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