After the debacle of the worst film in the Star Trek film series "The Final Frontier" it was great to see everything get back in great style with STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.
Writer/Director Nicholas Meyer (Time After Time, Star Treks II: The Wrath of Khan & IV: The Voyage Home) makes a great return, bringing the same strong storytelling, action and humor he did to his earlier installments.
Kirk, McCoy, Spock and crew are on the verge of retirement when everyone's favorite Vulcan volunteers them for a mission to bring senior Klingon politicians across the galaxy for peace talks.
Kirk wants nothing to do with it and when the mission goes south and Klingon Chancellor Gorkon (David Warner from "Tron") is assassinated in a very cool weightless sequence, Kirk and McCoy are tried and convicted of murder.
As with Meyer's other Trek adventures, the fun is in the story telling, so I'll leave it there. William Shatner & DeForest Kelly are at their best, as are Leonard Nimoy as Spock and George Takei as Sulu.
Christopher Plummer adds serious acting chops as Chang, a Klingon warrior who's not quite ready for the peace talks. His scenes with Shatner as Kirk remind you a lot of Kirk/Khan in the second film, but Plummer brings more humor to his dangerous character.
Look for Kim Cattrell as a Klingon crew member, Christian Slater in a small role and Iman in a featured role as a shape-shifter who luckily looks like Iman much of the time.
Cliff Eidelman provides a very serviceable score and Meyer delivers a near perfect sci-fi action film that wraps up with a very fitting tribute for the last time we would ever see the original Enterprise crew in one film.
For me, the series would never be the same until JJ Abrams brilliant reboot in 2009, but THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY is one hell of a way for the original cast to sign off and journey into those brave new worlds......
Fast, fun, loaded with great special effects and comfortable characters knowing this is their last big shot, STAR TREK VI gets an A.
Followed three years later by "Star Trek: Generations".
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