Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Corrected entry: When the Klingon Ship is attacked, the the colour of Klingon blood is a very bright purple. In Star Trek Generations, one of the Klingon sisters is hit in the mouth and the blood is red.

Correction: This film came first, so this is not a mistake for this film. It's a mistake for the next film that fails to maintain the continuity.

johnrosa

Corrected entry: Right before Kirk beams aboard the Klingon vessel, Spock pats him on the back. He turns around and you can see the large black tracking device that Spock has stuck to his back. Throughout the film they use this device to track Kirk. Kirk was arrested, sentenced, and sent to a prison. Kirk wears his uniform throughout this entire process and the tracking device is blatantly obvious on him. Why didn't any Of his many Klingon guards frisk him and remove it?

RJR99SS

Correction: This is not a tracking device, it is simply a patch made of viridium. The Klingons might not have known what is was or, if they did, that the Enterprise's scanners were capable of detecting this substance across a great distance.

wizard_of_gore

Corrected entry: The character of Colonal West is an uncredited character. This character is portrayed by Rene Auberjunois, the same actor who plays Odo on DS9. Any actors appearing in a ST movie out of character are uncredited. (Neelix as the Holodeck Mate'd in ST: First Contact, and Tuvok on the bridge of the Enterprise B in Generations) However, this came out before DS9, so he must have already been signed on to the series.

Correction: Very unlikely - the film came out in 1991, and DS9 didn't premiere until two years later. It would be unheard of for an actor to commit that far ahead - it's highly likely that the character hadn't even been developed at that point, let alone cast. The real reason is that Rene's scenes were cut from the original cinematic release, hence no credit. They were restored for video and DVD releases, where he remains uncredited, possibly because he was in DS9 by that point. That being said, your basic point is incorrect - despite playing Worf in the Next Generation at the time, Michael Dorn is credited for this film (he's listed as "Klingon Defence Attorney", but is named in the film as Colonel Worf, possibly an ancestor of his usual character).

Tailkinker

Corrected entry: In the beginning of the movie, Sulu's Captain's Log (voice-over) tells how his ship, Excelsior, is cataloging gaseous anomolies. Later, when the Enterprise has no way to fire back against a Klingon ship that can fire while cloaked, Ohura says, "What about all that equipment we're carrying to catalog gaseous anomolies?"

Correction: Why can't Enterprise be on the same mission as Excelsior? Starfleet has hundreds of ships, surely 2 can be doing the same thing simultaneously.

Grumpy Scot

Starfleet's mission is exploration. Surely they would have equipment on board in case they came across anything interesting even though that isn't their primary mission.

Corrected entry: Throughout the movie, and including the climatic battle sequence between the Enterprise and General Chiang's Bird of Prey, Scotty is wearing his black "casual" duty uniform. When Kirk and company beam down to Kitimer, Scotty is wearing his red uniform. When they return to the Enterpise, he's back in his black uniform.

Correction: Scotty just put on his red uniform jacket over his black utility overall top. He took it off when he got back. The pants are the same.

Grumpy Scot

Corrected entry: When communicating with the Klingon vessel, Uhura uses a book to search for the correct words and translation. She can't use the universal translator to do the job for her, because the Klingons would recognise that. Why doesn't she use the universal translator as example and then simply repeat it to the Klingons, instead of making a mess of it with the books?

Correction: The universal translator doesn't work that way. As revealed on the DS9 episode "Little Green Men", the UT is an aural implant that changes the soundwaves to the correct language for the user. If Uhura speaks in direct Klingon, the UTs the Klingons have won't have to do any work and it would sound more natural to the Klingons than if Uhura spoke her native Swahili (which, according to the ST universe, is what she's usually talking in) and had it translated.

Corrected entry: Towards the end of the film when the Enterprise is under attack by the invisible Klingon ship, Spock asks Dr. McCoy if he'd like to perfom a surgery on a torpedo to enable it to detect the plasma emitted by the Klingons. But McCoy is a medical doctor and can hardly be qualified for this work. Why doesen't Spock just ask Scotty, who is also present and doesn't have anything else to do?

