Latest / Houselights: A Film Director Podcast / Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) - Nicholas Meyer | Houselights #120

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Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) - Nicholas Meyer | Houselights #120 · Houselights: A Film Director Podcast

0:03
Welcome to the nerd party. Me jipha h pong well j loo me room
0:25
coo well coom HOORI son? Can I wait for the translation please? Oh?
0:32
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Hello everyone, and welcome
0:35
to House Slides, House of Meer. That's right, we're doing our double
0:40
bill of the director Nicholas Meyer and last week which you all should have listened
0:45
to by now, and if you haven't, go back, listen and enjoy
0:48
and then come back and enjoy this. We did Star Trek The Wrath of
0:52
Khan, and today tonight we're doing Star Trek The Undiscovered Country. I am
0:59
your co host, Tristan Riddell, and with me as always is General Darren
1:03
Moser, the one and only cling on who has a has an eyepatch and
1:10
I can't wait for that origin story. And then we also have John Mills
1:15
himself, who is the leading expert in gashous anomalies. How are you guys
1:19
doing tonight, Darren? You know it looks painful, but they missed on
1:26
the first rivet and that went right through the middle, and then the other
1:30
three were just to cover it up, so it should have been a one
1:32
rivet operation. Look start starve you know, cling cling on surgeons. Not
1:38
we had one, but he died. It happens more often than you think.
1:42
But no, I'm very excited to talk about Star Trek. Six is
1:46
a It's a really good movie. And especially we were just talking about the
1:51
end of Next Gen on SETI Alpha three as we were kind of pitching a
1:57
hypothetical fifth movie, like what if they were wrapping it up with a movie
2:00
instead of with Picard is what we kind of and we drawed heavily from this
2:04
movie, not copied, almaged, We homaged this movie. You were inspired,
2:12
very inspired. Yeah, we need breathing room. I beg your pondon.
2:22
For those of you who if you guys like us talking about Star Trek,
2:24
specifically Darren talking about Star Trek, you absolutely should go to the Nerdparty
2:29
dot com and check out SETI Alpha three. It's been going on for a
2:32
while and it gets better every single episode, and it is. It is
2:38
a fantastic group of guys together talking about all things Star Trek. And if
2:43
you want to go to the to the other side of the pond with another
2:46
franchise, Star Wars, you can go and listen to an aggressive host I
2:54
stumbled a little bit on it. I almost called it like annihilation. For
2:58
some reason, I think it's called I think it's spelled like an heliator.
3:00
No aggressive negotiations with John, Yes, which that's true, that which they
3:07
talk all things Star Wars over on that side, we sure do and we
3:10
have a great time. I'm I'm a fan of sethi elf of three.
3:14
I'm a fan, of course, of aggressive negotiations. But I think that
3:17
fans of both Star Wars and Star Trek can shake hands and come to an
3:22
agreement here about Star Trek six. I think that this is one of those
3:27
unifying films where everybody loves to make so much of the split in the franchises,
3:32
when in all actuality, everybody really loves both. I mean, I've
3:37
yet to truly find somebody other than my wife where I'm like, do you
3:40
like Star Wars? Yes? Do you like Star Trek. No. She's
3:44
the only person I've ever run across that is that case, and she likes
3:47
it. She loves Star Wars. She doesn't like Star Trek. But most
3:51
everybody, even if you're a Diehart Star Wars fan and a Star Trek fan
3:55
in passing, if you sat down and you saw Star Treks six in the
4:00
movie Theater nineteen ninety one, as I did, it was a crowdpleaser like
4:04
this was Star Trek six was regarded. I remember standing in line with Joey,
4:11
who I've mentioned many times and I'll throw him under the bus a couple
4:14
of times during this podcast, and standing in line waiting for the doors to
4:18
open at Wheaton Plaza eleven, and the guy in front of me and we
4:24
started talking and everybody as a consensus saying, I don't know whether this movie
4:29
is any good. I'm paraphrasing here, I don't know whether this movie is
4:30
any good. But this is undoubtedly an apology for how disappointed everybody was with
4:36
Star Trek five. Everybody thought Star Trek five was going to close out the
4:41
series. It was like, hey, here's our last haras Star Trek.
4:44
The next generation is on the air. And then everybody universally hated Star Trek
4:47
five, and it was like this scramble where you could almost sense Paramount saying,
4:55
yeah, yeah, we need to close on a better note here.
5:00
But also there was a twenty fifth anniversary, so they were desperate forgetting something.
5:03
And so when you think about it nowadays, the turnaround of a studio
5:09
having what would be considered a disaster of Star Trek five. Usually you have
5:14
everybody going back and going back to the planning stages and we're going to reboot
5:16
and we're gonna figure everything out, and paramount to their credit goes. We
5:19
got the twenty fifth anniversary coming up. Everybody hated five. Okay, guys,
5:24
you got two years. Do something, come up with it, come
5:27
in on budget and on time. Who can we go to? And I
5:30
think that's Star Trek. Sex is in a very unique position, and whose
5:34
sex could we use? I mean, I don't want to. Fortunately,
5:39
there was a pre existing Star Trek show in development at the same time.
5:45
Yeah, I do feel there's a little bit of a nod to the camera
5:48
in the beginning scene when Kirk and Spocker talking and he's like, you do
5:55
know this crew is meant to stand down in three months. Aka, we
5:59
were just about to end, but now you vouch for us. Aka,
6:02
here's the vouching final film. Like it's a little there's a little parallel in
6:08
that dialogue. I feel, yeah, and I think you know, to
6:13
the point where we're talking about the sets and everything, there's a minimalism to
6:16
these sets and the way that they use them. You know what, this
6:19
sufference room needs darkness, lots of darkness, a lot of darkness. And
6:26
but but at the same time, what's crazy is the way that it's shot.
6:30
You don't notice it. Really. It's one of those things where like,
6:33
yeah, Okay, this is the five thousandth time that I've seen it,
6:36
I can break if you're a hardcore fan who've seen it many time,
6:40
yeah, but I can promise you when you saw it in the theater at
6:44
the time, this is a really well shot movie because it takes these very
6:48
minimal sets and it makes them work where you have this sense of scale,
6:54
the sense of size and scope that you don't typically have in a Star Trek
7:00
movie like Star Trek three, you can tell that there is a limited budget
7:04
and a limited scope. Star Trek four, they're shooting on the streets.
7:09
Star Trek five, you could definitely tell they were like, we're cutting the
7:13
budget as we go sort of thing. This one feels like a return to
7:16
the more epic scope that you're expecting, But then you look at the behind
7:21
the scenes stuff and yeah, they made they Basically the saying is like they
7:27
so silk out of Sal's ear or something like that. They were given really
7:30
limited resources, and I think it's a true testament to the skill behind the
7:35
camera to say, how do we make this feel big? Make this feel
7:39
like a big screen thing, And I think they succeed. Yeah, when
7:43
they were on Chronos one, totally not an odd to Air Force one,
7:46
just yeah, cling on. They just happened to call it that. They
7:50
Shakespeare, they know Air Force one. It's crazy. You know, they
7:54
received this historical documents and so they based a lot of stuff off of that.
