star trek v film

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

• View history

"The greatest enterprise of all is adventure."

When a renegade Vulcan captures the Federation, Klingon, and Romulan ambassadors on Nimbus III, the so-called "planet of galactic peace," it can only mean one thing: the vacation is over. Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the new Starship Enterprise -A are pressed back into service to come to the rescue. But, when the Vulcan has a prior association with Spock, it allows him to seize control of the Enterprise and put it on course for the center of the galaxy where he and his followers believe they find the place from which creation sprung.

• 1.1 Prologue
• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 2 Log entries
• 3 Memorable quotes
• 4.2 Characters
• 4.3 Merchandise gallery
• 5 Awards and honors
• 6 Apocrypha
• 7.1.1 Opening credits
• 7.1.2.1 Live Action Effects Unit
• 7.1.2.2 Model Unit
• 7.1.2.3 Optical Unit
• 7.1.2.4 Additional Optical Effects
• 7.2.1 Starfleet Galactic Memory Bank references
• 7.2.2 Meta references
• 7.2.3 Unreferenced material
• 7.3 Related topics
• 7.5 External links

Summary [ ]

Prologue [ ].

" You're a Vulcan! "

On the desert planet Nimbus III , a scavenger named J'onn is digging holes in a field. He stops digging and sees, emerging from the dust in the distance, a man riding towards him on a horse . Dismounting from the horse, this man has a strange power to cleanse people of their emotional "pain," which he uses to join the scavenger to his cause. " What is it you seek? " he asks. The man tells him he seeks what he seeks, what all men have sought since time itself began – the ultimate knowledge. To find it, he notes, they will need a starship . J'onn mentions that Nimbus III has no such vessels, but the mysterious man reveals he may have a way to bring one to them. When J'onn asks how he plans to accomplish this, the man throws back his hood, showing the scavenger his distinct pointed Vulcan ears . He then begins laughing.

Act One [ ]

Just hanging around

The recently- demoted Captain James T. Kirk is back on Earth , spending his shore leave free climbing El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in North America. Halfway up he is greeted by Spock , who has followed him wearing levitation boots . Dr. McCoy is watching with binoculars from a safe distance while cursing Kirk's "irresponsibility" for climbing the mountain. In a moment of distraction, Kirk falls off of El Capitan. Spock dives after him. After a terrifying moment for the captain, he's snatched from certain death by Spock who catches him by grabbing his ankle only mere centimeters from the ground.

Spock saves Kirk at the last minute

Out in the galaxy , three ambassadors from the United Federation of Planets , Romulan Star Empire , and Klingon Empire meet alone in Paradise City on Nimbus III for a private conference. The young Romulan ambassador, Caithlin Dar , rides into Paradise City on a horse, and expresses optimism in Nimbus III, which had been billed as "The Planet of Galactic Peace" at its founding twenty years before . However, the Human and Klingon ambassadors, St. John Talbot and General Korrd , are much more jaded and cynical, and point out that it has rapidly devolved to a barren wasteland rife with corruption and debauchery. Talbot points out that they had forbade weapons, but the settlers began to fashion their own projectile weapons . Korrd, in particular, is a decorated and respected Klingon general who fell out of favor with the Klingon High Command, and has become a bitter, apathetic drunk.

Dar and Talbot taken hostage

Their meeting is interrupted when the city compound is overrun by fanatical followers of the Vulcan who informs the ambassadors that they are his hostages. Caithlin Dar defiantly tells the Vulcan that she doesn't know who he is or what he wants but assures him that their three respective governments will stop at nothing to ensure their safety. The Vulcan retorts " That's exactly what I'm counting on. "

Sitting in the Spacedock One , undergoing repairs and refits, the new USS Enterprise -A sits lifelessly under the care of Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott , who notes in the shakedown cruise report that the new Enterprise must have been the product of a team of monkeys – while the warp drive is up to Scott's exacting standards, he laments that half the doors on the ship won't open and that it's his responsibility to repair them, among other disabled systems aboard the ship, primary of which is the ship's transporter . As Scott repairs the helm/navigation console on the main bridge , Nyota Uhura arrives from a turbolift with his dinner – understanding that the extensive repair schedule will cancel their shared plans for shore leave. At that moment, the Enterprise 's mangled red alert system goes off and a voice from Starfleet announces to Scott and Uhura that they have a priority 7 situation at the Neutral Zone. Scott is incredulous that Starfleet would assign the mission to the Enterprise considering that the ship is currently "in pieces" and has less than a skeleton crew aboard. Uhura asks Starfleet if they are aware of the Enterprise 's current status. Starfleet acknowledges and tells Uhura to stand by to copy operational orders and to recall all key personnel.

" Admit it – we're lost! "

Uhura contacts Hikaru Sulu and Pavel Chekov , who are lost hiking in the woods. Chekov is grateful that they'll soon be rescued but warns Sulu not to tell Uhura that they got lost after she instructs them to return to a set of prearranged coordinates. Sulu and Chekov try to explain they're caught in a blizzard and can't see which way they're going. Uhura, monitoring the weather on the sensors, reads nothing but sunny skies and 70 degree Fahrenheit weather and assures them she won't tell anyone about their embarrassing situation as she sends a shuttlecraft to pick them up. " Uhura, I owe you one. Sulu out, " the Enterprise 's helmsman says as he flips shut his communicator .

Meanwhile, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are sitting around the campfire at Yosemite, where the three discuss their time together and philosophize about life and death around a pot of whiskey -spiked baked beans , roasting " marsh melons ," and singing " Row, Row, Row Your Boat ", although Spock cannot grasp the meaning of the words and thus declines to sing along. McCoy admonishes Kirk for risking his life on crazy stunts, such as falling off El Capitan earlier and McCoy wonders if it crossed Kirk's mind that he should have died when he fell off. Kirk admits it did – but, even as he fell, he knew he would not die. Spock does not understand. Kirk says that he knew he'd survive because the two of them were with him – " I've always known… I'll die alone. " After Kirk's revelation, McCoy offers that the three of them spend so much time together in space, getting on each other's nerves, yet spend their shore leave together. Kirk believes that while other people have families, they don't.

Out in space, the long-lost Earth probe Pioneer 10 is intercepted by a Klingon Bird-of-Prey commanded by the young Klingon warrior Klaa , who easily vaporizes the probe with his disruptors . Klaa tires of shooting space garbage, as he believes it is no test of a warrior's mettle, and wishes for a target that will fight back. The Klingons are soon notified about the hostage situation on Nimbus III as well, which piques Klaa's interest as it is obvious that the Federation will send a ship of their own to deal with the situation and sets his course for Nimbus III.

Back in action

Kirk, Spock, and McCoy's leave is interrupted when Uhura takes the Galileo down to their campsite in Yosemite since the Enterprise 's transporters are inoperative, waking up all three men with the Galileo 's bright landing lights . She informs Kirk of important orders from Starfleet Command . Kirk wonders why she didn't contact him via his communicator but she notes he conveniently forgot it. The Galileo eventually arrives in the Enterprise 's shuttlebay and the problems with the starship are immediately obvious to Kirk as the turbolift malfunctions en route to the bridge, a console shorts out and the viewscreen barely works. Chief of Starfleet Operations Fleet Admiral Bob eventually comes through and orders Kirk to Nimbus III and assess the hostage situation. Kirk tries to decline the mission due to the problems plaguing the ship and suggests another vessel nearby handle the situation. The admiral refuses on the grounds that while there may be other ships out there, none of their captains are as experienced as Jim Kirk. With an " oh, please " dismissal on his lips, Kirk signs off and orders the Enterprise to Nimbus III.

Ghost in the machine

Klaa and his crew discover that the Enterprise has been dispatched to Nimbus III as well. Klaa is well familiar with the Enterprise being Kirk's vessel and wonders what defeating Kirk in battle would do for his reputation. His first officer Vixis marvels that destroying the Enterprise and and defeating Kirk would make Klaa the greatest warrior in the galaxy. Klaa, originally hoping for an engagement with just any Federation starship, is now elated at his chance to fight Kirk and the Enterprise and orders maximum speed. The Enterprise , so plagued with technical problems that Kirk can't even record an entry in the captain's log recorder , finally receives a copy of the hostage tape sent from Nimbus III. In the tape, Dar, Talbot, and Korrd plead with the Federation to send a starship to parlay for their release at once, per the instructions of the leader of the Galactic Army of Light , the Vulcan who enters the frame and begins addressing the Federation. He claims to regret his desperate act and has no desire to harm the hostages but will do so if the Federation does not respond immediately. Spock, taken with the Vulcan, calls up a freeze frame of him on his science station 's monitor and regards it intently. Kirk wonders if Spock is familiar with him. Later, Spock is in solitude in the Enterprise 's observation lounge when Kirk and McCoy join him. Spock recounts for Kirk and McCoy a brief history of Sybok , a gifted Vulcan who at a young age broke with tradition and decided that emotion, not logic, was the key to self-knowledge. According to Spock, Sybok was banished from Vulcan when he attempted to lure other Vulcans to his worldview.

Act Two [ ]

" Imagine that, a passionate Vulcan! "

The Enterprise arrives first at Nimbus III. Paradise City demands to know their intentions but Kirk tells Uhura to respond with static and make them think they are having some difficulties – which is not far from the truth. Kirk tries to simply beam the hostages aboard but Scott tells him that the transporter is still inoperative. The captain realizes they'll have to go down and take them out by force. However, Spock detects the Bird-of-Prey entering the area leaving them 1.9 hours before their weapons come to bear. An assault team consisting of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, Uhura, and a detail of security personnel head down in the Galileo leaving Chekov in command of the Enterprise . Despite the primitive scanning equipment of the natives of Nimbus III, their sensors are nevertheless effective and it forces the Galileo to land significantly far away from the settlement.

Meanwhile, Chekov hails Paradise City from the Enterprise and poses as the ship's commanding officer with the intention of distracting the enemy from Kirk's actions. The Vulcan responds and is amused by Chekov's posturing, who orders him to release the hostages or suffer the consequences. Chekov, not backing down, informs the Vulcan that a Klingon vessel is on the way. The Vulcan, unmoved, replies that it's likely that they'll be fairly angry. Chekov tries to impress upon him that the Klingons are likely to destroy the whole planet but the Vulcan knows that a Federation starship would not stand idly by and let the Klingons do that. He then instructs Chekov and his first officer to beam down to his coordinates. Chekov tries to stall the Vulcan as Kirk and Spock realize that they don't have enough time to get to Paradise City on foot. The captain notices a stable of horses through his binoculars and has Uhura perform a seductive dance (with a team of armed security guards out of sight) to distract the wranglers while the assault team steals the horses. The ploy works and the assault team rides into Paradise City. Under the cover of nightfall and covered in cloaks, the assault team looks no different than the wranglers. J'onn believes them to be their lookout party and allows them access to Paradise City. However, J'onn soon becomes suspicious as Spock locates the hostages on his tricorder . The Galactic Army of Light begins to open fire on the assault team with their primitive weapons, but they respond with their Starfleet-issue phasers . The Vulcan becomes aware of the commotion outside and Chekov orders him to surrender at once as he is under attack by superior Federation forces. The Vulcan is incensed as bloodshed is the last thing he wanted. Chekov tries to reason with him but he flees. Kirk fights hand to hand with the Galactic Army of Light's warriors and the fight continues. With a clear entrance into the bar where the hostages are being held, Kirk orders Uhura to bring the Galileo down so they can make a quick escape and goes for the captives. After a brief struggle with an exotic alien dancer, Kirk and Spock free the hostages. However, Korrd and Dar turn their weapons on them and hold Kirk and Spock hostage instead.

Outside the bar, the Galactic Army of Light has also captured the Galileo , Uhura, Sulu, McCoy, and the rest of the security detail. As they loudly cheer their victory, the Vulcan suddenly recognizes Spock among the group and joyfully reveals that he is, in fact, Sybok. However, Spock is not cheered by the apparent reunion and informs Sybok that he is under arrest for seventeen violations of the Neutral Zone Treaty . Sybok and the others laugh at the notion – they clearly have the Enterprise team outnumbered. Spock offers Sybok leniency if he surrenders, but Sybok jovially announces he can't surrender as he isn't through violating the treaty and intends for his next crime to be the theft of something " very big " – the Enterprise herself. Kirk finally speaks up and indignantly inquires if Sybok has staged this entire affair just to get his hands on his ship. Sybok, equally indignantly, wonders who Kirk even is. He clarifies that he is the captain of the Enterprise . Sybok realizes that Chekov had been deceiving him and applauds Kirk's clever tactics but moves on and asks Spock if he would like to join him. Kirk is also curious as to what Spock will say but Spock simply states that he is a Starfleet officer. Sybok understands and states he will just take the Enterprise without Spock's help.

Unaware of the serious situation on the planet's surface, Chekov and Scott are faced with another serious situation – the Klingon vessel is closing on their position. Klaa orders their cloaking device engaged in preparation for their attack on the Enterprise . Scott notes the loss of the Bird-of-Prey on sensors and deduces they must have cloaked. Chekov, knowing his first responsibility is to the ship, orders Scott to raise shields . Scott protests that the shuttlecraft is coming up from the surface but Chekov firmly repeats his order and follows it up with an order to go to red alert . Scott obliges and the Enterprise prepares for battle. The Galileo approaches the Enterprise and while Kirk retains his command of his officers, Sybok and his followers have them all under their command. Talbot informs them that once they have seized control of the Enterprise , they will bring up the rest of the Galactic Army of Light. Kirk, in an untenable position, laments that with the Klingons on their way, they will be lucky to even get back to the ship at all.

" Stand by to execute Emergency Landing Plan… B. "

Chekov hails the Galileo , informs them of the situation and recommends they find a safe harbor until the situation is secured. However, Sybok refuses and orders Kirk to bring them aboard. Kirk desperately tries to explain to Sybok that in order to dock the Galileo , the Enterprise will be vulnerable to a Klingon attack as her shields must be down for at least fifteen seconds to enter the shuttlebay. Korrd tells Sybok that Kirk is speaking the truth but Sybok refuses to return to Nimbus III. He allows Kirk to take whatever action is necessary in order to get the Galileo aboard. Kirk tells Chekov that they cannot return to the planet and cryptically tells him to stand by in executing "Emergency Landing Plan B." Chekov and Scott have no idea what Kirk is talking about but get the general idea when Kirk says that "B" stands for "barricade." Kirk intends to forgo the tractor beam and fly the shuttlecraft in manually in order to minimize the time the Enterprise 's shields will be down. Klaa, meanwhile, has been monitoring the communications channel and realizes that Kirk is on the shuttle and alters his attack course to bear down on the Galileo . The Enterprise lowers her shields just as the Bird-of-Prey decloaks. Sulu engages the shuttle's thrusters and makes a hasty course for the shuttlebay. With no tractor beam, the shuttlecraft blasts into the bay, throwing its occupants to the deck and knocking out its systems. The barricade in the shuttlebay flies up to contain the craft before it crashes through the wall and decompresses additional compartments of the ship. The Bird-of-Prey fires at the Enterprise , but Chekov orders immediate warp speed and she streaks away just as the torpedo misses. Klaa is enraged but impressed at Kirk's cunning and orders his officers to track the Enterprise 's course.

" Warp speed now! "

In the Galileo , the Starfleet officers and the outlaws are in various states of unconsciousness from the crash. Sybok recovers as Kirk does and both note a projectile weapon on the deck. They struggle for it but Sybok gets the upper hand and orders Kirk to change course at once. The captain agrees to take Sybok to the bridge but tries to get the weapon away from Sybok as they disembark from the shuttle. The Vulcan easily outmatches Kirk in physical strength and grabs him in a choke hold. Kirk is able to get the weapon away from him and it slides across the deck to the feet of Spock, who picks it up and orders Sybok to surrender. Sybok refuses and bluntly tells Spock he must kill him. Kirk bellows for Spock to " SHOOT HIM! " but Spock cannot and the weapon is confiscated by Sybok, who is relieved as he thought Spock might have actually done it. J'onn takes an injured Dr. McCoy and Kirk to the brig as Sybok asks Spock to accompany him to the bridge but again Spock refuses. Sybok tells him he has no choice but to join his friends in confinement. Korrd, Dar, and Talbot escort Sulu and Uhura out of the Galileo as Sybok requests a moment alone with them in order to release their pain as he had done to the others. From the observation deck , a disturbed Scott watches as the Galactic Army of Light pour out of the Galileo and out to the rest of the ship and goes into hiding.

