is a traitor and murderer , he grabs her by the head and performs a forced Mind Meld on her to learn the details of the conspiracy .
• Tracking Device : The viridium patch that Spock slaps on Kirk's back just before he and McCoy beam onto Kronos One .
• Trailers Always Spoil : The fact that there is a Bird-of-Prey involved, and that Chang is commanding it.
• During the trial, the Klingons begin in their own language, then the camera cuts to a box where translators are giving a running translation in English, which is being piped through radio-like devices that Kirk and McCoy are listening to. When the camera cuts back to General Chang, all spoken dialogue for the rest of the scene is in English, but it's still clear the Klingons are speaking their own language, particularly when Chang yells at Kirk not to wait for the translation before answering a question.
• This trope is mostly avoided for all other scenes involving the Klingons on their own, however. Subtitles are used in all-Klingon scenes in almost all movies.
• For some reason, it almost always switches to English whenever Chang starts talking, sometimes right after some untranslated Klingon. Maybe Christopher Plummer had trouble chewing scenery in Klingon.
• Tricked into Escaping : The villains want Kirk and McCoy dead, not just imprisoned, but don't want to be too obvious about it. They arrange for the pair to meet someone with whom they can team up in an "escape attempt", which the commandant can then violently quash. Kirk eventually realises that the situation didn't add up. (Kirk, of course, would certainly have attempted escape on his own, but it would have taken time to learn the layout and find his best option.) Kirk: She didn't need our help getting anywhere. Where did she get these convenient clothes? And don't tell me that flare is standard prison issue. It's to let them know where we are. [...] An accident wasn't good enough. Martia: Good enough for one. Two would have looked suspicious. [shape-shifts into Kirk] Killed while attempting escape? Now that's convincing for both.
• The first is Brigadier Kerla admitting that "there has been an incident on Praxis." Yeah, an entire moon exploding goes well beyond just "an incident."
• The second is Spock opening a briefing at Starfleet Command with "Two months ago, a Federation starship monitored an explosion of the Klingon moon Praxis." By "monitored," he means that the Excelsior was knocked off course and nearly shaken to pieces by the Planar Shockwave .
• Unwanted Rescue : At least not for a few more minutes after Kirk's captor explains the plans.
• Villain Has a Point : Both sides of the conspiracy to assassinate Chancellor Gorkon and the Federation President are partially proven to be correct in their paranoia, when Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine later show their fears coming true. The Federation does corrupt Klingon society to the point that a Starfleet officer later becomes the one to decide who would become the next Klingon chancellor, while the Klingons later betray the Federation and launch a war against them after abandoning the Khitomer Accords (albeit, largely due to the influence of a Changeling mole ).
• Wasn't That Fun? : After General Chang's Bird-of-Prey first opens fire on Enterprise at Khitomer: McCoy : This is fun.
• We Need to Get Proof : Spock logically figures out that the only ship that could have torpedoed Kronos One is a cloaked bird-of-prey, but as they're not supposed to be able to fire while cloaked, it will take more than their word to convince Starfleet. Valeris: We must inform Starfleet Command— Scotty: Inform them of what ? A new weapon that is invisible? "Raving lunatics", that's what they'll call us! They'll say that we're so desperate to exonerate the captain that we'll say anything. Spock: And they would be correct. We have no evidence. Only a theory which happens to fit the facts.
• We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future : Or at least the Klingons will on their prison planets. Then again, it's Rura Penthe, the Klingon equivalent of a gulag. The warden outright calls it "the gulag Rura Penthe" during his introductory resistance is futile speech. Hardly meant to be comfortable.
