Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

[I originally wrote this while furloughed in January 2019, during which I decided to re-watch — or in the case of the final two in the series watch, since I hadn’t gotten around to seeing them yet — all the Star Trek TOS and TNG movies.]

“Borgus frat! ‘Let’s see what she’s got’ said the Captain. And then we found out, didn’t we?”

I’ve maintained that there’s a good movie stuck inside Star Trek V: The Final Frontier that never gets realized onto the screen. Rewatching it for the first time since the VHS era, I find this a frustrating film. Yes, it’s far from great. It’s far from good. But there’s enough that I liked that I wish the script had gone through a few more drafts and been drastically cleaned up.

Of the movies, Star Trek V feels the most like an actual episode of the classic series rather than a feature film. Unfortunately, that would make it a season three episode. The main conceit of “finding God” is a nice subversion of the trope from the original series of the primitive inhabitants of a planet all worshiping something that turns out to be an ancient computer or a giant snake skull rock. But this time it’s US, trying to find OUR God.

I think they should have played up the God business a bit more than they do. Sybok goes on and on about the “God of Sha Ka Ree”, but it’s supposed to be THE God (the Judeo-Christian-Vulcan(?) God). There’s a reference or two to Eden, but I think they should have gone all out and explicitly said that this was the same God who gave the tablets to Moses, etc. If you’re bringing God into your script, go big!

It’s nice to have Jerry Goldsmith back for the soundtrack. James Horner’s work on II and III is classic, of course. The music in IV isn’t terribly memorable. The music for V is a nice return to form and borrows the main theme back from TMP (which had been reused as the TNG theme). Jerry Goldsmith’s music makes William Shatner rock climbing a little more bearable.

I like that having saved civilization as we know it three or four times recently, the movie starts with Kirk, Spock and McCoy doing something as mundane as camping out and not just a made-up sci-fi thing like going to Planet Ceti Alpha Funtime to do 4th dimensional Karaoke or some nonsense.

The humor in this one mostly doesn’t work. In Star Trek IV every joke is timed perfectly and lands completely. In V, Chekov tries to make blizzard sounds by blowing on to a communicator. A handful of jokes do work. I like Sulu’s response of “Actually, it’s my first attempt,” when asked how often he lands a shuttlecraft on manual. That said, Scotty knocking himself out by walking into a bulkhead is one of the lowest points of the TOS movies. It’s better when these characters are in on the joke, not the butt of the joke.

Before re-watching my thought was that the Klingons were undeveloped and that their role should either be beefed up or eliminated entirely. They have no motivation other than they’re the bad guys and bad guys want to kill good guys. That’s it. Christopher Lloyd’s Kruge’s white whale was the Genesis Project (which he only knows about because in the previous movie Khan was unable to stop himself pursuing his own white whale). After re-watching, I’d vote to just get rid of them completely. They provide a few seconds of drama at the beginning and again at the end, but that could easily be reworked. They only useful thing they do is blow up a Voyager probe at the beginning, thus preventatively saving the Earth from V’ger II.

I like the Sybok character. There’s an interesting backstory there that we don’t really get into. Is he unique in rejecting the logical teachings of Surak? Are there other Vulcan factions out there? (My understanding is that this may have been later covered in Star Trek: Enterprise, but I’ve seen very few of those.) I like how he operates. He doesn’t brainwash people by waving a blinking gadget in front of their eyes or putting a space worm in their ear. He converts people to his cause by doing what con-men do in the real world; he offers to take away their pain and suffering. (Of course, in reality, this takes place over weeks, months and years. Sybok seems to do it in minutes. Some hand waving involving Vulcan telethapy could be needed here.)

DeForest Kelley, again, is fantastic. He has to carry a lot of the comic relief and handles it perfectly. (“If you want to punish him for what he’s done, why don’t you throw him in the brig?”) The best part of the film’s climax is Kirk’s “What does God need with a Starship?” The second best part is a wild-eyed McCoy “doubt[ing] any God who inflicts pain for his own pleasure.”

The whole scene where Sybok attempts to convert the main three is really strong. DeForest Kelley switches easily from comic relief to perfect melodrama when recreating McCoy’s grief. (Cut the line about a cure being discovered later though. It’s just a touch too much.) I love the speech Kirk gives about wanting his pain. He needs his pain. That’s what makes him who he is… That said, does that speech sounds better from DeForest Kelley’s McCoy? I don’t know, but I’d sure like to see it.

So, if the Klingons are removed from the movie that frees up time that could be filled up with David Warner’s slimy character. He’s in the entire movie, but has maybe one line in the last two thirds of it. He’s a really good actor; give him something to do other than stand in the background and gasp.

And “the great barrier” breaching. That needed… something. The script builds up to this barrier being impossible to cross. No probe has ever returned. So they stroll up to this impossible task and then… they just cross it without much effort at all. They barely even shake the camera and fall around! You have to up the ante. Make something on the ship blow up. Make Scotty have to mount some kind of rescue effort. Hell, if you’re not going to use him, maybe give David Warner’s character a dramatic death scene so he can clock out of the set earlier.

Why are Scotty and Uhura a romantic couple in this movie and in no other movie or episode? Either do something interesting with that or get rid of it. And get rid of Uhura’s fan dance scene. Either give her something as strong as pulling the phaser on Mr Adventure or go home. I do like the gag that Scotty is the only one who doesn’t get brainwashed because he’s too busy fixing the ship. Don’t take the pain of maintenance away from that engineer! He needs that pain!

And finally, I’d rescue this movie by giving it the extra ten million dollars or whatever it was that was needed to have the ending chase sequence be coherent. This type of suggestion is why I’m complaining about movies on social media and not in a boardroom in Hollywood.

[Originally written in January of 2019.]