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Dom Robinson reviews
Paramount
- Cert:
- Cat.no: PHE 8017
- Running time: 109 minutes
- Year: 1991
- Pressing: 2001
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 15 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround
- Languages: English, German, Czech
- Subtitles: 11 languages available
- Widescreen: 2.00:1 (Super 35)
- 16:9-Enhanced: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Theatrical Trailer, Teaser Trailer
Director:
- Nicholas Meyer
(Company Business, Star Trek 2 & 6, Volunteers)
Producer:
- Ralph Winter and Steven-Charles Jaffe
Screenplay:
- Nicholas Meyer and Denny Martin Flinn
Music:
- Cliff Eidelman
Cast:
- Captain James T. Kirk: William Shatner
Spock: Leonard Nimoy
Bones: DeForest Kelley
Scotty: James Doohan
Chekov: Walter Koenig
Uhura: Nichelle Nichols
Sulu: George Takei
Lt. Valeris: Kim Cattrall
Ambassador Sarek: Mark Lenard
General Chang: Christopher Plummer
Federation President: Kurtwood Smith
Gorkon: David Warner
Excelsior Communications Officer: Christian Slater
Martia: Iman
For the sixth film in the series, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country,the Klingons have fifty years left to live before their world becomes extinctand, for reasons best known to themselves, the good guys want to help thebad guys and offer them a safe haven in Federation space. Also, since thelast film, Sulu has been given his own spaceship in the Excelsior.
Bad idea since, before you can shout “overhyped sequel, but better than thelast one”, the Klingon ship has been hit, Kirk claims they didn’t fire butthe Enterprise’s systems state that they did. And given that this is happeningon the eve of a possible intergalactic Good Friday agreement, the questionof whether they have shot or not is settled in court with Bones and Kirkbeing found guilty without much in the way of a valid trial.But you know the way things will work out because the Klingons are astrustworthy as the IRA.
This movie was really rated by the Trekkies and many critics but I can’t seewhy. It provides a passable two hours of entertainment, but the plot is arather convoluted one and there’s nothing on view that’s particularly gripping.Cameos are here for David Bowie’s wife Iman on the alien planet towhere Kirk and Bones are banished, Christian Slater pops up for aone-line appearance as the Excelsior Communications Officer, only becausehis Mum did the casting. Finally, Kim Cattrall takes the part of afellow Vulcan but she’s not half as hot as she normally is, be it in earlyworks Porky’s, Mannequin and the more recent series,Sex and the City.
Everyone was in shock when Kim’s future predicted a duff part in a Trek movie.
If there’s one disappointing thing it’s that the film, albeit in widescreen,is not anamorphic. As a result, whichever brainiac did the subtitles, they’venot placed them within the centre 16:9 frame so when zooming the picture inon a widescreen TV, thus almost filling the screen, they get cut off atthe bottom 🙁
The back of the box states the theatrical ratio of 2.35:1, but it’s anopen-matte 2.00:1, given that it was shot in Super 35. The lack of ananamorphic transfer robs the DVD of the impact it should have.The average bitrate is 6.54Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 8Mb/s.
The soundtrack is in Dolby Digital 5.1 for English and German (with Czech insurround only) and for a sci-fi flick it booms out when required, but giventhat the film’s a bit of a lamer, it won’t always set your speakers on fire.
There’s are just 15 chapters to the film, with subtitles in 11 languages:English (and hard of hearing), Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Icelandic,Norwegian, Polish, Swedish and Turkish. The menus are static and the onlyextras are a Theatrical Trailer (2.00:1, non-anamorphic 2 mins) and aTeaser Trailer (4:3 fullscreen, 80 seconds).
How long until we get some proper Special Edition DVDs, similar to MGM’s James Bond series?
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
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OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.