Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is the sixth feature film in the Star Trek science fiction franchise. It was released in 1991 by Paramount Pictures, and is the last of the Star Trek films to include the entire main cast of the 1960s Star Trek television series. It was directed by Nicholas Meyer and written by Meyer with Denny Martin Flinn. After an ecological disaster leads to two longstanding enemies—the Federation and the Klingon Empire—brokering a tenuous truce, the crew of the USS Enterprise-A must prevent war from breaking out on the eve of universal peace.

The Undiscovered Country was initially planned as a prequel to the original series, with younger actors portraying the crew of the Enterprise while attending Starfleet Academy, but the idea was discarded because of negative reaction from the cast and the fans. Faced with producing a new film in time for Star Trek's 25th anniversary, Flinn and Meyer, the director of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, wrote a script based on a suggestion from Leonard Nimoy about what would happen if "the wall came down in space", touching on the contemporary events of the Cold War.

Principal photography took place between April and September 1991. The production budget was smaller than anticipated because of the critical and commercial failure of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Because of a lack of sound stage space on the Paramount Pictures lots, many scenes were filmed around Hollywood. Meyer and cinematographer Hiro Narita aimed for a darker and more dramatic mood, subtly altering redresses of sets originally used for the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. Producer Steven-Charles Jaffe led a second unit that filmed on an Alaskan glacier that stood in for an alien gulag. Cliff Eidelman produced the film's score, which is intentionally darker than any previous Star Trek offering.

The film was released in North America on December 6, 1991. The Undiscovered Country garnered positive reviews, with publications praising the lighthearted acting and tongue-in-cheek references. The film performed strongly at the box office; it posted the largest opening weekend gross of the series before going on to earn $96,888,996 worldwide. The film earned two Academy Award nominations, for Best Makeup and Best Sound Effects, and is the only Star Trek movie to win a Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film. A special collectors' edition DVD version of the film was released in 2004, for which Meyer made minor alterations to his cut of the movie. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry died shortly before the movie's premiere.

The film opens with the explosion of the Klingon moon, Praxis. The USS Excelsior, commanded by Captain Hikaru Sulu, is struck by the shock wave and its crew discovers that much of the moon has been obliterated. The loss of their key energy production facility and the destruction of the Klingon homeworld's ozone layer throws the Klingon Empire into turmoil. No longer able to maintain a hostile footing, the Klingons sue for peace with their longstanding enemy, the United Federation of Planets. Starfleet sends the USS Enterprise-A to meet with the Klingon Chancellor, Gorkon, and escort him to negotiations on Earth. The decision does not sit well with the Enterprise's captain, James T. Kirk, whose son was murdered by Klingons years earlier.

The Enterprise rendezvous with Gorkon's battlecruiser and proceeds towards Earth, with the crews sharing a tense meal aboard the Enterprise. Late at night, the Enterprise appears to fire on the Klingon ship with a pair of torpedoes; the damage disables the artificial gravity aboard the vessel. During the confusion, two figures wearing Starfleet suits and gravity boots beam aboard the Klingon ship and wound Gorkon. Kirk surrenders to avoid a fight, and beams aboard the Klingon ship with Doctor Leonard McCoy in an effort to save Gorkon's life. The chancellor dies, and Gorkon's chief of staff, General Chang, puts Kirk and McCoy on trial for his assassination. The pair are found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment on the frozen asteroid Rura Penthe. Gorkon’s daughter, Azetbur, becomes the new Chancellor, and pushes forward with diplomatic negotiations; for reasons of security, the conference's location is kept a secret. While several senior Starfleet officers want to rescue Kirk and McCoy, the Federation president refuses to risk full-scale war. Azetbur likewise refuses to invade Federation space, stating that only Kirk and McCoy will pay for her father's death.

Kirk and McCoy arrive at the Rura Penthe mines and are befriended by a shapeshifter named Martia, who offers them an escape route; in reality, it is a ruse to make their arranged deaths appear accidental. Once her betrayal is revealed, Martia transforms into his double and fights Kirk, but she is killed by the prison guards to silence any witnesses. Just before the prison warden reveals who set them up, Kirk and McCoy are beamed aboard the Enterprise by Captain Spock. While Kirk and McCoy were imprisoned, Spock assumed command and led an investigation into the attack on Gorkon's ship and the assassination. Determining that the Enterprise did not fire the torpedoes but that the assassins are still aboard, the crew begins looking for the traitors. The two assassins are found dead, but Kirk and Spock fool the traitor into believing they are still alive; when the culprit arrives in Sickbay to finish off the assassins, Kirk and Spock discover that the killer is Spock's protégé, Valeris. To discover the identity of the conspirators, Spock initiates a forced mind-meld, and learns that a group of Klingon, Starfleet, and Romulan officers plotted to sabotage the peace talks, and Chang is one of the conspirators. The torpedoes that struck Gorkon's cruiser came from a prototype Bird of Prey that can fire while cloaked, and hovered just below the Enterprise on the night of the assassination.
The crew contacts Sulu, who informs them the conference is being held at Camp Khitomer; both ships head for the talks at maximum warp. As it nears the planet, the Enterprise is intercepted by Chang's Bird of Prey. With the Enterprise unable to track his ship's position, Chang inflicts severe damage on the Enterprise and then the Excelsior. Spock and McCoy modify a photon torpedo to home in on the exhaust emissions of Chang's vessel. The torpedo impact reveals Chang's location, and the Enterprise and Excelsior destroy the Bird of Prey in a flurry of torpedoes. Crew from both ships beam to the conference and halt an attempt on the Federation president's life. Azetbur says Kirk has restored her father's faith; Kirk responds that she has restored his son's. Having saved the peace talks, the Enterprise is ordered back to Earth by Starfleet Command to be decommissioned, but the crew decide to take their time on the return voyage. As the Enterprise cruises towards a nearby sun, Kirk proclaims that though this mission is the final cruise of the Enterprise under his command, others will continue their voyages