Continuity mistake: After the bird of prey first fires on Enterprise, Kirk is thrown right out of his chair to his left and lands on the floor. The camera pans around the bridge briefly, seeing the rest of the crew staggering and holding onto things. In the very next shot Kirk is back in his chair shouting "back off, back off" and the crew back in their positions as if nothing has happened.
Continuity mistake: When Captain Kirk and the shape shifter are fighting on the planet (the shape shifter looks exactly like Kirk). They are rolling through the snow about to roll over Bones. In one shot, it looks like they will roll over his feet first, and then the rest of his body. In the next shot, it is a little closer and they roll over Bones' right arm first and not his feet first.
Continuity mistake: At the beginning, the USS Excelsior detects an approaching shockwave. One of the bridge officers is standing next to Sulu, delivering a report. When the camera angle changes, the same officer is seated at a console behind two standing crewmen. When the camera cuts again, he's between Sulu and that console, then sits to operate it.
Trivia: The Klingon who defends Kirk and McCoy at the trial is Michael Dorn, the actor who plays Worf in The Next Generation. The Klingon makeup is also identical, even though it is supposed to be a different character. (The makeup is actually more subdued than the makeup for TNG [flatter] but it looks similar because he is actually playing one of Lieutenant Worf's ancestors.)
Trivia: Both the opening explosion of the Klingon moon Praxis and much of the footage from the U.S.S. Excelsior was later used in an episode of "Star Trek: Voyager", ("Flashback") with special guest star George Takei.
More trivia for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Captain James T. Kirk: Spock, you want to know something? Everybody's human.
Captain Spock: I find that remark... Insulting.
Captain Spock: What you want is irrelevant, what you have chosen is at hand.
More quotes from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Question: This might be subjective, but why does the Enterprise take so much damage, especially interior damage, long before the shields actually collapse?
Answer: The depiction of the shields in this movie is actually interesting because it seems they deliberately tried to show how the ship could plausibly take damage while the shields are up. Here the shields seem to be "on" the hull (or perhaps emanate from the hull itself) and their function seems specific to preventing hull breaches. In TNG and onwards the shields appear as a kind of energy bubble wrapped around the ship, and accordingly they seem to absorb much more impact.
Question: I always feel like I'm missing something with the scene where Kirk orders the Enterprise to reverse at the beginning of the battle. It confuses the Klingons and leads to a short respite in taking fire, which I would assume was exactly Kirk's intention, but then Kirk himself expresses confusion that the Klingons had stopped firing. What else could Kirk have been trying to do with that action?
Chosen answer: Kirk is highly skilled and experienced in combat. He knows the bird of prey must be between the Enterprise and the planet, so he instinctively orders a reverse after they are hit, fearing that they are at point-blank range. Chang is worried that Kirk may have somehow detected him, so he holds fire and repositions, but Kirk is merely being cautious.
Answer: Kirk wants to buy time to find a way to detect Chang's ship. Reversing is an unorthodox tactic so Chang is also thinking.
Question: Is it my imagination, or does the opening theme sound similar to the classical piece "The Planets - Mars" by Holst?
Chosen answer: There are certain similarities, yes. Whether any specific aspects of the piece were deliberately incorporated into the film's opening theme is an open question, but the overall feel is undoubtedly very similar.
Answer: At one point Nicholas Meyer did indeed have the idea to incorporate "The Planets" into the score, but apparently the rights proved too expensive. I have no doubt Meyer asked composer Cliff Eidelmann to give the score a similar sound.
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Chosen answer: There's a limit as to how much the shields can protect the ship. Depending on the force of the explosions, the ship still suffers some damage from any weapon blasts. Also, the shield only holds for so long and gradually loses it protectiveness with successive attacks, causing increasing damage to the ship.
raywest ★