In the brig, Kirk is cursing Spock for betraying the entire crew. Spock says it's worse than that – he's betrayed Kirk and does not expect the captain to forgive him. Kirk simply cannot believe it – why wouldn't Spock defend his ship and follow orders and just pull the trigger on the weapon he had on Sybok? Spock claims he could not because Kirk ordered him to kill his brother. Kirk is incredulous and claims he knows for a fact that Spock does not have a brother. Spock agrees that Kirk is technically correct – he has a half -brother . Dr. McCoy tries to make sense of it all – that Spock and Sybok have the same father but different mothers. Spock says that Sybok's mother was a Vulcan princess and upon her death, Sybok and he were raised as brothers. Kirk can't believe Spock never mentioned any of this to them before and Spock apologizes for it. Kirk is fuming but McCoy tells him to stop berating Spock as he could no more kill Sybok than he could kill Kirk. More to the point, they have bigger problems to deal with like escaping from the brig. " I'll say one thing, Spock. You never cease to amaze me, " McCoy says. " Nor I myself, " Spock responds. Kirk, sitting on the brig's toilet , shakes his head.

Sybok assumes command

On the bridge, Sulu and Uhura enter with several of Sybok's followers. Chekov wonders where Kirk is but Uhura tells him not to worry about it – Sybok will explain everything. As Sybok's followers begin to take up positions on the bridge, Sulu begins entering commands into the navigation console. Chekov demands to know what he's doing and Sulu answers that he is plotting their new course. Chekov is incredulous as Sulu has no authority to take that action. Sybok arrives on the bridge as Chekov demands an explanation. All Sulu will say is that Chekov simply has to listen to Sybok. The Vulcan tells Chekov that he won't force him into anything but encourages him to share his pain with Sybok as all the others have and gain strength from it. As a result, Chekov can't help but be taken into Sybok's cause like the rest. In the brig, several efforts to escape prove fruitless as Spock has personally tested the new design of the brig and found it to be "escape-proof." Back on the bridge, Sybok has fully assumed command of the Enterprise as they proceed on their new course at warp 7. As they are now underway, Sybok announces his intentions to the rest of the ship. Via the ship's intercom and computer terminals, Sybok asks the crew of the Enterprise to consider the questions of existence – the same questions that man himself has considered ever since he looked up at the stars and dreamed. They dreamed about a place where questions of existence would be answered. Although modern dogma says that place is a myth, Sybok believes it exists and has taken the Enterprise with the intent of making the greatest discovery of all time – the discovery of Sha Ka Ree , which lies beyond the Great Barrier at the center of the galaxy .

Kirk, Spock, and McCoy watch from the brig. Kirk is alarmed as the center of the galaxy cannot be reached – no ship has ever entered the Great Barrier and no probe has ever returned. Suddenly, a mysterious tapping sound is heard coming from the wall of the brig. Kirk and Spock immediately recognize it as Morse code – the taps spelling out the letters: "S," "T," "A," N," "D," "B," "A," C," "K." As they realize what the message wants them to do, the wall explodes outwards and Scott, from the other side, chides them for not recognizing a jail break when they see one. Sybok, Sulu, J'onn, and some followers enter the brig – Sybok still intent on converting Kirk, Spock, and McCoy to join his cause but realizes they have escaped. He orders Sulu and J'onn to find them. Decks below, Scott tells Kirk that the crew is sympathetic to Sybok and they cannot be trusted now. Spock reminds Kirk of the emergency communications transmitter in the observation lounge but they cannot easily access it as it is in the forward section of the ship, far and away from their current position near the bottom of the secondary hull . Scott tells them they may be able to avoid the search parties if they get there by accessing turboshaft 3 as it is closed for repairs, but warns it's a long and dangerous climb. Kirk tells Scott to finish repairing the transporter because they'll need it if they can contact a rescue ship and head for the turboshaft. As they depart, Scott inadvertently smacks his head off a low-clearance bulkhead and falls unconscious just as the red alert goes off – the search parties consisting of Sybok's followers mobilize to find Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. Sulu and J'onn quickly find Scott's unconscious body and rush him to sickbay . As the trio begin their climb, Spock immediately makes a quick and quiet exit – he realizes that using the levitation boots will be much faster than climbing up all those decks. Kirk and McCoy join him, but their added weight is too much for the boots and they begin to descend back to the bottom of the turboshaft where Sulu and a contingent of Sybok's followers have found them. Kirk orders Spock to use the booster rockets on the boots but Spock warns against it. Kirk is insistent and Spock obliges, but the boosters propel them upward at an incredible rate, nearly right into the top of the shaft. Nevertheless, they exit the shaft and head for the observation lounge.

From the lounge, Kirk sends out a distress call on the emergency channel . Starfleet Command responds, and Kirk informs them that they've been hijacked by a hostile force that has put them on a direct course for the Great Barrier and they require immediate assistance. However, the responding voice is not in fact Starfleet Command, it is Vixis aboard the Bird-of-Prey, impersonating a Starfleet officer. After Kirk signs off, Klaa orders them into the Great Barrier as well with the intent of following Kirk wherever he goes. As the three exit the lounge, they are intercepted by Sybok and his armed followers, who trusts that their message has been received. Kirk claims that he can't expect them to sit by and let Sybok take the Enterprise into the Great Barrier. Sybok claims that what Kirk really fears about the Great Barrier is that it is an unknown and cites numerous examples from Earth's history about similar fears – Christopher Columbus proving the Earth was round, Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier , and Zefram Cochrane achieving warp speed. Sybok desperately wants Kirk's respect and understanding and challenges the captain to hear him out. Meanwhile, in sickbay, Scott has recovered and returns to work on repairing the transporter.

McCoy releases his pain

Sybok continues to speak of Sha Ka Ree to Kirk, Spock, and McCoy – that it is Heaven , an Eden . The Klingons, Romulans, and Andorians all have different names for it but they all have a shared concept of it. For the Enterprise , that concept will soon be a reality. Kirk is less than convinced, however – the only reality he knows is that he is a prisoner aboard his own ship and challenges Sybok about the power he has over the minds of his crew. Sybok retorts that he doesn't control minds – he frees them. McCoy, a bit more inquisitive, wonders how this is accomplished. Sybok explains that he forces people to face their pain and draw strength from it. Once that's the done, he continues, fear cannot stop you. McCoy is less than convinced and compares it to brainwashing . Sybok begins to peer into McCoy's pain, claiming it runs the deepest of the three of them – he can feel it, surely McCoy can. An apparition begins to appear in the corner of the room – an elderly man in a bed, sick and dying, calling out to him. McCoy approaches it and discovers that it is his father, David . McCoy begs Sybok not to put him through this memory but Sybok continues. David weakly begs his son to help him – the pain of the disease that is afflicting him is too much to bear and he wishes to be released . McCoy turns to Sybok and laments that with all his medical knowledge, he can't save his father. Sybok whispers to McCoy that's he's a doctor – he should know the reality of that life. McCoy responds that he's also his father's son and deactivates the life support system sustaining him. He watches as his father dies before his eyes. Sybok questions why McCoy did it, who responds that he did it to preserve his father's dignity. But Sybok knows that the act itself wasn't the pain the McCoy carried with him all these years. McCoy admits that it wasn't – the real sorrow was that not long after he euthanized his father, a cure to the disease was found – had he not killed him, he might have lived. McCoy doesn't know if he did the right thing or not and hasn't been able to answer that question all this time. His pain has been released.

Sybok next turns his attention to Spock, claiming each person's pain is unique. Spock claims to hide no pain but Sybok doesn't believe him. Spock allows Sybok to proceed and another apparition appears. The image of Amanda Grayson giving birth to Spock on Vulcan appears. As Spock is born, the midwife presents the child to Sarek, who coldly regards the infant and dismisses him as being "so Human." Kirk regards Spock who is disquieted by the experience. Sybok claims he has done nothing to either Spock or McCoy and wonders if Kirk knew this about either of them. Kirk claims he did not. Sybok offers to help Kirk learn something about himself but the captain refuses. McCoy tries to tell Kirk to be a bit more open-minded about what Sybok is proposing but Kirk can't believe any of it. He knows what his mistakes are and doesn't need Sybok to point them out to him. McCoy tries to tell Kirk that Sybok took away his pain, but Kirk tries to tell him that being a doctor he should know better than anyone that pain can't be taken away with the wave of a magic wand – the good and bad experiences in one's life are what make us who we are. If one loses that, they lose themselves. Kirk is adamant that he doesn't want his pain taken away, he needs it. At that moment, Uhura's voice comes over the intercom, informing them that the Enterprise is in approach of the Great Barrier. Sybok regrets he couldn't help Kirk but believes he has swayed Spock and McCoy to his cause and asks them to join him on the bridge. McCoy agrees to go but Spock still refuses to join – he belongs right where he is, which is by Kirk's side. Sybok doesn't understand but Spock explains that while Sybok is his brother, he does not know Spock. Since the time he was an outcast boy on Vulcan until now, Spock has found himself and his place and knows who he is and he cannot go with Sybok. This rings true to McCoy, who chooses to stay with Kirk and Spock. Sybok, with a smile, allows them to remain. Kirk is still unconvinced that the Enterprise will survive the trip through the Great Barrier. Sybok challenges Kirk to be convinced that his vision was true if they do survive. Sybok claims his vision came from God , who waits for the Enterprise on the other side of the Great Barrier. Kirk cannot believe his ears and claims that Sybok is mad . Sybok, allowing the possibility to exist, says that they will see.

Act Three [ ]

" Amazing. The land… the sky… just as I knew it would be. "

The Enterprise bears down on the Great Barrier. The bridge crew, along with the three ambassadors, Sybok, and his followers, are awestruck by the swirling vortex of blue and green colored electrical energy discharging before them on the viewscreen. Sulu ominously reminds Sybok that it's been said that no ship can survive the Great Barrier but Sybok disagrees – the danger is an illusion. Chekov cannot get any sensor readings on the phenomena – is it there or isn't it? Sybok is convinced it isn't and orders Sulu to enter the Barrier. The Enterprise engages her impulse engines and breaches the barrier. The journey through is not as dangerous as had been predicted as the starship rather easily completes the journey. As the distortion clears, a planetoid appears through the mist, which looks to be made of pure energy. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy watch from the observation lounge and are awestruck, as is the rest of the crew. Sybok is overjoyed – he believes this planet is Sha Ka Ree. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy return to the bridge. Sybok says the ship needs its captain and returns command to Kirk with no conditions as he believes that even though Kirk didn't believe Sybok before, what they have discovered would seem to indicate he was right and Kirk won't refuse to investigate it. His assumption is correct and Kirk agrees to take a landing party down to the planet via a shuttlecraft and asks that the rest of Sybok's followers remain aboard until he has determined exactly what they have found. " Well, don't just stand there. God's a busy man, " he says just prior to entering the turbolift.

" What does God need with a starship? "

The shuttlecraft Copernicus heads down to the planet carrying Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Sybok. As they descend, Spock discovers that some external force has taken control of the shuttlecraft and lands it for them. Kirk wants to bring a phaser along with him but Sybok recommends he leaves it behind. Kirk agrees and the four make their way down a mountain range. As the crew watches in amazement from the bridge, no one notices on the sensors that Klaa's Bird-of-Prey has entered into sensor range. Sybok calls out to whatever force might be on the planet, saying that they have traveled far but gets no response. With nothing apparently there, Spock attempts to console Sybok but the ground begins to shake. Large pillars explode out of the ground to form a large amphitheater-like enclosure and the sky turns completely dark. As the four move in to investigate, a magnificent blue pillar of light bursts from within the enclosure, far up into the sky and outstretching past the Enterprise in orbit. A booming voice calls out to them. McCoy wonders if it is the voice of God and indeed, a face appears that claims to suit the expectation of such an entity.

The face of God?

The Sha Ka Ree entity in the guise of Sybok

Sybok is convinced and vindicated. The entity claims that the journey to reach him could not have been an easy one. Sybok agrees that it wasn't – it took a starship to breach the Great Barrier. The entity wonders if this starship could carry his wisdom beyond the barrier. Sybok agrees that it could and the entity makes claim to the Enterprise . Sybok jubilantly calls the vessel his chariot. Kirk, however, is less than convinced. Why would God need a starship? The entity continues to boast what it will do with the Enterprise but Kirk presses on and repeats his question. The entity asks who Kirk is. Again, Kirk is incredulous – wouldn't it know if it really were God? Sybok tells the entity that Kirk simply has his doubts. The entity is outraged that Kirk would have the audacity to doubt it. Kirk simply states he seeks proof but McCoy cautions Kirk not to ask "the Almighty" for identification. The entity answers all of Kirk's questions by blasting him backwards with an electrical charge emanating from its "eyes". Kirk, almost mockingly, asks why "God" is angry? Sybok cannot believe that he would attack Kirk like this. Spock presses Kirk's issue on as the entity has not answered anything and repeats the question – "what does God need with a starship?" The entity attacks Spock as it did Kirk. It then turns its attention to McCoy and dares him to doubt it as well. McCoy claims he would doubt any god who would inflict pain for his own pleasure. Sybok claims to the entity that the God of Sha Ka Ree would not do such things. The entity mocks Sybok's vision of Sha Ka Ree as a vision that Sybok created himself and morphs itself into an image of Sybok and demands that he give him the Enterprise or he will destroy all four of them. It is now apparent that the this is not the God of Sha Ka Ree, Spock says, or any other god but merely a malevolent life form imprisoned on this planet behind the Great Barrier and it needs the Enterprise to escape.

" You must save yourselves. Forgive me, brother. Forgive me. "

Sybok confronts "God"

Sybok turns to Spock and cannot believe any of it. He claims his own vanity and arrogance created this situation and now he must do what he has to do to ensure that Spock, Kirk, and McCoy are protected from the entity. He begs Spock to forgive him and holds up his hand in the Vulcan salute . Spock returns it as Sybok asks the entity about his pain. The entity is caught off-guard by the question. Sybok claims it runs deep and attacks the entity. As they struggle, Kirk, on his communicator, orders Sulu and Chekov on board the Enterprise to fire a photon torpedo at the encompassing entity. Chekov protests as Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are too close but Kirk tells him to fire immediately. The Enterprise opens fire and the torpedo obliterates the amphitheater. Spock laments that Sybok has been lost in the blast, but the entity has not been completely destroyed. Kirk and the others make a hasty escape back to the Copernicus but Spock finds that the thrusters have been rendered inoperative as the entity then violently shakes the shuttlecraft. Kirk flips open his communicator and begs with Scott to tell him that he has finally repaired the transporter. Scott replies that it has partial power and might be able to beam up two of them. Kirk tells Scott to bring up Spock and McCoy, the latter of which protests all the way up. Back aboard, Spock instructs Scott to now bring up the captain, but before he can, Klaa's Bird-of-Prey opens fire on the unshielded Enterprise , severely damaging her. Kirk now finds himself face to face with the entity, who has manifested itself in the cockpit of the Copernicus . The captain takes off running with the entity in pursuit.

Spock and McCoy return to the bridge, which is in a state of disarray. Klaa hails them and claims he hasn't destroyed them yet because he has come for James T. Kirk and promises to spare the lives of the crew if Kirk is handed over. Spock claims that Captain Kirk is not among them, he is on the planet below. Klaa wants his coordinates but Spock has a better idea. He asks General Korrd for his assistance as he is Klaa's superior officer. Korrd is skeptical about what good he can do as, while he might have been a great military leader at one time, he is now a "foolish old man." Spock implores Korrd to at least try and rehails Captain Klaa, stating that someone wishes to speak with him.

" So, it's me you want, you Klingon bastards?! "

On the surface of the planet, Kirk is pursued by the entity. With nowhere to hide from it, Kirk stares down his impending death as the entity closes in for the kill when Klaa's Bird-of-Prey closes in and destroys it with a thunderous blast from its disruptors. Kirk realizes that the Klingons have come for him as they target their disruptors in his direction next, but is surprised when they instead beam him aboard. The captain is escorted to the bridge where, to his great surprise, General Koord has ordered Captain Klaa to apologize to Kirk – the attack on the Enterprise was not authorized by the Klingon Empire. Koord entreats Kirk to meet the new gunner of the Bird-of-Prey. From the gunnery chair, Spock spins around and welcomes Kirk aboard – it was Spock who saved Kirk's life from the entity. Kirk tells him that he thought he was going to die, echoing their earlier conversation around the campfire. Spock, likewise, tells him that it was impossible as the captain was never alone. Kirk, feeling like he wants to hug Spock, moves to do so but Spock advises against it – not in front of the Klingons.

