20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
13. I Can See We Have A Long Way To Go
The framing of the Dinner Scene is deliberate. On one side of the table, the Starfleet crew sits with relative ease around the clearly Human place settings. On the other, the Klingons are out of place, including one tiny but brilliant movement by Christopher Plummer's Chang - this man who knows Shakespeare so well can't quite understand the function of a napkin.
The food in front of the actors was dyed blue to give it a more alien look. Nicholas Meyer bet each of them that he would pay $20 for every bite that people took, as they clearly didn't want to touch any of it. William Shatner allegedly ate his fill, then tracked Meyer down to ensure the man came through on his promise.
It is here in this scene that Gorkon utters the toast to The Undiscovered Country - a line quickly identified by Spock as hailing from Shakespeare. It had been the original title of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, before that was changed. Though short, this scene serves to highlight the oceans of space between both parties, culminating with Gorkon's utterance of:
If there is to be a brave new world, our generation is going to have the hardest time living in it.