We volunteered. In 2293, the starship USS Excelsior, commanded by Captain Hikaru Sulu (George Takei) discovers that the Klingon moon of Praxis has been destroyed in a mining accident. The loss of Praxis and the subsequent destruction of the Klingon homeworld’s ozone layer throws the Klingon Empire into turmoil. The Klingons can no longer afford war with the United Federation of Planets, so they pursue peace. Starfleet sends the USS Enterprise to meet with the Klingon Chancellor Gorkon (David Warner) and escort him to negotiations on Earth to negotiate. Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) whose son was murdered by Klingons, opposes conciliation and resents the assignment particularly since he and Mr Spock (Leonard Nimoy) the science officer and second in command are three months from retirement. We volunteered. Enterprise and Gorkon’s battlecruiser rendezvous and continue towards Earth, with the two command crews sharing a tense meal aboard Enterprise. Later that night, Enterprise appears to fire torpedoes at the Klingon ship, disabling its artificial gravity. During the confusion, two men wearing Starfleet spacesuits beam aboard the Klingon ship, kill two Klingon crew and mortally wound Gorkon before escaping. Kirk surrenders to avoid armed conflict and beams aboard the Klingon ship with Doctor Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) and find Gorkon on the verge of death. They attempt to save Gorkon’s life. The chancellor dies and Gorkon’s chief of staff General Chang (Christopher Plummer) arrests and tries Kirk and McCoy for his assassination. The pair are found guilty by a Klingon court and sentenced to life imprisonment on the frozen planetoid Rura Penthe. Gorkon’s daughter Azetbur (Rosana DeSoto) becomes the new chancellor, and continues diplomatic negotiations; for the sake 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 even if the Federation stands a good chance of winning. Azetbur likewise refuses to invade Federation space. I’ve been dead before. Kirk and McCoy arrive at the Rura Penthe mines and are befriended by Martia (Iman) a shapeshifter who offers them an escape route; it’s actually a ruse to make their arranged deaths appear accidental. On the Enterprise, Vulcan Lt Valeris (Kim Cattrall) believes she has identified the men who assassinated Gorkon while Lt Uhura (Nichelle Nicholls) is having great difficulty communicating … Let the universe unfold as it should. The final film in the series to feature the principal cast from the fabled 1966-1969 TV classic, this was dreamed up by star and executive producer Leonard Nimoy with Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal with a screenplay by director Nicholas Meyer (who previously helmed Wrath of Khan) & Denny Martin Flinn. As usual, the deadpan dialogue is juxtaposed with the life or death scenario and impressive action. Plummer bags some of the best lines in his fabulously flamboyant performance as a virtual Chinese warlord, quoting Shakespeare, Churchill and Hitler with equal aplomb. Even Nixon gets a shoutout. In space all warriors are Cold Warriors. It’s as fruity as Kirk meeting his shapeshifting double – having previously kissed him in the form of Iman. With more expressive facial makeup for the Klingons and the increasingly complex look for the other aliens this got a big budget push to compensate for the previous film’s (The Final Frontier) relatively disappointing take: this was released for the 25th anniversary, after all. Nimoy was also carefully made up to closely resemble his earlier incarnation for his final outing – while Cattrall as his intended protegee does not suffer from her own transformation (albeit she did a covert nude photoshoot on the set with those ears and nothing else which Nimoy nixed when he found out, fearful of the effect it would have on the good name of the franchise). There’s great scene setting with the juxtaposing of the caves and ice world of Rura Penthe versus the shiny interiors of the Enterprise and the battle above Khitomer. Everybody is human. This is a keenly political outing with fun effects, great characterisation and pithy lines. One of the best in the series. We will not be the instigators of full scale war on the eve of unusual peace
mondomovies 