Comrades in arms

Aboard the Enterprise , the Starfleet crew hosts a reception in the observation lounge for the Galactic Army of Light, the three ambassadors and Klaa's crew, reflecting on their voyage to the center of the galaxy. Even Klaa himself offers a sign of respect to Captain Kirk, one warrior to another, which Kirk reciprocates. As McCoy and Spock speculate on whether or not God is actually out there, Kirk postulates that while God might not be out in space, perhaps he goes with them wherever they are in the Human heart. As Spock mourns the death of his brother, Kirk comforts him by relating that he once lost a brother. While McCoy may have thought he was referring to his late brother George Samuel Kirk , the captain adds that he was lucky enough to get that brother back, implying Spock, instead. McCoy challenges Kirk's earlier claim at the campfire that "men like us don't have families," but, Kirk concedes that he was wrong – that both Spock and McCoy are his family, and the three of them resume their trip in Yosemite, this time with Spock singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and playing the song on his Vulcan harp .

Log entries [ ]

Memorable quotes [ ].

" Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. "

" 'You'll have a great time, Bones. You'll enjoy your shore leave. You'll be able to relax.' You call this relaxing? I'm a nervous wreck. If I'm not careful I might end up talking to myself. "

" Captain, I do not think you realize the gravity of your situation. " " On the contrary, gravity is the foremost on my mind! "

" Goddamn irresponsible! Playing games with life! "

" Mind if we drop in for dinner? "

" Borgus frat! 'Let's see what she's got,' said the captain. And then we found out, didn't we?! "

" You really piss me off, Jim! Human life is far too precious to risk on crazy stunts! "

" I've always known I'll die alone. "

" It's a song, you green-blooded… Vulcan. You sing it. The words aren't important. What's important is that you have a good time singing it. " " Oh, I am sorry, doctor. Were we having a good time? " " God, I liked him better before he died! "

" Captain. " " Spock, we're on leave. You can call me Jim. " " Jim. " " Yes, Spock? " " Life is not a dream. " " Go to sleep, Spock. " " Yes, captain. "

" You told me you could get this ship running in two weeks. I gave you three! What happened? " " I think you gave me too much time, captain. "

" I could use a shower. " " Yes. "

" Jim, if you ask me – and you haven't – I think this is a bad idea. We're bound to bump into the Klingons, and they don't exactly like you. " " The feeling's mutual. "

" We'll beat those Klingon devils even if I have to get out and push. "

" I miss my old chair. "

" Imagine that. A passionate Vulcan. "

" Hello, boys. I've always wanted to play to a captive audience. "

" Be one with the horse! "

" Forgive you? I ought to knock you on your goddamn ass! " " If you think it would help. " " You want me to hold him, Jim? "

" I'll say one thing, Spock. You never cease to amaze me. " " Nor I, myself. "

" This person didn't by chance have pointed ears and an unending capacity for getting his shipmates into trouble, did he? " " He did have pointed ears. "

" Spock, my only concern is getting the ship back. When that's done and Sybok isn't here, then you can debate Sha Ka Ree until you're green in the face. "

" What are you standing around for?! Do you not know a jailbreak when you see one?! "

" I know this ship like I know the back of my hand. "

" I'm afraid of nothing. "

" I don't control minds. I free them. "

" I don't want my pain taken away. I need my pain! "

" You are mad. " " Am I? We'll see… "

" Are we dreaming? " " If we are, then life is a dream. "

" Is this the voice of God? " " One voice, many faces. "

" Who is this creature? " " Who am I? Don't you know? Aren't you God? "

" Jim, you don't ask the Almighty for his ID! "

" Why is God angry? "

" You have not answered his question! What does God need with a starship? "

" Do you doubt me? " " I doubt any god who inflicts pain for his own pleasure. "

" Stop! The god of Sha Ka Ree would not do this!! " " Sha Ka Ree?! A vision you created. An eternity I've been imprisoned in this place! The ship. I must have the ship! Now… give me what I want! "

" What's wrong? Don't you like this face? I have so many, but this one suits you best. "

" I couldn't help but notice your pain. " " My pain? " " It runs deep. Share it with me! "

" General, I require your assistance. " "My assistance? " " You are his superior officer. " " I am a foolish old man. " " Damn you, sir! You will try! "

" I thought I was going to die. " " Not possible. You were never alone. "

" Please, captain. Not in front of the Klingons. "

" Cosmic thoughts, gentlemen? " " We were, speculating… is God really out there? " " Maybe He's not out there, Bones. Maybe He's right here… the Human heart. "

" I was thinking of Sybok. I have lost a brother. " " Yes. I lost a brother once . But I was lucky, I got him back . "

Background information [ ]

• Co-Writer and Director William Shatner once remarked that he initially intended this movie to be written by thriller and fantasy author Eric Van Lustbader . " My biggest failure [in the making of the film] was I had read some books by Eric Van Lustbader, who had written some wonderful novels about an American in Japan and how out of place he felt. I thought, 'God, that'd be perfect for a Spock movie.' I went to see him and we walked the streets of New York pondering the plot of Star Trek , " Shatner recalled. " He was a fan. I thought, 'God, I've got a bestselling author ready to do a Star Trek .' And then they couldn't agree on the novel rights. So I lost him and my movie was going downhill before it even started. " ( 50 Years of Star Trek , p. 15)
• William Shatner stated in his memoir Star Trek Movie Memories (1995, pp. 278-279) that he came up with the story idea of the search for what turned out to be a false god, while he was watching the at-the-time controversial televangelist couple Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, on television. He became amazed and disgusted by the idea how such vulgar people had the audacity to purport they alone were the harbingers of God and had become rich from donations by their followers.
• Though Paramount Pictures President Frank Mancuso, Sr. was a religious man, he was sympathetic to Shatner's story outline and green-lit the production of the movie when Shatner pitched his story outline to him in person. ( Star Trek Movie Memories , 1995, p. 282)
• Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry had, since Star Trek: The Motion Picture , no formal creative say in the Star Trek films by that time, only the title of "Executive Consultant". All subsequent movies were vehemently resisted by Roddenberry, particularly The Final Frontier . Roddenerry went as far as to have his attorney Leonard Maizlish prepare legal procedures against Shatner. The legal action did not proceed. Roddenberry's position did not allow for this but Roddenberry declared the film "apocryphal". ( Star Trek FAQ 2.0 , chapter 13; Star Trek Movie Memories , 1995, pp. 283-284)
• The Final Frontier approximated Roddenberry's atheist worldview, and was reminiscent of his own 1975 unrealized movie script The God Thing , a reworked version of which became In Thy Image and then, reworked further, the script for The Motion Picture . Richard Arnold , who was working at Roddenberry's office at the time, was present when the first story outline of The Final Frontier was delivered to Roddenberry as an FYI, later explaining to Shatner why Roddenberry reacted as he did, " So when you came along, though it was years later, with very similar themes, Gene was really hurt. I think it hurt Gene's ego that you finally going to tell the story that he wanted to tell ten years earlier. You were about to succeed where he had failed. At the time, Gene's secretary, Susan was making matters worse by walking around the office stating things like 'I can't believe it! He stole your idea. Bill's an asshole. Bill's a bastard.' So that did not help, and additionally, I know there was a fairly legitimate concern on Gene's part that your sense of humor [in regard to the way the secondary cast was eventually portrayed in the movie] was a little different than had ever been visualized before. " While Susan Sackett's reaction might be construed as personally motivated, she actually had, in all fairness, a point; Shatner himself has related how he had stumbled upon Roddenberry ten years earlier when the latter was busy writing The God Thing , and was on that occasion given a beat-for-beat summary of the story. Some of this may have nestled in Shatner's subconscious. ( Star Trek Movie Memories , 1995, pp. 46-49, 289-291) Though Shatner had implied as much in his memoir, Arnold's remarks confirmed that Shatner had neither consulted nor communicated with Roddenberry even once, during the entire production of the movie.
• Co-Writer/Producer Harve Bennett , partly responsible for the three previous successful Star Trek movies, initially did not want to make the film as both his relationship with several key production staffers, in particular with Leonard Nimoy , had started to deteriorate with Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home . He was also fed up with Roddenberry's interloping. Shatner trusted Bennett, but had a hard time convincing him to come aboard. ( Star Trek Movie Memories , 1995, pp. 283-285)
• Star Trek V , released in June 1989, was the last Star Trek movie to be released in the summer months until 2009's Star Trek .
• Star Trek V was the first Star Trek production to be made in tandem with another ( Star Trek: The Next Generation , whose second season was in production during the filming) and one of only two productions to be made during that time period without any involvement from Rick Berman .
• Star Trek V has provoked controversy among fans. Many consider this movie to be the weakest Star Trek film ever made, although financially, the later Star Trek Nemesis performed even worse worldwide, though it was initially the number one film at the box-office on its first weekend of release and grossed a solid US$17 million. It ultimately earned over $52 million in the US and Canada plus over $17 million overseas. [1] It was not as successful as its predecessor, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , which had grossed US$109.7 million in North America alone. ( see also : Star Trek films: Performance summary )
• During the 1988 Writer's Guild of America strike, the film's pre-production and shooting schedule were severely trimmed.
• Paramount decided that Star Trek V would be as comedic as Star Trek IV .
• Star William Shatner made a deal with Paramount that if Star Trek IV was successful, he would be contracted to direct the next film, although according to Star Trek Movie Memories (1995, p. 244), both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy had what Shatner referred to as "favored nation clauses", in their contracts meaning essentially that what one got, the other got. According to Shatner, it was Nimoy who put the idea of directing Star Trek V in his head during the production of Star Trek IV , telling Shatner that because of their favored nation status, he could successfully demand to direct the next film.
• There was public dissatisfaction with Star Trek: The Next Generation among fans at the time.
• Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) was not contracted to do the effects for the film, due to the unavailability of the company, with the job going to a lesser known company, Associates & Ferren . The result was poor quality, and in some cases, obviously unfinished special effects shots.
• Intense competition during the summer of 1989 with the release of a multitude of blockbusters, including the long awaited Tim Burton Batman film, Lethal Weapon 2 , Ghostbusters 2 , and Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (according to Harve Bennett in Star Trek Movie Memories – 1995, pp. 395-396).
• Principal photography began on 11 October 1988 and ended on 28 December of the same year. The first scene filmed was Harve Bennett's cameo as Rear Admiral " Bob ". Production began shooting at Yosemite National Park , then moved to the Mojave Desert , then back to Paramount Studios, where they filmed next door to Star Trek: The Next Generation . The last scenes filmed were the Kirk-Spock-McCoy trio's campfire singalongs. ( Star Trek V: The Final Frontier DVD special features)
• On 28 December, the last production day (only a few missing special effects shots were filmed that day), a press conference was held on the set to various newspaper, television, and radio reporters. Producers Harve Bennett and Ralph Winter, director William Shatner , and the entire Star Trek main cast participated, answering questions. ( Star Trek V: The Final Frontier DVD special features)
• The Star Trek V novelization also references and shows Sybok showing the crew how to radically adjust the deflector shields in order to be able to pass through the extreme radiation environment of the Great Barrier .
• Another oddity is the Enterprise 's trip to the center of the galaxy, which should have taken decades but seemed to occur in less than a day. In the novelization of Star Trek V , it is mentioned that Sybok's tinkering allows them to decrease their travel time. The Bird-of-Prey scans the Enterprise during their pursuit and is able to duplicate their rate of travel as well as Sybok's shield modifications allowing them to penetrate the Barrier.
• The film was the "winner" of the 1990 Razzie awards for "Worst Picture," "Worst Actor" (Shatner), and "Worst Director" (Shatner). It also received nominations for "Worst Picture of the Decade," "Worst Supporting Actor" (Kelley), and "Worst Screenplay" (Loughery, Shatner, and Bennett). In 2006, former Mystery Science Theater 3000 co-stars and writers Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy mocked the film in a downloadable audio commentary track for Nelson's RiffTrax service.
• Because of its failure at the US box office, in some countries this film was not distributed in the theaters, but only on VHS.
• In the United Kingdom the film was released theatrically on 20 October 1989 . The Final Frontier was a modest success, opening at the top of the box office and earning £1,451,378 overall. [4]
• Some of the special effects in this movie are markedly different than those featured in previous Star Trek films. Among other changes, photon torpedoes have a different design and color (the torpedo from the Enterprise was a slightly recolored reuse of V'ger 's "whiplash bolt" from The Motion Picture , and a slightly different effect was used when going to warp speed. The release of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , however, marked a return to the effect designs that characterized earlier Trek films.
• ILM, the company which did the special effects for the previous three Star Trek films and TNG : " Encounter at Farpoint ", was unavailable because the company was working on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Ghostbusters II at the time. The result of this is the considerably cheaper-looking effects seen in the film.
• The sequence of "God" chasing Captain Kirk on the Sha Ka Ree planet was originally conceived to be much longer and extensive, but it had to be severely cut as a result of awful-looking special effects.
• In addition, some of the outer space shots are stock footage from the previous films. The shot of the Enterprise in spacedock is from the end of The Voyage Home . Also, a few Klingon Bird-of-Prey shots are reused from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock . The spiraling starfield during Kirk's unfinished log entry is lifted from the opening titles of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan .
• William Shatner's first outline for this film was entitled "An Act of Love" and, according to William Shatner's Star Trek Movie Memories, would have been a much darker tale and would have seen the first true falling out between Kirk and Spock and McCoy. Also, Spock and McCoy would also have joined with Sybok, leaving Kirk alone. This was changed when Nimoy absolutely refused to play that, stating that there was no chance whatsoever that Spock would ever turn on Kirk, especially after what Kirk risked and sacrificed for Spock in Star Trek III . Director Shatner talked to Nimoy, attempting to change his mind, but Nimoy was firm in believing that pain or no pain, brother or no brother, Spock would not betray Captain Kirk. Shatner eventually conceded and had the script adjusted. In the book, Shatner comments that he was aware there was no chance he could know Spock as well as Nimoy would and he certainly couldn't force Nimoy to play the part as written. According to Shatner, on the same day that Nimoy objected, DeForest Kelley also refused, believing that McCoy would not turn against Kirk either and Kelley was as adamant about it as Nimoy was. Shatner said that he didn't know and still doesn't know if changing the script was the right decision to make, but he also conceded that if someone else had come in and written a scenario where Kirk would turn against Spock and McCoy, he too, would "raise the roof" over it. Nevertheless, Shatner said he would still have loved to have seen and been able to play the original version of the scenario.
• The name "Sha Ka Ree" was taken from " Sean Connery ", the actor Star Trek producers originally wanted to play Sybok. Unfortunately, Connery was busy working on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade , and was unavailable to play the part. ( Star Trek Movie Memories 1995, p. 292)

The "Rock Man" in the deleted scene

• In the original script, Kirk was attacked by ten large "rockmen" emerging from the rock faces of Sha Ka Ree. Unfortunately, with an extremely limited budget (which was responsible for other "high budget" items being removed from the final script, as well as for the use of cheaper effects for the space scenes), only one animatronic " Rock Man ", portrayed by stuntman Tom Morga , was created. The single rockman was filmed attacking Kirk, but the scene was thought too poor to include in the film, although an extremely brief (a few frames) glimpse of the creature occurs in the final print during the scene where "God" fires energy blasts at Captain Kirk. Some test footage of the creature is available in the Special Edition two-disc DVD release. The idea did make it to theaters in the Star Trek parody Galaxy Quest . A few images of Morga as the rockman were later released in the special feature "Tom Morga: Alien Stuntman" on the 2009 box release Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection (DVD) .
• Closeups of the El Capitan climbing scenes were filmed on a fake wall made of fiberglass. The real mountain can be seen at distance.
• Closeups of Kirk's fall were actually shot horizontally, then flipped so that they appeared vertical.
• When Kirk returns to the bridge of his ship for the first time, he is given his uniform jacket by a yeoman . The yeoman is played by Shatner's youngest daughter, actress Melanie Shatner , and had been credited for it as such. Incidentally, her two older sisters, Lisabeth and Leslie , had already had uncredited cameo appearances as two of the Only girls in Star Trek: The Original Series episode " Miri ". Upon the conclusion of the movie, daughter Lisabeth wrote a book on her father's experiences making the movie, Captain's Log: William Shatner's Personal Account of the Making of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier .
• Several deleted scenes are available on the Special Edition DVD, including one of Sulu and Chekov visiting the Mount Rushmore monument, with the added face of an African-American woman.
• The novelization has some additional dialogue about Spock and McCoy speculating that the great barrier might not have been meant to keep them out, but to keep "God" in, prompting Spock to say that they may have yet to reach the final frontier.
• As had been the case with Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , this film sports a rare instance of Trek product placement . Kirk and McCoy wear Levi's blue jeans for the first half-hour of the film, and Levi Strauss & Co. gets a credit at the end of the film.