8:00
But No, when they were walking around, I was like, man,
8:03
look at this hallway. This is like an impressive hallway. Like they
8:05
had to build this entire hallway because it doesn't exist in any standing next gen
8:11
set. And so I was really I mean all of the you know,
8:13
the giant table scene, there's the the courtroom scene. You know, there's
8:20
a lot, just a lot of I totally agree with you, John,
8:24
They definitely they did a lot out of a little but what they did have
8:28
to build when they're like, okay, this is something we have to do
8:31
new, they totally put the money on the screen. It really shows there
8:35
was a there was a moment when like, because when you were a fan,
8:39
when you're a superfan and you're watching this for the twelfth time, you
8:43
know, in the past five years, you're you're really just kind of you're
8:48
looking for those little cues. You're you're looking, You're like, okay,
8:50
all right, so like the President's office is actually in ten forward, okay,
8:54
okay, so they put some drapes on this side, and and like,
8:56
oh, their have their dining room is actually just the ops vation lounge
9:00
okay, okay, okay, And you're just like looking all around. And
9:03
one thing that I noticed upon this watch is that there was a shot when
9:07
they were inside a room I care. I think it might have been Kurt's
9:09
quarters, and you're shooting out towards the hallway and you're like, damn,
9:15
that's that is a Tng hallway. You're like, oh, that's so very
9:20
much a Tung hallway. It's blaring. But then when you're actually in the
9:24
hallway and they're doing the walk and talk, and you see how they put
9:30
braces on the sides to really close the hallway in, and they put a
9:35
lot of goes nowhere does nothing tubes up on top? They like it stopped
9:41
looking like in T ANDNG Hallway. And because when you're on a Galaxy class
9:46
it's so expansive you're walking around, you don't run in anybody, But when
9:50
you're on the Constitution class version, it's more like a submarine, which brings
9:54
back to the more naval feel that Nicholas Meyer likes to use in his Star
9:58
Trek movies. And I think that that has a very large nod that has
10:03
to go to the lighting that they use, where there's a lot of very
10:07
stark overhead minimal lighting that happens where you get again that sense like you're saying,
10:13
of a naval vessel where you have to make the most of the limited
10:16
resources that you have. You're not going to have something that's brightly lit like
10:20
John Lupicard's quarters or something like that. You're going to have something that feels
10:26
like you're in a closed in ship, like a sailing ship. Anybody who's
10:31
taken a cruise, you have the choice. You can get something with a
10:33
balcony, or you can get an internal one and pay a little bit less,
10:37
and those little bit less ones, you are fully aware that you're in
10:41
a closet that is in an inner hallway that you don't have. Kirk doesn't
10:46
have a porthole, he doesn't have anything that would have been expensive in post
10:50
to add a starfield going by or anything like that. It's very much the
10:54
feeling of he is trapped inside a ship that has very confined sort of things,
11:01
and that is that is something I come back to with Star Trek six
11:03
and Awful lot is. Yes, we know that Meyer as evidence in Star
11:09
Trek two because we're focused very much on Myer's doing work with um. With
11:15
Star Trek, we have I think a very great refinement here and a very
11:22
great work with the cinematographer to make this feel like a cramped environment. This
11:28
is not something like what you feel on TNG where it's like there's this big,
11:33
roomy, carpeted hallway where I'm just having a comfortable time going out and
11:37
exploring space. It's you're sack Like I look at the interior of this ship
11:43
and I see a situation where a captain would be the one to say no,
11:48
no, no, no, I'm going on the away team just because
11:50
he's desperate to get the hell out of this thing, you know, like
11:54
seriously, like, I think that's a that's a big thing. It's like
11:58
you look at the ship and it's like, yeah, I'd want to get
11:58
the hell out of here too. I wouldn't even side. Even if you
12:01
compare it to Star Trek five, like the look of the ship internally in
12:07
Star Trek five, it's way more expansive. In Final Frontier, Like the
12:13
captain's quarters is huge. Um, they have that observation lounge which is get
12:18
the one with us though. The ship wheel, um is just it's just
12:22
huge. And then of course they had like the infamous scene where the rocket
12:26
boots going up through the the elevators servo ships. Do you think one hundred
12:31
levels, what would you think? Like, well, do you think they
12:35
struck a lot of that like the because obviously if they were expecting five to
12:39
be the end, they would have torn down you know, Kirk's uh,
12:43
you know, his quarters, captain wheel and all of that. I honestly
12:48
don't I'm sure that there's tons of fans who do know, but I honestly
12:50
don't know, because we got a different bridge on the constitution a uh every
12:58
single movie, like in episode an episode, oh my gosh, in Star
13:03
Trek four and start TRIC five and start tric six, we all got a
13:05
different look and fuel on the ship, even though it's supposed to be the
13:07
same exact ship, and so I don't know what they did with the sets
13:13
after the fact. Well, I think that with six, what I think
13:18
is really interesting is by simply pulling out the carpet and making the interior coloring
13:24
darker. I think they it's fascinating because just the simple act of changing the
13:31
lighting and pulling out the carpet makes things look I'm gonna go ahead and say
13:37
it, Star Trek six looks more real to me. This looks like something
13:41
that actually could exist, whereas I look at something from five or even the
13:46
end of four, and I'm like, ah, this looks a little too
13:48
lucks for its own good sort of thing. It's sort of honestly, we
13:52
keep making reference to TNG. It is that the treatment of the set in
14:00
Generations feels more quote unquote real to me than a lot of what I got
14:05
in the T and show. Specifically because it's a little bit darker, there's
14:11
a little bit more sense of restriction inside the ship, and there's a little
14:16
bit a little bit more claustrophobia to everything that I'm seeing so it feels like
14:22
an internal thing, Whereas when you look at the show when it was on
14:28
my small, little Zenith TV back in the nineties, that was one thing.
14:31
But when I watch it on a larger screen, it feels like,
14:35
Okay, well they just pulled a wall out, and this looks like a
14:37
set sort of thing. Yeah. One of my favorite news sets, as
14:41
we're talking sets, is the galley, Like we could spend a good amount
14:45
of time there, and it feels like it's in the middle of the ship
14:50
like there is. It feels very confined, and apparently it's easy for everyone
14:54
to show up because they're like are you firing phasers? Like what's going and
14:58
they're ready for a battle at any given moment. They are. So if
15:03
a crewman comes down and they're like, h sir, I did not like
15:07
my food in my Starfleet ration? What did you say pulling out the phaser?
15:13
You know, but maybe they're really worried about being boarded and they're going
15:16
after the galley. That's a good point. Yeah, yeah, well but
15:22
but but to talk to that, right is the sense of a lived in
15:28
ship is the detail that I come to expect from a director like Meyer.
