Slow-Cooked Storytelling

The Undiscovered Country is all about the slow buildup of tension.

The opening of the movie makes the overall narrative fairly clear: the crew of Enterprise must make peace with their former foes. Kirk is resistant due to his personal biases, which will eventually be overcome, and so on and so forth.

It doesn't take long for things to get complicated. The narrative splits after Gorkon's assassination, with Kirk and McCoy being locked in prison and Spock investigating the murder as if his name were Sherlock. Both of these storylines develop independently, while still giving insight into the other, before rejoining upon Kirk and McCoy's escape.

The result is a deliberately paced movie, with plot points unfolding slowly and with ample foreshadowing. In fact, the one critique that might be levied in this regard is that some of the movie's big twists—like Valeris' involvement in the conspiracy—are clearly telegraphed before being revealed. Regardless, this disciplined narrative approach is warmly welcomed after the scattershot story that was The Final Frontier.