We Hate Movies - S16: The Nexus #111 "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" [EXTENDED PREVIEW]
Episode Date: November 21, 2025This is an extended preview of our Nexus episode covering Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. To access the full show, click through here and sign up for our Patreon today! Instantly unlock over ...100 other episodes of our Star Trek recap show! We're getting into We ❤️ Movies Month here on The Nexus as well, that's right, it's time for us to (finally) take a look at the masterful Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country! When you really get down to it, putting the legendary villain of Khan aside, there's a real argument to be made that THISis the best of all Star Trek films. How incredible is this cold open with Captain Sulu? Did they drop the storyline of Scotty and Uhura sleeping together from the last movie? How great is it seeing Shatner fight himself in the prison break scene? Did Christopher Plummer's character ever read anyone other than Shakespeare? And we can all agree that the signatures at the end are great? PLUS: A history of the importance of various Dee Vee Dee extras! Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country stars William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Kim Cattrall, Mark Lenard, Grace Lee Whitney, Bock Peters, Kurtwood Smith, David Warner, Christopher Plummer, and Michael Dorn as Colonel Worf; directed by Nicholas Meyer. The Nexus is a WHM podcast where the guys futilely go through two Star Trek series at the same time. Thank you so much for continuing to support our family of shows—we couldn't do it without you! We know you have lots of options for pods and we're super-stoked you chose to spend some time with us—thanks again! Cover art by Felipe Sobreiro.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
This is maybe my second or third time through.
I really love it.
I think I'm still a 216 guy.
Oh, yeah.
Also,
in the in the convo as well.
Also, my area code is all 216.
Oh, wow.
So guess what,
folks, start dialing numbers.
You might get him.
You can figure it out if you get lucky.
I should say I did check out the director's
cut of this. It's four minutes longer and
does, I forgot, contain
a subplot which changes
some of the ending
of the movie, but nothing too crazy, so
I will bring it out when we get to it.
I had a question for you about
this director's cut because I was looking at the
IMDB and
several scenes which are present in the VHS
release, which are as well as the television
broadcast cuts are notably absent for the DVD
and Blu-ray releases and not included in the
deleted scenes. So this might be totally
fake. These scenes include the visual and
inspection of the torpedoes by Scotty and Spock
which contains Scotty's
line, that Klingon
bitch, as well
as Colonel West's seeds
blah, blah, blah. So he does say
that cling on bitch. So we'll
I'll just do them right here. So yeah, there is
a part. So yeah, they're trying to figure out
later in the film what the torpedo
compliment is and Spock's like the only way
we can tell if this is a computer error
or not as we go down and we literally count all of them.
Scottie gets pissed off about it. They go
down to count these things and there's a scene. I think
it's Kim Cottrell comes in and she's like
oh, it's something about
the ambassador's
daughter, like something. Oh, yeah. She's
become appointed head of the Klingon
High Command, whatever it is. That's what Kim Katrall's
line. As it bore her whatever it is?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. To which Scotty goes,
that clingon bitch had her father kill.
Oh, fuck yeah. Which is fucking hilarious.
And then the other thing, Colonel, what was it?
West, I think. So Colonel West, there's a scene
where Colonel West played by
not credited anywhere on IMDB
not even in the like credited under
deleted scenes.
Renee Obergenoy, whatever.
Odo. I picture that name all the time
yes, the deceased Odo. He is
playing this Colonel West, a Starfleet officer.
He's dead or is the character dead? The man died.
Is the character dead? Odo?
Yeah. I don't think Odo dies
at the end of the S-9. Yeah. He turned
into a puddle of goo and fucking... There's probably
a book that we'll tell you all about it.
He turned into a pack of cigarettes and was never seen
again. Yeah, the fate of Odo.
Okay, sorry, go ahead. Oh, no. So he's playing Colonel
West. So he comes in as Colonel West and they're trying to convince
Kurtwin Smith as the president of the Federation.
They're like, look, the time to strike these
Klingons is now we can fucking wipe them off the map,
take Kirk and McCoy, we can free them,
and destroy the Klingons once and for all. Like, let's fucking do it.
It's like a MacArthur type of thing. And then right after that,
you can get, you can headline at the power metal festival
that you clearly are headlining
in your band with his glasses
poor sex or whatever the fuck
so Kurtwood Smith is basically like
no that would be genocide we're working towards
peace that's not gonna fucking
happen so that's
the scene so the endings I'll just get to it right now
so the ending Scotty shoots the assassin
out of the window he falls down dead
they all like go around him
and it's like this cling on dude or whatever
in this director's cut
they Scooby-Doo rip off this clingon's face
and it's the fucking colonel.
Oh my God, I think I saw this deleted scene at some point
because I had these on DVD back of the day
and I think I devoured those special features.
Oh, dude, yeah, I was a fiend for features back in the way.
Now I don't give a fun.
No, not really.
Unless it's a commentary we recorded.
No, that's true, which would be great.
I spent the money on it.
I should be watching these special features.
Waste of my money, but a lot from a stone with these DVDs.
Last weekend, me and the wife took in Donnie Darko end to end.