• "Signal our surrender." Derails the firefight between Enterprise and Qo'noS One that the scene appeared to be leading to. It even shocks the bridge crew: Uhura: Captain? Kirk: We surrender!
• During the last scene: Uhura: Captain, I have orders from Starfleet Command. We're to put back to Spacedock immediately... to be decommissioned.
• Wham Shot : The torpedo hitting Kronos One .
• Spock's disturbed reaction to Kirk's desire to see the Klingons die off. note  In commentaries, Shatner expressed dismay that they cut out a subsequent self-dismissive gesture from Kirk suggesting it was impulsively said.
• This was prompted by Spock "volunteering" the Enterprise and crew for the peacekeeping mission. Considering just two films ago, Kirk was accused by the Klingons of developing the Genesis device as a superweapon, he seems like a poor choice — but the implication is that the Klingons respect Kirk's legendary fighting abilities and will deal better with a tough guy than a nice guy. The conspirators have no problem leveraging this reputation to frame Kirk for Gorkon's murder.
• The dinner scene spreads a lot of the blame around to all of the main characters — with the exception of Spock, who really is trying — who drink too much Romulan ale and come off as bigoted against Klingons. That most of Enterprise 's senior staff returned to duty still drunk from dinner is used as evidence of gross negligence against Dr. McCoy in their trial.
• Spock seems to be giving himself one after he publicly Mind Rapes Valeris for information on the conspiracy .
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? : When the prison warden finds Kirk and McCoy outside, he shoots the shape-shifter who was helping him immediately, but inexplicably agrees to explain who is behind the conspiracy before shooting Kirk and McCoy . This gives them enough time to escape.
• Why Isn't It Attacking? : The climactic Battle of Khitomer has the Enterprise under attack from General Chang's bird-of-prey, which can stay cloaked while attacking, causing Kirk to initially order his ship to pull back. Both commanders on either side ask this question about the other: Kirk wonders why Chang does not press his advantage; Chang wonders if the Enterprise is backing up because they detect him, and wants to make sure they cannot ascertain his exact location before attacking the larger ship.
• Why We Are Bummed Communism Fell : The whole film is a metaphor for the fall of communism, and even seemed to predict the failed coup that preceded the final collapse of the USSR.
• Wicked Cultured : General Chang might be willing to plunge the quadrant into war, but damn if he can't quote Shakespeare with the best of them!
• Wild Hair : The Federation President's mustache almost earned its own acting credit.
• Worthy Opponent : In the novelization, Chang spends his last seconds reflecting on his own mortality, and that being beaten by the likes of Kirk is no disgrace. Even in the film, the mere fact that Chang considers Kirk a "warrior" is a testament to his respect for him as an adversary.
• Would Hit a Girl : Kirk punches Martia. Of course, she’s a shapeshifter, so he doesn’t know whether she’s really female or not.
• Wrong Genre Savvy : Kirk still thinks he can do what he did constantly in the original series, and seduce someone to help get out of a bad situation. Not so much, as she's a shapeshifter setting him up, and even calls him out for his narcissism.
• They are expecting Kirk to fight it out after the Chancellor is killed, but when he surrenders they put him in a show trial and schedule a new assassination attempt at the peace conference.
• They send Kirk to an inescapable Penal Colony but know he would probably find a way to escape, so they use a stooge to "help" him and betray him later.
• They believe Kirk would never find the location of the conference, but have a ship ready to deal with him if he does.
• You Cannot Kill An Idea : Gorkon's fight for peace continues on despite his assassination. His daughter Azetbur, who becomes chancellor, continues his efforts, and Gorkon's sacrifice challenges Captain Kirk's prejudice against Klingons. Gorkon: Don't let it end this way, Captain .
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame : A downplayed example, but Kirk is obviously not thrilled to be greeted by Chang "from one warrior to another".

