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Note to the Galley: Romulan Ale no longer to be served at diplomatic functions!
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00:00Here's a disclaimer right up front and centre before we go into this film.
00:04This is my favourite Star Trek film.
00:07That in mind, I'm Sean Ferrick for TrekCulture and here are 20 Things You Never Knew About
00:12Star Trek 6 The Undiscovered Country Part 1.
00:16Number 20.
00:17The youngest composer makes one of the best received soundtracks.
00:21At the tender age of 26 Cliff Eidelman was hired to score Star Trek 6.
00:25Tonally, the music is completely different from what had come before in the previous five films.
00:30This was at the urging of Nick Meyer, who gave Eidelman his blessing to really get into the
00:34darkness of the film.
00:35He had also had choice words about both Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner.
00:39There was no way Eidelman was going to replicate their style, so there was simply no point
00:43in trying.
00:44Eidelman secured the gig by after one conversation with Meyer, going home and writing the main
00:49title overture that appears in the final film.
00:51There were still some hurdles to jump through, including convincing Ron Roos, the editor,
00:55that he was right for the role.
00:56In an unusual move at the time, Eidelman was able to score the film's trailer.
01:00That music appears in the overture and the battle for peace.
01:02His own personal favourite cues include these pieces, along with Rorapente and Escape from
01:07Rorapente, the latter of which allowed a full flourish from the orchestra.
01:11Number 19.
01:12Kronos 1
01:13Chancellor Gorkhan, General Chang and the rest of the Klingon delegation travelled
01:17to Earth aboard the flagship of the Klingon Empire, namely Kronos 1.
01:20The ship was the same filmy model that had been used in Star Trek The Motion Picture, with
01:24several modifications for the latest film.
01:26Visual effects supervisor Bill George was pleased that they were able to update the ship.
01:30He also said that it was one of the few models that they were allowed to make any significant
01:33changes to, owing in part to the fact that it badly needed touching up.
01:38The Enterprise, Excelsior and Bird of Prey filming models had all seen much more recent
01:42use.
01:42George took inspiration from the military costuming and adornments that could be added post-battle
01:47of contemporary soldiers.
01:49He painted the model brown and red with gold highlights, then added brass apollots to the
01:53wings, signifying victories in battles that the ship had secured.
01:56As both the shape of the ship and its colour were drastically different from Federation vessels,
02:00this contrasted nicely against the Enterprise A.
02:03Number 18.
02:04Read it in the original Klingon
02:06In the film, Chancellor Gorkhan makes reference to Shakespeare being read in the original Klingon.
02:11On screen, that's assumed to be a joke, despite the number of times that General Chang proceeds
02:15to quote the Bard throughout the film.
02:17Members of the Klingon Language Institute took this line and ran with it, proceeding
02:20to translate Hamlet into Klingon.
02:22Mark Ockrand had devised a Klingon dictionary prior to the release of Star Trek VI, so the
02:26material was there to work with.
02:27Hamlet has since been performed for charity, as has another of Shakespeare's plays, Much
02:31Ado About Nothing.
02:32Exips from both were attended by George Takei, with the Klingon Hamlet being published by
02:36Pocketbooks in novel form as well.
02:39Number 17.
02:40The Fall of the Berlin Wall in Space
02:42The idea behind Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country is quite simple.
02:46As Leonard Nimoy postulated, what if the wall came down in space?
02:49The wall, rather than a concrete division splitting cities and families apart, is instead
02:53the Klingon neutral zone, along with a series of star bases and military installations.
02:57The fall of the USSR and the advent of the Kitamura Accords and the Federation Klingon
03:01peace talks are directly paralleled.
03:03The explosion of Praxis that opens Star Trek VI mirrors the explosion at Chernobyl, which
03:07was the beginning of the end for the USSR.
03:09In both the real world and in fantasy, it takes a calamity to allow the peace talks to
03:14gain momentum, tragedy-inspiring true change.
03:17Much like the denial that took place in the wake of the Chernobyl incident, the Klingons
03:21too attempt to downplay the seriousness of the explosion.
03:23It is quite clear, though, that their militaristic approach to foreign relations has left them
03:27shortchanged when it comes to tackling the ecological crisis that follows.
03:31As always with Star Trek, much of the events of the film could simply have been a documentary
03:34about American-USSR relations, but with head ridges.
03:3816.
03:39It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.
03:41The assassination of Chancellor Gorkhan is followed by the ascension of Ozetbor, his daughter,
03:46to the Chancellorship.
03:47She pushes for peace talks to continue, though she receives opposition from those closest.
03:52While Chang is obviously a part of the conspiracy to disrupt the talks, not every person in the
03:56room is party to this.
03:58Three Klingons face Ozetbor.
04:00One is Kerala, who stands beside her, though he is not above suggesting armed retribution.
04:04Of the other two, one is seen sitting on the bird of prey with Chang over Kitomer, while
04:09the third, that same Klingon who so thoroughly disgusted Uhura over dinner, speaks the line
04:14better to die on our feet than live on our knees.
04:17This quote is attributed to several historical figures, though most often to Emiliano Zapata,
04:21the Mexican revolutionary who was assassinated by President Carranza in 1919.
04:26Zapata had started a revolution to push forward land reform in Mexico, though had been consistently
04:31let down by his would-be allies.
04:33His quote supported the idea of dying for one's beliefs rather than sacrificing them
04:37to live under the new rule.
04:39It is unclear how many Klingons were to express this ideal, though it adds a third element to
04:43the political parties in Star Trek VI.
04:4615.
04:47Designing the Klingon High Chancellor
04:50Gorkhan leads the peace movement in Star Trek VI.
