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In the years since the Marathon first set its eyes to the heavens, the humble crew of the USS Enterprise has been on quite a number of wild adventures. They managed to reunite after almost a decade and meet a godlike being made out of a satellite, managed to stop a genetically altered superman from unleashing a doomsday weapon on the Earth, Spock died and managed to come back, the Enterprise blew up and came back, Kirk found out he had a son and then managed to ditch that potential story avenue pretty damn quick, and of course there was that time the Enterprise altered the fabric of time and space in order to steal some whales. For a crew that was assigned to a five year mission and only managed to complete three, it’s managed to have quite the staying power, thanks in large part to a loyal and dedicated fanbase. Now, 10 years after the first Star Trek film, 23 years after the premiere of the original series, and two years after the premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation, there came another; A fifth film to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them. Or something like that, I mean science fiction and fantasy are basically the same thing anyway.
Set, as you would expect, after the events of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier sees the intrepid crew of the updated Federation starship Enterprise enjoying a bit of shore leave. Captain James T. Kirk, Spock, and Leonard McCoy are enjoying some camping and renditions of children’s song in Yosemite National Park, Scotty is attempting to get the ship up and running, Sulu and Chekov are lost in the woods, it’s just one big party. Their revelry is cut short however when an urgent command comes in from Starfleet about some business in the Neutral Zone. Apparently a group calling itself the Galactic Army of Light, headed by a mysterious Vulcan by the name of Sybok, has taken over the lone settlement of a planet named Nimbus III, a failed attempt at cooperation between the United Federation of Planets, the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Empire which is otherwise unremarkable aside from the fact that an ambassador of each faction is located there. Starfleet sends the Enterprise to investigate, and because the Klingons are very much into the idea of Kirk’s head on a pike they follow suit, but it seems that everyone is playing right into Sybok’s hands You see Sybok has a plan, the fulfillment of which could have life-changing effects for every sapient being in the galaxy, and to do that he’s going to need one Enterprise-shaped ship to do it. What could that plan be, and how does he recognize Spock?
The Final Frontier was made on a significantly lower budget than the filmmakers had originally intended, which is quite obvious on a technical level. While the continuity is consistent enough, it looks and sounds like Star Trek, there are several bad camera angles, poor cinematography decisions and outright mistakes that a couple more reshoots and run throughs in the editing room might have corrected. This is quite evident in the depictions Klingons, who seem to be comprised of a mishmash of their now iconic cinematic redesigns and something that looks like it was ripped off of an episode of Blake’s 7. Oddly though this seems to be compensated for by plenty of shots of their ship, the Bird of Prey, and even some stop-motion work. In fact you get a more detailed look of the Bird of Prey than you do of the Enterprise, which exists more as a series of rooms than it does a starship. Rooms that accurately represent the aesthetic of Star Trek, but rooms nevertheless.
The problem, then, must be with the story itself. Star Trek V sees Leonard Nimoy, who directed the previous two films, step down in favor of William Shatner, who also co-wrote the story. One wonders how Shatner, a man who has had a hand in creating several novels, Star Trek books and his very own science fiction series, TekWar, and who presumably has something to prove in this, his directorial debut, could create a film that renders him and his cast completely impotent. I don’t believe I’m exaggerating either, the majority of the crew doesn’t really do anything aside from Kirk and Spock, and they don’t really accomplish anything of significance. Not that there haven’t been episodes of the original Star Trek where the Enterprise was held hostage, but it’s never felt quite so...simple before. I mean this is a machine capable of moving faster than light crewed by a seasoned team of officers, and they’re rendered completely useless by some crusty dudes with guns. Not phasers mind you, but straight up guns. Hell, Sybok has a better claim to being protagonist of this story than the actual protagonists.
This is no more evident than the way Star Trek V handles tone, or mishandles it as the case may be. What few moments of genuine characters moments there are, primarily the friendship between Kirk, Spock and McCoy, as well as a couple moments of unearned drama that are pulled out of the writer’s ass and tossed here and there across the script, is undercut by some truly abysmal attempts at comedy. Apparently Shatner saw how successful The Voyage Home was and decided that his film would have comedy in it too, without understanding why it was that the comedy in that film worked. It was silly seeing the Enterprise doing the Back to the Future culture shock thing yes, but it made sense in the context of the film and it was never so ridiculous that it felt like the filmmakers were insulting your intelligence. Not so with The Final Frontier. Case in point: There’s a scene where Scotty has just broken Kirk, Spock and McCoy out of the brig (which was also painfully unfunny but whatever), and they’re walking through some service tunnels. Kirk and the guys go one way, Scotty goes another, and almost immediately smacks his head on an overhang and knocks himself the fuck out, 3 Stooges style. Does this add anything to the plot, is Scotty being unconscious a major plot point that affects the outcome of the story? No, it’s a random bit of slapstick that only really serves to make Scotty look like a fucking idiot and to feel like Shatner attempting to haphazardly film around plot holes in his script rather than just writing a new one.