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The shapeshifting Martia takes on the form of Captain Kirk and fights the real one.

Example of: Mirror Match

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Kirk's Last Com...

Alternative Title(s): Star Trek VI

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Recently, we've done several changes to help out this wiki, from deleting empty pages, improving the navigation, adding a rules page, as well as merging film infoboxes.

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Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country/Home media

• View history
• 2.1 1992 VHS (Version #1)
• 2.2 1992 VHS (Version #2)
• 2.3 1992 Laserdisc
• 2.4 1999 DVD
• 2.5 1999 DVD Menu
• 2.6 2003 DVD - The Collector's Edition
• 2.7 2003 DVD Menus - The Collector's Edition
• 2.8 2009 DVD
• 2.9 2009 DVD Menu
• 2.10 2009 Blu-ray

Timeline [ ]

Supplements [ ], 1992 vhs (version #1) [ ], 1992 vhs (version #2) [ ], 1992 laserdisc [ ], 1999 dvd [ ], 1999 dvd menu [ ], 2003 dvd - the collector's edition [ ], 2003 dvd menus - the collector's edition [ ].

Disc One - Movie

Disc Two - Special Features

2009 DVD [ ]

2009 dvd menu [ ], 2009 blu-ray [ ].

• 1 List of Paramount Home Entertainment releases

Christian Slater

• View history

Christian Slater ( born 18 August 1969 ; age 54) is an American actor hailing from New York, New York. (His father, actor Thomas Slater, used Michael Hawkins and Michael Gainsborough as his stage names.) Slater appeared in a cameo role as the night-duty officer in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . The character was not named in the script or in dialogue and is credited as " Excelsior Communications Officer" (an identical credit was given to Grace Lee Whitney , and in fact, the scene in the novelization of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country featured her character instead of Slater's). Slater is a big Star Trek fan and got the part through his mother, Mary Jo Slater , who was in charge of casting the film. ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 142) Slater filmed his scene on Friday 21 June 1991 at Paramount Stage 5 .

A huge Trekkie , Slater even joked once that he would shave his eyebrows to dress up as Spock for Halloween. This started a rumor that his eyebrows never grew back in properly, giving them a distinctive look. His link to Trek goes even further – his godfather was Michael Zaslow , who appeared in two episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series .

He later revealed in an interview with Graham Norton that the costume he had worn on the film had actually been the same one worn by William Shatner in The Wrath of Khan , and that he had later stolen it for his own personal use. [1]

• 1 Early career
• 2 Box office stardom
• 3 Later career
• 4 External links

Early career [ ]

Slater began acting at the age of seven, making his debut on the ABC soap opera The Edge of Night . Following a run on another ABC soap, One Life to Live , Slater began appearing in Broadway plays. His first play was the 1980 revival of The Music Man , playing the son of a trumpet player. His subsequent Broadway credits include a revival of Macbeth and the original production of Merlin , in which he played the title character in his youth.

In an early television appearance, Slater starred opposite Brent Spiner in a 1984 episode of Tales from the Darkside . That episode, entitled "A Case of the Stubborns", was based on a story by Robert Bloch .

He made his feature film debut in The Legend of Billie Jean (1985, co-starring Dean Stockwell ). He followed this with The Name of the Rose (1986, with Sean Connery , F. Murray Abraham , and Ron Perlman ).

In 1988, he played Junior Tucker in Tucker: The Man and His Dream . By this time, he had been gaining recognition in Hollywood, allowing him to land lead roles in several films. He had his first starring role in Gleaming the Cube (1989, co-starring Art Chudabala , Richard Herd , and Ed Lauter ). Later that year he again worked with F. Murray Abraham in Beyond the Stars , playing the teenage son of a computer scientist played by Robert Foxworth . Slater's girlfriend in this movie was played by Olivia d'Abo .

More notably, Slater co-starred with Winona Ryder in the 1989 black comedy Heathers , which has become a cult classic. This film's success garnered Slater even more recognition, paving the way for him to become a successful Hollywood leading man.

Box office stardom [ ]

Slater was at the peak of his popularity during the early to mid-1990s. During this time, he had the lead roles in such films as Pump Up the Volume (1990, for which he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award), co-starring Gregg Daniel , Alexander Enberg , Clayton Landey , Robert Schenkkan , John Kenton Shull , and Ed Trotta . He played the title character in Kuffs (1992, for which he received an MTV Movie Award nomination as "Most Desirable Male"), which co-starred George De La Peña and Leon Rippy as the lead villains, and featured Ashley Judd in a small guest role filmed concurrently with her appearance on TNG : " The Game ".

1993's True Romance earned him a Saturn Award nomination and an MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Kiss; his character happens to be a Trekkie who is excited that his actor friend could meet William Shatner . This film also starred Saul Rubinek and was photographed by Jeffrey L. Kimball .

Slater also had supporting roles in a number of box office hits, including Arkansas Dave Rudabaugh in Young Guns II (1990, co-starring Alan Ruck and Leon Rippy), Will Scarlett in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), and the interviewer in Interview with the Vampire (1994, with Kirsten Dunst ). He was again nominated by the MTV Movie Awards as Most Desirable Male for the latter film, which was based on the bestselling novel written by Anne Rice.

