'Star VI: The Undiscovered Country'

• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is either my second- or third-favorite TOS-era film, depending on my mood.  For the things I love the most about this period in Trek--awesome motion-controlled starship models, great villains and lots of quality time with the Kirk/Spock/McCoy triumvirate--this movie delivers.
• I love Cliff Eidelman's score for this movie.  He's no James Horner, but it still has the perfect tone for the film.  And even if parts of the opening overture are very reminiscent of Holst's "Mars", it's still good stuff.
• This was the first Star Trek movie that I was able to see in the theater (for my first viewing of it, at least).  I was 12 years old when it came out, and my older brother--who is largely responsible for my love of Trek in the first place--took me to see it.  Everyone in the theater was blown away (pun intended) by the opening sequence (the Praxis explosion).
• Speaking of firsts, this was the first Star Trek film released after Gene Roddenberry's death in October of 1991.  He was reportedly not overly-pleased with the film's military tone, a go-around he frequently had with the studio during the 1980s (and one reason, in my opinion, that the early seasons of TNG were so explicitly non-military in tone).
• This is also the second film directly by my favorite Trek director, Nicholas Meyer (although he had helped to write parts of ST3 and ST4).
• There's a load of great background stuff on the writing of this movie available in the extras of the "special edition" DVD.  I'm not going to rattle it all off here, but I would encourage anyone who's a fan of the movie to check them out.  The themes, the overall tone, the production of the story (which Nick Meyer jokes as having been "the first script ever composed over email"), etc.
• Our first Enterprise vet to get their own ship (not counting Spock commanding the Enterprise on training voyages), Sulu now commands the fully-operational USS Excelsior.
• Many of the actors, sets, etc. from the USS Excelsior in this movie will be used in the VOY episode "Flashback".
• The film's story is clear allegory for both the Cold War and racial prejudice.  In regard to the latter, some of the dialog dealing with such was very difficult for members of the cast to recite--especially Nichelle Nichols and Brock Peters.
• Speaking of Brock Peters, he's one of three actors to appear in this movie that will also have regular or semi-regular roles on DS9.  He will play Joseph Sisko, Rene Auberjonois plays Col. West and will play Odo on DS9, and Michael Dorn plays Col. Worf and will go on to play that character's grandson on both TNG and DS9.
• "Don't believe them! Don't trust them!"
  "They are dying."
  "Let them die!"
  
  ^^^ Probably not an easy scene for them to shoot, especially Shatner (no one likes to see the hero they play start showing their cracks)--but it's one of my favorite in the movie.
• It's beyond nerdy to have a favorite starship bridge, but the redone bridge for NCC-1701-A in this movie (a militaristic redress of the original movie-era Enterprise bridge, which itself had been redressed a million times) is probably my favorite.
• Valeris was originally supposed to be Saavik, but that was nixed by multiple people (including Gene Roddenberry) because they felt it was too far out of character for Saavik.  I personally was fine with the new character, but I think that using Saavik in that role would have made her betrayal of Spock even more profound and horrific.  Plus we'd get to see Robin Curtis again, who I dramatically prefer as an actress to Kim Cattrall.
• Spock is practically a full-blown hippie in this movie.  "Have faith"...really?  Did someone forget their pointed ears this morning? O_o
• Many of the movie-era starships get tarted up and are really showcased in this film (yet another reason I love it so much), and the venerable K't'inga class battlecruiser is no exception.  Kronos One is one of my favorite models ever done for Trek.  The brief scene when we first see her, as she swings into view and then swoops overhead?  Yowza.  Someone knew the strengths of that model's aesthetics when they planned out those shots.  Same for when she swings up to attack after the assassination sequence.
  
  
  
• I looooooove the Klingons in this movie.  They're finally presented as people, with personalities and passions.  The closest we'd gotten to this before was Christopher Lloyd's portrayal of Commander Kruge in ST3, which didn't really get much breathing room.  Chancellor Gorkon (masterfully played by Trek veteran David Warner) is probably one of my favorite Klingons, even with as little screen time as he gets.
• General Chang was obviously written to rival Khan Noonien Singh as "greatest Trek movie villain of all time".  While he doesn't  hold a candle to him (not for lack of effort by Christopher Plummer, who is awesome), he's a solid second place.
• Having spent more days hungover in my life than I care to admit (although maybe fewer than you might guess), I always have a lot of sympathy for everyone after the Romulan ale.  I mean, I'm doing well if I can manage to order a Jimmy John's sandwich and get off my sofa for a shower.  If I had a hangover and someone told me I had to save the galaxy?  I'd probably shoot myself.
• The torpedo hit and assassination sequence is really well-paced and awesomely done...but they went through a lot of trouble to point out that Klingon blood is pink in this movie, and then pretty much never bother with it again.
• Remember how nerdy I said it was to have a favorite starship bridge?  Well, I also have a favorite model of phaser pistol--and it's the version of the Type 2 phaser in this movie.
  
