The 14 Dumbest Things In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
7. The Viridium Patch
From the film's premier fans complained there’s no way the Klingons would send Kirk and Bones to the gulag in their Starfleet duds, complete with the Viridium patch Spock cooly stuck to Kirk's jacket as they left the bridge. But this is actually somewhat believable and has (Earthly) historic precedent.
Under the terms of the Geneva Convention, prisoners of war cannot be stripped of their uniforms, insignia, etc., and there was some controversy at the Nuremberg trials when accused Nazi defendants’ uniforms were stripped of insignia and medals. As such, it’s not unbelievable there’s some Organian Peace Treaty or whatever terms which would allow Kirk and Bones to stay in their monster maroon uniforms.
The thing that is unbelievable is that the Klingons would not go over these duds with a nanometer-toothed comb looking for anything out of the ordinary. Do they not notice that Kirk has this thing stuck to his shoulder; something absent from Bones’ uniform and any other they’ve ever seen? Would this not be seen as even a bit suspicious? Or did Kirk tell them it was some fuzzy medal?
And how is a patch of fuzz detectable at a distance of two sectors?
Also, does Spock just happen to keep one of at ready in his pocket at all times, ready to slap on Kirk in the event he does something impulsive? The original series often portrayed Spock as an all-purpose Swiss Army Knife but this is really pushing it.