Kraft Marshmallow Dispenser

• Spock makes an uncharacteristic mistake when he calls "marshmallows" by the name "marsh melons". The novelization shows that McCoy, knowing Spock would want to study what the ship had in the library computer about camping out before going out, paid a computer tech to change all references in the Enterprise computer about marshmallows to "marsh melons." The novel also includes characterizations of McCoy's and Kirk's reactions and McCoy having a silent laugh at Spock's error. In the final picture, McCoy simply stumbles over the pronunciation to continue the joke. Later, in the levitation boots scene on the Enterprise (mentioned below), Kirk again mentions "marsh melons", which some have thought to be the mistake, but is evidence he also recognized Spock's error. When they return to the camp site at the end of the novel, Spock has since then detected McCoy's activity and has had his misinformation corrected.
• The entire movie was filmed on such a tight schedule that many of the shots were set up in a matter of minutes, instead of hours.
• According to Shatner, the campfire scenes had to be shot in closer angles, because time and budget constraints prevented the production team from building the top of the trees on the set.
• The cloak with the numerous medals that Ambassador Korrd wore appeared again in Star Trek: The Next Generation as the cloak worn by the Klingon chancellor . The first chancellor to be seen, K'mpec (who first appeared in TNG : " Sins of The Father "), was also played by Charles Cooper .
• During location shooting, locals were hired to portray Sybok's "army" during his raid on Nimbus III . Because of the severe budget cuts and not enough number of these extras, many of them were re-used in different shots, running through the gates over and over again.
• One of Kirk's famous lines in this film is his prediction that he "will die alone." In the movie Star Trek Generations , Kirk dies after emerging from the Nexus in the 24th century . Although he dies apart from his closest friends (Spock and McCoy), Jean-Luc Picard is with him at his passing.
• Near the end of the film when Spock mentions that he lost his brother, Sybok, Kirk retorts, " Yes. I lost a brother once. I was lucky I got him back. " While Kirk's biological brother, George Samuel Kirk , died in TOS : " Operation -- Annihilate! ", he was clearly making a reference to Spock, who died in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and was resurrected in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock . (However, Spock and McCoy look visibly surprised when Kirk mentions having lost a brother, creating a potential continuity error as both were present when George died.) This is the second time that Kirk refers to Spock as his "brother". The first time occurred in TOS : " Whom Gods Destroy ". The Star Trek V: The Final Frontier comic book adaptation had Kirk say " I've lost two brothers, but I was lucky to get one of them back. "
• After the Bird-of-Prey destroys "God", Kirk says, " So, it's me you want you Klingon bastards? ", a reference to a scene in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock in which Kirk calls them the same thing after Kruge kills his son, David Marcus .
• Shatner originally wanted Sybok's horse to be a unicorn, adding a more "mythical" approach to the character, but Gene Roddenberry disapproved of it, saying that it would turn Star Trek into a space fantasy instead of science fiction. ( citation needed • edit )
• This is the first Star Trek movie not to be nominated for a Hugo Award for "Best Dramatic Presentation".
• In an interview for the book Captains' Logs , Harve Bennett blamed the movie's failure on Star Trek: The Next Generation .
• Shatner had been so impressed with Production Designer Herman Zimmerman 's work on The Next Generation , that he hired Zimmerman to upgrade the Enterprise interiors for the film. Hence, the upgraded bridge from the movie resembles the bright atmosphere portrayed in The Next Generation . Decades later Zimmerman later jokingly commented after seeing the film, considered so flawed by many, " After the show was over, I was pretty sure I would never do another! " ( The Art of Star Trek , p. 249; Star Trek: 45 Years of Designing the Future )
• The Enterprise -A corridors are from The Next Generation . Except for the turbolift, they were not changed for the movie.
• The Enterprise -A bridge is mostly a new set, except for the turbolifts, Sulu and Chekov's helm console, the handrails, and some of the platforms on which the portions of the bridge stood. According to the Collector's Edition DVD text commentary, a new bridge set was necessary due to the original movie bridge set being mostly damaged by a sudden windstorm while in temporary storage at the Paramount studio parking lot (other sources have the reason for the new bridge set's construction as being because it had been extensively modified for use on TNG to the point that it could not be converted back), and only those few pieces used on the Enterprise -A bridge were salvaged from the original set. Captain Kirk would thus seem to briefly break character when he muses, " I miss my old chair. " The decoration from the salvaged set was also used for the Stargazer bridge and for the battle bridge in TNG.
• Another all-new set was the forward observation lounge where several dramatic scenes take place. According to Michael Okuda , this room was located on the forward-center edge of the saucer section (much like Ten Forward on the Enterprise -D). However, when looking at the exterior of the Enterprise -A, there are no windows which match the location of this room. The plan was to update the filming miniature with the three larger windows, however time and budget constraints forced the producers to omit this change as it was believed they would be unnoticed due to their small size. ( citation needed • edit )
• Nichelle Nichols, an accomplished singer and dancer, provided an authentic performance of the "fan dance" routine in this film; she was outraged when her vocals in the scene were later overdubbed in editing without her approval.

Unreleased Star Trek V: The Final Frontier video game

• A Bandai Nintendo Entertainment System action game was slated to be released in 1989 along with the movie. The game was canceled following the failure of the film at the box office. A prototype has surfaced and is circling the net as a ROM. It is notable for its many basic spelling errors (example: at one point Scotty is named "Scotto") and lack of an ending (the game may have been incomplete at the time it was scrapped).
• This film marked the return of Jerry Goldsmith to the Star Trek franchise. He returned again to compose the music for Star Trek: First Contact , Star Trek: Insurrection , and Star Trek Nemesis , and to compose the theme for Star Trek: Voyager . An attempt was made to bring Goldsmith on to compose for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country after James Horner turned it down. However, Goldsmith also refused, citing the poor results of Final Frontier .
• Among the items featured in this film which were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay were a Starfleet Field Duty Commando division strip [5] and the stunt costume for David Richard Ellis . [6] The rock climbing costume worn by Shatner was also auctioned off. [7] The costume had "Boreal"-brand shoes.
• This is the only one of the first six Star Trek films not to feature any scenes based in and around Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco .
• The otherwise very Star Trek friendly magazine Cinefantastique has made no mention whatsoever of this production in their publications.
• A draft version of the film's script was submitted on 29 February 1988 . [8]
• This is the first Star Trek film to use the 1986-2002 Paramount Pictures logo.
• CBS aired its one and only Star Trek movie network TV premiere with Star Trek V: The Final Frontier on December 3, 1991, a good three days ahead of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country opening in cinemas nationwide.

Star Trek V continues the story of the previous film only a short time after its ending, where the Enterprise -A departs for its shakedown cruise. This film begins with the Enterprise back in spacedock and Scott filing in his shakedown cruise report. The previous film, Star Trek IV , is dated to 2286 , when Gillian from 1986 mentions that she has three hundred years of catching up to do, suggesting this film takes place in 2286, or at the latest in 2287 .

In the film, Caithlin Dar makes a reference that Nimbus III was established as a planet of galactic peace 20 years ago, when the Federation and the Klingon and Romulan Empires attempted unsuccessfully to usher into a new era of peace and co-operation. While not explicitly stated, these are references to the Organian Peace Treaty of 2267 at the end of " Errand of Mercy " and the Romulan-Klingon Alliance some time in or before 2268 based on references from " The Enterprise Incident " and " Reunion " These references give Star Trek V a timeframe from 2286 to 2288 .

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode " Evolution " (broadcast as the third-season premiere), it is mentioned by Lt. Commander Data that " [there] has not been a systems-wide technological failure on a starship in seventy-nine years. " The episode was the very first filmed TNG installment to air following the June 1989 theatrical release of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (in September 1989), and this line of dialogue was very likely written by Michael Piller as a "nod" to the events of the most-recent movie, placing the events of the film in the year 2287 (seventy-nine years prior to the year 2366 ).

Another complicating factor is that the film itself makes it quite clear that it picks up just a few weeks after the events of Star Trek IV given how Kirk points out that Scotty said he could have the Enterprise ready in two weeks and Kirk gave him three. Additionally, we are told in Kirk's log entry at the start of Star Trek IV that the movie takes place three months after the end of Star Trek III which in turn picks up immediately where Star Trek II leaves off at. Kirk's birthday, which was celebrated in Star Trek II , was established as March 22 by an okudagram from ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II ". Due to these factors, assuming Star Trek II takes place on March 22, 2285, Star Trek III is likely set in April 2285, Star Trek IV is likely set in July 2285, and Star Trek V is likely set in August 2285.

StarTrek.com , Star Trek Chronology , and Star Trek Encyclopedia  (3rd ed., p. 691) use the year 2287, or twenty years after the Organian Peace Treaty. Memory Alpha uses this year, as well.

Characters [ ]

During production of The Original Series , James Doohan took pains to conceal his right hand from the camera, due to it missing a finger as the result of an injury the actor suffered in the Second World War, and when close-ups of Scott's hands were required a body double was used. Thus, Scott canonically was not missing any fingers during the TOS timeframe. In this film, Doohan's injured hand is clearly visible in one scene, ( citation needed • edit ) establishing in canon that, at some point between TOS and Star Trek V , Scott lost a finger, for reasons as yet unrevealed.

Merchandise gallery [ ]

Awards and honors [ ]

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier received the following awards and honors.

Apocrypha [ ]

The novel The Fire and the Rose shows that as Spock began to regret undertaking the Kolinahr , that he remembered what Kirk had told Sybok about how the regrets and the pain one carries with them is part of what makes them who they are and it does help in Spock's decision to reverse the Kolinahr .

The Sha Ka Ree entity is identified in The Q Continuum trilogy as The One, a being that was drawn into this universe through the Guardian of Forever by the entity known as 0 , subsequently being defeated in a confrontation with the Q Continuum and locked away in the galactic center – having been reduced to only a head – until His repentance or the heat death of the universe, "whichever comes first."

Vonda McIntyre 's novelizations of Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan , Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home had Hikaru Sulu 's rank at captain (based on cut material from Star Trek II ) for sake of continuity within the novels. When J.M. Dillard wrote novelization of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , she included a reference that Sulu had taken a temporary reduction in rank back down to commander in order to serve on the Enterprise , a decision which, when Kirk found out, made him furious at Sulu for not thinking of his own career first, and after giving Sulu hell about that decision, Kirk thanked him afterward.

According to the novel The Sorrows of Empire , McCoy's mirror universe counterpart was also responsible for his father's death, though under dramatically different circumstances: he tortured him to death on the orders of the Terran Empire .

The massively-multiplayer online video game Star Trek Online features Nimbus III as a location players can travel to, including Paradise City and its featured bar. There are other adventures players can partake in out in the neighboring desert wasteland, including one of the first introductions of the Elachi race to non-Romulan players.

Links and references [ ]

Credits [ ], opening credits [ ].

• William Shatner
• Leonard Nimoy
• DeForest Kelley
• James Doohan
• Walter Koenig
• Nichelle Nichols
• George Takei
• David Warner
• Laurence Luckinbill as Sybok
• Gene Roddenberry
• Jerry Goldsmith
• Nilo Rodis-Jamero
• Peter Berger , ACE
• Herman Zimmerman
• Andrew Laszlo , ASC
• Ralph Winter
• William Shatner & Harve Bennett & David Loughery
• David Loughery
• Harve Bennett

Closing credits [ ]

• Kirk – William Shatner
• Spock – Leonard Nimoy
• McCoy – DeForest Kelley
• Scotty – James Doohan
• Chekov – Walter Koenig
• Uhura – Nichelle Nichols
• Sulu – George Takei
• St. John Talbot – David Warner
• Sybok – Laurence Luckinbill
• Korrd – Charles Cooper
• Caithlin Dar – Cynthia Gouw
• Captain Klaa – Todd Bryant
• Vixis – Spice Williams
• J'onn – Rex Holman
• " God " – George Murdock
• Young Sarek – Jonathan Simpson
• High Priestess – Beverly Hart
• Pitchman – Steve Susskind
• Starfleet Chief of Staff – Harve Bennett
• Amanda – Cynthia Blaise
• McCoy's Father – Bill Quinn
• Yeoman – Melanie Shatner
• Glenn R. Wilder
• Don Pulford
• Greg Barnett
• David Burton
• David Richard Ellis (stunt double for Laurence Luckinbill )
• Linda Fetters ( Feline bar dancer )
• James M. Halty (stunt double for George Takei )
• Freddie Hice (stunt double for DeForest Kelley )
• Thomas Huff (stunt double for DeForest Kelley)
• Joyce L. McNeal
• Tom Morga ( Starfleet field security crewman / Rock Man ( deleted scene ))
• Frank Orsatti
• Air Randall
• Bruce Wayne Randall
• R.A. Rondell
• Tom Wetterman
• Scott Wilder ( Starfleet field security crewman )
• Douglas E. Wise
• Burt "Skip" Burnam
• George Fortmuller
• Brooke Breton
• Bill Shepard , CSA
• Bran Ferren
• Keith Peterman
• Phil Caplan
• Kenneth Nishino
• Dick Meinardus
• Dennis B. Seawright
• Jeffrey S. Thorin
• David Ronne , CAS
• John Schuyler
• Stewart D. McDonald, Jr.
• Michael L. Wood
• Mike Edmonson
• Dodie Shepard
• John D. Bronson
• Raymond A. Phelps
• Joseph R. Markham
• Donna Barrett Gilbert
• Hazel Catmull
• Kenny Myers
• Michael Mills
• Jan Alexander
• Edouard Henriques III
• Katalin Elek
• Rolf John Keppler
• Ellis Burman
• Marion Tumen
• Donald O. Nygren
• Richard Hartley
• Carmon H. Howell
• Burton Lindemoen
• Jon A. Falkengren
• John M. Dwyer
• Anthony Brockliss
• Sandy L. Veneziano
• Ronald R. Wilkinson
• Richard Frank McKenzie
• Andrew Neskoromny
• Antoinette Gordon
• Michael Okuda
• Cari Thomas
• Rick Sternbach
• Barton M. Susman
• Kurt V. Hulett
• Richard J. Bayard
• John Matheson
• Gary A. Clark
• James H. Betts
• Linda Miller
• Jeff McGrath
• Michael Mann
• Raymond A. McLaughlin
• Gaston Veilleux
• Corky Randall
• Thomas B. Jones
• Terry Erdmann
• Bruce Birmelin
• George C. Villaseñor
• John A. Haggar
• Christopher E. Bennett
• Reel People, Inc.
• Mark Mangini
• Alan Howarth
• Michael J. Benavente
• Warren Hamilton, Jr. , MPSE
• David A. Whittaker , MPSE
• Wayne Allwine , MPSE
• David Spence
• Ron Bartlett
• Solange Schwalbe Boisseau
• Kenneth Dufva
• Gregory J. Curda
• Andrew Patterson
• Bill Voigtlander
• Sonny Pettijohn
• Destiny Borden
• Angie Luckey
• Ken Johnson
• David Moreno
• Chris Jenkins
• Gary Alexander
• D.M. Hemphill
• Scott Austin
• Marc Okrand
• Arthur Morton
• Bruce Botnick
• Record Plant Scoring
• Valerie Mickaelian Kucera
• Tony Criscione
• Marie Elder
• Paul F. Schlichting
• Eva Marie Friedrick
• Mary Jo Fernandez
• Charlene Bergman
• Kimberly Boyle
• Rebeca R. Brookshire
• Susan Sackett
• Wendell Johnson
• Deborah L. Campbell
• James Collins
• Barbara Harris
• Denali Productions, Inc.
• Robert Carmichael
• Stephen J. Ross
• Susan McCrae
• Rob Sweeney
• Michael Weis
• John McCloud
• Bernie Pock
• Paul Sibley
• Werner Braun
• Jim Bridwell
• Bill Russell
• Sean Plunkett
• Steven Haire
• Nadim Melkonian
• Troy Johnson
• Walter Shipley
• Dean Miller
• Joe Valentine
• Bill Killey
• Bob Stradling
• Associates & Ferren
• Eric Angelson
• James Shelly
• Patricia Barry
• Susan Le Ber
• Susan Coursey

Live Action Effects Unit [ ]

• Frost Wilkinson
• Phil Gosiewski
• Bruce Vaughn
• Phil Cullum
• Paul Jordan
• Seth Nathanson
• Bob Francis
• Miles Ambrose
• Otto Leichliter
• Ron Webster
• Chester Hartwell
• Kinnereth Ellentuck
• Alan D. Webb

Model Unit [ ]

• Peter Wallach
• Edward Lee Rapp
• Michael Sullivan
• Jack Riedel
• Robert Lyons
• Michael Faerman
• Rachel A. Drapkin
• Peterson Tooke
• Paul Michael Clemente
• David V. Mei
• Michael Tabacco
• Valentine Vignes
• Daniel Nauke
• Michael Gerzevitz
• Michael Kellough
• Thomas Quinn
• Noel Sheinberg
• Susan Tremblay
• David Drapkin
• David Bruce
• Maria Konwicka
• Veronica E. Lesser
• Gregory Jein, Inc.