This ties into what I said a paragraph or so ago, but I don’t think William Shatner really understands what Star Trek is, or what made it great at all. I’m not the biggest fan of TOS, more of a TNG and DS9 guy personally, but as campy as that series could be it was understandable how and why James Kirk was such a popular character. He wasn’t just some space swashbuckler or strong-jawed cowboy, he was a man of intelligence, conviction and compassion who respected those who worked with him and was in turn respected by them. It was easy to understand how this man became a captain, and ultimately an admiral. In Star Trek V Kirk comes across mostly as a wise-cracking buffoon who is nonetheless treated to sycophantic comments like ‘failing you was worse (than endangering the safety of the Enterprise)’, and one who always manages to turn everyone’s focus towards himself. That is not James T. Kirk to me, that is William Shatner wanting the spotlight without having to work for it. Also, and this might seem extremely nerdy to some people, I don’t the Federation would allow a situation like Nimbus III to happen, with people living in abject poverty. Yeah it’s not exactly a perfect organization, and I could believe a joint diplomatic experiment between them, the Klingons and the Romulans (who never show up once in this entire movie for whatever reason) could fall apart, especially with Scotty’s overtly racist ‘Klingon devils’ comment at one point in the movie, but I cannot see them just dumping a bunch of people on a barren wasteland and leaving them to suffer. In the real world sure, but then the Star Trek world is better than ours in just about every way, so you expect them to act better..
If you’ve ever heard that thing about the even numbered Star Trek films being better than the odd numbered ones, this is the one who invented it. Star Trek: The Motion Picture might not have been great, but at least it hit that classic science fiction beat of the universe being a mysterious place full of unknown wonders. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock might not have been great, but at least it tied up the loose ends from Wrath of Khan in a suitably dramatic way. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, on the other hand, seems to be a toxic jambalaya of everything we’ve seen before, the cosmic wonder of TMP, the comedic nature of TVH, etc., a tone-deaf mess of sudden backstory and ill-timed attempts at levity that falls flat for Trekkers and non-Trekkers alike. It’s not Seduction of Dr. Fugazzi bad, if you’re one of those morbidly curious types, but if you’re going to skip any of the TOS Star Trek movies, then make it this one. You won’t be missing out on much, trust me.
Set, as you would expect, after the events of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier sees the intrepid crew of the updated Federation starship Enterprise enjoying a bit of shore leave. Captain James T. Kirk, Spock, and Leonard McCoy are enjoying some camping and renditions of children’s song in Yosemite National Park, Scotty is attempting to get the ship up and running, Sulu and Chekov are lost in the woods, it’s just one big party. Their revelry is cut short however when an urgent command comes in from Starfleet about some business in the Neutral Zone. Apparently a group calling itself the Galactic Army of Light, headed by a mysterious Vulcan by the name of Sybok, has taken over the lone settlement of a planet named Nimbus III, a failed attempt at cooperation between the United Federation of Planets, the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Empire which is otherwise unremarkable aside from the fact that an ambassador of each faction is located there. Starfleet sends the Enterprise to investigate, and because the Klingons are very much into the idea of Kirk’s head on a pike they follow suit, but it seems that everyone is playing right into Sybok’s hands You see Sybok has a plan, the fulfillment of which could have life-changing effects for every sapient being in the galaxy, and to do that he’s going to need one Enterprise-shaped ship to do it. What could that plan be, and how does he recognize Spock?
The Final Frontier was made on a significantly lower budget than the filmmakers had originally intended, which is quite obvious on a technical level. While the continuity is consistent enough, it looks and sounds like Star Trek, there are several bad camera angles, poor cinematography decisions and outright mistakes that a couple more reshoots and run throughs in the editing room might have corrected. This is quite evident in the depictions Klingons, who seem to be comprised of a mishmash of their now iconic cinematic redesigns and something that looks like it was ripped off of an episode of Blake’s 7. Oddly though this seems to be compensated for by plenty of shots of their ship, the Bird of Prey, and even some stop-motion work. In fact you get a more detailed look of the Bird of Prey than you do of the Enterprise, which exists more as a series of rooms than it does a starship. Rooms that accurately represent the aesthetic of Star Trek, but rooms nevertheless.
