| WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!! After the fiasco of the last film, our crew was back to form here. Although it was(and still is) emphasized as the final mission for the original crew, one thing about it that I've liked is that, while a few years have passed since number four(Sulu says that he's commanded the Excelsior for three years when the films opens) it serves as an epilogue of sorts to the "Space Seed"-II-III-IV storyline, with moments from those installments mentioned throughout the film and becoming focal points for what occurs here. One of which is Kirk's initial racism for Klingons, due, naturally, to Klingons taking his son from him in number three; an event which the Klingon General Chang attempts to exploits for all it's worth. Chang, of course, is wonderfully played by Christopher Plummer. Many have said that he's Trek's best villain along with Khan, and I can see why. What I enjoy here is how Chang has different motivations from Khan. He's studied, and even admired, Kirk, which is why he's not content to merely maroon Kirk on Rura Penthe, but to, in fact, kill the good captain, even to the extent of joining forces with rogue Federation operatives to assassinate his Chancellor Gorkon(David Warner, who's better used this time around, although, like Paul Winfield, his finest Trek role came with his appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation, in his case, the merciless Gul Madred in the "Chain of Command" two-parter). In fact the only true similarity between Khan and Chang is the obvious delight with which their respective portrayers show in chewing the scenery when they're onscreen. The climatic space battle while a peace conference commences below them is quite thrilling. In short, this is quite the satisfying end to the original Trek series, and it's such a pity that the films of The Next Generation weren't as satisfying. Then again, unlike the original series, TNG had a satisfying series finale("All Good Things..."), so maybe this just evens things out. |