15:33
He seems obsessed with making this seem like a really lived in space. This
15:39
is something that is functional, which is something that I think does not occur
15:43
to other directors in the Star Trek franchise. And further, I think that
15:48
there is a sense of uh, you know, having it be something where
15:54
while I don't have that same sort of sense that I could trace in my
16:00
I had how to get from here, from you know, A to B,
16:04
I still feel like this is a place that exists where there is a
16:10
way to get from A to B. I think because of course there's a
16:12
theatrical versus director's cut, but for instance, in the director's cut, when
16:17
you have, um, you know Valarius, Yeah, Valarius, not savoc
16:23
come down the pole, there's a sense that like there are all these shortcuts
16:26
around here that once you're in the ship, you get the sense for how
16:30
you can navigate, you know, around things. I love how I knew
16:34
who you were talking about just because you had your hand in the air,
16:37
because I knew that you were going to make the gesture of going down to
16:41
pole like a fireman's poll. Now that there are two two questions I want
16:45
to ask you guys, because you're you know, You're much bigger Star Trek
16:48
fans than I am. Okay, I'm I love the original series of the
16:52
original series movies. I love TN I love DS nine. I start fading
16:57
around Voyager. I kind of stuck with Enterprise now I'm sort of tapped out,
17:03
Like I just sort of keep an eye on it. But I'm not
17:06
really a big Trek fan. I loves you know, that's hilarious. You've
17:11
described only like eighty percent of Trek, So I don't know why you keep
17:15
distancing yourself from the franchise. It's a bit and I've committed to That's why.
17:19
That's why I'm staying with it. But I mean I'm not. I
17:23
don't stay really current. I wait for you guys to say, yeah,
17:26
this is worth watching sort of thing. I don't jump on the Trek train
17:30
immediately with everything, like I didn't jump on Prodigy. Did you know.
17:33
I waited for a signal from you Tristan to be like, hey, lower
17:36
Dex's worth watching. Could be like, all right, fine, I'll give
17:37
it a try, And I was like, oh, I'm delightfully surprised sort
17:40
of thing. But I want to ask you guys. I want to throw
17:44
it out there because I think it's very obvious that this script was originally written
17:49
with Valarius's Savic, and I've read plenty of stuff that it was written originally
17:53
with Valaris's Savik. Do you think that this film works better with Savic in
18:03
this role, Darren, I'll throw that. I'll throw that question at you
18:06
first. I gotta know, well, I have a counter question first,
18:10
who is playing Savic? Because if Christially is not going to come back for
18:15
the role, I mean, in the hypothetical, could be anyone, but
18:18
like, if it is Kim Cattrall, then that's the third person to play
18:22
this character. So you wonder they wanted No. No, I'm saying like
18:29
in this and she's the one, and she's like, I'm not going to
18:33
play the third perpon I'm not going to be the third actor to play this
18:37
this character. And so that's why. And that's also hard on your audience,
18:41
Like Okay, yes, audience is the same person as this actress and
18:45
this actress and you you could and we're all gonna your average person is going
18:51
to look at a poster with those three actresses and think that the three separate
18:56
characters. So now I know what the intent of your question, John was
19:00
like, is the emotional impact of it being Savic versus Valarius? YEA,
19:11
Honestly, I was okay with it being Valarius because I feel that they make
19:17
sure to put in enough scenes, way more scenes of the Vulcan female officer
19:23
with Spock and establishing their you know, mentor mentee relationship. Then we got
19:30
out of any of the other movies. So I totally bought his disappointment,
19:36
his sense of betrayal. I didn't feel like, oh, but you know,
19:41
if it had been Savic, then oh my gosh, we would have
19:45
clutched our you know, rip away Red Monster Maroon caller and been like,
19:51
that's I can't see that coming. But no, maybe it would have been
19:56
a little different because again, we do know this long running But it's not
20:00
like you're saying, well, what if it had been Sulu who had turned?
20:04
It's like, that's a whole different category. That's a long standing character.
20:08
She's a character that only existed in the movies. So I get the
20:11
impetus of what you're saying, but I don't. I don't feel we really
20:15
missed out, And in many ways, I think it was a benefit to
20:18
be Valeris because it's a blank slate, you can impart exactly who she is,
20:23
you know. And I was looking for the little things in this rewatch
20:26
because I've seen this many times, but the little moments when they're having their
20:30
discussion and she's like basically about to say, like, surely we must act,
20:36
surely we must do something. She's trying to gauge Spock in spots like
20:41
you know, as he says, neither of us were listening very well that
20:44
night. And so I think the role is perfect as it is. I
20:48
think it works really well. It's still a Federation officer. We've established he's
20:52
top of her class, and it's a fall from grace. But I don't
20:56
feel we're missing an extra punch if it had been Savac. So I think
21:02
it was the right call. And it also like showing he said that she
21:06
was the first Vulcan to be the top of her class means that Spok wasn't.
21:10
I want to know who the heck was the top of the class.
21:12
One spot that's true. Well, we all know bad boy Spock. We've
21:15
seen you know, Star Trek two thousand and nine where he's like live long
21:19
and prosper prosperity Yeah, like Live Long and prosper Yeah. I think that
21:26
we had all those foks. A Young had an attitude problem. It's been
21:30
established. I think it works as Valaris. I think Valaris is great.
21:33
I think that Kim Cattrall does a very good job of creating a different character.
21:40
But I still can't help even back in ninety one when I saw this
21:44
in the theater, I can't help but sit there and say, if this
21:48
had been Savac, as a fan, this is the thing's a fan service
21:52
thing, it has more impact as a hey, I'm just going to show
21:59
you Star Treks to introduce you to the series sort of thing. Valaris works
22:03
very very well because I think that's with you. Darren. Yeah, I
22:07
think that's really that's a really really good distinction. John. I think I
22:11
think that's the thing is that from a franchise perspective, I think having it
22:17
be Savik would have been awesome. It would have been amazing. It would
22:22
have been gut wrenching, it would have torn your heart out, it would
22:25
have had a whole lot of more emotional weight. But as a standalone movie,
22:30
no change whatsoever. But from a franchise perspective, from a fan perspective.
22:33
Absolutely. But here's the thing, though, is that in my head,
22:40
the Savak in Star Trek three is not the same person as the Savac
22:45
and Star Trek two, And so for me, it doesn't I feel no
22:49
continuity with it, with that character to begin with, because we have two
22:55
we have there's such different portrayals. It's it's they're done so differently, Like
23:03
I think her name's Robin Robin Curtis, Thank you, Robin Curtis. Robin
23:07
Curtis doesn't even attempt to do what Kirciali did in Wrath of Khn too,
23:12
And that's fine, that's fine. It's a direction, it's a choice,
23:15
it's fine. But it's so different that I don't even see them as the
23:18
same in character. And so I absolutely get Kim Catrall's reluctance to want to
23:25
be Savak and be the third actress to portray that role. I think she
23:29
hit out of the park. They wanted her in Wrath of Khan. They
23:33
wanted Kim Cattrall and Wrath of Khn, and she couldn't because of scheduling conflicts.
