Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

Genre

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

Director

William Shatner

Country

USA

Cast

William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, Laurence Luckinbill, David Warner, George Murdock, Todd Bryant, Spice Williams-Crosby, Charles Cooper Cynthia Gouw

Storyline

Captain Kirk (Williams Shatner) and his crew has to deal with Spock's long-lost half-brother Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill) who hijacks the Enterprise for an obsessive search for God at the center of the galaxy.

Opinion

Spock is too busy trying to understand humans and humour to do all the job so he left the reins of direction to Kirk, who better stick to his job of captain of the Enterprise because he is not a good director.

"Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" unfortunately is another weak odd numbered film.

In the first part that sees Kirk, Spock and McCoy camping there is humour, and the influence of the fourth chapter is palpable. This is arguably the best part of the film and the most enjoyable. Then the crew of the Enterprise stumbles across a bad idea, poorly executed that turns into a bad film as one would expect.

While I liked the idea of Spock having a brother brother which is totally different from the other Vulcans - Sybok uses sensibility and passion instead of sense and logic -, I don't get his obssession with finding God. He probably represents the Christian missionary, but I don't see the point in a Star Trek film. And the film doesn't even explain who the fake God was in the end of the film. And the end is just terrible. A cocktail party with the Klingons? Seriously? How about no?

Most of the time the comedy seems forced instead of being natural, especially when Sulu and Chekov were lost and Chekov blows into the communicator to simulate a blizzard; that just wasn't funny. 

The badly executed, fake-looking special effect doesn't help either, but that didn't bother me so much. Some of the acting was weak and over the top though, and that did quite bother me. 

2 comments :

  1. Ah, yes, I was wondering how you would"like" this film. I remember when this came out, Shatner compared his experience of directing to his time directing his Tv show, TJ Hooker. Right then, I knew it would be bad. the Romulan gal was pretty horrendous also.

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    Replies
    1. I have one left of the original saga. I hope it's decent.

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