ALL SCI-FI Forum Index ALL SCI-FI
The place to “find your people”.
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    ALL SCI-FI Forum Index -> Star Trek Movies and related subjects
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17019
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Thu May 28, 2015 12:44 pm    Post subject: Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country (1991) Reply with quote



Director Nicolas Meyer does another fine job of steering the Enterprise back on track after those less worthy movies caused it to be lost in space since The Wrath of Khan.

Kirk really gets to act like Kirk in this one, right down to seducing a female alien . . . who turns out not to be female! Or is she? With shape shifters, you never know.

The presence of Captain Sulu is a genuine delight to Trekkers everywhere. In fact, all TOS hands are on deck and ready for action in a story which, thankfully, is focused on something we all understand -- those "damn Klingon bastards" -- who killed Jim's son and their tricky political maneuvers.

Bones gets to bust out of prison with Jim, Chekov gets to practice pronouncing V's as W's, and Spock gets to mind meld with Kim Cattrall, the secret erotic fantasy of every Trekker.

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Mon Dec 05, 2022 2:12 pm; edited 4 times in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Pow
Galactic Ambassador


Joined: 27 Sep 2014
Posts: 3400
Location: New York

PostPosted: Sat May 30, 2015 7:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It was great to see Captain Sulu.

However, I always found it strange that George campaigned for the promotion with the producers.

Had the ST:TOS cast continued with more feature films, Sulu would not be the helmsman on the Enterprise bridge any longer.

And writing Sulu & his own ship into further adventures with the Enterprise in all future ST movies would have seemed highly illogical.

Seems like George kinda talked himself out of a job.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17019
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Sat May 30, 2015 10:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey, that's a great observation! Very Happy

Maybe George was hoping they would expand the stories a bit and let Captain Sulu and his ship work with the Enterprise on some important mission. The writers could put a few of the other regulars (Uhura or Chekov, perhaps) on Sulu's ship so that we would have a wider range of characters in the story (the two bridges, the two crews).

And maybe George figured they might make a few Star Trek movies with him after the other cast members got too old or passed away.

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Mon Aug 01, 2016 7:56 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
trekriffic
Starship Navigator


Joined: 19 Feb 2015
Posts: 593

PostPosted: Sat May 30, 2015 11:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

One of my favorite of all the Star Trek original cast movies. Loved the opening sequence with the explosion of Praxis and seeing the Excelsior ride out the energy wave it created.

A friend of mine on another forum created this image of that event using my Excelsior model...



One thing that's always bothered me though was the lack of an automated shield activation mechanism on the Excelsior.

Sulu, eyes wide in horror, had to shout an order to activate the shields when he realized the peril facing the ship from the approaching wall of energy.

Shouldn't the ship's long range sensors have recognized the danger long before Captain and crew were aware of it thus triggering the ships shields to deploy automatically?

Surely, at a time like that, every second counts.

I suppose waiting until the last second to deploy them made for more tension and drama cinematically, so I can understand why the scene was written that way, but it still bugs me a little bit.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17019
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2016 8:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I hate to say it, trekriffic, but your comment nails a problem with Star Trek in general that has grown worse every year.

Science fiction has always suffered from the danger that science would make the fiction look ridiculous far sooner than the authors anticipated. And today's technological advances are galloping over the predictions of the past like a herd of horny buffaloes! Shocked

This is especially true with Star Trek. Consider these examples:

The nasal voice of Majel Barrett as the computer in TOS sounds ludicrous and annoying compared the sultry Siri from our own smart phones.

Our home security systems detects intruders better than the Enterprise did.

And we can buy toy robots now that walk around delivering more intelligent dialog than Nomad did in the episode that ST: TMP was based on!

_________________

We have passenger jets that can be programmed to take off, fly to their destination, and land while the pilot flirts with the stewardess sitting on his lap. Wink

So, it's downright silly to propose that 23rd Century starships would not have computers that could act in microseconds when an emergency like the one we see in this movie occur.

And even though I fully understand the need for balancing drama and realism in a movie, I think the filmmakers in this case should not be excused from finding a way to make the story both dramatic and intelligent while not dumbing-down 23rd Century technology for 21st Century audiences.

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Sep 29, 2019 8:09 am; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17019
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Sat Sep 28, 2019 6:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I love this movie, but while watching my DVD of it tonight I was annoyed by the frequent references to "magnetic boots" and "gravity boots" as if the two concepts were the same.

Clearly, they are not.

This is a prime example of how the screenwriters in Hollywood on the early Star Trek films didn't know enough about science to avoid making embarrassing blunders like this.

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    ALL SCI-FI Forum Index -> Star Trek Movies and related subjects All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group