Correction: Scotty isn't really available at that time. He's busy with keeping up the shields. Besides, there isn't very much time to look for someone else, and, all Dr. McCoy has to do is hand over some tools at Spock, so he doesn't need very much of a qualification for that.

Corrected entry: In begining of the movie, a moon in the Klingon home system explodes, sending out a shockwave that travels across Klingon space, across the neutral zone and into Federation space to hit the USS Excelsior so fast that it wasn't detected before it hit the ship. First of all, the shockwave should be restricted to the speed of sound, it would have taken years to arrive to the Excelcior's location and second, in the movie S.T.: Generations, a shockwave from a collapsing star takes several minutes to hit a space station in the same system.

Correction: The "speed of sound" is only important when there's some kind of medium that can carry sound waves, since sound is nothing but vibration of the medium's particles. In space there is not such a medium. So: no medium, no sound, no speed of sound. Based on that, the speed of sound cannot be a limiting factor for the shock wave's speed. In fact, it is said in the movie that it is a "subspace shockwave." We can assume that subspace shockwaves can move faster than the light, since the warp drive which is based on subspace distortions allows faster-than-light-travel. All in all - no mistake.

Corrected entry: Years of dispute with the Klingons, and Federation engineers haven't managed to circumvent the cloaking device - yet a 100% effective torpedo is built on the Enterprise by a doctor, during a battle, using instructions from a radio-operator, in under 10 minutes. Makes you wonder why Starfleet actually has engineers.

Correction: Spock was with McCoy when they were modifying the torpedo. It's true that the engineers should have discovered this earlier, but Uhura points out that Enterprise is currently carrying extra equipment for studying gaseous anomalies.

wizard_of_gore

Normally a bird of prey is not a threat while cloaked so there would be no need to be able to locate one to fire on while cloaked. This is a different set of circumstances.

Corrected entry: When communicating with the Klingon vessel, Uhura consistently mispronounces the Klingon word for 'over.' The Klingon she's speaking to pronounces it 'reen.' Uhura keeps pronouncing it 'ren.' The mistake is relevant because they're speaking Klingon directly to avoid being recognized as a Starfleet vessel.

Correction: Seems more like a "you say po-tay-toe, I say po-tah-toe" thing. Like saying "yeah" vs. "yes". After all, the Klingons still bought it.

Grumpy Scot

Corrected entry: During the scene in which Bill and Admiral Cartwright discuss Operation Retrieve with the Federation President, the person who briefs the president on Operation Retrieve is called Colonel West. But when you look at West's uniform closely, it can be seen that he carries the rank of Admiral. And according to many Star Trek sites, the rank of Colonel doesn't even exist in Starfleet's ranking system.

Correction: Gene Roddenberry suggested that there are Starfleet Marines. We even see them in DS9. Colonel West could be one. Doesn't explain the Starfleet Naval uniform unless he was undercover for some weird reason.

Grumpy Scot

Corrected entry: The shapeshifting woman at the dilithium mines where Kirk and McCoy are sent changes her shape often to a big monster, small child, etc., but her voice always remains the same. However, when she takes Kirk's shape she also takes Kirk's voice.

Correction: We also see that she can change her voice before then anyway. When she is leading them through the mine, just before changing into the little girl, she calls out something to the klingon guards in a voice that is most obviously different from her regular voice. She probably didn't change her voice when speaking with Kirk and McCoy simply because they would not have recognized her otherwise, but she was playing with them when she changed into Kirk.

Correction: Because, as can be seen throughout this movie (crewmen beaming off the ship to assassinate the Klingon ambassador, then tampering with files to make it look like the Enterprise fired the torpedoes) he's not a very good security officer.

JC Fernandez

Correction: That's probably because Chekov is the Navigator and Second Officer and therefore is usually chained to the bridge.

Corrected entry: In the scene where McCoy and Kirk are planning their escape in their bunk beds on the prison colony. It seems they are in a no win situation and McCoy mentions "Kobeyashi Maru". Kobeyashi Maru is the no win training scenario at the beginning of Star Trek 2.