Optical Unit [ ]

• Dick Swanek
• Robert Rowohlt
• John Alagna
• Mitch Wilson
• Robert Schulze
• Tom Snowden
• Louis Goold
• Michael Ventresco
• Gregory Harker
• Valerie Baiardi
• Eddie Stewart
• Stewart Brown

Additional Optical Effects [ ]

• Barry Hyman
• Peter Kiran
• Illusion Arts, Inc.
• Marc Sawicki
• Industrial Light & Magic
• Epic Records, Cassettes and Compact Discs
• Music by: Jerry Goldsmith
• Lyric by: John Bettis
• Performed by: Hiroshima
• Produced by: Dan Kuramoto
• Hiroshima courtesy of Epic Records
• Music by: Alexander Courage
• Dr. Charles A. Beichman , Infrared Processing and Analysis Center Jet Propulsion Lab, Pasadena
• Robert Parker
• Jack Morehead , Superintendent
• Bureau of Land Management
• California Film Commission
• State of California, State Lands Commission
• Madera County Film Commission
• Jet Propulsion Laboratory , Pasadena
• Reebok International, Ltd.
• Jack Daniel's
• Apple Computers
• Monster Cable ®
• International Scientific Instruments, Inc.
• Denton Vacuum, Inc.
• Princeton Gamma-Tech
• Carl Zeiss, Inc.
• de Graf/Wahrman, Inc.
• Base Gamma Electronic Systems
• Kraft, Inc.
• Levi Strauss & Co.
• Todd A-O/Glen Glenn Studios
• Technicolor ®
• Panavision ®
• Charles Bazaldua ( The Loop Group )
• Gene Cross as Sybok's follower
• David Dewitt
• Steven Johnson as Starfleet field security crewman
• Carlyle King (The Loop Group)
• Kevin Lindsay as alien bar patron
• Patrick Michael as Enterprise -A crewman
• Richard Penn (The Loop Group)
• Paige Pollack (The Loop Group)
• Susan Savage
• Gary Schwartz (The Loop Group)
• Carey Scott as voice of a teenage Spock ( deleted scene )
• Mike Smithson as Klingon helmsman
• Nimbus III bar patron
• " Wrinkles "
• Rhoda Williams as alien vocals
• Ilona Wilson as Nimbus III bar patron
• " Ape Face "
• " Bone Head "
• " Dark Eyes "
• " Leather Face "
• " Long Face "
• " Lost Soul "
• " Round Eyes "
• Nimbus III lookout party
• Alien sentry
• Klingon commander
• Seven Starfleet field security officers
• Four followers of Sybok
• Three Nimbus III bar patrons
• Terry Jackson
• David Wendler as stunt double for William Shatner (horse stunts)
• Tom Boyd – Musician: Oboe
• Cogswell Video Services, Inc. – Visual Effects Unit Video Assist Company
• Lynette Eklund – prison alien anatomy pieces artist
• Christopher Gilman and Global Effects, Inc. – Creator and provider of the cool suits
• Karen Hulett – Costume design
• Stuart Land – Prosthetics
• Lisa Logan – Cutter/Fitter
• David Nicksay – Executive Producer

References [ ]

2267 ; adventure ; alcohol ; Almighty ; amusement ; ancestor ; Andorian language ; angry ; animal ; arrest ; arrival ; arrogance ; ass ; attack ; attack course ; attack range ; attention ; audience ; authority ; backpack ; banishment ; barricade ; bath ; bay doors ; bean ; bearing ; betrayal ; belief ; birth ; blizzard ; blowscreen ; binoculars ; bipodal seeds ; brig ; boat ; " Bones "; booster rocket ; bourbon ; bowl ; brainwashing ; brig ; " by the book "; cadet ; campfire ; camping ; " Camptown Races "; capital city ; charge ; chariot ; choice ; cloaking device ; Columbus, Christopher ; command chair ; commander ; commercial ; communicator ; companion ; compliment ; computer library ; confrontation ; con man ; conn ; conspiring ; consul ; contact ; coordinates ; Copernicus ; course ; creature ; cricket ; culture ; cure ; custom ; danger ; darkness ; data ; David McCoy's condition ; death ; degree ; designer ; destination ; devil ; dinner ; disaster ; discovery ; distress signal ; dignity ; doctor ; dogma ; door ; dream ; ear ; Earth ; Eden ; El Capitan ; emergency assistance ; emergency channel ; Emergency Landing Plan B ; emergency sending apparatus ; emotion ; Enterprise -A, USS ; Enterprise -A dedication plaque ; estimate ; eternity ; Excelsior , USS ; Excelsior -class ; existence ; experience ; expression ; face ; faith ; family ; fan dance ; fantasy ; fear ; Federation ; Federation Federal ; feeling ; financing ; fishing ; flat ; flat Earth ; flattery ; flavoring ; footspeed ; forward observation room ; free-climbing ; French language ; friend ; Galactic Army of Light ; galactic core ; Galileo ; Galileo -type shuttlecraft ; garbage ; gate ; generation ; " get a grip on yourself "; ghost ; ghost town ; God ; government ; gravity ; Grayson, Amanda ; Great Barrier ; Great Horned Owl ; green ; guilt ; gunner ; hailing frequency ; half-brother (brother); hand ; heart ; heart attack ; Heaven ; " hello "; high priestess ; " hit the brakes "; hole ; horse ; hostage ; hostage tape ; hour ; Human ; humor ; hydro vent ; ID ; idea ; illusion ; immortal ; impulse power ; information ; ingredient ; intellect ; intelligence ; intention ; intention ; Iowa ; jailbreak ; jet boots ; job ; journey ; junior officer ; kellicam ; Klaa's Bird-of-Prey ; Klingons ; Klingon Bird-of-Prey ; Klingon Empire ; Klingon High Command ; Klingon language ; knowledge ; land ; landing bay ; leader ; letter ; levitation boots ; Levi's ; life support system ; light (artificial); light (natural); logic ; lookout party ; Luna ; lyric ; " macho "; " made love "; madman ; magic wand ; marshmallow ; Masefield, John ; maximum speed ; meaning ; melon ; Melville, Herman ; message ; metabolism ; Milky Way Galaxy ; mind ; miracle ; mister ; mood ; " Moon over Rigel VII "; " Moon's a Window to Heaven, The "; monkey ; Morse code ; mount ; mountain ; muscle ; mystery ; myth ; naked ; " neck of the woods "; " nervous wreck "; Neutral Zone ; Neutral Zone Treaty ; Nimbus III ; Nimbus III moons ; Nimbosian horse ; noise ; " oh my God "; " on board "; " on course "; " on leave "; online ; orbital shuttle ( unnamed orbital shuttle ); Orbital shuttle 5 ; Orbital shuttle 7 ; order ; " out of favor "; outcast ; " Pack Up Your Troubles "; pagan ; pain ; Paradise City ; Paradise Inn ; passion ; person ; phaser ; photon torpedo ; Pioneer 10 ; " piss me off "; place ; pleasure ; pool ; power source ; priority 7 ; princess ; prisoner ; probe ; problem ; pronunciation ; proof ; protective custody ; " put me out to pasture "; quadrant ; quest ; question ; Qui'Tu ; reality ; reason ; record time ; red alert ; renegade ; repairs ; representative ; rescue ship ; research ; respect ; revolutionary ; Rigel VII ; ritual ; rock ; Romulans ; Romulan ale ; Romulan language ; room ; round ; " Row, Row, Row Your Boat " ( rowboat ); San Francisco Fleet Yards ; scholar ; scope ; scotch whiskey ; Scots language ; " Sea-Fever "; second ; secret ; sense of humor ; settlement ; settler ; Sha Ka Ree ; Sha Ka Ree (planet); Shakedown cruise report, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) ; shield ; shipmate ; shore leave ; shower ; sincerity ; sing-along ; skeleton crew ; sky ; sleep ; Sol ; soldier ; son ; song ; song title ; soul ; sound ; sound barrier ; Source, The ; Southern baked beans ; space ; Spacedock One ; speculation ; speech ; speed ; standard orbit ; standard orbital approach ; " stand by "; star ; Starfleet ; Starfleet Charter ; Starfleet Com Net ; Starfleet Command ; Starfleet Galactic Memory Bank ; Starfleet Operations ; starship ; status ; status report ; stream ; strength ; strike team ; student ; success ; superior officer ; surrender ; tall ship ; target ; Tennessee whiskey ; termite ; Terran ; terrorist ; " thank God "; thing ; thousand ; threat ; thruster ; time ; toilet ; tour ; tractor beam ; transmission ; transmitter ; transporter ; transporter beam ; transporter lock ; transporter room ; trash ; treasure ; triangle ; trick ; trigger ; truth ; tunnel ; turboshaft number three ; " under arrest "; understanding ; understatement ; Valhalla ; value ; vanity ; viewscreen ; voice ; violation ; Vorta Vor ; Vulcans ; Vulcan ; Vulcan language ; Vulcan lute ; Vulcan nerve pinch ; Vulcan princess ; warp engine ; warp speed ; warrior ; Watering Hole, The ; weapon ; " wee "; week ; weight ; " whip her into shape "; wildlife ; wisdom ; word ; workout ; year ; Yosemite National Park ; youth

Starfleet Galactic Memory Bank references [ ]

Feira incident ; field commander ; Klingon Imperial Command ; K'Rebeca sector ; Orion ; Shepard sector ; Starfleet Intelligence

Meta references [ ]

Unreferenced material [ ].

Mount Rushmore National Memorial ; Nimbosian ; Rock Man

Related topics [ ]

• Vulcan mythology
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (Special Edition)
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (soundtrack)

External links [ ]

• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier at StarTrek.com
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier at Wikipedia
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier at the Internet Movie Database
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier script  at Star Trek Minutiae
• " Star Trek V: The Final Frontier " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Fandango at Home
• Netflix streaming
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• Challengers Link to Challengers
• Abigail Link to Abigail
• Arcadian Link to Arcadian

New TV Tonight

• Dead Boy Detectives: Season 1
• The Jinx: Season 2
• The Big Door Prize: Season 2
• Knuckles: Season 1
• Them: Season 2
• Velma: Season 2
• Secrets of the Octopus: Season 1
• Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story: Season 1
• We're Here: Season 4

Most Popular TV on RT

• Baby Reindeer: Season 1
• Fallout: Season 1
• Shōgun: Season 1
• Under the Bridge: Season 1
• The Sympathizer: Season 1
• Ripley: Season 1
• 3 Body Problem: Season 1
• X-Men '97: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• Baby Reindeer Link to Baby Reindeer
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

DC Animated Movies In Order: How to Watch 54 Original and Universe Films

The Best TV Seasons Certified Fresh at 100%

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

Awards Tour

Poll: Most Anticipated Movies of May 2024

Poll: Most Anticipated TV and Streaming Shows of May 2024

• Trending on RT
• Challengers
• Play Movie Trivia

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Where to watch.

Watch Star Trek V: The Final Frontier with a subscription on Max, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

Filled with dull action sequences and an underdeveloped storyline, this fifth Trek movie is probably the worst of the series.

Audience Reviews

Cast & crew.

William Shatner

Captain James T. Kirk

Leonard Nimoy

Captain Spock

DeForest Kelley

Commander Leonard H. McCoy, M.D.

James Doohan

Captain Montgomery Scott

Walter Koenig

Commander Pavel Andreievich Chekov

Movie Clips

More like this, movie news & guides, this movie is featured in the following articles., critics reviews.

• Rent or buy
• Categories Categories
• Getting Started

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Customers also watched.

Cast and Crew

Other formats

1794 global ratings

How are ratings calculated? Toggle Expand Toggle Expand

• Amazon Newsletter
• About Amazon
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
• Press Center
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Sell on Amazon
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Supply to Amazon
• Protect & Build Your Brand
• Become an Affiliate
• Become a Delivery Driver
• Start a Package Delivery Business
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Become an Amazon Hub Partner
• › See More Ways to Make Money
• Amazon Visa
• Amazon Store Card
• Amazon Secured Card
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Credit Card Marketplace
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, star trek v: the final frontier.

Now streaming on:

There was a moment in "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" - only one, and a brief one, but a genuine one - when I felt the promise of awe. The Starship Enterprise was indeed going where no man had gone before, through the fabled Great Barrier, which represents the end of the finite universe. What would lie beyond? Would it be an endless void, or a black hole, or some kind of singularity of space and time that would turn the voyagers inside out and deposit them in another universe? Or would the Barrier even reveal, as one of the characters believes, the place where life began? The place called by the name of Eden and countless other words? As the Enterprise approached the Barrier, I found my attention gathering. The movie had been slow and boring until then, with an interminable, utterly inconsequential first act and a plot that seemed to exist in a space-time singularity all its own. But now, at last, the fifth " Star Trek " movie seemed to be remembering what was best about the fictional world of "Star Trek": those moments when man and his ideas are challenged by the limitless possibilities of creation.

As I've said, my awe was real. It was also brief. Once the Enterprise crew members (and the Vulcan who was holding them hostage) landed on the world beyond the Barrier, the possibilities of god or Eden or whatever quickly disintegrated into an anticlimactic special effects show with a touch of " The Wizard of Oz " thrown in for good measure. I do not want to give away important elements in the plot, but after you've seen the movie, ask yourself these questions: 1) How was it known that the voyagers would go beyond the Barrier; 2) what was the motivation behind what they found there; 3) how was it known that they would come to stand at exactly the point where the stone pillars came up from the Earth; 4) In a version of a question asked by Capt. Kirk, why would any entity capable of staging such a show need its own starship; and 5) is the Great Barrier indeed real, or simply a deceptive stage setting for what was found behind it? (What I'm really complaining about, I think, is that "Star Trek V" allows itself enormous latitude in the logic beneath its plot. If the Barrier is real, what exactly are we to make of the use to which it is put?) Before we get to ask those questions, "Star Trek V" spends much of its time meandering through some of the goofiest scenes in the entire series. The movie opens with the taking of three hostages on a desert planet, who have been captured for the sole purpose of luring Capt. Kirk and his starship to the planet so that the ship can be commandeered for the voyage through the Barrier. I have explained these plot details in one sentence. The movie takes endless scenes, during which the key crew members of the Enterprise need to be summoned back to their ship in the middle of a shore leave. And that process, in turn, requires interminable scenes of Kirk, Spock and Bones on a camping trip in Yosemite, during which they attempt to sing "Row, row, row your boat" and nearly succeed in sinking the entire movie. If there is a sillier and more awkwardly written scene in the entire "Star Trek" saga than this one, I've missed it.

