The Undiscovered Country is one of those films that probably resonated more when it came out, than when we see it today.
The thing was that at the time, we were ending the Cold War with the emergence of Glastnost and Perestroka, and thought that the Russians were now going to be our friends, so why shouldn't the Klingons now be our friends? (They even had a Chancellor Gorkin, sounding much like Gorbachev, and a Chernobyl-like energy accident.
With the euphoria gone (The Russians are still a pain in the backside, friends or not), some of the films more dubious elements don't work as well, such as Kirk saying "Let them Die" about the Klingons. (Shatner himself has said he was uncomfortable with this scene.) Nichelle Nichols, to her credit, refused to say the line, "You wouldn't want one to marry your sister." In short, they had to turn the cast into bigots to make their understanding at the end more sincere. The problem was that we never got the impression from the series or previous movies that our beloved crew were a bunch of bigots. They had a problem with the Klingon Government, to be certain, but not with Klingons as a race, and could even reach accords with them when needed.
Despite that, a lot of the characterizations and cast interactions are solid, the battle scene at the end is still exciting. It was a high note for most of these actors to do their last appearances as these characters.
Nick Meyers, like a lot of creative people, went with what worked for him in the past. A Melville quoting Khan, why not a Shakespeare quoting Klingon General? Well, okay, it strains credulity a little bit.
The thing was that at the time, we were ending the Cold War with the emergence of Glastnost and Perestroka, and thought that the Russians were now going to be our friends, so why shouldn't the Klingons now be our friends? (They even had a Chancellor Gorkin, sounding much like Gorbachev, and a Chernobyl-like energy accident.
With the euphoria gone (The Russians are still a pain in the backside, friends or not), some of the films more dubious elements don't work as well, such as Kirk saying "Let them Die" about the Klingons. (Shatner himself has said he was uncomfortable with this scene.) Nichelle Nichols, to her credit, refused to say the line, "You wouldn't want one to marry your sister." In short, they had to turn the cast into bigots to make their understanding at the end more sincere. The problem was that we never got the impression from the series or previous movies that our beloved crew were a bunch of bigots. They had a problem with the Klingon Government, to be certain, but not with Klingons as a race, and could even reach accords with them when needed.
Despite that, a lot of the characterizations and cast interactions are solid, the battle scene at the end is still exciting. It was a high note for most of these actors to do their last appearances as these characters.
Nick Meyers, like a lot of creative people, went with what worked for him in the past. A Melville quoting Khan, why not a Shakespeare quoting Klingon General? Well, okay, it strains credulity a little bit.