"Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" Talkback (Spoilers)

[Kolbar]

Adventure and Imagination Will Meet At the Final Frontier

"I have a half-brother." - Spock

Release Date: June 9, 1989
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Director: William Shatner
Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, David Warner, Laurence Luckinbill, Charles Cooper, Cynthia Gouw, Todd Bryant, Spice Williams, Rex Holman, George Murdock

Plot Summary: When the newly-christened starship Enterprise's shakedown cruise goes poorly, Captain Kirk and crew put it into Spacedock for repairs. But an urgent mission interrupts their Earth-bound shore leave. A renegade Vulcan named Sybok has taken several ambassadors hostage on the planet Nimbus III, an event which also attracts the attention of a Klingon captain who wants to make a name for himself. Sybok's rag-tag army captures the Enterprise and takes it on a journey to the center of the galaxy in search of the Supreme Being.

Comments?

[Lord Dalek]

Worst. Star Trek. Movie. Ever.

[Chris Wood]

What's to discuss? It sucks.

[Delthayre]

Why the **** did God need a space ship?

Row, row, row your boa...DEAR GOD, MAKE IT STOP!

[Nightflower]

I think everyone summed up my feelings quite nicely.

[The Drizzle]

I've seen better. But I've also seen worse.

[Chris Wood]

If you want a good laugh, here's a great review of this movie:

http://www.jabootu.com/startrekv.htm

In fact I'm sure reading it will be much more enjoyable than actually watching the movie.

[AnimatedSnow47]

I may be in the minority here, but I enjoyed Final Frontier more than both Search for Spock and Generations.

First off, the humor is good, especially the Kirk-Spock-Bones dialogue.

Second of all, the score is awesome. I'm a sucker for the TMP/TNG theme--it just gives me goosebumps!

Also, the plot is more lighthearted and thus more TOS. After the darkness of Search for Spock, this one is certaintly a relief.

And, I love the design of the Consitution-Refit Enterprise-A. They just need to get it working right.

Final Grade: B+

[David Lucas]

Hey, hey, hey.

Some good came out of this movie!

That Duckman parody with Khan Chicken was priceless.

[DarkAngel]

I may be in the minority here, but I enjoyed Final Frontier more than both Search for Spock and Generations.

I liked it also, though I would put most of the other Trek movies above it. But I liked the humor and loved the ending (everything on the planet where they confronted "God"). IMO, the worse was the first.

[Squall]

Worst Star Trek movie. Period.

In fact, I'm a big Star Trek fan, and the only movies I did like were Star Treks II (The Wrath of Khan), III (The Search For Spock), VI (The Undiscovered Country), and First Contact. All the other movies were terrible -- especially this one!

I've always been of the opinion that Star Trek is better suited for TV, and should stop making movies altogether...

[ToonamiFanatic]

guess I must be also in the minority here too. I liked Star Trek V. loved the interaction between Spock,Bones and Kirk when they go camping.
I thought Shatner did ok directing it but would of loved to see the special edition he had planned for the DVD release last year or was it this year i forgot.

[Chris Wood]

guess I must be also in the minority here too. I liked Star Trek V. loved the interaction between Spock,Bones and Kirk when they go camping.

From Jabootu.com:

We cut to Yosemite National Park, on Earth. We see a slim man (his face oddly not shown) barehandedly rock climbing up a gigantic cliff face. This goes on for about two straight minutes of screentime. Amazingly, when we finally get a look at his face, he turns out to be James Kirk. And somehow he’s instantly put on about forty pounds. Meanwhile, on the ground, Dr. McCoy (or "Bones" for the aficionado) watches nervously as Kirk ascends ever higher. In the film’s first example of much-too-broad "humor," the muttering Bones complains that if this keeps up, he’ll start talking to himself. Ha ha! Get it? He is talking to himself! What a knee-slapper! Boy, and that Bones, huh? He’s always complaining about something!