23:38
And there's some universe out there, there's some parallel universe where Kim Catrall
23:45
was in all of the movies as Savak, and then she was Savac an
23:48
Undiscovered country. I think that would wish I could have seen those. That
23:52
would have been cool if we got the same actress in all of the movies,
23:56
But because we didn't, it's cool that we got Valarius in this because
24:00
Darren you made it was really solid point that they gave us enough scenes with
24:04
Nimoy and her to really build that relationship, so you didn't really need any
24:08
of the previous movies to appreciate it. And Nimoy is such a fan frigantastic
24:14
actor that he sells it. He absolutely sells it. And even though you
24:19
know, people often forget, like because we're in like a postum voyager post
24:27
deeps Stein world where you have Tuvak who was just like Boom, I am
24:33
Tuvak, this is what a vulcan is. I am to Paul, this
24:36
is what a vulcan is, and everything like that. But with with Spock,
24:40
you know, there were times when if it was you know, it
24:44
was established that if you're a vulcan and you experience extreme emotion, like if
24:48
it was extreme happiness or extreme sadness, that you would break like it's okay,
24:52
yeah, Like it doesn't mean you don't have any smacks. The phaser
24:55
away from her after that is an incredible scene I love. And the thing
25:00
is I have actually used that line, and everybody knows Nimoy would go in
25:04
and tweak stuff because he cared so much about the character of Spock. That
25:07
is definitely a Nimoy line. I still use it to this day. When
25:12
he looks at her and he says, what you want is irrelevant. What
25:15
you have chosen is at hand. I love that moment because it is such
25:21
a perfect line. It's so like in the way he delivers it, there
25:25
is so much internal rage, like you feel that anger that he has,
25:30
but it's an anger that as all anger truly is rooted and hurt. He's
25:34
so hurt that Valaris did this, and it's she didn't just do it to
25:40
him. She hurt Kirk, she hurt McCoy, the two people he cares
25:47
most about in this world. He's more I can feel in that line delivery.
25:51
He's more angry about the fact that she put those two in danger than
25:56
him. He could deal with just him, he can't deal with his two
26:00
best friends in the Galaxy being put in harm's way because of her. That
26:06
is the worst betrayal that he could possibly feel. And I think that that
26:11
again is we talked about this was this with Star Trek two. That is
26:17
a very skilled director listening and working with his actors and saying, Okay,
26:25
I hear you, this character is yours. I am here to facilitate what
26:30
works best. And I think that mcmeyer once again gets what works best from
26:37
his actors and actresses here. He gets stuff that truly feels real on screen
26:45
because he listens to and works with the people that are there to deliver the
26:51
lines. Yeah, two things I want to say. One, I think
26:56
if it had been Savic the entire time, it would have been like she
27:00
betrayed Kirk, because I feel like Kirk had a more connection as a command
27:06
structure and it being valarious. It was she betrayed Spok like and we're talking
27:14
nuances here, like like in the Grand Scheme, she's betraying the Federation and
27:18
all of that. But I feel like Savik, what we had seen,
27:21
Savak had a connection with Kirk. Savik was there where Kirk's son died.
27:26
Savik was there, you know, Like I don't feel I feel like they
27:30
established way more of a connection between Spak and Valarius, and to your good,
27:36
go ahead, I understand what you're saying, but I feel like that
27:41
only applies if you take out search for Spok and how she's She's spent almost
27:48
the entire movie with Spak. That might work because I've recently watched Star Trek
27:52
two and four, so I have not watched three recently, So you are
27:56
totally totally right, probably, but I would counter. I would actually support
28:00
Darren in this because she does spend a lot of time with David and Star
28:06
Trek three. Is she is the one that tells Kirk that David is dead?
28:10
Yes, yeah, I know, I think Darren, you know that's
28:11
that sort of thing. I mean, you have a v I'm just saying
28:15
that, Yeah, yeah, it is nuanced. It's just that they do
28:18
have a spot connection with with three in a little touch of four. But
28:23
but I got to ask, so long as we're talking about versions and everything
28:26
like that, theatrical, original home video release and director's cut, we have
28:36
three different versions of this film, and I've got to ask the theatrical version
28:44
I have committed to memory, then there's an extended version that's not really a
28:48
director's cut, but it's got extra footage that was released on home video.
28:52
I forget which edition it was released on. And then you have a director's
28:57
edition quote unquote that's really east In on DVD, and then we revert back
29:03
to theatrical on Blu Ray, and then back to both versions on four K.
29:08
So I have to ask you, guys, genuinely, do you feel
29:15
a compulsion to watch one version over the other or is this like you know,
29:21
I'll take it back to when we were talking about Rocky four. When
29:23
I watch Rocky four, I don't care what version i'm watching. I think
29:29
it is what it is. It's it is what it is, whatever version
29:33
I'm watching. You know, in Rocky four's case, it trades one set
29:36
of issues for another set of issues. But there are some very definite differences
29:41
between the director's cut and the theatrical version of Star Trek six, and the
29:47
theatrical is the one I fell in love with first. But I wanted to
29:51
ask you twos, as lifelong Star Trek fans, which version do you think
29:56
flows the best? Because that speaks to the editing question as well, like
30:00
which one truly works and flows the best theatrical boom just theatrical. I think
30:11
the director's cut is unnecessary, unneeded. It doesn't hurt okay, Like it's
30:19
like I'm not saying like, oh, the director's cuts garbage, like you
30:22
should never watch or anything like that. It's fine, it's fine. If
30:23
you watch it, you get virtually the same experience. But I think what
30:30
kills me. There's two things that really bug me about it, and it's
30:34
the scene with the president. The first scene that we get with the President
30:38
goes on way too long because in the theatrical cut, if I'm remembering correctly,
30:44
and I could be wrong, but in the theatrical cut, the the
30:49
C and C reminds the president these men have literally saved this planet, and
30:55
then the President says, this president is not above the law. Boom cut
31:00
ghost in the next scene, it's great, um. But with with the
31:07
alternate version we have intermixed, we have that weird scene where not Otto comes
31:15
in, Renee aber Genoa comes in and then like they're using paper for some
31:19
reason to showcase the plans and he's like he has that cheesy line about cleaning
31:25
their chronometers. It's unnecessary, it's unneeded, it's redundant attack plan A.
31:33
It's like, yeah, what, what's like they don't actually explain anything.
31:37
But then on top of that is like when we get to the Valarius scene
31:42
where she's like when when when Spock is doing a mind mild to her.
31:47
That's that's a super intense scene. It's also a very divisive scene. It's
31:52
it's very intense, it's very in the moment, and it's very crazy.
