Question: I have always wondered why the entire senior bridge crew beam down to Khitomer at the end of the movie - (1) this crew is already senior - you would expect some junior crew members to come as support even in the series episodes, they always brought the "red shirts" to do at least some of the dirty work or act as security escorts; and (2) Who's left flying the ship?
raywest
18th Feb 2022
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Answer: To answer question #2: nobody! When we see the senior officers return to the bridge, it is completely deserted.
That doesn't mean there was no-one on the bridge while the senior crew were on the planet. They may just have exited the bridge prior to Kirk and the others stepping back on. Also, bridge control can be transferred to engineering and the ship flown from there while in orbit. I would emphasize again that the scene was written without other crew being seen solely to focus on the original cast members one final time. It's their moment, so a bit of artistic license was appropriate.
12th Sep 2007
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Question: This might be subjective, but why does the Enterprise take so much damage, especially interior damage, long before the shields actually collapse?
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.
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.
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Answer: The logical reason is that this is the final movie with the original cast. The plot is written so that they all have a heroic climatic moment, are shown to still share a strong united bond, and are all together before bidding Star Trek fans farewell. It was a fitting and satisfying ending to their long participation in the ST franchise. There would certainly be plenty of crew aboard the Enterprise to fly it.
raywest ★
They've uncovered an assassination conspiracy with one of their own senior officers is involved, and she enlisted the help of two jr. Crewman. The plan would be classified to bridge crew only in case there were more crew involved. As for the ship, if they're in standard orbit, the computers can maintain that with very few crew on the bridge.