After the pointless opening scenes, the movie begins to develop a plot of sorts, but it is so confused and inadequately explained that there are times when we simply give up and wait for what's next. That was particularly the case during the inexplicable closing scenes, where the humans and the Klingons seem to join sides after an off-camera speech by a former Klingon leader who had been put out to pasture. Since this leader is identified as having been badly treated by the Klingons in his retirement, how did he suddenly regain the authority to negotiate a truce? And do we really want to see the mighty Klingons reduced to the status of guests at a cocktail party? One of the trademarks of the "Star Trek" saga has been the way the supporting characters are kept alive in little subplots. In "Star Trek V," the Enterprise starts its voyage while the shop is suffering a series of mechanical failures, and that involves countless brief scenes in which Scotty, the chief engineer, emerges from beneath a piece of equipment, brandishes his wrench and says he'll have things fixed in a moment. Two or three of these scenes might have been enough.

Another irritation is the way in which we meet apparently major characters, including those played by David Warner , Laurence Luckinbill and Cynthia Gouw, who are introduced with fanfares of dialogue and then never developed or given anything to do. The entire movie seems crowded with loose ends, overlooked developments and forgotten characters, and there are little snatches of dialogue where some of these minor characters seem to be soldiering on in their original subplots as if unaware that they've been cut from the movie.

"Star Trek V" is pretty much of a mess - a movie that betrays all the signs of having gone into production at a point where the script doctoring should have begun in earnest. There is no clear line from the beginning of the movie to the end, not much danger, no characters to really care about, little suspense, uninteresting or incomprehensible villains, and a great deal of small talk and pointless dead ends. Of all of the "Star Trek" movies, this is the worst.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Now playing

Kaiya Shunyata

We Grown Now

Peyton robinson.

Brian Tallerico

In the Land of Saints and Sinners

Irena's Vow

Christy lemire.

Late Night with the Devil

Matt zoller seitz, film credits.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

108 minutes

James Doohan as Montgomery Scott

Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov

George Takei as Sulu

William Shatner as Capt. Kirk

Nichelle Nichols as Cmdr. Uhura

Deforest Kelley as Dr. McCoy

Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock

Photography by

• Andrew Laszlo
• Peter Berger
• David Loughery From

From A Story by

Produced by.

• Harve Bennett

Directed by

• William Shatner
• Jerry Goldsmith

Latest blog posts

Joanna Arnow Made Her BDSM Comedy for You

The Movies That Underwent Major Changes After Their Festival Premiere

Netflix's Dead Boy Detectives Is A Spinoff Stuck In Limbo

Preview of Tributes at the 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

In this classic movie spin off from the TV series, Captain Kirk and his crew must deal with Spock's long-lost half-brother who hijacks the Enterprise for an obsessive search for God at the center of the galaxy. Stars William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. more

In this classic movie spin off from the TV series, Captain Kirk a ... More

Starring: William Shatner Leonard Nimoy DeForest Kelley

Director: William Shatner

Add Max to any Hulu plan for an additional  $15.99/month .

Hulu free trial available for new and eligible returning Hulu subscribers only. Cancel anytime. Additional terms apply.

In this classic movie spin off from the TV series, Captain Kirk and his crew must deal with Spock's long-lost half-brother who hijacks the Enterprise for an obsessive search for God at the center of the galaxy. Stars William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.

Starring: William Shatner Leonard Nimoy DeForest Kelley James Doohan Walter Koenig

Sign Up Now

About this Movie

Select Your Plan

Streaming library with tons of tv episodes and movies, up to 6 user profiles, no ads in streaming library, download and watch, available add-ons, sports add-on.

Español Add-on

Entertainment Add-on

• More to Explore
• Series & Movies

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.

Get Updates By Email

• April 25, 2024 | Prep Begins For ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season 3 Finale; Cast And Directors Share BTS Images
• April 25, 2024 | Jonathan Frakes Sees Opportunities With Streaming Star Trek Movies, Weighs In On “Filler Episodes”
• April 25, 2024 | Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Reflects On Its Choices In “Mirrors”
• April 24, 2024 | Coffee Table Book On The ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Makeup Artistry Of Glenn Hetrick Coming In September
• April 24, 2024 | ‘William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill’ Documentary Arrives On VOD On Friday

Review – Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

| February 17, 2008 | By: William S. Kowinski 345 comments so far

TrekMovie.com now continues our look back at Trek films past…

In the movie Little Big Man , the elderly Cheyenne medicine man called Old Lodge Skins decides it’s time for him to die. He goes to the top of the mountain, performs his rituals, reclines on the ground and closes his eyes. For a few moments nothing happens, except for some distant thunder. Then a raindrop falls on his face, startling him into opening his eyes. He stands up and prepares to go back home. “Sometimes the magic works,” he explains, “and sometimes it doesn’t.”

Every original cast Star Trek movie made missteps and experienced chaos on its way to the screen. Coming off their biggest success in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, the Star Trek movie team was confident. They’d successfully added humor to the mix, and it seemed they knew just how to make the magic, in spite of any obstacle. But this time it didn’t quite work.

In hindsight, it’s possible to see ways in which the stars did not align this time. Beginning serious work on the script and the filming was delayed, by among other things, something familiar from today: a Writers Guild strike. The delay would put the film in competition with several blockbusters, including Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Dead Poets Society, Ghostbusters II, and Batman. These would become important to the moviemaking process as well as the box office, because they kept the usual visual effects houses busy—especially Industrial Light and Magic. Trek would have to look elsewhere, with near- disastrous results. A Teamsters strike also hampered location shooting.

After initial rave reviews , Star Trek V: The Final Frontier came under critical fire and had less than stellar box office. Theatre owners in that very competitive summer of 1989 shortened the run to make way for the next blockbuster. Today among Trek fans this is the least popular of the original cast movies. When it was next in line for a special edition DVD, director William Shatner begged Paramount to fix visual effects problems with today’s CGI magic, especially in the last part of the film, even promising to foot half the bill himself. Paramount refused.

Everyone who has seen this movie (and some who haven’t) know what they don’t like about it. The visual effects are clearly a problem. Not only are they especially inadequate at a couple of key moments, but in some relatively routine scenes—the Enterprise shuttle in flight, for instance—the effects are obviously unfinished, lacking the subtle details and shading that makes them look dimensional and “real.” These are perhaps more damaging, because they take viewers out of the world of the movie, and can shake their confidence in the moviemakers.

Then there’s the story: Sybok, a charismatic Vulcan renegade, captures the Enterprise to take him to the fabled planet beyond the Great Barrier at the center of the galaxy to meet God. In interviews and their books, the actors, producers etc. involved in this film attribute its problems to the movie’s premise. (Gene Roddenberry had tried a similar exploration in his first script for the first Star Trek movie, called “The God Thing,” but the studio rejected it.)

Almost alone, William Shatner (who came up with the story) disagrees: he believes the problem was that he compromised on his core ideas, and robbed the film of it’s dramatic energy. In various ways, they’re probably all right.

On the one hand, dealing with such a subject in any meaningful or even credible way in a big studio feature film would be very hard to do. Plus anything touching upon religious beliefs is going to offend some part of the audience. That was true then (when Shatner was inspired, or provoked, by the phenomenon of popular tele-evangelists then saturating TV screens) and it is even truer now, when Star Trek fans—especially on the Internet– seem split according to their political and religious loyalties and orientation, and any reference to religion brings charges of prejudice and worse.

On the other hand, going in search of God and finding the Devil is a repeated sci-fi premise but if done well, it is often relevant to contemporary times—especially, as in this case, when the seeker (Sybok) confident in his righteousness, ends up face to face with the devil in himself. But compromises and continued tweaking which left their residues in the final script probably did rob the movie of some internal coherence.

There are smaller issues that some find particularly irksome: the introduction of Sybok as Spock’s long-lost half brother, the humor at the apparent expense of some regular characters (especially Scotty) the suggestion of a Scotty-Uhura romance, etc. All these may be remnants of the original story that had the Enterprise crew, including Spock and McCoy, side with Sybok against Kirk— Shatner’s tone-deaf proposal, even if it was more dramatic. Both Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley insisted their characters couldn’t betray Kirk, and so they didn’t.

The elements for a successful movie were there in “The Final Frontier”: action, visual sweep, drama, character moment, important issues of contemporary life, plus the humor that worked within the story of “The Voyage Home.” But due in part to various missteps and in part to the story development, it can be argued that in the first part of the movie, for all its flashiness and memorable scenes of action and camaraderie, and for all the provocative ideas given physical form, the narrative didn’t engage our emotions and involvement with a strong sense of why we should care about what happens.

Viewing and Re-viewing

I saw this movie in a theatre when it opened, and I’ve seen it on TV, on tape and several times on DVD. A film’s flaws are acute at first because of disappointment that it isn’t better than it might have been. But after all this time, a movie on DVD is what it is, and its flaws become part of its nature. Most importantly, this is one of only six movies with the whole original cast, and there aren’t going to be any more. It’s worth honoring what’s good about it and what’s good in it.

Probably my biggest surprise on re-viewing it was noticing the visual sense director William Shatner brought to it. He used extreme outdoor settings to give some visual dimension in those pre-CGI days, but where he excells is in moving the camera inside the Enterprise and other enclosures, and especially in framing small groups of characters– the kind of elegant two and three shots that became the visual signature of the original series.

 Shatner had to overcome Dee Kelley’s resistance to doing the of McCoy at his father’s bedside, struggling with his duty as a doctor to preserve life against his duty as a son to end suffering and preserve his father’s dignity. But now this is perhaps Kelley’s most dramatic scene in any of the films.

While some humorous scenes are questionable, others are classic moments that reveal the crew’s camaraderie. (The screenplay is by David Loughery, who Shatner credits with much of the humor.) They range from brief gags (Kirk saying wistfully that he misses his old command chair, followed by Spock’s tilting his head in sympathy; Scotty bursting through the brig wall shouting, “Dinna you know a jailbreak when you see one!”) to longer scenes, such as the brig scene itself. And while the early scene of Kirk, Spock and McCoy around the campfire has its awkwardness, it also has moments of convincing informality unmatched elsewhere in Star Trek. The reprise of this scene at the end is one of the most intimate moments involving the Trek trinity—and one of the great gifts we’ll always have from these movies.

Even some of the more eccentric elements (Kirk’s mountain climbing and Spock’s jet-pack, Uhura’s dance) are now unforgettable elements in the Trek legend.

There are other considerable virtues: the quality of the acting (especially Laurence Luckinbill’s brilliant performance as Sybok), and a film score that is considered one of Jerry Goldsmith’s best, for example. But I would also argue that the last part of the film—including the part that Shatner called “horrendous”—constitutes solid, meaningful and provocative storytelling in the best Trek movie tradition. To explain what I mean, we go back to the movie’s theme.

The God Thing

From one point of view, Sybok fails as a character in this film because he is not simple enough: he is not clearly a powerful, malevolent villain. But because he is complex and human, his character succeeds in other ways.

Sybok is on the one hand a religious zealot, certain God has spoken to him, and called him to pierce the Great Barrier at the center of the galaxy and find the fabled Sha Ka Ree. (You might wonder what combination of mystical words from various religions were chosen to name this heavenly planet. The answer is a little more Hollywood than holy: it’s a play on “Sean Con-ner-y,” the movie god that Shatner hoped would play Sybok.)

On the one hand, Sybok is a Vulcan renegade, convinced that the path to ultimate knowledge is through emotion, not logic—a perennial Star Trek tension that Spock himself has explored.

On the other hand, Sybok seems to have an inexplicable (and at times unbelievable) power over people, but on the other hand, his psychological skills are pretty sophisticated. After Sybok extracts McCoy’s agony over his father in a kind of psychic holodeck, Sybok urges him to release his pain over it. "You have taken the first step. The rest we will take together." Counselor Troi would recognize the basic approach of exploring a person’s pain, and after its initial release and revelation, going into it more deeply.

 When Spock says he has already acknowledged and dealt with the pain of his father’s rejection of his human side, he has attained the therapeutic goal, which is also the goal of other soul paths: self-knowledge.

Kirk provides yet another point of view. Sybok tells him that he’s seen essential elements of his close friends—“This is who they are. Didn’t you know that?” Kirk has to admit that he didn’t. But he refuses to go through the process to release his own pain. Sybok suggests he is afraid. “I’m afraid of nothing,” Kirk says (a line since repeated by Denny Crain.) Kirk wants to keep his pain, because its essential to who he is. As someone who has literally been split into the Good Kirk and Bad Kirk, he understands the mutual dependence of that duality within him. 

This scene, which takes place in the magnificent new observation lounge, ends as the Enterprise approaches the Great Barrier. Kirk warns Sybok that it’s never been breached. Sybok says that if we do it, will that convince you that my vision is true? It’s then he reveals it’s a vision from God “who waits for us on the other side.” “You’re mad!” Kirk exclaims. “Am I?” Sybok shows some doubt, and then recovers his sunny transcendence: “We’ll see.”

As a visual effect, The Great Barrier is pretty underwhelming. But immediately after it is breached, some of the best scenes in the movie begin. From the observation lounge, Kirk, Spock and McCoy see the planet Sha Ka Ree before them. “Are we dreaming?” McCoy asks. “If we are, then life IS a dream,” Kirk replies. The reference is to the campfire song they sang early in the movie (“Row, Row, Row Your Boat”) when Spock considered the lyrics and later announced, “Life is not a dream.”

Sybok returns control of the Enterprise to Kirk, knowing that he won’t leave without exploring the planet below. He accompanies the trinity aboard a shuttle. This sequence is the most magical in the movie: the dramatic quick cuts among the faces as they all wonder what they really will see, while bathed in the eerie violet light from the planet. They disembark in a strange landscape anxiously, sharp silhouettes against the alien haze. (All this was done with special effects at the site, rather than visual effects created in an effects house—a distinction I learned from a talk by Dan Curry.)

At first nothing happens. But soon some power builds walls of rock around them that might be a cathedral, or a prison. The power reveals itself as faces sacred to various religions, settling on one resembling familiar portraits of the Old Testament God. The voice flatters Sybok, but insists the Enterprise be brought closer, to transport him beyond the Barrier. Then Kirk utters his famous, very-Kirklike impudent question: “Excuse me, but what does God want with a starship?”

This is the very human challenge to those who claim higher authority: a question. This particular being answers by hurling a thunderbolt into Kirk’s chest, and then another into Spock when he repeats the question. Sybok is appalled, which is interesting, since the Old Testament God is often angry and smites wrongdoers. But it rattles Sybok’s faith, and he demands the being reveal itself. Which it does: with Sybok’s face, and its evil laugh.

Sybok immediately understands that he’s looking at his own shadow reflected by a powerful captive being—“my arrogance, my vanity,” and just as quickly, he sacrifices himself to save the others: his redemption.

Later, when McCoy and Spock are speculating on whether God could ever be found in the eternal reaches of outer space, Kirk replies: "Maybe he’s not out there. Maybe he’s in here—in the human heart." It’s a daring statement, though it comports with at least an aspect of many religions. And it is clearly a Star Trek statement.

 But the full statement is also that if God is within the human heart, so is the Devil. There is a famous Cherokee story that relates to this: an elder tells his grandchildren that there are two wolves fighting inside everyone, one good and one bad. “Which one wins?” the children ask. The grandfather replies, “the one you feed.” That’s Star Trek’s view of the future in a nutshell.

The last part of the movie was supposed to have spectacular effects as the evil force pursues Kirk. They aren’t here, to Shatner’s anguish, but I for one don’t miss them. Maybe we could have seen more of Sybok’s struggle with the captive power, but Kirk’s escape passes quickly without damaging the story, because of his surprise rescue.

I haven’t even mentioned two other elements of the story: the Federation, Romulan and Klingon representatives on the Planet of Galactic Peace—another failed Paradise—who Sybok kidnapped to lure the Enterprise, and the young punk Klingons who pursued the Enterprise beyond the Barrier. But the final scenes tie all the elements together in the best Trek storytelling tradition, with Kirk on the planet expecting to be killed by the decloaking Bird of Prey, but instead is rescued by it. The Klingon representative actually commits an act of galactic peace, and at a joint party later, Scotty exclaims, “I never thought I’d be drinking with a Klingon”—an unnoticed and unplanned preview of events in Star Trek VI. (The cultural combination also figures in another classic joke, when Kirk is about to embrace Spock in thanks for rescuing him, and Spock demurs: “Please, Captain, not in front of the Klingons.”)

