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Published Oct 11, 2021

10 Fun Facts About Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

"What does God need with a starship?"

StarTrek.com

Let’s just say it: Star Trek V is not always considered one of Trek ’s finest moments by some fans. Audiences were shocked to learn that Spock had a brother they’d never heard of — there would be similar indignance at the arrival of Michael Burnham 28 years later — and underwhelmed by the visual effects as well as the overall story. But despite its flaws, the movie has a lot of highly entertaining moments as well as its own special charm. What Kirk-Spock-McCoy fan can resist those campfire scenes? And what does God need with a starship?

To celebrate the film’s 32nd anniversary, here are some fun facts you may not be aware of.

The original story was going to be about meeting God… for real

William Shatner says he got the inspiration for the movie after watching people like Jimmy Swaggart and Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker on TV. This was during the heyday of televised evangelism, when people were forking over all of their money to already-rich TV celebs claiming to have a direct connection to God. In his original plan for the movie, detailed by his daughter Lisabeth in her book Captain's Log: William Shatner's Personal Account of the Making of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , the Enterprise crew was actually going to find God, only to have him turn out to be the Devil. There was even a scene where McCoy was dragged to Hell by furies, resulting in Kirk and Spock making like Orpheus to get him back.

Sybok wasn’t originally Spock’s brother

As other elements of the story shifted, so did its central antagonist. Originally named Zar, he was going to be a zealot similar to the Ayatollah Khomeini, who had become the supreme religious leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979. As the story shifted, the character changed along with it, until he was less like the Ayatollah and more like professor-turned-LSD-advocate Timothy Leary.

The story called for Spock and the Enterprise crew to temporarily betray Kirk and follow Sybok. The creative team was struggling to find a way to make that seem plausible, and then producer Harve Bennett “lit up” (says Shatner in his Movie Memories book) and shouted that he had the solution: Sybok would be Spock’s brother. Shatner hated the idea but was convinced to let Bennett map out the story, and he ended up liking it.

Of course, when Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley heard that their characters were supposed to betray their captain, they each put a foot down; they knew their characters better than anyone, and they would never turn on Jim Kirk. They insisted that the story be changed, and ultimately, it was.

There were supposed to be all these Rock Men…

As William Shatner and writer David Loughery describe it, the movie’s original ending was huge in scope and highly cinematic, but every time the budget got whittled down, another key element disappeared; they chipped away at the ending until there was very little left of it.

The script called for the Furies to transform into Rock Men who’d explode from the dust, breathing fire and granite. It would feel like Dante’s Inferno ! The plan was to have ten Rock Men, until they learned the cost would be $350,000 each—which meant three and a half million dollars just for the ending. The studio told Shatner he could afford one Rock Man, so he came up with a plan for exactly how he’d film it to make his one Rock Man look like ten. Small problem: The costume wouldn’t be ready until the day before filming. When they finally saw the stuntman in the suit for the first time, it was nothing like Shatner had pictured; he said it just looked like a guy with pieces of slate stuck to him. There also wasn’t a way for the costume to breathe fire without harming the stuntman inside. They did a camera test (which is a well worth watching special feature on the Blu-ray), then dumped the whole idea.

There were familiar faces from both Trek ’s past and its future

In addition to our beloved Original Series cast members, there were other familiar faces in the cast that popped up more than once in the Star Trek franchise, including two Klingon Chancellors.

David Warner, who played St. John Talbot in The Final Frontier , would play both Chancellor Gorkon in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , and Gul Madred, the Cardassian who tortured Picard in TNG’s “Chain of Command.”

Charles Cooper, Klingon General Korrd, would go on to play Chancellor K’mpec in two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation — in the same cloak he’d worn in the movie. Another memorable TNG guest star, George Murdock, aka “God,” would play Admiral Hanson in the TNG two-parter (and season 3 cliffhanger) “Best of Both Worlds.”

Rex Holman (J’onn, the very first person you see in the movie), has some old school Trek cred: He played Morgan Earp in the Original Series third season episode “Spectre of the Gun.”

And there are more! Look up Todd Bryant and Spice Williams next time you’re on a Trek trivia mission.

The movie would’ve shown an addition to Mount Rushmore

With the focus on the Kirk-Spock-McCoy trinity, Sulu and Chekov didn’t get a whole lot to do in this movie. (Walter Koenig even told the authors of The 50-Year Mission: The First 25 Years that he only worked on it for eight days.) They did have another scene together that was cut, which took place in front of Mount Rushmore.

