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Created Jan 31, 2015 11:31AM PST • Edited Jul 18, 2020 08:23AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Good 3.0

   Star Trek VI concluded the original movie series in disappointing fashion. Last of Nicholas Meyer’s II, IV, VI trio, last with the founding cast, ST VI is first in being ridiculous. That’s saying something for Star Trek.

   Fortunately, Shatner and Crew ensure it’s not without its charms, and they’re matched by a first-rate villain.

   The great Christopher Plummer eats the scenery magnificently as Chang, the Klingon über-enemy. Meyer wisely gave him plenty of Shakespeare to munch. To wit, “Cry ‘Havoc!’, and let slip the dogs of war”.

   However, risible politics sabotage the movie. A savage enemy cripples itself and the genius response of the lefties in charge of the Federation is to unilaterally disarm and welcome the Klingons into the bosom of free society, “pity” being their operative urge. Predictably, Captain James T. Kirk gets shamed into going along.

   Bottom Line
   Signed, sealed and delivered by the original cast, Star Trek VI ends an era foolishly if classically.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   The cast is the thing in Star Trek VI,

   The Original Enterprise Officer Corps

   • William Shatner, no longer an Admiral, now Captain Kirk one last time.
   • Leonard Nimoy’s Spock would appear in subsequent movies, but never again with Shatner.
   • DeForest Kelley’s Bones McCoy also makes his final hurrah.
   • James Doohan’s Scotty doesn’t look too shipshape, but pulls her through.
   • Walter Koenig’s Chekov isn’t given as much to do as in other episodes.
   • Nichelle Nichols’s Uhuru is cooly glamorous.
   • George Takei’s Sulu is now in command of his own starship.

   Episode Specific

   • Kim Cattrall allegedly posed for nude pics on the bridge. Leonard Nimoy destroyed the evidence. Shocking and Logical
   • Mark Lenard’s Sarek is always welcome, albeit here only for a cameo.
   • Grace Lee Whitney, better known to male Trekkies of a certain age as Yeoman Janice Rand
   • Brock Peters as Admiral Cartwright: Peters is most famous for playing the wrongly accused defendant in To Kill a Mockingbird.
   • Kurtwood Smith as the feckless Federation President
   • Christopher Plummer is monumental as a big bad Klingon bastard
   • David Warner disappoints as Chancellor Gorkon
   • Michael Dorn appears briefly as a Klingon Defense Attorney. He would reappear memorably as a key member of The Next Generation.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Really Great 4.5

10. Film

    Good 3.0

    The story’s core element disarms its dramatic structure. Letting bygones be bygones with the Klingons was intended to suggest an enlightened response to the then current implosion of the Soviet Union. It instead registers as loopy pacifism, a strategic blunder that drags down the entire film.

11. Direction Great 4.0

12. Play Barely OK 2.0

13. Music Very Good 3.5

14. Visuals Very Good 3.5

    Classic Star Trek touches are sprinkled throughout the film, e.g., crew members dicing lettuce in the galley. Vignettes like that mark the production as more uptown than outer-space.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.8

17. Sex Titillating 1.7

18. Violence Fierce 2.0

19. Rudeness Salty 1.7

21. Reality

    Supernatural 3.6

22. Circumstantial Surreal 3.0

23. Biological Fantasy 4.3

24. Physical Supernatural 3.5