The final scene back at Yosemite around a campfire, in probably the oldest setting for human interaction, reinforces the power that binds these three men together—the ones often called the trinity—which is expressed in camaraderie, but can also be described as love. They sing together, and this time Spock joins in, because in enacting journeys of the imagination, life is but a dream.

“The Final Frontier” certainly has its problems as a movie. Leonard Nimoy directed Star Trek III under tight supervision, and with a storyline that had to follow from the movie before. With the unique experience of directing a major feature film, he then made his Star Trek statement in “The Voyage Home.” William Shatner was given one film to learn from and to make his statement. Combined with some poor production decisions, this may have contributed to those problems.

But this movie should not be discarded or dismissed. It has classic moments, and there’s a classic Star Trek message somewhere within it. As the Enterprise approaches the mysterious planet, the camera fixes on the plaque at the base of the antique ship’s steering wheel in the observation lounge: “To boldly go where no man has gone before.” The search for a literal God outside becomes another exploration of dimensions of meaning and ultimate identity inside. In a different context, David Gerrold said it best: "Space is not the final frontier. The final frontier is the human soul."

Other Reviews In the TrekMovie.com series: ST: TMP    |  STII: TWOK    |   STIII: TSFS    |  STIV: TVH

More on Star Trek IV at Soul of Star Trek .

Bill Kowinski (aka Captain Future, William S. Kowinski) is an author and freelance writer living in Arcata, CA.  Thanks to his Soul of Star Trek blog, he chaired a panel on that subject at the Trek 40th anniversary gala in Seattle last year.  He’s been published in the New York Times, L.A. Times, San Francisco Chronicle and other international, national and regional publications, as well as Internet sites.  

Images courtesy of Paramount Pictures, screencaps by TrekCore.com  

worst trek film ever….

#1 Nah. Nemesis is worse.

Thanks for the well-written, very thoughtful article!

Peace. Live long and prosper. The Vulcanista }:-|

Yeah, I have to agree. Nemesis was way worse. I honestly didn’t think that TFF was ALL that bad… especially when you watch it with the Mike Nelson Rifftrax!

Although, it’s my least favorite it does have many good scenes.

Daren Doc what would you have done with the effects ???? Just curious?? Besides of course not making them awful as Bran Ferren did.

It has problems, but I love it. The campfire scenes at the beginning and end are some of my favourites from any Trek movie or episode.

I could never get past the scene where the enterprise goes into the great barrier by getting smaller and smaller and going in to the corner of the screen, always annoyed me as a kid….that and the fact that it was too easy to take over the ship…….and many other things…but mainly that…..

The film’s biggest problem is that Shatner the actor needs a far better person holding his reins than Shatner the director. His career is full of great moments and tremendous missteps–it is the great directors that have found a way to reel him in and get the kind of performance out of him that his talent offers. Superb control of his instrument is not chief among his virtues.

Shat fans–commence with the colorful metaphors.

Those that think this is bad Trek must really hate TOS. Or they just don’t get it.

TOS was never about effects…or continuity. It was about Kirk, Spock and McCoy and how they faced adversity and danger in the deep unexplored unknowns of space. Of all the movies, Trek 5 is, hands down, the closest in feel and spirit to the TV series. Contrary to what some might believe, that’s not a bad thing.

Great review.

Star Trek The Motion Picture (the theatrical release) and Star Trek The Final Frontier were about equal in BAD… Nemesis is a close second. However, by any standard they are still “good” or rather “not bad” movies… they just fall too short of the high standard that the fans who love the show place on them.

Well written review. Trek V is easy to hate on but I remember being surprised the last time I saw at all the little things it does right. Sometimes you can’t see the trees for the forest, and the golden nuggets offered by this movie are skillfully highlighted by the reviewer.

It’s a shame Paramount wouldn’t let Shatner “fix” the film. His interviews and candid opinions on the failures and successes of the movie were a revelation and actually made me respect the film more still.

This was not one of my favs. uhura and Scotty having a romance??A klingon Captain apologizing like some kid for misbehaving?? SuperSpock catching Kirk before he killed himself. Chekhov giving Scotty orders??In the elevator shaft scene, there are more than 90 decks?? The effects did not move me at all!! Even though the opener at El Capitan were nice, but c’mon! Digging into the God angle. Then exploring the Great Barrier, I thought that was interesting, but could have been probed a little further.

After the flop of this film, Nimoy said that Paramount was going to finish off TREK for good, but they made enough money to get St6 together. A side note. Notice when the 1st officers make movies ( Riker and Spock) they do well. So Far the Captains up until this point suck. Besides featuring a heavier Nimoy.

He’s right about the good points of the film.

Nice review, focusing on the good elements. I had completely missed the “expulsion from Paradise” motif :)

I want to thank Bill for his well thought out review of STV, not an easy film to review. There is always more to any Trek film than simple knee jerk reactions…like thos of the first poster who didn’t even bother to read the review.

Great article Bill…and reading it, I was struck with the depth of the storyline and some interesting thematic parallels contained within.

I applaud The Shat for at least trying something different with this one even if the execution left a lot to be desired.

This is still my least favorite film, but I can see where Shat was trying to go with this. It’s just too bad he didn’t succeed.

However, admittedly, the deck was stacked against him as soon as he put “God” into the mix.

I still wish this film could get a proper makeover with all new FX! This is one of only a few films I can think of that has an unfinished feel. The final confrontation on Sha Ka Ree deserves to be remade with CGI rockmen for example. As the sequence currently stands, it painfully shows that it was a patchwork ending produced in the editing room at the last minute.

Robert Wise got to complete TMP to his satisfaction and Richard Donner finally got to complete Superman II to his vision. It only seems natural that Shatner should be afforded the same opportunity.

It’s a very bad movie, but I’ll agree that McCoy’s scene at his father’s bedside features some fine acting from Dee Kelley. I thought the chair gag with Kirk was a bit much, and the variation better done in Generations (one of the few things that movie got right).

Of course, my biggest beef was always the fact that Starfleet would send out a broken ship with no crew on ANY mission. That, and the fact that an emo Vulcan and some wannabe Sand People managed to take over the Enterprise so easily.

In all fairness, Hey! I did love the music score I still love TOS, but it seems like after ST3 and 4, Nimoy said Ok Bill! You try it, now. Then paramount said Nimoy you get back in the chair for 6. I cant imagine a few klingon torpedoes taking out GOD??!!!

Good review. There are some good moments in the movie. Overall, I’d rather watch this than Star Trek VI.

I said TFF was my least favorite — but I meant of the “classic Trek” films. Insurrection and Nemesis are FAR worse films, in my opinion.

I’ve only seen each of those ONCE…and in the theater.

At least TFF can be watched — in the same way I can watch Spock’s Brain or The Way to Eden and enjoy them too.

A good way to watch TFF and get some extra enjoyment out of it is to download MST3K’s Mike Nelson’s RIFFTRAK. It’s a hilarious commentary done in the MST3K vein. They also have one for STVI: TUC.

http://www.rifftrax.com/

Oooooh! Second. Kirk is not dead, because in this film he says that he knows that McCoy and Spock are there when he does die. He said, “….I know…” That’s canon. He knows whos present at his death, people keep forgetting that. IN addition some of you “fans” are just silly, “I don’t like that.” So you don’t go see it.(Nemesis) Star Trek is Star Trek is Star Trek Please.

This movie may not be the best Star Trek movie, but it has some of the best character scenes of any of the films…PERIOD!

William Shatner directed some very fine scenes between the characters..Well done Bill.

This is a ridiculous labor to apologize for the most abysmal of all the Trek cinematic outings. Worse than Nemsis? Nonsense. Utter nonsense.

In many ways, Trek V was the ultimate exposition of Shatner’s ego, ranging simultaneously from the pleasantly surprising to the morbidly embarassing. The writer is correct in that some flashes of great style were exhibited in Shatner’s directorial effort, but it is the pervasiveness of Shatner’s “my way or the highway” style that insinuates itself into the very fiber of this film.

That Trek could fall so mightily from the critical heights of Trek’s II, III, and IV down to the depths of V is a testament to the fragility of Trek’s story genetics, and sadly those weaknesses were exposed with a story that should never have seen the imprimatur of Paramount’s powers-that-be.

Strangely I liked the acting of Luckinbill, Sybok seemed very determined and arrogant. It was fascinating. Although, they made Sarek seem like a playa.. He got with a Vulcan priestess and then Sybok.

Excellent review. Made me look at the film in a different light. Going to re-watch it soon.

There may be only a handful of good moments in the movie — but /damn/ are they good.

Thanks for a review that actually focuses on them, instead of going for the obvious. :)

(That said, I crack up every time I see feet pushing the shuttlecraft in that one scene…)

#24, just where, in your opinion, specifically , did Shatner’s ego ruin a scene or have an impact on his directorial inmput? I’m very curious.

does anyone know about the fate of the fabled recut? i was tracking it for a while but lost the info. (i believe the same guy did a salvaging of the phantom menace as well.) the basic idea was to fix the fx, edit out the failed humor and tighten the story. i imagine a pretty good 70 minute film could be achieved.

nice review but nothing will ever counter total embarrassment i feel every time i watch it.

biggest cringe: SILENT warning of the approaching bird of prey. favorite moment: the klingons blasting the voyager probe to pieces. i imagine they saved us from the return of v’ger with that one.

I am getting painsin my head just looking at those still photos from Star trek 5 who wants too reminice about this one , I don’t

Shatner’s not a director. I get the impression he may have leveraged his way into the director’s chair as a condition to reprise his role as Kirk.Now ,that would be the real story of that movie.

The funniest thing about the STV is the sudden haircut Sybok has before they meet ‘god’.

Kirk says “I’ve always known…I’ll die alone.” ……. And he was right.

#31 jon C this film proves one thing, that Shatner should not be allowed to direct Traffic let alone movies.

I didn’t see any “rave reviews” for this one, initial or otherwise.

I’m sure some reviewer must have liked it. The writer for the Baltimore Sun left in the middle of the show to make phone calls.

Roger Ebert said:

“”Star Trek V” is pretty much of a mess – a movie that betrays all the signs of having gone into production at a point where the script doctoring should have begun in earnest. There is no clear line from the beginning of the movie to the end, not much danger, no characters to really care about, little suspense, uninteresting or incomprehensible villains, and a great deal of small talk and pointless dead ends. Of all of the “Star Trek” movies, this is the worst.”

Having recently been rewatching all of the ST movies, I will say this about STV: It’s always entertaining. But there’s no question it’s at the bottom of the pile, and I think arguements of Nemesis being worse is little more then pure blind hate for that movie, which I’ve never quite understood.

STV is entertaining, and the review pointed out some great stuff that it has going for it. And honestly the VFX never bothered me that much. What’s problematic is just the pure ridiculousness of it, whether it be something nitpicky like how buggy the Enterprise-A is to a grey-haired Uhura’s naked fan-dance. At times incoherent, the movie is pretty much impossible to take seriously from the moment you see Spock fly up in those rocket boots. And I think that’s it’s greatest problem, that from the start it just seems silly.

That being said, there’s good in everything, and I do adore the scene with DeKelley as mentioned in the review and others here.

“It’s me! It’s Sybok!” has got to be one of the worst lines in Trek film history. It just seemed so ridiculous that Spock had this half-brother of whom we had never heard. The notion of an emotional Vulcan seeking an alternative path to enlightenment wasn’t a bad one (indeed, it had been done in one of the Trek novels–I forget which one as I probably read it 25 years or more ago), but given Spock’s own struggles with emotion and his humanity and Sarek’s reactions thereto, it seemd rather odd that we had never heard of the emotional Sybok before Trek V.

And the God thing never made sense, nor did the way in which the crew fell for Sybok’s plans. And the Planet of Galactic peace never really made a whole lot of plot sense. It seemed awkwardly shoved into a tortured script.

To some up the redeeming qualities of the film: it was Star Trek and Kirk, Spock and McCoy were prominently featured. Beyond that, it wasn’t too swift.

I believe that the great German Director Uwe Boll to be a disiple of the Willian Shatner School of film Directing. If you look carefully at the editing and direction of the actors without getting a brain hemorage, you can note the same fine film technique demonstratedd in such soon to be classic Boll films as Alone in the Dark and Bloodrayne. And if you study the technique Shatner used in the battle scences on Nimbus 3 are almost a perfect match for many of the fine battle scences in Boll eoic and incredible film Dungeonseige In the name of the King . If you look at how Shatner directed the actors themselves again Boll copied closely this technique. Also Boll copied Shatners editing technique and shot selection approach very closely in his films.

Was it the best TOS movie ever? No. But it is definitely a TOS film worth watching and personally (and I am not afraid to say it), it is one of my favorite TOS movies. What I love so much about Trek is the characters and I really thought that in many scenes the characters were spot on. Granted the special effects weren’t the best, but I can easily look past that. I like the movie and always will, and while it is not perfect it should not be overlooked. It is a TOS movie and there are parts in it that are most definitely TOS moments that should never be forgotten.

note: i recall that roddenberry was adamant in the original star trek guide for TOS that there were never to be any spockian siblings. he felt that it would weaken spock’s character and dilute his backstory. talk about canon rape. sarek was a bit of a slut, i guess.

remember this quote regarding TMP from old harlan? “it’s roddenberry’s standard plot; the enterprise finds god. and it’s either a child, a computer, or both.”

Wow, what a great review….I can tell a lot of time and thought went into it. It is easy to just say that the movie sucked, but to watch with the intent of finding positive things to say, despite its shortcomings took critical talent. Yes, there were lame scenes (Spock saving Kirk a the last second via his jetshoes for one), but there were good ones, too. And the general message of the movie was thought-provoking. I understand that there were many obstacles dealt to Shatner, financially and with the strikes, etc. Several scenes were cut, and the FX were substandard even by 1989 standards.

I’ll give it that it had SOME moments, but all-in-all, it was a nice disasterous failure. COMPLETELY. I’m a Christian, but the whole “God” thing was just stupid. This film, along with Nemesis, should be thrown into the “non-canon” pile. At least that way we keep Data and get rid of Spock’s bastard brother. And of course, we never see Nimbus 3 again, for a good reason.

2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 ,9 were all good. 1, 5, and 10 could be left out. Albeit, 1 did give us a sexy new Enterprise. And 10 gave Trek seatbelts, an important factor at Warp speeds.

If any of you believe in the theory of Parallel Universes there is probably one in which Shatner actually is a good director and Star trek 5 an acadamy award winning film. i know probabilities are stacked against this one.

The ‘God’ Sybok found was actually his own demonic puppetmaster.

Well done, Bill. ST V remains at the bottom of my list, but there are definitely some precious gems in it, and I think you tagged them all. Many thanks for your effort.

Re: 1 & 2 – I still think “Insurrection” is the worst Star Trek movie so far.

I think Insurrection is the most boring Trek film. I’ve always said it would have been a so-so TV episode.

STV would have been better with the rock monsters. That was the whole problem.

A? okay inpenetrable energy barrier, need starship to cross barier to get to god let me think well it begs the question why does god need a starship? answers so god can spead wisdom to his children. which comes back to the question if you are god, all knowing and all powerful. Why cant you cross the barrier youself . Conclusion Hey! your not God! your an evil imposter imprisioned. I mean after examining that the who premise of this move goes up in smoke. Whch begs the question of who wrote this crud and how could said auther be deluded into believing that this was actually a good story.

Great review. Shatner ain’t a bad director. The script’s the thing…wherein we’ll find the conscience of the king. Too bad Parmamount didn’t ante up and fix the special effects.

This movie had so much wrong with it…Why couldn’t Kirk have just set the ship’s phasers on stun and taken care of the problem with the situation on the Nimbus III planet? I guess they forgot such a demonstration in “A Piece of the Action” ? And Spock’s boots — were they supposed to be rocket-powered or anti-gravity-powered? I don’t think they knew which…And the shuttle bay — what was it, about a mile long? Uhhhh…I’d better stop now…

Good read, great review. Star Trek V is or was certainly near the bottom when compared to the other trek films. It wasn’t so much a bad movie, but certainly not a good one either. IMO better than Nemesis and Insurrectoin.