“You’ve seen one national park, you’ve seen them all,” says Chekov, but in this case, he’s wrong. In the future — at least in the future of Star Trek V — there’s a fifth head there, and it belongs to a Black female president, named Sarah Susan Eckert in Dillard’s novelization.

That fan dance was more controversial than you think

For better or for worse, there’s a strange scene in the movie where  Uhura must do a sensual “fan dance” in order to distract Sybok’s soldiers. Screenwriter David Loughery suggested it as a joke and was shocked when they loved the idea. “Nichelle has great gams, so anybody would stop and take a look, and that’s all we needed,” said Shatner in the DVD extras.

Nichelle Nichols was happy to do it. She was an accomplished singer and dancer who had toured with Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton,and was looking forward to having more of her singing in Star Trek. Shatner and Bennett told her that the final decision on what vocals would be used was Jerry Goldmsith’s, but they’d let her know what he decided, and then… they didn’t. She wrote in her book Beyond Uhura that she showed up for a looping session and Shatner, assuming she’d been filled in, said it was too bad “about the music,” and that he knew she “would have done just as good a job.” The song would be performed by a group called Hiroshima. Nichols was crushed, and ultimately disappointed by the scene in the final film.

For those wondering about Nichols fan dance costume, she revealed during a fan Q&A that “I was wearing… me. And, of course, I had a G-string on.”

The key to the film’s distinctive look: location, location, location

The locations were challenging, but worth the effort. The climbing scenes were done at Yosemite National Park. Shatner loved free climbing and was in his element, but the famous giant rock formation El Capitan presented a problem for the crew, who couldn’t get close enough to do closeups. A wall was built in a parking lot for those shots. But that free fall was really performed by stuntman Kenny Bates, earning him the credit for the highest descender fall in the United States at that time.

The Nimbus III scenes were filmed in Owens Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert. The location was also used in the movie Tremors, starring Kevin Bacon. Six degrees achieved!

As for Ska Ka Ree, that was filmed at the Trona Pinnacles in central California. This unique geological formation was a popular location, also seen in movies like Battlestar Galactic a and the original Planet of the Apes , as well as the video for Rihanna’s “Sledgehammer,” released to promote the movie Star Trek Beyond .

The campfire scenes were the last ones filmed

To make those scenes feel special, it was the final sequence on the schedule. With all of the dust-ridden deserts and giant cliffs already behind them, the last days of production were spent around the campfire, on a set on the Paramount lot. There wasn’t time to put tops on the trees, so Shatner had to keep the shots tighter than he would’ve liked, but he’s still happy with how everything turned out. They had a small celebration with champagne and cake after the last shot was done.

There’s a backstory to Spock’s “marsh melons” mistake

About those campfire scene marshmallows…  they came from Kraft, as did Spock’s dispenser. A tie-in product was created so fans could have their very own marshmallow dispensers (via mail order; this was 1989). And yes, you can still find them on eBay.

But here’s the real question: Why does Spock mistakenly call them “marsh melons”? In J.M. Dillard’s novelization of the movie, McCoy knows that Spock is going to do extensive pre-camping research, so he pranks him by getting a computer tech to change “marshmallows” to “marsh melons” everywhere they’re referenced. That’s also why he gets such a kick out of watching Spock say it.

They made a few mistakes

This wasn’t the first movie with an onscreen blunder, and it won’t be the last. There’s one right at the beginning, when Kirk falls off El Capitan and is rescued by Spock (in his awesome levitation boots) just before hitting the ground. When he starts his fall, he has a scruffy face you’d expect from someone on a camping vacation, but by the time he gets to the bottom, he’s clean-shaven. (Even in the future, that seems like an unlikely shaving method.)

Another one happens when Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are on the run from Sybok’s followers and (once again with help from Spock’s levitation books), they zoom up the turboshaft together. They pass deck 52 twice (oops), then go all the way to 78 when Star Trek lore tells us that the ship only has 23 decks. Not only that, the lowest number is traditionally the highest deck; the bridge atop the saucer section is deck 1. But like the shaving mistake, it doesn’t really affect the story… and wasn’t it worth it just to hear McCoy tell Kirk and Spock, ‘You two go ahead, I’ll wait for the next car”?

