20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
17. The Fall Of The Berlin Wall In Space
The idea behind Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is quite simple. As Leonard Nimoy postulated: What if the Wall came down in space? The Wall, rather than a concrete division splitting cities and families apart, is instead the Klingon Neutral Zone, along with a series of Starbases and military installations.
The Fall Of The USSR and the advent of the Khitomer Accords, and Federation-Klingon Peace talks, are directly paralleled. The explosion of Praxis that opens Star Trek VI mirrors the explosion at Chernobyl, which was the beginning of the end for the USSR. In both the real world, and in fantasy, it takes a calamity to allow the peace talks to gain momentum - tragedy inspiring true change.
Much like the denial that took place in the wake of the Chernobyl incident, the Klingons too attempt to downplay the seriousness of the explosion. It is quite clear though that their militaristic approach to foreign relations has left them short-changed when it comes to tackling the ecological crisis that follows. As always with Star Trek, much of the events of the film could simply have been a documentary about American-USSR relations, but with head ridges.