I mean, we did it all.
Theatrical trailers.
We did...
Main menu.
Interactive menu, 16 by 9.
Character bios.
Oh, we were going end to end.
You're not going to believe me, but stills.
Yes, sir, steals.
Went through all the stills.
That's a good one.
Martha, change it.
That's another good one.
Oh, Fight Club.
There might be some hidden ones on this DVD.
Mash the keys, Martha.
Uh-oh, we got our Not Man, Elm Street box,
setting it's going to take 56 button moves
before I can play part four.
There's, oh my God, there's
advertisement for Mountain Dew.
Can you believe it in the back
of this? There's an advertisement for Mountain Dew.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Season 3. Oh, we're going through a graveyard
every time you've got a fucking selected
episode. This is a delight. This is
an absolute delight. Oh, that's right. Here we go.
Simpson's Season 9 on DVD.
It takes 48 minutes after you
hit play for the episode to actually start
because there's a bunch of animated fucker
roundery you got to watch.
Put the kettle on, Michael.
End to
and DVD. Oh, dude, we just
get up to DVDs in this
house. You know, her brother.
He watches his DVD. He just watches the movie.
Watches the movie.
That's it. Don't look at anything.
What a fill-in-style. A narrow
way of seeing the world. What an
idiot. My God, they ain't just
making the special features for fun, boy.
Might as well go driving on the highway through your headlights
off. My
Idiot brother-in-law didn't even watch the producers' commentary.
What it, what an idiot that guy is.
There's so much knowledge from those producers.
They graduated that boy from college.
He's sitting there watching a movie.
He doesn't watch a fucking trailer.
I asked my numb-nuts brother-in-law right to his face
why he didn't check out the director's cut of alien,
and he said, theatrical cuts are the only things that should be legal.
I mean, how are you going to know what a movie is if you haven't watched both TV spots?
I mean, honestly, both of the TV spots.
And I tell him, I say, Simon, have you ever felt the satisfaction of hitting all the way to the summit of Mount Everest
to the Fight Club original DVD?
That is, there is so much bullshit in that thing to watch.
And you have watched none of it.
Can I say, I think I did go fucking tits to tail with that Fight Club DVD.
If you were, if you were our age and you got that thing, you watched all of it.
It was like four different commentaries, you got it.
Remember the Memento one?
Oh, yeah.
You had to do a fucking, you know, IQ test and I kept failing it or whatever the fuck it was.
You're too dumb to watch this movie.
No, I want to watch all the special features.
No, I'm not going to church, ma'am.
I got this memento to do with it.
It won't even let me watch the movie until I solve the puzzle.
Oh, my God.
So anyway, those are the two make differences in the dressers cut.
One of the great things about this movie specifically is that it is like just completely mirroring what is happening in the world with the,
the with the Soviet Union
desolution
of smog.
Yeah.
Desolation of smog, socialist
republics.
Smogian of smogs
socialist revolution. It dissolved.
Yes, yes, it dissolved.
And I feel like nowadays, we should
in the next Star Trek movie, maybe in the new
Calvin one, kind of mirror what's
happening now of the reconstitution.
Yeah. Maybe the Romulins in that
Calvin are coming back or something.
Absolutely. What is a once thought
weakened stronghold that is like coming back
to take over a force in the galaxy. I think
the big difference is if
the moon were to explode
from energy, I think we would all start blaming
other countries.
China had the moon. We all know China had the moon.
So they are responsible for this.
It's whoever has the power plants
on them. What do you do with the power plants on the moon?
There's good shit on there. Why is it even
why are their power plants on Earth is another question.
But we'll get there one day. Yeah. Well,
I mean, that's also another interesting
you cannot escape environmental
messaging in Star Trek. This is also
part of it, right? That Klingon moon
praxis, it collapses because of
overmining. And we're told
unsafe work conditions where I was like,
well, of course Klingons don't have like an
OSHA organization of
workplace safety. You think they got kids in there?
Oh, definitely, dude. Little Klingons
with their gross teeth get their little hands in there.
Work a double shifter, you don't have
honor. That's the thing. You
rethink it's bad here. Unions
and over there, you just die immediately.
Oh, you say the word you're decapit.
You're gone.
Yeah, absolutely.
I will say that this was a problem.
Rodbury had,
apparently, I don't know if you read the story
that he watched the work cut of this,
got really mad about it,
and then died two days later.
Good.
I'm glad this movie killed him.
Wow, that's awesome.
But one of his complaints that I do agree with
is the, the Klingons don't,
I mean, I just don't know the timeline of it.
The Klingons don't have all that honor shit.
You know what I mean?
the culture of the Klingons is very
sparse. They're just
sort of villains or ex
villains here. Yeah, I mean,
a decent amount of that, but yeah, I mean,
I think a lot of it is because they're crooked.
You specifically dealing with crooked
Klingons. That's true. And they're not like
representative of the entire like
Klingon Empire. I know that sounds like a one bad apple
excuse, but like, no, totally. That is, it is
that weird thing. And I think also
just because like, don't throw out that
bushel. There's some good Klingons in there.