And finally…

The movie suffered from budget cuts and numerous setbacks, but those who worked on it still had fun, with “exuberance” being the word most used to describe its enthusiastic director. Shatner took a lot of flak for the film, but he sums up his experience beautifully in the behind-the-scenes doc:

“I was in a joyful act of creation all the time, whether it was working or not… We just had a joyful time making a film.”

(And for another fascinating look at Star Trek V , check out Trek V Wrapped Filming 30 Years Ago by Maria Jose and John Tenuto.)

Laurie Ulster (she/her) is a freelance writer and a TV producer who somehow survived her very confusing adolescence as the lone female Star Trek fan in middle school. She's a writer/editor and was the Supervising Producer on After Trek.

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Fun Facts about El Capitan

• El Capitan is the biggest exposed granite monolith in the world.
• The Nose of El Capitan was first climbed in 1958 by Warren Harding, Wayne Merry, and George Whitmore. The climb took them 47 days to complete.
• A fictional climb of El Capitan is in the movie Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, when Captain Kirk freeclimbs the rock face alone “because it is there.”
• El Capitan is three times higher than the Empire State Building.
• The rock is likely to stand for thousands of years to come; though there is internal pressure that is slowly pushing a large granite block off the main rock cliff, there are no cracks in the rock face to expose it to erosion.

El Capitan, also known by its nickname El Cap, is one of the most recognizable granite rock formations at Yosemite National Park. Like its neighbor Half Dome, El Capitan is clearly visible and accessible from the floor of Yosemite Valley, and its image has become synonymous with this California park. The enormous rock, whose name appropriately means “the captain” or “the chief,” towers 3,593 feet above the floor of the valley and its distinctive granite cliff face is a popular—and challenging—destination for rock climbers.

Formed by glacial erosion, El Capitan, like most of the rock formations in Yosemite, is formed primarily of the eponymous El Capitan granite, with veins of volcanic rock. It is the largest granite monolith in the world, being made of one solid chunk of granite. El Capitan has two rock faces that are popular with climbers, one facing to the southeast and one facing to the southwest. Between them is a ridge of granite that has been named The Nose, which is the most famous route up to the top of the cliff.

Located on the north side of Yosemite Valley, some of the best views of the towering monolith are actually from roads on the valley floor, including the area around Bridalveil Falls, which is directly opposite El Capitan.

Hiking Trails

There are many hiking trails that allow you to view or to access El Capitan. To get to the summit of El Capitan, take the Yosemite Falls Trail, but continue past the Upper Falls to hike up the trail to El Capitan. You can also get an excellent view of El Capitan as well as the rest of the rock formations lining Yosemite Valley by going up to Glacier Point , which is possibly the best viewpoint in the park.

Glacier Point is easily reached by driving along Wawona Road and turning on to Glacier Park Road. After parking, continue for a short walk up Glacier Point Trail to get to the viewpoint. If you’re in a mood for a challenge, you can climb to Glacier Point via the Four Mile Trail, which climbs 3,200 feet from the valley floor to Glacier Point, or the longer Panorama Trail.

Taft Point can be accessed from Glacier Point Road, just before you get to the turnoff for Glacier Point. This viewpoint, though easier to reach, should not be disregarded as it also provides excellent panoramic views of Yosemite National Park. Like Glacier Point, Taft Point offers a wide view of the entire valley, including stunning views of El Capitan and Yosemite Falls. From the parking lot it is an easy downhill trail, about 20 to 30 minutes’ walk, to Taft Point.

Yosemite Falls

The spectacular Yosemite Falls are located in close proximity to El Capitan. It is the highest waterfall in North America, and is a spectacular sight, especially in the spring when the spring runoff swells the volume of water plummeting over the falls. It begins at the 1,430-foot Upper Falls, continues down the Middle Cascades, and drops again over the 320-foot Lower Falls. The Yosemite Falls Trail is one of the most popular trails in the park, and is well worth the somewhat strenuous hike. If you want to challenge yourself further, you can continue on this trail up to the peak of El Capitan.

Memory Beta, non-canon Star Trek Wiki

A friendly reminder regarding spoilers ! At present the expanded Trek universe is in a period of major upheaval with the continuations of Discovery and Prodigy , the advent of new eras in gaming with the Star Trek Adventures RPG , Star Trek: Infinite and Star Trek Online , as well as other post-57th Anniversary publications such as the ongoing IDW Star Trek comic and spin-off Star Trek: Defiant . Therefore, please be courteous to other users who may not be aware of current developments by using the {{ spoiler }}, {{ spoilers }} OR {{ majorspoiler }} tags when adding new information from sources less than six months old (even if it is minor info). Also, please do not include details in the summary bar when editing pages and do not anticipate making additions relating to sources not yet in release. THANK YOU

• Memory Beta articles sourced from comics
• Memory Beta articles sourced from comic adaptations
• Memory Beta articles sourced from eBooks

Rock climbing

• View history

James T. Kirk climbs El Capitan in Yosemite National Park .

