Star Trek: 10 Character Reveals That Didn't Have To Go THAT Hard
4. Colonel West Falls And A Bit Of Broken Glass Tells All
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is a film that delights in pushing the envelope for what Star Trek really was. Here was the crew that, by and large, were still the most popular characters in the franchise. There was murder, there was mayhem, and there was a future Trek star with a whopper shard of glass in their throat.
The sixth film in the franchise offered a nerve-shredding political thrillride, taking the audience from Qo'NoS, to Earth, to Khitomer, and into the history books. There were those characters who didn't want those new pages of history being written - and they plotted to avoid them.
Colonel West, played by future Trek star René Auberjonois, is seen early in the film planning the rescue of Kirk and McCoy from Rura Penthe. The reveal that he had no intention of saving them comes in a rather bloody moment in an already bloody, if a little pink, movie.
West, in Klingon disguise, attempts to shoot the Federation President, then Valeris - to prevent her from blowing the whole operation. Scotty bursts in, phaser in hand, and shoots the man through a window and down to the floor below. The scene doesn't end there. It is Colonel Worf who, after a shard of glass is pulled from West's throat, notes that it isn't Klingon blood at all.
Knowing that this could have been the last Trek film to star The Original Series crew, director Nicholas Meyer didn't pull any punches. Things got a little brutal towards the end, but at least Odo came along to make up for the sins of another of his faces.