TNG, I mean, they invented a lot of it.
years after that and that whole like honor thing and that's like you're more used to see in clingons
at that point like there's still kind of a mystery yes a little bit i mean they're they are
interacting with them over these movies and whatever but it's still like oh cling on we're still
figuring out the head ridges in this movie for sure definitely i thought kurt word smith was a cling on for a
minute he looks too much like a clay on dude wait a minute yeah no his mother hooked up with
the earth sailor well yeah his mother was a cling on uh you see and the father was raiding the god
of like, yes, that would make sense.
Again, and also
that would be the... I'll bring in the rubber tomorrow.
Perfect name for his
metal band. Radin.
Oh, absolutely. It should be called Raiden.
Prophalectic.
I for Klinga.
But I think this is the...
Before this, you know, before TNG really got their hands on it,
we didn't, we didn't, what do you call it there,
really formalized the rocky head.
You know what I mean? I mean, Star Trek 3 sort of did.
Yes. Yeah, that's what...
Christopher Lloyd.
He's got the big old.
rocky head. Yeah, you could great cheese
on that thing. I think even in
their appearance in, aren't
they in the first, aren't they a motion
picture for like two seconds? Possibly.
Yes, yeah. I think that's where that comes from.
And I, you know, you got, what do you
call it? Chang with this basically like
he's wearing a football, a leather
football helmet on his head. It looks like Sagan
from Street Fighter. Yes. Yeah,
he, I would not be surprised
to learn, like, had a grandmother
who was a human or something. You know what I mean?
Because it is like, he's mostly just
a bald guy with that fucking pony tail
and then like little bit of ridges
that's the thing he's the secret brother of Kirk
right we do blowfeld bombs
with this hell yeah dude
but I mean Christopher Plummer is a real
incredible if you show me one more
forehead ridge I walk and it's like all right
well we did Shakespeare write
that as if not then I don't think he said it
not enough Chang small quibble
not enough change I'll take more Chang
too much Shakespeare quote you can't keep doing
it you got you got to
one thing or the other. You've got to stop letting him
just quote Shakespeare or you
got or you can't have any more talk
no more dialogue. I kind of wonder at some form
was there a script thing at some point where
he was part human because that's the only
Klingon with a human name. Chang
is a real earth name.
Right. Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know if there's any supplemental books about
Chang's early days. That was the
way. Okay. That'd be awesome dude.
There's a line. I'm having a summer in wine country.
One of the early
one of the early lines of I think that maybe the first
Shakespeare line. There's
a suggestion. They're like, in the
original Klingon. That's right. Yeah. It's a joke.
Like, do they, well, that's, is it? It's a joke.
I feel like it's a joke in the, in, it's a joke for the audience.
Okay. But I don't know. Maybe,
maybe Shakespeare was a Klingon.
It opened up. And he came to Earth.
It opened a fucking window of
fucking possibilities. Is that what that movie's
about? The Hamnet? No, I don't believe.
I don't know. It's not. Anonymous?
Yeah. Is that what? What if Shakespeare was actually a Klingon?
That would be great.
He's got the classic Klingon haircut, right?
It's the skullet with the bang.
That's true.
And then they droops and the goat and the Van Dyke.
And then he was missing, right?
You know, one ever heard from him again.
Everyone was like, who was this?
William.
William, why did you have your ridges straightened out?
Why did you allow that?
You should not be doing that.
You should be proud.
William, why are you embarrassed of your Klingon heritage?
I mean, it was way back in the day.
Maybe like a horse kicked him in the head and shoved those back in.
Oh, also I was going to say, what would the Shakespeare stuff
and everything, and he's so eloquent about it.
What if Chang, again, with that name, kind of an Earth name, right?
I mean, it is an Earth name.
You could substitute a space name, but definitely an Earth name.
What if he was like Saddam Hussein?
I love it.
He went to university in England.
I see.
Right.
And then, like, came back.
And while he was there, he was like a linguistic major.
Studying drama.
Oh, yeah.
I wanted to be an actor on Earth.
And they denied me for my Klingon heritage.
Yeah, theater major, minor in war
Hey, speaking of
this movie, hilariously killing Gene Roddenberry,
it does open with four
Gene Roddenberry. You got to at that point.
I want to highlight this font, though. I love
this pink font. Dude, the pink and like
the purple, it's fucking rocking.
But the other one that thought the credits look a little cheap.
It seems like cool, like vapor wave
looking fun. You're attacking the credits.
No, it's because the...
Shields up credits.
Gold credits already have taken.
I mean, the more expensive.
The gold credit
it's from the first one.
I mean,
how about the ending?
How about the ending
with the signatures?
I love that.
No,
for something about the overlay
just feels a little TV movie-ish.
It's a little simple,
but I think like that color,
it gives it like a weird 80s vibe
in those movies,
1991.
Like if you put like sort of like
synth beats behind it,
boom,
boom, boom, boom,
like you can,
and you're watching the title,
I can see it happen.
Tron Legacy fucking
beats on there.
Smoking a spliff with Chang.
Oh, fuck it.
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