Axiom's Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy

(Continuing our Summer of Star Trek series)

By Sam Christopher

Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars (Give Your Rating)

I know, I know… I know there are people who will see that 3 star rating and start yelling at their computer; I know they’d rather yell at me but I’m not around. I know they’ll complain about the substandard effects, the absurdity of Spock having a brother, the absurdity of a culture based proudly on IDIC—Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations—banishing anyone from their midst for nothing more than a philosophical difference. And then there’s the absurdity of the Enterprise-A being able to reach the center of the galaxy in a few hours. And I know that’s all generally laid at the feet of Shatner, who came up with the original storyline and directed the film. I know these things and can’t really argue much with the sentiments. But consider…

After the great critical and commercial success of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Paramount decided to pinch pennies on the next installment. When Nick Meyer was unable to write the script for Shatner’s storyline, they wouldn’t pay the money for the director’s choice as screenwriter, Eric Van Lustbader, instead hiring David Loughery for less money. Then Paramount refused to hire Industrial Light and Magic to do the special effects because ILM would have cost too much. It’s easy to say that Paramount just wasn’t sold on Shatner’s story, which would introduce the long-lost brother of Spock as a “televangelist” of sorts and have him convince the crew of the Enterprise to join him in his quest to find God, but if that were the case they should have just rejected the story and went with something else. They told Shatner he could direct the fifth film in the series; I doubt they told him they’d spend 40 million bucks on whatever harebrained idea he came up with. Part of the problem was that Paramount was worried they were squandering the momentum of the fourth film but an extra six months used to come up with an interesting and satisfying story as opposed to dreck is never wasted.

The good points of this film for me are all about the relationship of the Big Three—Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. The scenes of them camping out in Yosemite National Park, with McCoy cursing Kirk’s “playing games with life” (the captain is climbing El Capitan without any precautions, like the jet pack Spock is wearing when we first see him) and then the campfire scenes—Spock and McCoy are priceless here—set the stage for a movie-long gag reel which make this film memorable despite the ridiculous story and events surrounding it. The three actors seem to have a genuine sense of fun at playing off each other and, while some of the humor goes a little over the top, there is such a relaxed atmosphere surrounding them that much of the trouble with the story just melts away when they’re on-screen. And this being Star Trek, you know that’s the vast majority of the film.

Unfortunately, at some point the story always intrudes, and it goes something like this: On Nimbus III, nicknamed “The Planet of Galactic Peace”, Spock’s long-lost brother Sybok uses his “I feel your pain” mind-control to gather a force to capture the Romulan, Klingon, and Federation ambassadors, who he also co-opts into joining him. He does this in the hope that the Federation will send him a Starship so he can get its crew to take him through The Great Barrier at the edge of the gal—oh, wait, that’s where The Great Barrier was in TOS but they moved it for the movies—at the CENTER of the galaxy. Why does he want to go there, you ask? Because that’s where God is, silly. The Enterprise-A is sent to rescue the hostages while a Klingon cruiser is also heading there… I think you get the idea of what happens even if you didn’t see it. Sybok, of course, gets on board the Enterprise-A and hijinks ensue.

The worst parts of the film to me are that Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov are largely wasted in this story, as is the Enterprise-A itself. Yes, they all have parts, and, yes, they all have a cute scene or two. But Scotty banging his head on the hatch was just dumb, and the Scotty-Uhura relationship was weird. Not because they have a relationship but, as with the Spock-Uhura thing of the new film, it just kinda came out of nowhere. Chekov and Sulu being lost in the woods was pretty damned funny but there was virtually nothing else in the film to recommend the two. And the ship, having just finished its shakedown cruise, is just in too bad a shape for me to believe Starfleet would have ever let it leave spacedock. The doors don’t work, the alarms malfunction, the transporter doesn’t work—even the pads on which Kirk records his logs don’t work. I just can’t believe any ship in that condition could have been cleared for service.

Despite all of the above, and a lot of other negatives I didn’t mention because I didn’t delve too deeply into the story itself, I enjoyed watching the film. And that’s really all there is to say for any piece of performance art, isn’t it?

Give your rating of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and the movies that preceded it

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