Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[wesley]

Christian Slater framed his $750 paycheck for his walk-on part.

[eli]

Gene Roddenberry expressed his displeasure with this film's storyline after viewing a rough cut, complaining that the Klingons were simply used as generic villains and their society and cultural viewpoints never really explored. After the release of the film and Roddenberry's death, executive producer Leonard Nimoy admitted that Roddenberry had been right. Subsequent episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) explored Klingon society and culture extensively.

[janice]

David Warner is only nine years older than Rosanna DeSoto who plays his daughter.

[kenzi]

Nicholas Meyer initially wished to use Gustav Holst's "The Planets" as the music for the film, but found that it would cost far too much in royalties and be far too tedious to edit into the film. He then asked James Horner, a composer to whom he gave his big break with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), to return and wrap up the original series. Horner stated his career had outgrown "Star Trek" and declined. Meyer then went to Jerry Goldsmith, who flatly refused after the failure of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989). Finally, Meyer asked for demo tapes to be submitted, and he chose the theme of unknown composer Cliff Eidelman because it combined the best of "The Planets" with the styles of Horner and Goldsmith, while still sounding "fresh and original."

[francisco]

Exterior scenes for Rura Penthe were filmed outside and on location at Bronson Park in Los Angeles. The scenes were filmed in warm weather, with William Shatner and DeForest Kelley trying to cover up the fact that they were sweating, and not freezing to death as was to be portrayed on-screen.

[frances]

The name of the penal colony Kirk and McCoy are sent to, Rura Penthe, comes from the name of the slave labor camp in the film "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1954).

[eli]

Captain Sulu (George Takei) is the only Star Trek: The Original Series (1966) regular character to be given command of a starship other than the Enterprise.

[kylie]

In both Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), Spock says the line "Perhaps you're right" just as he is about to do something sneaky. In "Khan", he says it just before he nerve pinches McCoy and in "Country", just before he stealthily places a tracer patch on Kirk's uniform before Kirk beams onto Gorkon's ship.

[mathew]

David Warner was almost seriously injured during the filming of Gorkon's death scene. A light exploded and a large piece of it barely missed landing on his head.

[terry]

The teaser trailer is tagged with its original December 13, 1991 release date. It was moved up a week early to avoid competing with Hook (1991) and The Last Boy Scout (1991).

[jessica]

Valeris was originally written to be Saavik, Spock's trainee from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) lending greater impact to her character's betrayal. However, Gene Roddenberry objected to the character's actions, ending up in a battle with Nicholas Meyer (who believed the Saavik character was his to do with as he pleased). Roddenberry won the dispute and the character was re-written into Valeris, who is played by Kim Cattrall. Cattrall wanted to play a different character rather than be the third incarnation of Saavik, following Kirstie Alley and Robin Curtis. Meyer had originally wanted Cattrall to play Saavik back in 1982, but scheduling conflicts prevented her from working on Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), as she was filming Police Academy (1984) at the time. She initially turned down the part of Valeris, thinking she was to play Saavik. Upon finding out she was to play a new character, she agreed. Cattrall also designed her own hairstyle for the part of Valeris, and also came up with the idea to completely shave off her sideburns in order to more prominently show her Vulcan ears.

[darrell]

The casting director was Mary Jo Slater, mother of Christian Slater. Thus, his small role as a communications officer aboard the Excelsior.

[wesley]

During the confusion after Kronos 1 has been hit twice, you can see Valeris program the database concerning the two torpedoes. She programs her console and then hits the single red button. Later in the movie, after Kirk yells "fire" to shoot the altered torpedo, there is a close-up of someone firing the torpedo, using the same button to show you what that button does. Before she does this, the database, according to Scotty shows all torpedoes "stocked and fully loaded". After she does this, Spock reports that the database shows two torpedoes missing.

[lynn]

In 2006, William Shatner appeared in a television spot for DirecTV, using re-edited footage from this movie. Shatner is the only one to have new lines, and although Leonard Nimoy and Walter Koenig also appear in the ad, their lines were taken straight from movie footage.

[albert]

The transporter room is a redress of the Enterprise-D's transporter room from Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).

[bessie]

"To be, or not to be" in Klingon is "taH pagh, taH be'".

[chris]

The Federation President's office was depicted as being located in Paris. This was something of a concession for Nicholas Meyer, who had wanted Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) to take place in Paris.

[nina]

The banquet hall used for the formal dinner between the Enterprise-A senior staff and the Klingon delegation is a redress of the Observation Lounge from the Enterprise-D.

[ella]

Many of the characters, especially General Chang, make reference to William Shakespeare in general, and Hamlet in particular. Christopher Plummer played Hamlet in Hamlet at Elsinore (1964). Chang also quotes Prospero from The Tempest, "Our revels now are ended." Plummer went on to play Prospero in The Tempest (2010).

[chad]

The Klingon trial concept was originally introduced in a draft script for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).