20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
8. Let's Talk About The Roddenberry In The Room
Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek along with Gene L. Coon, died shortly after viewing the final cut of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Despite having no creative control over the franchise at that point, Roddenberry still held enough swing to ensure that he could be present, and present notes, during the scripting process.
He and Meyer would not part on good terms. Roddenberry hated the script from start to finish, using his weight to force a line-by-line reading, battling Meyer every step of the way. Similar to his problems with Star Trek II, he didn't like how militaristic the film was, nor could he reconcile with the bigotry that the Federation characters show toward the Klingons.
Meyer fought back, claiming that he had seen nothing in Star Trek to convince him that bigotry would have simply vanished by the 23rd century. He also vehemently opposed Roddenberry's criticisms of the proposed villainous turn by Saavik, bluntly stating that it was he, Meyer, who had created that character - and that he would do as he damn well pleased.
In the end, all of Roddenberry's notes were tossed out. He died shortly after this meeting, which left Meyer regretting the way that they had ended things.