04:53He is the first Chancellor, chronologically, met by the Federation until Chancellor Laurel
04:57would take that honour in Will You Take My Hand.
05:00Nicholas Meyer was the one who specifically wanted the man to resemble Abraham Lincoln.
05:05While the beard may have been clue enough, there was a tease in the name as well.
05:09Gorkhan, as a name, was chosen by writer Denny Martin Flynn.
05:13It was an amalgamation of the names Lincoln and Gorbachev.
05:16In fact, it was so close to the names that Meyer was worried it would be a little too
05:20on the nose. As the film was so heavily based on the events leading to the fall of the Berlin
05:24Wall and the dissolution of the USSR, then Mikhail Gorbachev may already have been front
05:29and centre in the minds of the audience.
05:31The worries proved baseless, as test screenings didn't pick up on it originally. The outfit
05:36he wore, with vertical padding rather than the horizontal padding that Chang wore, signified
05:40his height in the political hierarchy. His staff was comprised of a tusk that was said
05:44to have been taken from an animal he had killed years previously. His height, girth and demeanour
05:49signified his stately presence, commanding the room on entry.
05:53Number 14. Casting the leader of the Klingon Empire
05:56The original choice for Gorkhan was Jack Palance. He had most recently starred in Tim Burton's
06:01Batman, winding up on the wrong end of the Joker's revolver. His career began much earlier,
06:05with his stage debut taking place in 1947 and his screen debut in 1950. His long and
06:11successful career was both what made him desirable for the role and ultimately unsuitable. Though
06:15his physical stature wasn't in question, he was 6'4 and would go on at the age of 73
06:19to perform one-armed push-ups on stage at the Academy Awards, he was simply too costly for
06:24the production to afford. He was also hesitant about appearing in a Star Trek film.
06:28Rather than open the casting sheet to other actors, Nicholas Meyer asked his friend David
06:32Warner if he would like to play the part. Warner had just appeared in Star Trek
06:355 as St. John Talbot, the Terran ambassador to Nimbus III. He would also appear as the
06:40iconic Gul Madrid in the next generation two-parter Chain of Command, making him one of the few
06:46actors to face both Captains Kirk and Picard.
06:49Number 13. I can see we have a long way to go
06:54The framing of the dinner scene is deliberate. On one side of the table, the Starfleet crew
06:59sits with relative ease around the clearly human place settings. On the other, the Klingons
07:03are out of place, including one tiny but brilliant movement by Christopher Plummer's Chang. This
07:08man, who knows Shakespeare so well, can't quite understand the function of a napkin.
07:13The food in front of the actors was dyed blue to give it a more alien look. Nicholas Meyer
07:17bet each of them that he would pay $20 for every bite that people took, as they clearly
07:21didn't want to touch any of it.
07:22William Shatner allegedly ate his fill, then tracked Meyer down to ensure the man came
07:26through on his promise. It is here in this scene that Gorkhan utters the toast to the
07:30undiscovered country, a line quickly identified by Spock as hailing from Shakespeare. It had
07:35been the original title of Star Trek II The Wrath of Cannes before that was changed, though
07:39short, this scene serves to highlight the oceans of space between both parties, culminating
07:44with Gorkhan's utterance of, if there is to be a brave new world, our generation is
07:48going to have the hardest time living in it.
07:50Number 12. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
07:53In Star Trek VI, Walter Koenig's Chekhov utters the line, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner,
07:57in the run-up to the Klingon's arrival. The line was originally to be spoken by Uhura.
08:01Nichelle Nichols flat out refused to say it. It was a reference to the Spencer Tracy, Sydney
08:06Poitier and Catherine Hepburn comedy of the same name, wherein a white woman brings an
08:10African-American fiancé home to meet her parents. While the film ends with the message that
08:14there was never any reason to oppose the relationship in any case, Nichols felt that
08:18having Uhura utter the line was distasteful, thus the change.
08:22Another line was due to be spoken. This line, Yes, but would you want your daughter to marry
08:26everyone, while subsequently omitted from the script altogether, as production could not
08:29find a satisfactory way to include it, nor a character to which it best belonged.
08:34Number 11. Is She a Bird or Is She a Cat?
08:36Iman plays Martia, the shape-shifting commaloid who seemingly helps Kirk and McCoy escape from
08:41Rorapenthe, only for her true intentions to be revealed while outside. The make-up process
08:45came in stages for the supermodel, who had a particular issue with the yellow eyes. Martia
08:50appears in several forms in the film, including a seven-foot-tall brute, in Iman's words, and a nine-year
08:55-old
08:55girl. The one common trait between them all is the yellow eyes, which incidentally differentiate
09:00her from the changelings that would follow in Star Trek Deep Space Nine. They were achieved
09:03by using soft lenses, and were very uncomfortable to wear. Iman stated that after every scene,
09:09the make-up team would have to touch her up again and again, as inserting the lenses would
09:14inevitably smudge her make-up. She did joke, however, that the cast and crew were so enamoured
09:18with her look that it made it all worth it. When the costuming department took over, they
09:22seemed unable to decide what she should look like. She is adorned in furs like a cat to
09:26which the yellow eyes added, however, she is also topped with feathers, giving her a
09:30bird-like appearance. Iman joked that she was a hybrid of the two, which was just fine with
09:34her. That's everything for this part of our list. We will be back with parts 10 to 1 in
09:39the next video. Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe. In the meantime, you can catch
09:43us over on Twitter at TrekCulture. You can catch myself at Sean Ferrick on Twitter as well.
09:47You look after yourself, and we really hope you enjoyed this video, because give a girl
09:51a chance. It takes a lot of effort. Live long and prosper. Thanks.
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