The problem, then, must be with the story itself. Star Trek V sees Leonard Nimoy, who directed the previous two films, step down in favor of William Shatner, who also co-wrote the story. One wonders how Shatner, a man who has had a hand in creating several novels, Star Trek books and his very own science fiction series, TekWar, and who presumably has something to prove in this, his directorial debut, could create a film that renders him and his cast completely impotent. I don’t believe I’m exaggerating either, the majority of the crew doesn’t really do anything aside from Kirk and Spock, and they don’t really accomplish anything of significance. Not that there haven’t been episodes of the original Star Trek where the Enterprise was held hostage, but it’s never felt quite so...simple before. I mean this is a machine capable of moving faster than light crewed by a seasoned team of officers, and they’re rendered completely useless by some crusty dudes with guns. Not phasers mind you, but straight up guns. Hell, Sybok has a better claim to being protagonist of this story than the actual protagonists.
This is no more evident than the way Star Trek V handles tone, or mishandles it as the case may be. What few moments of genuine characters moments there are, primarily the friendship between Kirk, Spock and McCoy, as well as a couple moments of unearned drama that are pulled out of the writer’s ass and tossed here and there across the script, is undercut by some truly abysmal attempts at comedy. Apparently Shatner saw how successful The Voyage Home was and decided that his film would have comedy in it too, without understanding why it was that the comedy in that film worked. It was silly seeing the Enterprise doing the Back to the Future culture shock thing yes, but it made sense in the context of the film and it was never so ridiculous that it felt like the filmmakers were insulting your intelligence. Not so with The Final Frontier. Case in point: There’s a scene where Scotty has just broken Kirk, Spock and McCoy out of the brig (which was also painfully unfunny but whatever), and they’re walking through some service tunnels. Kirk and the guys go one way, Scotty goes another, and almost immediately smacks his head on an overhang and knocks himself the fuck out, 3 Stooges style. Does this add anything to the plot, is Scotty being unconscious a major plot point that affects the outcome of the story? No, it’s a random bit of slapstick that only really serves to make Scotty look like a fucking idiot and to feel like Shatner attempting to haphazardly film around plot holes in his script rather than just writing a new one.
This ties into what I said a paragraph or so ago, but I don’t think William Shatner really understands what Star Trek is, or what made it great at all. I’m not the biggest fan of TOS, more of a TNG and DS9 guy personally, but as campy as that series could be it was understandable how and why James Kirk was such a popular character. He wasn’t just some space swashbuckler or strong-jawed cowboy, he was a man of intelligence, conviction and compassion who respected those who worked with him and was in turn respected by them. It was easy to understand how this man became a captain, and ultimately an admiral. In Star Trek V Kirk comes across mostly as a wise-cracking buffoon who is nonetheless treated to sycophantic comments like ‘failing you was worse (than endangering the safety of the Enterprise)’, and one who always manages to turn everyone’s focus towards himself. That is not James T. Kirk to me, that is William Shatner wanting the spotlight without having to work for it. Also, and this might seem extremely nerdy to some people, I don’t the Federation would allow a situation like Nimbus III to happen, with people living in abject poverty. Yeah it’s not exactly a perfect organization, and I could believe a joint diplomatic experiment between them, the Klingons and the Romulans (who never show up once in this entire movie for whatever reason) could fall apart, especially with Scotty’s overtly racist ‘Klingon devils’ comment at one point in the movie, but I cannot see them just dumping a bunch of people on a barren wasteland and leaving them to suffer. In the real world sure, but then the Star Trek world is better than ours in just about every way, so you expect them to act better..
If you’ve ever heard that thing about the even numbered Star Trek films being better than the odd numbered ones, this is the one who invented it. Star Trek: The Motion Picture might not have been great, but at least it hit that classic science fiction beat of the universe being a mysterious place full of unknown wonders. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock might not have been great, but at least it tied up the loose ends from Wrath of Khan in a suitably dramatic way. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, on the other hand, seems to be a toxic jambalaya of everything we’ve seen before, the cosmic wonder of TMP, the comedic nature of TVH, etc., a tone-deaf mess of sudden backstory and ill-timed attempts at levity that falls flat for Trekkers and non-Trekkers alike. It’s not Seduction of Dr. Fugazzi bad, if you’re one of those morbidly curious types, but if you’re going to skip any of the TOS Star Trek movies, then make it this one. You won’t be missing out on much, trust me.
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