The 14 Dumbest Things In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

One of the least believable things in the first six Star Trek movies is that seven members of the crew have stuck around together for 20 years, and, with only two exceptions, largely stayed in the same roles, and at the same damned stations, for all that time.

Those exceptions? Chekov went from navigation to weapons and defense in The Motion Picture, and then served as First Officer on the USS Reliant in The Wrath of Khan, but by the third film was back navigating at his old post. Sulu never budged from the helm until this sixth movie, where he is inexplicably the Captain of the Excelsior.

But six movies in, Uhura’s still opening hailing frequencies, Scotty’s still making the ship go, and Chekov is still plotting courses and substituting Vs for Ws. It all feels… static.

This static dynamic gets even more preposterous in The Undiscovered Country, where we learn that—with the exception of Sulu—thy are all going to stand down in three months. The lot of them — Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Uhura and Chekov — are all going to be decommissioned, seemingly at once.

Why? They didn’t all join up at the same time. Their officer commissions weren’t all issued at once. The story treats them as if they are joined at the hip; as some fixed unit which cannot function unless all the parts are there. Why are they all exiting the service at once?

The real reason, of course, is it's the actor's (supposedly) retirement from their roles being literally reflected in the narrative. And that’s just…dumb.