Correction: Far too obvious to be trivia.

Corrected entry: In the scene where the Enterprise surrenders and Kirk and McCoy are about to beam to the Kilingon ship, if you watch carefully you can see Spock put his hand on Kirk's shoulder and place the tracking device there, which comes into play later when the Enterprise rescues him from the dilithium asteroid.

Correction: This is an important plot point, not trivia.

wizard_of_gore

Corrected entry: When the Chancellor's ship is fired upon by the cloaked Bird of Prey, the clock above the Enterprise bridge viewer shows the time as 01:18. When the assassins have beamed back to the Enterprise and the Klingon ship begins to list, the time is 01:38. Right after this, when Chang tell Kirk that he will "Blow you out of the stars", the clock above the bridge viewer shows a time of 01:29. This is on the DVD version.

Correction: It's a clock. Watch it as it increments second by second.

Correction: Who said it's a clock? It could be a magnification scale for the main viewer, an increment of pitch or yaw, or even 'elapsed time' from a given event point, and it has been reset to begin from another point in between the times we see it.

Corrected entry: Spock interrogates Lt. Valeris with the mind meld, he finishes and takes his hands off her. She is in some kind of emotional trauma, her mouth is wide open gasping like a fish and she's whimpering. Spock turns around and the camera angle changes to face him. In the background Valeris is standing there looking very cool and calm. I'd imagine it would be rather difficult to collect herself in less than a second.

RJR99SS

Correction: Vulcans have the ability to block off all emotions, so it is possible for her to regain her composure very quickly.

Corrected entry: When searching the crew quarters, a magnetic boot is found in Dax's locker. The locker door either shows damage in the paint when the scene had to be re-shot or it's the device to hang a non-magnetic boot onto a non-metal door. This is evident both when Valeris hangs the boot on the door and when Chekov removes it later on. (01:10:25)

StevenJ

Correction: It is someone's locker that is probably opened/closed 3 or 4 times a day. It is bound to show some wear and tear.

Soylent Purple

Corrected entry: Captian Sulu's coffee mug clearly shows "NCC-2000 U.S.S. Excelsior" on the side of it. A few scenes later, when the mug is vibrating and bouncing around on the table, the writing is gone.

Correction: The writing remains the whole time, it's just that the side of the mug without the writing is facing the camera.

Corrected entry: When Kirk is being arrested on the Bird-of-Prey, they show him being handcuffed. Then there is a cut to a close up of Kirk saying something, then back to a wide shot of him being handcuffed again.

Correction: Not sure where you got the idea that he was being handcuffed again. Kirk's hands were in the cuffs when the wide shot was shown, and the Klingon made no gesture that he was putting them on again.

Continuity mistake: After the bird of prey first fires on Enterprise, Kirk is thrown right out of his chair to his left and lands on the floor. The camera pans around the bridge briefly, seeing the rest of the crew staggering and holding onto things. In the very next shot Kirk is back in his chair shouting "back off, back off" and the crew back in their positions as if nothing has happened.

More mistakes in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Captain Spock: What you want is irrelevant, what you have chosen is at hand.

More quotes from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Trivia: Both the opening explosion of the Klingon moon Praxis and much of the footage from the U.S.S. Excelsior was later used in an episode of "Star Trek: Voyager", ("Flashback") with special guest star George Takei.

More trivia for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Chosen answer: There's a limit as to how much the shields can protect the ship. Depending on the force of the explosions, the ship still suffers some damage from any weapon blasts. Also, the shield only holds for so long and gradually loses it protectiveness with successive attacks, causing increasing damage to the ship.

raywest

Answer: The depiction of the shields in this movie is actually interesting because it seems they deliberately tried to show how the ship could plausibly take damage while the shields are up. Here the shields seem to be "on" the hull (or perhaps emanate from the hull itself) and their function seems specific to preventing hull breaches. In TNG and onwards the shields appear as a kind of energy bubble wrapped around the ship, and accordingly they seem to absorb much more impact.

TonyPH

More questions & answers from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.