YouTube Goodness

[Daniel]

The attention to detail is remarkable.

[ShyViolet]

I LOVE THIS TRAILER! (The Undiscovered Country). Definitely does the movie justice! Also brings back memories.

https://youtu.be/RYA2q2Sm_Jo

[Randall]

Oh, yeah. For my money, it's the best of the Trek films. It starts with that cast - David Warner! Shatner's old pal Christopher Plummer as his adversary! Brock Peters! Grace Lee Whitney even gets a scene! Kim Cattrall! Mark Leonard as Sarek! Michael Dorn plays a Worf ancestor!

Add to that some great lines, and a superb allegory to Chernobyl and the end of the Cold War, commemorating an immense moment in current history. I love that film.

[Ben]

"Guess…who's coming to dinner…?"

"Captain Sulu, USS ExcElsiOr!" (that one got a massive cheer!)

…and, of course… "FIRE!"

All topped off with a Shakespeare-spewing villain and those cast signature credits that get me every time!

[ShyViolet]

The mind-meld scene!

Nic Meyer is a genius.

https://youtu.be/XprI4UWpbMw

(I love her character, sort of a Saavik doppelgänger. So well acted.)

[EricJ]

All topped off with a Shakespeare-spewing villain and those cast signature credits that get me every time!

Even though the Klingons got Shakespeare's "Undiscovered country" line wrong, the way Spock got Dickens' "The best of times, the worst of times" wrong in Wrath of Khan.
It's sort of traditional in a Nic Meyer Even-Numbered-Trek[tm].

[ShyViolet]

I love Meyers’ lit references, they’re the icing on the very rich, decadent treats we’ve been lucky enough to have received from him.


Best Trek battle ever: (Next to Mutura Nebula in Khan.)


https://youtu.be/XSqCJ-UGYns

[Randall]

Actually, the Shakespeare stuff is the only thing I don't like in STVI.

"You should read it in the original Klingon!"?? I didn't find that funny, since the Klingon didn't seem to mean it as a joke. Just dumb and inexplicable. It threatened to turn a good film into camp.

[ShyViolet]

I see what you’re saying….I was also kind of baffled by that line at first, but I always sort of saw it as the Klingons having adapted Shakespeare so deeply into their own culture/language that they FEEL that it was “originally” written in Klingon. That’s how I see it, anyway.

I also feel that Chang’s final line “to be, or not to be” right before the Klingon Warbird is hit with the missile is his own form of surrender to Kirk; it’s the first time he doesn’t say the line in Klingon. He accepts the original Earth English as Kirk’s triumph over him, no longer sure of his superiority to the “warrior” Kirk.

[Ben]

But this does explain why they don’t get Shakespeare right. It’s been translated and back again, losing something…

And there’s plenty more in STVI that threatens turning it full camp — like Scotty's whole performance, which is verging on parody by this point, though he does reign it back in from V — and ST has always been more than a little arch in its approach, especially in later years after the earnestness of TOS had worn off. Even on Next Gen, I was half expecting characters, at times, to turn to camera and either roll eyes or wink at us! Row, row, row your boat…

[Dacey]

You guys aren't even talking about the dumbest part of the movie, which is Spock revealing that Sherlock Holmes is his ancestor.

(And, yes, the commentary track confirms this was intended to be a reference to Sherlock Holmes, not Arthur Conan Doyle as some like to argue)

Seriously, as much as I love Nicholas Meyer's Trek outings, it's very apparent from interviews he had a strong amount of distain for the franchise--not to mention cluelessness. On the commentary track for Undiscovered Country, for instance, he talks about how he's proud of Kirk fighting another version of himself because "he didn't think that ever happened on the series before." Yeah, about that...

Again, he of course made great Trek movies. Few would dispute that. But he also behaves as though he's "above" the series, as though he's "too good for it" or something. And for all of the heck JJ Abrams got for his "I wasn't a Star Trek fan" comments (which were taken out of context), his movies are about as affectionate towards the original series as any of the films have ever been.

(Also I like the whole "row, row, row your boat" thing. "Captain, life is not a dream.")

[EricJ]

Seriously, as much as I love Nicholas Meyer's Trek outings, it's very apparent from interviews he had a strong amount of distain for the franchise--not to mention cluelessness. On the commentary track for Undiscovered Country, for instance, he talks about how he's proud of Kirk fighting another version of himself because "he didn't think that ever happened on the series before." Yeah, about that...

And yet Nic Meyer's movies are so geared for the popcorn non-show newbie, they're absolute convert material if you show someone Wrath of Khan for the first time...Especially if they've been avoiding the franchise because they can only picture geeky fans at conventions.

So it took someone like Meyer to sell Trek to the mainstream, instead of an even more clueless Robert Wise trying to take it ponderously seriously:
(Kirk: "But why me?"
Spock: "There is an old Vulcan proverb: 'Only Nixon could go to China'.")

[Ben]

Star Trek: The Motionless Picture.

[ShyViolet]

Cool mini featurette from 1991 on Undiscovered Country:

https://youtu.be/Gkmnq32Fh8s

[emilyomacon]

I love watching youtube videos, especially movies that are on there.