Kirk receives a start when Spock appears next to him, hovering on jet-boots. Hmmm, it doesn’t seem too "logical" to startle a man clinging to a rock face some thousands of feet in the air, but what do I know? And how do those jet-boots work? Particularly the guidance system. How would you stabilize your posture? If you tilted your head the wrong way, wouldn’t you crash into the mountain? Not too surprisingly, Spock’s conversation distracts Kirk to the point where he slips off the rock face.

Spock, somehow controlling his miraculous jet-boots, dives down in pursuit. After some truly laughable bluescreen effects of Kirk and Spock "falling", Spock manages to grab ahold of Kirk’s leg, mere inches before he hits the ground (uh, what happened to all the kinetic energy Kirk built up while falling? Why doesn’t his leg rip out of its socket when Spock grabs it?). Making the "jet-boot" idea even more untenable, we see that Spock is now hovering horizontal to the ground (?!). As McCoy runs up, Kirk wittily asks, "Mind if we drop in for dinner?" (Please, just shoot me now.)

You liked that???

[AnimatedSnow47]

From Jabootu.com:


You liked that???

Funny, and a little thing called 'suspension of disbelief.'

[ToonamiFanatic]

From Jabootu.com:


You liked that???

sounds fine with me it is a movie.

[Jacob T. Paschal]

Oh God, I'm not sure I should have watched this one after all.

Over the weekend (Sunday) I sat down and watched my old VHS tape (thanks mainly in part to Star Trek: Movie Memories) and goodness, I really feel bad for Shatner. Not only where the SFX bad, but the dialogue...don't even get me started on it. If only Shatner's true vision could have been seen.

By the way, what's up with that jacket he wear's in the first half of the film, do we ever see it again? Was this the first and only time it's been used?

[Michael24]

I have a special fondness for The Final Frontier because it was the first Star Trek movie I saw in the theater, and I can still remember it clearly. I was 10, and it was just awesome to finally see the crew and the Enterprise on the big screen, and I remembering having an absolute blast. Perhaps I don't like it quite as much nowadays as I did back then, and it'd probably be my second least-favorite (second only to The Motion Picture), but I still like it.

[Bones Justice]

This movie was worth seeing but wasn't great. I liked some of the comedy though they were definitely trying too hard. And I think it would have been a better movie if "God" hadn't been so obvious of a fake. The old television episode when Kirk & Company ran into a Greek god was better in almost every way.

My favorite scene in the movie is when Sybock has Kirk by the throat and the rifle falls at Spock's feet. Kirk struggles to get enough breath to say, "Pick..it...up!" Dramatic and funny at the same time.

[Temple Fugate]

I am never, NEVER watching this movie again without accompanying rifftrax by Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy. It's finally COMFORTABLE to laugh at this film.

Okay, so it was the worst Trek movie ever. But I think that's a good thing. It's like the black hole of the Trek movies, sucking up a lot of the flack the surrounding movies could have gotten and making them "better" by comparison. At least in Trek III Kirk had some substantial character development. In Trek V they're all bumbling around and experiencing old angst that never existed before or since. (Well, except maybe Spock's deal, but he resisted Sybok's brainwashing anyway.) And that "romance" between Uhura and Scott...ugh. We're all glad what happened in Trek V...stayed in Trek V.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier - *1/2
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier with rifftrax - ****

[Lutochris]

I'm glad this was bumped, I've always wanted to say something about it.

Yes, it's the worst Star Trek movie. But it's not THAT bad.

Yes, the direction was terrible. Yes, the special effects were laughable, even by 1989 standards. And yes, the script seemed like something a really bad fanfiction writer would write.

But these actors truly bring something special to their roles. They just seem to enjoy being on screen together, even if what they're doing/saying is completely absurd, even by Star Trek standards. They all have an undeniable chemistry that makes even the poorest attempts at humor in the script enjoyable. Granted, one terrible movie with this cast is enough, but it could have been far worse.