Rock climbing is an activity where an individual climbs the rock face of a mountain .

In 2287 , Captain James T. Kirk attempted to scale El Capitan while taking shore leave at the Yosemite National Park . ( TOS movie , novelization & comic adaptation : Star Trek V: The Final Frontier )

During the time at Starfleet Academy , Linda Addison and Sean Hawk would often go on rock climbing trips together. Addison later died during a rock climbing expedition to Vulcan's Forge on Vulcan . ( TNG eBook : A Sea of Troubles )

External links [ ]

• Rock climbing article at Wikipedia , the free encyclopedia.
• Rock climbing article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .

Screen Rant

Star trek finished the one mission captain kirk never did.

Star Trek V never clarified if Captain Kirk ever finished climbing El Capitan but Star Trek: Lower Decks may have bested Kirk in a perfect parody.

Warning: SPOILER for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2, Episode 9 - "weJ Duj (Three Ships)".

Captain Kirk's infamous opening scene in  Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is parodied by Star Trek: Lower Decks   with Ensign D'Vana Tendi and Dr. T'Ana potentially finishing the one mission Kirk never did. In Star Trek: Lower Decks season 2, episode 9, "weJ Duj (Three Ships)," the Lower Deckers aboard the USS Cerritos pair up with a " bridge buddy " for some rest and recreation during a long-haul warp flight. Tendi and T'Ana decide to recreate Kirk's Yosemite vacation gone wrong in Star Trek 5 .

The William Shatner-directed Star Trek V ranks as least-loved of the movies starring the cast of Star Trek: The Orignal Series and scenes like Kirk at Yosemite National Park are partly why. After a prologue introduces Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill), the half-brother of Spock (Leonard Nimoy), the action turns to Kirk climbing El Capitan at Yosemite. The Captain's ascent is interrupted by Spock, who is wearing a pair of hover boots that allow him to fly. Kirk is so distracted by Spock that he loses his footing and ends up plummeting off the mountain. Of course, Spock saves his best friend. Kirk and  Spock later join Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) around the campfire later that night to sing "Row Row Row Your Boat" before they are summoned back aboard the Starship Enterprise.

Related: Star Trek V: The Worst TOS Movie Had The Worst Gadget

In Star Trek: Lower Decks , Ensign Tendi (Noël Wells) and Dr. T'Ana (Gillian Vigman) climb El Capitan together in a holodeck simulation of Yosemite National Park and they are interrupted by Ensign Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), who wears hover boots like Spock and the same " Go climb a rock " sweatshirt that Kirk is wearing aboard the bridge of the Enterprise in Star Trek V . In Lower Decks , Boimler's flying footwear malfunctions and he plummets hundreds of feet, although Bradward's life is saved by tree branches. Meanwhile, it's implied that the Orion Ensign and the Caitian Starfleet doctor finished their climb because they weren't far from El Capitan's summit and they weren't particularly concerned about Boimer since they assumed the holodeck's safety protocols were on. If Tendi and T'Ana did make it to the top of El Capitan, then they finished the climb Kirk never did.

Star Trek V never made it clear whether Kirk ever actually made it to the top of El Capitan. At the end of Star Trek V , Kirk, Spock, and McCoy returned to Yosemite to resume their shore leave, but the film ends with the Enterprise trio once again singing "Row Row Row Your Boat" around the campfire. It's possible that Kirk didn't go back to climb that giant rock, especially since Bones was furious that Kirk nearly died the first time he tried it. Not that Kirk always heeds his doctor's advice, but the captain of the Enterprise could have just settled for enjoying camping on terra firma with his best friends instead of risking his life ascending El Capitan once again.

Despite Star Trek V 's less than stellar reputation among Trekkers, William Shatner's The Final Frontier continues to have an indelible influence on Star Trek and there's a reason why Lower Decks  loves to reference it. Star Trek V has its flaws but at the core of the film is the reaffirmation of the friendship between Kirk, Spock, and Bones. Sybok tests the bond of the Enterprise trio but they emerged from their encounter with "God" as steadfast as ever.