  
  
• Even though I saw him in this movie first, I'm so used to seeing Kurtwood Smith as Red Foreman on That 70s Show that when I re-watch this movie I'm always a little disappointed that he doesn't call anyone "dumbass".
• "...the rising danger of terrorism between the Federation and the Klingon Empire."  You mean like two out of the preceding five movies, where rogue Klingon commanders went all Hans Gruber on the Federation?
• "Sir, those men have literally saved this planet."
  "Yes Bill, I know that.  And now they're going to save it again...by standing trial."
• "Doctor McCoy, could you be so kind as to tell me...what is your current medical status."
  "Aside from a touch of arthritis, I'd say...pretty good."
  *Klingon lulz*
• "DON'T WAIT FOR THE TRANSLATION, ANSWER ME NOW!"
  
  This line is a somewhat angrier homage to Adlai Stevenson's demand of the Soviet ambassador to the United Nations during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
• "Not everybody keeps their genitals in the same place, Captain."
  
  Ain't that the truth.
• (Martia kisses Kirk, then leaves)
  Bones:  "What is it with you, anyway?"
  Kirk:  "Still think we're finished?"
  Bones:  "More than ever."
• The role of "night-shift communications officer" aboard the Excelsior (the guy who wakes Sulu up) was, as most of you know, played by Christian Slater.  A long-time Trekkie, Slater got his mommy to hook him up with a cameo.
• The scene where Uhura has to speak Klingon and they all have to find phrases in big old books?  All because "the universal translator would be recognized"?  That is...bad.  It's really one of the few groan-worthy scenes in the movie.  I know it's supposed to be funny, but it's just stupid.  I thinking forcing it over the objections of others (including Nichelle Nichols, who thought it was silly that Uhura wouldn't speak the language of the Federation's main rival) is one of the few poor decisions made by Nick Meyer in this movie.
  
  And then there's the fact that the Klingons apparently buy the whole bit?  Blech.
  
  In the novelization of the movie (one of the few Trek books I've read), it explicitly mentioned that the Klingons just assume they're smugglers and let them go--"Don't catch any bugs" is apparently the Klingon smugger-speak equivalent of a wink and a nod.  That's a little better, at least.
• The Kirk-on-Kirk fight?  I think this was a fantasy for both Kirk the character and Shatner the actor.  It's also very reminiscent of a similar seen in the TOS episode "Whom Gods Destroy".
• This movie is kind of a fan's movie.  It establishes a lot of accepted factoids as canon for the first time:  Kirk's middle name ("Tiberius") and Sulu's first name ("Hikaru"), the official name of the refit design of the Enterprise as still being "Constitution"-class (as opposed to a speculative "Enterprise"-class), etc.  Most of these things had appeared in other media (books, games, TAS--which was not, at the time, considered canon) and had been assumed to be true by most fans, but this was the first time we saw them on screen.
• "What you want is irrelevant.  What you've chosen is at hand!"  <-- One of my favorite Spock lines, ever.
• Valeris' interrogation on the bridge is a very hard scene to watch.  Any Trekkie knows how intimate the mind meld is for Vulcans, and a forced mind meld could be called a rape of sorts.  Although I didn't think much of it at the time, it's a very harsh measure to take--even in the heat of the moment, with everything at stake.  It certainly doesn't seem very heroic.  It does make for a hell of a scene, though.  Very intense, very visceral.  Leonard Nimoy does a great job of portraying how unpleasant it is for him, and Kim Cattrall does a not-awful job of portraying how unpleasant it his for her.
• "She does not know."
  "Then we're dead."
  "I've been dead before."
• "Spock, you wanna know something?  Everybody's human."
  "I find that remark...insulting."
• Khitomer is not only the site of the peace talks in this movie and the place where the alliance between the Federation and the Klingons first begins to take shape, but it's also the site of the Romulan sneak attack in which TNG's Worf lost his parents (and in which his father would be falsely implicated).
• The Battle of Khitomer is one of the great starship battles in Trek, right up there with the Battle of the Mutara Nebula, the Battle of Wolf 359, the Battle of Sector 001, the Second Battle of Chin'toka and the Battle of Cardassia.
• Because I watched this movie a lot with my siblings, I have a bit of juvenile humor that I can't help but mentally insert into the scene in this movie when Spock has his brilliant idea for tracking Chang's Bird-of-Prey prototype.  When he says "Gas!" and everyone looks at him, I say to myself "I've got gas!"
  
  Sounds stupid, but it gets a laugh in a room with your younger siblings when you're all <15.
• "I'd give real money if he'd shut up."
• This is kind of sexist, but among a select group of my friend's, Kirk's exclamation of "Fire!" has become code for an exceptionally attractive female.  I'm not proud of that, but it makes me laugh.
  
  
  
• The explosion of Chang's vessel will be re-used for the destruction of the Duras Sisters' vessel in Generations.
• I like that they let Scotty kill the baddy.
• "If I were human, I believe my response would be...'Go to hell.'  If I were human."
• "Second star to the right, and straight on 'til morning."

 Star Trek VI is one of my favorites for a reason.  Not only does it have all of that great stuff I love--starship combat, Kirk/SpockMcCoy being awesome, etc.--but it also has a solid story.  There are larger themes of conflict and prejudice, and underneath it all is something of an old fashioned murder mystery.  You could take this story out and re-work it as a Cold War thriller and it would still be great.