And the emotional connection was just as real for both actors behind the scenes, according to Cattrall, who received a Vulcan history lesson from the iconic actor while helping her prepare for the role. It's a devastating reveal, as fans previously witnessed Spock express an unusual amount of affection for the up-and-coming Starfleet officer. Valeris (Cattrall), played a role in the sabotage. As the old chums are about to be assassinated by prison guards, they're beamed off the planet and onto the Enterprise at the last second.Īfter being rescued, they discover Spock's protege, another Vulcan, Lt. Meanwhile, Kirk and Bones attempt to escape their chilly imprisonment, leading the former to face off against his most existential foe to date: himself - or Martia transformed to look like him, anyway. Aghast, confused and terrified that their chance for peace was gone forever, Kirk and Bones (DeForest Kelley) transport over to the Klingon ship to help.īack on the Enterprise, Spock and company are deep into investigating who set them up. But just as soon as headway is made, the initiative is blasted two steps back after the Enterprise, by all appearances, fires on the ship carrying their Klingon dinner guests. The occasion is also where Spock's counterpart on the Klingon end, Chancellor Gorkon (David Werner), utters the titular Shakespearean phrase as everyone toasts with their very potent, and very illegal, Romulan ale. “But it is a prejudice and was an opportunity for people to face that.”Īnd that they did, with the TOS ensemble literally coming face to face with Klingons in a very tense - and very funny - dinner scene made up of officers from both regimes. “It's our distinction and, of course, righteous indignation,” Nichelle Nichols, aka Lt. While TOS was and continues to be heralded for its diverse representation on-screen, the Enterprise crew's final outing forced them to confront their own capacity for prejudice. The most vocal is Kirk, who also cites the murder of his son at the hands of a Klingon (portrayed in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock) while speaking out against the proposition. After 25 years of tense run-ins - everything from space battles to bar fights - the crew has whiplash from this sudden change in direction on Starfleet's moral compass. “The Klingons were always our evil empire and it was time to maybe examine the possibility of beginning to come to grips with that,” he said.īut not everyone immediately adopts Spock’s enlightened new perspective. As Nimoy pointed out, the TOS era had previously reduced Klingons to two-dimensional, black hat antagonists. Michael Dorn’s performance as Worf portrayed the alien species as competent and intelligent beings within their gung-ho, Bat'leth at the ready personas. Elsewhere in the Star Trek canon, a Klingon was seen as a respected member aboard the Enterprise-D on TNG ( The Next Generation). There was another reason this thematic direction was selected at the time.
William Shatner Talks Turning 90 and Still Doing His Own Stunts (Exclusive) As Spock explains, the Klingon Empire is on the verge of collapsing in the next half-century and instead of relishing the misfortune of their perennial foes, he instead recognizes the opportunity for harmony - or at least the trailhead for it. Specifically, peace between the Federation and one of its longest adversaries. Spock ( Leonard Nimoy) ropes his old pals into helping facilitate that aforementioned future. Meanwhile, his former crew mates aboard the Enterprise-A are getting ready to embark on the strange new world of retirement and having their tightknit group disbanded. Sulu ( George Takei) is now Captain Sulu after taking the conn of the Excelsior. In fact, nothing could be clearer from the first few minutes of The Undiscovered Country that the TOS crew is in a state of transition. But for one character in Star Trek VI, "the undiscovered country" is invoked to refer to the concepts of future and change (and, presumably, how both ideas can seem just as scary as death itself). In its original context, the phrase, in short, means death.