31:56
And in the director's cut we have that really strong sound of womb and then
32:02
we cutting set the people's faces as if we weren't paying attention for the entire
32:08
movie. I hate those moments because it dumbs it down and it treats the
32:14
audience like children. Okay, two things. One, I can take the
32:22
scene of frankly sir. We can clean their chronometers even with the paper,
32:28
because I would consider a print out a more secure form of communicating a point
32:35
than something digital in that era, as crazy as that sounds, because the
32:39
Klingons also use a print out, so there's a sense of if I have
32:45
it on a computer, it can be hacked. If it's on paper,
32:47
then I have it it wasn't printed on network sort of thing, So I
32:52
can do that, and the thing is that scene with Colonel West then plays
32:57
into the Scooby Doo unmasking later in the theatrical cut, you don't have the
33:01
unmasking of not cling on blood and it. You need both. If one
33:08
is in there, then the other needs to be in there. Is you're
33:13
like, who is this right? And I like the unmasking specifically because you
33:17
see that same cling on on Chang's ship, so you're sort of like,
33:22
wait a minute, why is he in two places at once sort of thing?
33:25
So that's fine. Two um in terms of that during the mind melt
33:32
scene, completely agree with you, and I do agree that it treats the
33:37
audience as children. But there are enough people I have watched movies with where
33:47
I think sometimes the audience needs what's going on right now? Like I get
33:55
when he says Admiral Cartwright from Starfleet, I'm like, oh, Brock Peters,
33:59
they were Romulan ambassador. Non plus I'm like, yeah, I know
34:01
who who's talking about right there, General Chang, Yeah right, you know,
34:05
Christopher Plummer. I know enough people where if they don't have that bong,
34:08
they're like, who's that? I think that works better without the blong
34:15
if they had those slashes without the sound effect effects a little too, problems
34:20
completely absolved. I think, okay, I think I could get behind that,
34:23
but they needed to stick to something stylistically, because I know this sounds
34:30
like nitpicking, it's really not, because it really takes me out of it.
34:35
Brock Peters black and white photo, it's completely it's stark black and white.
34:40
And then we have General Chang. It is somewhat desaturated, but not
34:46
black and white. And then we have the Romulan Ambassador. It's less desaturated
34:52
than General Chang. And it's also a still photo that they're zooming in on,
34:59
and it just it just it feels like what it is. It was
35:05
an afterthought scrambled and pieced together. Oh no, And I completely agree with
35:10
that. The other stuff is all stuff that was shot at the time that
35:15
was added back in where they said, Okay, we had this edit and
35:17
let's put it back in that the interstitials there where where she's having the mind
35:23
meld, that is thirty years later coming in and saying, you know what,
35:29
it would be good if we dropped that in, right. I completely
35:31
agree with you. I consider it a little bit like the first time I
35:36
watched it, I was like, what the hell just happened, But with
35:38
each subsequent viewing, I'm sort of okay, all right, sort of thing.
35:45
Yeah, seriously, it is a desensit desensitizing thing where once you've watched
35:52
it three or four times, it's like, yeah, okay, I can
35:54
I can live with this. It's just not what I'm not what I was
35:58
used to. But the one I have the hardest time with is I do
36:04
like the Scooby doo one masking at the end to show that it was somebody
36:08
pretending to be a cling on. And if you have the Scooby doo on
36:14
masking at the end, I think you need to clean their chronometer scene earlier.
36:20
Otherwise you unmask them and it's like, that was this guy, right,
36:23
I don't think I think it would have been better if. I think
36:30
it would have been better if it was a clingon and not a human,
36:32
because it shows a little bit more integration of the two forces trying to prevent
36:40
a corrupt what's it, a corrupt federation person killed the klingon chancellor, and
36:45
a corrupt cling on person kill would have killed the Federation and mass or the
36:52
exactly. I think that was a stronger choice puts it a little more on
36:57
starfleets or evil star fleets of the work in this coup um. Now that's
37:02
a good point. Oh one, Okay, since we're since we're talking about
37:07
going back and forth and like, because the people who are listening to this,
37:09
I'm sure are fans who have seen this a thousand times and and we
37:15
have seen it at a thousand times. One thing that bothered me on this
37:20
rewatch is General Chang when he okay, so we they during the scene where
37:29
the Chancellor is killed and then they re established gravity. After they re established
37:36
gravity, General Chang is on the viewscreen talking to Kirk. He's still floating
37:44
during that conversation. And I never really noticed that before. And yep,
37:52
uh it is. It is obviously shot when he is still supposed to be.
37:57
But I will tell you that it took me decades to it that I
38:02
didn't care. Yeah, yeah, it's like I don't care either. And
38:07
that's the thing is that, like there's so many things that I just it's
38:09
it's it's so funny because I got to watch this. I got the four
38:14
K disc, I guess, so I got to watch it on four K
38:16
disc. Indulby vision the best way that you'd possibly watch it. And there's
38:23
certain things that I noticed more and more because I got to see it in
38:28
this kind of quality. One thing like I got to see way more of
38:30
Christian Slater's face, which is lucky too, which is funny to be for
38:37
the first This is it's twenty twenty three and I've seen this movie dozens of
38:42
times. This is the first time that I ever noticed that changeling Kirk has
38:47
different colored eyes. Really, Oh yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I'm
38:54
glad you. I'm glad you got to notice that. I think that,
38:58
um here, here's here's the thing. I think that Star Trek six is
39:04
definitely one of those movies where the multiple viewing aspect of it is both a
39:09
benefit and a curse, because, like you're saying, multiple viewings, you're
39:15
like, oh, look, chang is that it's because it gives you the
39:17
time to notice those things. But at the same time, you get the
39:20
time to notice the things like the eyes. Like the eyes that might be
39:24
something that somebody else noticed earlier, but then somebody didn't notice this earlier,
39:29
and then you didn't notice that earlier, and they didn't notice this earlier,
39:31
like that sort of thing. I think that, Um, the big thing
39:37
with the four K for me is the color correction, because the blue ray
39:43
color was just god awful, and that's so true with so many blue rays
39:47
was awful. The smoothing was awful, like I noticing, was the worst.
39:52
Oh my god, and with the four K. As stupid as this
39:57
sounds, I saw the cracks on Leonard Demoy's face and I was like,
40:01
I felt like he existed again. I was like, Oh, that's a
40:07
real physical person that exists in a space. Well that's the thing though,
40:12
is that, like you see rand on the Excelsior in the Blu ray version,
40:16
she looks like a wax figure, she looks horrendous, and then in
40:21
the four K version she looks like an actual person. I actually got into
40:23
an argument with someone, someone who was a complete asked to me online because
40:30
like I think, Trek Trek Corps released the still frames of the four K
40:36
disc and it looked like a movie. It had grain, it was soft,
40:42
you know, it looked like a movie. And there were so many
40:45
idiots in the timeline on Twitter just talking about how, oh, you know,
40:47
the Blu ray looks better I'm like, no, you have been brainwashed
40:52
by having the Blu ray for twelve years thinking that that's what it looked like,
40:55
when with the four K disc, this is the closest that it looked
41:00
like to the theatrical release. Speaking of looking like, something that has driven
41:06
me nuts from time to time is the framing of this on home release.
41:12
Supposedly, Nicholas Meyer is on record as saying that the two point three nine
41:16
to one is has preferred, but it's been in two to one previously.