His role in 1993's Untamed Heart won him two MTV Movie Awards, one as Most Desirable Male and one for Best Kiss (with Marisa Tomei ). In contrast, his performance as "Lucky" Luciano in 1991's Mobsters (co-starring F. Murray Abraham, Seymour Cassel , and Titus Welliver ) earned him a Razzie Award nomination as Worst Supporting Actor. In addition, Slater voiced the role of Pips in the 1992 animated film FernGully: The Last Rainforest , which also featured the voices of Geoffrey Blake , Harvey Jason , Pamela Segall , and Robin Williams .

Following Star Trek VI , Slater again worked with his mother, Mary Jo Slater, when he starred in the 1995 crime drama Murder in the First along with Brad Dourif , Ben Slack , Eve H. Brenner , Time Winters , and Stefan Gierasch . Slater then played the hero in the 1996 action film Broken Arrow , which also featured Bob Gunton , Casey Biggs , Vyto Ruginis , Kurtwood Smith , Vince Deadrick , James MacDonald , and Raymond Cruz .

Later career [ ]

Although his popularity and box office draw has decreased since the 1990s, Slater has continued to star in a number of high profile films. Some of these films include Very Bad Things (1998, featuring Leland Orser and Lawrence Pressman ), The Contender (2000, cast by his mother and featuring his True Romance co-star and fellow Trek alum Saul Rubinek), 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001, with Morgan H. Margolis ), Windtalkers (2002, with Holmes R. Osborne ), and Mindhunters (2004, with Clifton Collins, Jr. ). He has even returned to the stage, starring in the Broadway productions of Side Man and a 2005 revival of The Glass Menagerie , in addition to a production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in London. In 2007, he starred in a stage production of Swimming with Sharks at London's Vaudeville Theatre.

Slater has also returned to television. He made three appearances on The West Wing in 2002, playing US Navy Lieutenant Commander Jack Reese. He later appeared in two episodes of J.J. Abrams ' Alias as scientist Neil Caplan, with Tracy Middendorf playing his wife. He also provided voice-overs for the television shows The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and Robot Chicken and appeared in an episode of My Name Is Earl .

Slater was part of the large ensemble cast that made up Bobby (2006). Afterward, he starred with Fionnula Flanagan and William Lucking in Slipstream (2007). He then starred in the title role of He Was a Quiet Man (2007). His other recent films include Love Lies Bleeding (2008) and Lies & Illusions (2009). He also lent his voice to Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey (2010), with Robert Picardo , but he was later replaced (and his vocal work redubbed) by Star Wars actor Hayden Christensen .

Slater starred in the one-hour spy drama My Own Worst Enemy , which aired on NBC in the fall of 2008 but was canceled after nine episodes. On the show, Slater portrayed a middle-class efficiency expert who discovers he is also a secret government agent, a separate personality which manifests itself through a microchip implanted in his brain. Three other Star Trek alumni were cast members on this series: Mädchen Amick (as the wife of Slater's character), James Cromwell (as the chief of operations at Slater's character's organization), and Alfre Woodard (as Slater's character's supervisor).

Slater starred in the crime drama The Forgotten , which aired on ABC in September 2009 until its cancellation in 2010. On 22 January 2010, Slater participated in the fund-raising program Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief . He was among the celebrities who operated the phones for the benefit, along with Chris Pine , Zoe Saldana , Tyler Perry , Jeri Ryan , and Robin Williams . [2] In 2011, he starred in the short-lived Fox TV series Breaking In . In the pilot of that show, his character is seated in what he claims is the actual captain's chair from the original Star Trek .

Slater's project Playback costarring Mark Metcalf was the lowest grossing film of 2012, taking in just $264US at the box office. [3]

More recently, he starred in the short-lived drama series Mind Games (2014), voiced a recurring character in the animated series Archer (2014-2015), and starred in the crime drama series Mr. Robot (2015-2016) for which he won the 2016 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Limited-Series or TV Movie. [4] For his role of "Mr. Robot", he is also nominated for a Critic's Choice Award and a Satellite Award.

Most recently, Slater lent his voice to episodes of Jake and the Never Land Pirates (2015) and The Lion Guard (2015, with Gabrielle Union and Kevin Michael Richardson ) and wrapped the crime drama King Cobra (2016).

External links [ ]

• ChristianSlater.com (X) – former official site
• Christian Slater at Wikipedia
• Christian Slater at the Internet Movie Database
• 2 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)