Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Directed by William Shatner

Film Review

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was the film that very nearly killed off the Star Trek franchise, a critical failure which did not make anything like the return its producers had hoped for.  The film's lacklustre performance at the box office is easily accounted for by its mediocre direction, writing and effects.  After Leonard Nimoy successfully directed the two previous films, William Shatner decided it was time for him to step into the director's chair, with predictably dire results.  Not content with directing a blockbuster sci-fi epic and playing the lead role, Shatner also muscled in on the screenplay, so no wonder the film feels like the mother of all ego-trips.  Star Trek V is a tacky sci-fi monstrosity that has next to no redeeming features.  Just why Paramount agreed to invite the original crew of the Enterprise back to make one last film is a mystery. A saner film studio would have put them all out to pasture after this turbo-charged disaster. 

The film gets off to a good start, alienating at least half of its audience with a gloriously overblown intro in which Shatner leaves us in no doubt that he sees himself as the heir apparent to David Lean and Akira Kurosawa.  Thereafter, it's downhill all the way, the next stop being a cosy camping holiday in the woods in which Kirk and his chums roast marshmallows and sing jolly songs  (badly) around the camp fire.  Spock is not the only one to fail to see the humour of the situation.  When the uber-pedestrian plot finally splutters into life, it follows a cheerfully predictable course to a conclusion that surprises only with its total lack of surprise and sophistication.  The special effects are also way below par, and some would have a job competing with those seen on low budget television sci-fi programmes of this era.  The quality of the performances reflects the quality of the screenwriting, but Shatner goes the extra mile, turning in not just the worst performance of his career, but the worst performance of anything even vaguely connected with Star Trek. 

What most kills the credibility of this Star Trek escapade is its totally inappropriate use of comedy.  Shatner obviously felt that, after the success of the previous film, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, audiences would respond favourably to another burst of slapstick and wisecracks.  What he and his co-contributors on the screenplay failed to realise was that Star Trek IV was conceived as a comedy from the outset, whereas Star Trek V was always going to be a more conventional sci-fi adventure movie.  If the sight of a grey-haired Lieutenant Uhura performing her erotic sand dance doesn't extinguish your interest in the film, Scotty's inability to avoid walking headfirst into a beam and doing a comedy pratfall, in true Marx Brothers fashion, certainly will.  Add to that a load of metaphysical, pseudo-mystical claptrap that not even an eight-year old would admit to having written, and you see why this ill-conceived bundle of nonsense rates as the worst ever entry in the Star Trek cannon.  From the perspective of good taste and sanity, this really was the final frontier.

Film Synopsis

On Nimbus III, an Earthman, a Romulan and a Klingon are taken hostage by a renegade Vulcan mystic, Sybok.  The crew of the new starship Enterprise are sent to assess the situation, only to be outsmarted by Sybok, who soon takes control of their ship.  Only Kirk, McCoy and Spock (Sybok's half-brother) fail to succumb to Sybok's brainwashing techniques, but they cannot prevent the rogue Vulcan from piloting their ship towards the centre of the galaxy.  Their destination: Sha Ka Ree, the planet where life is reputed to have begun.  Here, Sybok believes he will fulfil his destiny, by coming face-to-face with God...