41:21
It's been like the framing of this has been all over the board with the
41:27
releases. I'm hoping the four K is the authoritative framing and matting that is
41:34
supposed to occur with the film, because there are so many things that drive
41:38
me nuts about films being released in multiple formats through the years where they change
41:45
the matting, and Star Trek six is one of them where the matt changes
41:50
and I'm like, is this the director's intent where you just too damn lazy
41:53
to do things right? Was this? Was this like Star Trek We talked
41:58
about Star Trek two. The initial four K release of Star Trek two had
42:01
a freaking assembly error where the wrong shot was in a spot everybody said,
42:07
this is this SHOT's different, this is wrong. Paramount said, oh no,
42:10
we did it right, And then they turned around they were like,
42:12
oh no, we got it was a process error. Here's a free one
42:15
in return. And it's like, I like, you want to talk about
42:17
gaslighting these releases. It's driving me crazy. Why you don't sit down with
42:23
the director and Hero Narita, the director of photography, and say so,
42:30
how did you intend this to be matted? Because that's important, that's really
42:35
vitally important to the film. How it looks a lot of people spent a
42:39
lot of time making that decision. Well, and there's many moments like with
42:45
the matting that there's a clock at the very top of the very bottom of
42:49
the frame, and if you matted out that clock, it kind of impacts
42:52
the story because yes, the clock is correct to this entire movie. It
42:57
is it. They referenced it, it's it's part of the plot. Man,
43:01
As someone who has been an editor for nineteen years, that would drive
43:08
me insane, like I would grab Nicholas Meyer by the caller and say,
43:13
why on earth did you do this to me? This adds nothing to the
43:15
film, And this only makes my life a living nightmare, as the editor,
43:21
right, Well, I mean nowadays they would just post produce the clock
43:24
and you could make it be whatever you want exactly that that would be the
43:28
same thing to do. Well, I have one question for you to have
43:34
you and this may this may have been what was originally intended for the ending
43:37
of the film. I came across a video that was talking about it in
43:42
YouTube that initially the Excelsior was supposed to destroy General Chang's ship, and the
43:50
reasoning behind this was, well, the Excelsior is the ship that at the
43:53
very beginning has been on a three year mission cataloging gash as anomalies. But
44:00
yet why is the Enterprise all of a sudden equipped with gaseous anomalies? And
44:06
I and I saw that, I'm like, you're right, it is a
44:08
totally different ship that I had forgotten since the first act. But I what
44:13
i'd heard of the story is that, you know, Schattner and and others
44:16
who are like, well, the Enterprise cannot be saved by another ship.
44:20
It has to be has to save itself. So I guess my my actual
44:24
question is would you have been okay with an ending where the Excelsior plays a
44:30
more pivotal role in the ending or does it have to be Kirk every time?
44:34
No, Kirk every time. It has to be Kirk, every Kirk
44:40
every time. I all the way back in the nineties, it was like,
44:45
wait a minute, No, the Excelsior is the one doing that mission.
44:47
But I can head cannon away as saying, well, the whole fleet
44:52
was outfitted for it. They didn't know which ship. Oh yeah, it
44:54
doesn't break my immersion. I just had never put that together. No I
44:58
need it together either until this watch, where like Darren, is funny that
45:01
you bring that up, because like during this watch, I was just like,
45:05
wait a second. Sulu says that in the film, Oh no,
45:08
I I ameliorated this years ago as just as just the fact that like every
45:14
ship was you know, this was the mission of starting because there's blah blah
45:17
blah, whatever reasoning you want to g Granted, she does say for cataloging,
45:22
not for the mission we just did three years like, she doesn't totally
45:27
duplicate it, and it for a moment, which I really like does and
45:34
I completely agree with the idea that the Enterprise, especially if this is your
45:38
send away film yeah, you cannot have your hero ship saved by somebody else.
45:45
They have to be the engineers of their own salvation period. That is
45:52
well, I was trying to think, like, okay, let's say what
45:54
would this look like. It's like, okay, Sulu swoops in and is
45:59
go and and maybe maybe video conferences with Kirk a tiny bit and they come
46:04
up with the plan. Maybe. But then what you see no name McGee
46:08
ensign on the Excelsior and you know, engineer what's his name putting together like
46:14
you don't care about these people. You're right there and there's no banter,
46:17
so it just the action would just stop and you'd be like, who what
46:22
am I looking at? Here? When does this happen in the movie?
46:24
And we would have lost the great line of real money to get him to
46:30
shut up? Oh, all the of the assembly scene is great? Is
46:35
the banter of the assembly scene is seen as great? And here here's where
46:38
I throw Joey under the bus. McCoy's line, you know, I'd pay
46:42
real money if if she shut up. He and I had a disagreement for
46:47
many years where he insisted it was Spock saying that line. I said,
46:51
are you smoking crack, like, what the hell sense does it make that
46:54
you can clearly hear that it's McCoy and he goes, no, it's funny
46:58
because first spot line, what are you talking about? Spok is reading the
47:02
manual like, let me, let me ears, let this do that,
47:07
let me kind of throw myself under the bus. Or maybe I'm throwing Joey
47:10
under the bus to show what a joyless semple. No, no, no,
47:15
we saw it together in the theater with his dad and when Kirk goes
47:22
fire and the torpedo goes out and hits it, you know what, I
47:25
will totally own this that you know, decades ago, I was one of
47:30
the nerds that shot up in the aisle and put my fist in the air
47:34
and went yeah, and Joey reached over and said, sit down, sit
47:38
down, sit down. I was like, what, I'm having a good
47:39
time. He was so embarrassed by me. But I love that scene to
47:45
this day of Kirk stepping forward and pulling in his hand up and going fire
47:50
like that is just the Kirk. It'll just imagine how well you would have
47:54
enjoyed that scene if you're a Star Trek fan. You know what, if
47:59
only I were you say, how well would you enjoy if that was Captain
48:04
Sulu big like mister Zo and so fire that torpedo we just prepared. Now.
48:07
Oh, by the way, I want to point out what Voyager.
48:12
That Voyager screwed up with an episode that referenced the end of Star Trek six.
48:16
Oh with oh uh. They obviously didn't watch the full screen or they
48:23
watched the full screen version of this. They did not watch the wide screen.
48:27
Because the character who dies in the Voyager thing with the goatee, he's
48:32
in the final crew shot in the wide screen. It's a memory. I
48:40
think the fact that they got many of the same actors from that shot back
48:45
to shoot flashback is they giving him a pass on all of this. So
48:50
he so he died before the final events in the in the Voyager episode,
48:54
he died in flashback, he dies six. He is very in Star Trek
49:00
sex. He is very clearly in the final cruise shot with Sulu son out
49:07
the story. I mean, also, Janeway wasn't in the final cruise shot
49:10
with you know, Sue. I just wanted to say that because I know
49:15
specifically Tristan did to the journey. But you're not a trek fan at all,
49:20
John, Right, I just I just want to say, you're going
49:22
to that deep. When I watched that episode, I would I don't know,
49:27
no, no, no, watch the wide screen version, you jackass.
