MovieChat Forums > Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) Discussion > 1979 - 1991

1979 - 1991

posted 3 years ago by bozo_500 (13376)
3 replies | jump to latest

crazy to think how different VI is to TMP. The changes to the cast in just little over 10years (in TMP they looked pretty much the same as they did in season 3 of TOS, they looked bit older in II but it wasnt until III/IV they were starting to look their age) , how old fashioned/70s TMP was compared to VI or even II just 3years later or III 5 years on .. (each movie feels like a product if its era like they were charting the zeitgeist & often mirroring the popular movies of the time like Bond films do: TMP cold pre SW 70s scifi, II cold war action thriller/Alien, III has elements of sword&sorcery films/Lucas Star Wars/Spielberg Temple of Doom, IV fish out of water Croc Dundee comedy/BTTF timetravel, V the televangelist thing, & VI feels like the early 90s end of the cold war/Red October - then further on FC: Aliens meets Terminator, ST09: reboot like Batman/Bond, ID: TDK, Beyond: Avatar/Guardians/F&F )

I know 12years is a long time but consider recent stuff like the MCU and Craig Bond which feels fairly consistent in look/style from 1st film to last 15years later (then again if you look at the previous Bonds Connery/Moore its more similar to the star trek films)

[–] MikeCable (1914) 3 years ago

I know what you mean!

The groundwork for TMP started a few years before the movie was released due to the back-and-forth about it being a TV show initially, so I think what we saw in 1979 was really much a product of the mid-seventies. (Like how Star Wars was filmed mainly in 1976 also, so a lot of design work for that would have been in 1975-on.)

Fast forward to 1991 and the franchise got a lot of the improved production and design incorporated from the work done on TNG, so for example we have the influence of Okudagrams and black touch panels everywhere, which was a major improvement in visual design for the starship interiors. Wrath of Khan was a completely different style of production with a much lower budget, and they changed the uniforms so dramatically.

As for the age of the people, that really is a significant change they underwent. I watched some stuff on YouTube and the scene where we see Kirk come out of the flying tram in TMP shows how amazing he looked physically. He worked hard to be ready for the leading star in that role, but age catches up with everyone and it was certainly a different story by the time VI came along. Then we got VII and I kind of feel like I wish we didn't see that, but then I'm glad we got something more in the end.

[–] bozo_500 (13376) 3 years ago

TMP def has that mid 70s cold scifi vibe. just such as vast difference to VI or even II. In fact there isn't that much difference from II to VI really aside the actors aging, slightly improved FX. Also the themes of cold war/WW3 stuff being mirrored (Genesis/nuclear armageddon - Klingons/end of coldwar)

Yes shatner was even in better shape in TMP even than he had been for the last season of TOS (as he described in detail in his Movie Memories book). In II he was still in great shape but looked abit older, III in certain scenes he looked better than others (i.e the ending was shot first and as one of the producers said hed get into great shape to begin the film but would slip up as the shoot progressed - probably the delicious jelly filled donuts that were on set to keep energies up lol) IV he was pretty much the same as III, then V hes definitely looking more like the beginning of the Shatner of today, and VI but still looked good. Then VII looking old age Shatner with little glimpses of what came before

The rest were similar, in TMP Nimoy practically looked the same as TOS s3, bit older in II, then end of III/IV starting to look his age. Kelley similar, and Doohan started the big weight gain in III, the rest looked pretty much same until V/VI really.

[–] bozo_500 (13376) 3 years ago

i guess you could also compare TOS movies (79-91) to TNG movies (94-02) and again everyone looks notably older (e.g. PStewart goes from looking obviously like he did in the series to more like the later 'old man' version of ST:Picard, and Troi still looks very 'TNG hot' in Generations to more like the Marina Sirtis of today/ST:P in Nemesis), and the general difference from Generations (which is basically TNG tv series on the big screen) to Nemesis is quite jarring (of course it was in FC too like TMP-TWOK)