Actually, it is only the end of the line of Mr Shatner in the captain's chair of the USS Enterprise (or stranded on an alien planet, or stranded back in time), and it's a fact he communicates to the audience in one of his monologues (close to the end).
Most Trekkies will cry with outrage saying he appears in Star Trek: Generations, but as it stands now, he's out and somebody new is in.
This incarnation of Kirk is an interesting one. Everyone has that one (or two, or 23) racist uncle/aunt/grandparent who makes you cringe when they start sprouting their dislike of another race for events that happened "in their day". While Kirk isn't exactly that far out, he certainly harbours some similar feelings for the Klingons (they were responsible for the death of his son after all) - all of which are thrown into the spotlight in this entry.
A Klingon moon (Praxis) explodes in the opening scenes of the film, crippling their productive power and bringing the alien empire somewhat to their knees (if they do have knees of course).They seek a peace/truce with the humans, and the crew of the USS Enterprise have been brought back together to meet and escort the Klingon ambassador back to Earth for negotiations.
But in a twist most people should've seen coming, an unknown assailant attacks and kills the Klingon ambassador and some of his offsiders in their vessel. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise are immediately blamed, and the rest of the film plays out as expected (Kirk and McCoy on trial, jailed, escape and Scooby Doo-style saving of the day, which I quite disliked).
Further research shows they tippy-toed along racial lines in the script more than a few times, forcing a series of rewrites after several African-American actors/actresses refused to speak their lines. While films can be praised for breaching such topics and delivering them to a wider audience, I'm not convinced Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country did that very well. At all.
On top of that, the Shatner love-fest continues, reaching its crescendo with a monologue explaining "he would no longer be captain of the Enterprise but it will continue to explore the galaxy". While television shows may explain departing characters away with interstate moves and (the soap opera favourite) death, Shatner told us straight to our collective faces. Maybe it's not a bad thing and it was just out of the ordinary enough for me to take note. You decide after watching.
As a whole, the film isn't overly too bad but it is a step down from the previous films. It's like a professional athlete reaching the top of their sport, retiring, then coming back for another dig and falling short of the mark (Ian Thorpe anyone?). This is that Star Trek film.
Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country: 105 minutes (1991)
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