49:30
He's alive at the end of the film. Well, I think it
49:31
works because it out there because Voyager was in full screen and so you know,
49:38
you could only represent the that's version of it's a branching timeline where all
49:43
that exists and four by three. Yes, okay, all right, I
49:46
don't accept your explanation, but that's fine. Man. I feel like,
49:51
Okay, we're fifty minutes. I feel like the surface on this movie.
49:54
We've only stretched the surface on this I feel like, I mean, I
49:57
feel like we could keep going, but I also feel like we need to
50:00
wrap it up. It's so strange, like this has just been a love
50:02
fest about this movie and also been We've been nitpicking here and there, but
50:07
it's not out of anything you know, angry or upset. It's really just
50:10
because we're super fans of this movie. I will throw one thing out there
50:15
that makes me angry and I and I invite you guys to throw out anything
50:21
that makes you angry as well. But I'm going to throw it out.
50:23
It's It is something that has angered me since nineteen ninety one when I saw
50:28
this for the first time. It is something that absolutely baffles me. Why
50:32
they have not corrected it in all of the years since. In the final
50:38
credits Uhurah, her name is Uhuru. They misspell Uhurah's name in the credits,
50:46
and they have since nineteen ninety one, and it pisses me off to
50:51
this day. Gosh, and I watch it every single time and there's a
50:55
little part of my brain and I watched the end credits, not just because
50:58
cliff Idolman's score is freaking fantastic. I think his score is this is a
51:02
brilliant it's all motivated by the fact that they couldn't do um Holsts the planets,
51:08
that it was a cost thing, they couldn't do an adaptation of it.
51:12
And you can hear holstsuh Mars the Bringer of War in the opening uh
51:19
But every time I watch it and that joyous music is going and then the
51:24
credits go up and I'm like, this time it's going to be hurt.
51:28
Nope, Nope, still a Huru. Well the beautiful sign literal sign off
51:32
the literal sign off, literals sign of such a beautiful like the ending.
51:37
The ending of this movie is is perfect. Is literally perfect. That from
51:40
sailing into the star to literally signing off. Okay, maybe slightly tarnished by
51:46
who, but besides that, it's a really good ending. But it's how
51:52
you end it. It's the whole reason I didn't want anybody to come back
51:55
for Star Trek seven for Generations, this is send off. I get the
52:02
older I even though I really liked Generations, even though I really enjoy watching
52:07
it, I think I think it's an underrated movie. I think it's an
52:09
underrated everything. I know it has its flaws. I'm not blind. But
52:15
the older I get, the more I think they should have done something else,
52:19
Like they shouldn't have done the whole passing of the torch. Things didn't
52:22
need to be a passing of the torch because the torch had already been passed.
52:24
Yep, yeah, like the Force Kelly already did that in the first
52:28
episode of TNG he passed the torch. But also at the end of this
52:31
one, it's so beautiful. It's such a subtle and it's such a subtle
52:36
nod for for Kirk to say in his log, where no man, where
52:40
no one has gone before, Like that is the literal torch passing right there.
52:45
You don't need anything else. That is literally we have now changed the
52:50
catchphrase and now it has continuity into the new series. It's like the ending
52:55
of gen of all good things where it's like, you know the Star you
53:00
know, seven card High, the stars a limit, it's just Star Trek
53:05
has ended best when it's just and the voyages continued, and it's like,
53:09
we don't need to know where they went or ended up. It's like and
53:15
even though they literally just said, oh we're going to go back to Star
53:17
Base and get decommissioned and this is not our ship anymore, and the journey's
53:22
over and you feel that moment on them. But as a fan, you're
53:27
like, it's like the it's like the what like the soldier that you know
53:32
that never returns or that never ends. You know, it's just it's always
53:37
end forever in a in at least part of it, which heroes they just
53:40
fade away, yeah, or become a villain. Yeah, it's yeah,
53:46
it's it's it's true. It's it's It makes me wonder if the end of
53:52
Star Trek of Star Trek card season three is going to have that signature thing.
53:57
Honestly, if they copied it straight for straight, I would love it.
53:59
I would even up on six. I would be like, go for
54:01
it, do it, do the same music. I don't even care.
54:06
But I can honestly say that coming out of the theater in Star Trek six,
54:12
everybody, to a person was joyful was walking out. We felt like
54:17
we got that s all one. It truly is there. They have the
54:22
curtain call, they have the joyous music at the end, there's a beautiful
54:29
fanfare. Everybody walked out of that theater happy. Everybody walked out of that
54:35
theater saying, Wow, I'm glad they delayed this a week because they were
54:38
afraid to go against Beauty and the Beast. That's fine, that's fine,
54:42
we can live with that. And I just everybody walked out happy and and
54:47
I this is one of my favorite movie theater experiences. I can still remember
54:53
where I was sitting, I can still remember the theater I was in,
54:58
I can still remember walking out, I can remember the conversations beforehand. This
55:02
is a film that delivers. I would use this as a way to intro
55:07
Somebody to Star Trek. This is a touchstone movie that I would say,
55:12
Okay, you want the essence of Star Trek, here it is. And
55:15
it's a movie that as a fan I can watch and rewatch over and over
55:20
again and I'm happy at the end every single time because it hits every note
55:24
it needs to, while at the same time not being slavish to anything that
55:29
came before or after. John with that, with that monologue of how much
55:35
you love it, how about you give it? How many gravity boots are
55:37
you giving this five? Film? Five? Hands down, I'd give a
55:40
ten of his axe is he piloting the ship's and the thing is, even
55:46
with the director's cut flubs and flaws, still give it a five because again,
55:52
you have Colonel West earlier. So long as you have Colonel West later,
55:54
it works. I do like Scottie getting the line you know that cling
55:59
On didn't shed one bloody tear hardly conclusive, mister Scott Klingon's have no tear
56:04
ducts. Like it's such a Spock moment right that takes me off guard,
56:08
honestly. Like when Scotty says that, I'm like, jeez, Scotty,
56:12
like, don't it down a bit. But but but the thing is,
56:16
and I think the movie at the time very much relevant to the fall of
56:21
Berlin Wall all the stuff that was going on. Yea, we haven't even
56:23
talked We didn't even talk about that. We don't even talk about the things,
56:28
you know, like with with Christopher Plummer and David Warner, right,
56:31
but still very very vitally important. I think there was a whole different viewing
56:38
experience that I had this time with the rush nowadays that we have to crucify
56:44
somebody for something they said in the past or in the heat of the moment,
56:50
and Kirk on trial that line where he says those words were spoken by
56:53
me, where he's forced to confront where he's like, yeah, yeah,
57:00
I kind of wish I hadn't said that. But that's not just because somebody
57:05
is confessing how they feel in their heart. It doesn't mean that they're a
57:08
bad person or they did a bad thing. There's a lot to be learned
57:13
from Kirk and McCoy's trial, and I think it's very relevant today as a
57:17
result. So yeah, five out of five from me. And I think
57:21
the epitome of that and one of my favorite moments in the movie is when
57:24
Spoks at the very beginning, like after the briefing, Spok says, you
57:29
know, you know, Jim, they're dying, and he goes let them
57:31
die, and we cut to Spok and he looks a little confused, like
57:37
really, and then we cut back to Kirk and and he and he has
57:43
that moment of you know, he's kind of looking down, he's smiling a
57:46
little bit, and then he tries to change the mood. I think that
57:50
was definitely found in editing. I think that that that moment was found in
57:54
editing, but it was. It's a beautiful moment because he says that he's
58:00
it's kind of a knee jerk reaction. But as soon as he says it,
58:04
you know that Kirk is like, Okay, I probably shouldn't have said
58:07
that, Like I feel that way, but I don't. I don't necessarily
58:12
think that all the time. Interesting. Interesting that you say that, because
58:17
according to what I have read, who knows you have so many things online,
58:23
supposedly Shatner had a problem with the line and his reaction was initially he
58:30
said, no, I'm going to play it this way, and it had
58:32
him looking down like, oh, what did I just say? Meyer disagreed
58:37
with him, so you see the tail end of his reaction that Schattner wanted,
58:43
but Meyer specifically decided to show spox reaction so that Kirk's anger had more
58:52
impact in that moment. So found in the editing, yes, but also
58:54
in conjunction with what the actor wanted to convey. That's that's cool to know.