Similarly, Star Trek: Lower Decks is a testament to the friendship of the Cerritos' junior officers, Ensigns Beckett Mariner (Tawney Newsome), Boimler, Tendi, and Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero). The weird aspects of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier  are natural fodder for Star Trek: Lower Decks ' comedy, which celebrates everything strange but wonderful about being in Starfleet. Star Trek: Lower Decks also reveres Kirk and Spock, and the Captain of the Enterprise might be amused that his climbing El Capitan is now mimicked by others in Starfleet, even if they get to finish the ascent Kirk didn't.

Next: Star Trek Shows How Easily Kirk's Spock Rescue Could Have Failed

Star Trek: Lower Decks streams Thursdays on Paramount+.

• View history

...doubling William Shatner

Bob Gaines is a professional climbing instructor who served as climbing double for William Shatner in the Yosemite sequence in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier .

Gaines is the director of "Vertical Adventures", a rock climbing school and has taught classes in rock climbing since 1983, located in the Joshua Tree National Park and on the Tahquitz and Suicide Rock in Idyllwild. He is a certified Level One Rock climbing guide and has also served as safety officer and climbing instructor for Sylvester Stallone during the production of Cliffhanger (1993, with Paul Winfield , Bruce McGill , and Jeff McCarthy ). Gaines has shown his skills and coordinated climbing sequences for several feature films and commercials.

Gaines has released several videos and books, including the "Climbing Anchors Field Guide" in 2007 and is a former member of the Yosemite search and rescue team.

External links [ ]

• Vertical-Adventures.com – company site
• Bob Gaines at the Internet Movie Database

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Kirk’s Rock is the unofficial name for the arguably most popular or prominent rock formation in Vasquez Rocks County Park . All rocks in the park were formed some 25 million years ago as horizontal layers of sandstone. Seismic activity compressed, folded, and uplifted these layers over time and erosive forces stripped away the loose soil. Today, many of these layers stand as impressive, spectacular, jutting slabs. The coarse-grained rock invites for fun slab climbing. Some of the slabs reach about 50 degrees and more than 150 feet high. Kirk’s Rock got its unofficial name from several Star Trek episodes that were filmed in the park. In particular, scenes from the “Arena” episode from Star Trek: The Original Series (first season) were filmed at this rock. In these scenes Captain Kirk faced a one-on-one battle with Gorn, a humanoid reptile. Subsequently, many other Star Trek episodes were filmed here.

There are several ways to reach the top of Kirk’s Rock . Most people will park their car in the main parking area. Kirk’s Rock is the jutting slab formation immediately to the northwest of the parking. From the parking one can choose one of several possible climbs along the edges of overlapping slabs at a moderate steepness. You can climb from this direction all the way to the top. The steepness and of course the exposure increases as you climb higher. Most people however will pick a route that will lead to a small level area ( balcony ) to the west of the summit. From here you have a beautiful view over the northern parts of the park.

You can reach this balcony also directly from the west. If you park your car at the entrance of the park next and walk towards the main parking lot, you can veer off the road slightly to the west (right) and approach the western base of Kirk’s Rock. From here you can climb up the slabs directly to the balcony. This part is however very steep and you will be on all four climbing up.

From the balcony you can climb again directly over steep slabs to the summit with short class 4 moves in the beginning to get on top of the slab. The summit of Kirk’s Rock is a small rocky point, which does not allow for more than one person to sit on. Exposure is very high, as you will sit on an overhanging, maybe 2-3 feet thick slab with more than 100 feet of air underneath you.

I personally find the climb to the top exhilarating, fun, and pretty safe if you have good boots or even climbing shoes. It seems that most visitors to the park want to get to the top. Many will reach the “rest” area, fewer the true highpoint. Of course, given the popularity and easy access, you will see many “climbers” on that rock, that should not be there.

There is no fee to enter the park. Collecting rocks is prohibited. If you want to climb some of the rocks you should wear good boots or climbing shoes. Bring enough water in the summer as it gets very hot.

Camping inside the park is limited to organized groups only (Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, etc).

Getting There

Exit the Antelope Valley Freeway (14) at the sign for Vasquez Rocks County Park. Exit at Agua Dulce Canyon Road and drive north into the the little town of Agua Dulce. Turn right at Escondido Canyon Road and you will see the park entrance to your right.

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