BACK COVER SYNOPSIS: The Enterprise leads a battle for peace in the most spectacular Star Trek adventure ever! After years at war, the Federation and the Klingon empire prepare for a peace summit. But the prospect of intergalactic glasnost with sworn enemies is an alarming one to Admiral Kirk (William Shatner). "They're animals!" he warns. When a Klingon ship is attacked and the Enterprise is held accountable, the dogs of war are unleashed again, as both worlds brace for what may be their final, deadly encounter. Directed by Nicholas Meyer (Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan), this topical action-adventure soars with warp speed excitement that's "impossible to resist" (James Verniere, Boston Herald). Co-starring Christopher Plummer.

FILM REVIEW: After taking a tumble with Star Trek V, or William Shatner's turn to be the real captain of the film, the Star Trek feature film series got back on its feet again in spectacular style with this vastly superior, and final entry for the original cast of the television show. It's more than a fitting send-off which returns to the core values and qualities of the show, even if the parallels with then-current political events is portrayed as subtlety as a sledge hammer. Director Nicholas Meyer, who has been involved in the more successful entries in the series (both critically and commercially), comes back to give the classic cast their final curtain call and manages to deliver a solid sci-fi action adventure that will please the fans to no end. Aside from the non-subtle political overtones to this film, perhaps the only down-side to it is that it really is made for the fans. The story is not necessarily as accessible to the mainstream audience, but nonetheless, with a cast like these, a great selection of guest stars including Christopher Plummer and David Warner, and a strong who-dun-it storyline mixed with some solid action and intrigue, you get a rousingly satisfying conclusion to the series.

Star Trek VI was greatly influenced by its times. In 1989, the wall had just come down in Berlin and the Cold War was over. Enemies were now friends. Against this backdrop comes the main story: the Klingons experience a planetary disaster when one of their moons explodes due to bad mining practices, forcing the Klingons to make the choice of either dying or moving to the Federation to survive - in essence, the wall has come down in outer space. On both sides, there is great reservation and even animosity at the thought that both sides could co-exist. In one of the opening scenes where Starfleet brass are having a briefing with the Enterprise crew, it becomes clear that a lot of prejudice and hatred exits on the side of the Federation, and Captain Kirk is among them. Nevertheless, he is ordered to escort the Klingon Chancellor to Earth for peace talks. After an uncomfortable, antagonistic meeting, the Klingon flagship is attacked by an unknown, unseen assailant and the Chancellor is assassinated. With seemingly no other ship in the area, Captain Kirk and the Enterprise are held accountable. Kirk and McCoy are taken in to custody and jailed for life to the prison planet Rura Penthe. And so begins an intriguiging who-dun-it story, with Spock and the rest of the crew investigating exactly what took place while Kirk and McCoy try to stay alive on the prison planet. They manage to escape just in time to prevent a second assassination which would have plunged both sides in to all out war.

It's a great story with a lot of social and political relevance. The best episodes of the television series managed to depict real-life themes, situations and ideas that were happening in our world occurring to the crew of the Enterprise, and as such, give some sort of commentary on those. Star Trek VI returns to this tradition brilliantly, although it must be said that the tie-ins to real-life scenarios are not particularly subtle. No attempt here is made to differentiate the Federation-Klingon Cold War from the US-Soviet Cold War and this is perhaps the only down-side to this film in that it's as subtle as a sledge hammer and perhaps could have been interpreted in a way so as to not be so obvious. This is no more seen in the often-quoted lines from Shakespeare in numerous scenes throughout the film which are meant to give meaning to this Cold War tension, but often seem like indulgences on the part of director Nicholas Meyer who seems obviously very fond of Shakespeare. The audience can figure it out for themselves, they don't need it told to them.

The cast are back to their brilliant best despite now showing their obvious age. The Spock-McCoy dynamic is there, Scotty is back creating miracles in the engine room, and Sulu even manages to get the captaincy of another starship. Perhaps the masterstrokes in casting occurred in the guest-star roles, with Christopher Plummer playing the main villain of the piece, Klingon General Chang, who has an ultimate show-down with Kirk as their starships battle each other out, and David Warner who plays the Klingon Chancellor who commands the screen, and gets some of the film's quirkiest lines such as, "you have not experienced Shakespeare until you've read it in the original Klingon."

The action and visuals in this story are first-rate, probably the best of the entire series. Two sequences in particular are excellent; the assassination sequence which takes place in zero-gravity on the Klingon ship while the Enterprise crew are frantically trying to figure out where the torpedoes came from that were fired on their ship, and the sequence where General Chang's Bird of Prey and the Enterprise engage in a big space battle with the fate of the new peace conference hanging in the balance. The shots of the Enterprise and the alien environments are a joy to behold, particularly when shot where a Klingon torpedo hits one part of the Enterprise and goes straight through to the other side, destroying parts of the ship.

It's fitting that the film should end with the Enterprise sailing off in to the sunset followed by the original cast signing their names at the end of the film as a way to say thank you to all the fans that supported Star Trek over its long history. In this respect, we get a perfect ending and send-off to a cast that has become a part of popular culture, especially in the United States.

A great action-adventure film, that supplies plenty of intrigue and mystery.

TECHNICAL REVIEW: Apart from a few scratches over the Paramount logo, the transfer of this film is close to perfect, faithfully recreated the vibrance, colour and sharpness of the original film, presenting it in all its glory. The soundtrack is first-rate, particularly in the action sequences which will make your home theatre shake. Overall, an excellent transfer.

EXTRAS REVIEW: They saved the best until last. The extras package on this DVD are nothing short of astounding, with an extensive list of featurettes that cover almost all aspects of production - Star Trek VI contains the most extras of any of the Star Trek film DVDs thus far and its impressive. In addition to featurettes on the making of the production, story, storyboards, tributes, trailers, cast and crew interviews and other materials, we also get a solid documentary relating to the story to the Cold War tensions of the time as well as Nicholas Meyer's original 1991 convention presentation. There's also a strong and detailed audio commentary from Nicholas Meyer and co-screenwriter Denny Martin Flinn. An excellent package.

BOTTOM LINE: Worth having in the collection.