58:59
That's cool to know that it was. It was kind of a blending
59:01
of the two because I think it really works. Darren. How many how
59:05
many gravity boots are you giving this film? We're gonna have a ton of
59:07
pairs with this because I'm also giving it five gravity boots. Yeah, I
59:13
mean, just there's so many. Like the great performances. David Warner is
59:19
like an amazing Chancellor that we barely see, but he has such gravitas to
59:24
this. I mean, I don't like using the word gravitas because it's a
59:28
really weird, weird to say, but he has it. And yeah,
59:31
no, there's from everything you guys are saying, from the submarine feel to
59:38
that beautiful D seven ship coming out, like we get super close to it.
59:44
It is gorgeous on the screen. And when Kirk's like, oh no,
59:47
but this close, like it's we've never been this close to those really
59:52
shines with the model Oh yeah, yeah, especially since the model work of
59:58
five was little bit black cluster. Just jess ergacked. I've had the pleasure
1:00:05
of having a tour of some offices at ILM where I saw the Gentleman's office
1:00:10
that has the saucer section from Star Trek six mounted on his wall, and
1:00:15
like, I saw that, and I was like, that's that is a
1:00:17
thing of beauty, siest thing I've ever seen. But I message you guys
1:00:24
that I watched the enhanced Darren enhanced version, which recently we had come across
1:00:30
this awesome fan edit of the space dock exit scene from Star Trek six where
1:00:37
you actually see the full weight of full impulse or these quarter impulse at out
1:00:42
of space dock, and so I literally paused that movie, went on YouTube,
1:00:46
watched that scene, and then went back because in my mind, it
1:00:51
is a beautiful enhancement. That's a that's another moment as a fan where like
1:00:54
it's a really cool moment within the movie where Kirkus is like, I'm gonna
1:00:59
go fast out this mother and Villari says like, no, no, you
1:01:01
shouldn't it's it's a great character building moment, but as someone who is a
1:01:06
star trek nerd like, you're gonna go a quarter impulse that's freaking irresponsible.
1:01:12
It's like it's like air planetary speeds, like that's what would get around the
1:01:16
Solar system. It's like, oh dang. Although I did also kind of
1:01:21
wonder at the very beginning when Sulu is like, we're heading home on impulse
1:01:25
power and I'm like, you gotta take like twenty years like a way.
1:01:30
It's so true and like and when the I mean granted I knew they had
1:01:34
to be slow so they would be hit by the wave, but still and
1:01:37
wake a D seven and the Enterprise going together like they're going to impulse.
1:01:42
You're like, why are they going to impulse? Why it because it looks
1:01:45
than if they're going at work. It does, but that I'm glad somebody
1:01:50
mentioned that D seven because that look, I know, we've already talked about
1:01:52
the movie and we're talking it's gonna go as long as we need to go.
1:01:55
That that shot, I still it's one of my favorite effects shots of
1:02:00
all time of that D seven entering frame and coming in and doing that that
1:02:06
that drift downward and the music everything like that is just one of the most
1:02:09
beautiful, Oh yeah, masterfully timed and scored effects shots I've ever seen in
1:02:15
my life. It's just coming in for the first time and we're seeing the
1:02:19
back of it, and then when it's damaged and circling around and then the
1:02:22
bulb lights up and it's menacing. I'm like, it's not really a menacing
1:02:27
looking ship, but it becomes menacing and you're like, and then check IF's
1:02:30
just going shields up, keptain, you know, and yep. Yeah.
1:02:35
And also the torpedo hits of the D seven is it's the perfect amount of
1:02:39
jostle and movement. It's it's just it's great effects work. I'm so glad
1:02:45
it's it's just perfect effects works on this movie. Um. But yeah,
1:02:47
we we got to wrap up. We could keep going, we're doing a
1:02:51
radar but yeah, we're still bragging on the film. Um. Obviously this
1:02:54
is five magnetic boots. Um from me, this is this is my favorite
1:02:59
star Trick film from the original series, and depending on which day you ask
1:03:04
me, this is my favorite star Trick film of all time. Like this
1:03:07
is this goes back and forth between the one spot and the two spot for
1:03:09
me. I absolutely, I think. I think this is a better film
1:03:13
than Wrath of Khan. Rath of Khan is a five star film. I
1:03:15
think this is a better film than Rath of Khan. I absolutely, I
1:03:21
can. I can. I won't say better, but I will say I'm
1:03:24
more inclined to watch six because I'm happier at the end of it. Two
1:03:30
is a difficult film to watch, Like I think, I said this while
1:03:35
we were talking about it, like I watch it when I need a cry,
1:03:38
when I need something cathartic where I'm like, yeah, I'm coming to
1:03:43
terms of things. I feel. I want to feel that that emotion right
1:03:47
there where it's like, okay, you got to hang with it, and
1:03:51
it's there's pain and there's realization about mortality. It's a very heavy film.
1:03:55
Six is a film I can watch at any any moment. I can just
1:04:00
put it in and watch it. So I wouldn't use the word better,
1:04:05
but I would say it is an incredibly accessible film because this is the soundtrack
1:04:11
I'll put on and listen to, because if I want to drive somewhere fast,
1:04:15
I will play the music from the Final Battle and my foot is on
1:04:18
the floor and I'm doing ninety miles an hour, because that is just cliff
1:04:25
Idleman doesn't get enough praise for this score. But full an impulse, yeah,
1:04:30
full impulse. That's right, all right, all right, everybody,
1:04:31
We have our you have our ranking five stars across the board, just ratcon
1:04:36
which makes Nicholas Meyer just just hitting it out of the park two times in
1:04:41
a row. Thank you so much everyone for listening. Please go to the
1:04:44
nerdparty dot com for all of our previous episodes and all of our other shows.
1:04:46
And next week is going to be an absolute surprise to you on what
1:04:49
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