William Shatner's Star Trek V: The Final Frontier recieved a severe critical mauling and flopped badly in the North American blockbuster summer of 1989. It was widely presumed that the Star Trek series was now over and this feeling was exaccerbated by the obvious fact that the cast were obviously not getting any younger. DeForest Kelly was actually in his seventies by the time the 1990s arrived and the others weren't too far behind. However, 1991 would mark the 25th Anniversary of Star Trek and the studio felt that it would be something of a shame to let this special celebration year go by without putting anything in the cinema even if it was just for old time's sake. At first it was proposed that the sixth Star Trek feature film would dispense with the original actors and revolve around Kirk as a young man at Starfleet Academy and show how he met his redoubtable crew for the first time. The dreaded reboot. After careful consideration (and even a screenplay) this project was ultimately shelved (to be resurrected by JJ Abrams much later in 2009) in favour of a final adventure for Shatner and company instead. After the problems with Star Trek V the studio wisely returned to The Wrath of Khan director Nicholas Meyer to write and direct what eventually became Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Meyer have proved himself to be adept at turning in a good film on a limited budget and they desperately needed both of these qualities now. Meyer and Leonard Nimoy came up with a topical and relatively inventive story that drew parallels with US/Russian glasnost and the end result is certainly a big improvement on Star Trek V and a nice way for the cast to finally say farewell. The film opens with the explosion of the Klingon moon "Praxis" - their Chernobyl obviously - with the disaster detected by the USS Excelsior under the command of Captain Hikaru Sulu (George Takei). Good for you Mr Sulu! Captain at last. Praxis was a key energy facility and power source for the Klingons and the terrible accident has damaged their ozone layer. Or something.

"Two months ago," says Mr Spock (Nimoy). "A Federation starship monitored an explosion on the Klingon moon, Praxis. We believed it was caused by overmining and insufficient safety precautions. The moon's decimation means a deadly pollution of their ozone. They will have depleted their supply of oxygen in approximately 50 Earth-years. Due to their enormous military budget, the Klingon economy does not have the resources with which to combat this catastrophe. Last month, at the behest of the Vulcan ambassador, I opened a dialogue with Gorkon, Chancellor of the Klingon High Council." The Klingon Empire is shattered and broken and reluctantly decides to open negotiations with the Federation to secure peace and some much needed assistance. Captain Kirk (Shatner) and his crew are assigned the mission of escorting Chancellor Gorkon (David Warner), his battle commander General Chang (Christopher Plummer), and their entourage through Federation space. However, all does not go according to plan. Someone is out to sabotage the tentative and uneasy peace and Kirk himself is not happy at all with his mission. He absolutely hates Klingons - with good reason too after all they've put him through in the previous films! When the Enterprise appears to fire on the Klingon warship they are escorting and Chancellor Gorkon is assassinated, Kirk and Dr McCoy (DeForest Kelley) are sent to the prison planet Rura Penthe for crimes against the Klingon Empire and Spock has a very puzzling mystery indeed to solve if he is to save them and prevent war breaking out again.

While the subtext of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is none too subtle, in the capable hands of Nicholas Meyer this is a considerably more entertaining and satisfying film than The Final Frontier. Meyer keeps things moving along at a fair clip while once again making the film somewhat darker than the other Star Treks both in terms of the look and the mood of the picture. The Enterprise seems more shadowy and smaller here and there are distinct shades of grey in his treatment of the Federation - which is somewhat racist in its attitude to the Klingons and also militaristic. The gung ho Kirk is a dinosaur now and wonders what will happen to him and his generation now that a new era of peace seems to be sweeping the galaxy. "Captain's log, stardate 9522.6: I've never trusted Klingons, and I never will. I could never forgive them. It seems to me our mission to escort the Chancellor of the Klingon High Council to a peace summit is problematic at best. Spock says this could be an historic occasion, and I'd like to believe him, but how on earth can history get past people like me?" Not everything in Star Trek VI makes sense and there are plot holes you could fly a shuttlecraft through but there is much to enjoy here. Kirk (amusingly) fighting himself on Rura Penthe after supermodel Iman's yellow eyed shapeshifting alien Martia tries to deceive him, the zero gravity attack on the Klingons, Christopher Plummer gorging on the scenary as the Shakespeare-spouting General Chang, some spiffy space battles, and Kim Cattrall as the slinky Valeris (the Enterprise's new Vulcan navigator).

I like the way Spock here has to turn Sherlock Holmes to work out who was behind the sabotage attack on the Klingons. "An ancestor of mine maintained that when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. If we did not fire those torpedoes, another ship did." Although the film did not have a huge budget the special effects and designs are much better than Star Trek V and it serves as a worthy swansong for the now rather old crew. The film is undeniably daft at times but fun and the humour feels far less shoehorned in than it was in the last film. The brisk pace - especially in the second half of the picture - means that one is never bored and it builds to a satisfying resolution and touching finale. When Kirk signs off with closing narration and the signatures of the cast appear for the last time together one by one across a star strewn background at the end of the picture there will be a lump in the throat of any Trekkie worth his salt. They have been put out to grass at last and handed the galaxy hopping baton over to Captain Picard. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is a worthy addition to the series and serves as nice farewell and finale for the characters we've come to love and know so well. At the time of writing you can buy a two disc version of this for about a fiver with an audio commentary by Nicholas Meyer and screenwriter Denny Martin Flinn, a text commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda, a tribute to DeForest Kelley, several making of featurettes, a documentary about the genesis of the Klingons, and interviews with the cast as they sign off on the last adventure for the original Star Trek crew.