Classic Movie Review: 'Star Trek V: The Final Frontier'

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier begins on a laughable, risible, note. After a prologue that vaguely introduces the film's villain, Laurence Luckinbill, we open on a mountain in California where a man is free climbing El Capitan. This handsome, in-shape, young man is nearly half way up the mountain when, in a scene of stunning incompetence, bad special effects, and remarkable arrogance, the strapping young climber is revealed to be the then nearly 60 year old, paunchy, William Shatner.

Shatner, who also directed Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, may have spent years convincing us of the existence of aliens in movies, but this hero worshiping, ego-stroking, bit of tomfoolery on the side of a mountain broke my ability to suspend disbelief. My mind refused to believe that the man whose face is carefully hidden from view during the first shots of the climb is the same man revealed when speaking to a floating nearby Spock (Leonard Nimoy).

The bad green screen effects don't help, but it's Shatner's ego that really breaks the fourth wall in this moment. We've already bought into more than two decades of Captain Kirk's greatness when Star Trek: The Final Frontier was released, that all of those years of ego polishing weren't enough says something ugly about Shatner and his self-centeredness.

If only this portion of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier had died when Kirk nearly died falling from the mountain, narrowly saved by Spock. Unfortunately, we are stuck in this forest-mountain setting for an interminable amount of time. An ungodly amount of this prologue is spent listening to Kirk and Dr Bones McCoy singing "Row, Row, Row, Your Boat."

No, that is not some fever dream nightmare I had when I dozed off during Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, that's an actual lengthy scene in this movie. Meanwhile, the plot of Star Trek V kicks in when Laurence Luckinbill's villainous Vulcan, Sybok, takes over an outpost on a distant planet and takes hostages, including representatives of the Romulans, Klingons and the Federation.

Sybok wants a Federation ship to come to the planet to handle negotiations, but Spock knows that this is just a ploy, though that plot doesn't really go anywhere. Spock is a rather stunning afterthought in nearly every scene, especially the big reveal about his relationship to Sybok, which gets haphazardly tossed into the movie at around the midpoint.

Star Trek The Final Frontier is a woeful enterprise from beginning to end. A movie, made solely to satisfy Shatner, whose ego was apparently bruised while taking direction from co-star Leonard Nimoy on Star Trek IV, Star Trek V demonstrates that just because an actor can take direction, it doesn't mean he can direct. Shatner has no sense of style or pace.

Shatner's vision of Star Trek is limited to what makes his Captain Kirk look cool. Story logic is meaningless to him, he cares only that the the best light is shined upon his character. I mentioned the mountain climbing scene and that stunning arrogance. Other examples include the main Klingon villain, who appears to exist solely to crave the chance to battle the mighty mind of Captain James T Kirk.

The Klingon villain isn't even beaten by Kirk in the end, and instead winds up ordered to bow and scrape before Captain Kirk because the script tells him to. The ego stroking in Star Trek V The Final Frontier may actually rival that of another 1989 ego fest sequel, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Shatner himself could perhaps match his ego against that of George Lucas, Steven Speilberg and Harrison Ford and find himself in a fair fight.

Star Trek The Final Final Frontier was released on June 9th 1989 and is 'celebrating' 30 years.