STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

DC Comics Cover Art, STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY movie adaptation.

Back in the day, I remember this assignment somehow turning into a rush job due to my other commitments.  I hastily came up with a montage composition that would work, but still be different enough from that which another artist was creating for the other cover.  The other was a deluxe edition, fully painted, while this was to be for the standard newsstand edition.  Clearly, the featured elements must include the top stars in the cast, with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy receiving the primary-but-equal attention.  Aside from the key Klingon characters (as well as a noteworthy cameo by Michael Dorn), Valeris, Martia, and the Federation president deserved recognition.  Since the explosion of Praxis (an obvious allusion to the Chernobyl disaster) served as the story's catalyst, I needed to refer to that in the illustration.  I chose to be a bit oblique, placing the explosion out of frame, allowing the concentric blast waves (a favorite of the ILM special effects house) to add a sweeping dynamism to the assortment of floating heads.

I would have liked to have given some focus to Captain Sulu, but due to limited time and space (pun intended), I settled for placing him among the figures of the classic crew, nicknamed, "The Magnificent Seven."

Undiscovered Country turned out to be a nifty little adventure, a welcome rescue once again by director Nicholas Meyer, after the debacle that was STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER, directed by William Shatner.  However, amidst all of Meyer's self-indulgent and playful literary references (from Shakespeare, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, to Jules Verne), I was relieved that he was thwarted in his efforts to get actress Kirstie Alley to reprise her role as Lieutenant Saavik for this last outing.  It would have been unbearable to see Saavik as a traitor, and better that be Valeris, a new character for whom we had not formed any attachment.

LLAP!  🖖🏾