It’s now been twenty-five years since Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country bid farewell to the original Enterprise crew.

The movie came at a time when Cold War relations were simmering and the decades-old conflict was coming to an end. The final film featuring the original crew, it brought us peace discussions between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.

The real world parallel at the time was obvious, but it was something that director Nicholas Meyer recently called naive. His problem is with the idea that everything would be “peaches and cream” after the conflict is over.

Is Nicholas Meyer correct in his assessment?

As we know from Star Trek canon, the universe was hardly peaceful even after these two galactic superpowers came together. Threats such as the Borg would later arise and only grow worse after their first meeting with Jean-Luc Picard’s Enterprise crew.

Short answer: Yes, Meyer is correct in his point about The Undiscovered Country.

For a moment in time, the world seemed alright. Just like the Berlin Wall’s fall was a monumental moment in history, the Klingons and Federation coming together had enormous positive implications. To a degree, history as we knew it was coming to a close and a new world was upon the horizon.

But the new world was just old history, rehashed and refurbished.

But that doesn’t necessarily make it wrong. If anything, the parallels continue.

Here in the real world, the rise of the radical terrorist threat in the Middle East has haunted us for a decades now. Military intervention has increased abroad and we’re hardly safer. We also continue to maintain a presence in foreign territories in order to try and achieve diplomacy and order.

It may not be the Soviet Union we’re fighting, but it’s just a different kind of threat.

In Star Trek, different threats have presented themselves. Among them is the aforementioned Borg collective, but then there was also the Dominion. The Dominion represented a strong, widespread military threat that was perhaps more threatening than the Borg.

And much like the terrorist threat we face abroad.

All of this came after peace was found between the Federation and Klingon Empire.

Nicholas Meyer may have been correct with The Undiscovered Country being naive in its assumptions. It would never be “peaches and cream” in the future, even though the rainbows and unicorns did make for a touching ending to the film. It was not only a great film ending, it was a fitting way to close out the careers of the original crew.

The Undiscovered Country’s historic parallels may not be as naive as perceived, all things considered in the grand scheme of things.