Also no need to repeat why IV succeeded and V did not. It has been mentioned above. I wonder though, and this is just supposition and or coincidence, the person at the center of IV is involved in Star Trek 2009 and the person at the center of V is not. Food for thought.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

About this movie

Ratings and reviews.

• Flag inappropriate

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Streaming in:

We checked for updates on 246 streaming services on April 26, 2024 at 12:06:43 AM. Something wrong? Let us know!

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier streaming: where to watch online?

Currently you are able to watch "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" streaming on Max, Max Amazon Channel or for free with ads on Tubi TV. It is also possible to rent "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" on Microsoft Store, Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Vudu, Spectrum On Demand online and to download it on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Vudu, Microsoft Store, AMC on Demand.

Where does Star Trek V: The Final Frontier rank today? The JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity within the last 24 hours. This includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as 'seen'. This includes data from ~1.3 million movie & TV show fans per day.

Streaming charts last updated: 1:17:53 AM, 04/26/2024

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is 17916 on the JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts today. The movie has moved up the charts by 8969 places since yesterday. In the United States, it is currently more popular than Body of Sin but less popular than The Chambermaid.

The crew of the Federation starship Enterprise is called to Nimbus III, the Planet of Intergalactic Peace. They are to negotiate in a case of kidnapping only to find out that the kidnapper is a relative of Spock. This man is possessed by his life long search for the planet Sha Ka Ree which is supposed to be the source of all life. Together they begin to search for this mysterious planet.

Videos: Trailers, Teasers, Featurettes

Streaming Charts The JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity within the last 24 hours. This includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as 'seen'. This includes data from ~1.3 million movie & TV show fans per day.

Production country

Bundle offers, people who liked star trek v: the final frontier also liked.

Popular movies coming soon

Upcoming Action & Adventure movies

Similar Movies you can watch for free

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

Full cast & crew.

Directed by 

Writing credits ( wga )  , cast (in credits order) verified as complete  , produced by , music by , cinematography by , editing by , casting by , production design by , art direction by , set decoration by , costume design by , makeup department , production management , second unit director or assistant director , art department , sound department , special effects by , visual effects by , stunts , camera and electrical department , casting department , costume and wardrobe department , editorial department , location management , music department , script and continuity department , transportation department , additional crew , thanks .

Release Dates | Official Sites | Company Credits | Filming & Production | Technical Specs

Contribute to This Page

• Full Cast and Crew
• Release Dates
• Official Sites
• Company Credits
• Filming & Production
• Technical Specs
• Plot Summary
• Plot Keywords
• Parents Guide

Did You Know?

• Crazy Credits
• Alternate Versions
• Connections
• Soundtracks

Photo & Video

• Photo Gallery
• Trailers and Videos
• User Reviews
• User Ratings
• External Reviews
• Metacritic Reviews

Related Items

• External Sites

Related lists from IMDb users

Recently Viewed

Oh no! This title currently isn’t available to watch in your country.

Fantasy & Sci-Fi

Star trek v: the final frontier (hbo).

: A renegade Vulcan mystic hijacks the Enterprise to go on a quest for God in this thrilling fifth Star Trek movie.

Plans start at $9.99/month.

Fantasy & Sci-Fi, Action, Space & Beyond, Adventure

Release Year

Rating information, about this movie.

A renegade Vulcan mystic hijacks the Enterprise to go on a quest for God in this thrilling fifth Star Trek movie.

Cast and Crew

Starring: William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley , James Doohan , Walter Koenig , Nichelle Nichols , George Takei , David Warner , Laurence Luckinbill

You May Also Like

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (HBO)

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (HBO)

Star Trek Generations (HBO)

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (HBO)

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (HBO)

Star Trek: Insurrection (HBO)

Godzilla 2000 (HBO)

Journey to the Center of the Earth (HBO)

Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London (HBO)

Goldfinger (HBO)

The Killer Elite (HBO)

A View to a Kill (HBO)

Find iconic entertainment for every mood.

Letterboxd — Your life in film

Forgotten username or password ?

• Start a new list…
• Add all films to a list…
• Add all films to watchlist

Add to your films…

Press Tab to complete, Enter to create

A moderator has locked this field.

Add to lists

Where to watch

Star trek v: the final frontier.

1989 Directed by William Shatner

Adventure and imagination will meet at the final frontier.

The crew of the Federation starship Enterprise is called to Nimbus III, the Planet of Intergalactic Peace. They are to negotiate in a case of kidnapping only to find out that the kidnapper is a relative of Spock. This man is possessed by his life long search for the planet Sha Ka Ree which is supposed to be the source of all life. Together they begin to search for this mysterious planet.

William Shatner Leonard Nimoy DeForest Kelley James Doohan George Takei Walter Koenig Nichelle Nichols Laurence Luckinbill David Warner Charles Cooper Cynthia Gouw Todd Bryant Spice Williams-Crosby Rex Holman George Murdock Jonathan Simpson Beverly Hart Steve Susskind Harve Bennett Cynthia Blaise Bill Quinn Melanie Shatner Michael Berryman Carey Scott

Director Director

William Shatner

Producers Producers

Harve Bennett Mel Efros

Writer Writer

David Loughery

Story Story

Harve Bennett William Shatner David Loughery

Casting Casting

Bill Shepard

Editor Editor

Peter E. Berger

Cinematography Cinematography

Andrew Laszlo

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Douglas E. Wise George Fortmuller

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Ralph Winter Gene Roddenberry

Production Design Production Design

Herman F. Zimmerman

Set Decoration Set Decoration

John M. Dwyer

Special Effects Special Effects

Michael Wood

Stunts Stunts

Dick Ziker R.A. Rondell Gregory J. Barnett Frank Orsatti Freddie Hice Don Pulford David R. Ellis James M. Halty Glenn R. Wilder Linda Fetters Howard David Burton Tom Morga Terry Jackson Tommy J. Huff Joyce McNeal Scott Wilder

Composer Composer

Jerry Goldsmith

Sound Sound

Doug Hemphill Gary Alexander Chris Jenkins David M. Ronne

Costume Design Costume Design

Nilo Rodis-Jamero

Makeup Makeup

Kenny Myers Allan A. Apone Janice Alexander Ellis Burman Jr. Katalin Elek Jeff Dawn Wes Dawn Edouard F. Henriques Rolf John Keppler Tina Hoffman Michael Mills Erin Koplow

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Donna Barrett Gilbert Hazel Catmull

Releases by Date

Theatrical limited, 05 sep 1990, 09 jun 1989, 06 oct 1989, 20 oct 1989, 16 nov 1989, 01 jun 1990, 01 feb 1998, 08 mar 2001, 01 apr 2008, 28 may 2009, 26 jun 2015, 18 dec 1992, 05 apr 2003, releases by country.

• Theatrical PG
• Theatrical L
• Theatrical limited TP
• Physical VHS
• Physical U DVD
• Theatrical 12

Netherlands

• TV 12 RTL 5
• Physical 12 DVD
• Physical 12 Blu ray
• Theatrical M/6
• TV 11 Kanal 1

106 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Branson Reese 7

This is a tricky one, no two ways about it.

First thing's first: this is a pro-Shatner account. Not saying he's a saint or anything. Every person who ever worked with him has something at least mildly bad to say about him and I'm 90% sure he'll get into NFTs with his remaining time on this earth if he hasn't already. But I believe in meeting people where they are, and a Canadian egotist who was born in 1931 and has logged service as an actor (God's noblest and most difficult profession) in eight separate decades is gonna require some traveling to get to. But I think it's worth the time and effort.

Shatner's got an ego like the Titanic,…

Review by matt lynch ★★★

ill-conceived (charitably speaking), sabotaged by poor planning (with attendant studio-mandated budget cuts) and hubris (Shatner's insistence on directing, then everyone's conflicting script approval) and then driven over a cliff by sheer circumstance (both a WGA and a Teamster strike), there's still an actual STAR TREK movie in here. going on a physical search for God (even a reductive & cheaply dramatized one like this) seems like a natural progression for characters who have literally cheated time and death. the core trio of Kirk, Spock and McCoy still bounce off each other so well (watching them sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" i actually find pretty charming, sue me), and i like that this one stops dead in its tracks, more than once, to psychoanalyze the crew (the flashback to McCoy euthanizing his father is particularly intense). there's plenty here with which to be disappointed; it's a mess but not a thoughtless one.

Review by pd187 ★★★★★ 17

my fav trek cuz shatner, moody & vital, does almost none of the stupid military-procedure federation nerd shit trekkies (fascists) love, just lusty dive bar adventures big jokes theological ufo cult debate (anti-psych) & ancient friends fartin round the campfire, anarcho-gnostic cuz life is sacred & profane & but a dream

love sybok, love his white robe & quest for truth, shatner loves him too & gives him an ending youd never give khan or some fucking borg or whatever, not just a sneakdiss to roddenberry's channeled "nine"* but smart pulp & romantic humanism closest to gene's 60s shit ripped off by gunn, proyas, wachowskis, m.night & admitted trekkie qt, as dickean as paul v's total recall, that goldsmith score over alien artifacts & a spacebar full of sexy bighead mutant freaks

critics want a marketable well-oiled machine but this has real moments of cinematic majesty & depth beyond the 2/4/6-numbered "good" ones. kirks last words: "i was wrong"

Review by Ian West ★★★★

“Excuse me... but what does god need with a Starship?”

Review by Matt Singer ★★ 2

Wait, so why is Spock's brother all emotional-like if he's a Vulcan? And why is Uhura dancing naked? And why -- you know what? I don't care.

Review by Mr. DuLac ★ 13

Please Captain, not in front of the Klingons. -Spock

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was a big risk that ended up being the most successful project to come out of Star Trek in it's then 20 year history. I think the only explanation for what happened next is that Paramount Pictures got cocky. For The Voyage Home they greenlit the franchise's most absurd plot in it's history, so they probably thought giving the go ahead on a story that involves a religious zealot searching for God with William Shatner at the helm didn't sound like such a bad idea.

Harve Bennett , who had produced and had a hand in writing the last three films, wasn't even interested in participating.…

Review by 20oldboy03 ★★★½ 18

Vor nicht allzu langer Zeit, in einer Galaxy, näher als gedacht: Es herrscht Aufruhr in meinem Gemüht. Nach einem anfänglich arbeitsreichen Arbeitstag bei fehlender Warenanlieferung und der dadurch hervorgerufenen anderweitigen Beschäftigung, freute ich mich auf ein gutes Feierabendmahlzeit mit einhergehendem Film. Aufruhr wegen der Personalknappheit und dem dadurch hervorgerufenen, sich im Endeffekt einredenden Stress, bliebt selbiger auch längst nach der Feierabendmahlzeit. Ich , als Opfer und Geschädigter, begebe mich auf die erholsame Abkehr jedweden Stresses.

Verfolgt von tausenden anderen Filmen, begab ich mich auf die Aufgrabe, alle Filme zu sehen …

Ist der erste Star Trek Film, „Star Trek: Der Film“ das „2001: Odyssee im Weltraum“ unter den Star Trek Werken, „Star Trek II: Der Zorn des Khan“ für mich die…

Review by ALISTAIR LEACH 8

I'm not being funny but I've just realised this is William Shatner's remake of Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker.

Stalker Three Men travel and camp in a harsh environment with a guide to meet god, the creator etc to be rewarded but they don't have the faith to confront the ultimate power/reason of existence face on.

Or as my preferred reading, a mysterious and impenetrable room is created with "the secret of life and desire" to give people faith in the harshest landscapes. As the notion and "belief" of faith is more important than the actual reality of it.

Star Trek 5 Three Men travel and camp only to meet a guide after travelling to a harsh environment to meet "god", to understand existence, and be rewarded but get attacked by a Klingon Warbird and bad acting instead.

Like i said, it is Shatner's remake

Review by Deckk ★★★ 7

100-word review: A very in-touch-with-his-emotions relative of Spock takes control of the Enterprise to aid his search for God. Everybody gets a turn! Nimoy went twice, so now Shatner gets to direct a Star Trek film. And oh do we get some directional, uhm, choices — looking at you naked Uhura dance. After the brilliantly comedic The Voyage Home , my body was ready for the Star Trek Motion Picture beach (forest camping) episode, featuring actually good rock-climbing, but instead we get the theological episode, which takes a long time to get going and arrive at a convoluted conclusion.

Part of my September 2021 Live Long and Prosper challenge; 5th out of 13 films.

Review by A. J. Black ★★

After the critical and commercial success of The Voyage Home, William Shatner remembered a little clause in his original 1960's Star Trek TV contract that stated he'd have equal share of opportunities Leonard Nimoy had, and vice versa. Since Nimoy had directed the previous two Trek movies, Shatner decided it was time for his crack at the chair and the result was The Final Frontier... widely regarded as the nadir of the Star Trek movie franchise, even to this day. It's an unfortunate legacy that's difficult to disagree with - some Trek films haven't been very good, but none have been as frequently average as TFF. Yet, and perhaps this is a long standing Trek fan who remembers watching this…

Review by Will Menaker ★★ 4

The one they let William Shatner direct.

Not quite as terrible as I remembered but still pretty bad. I may have been premature in rating III as not the worst Star Trek movie, as it's hard to say which is weaker. In this one, Kirk, Spock and Bones use facts and logic to kill the false God at the center of the galaxy, which sounds a lot cooler than it is. The bad guy is Spock's half brother, a rogue Vulcan who uses telepathic abilities and an embrace of primal emotion to run a therapy cult that heals people by confronting and acknowledging their pain. There are some good, corny character moments in this one that focus on the show's central triumvirate eating beans together but that's about it.

Review by Naughty aka Juli Norwood ★★★★½ 4

_________________________________________________________________

Film #31 of the March Madness 80s Sci-Fi Movie Challenge! letterboxd.com/naughty/list/march-madness-80s-sci-fi-movie-challenge/

_________________________________________________________________ .................................................................................................................................... Film #5 in The Star Trek Marathon! letterboxd.com/kikuchisawa/list/the-star-trek-marathon-march-20-31/ ....................................................................................................................................

While the theme of the film didn't really grab me I found this to be perhaps the strongest entry thus far in terms of a character driven plot! And when those characters are Star Trek icons that's a good thing! In my opinion this film was by far the closest spirit wise to the television series!

Between Bone's laughter inducing sarcasm, Scotty becoming one with an inanimate object and Spock's comment to the Captain "Captain Please not in front of the Klingons" I was always one step away from losing myself completely with laughter!

I cannot begin to explain the satisfaction and joy I've experienced while visiting the original Star Trek franchise! I simply must take this journey more often in the future!

Related Films

Similar Films

Select your preferred poster

Upgrade to remove ads.

Letterboxd is an independent service created by a small team, and we rely mostly on the support of our members to maintain our site and apps. Please consider upgrading to a Pro account —for less than a couple bucks a month, you’ll get cool additional features like all-time and annual stats pages ( example ), the ability to select (and filter by) your favorite streaming services, and no ads!

• Show Spoilers
• Night Vision
• Sticky Header
• Highlight Links

Follow TV Tropes

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier

Film / Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Edit locked.

"What does God need with a starship?" — Captain Kirk

The one where Spock’s ''never-before seen or mentioned'' Vulcan half-brother hijacks the Enterprise to look for God ...(?)

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is the fifth movie in the Star Trek film series, released in 1989. They've stared at V'Ger , defeated the vengeful Khan , found Spock , and rescued the whales . But can the Enterprise crew survive their greatest challenge yet? William Shatner ... in ... The director's seat!

Tropes seen in The Final Frontier include:

• Agent Mulder : Sybok is convinced that God is real and lives in the center of the galaxy, despite modern society having deemed that a myth. note  While several characters have mulled over the meaning of God , particularly Kirk, no one ever thought that He was somewhere waiting to be found.
• Agent Scully : Kirk refuses to believe, first because Sybok appears crazy and then because "God" doesn't seem as powerful as advertised. McCoy goes from Scully to Mulder when they meet "God" and back to Scully when "God" starts being a dick .
• The Alcatraz : Spock proclaims the brig to be escape-proof. As in all things, however, rare is the Alcatraz that can stop escape attempts from both ends.
• The Alcoholic : Korrd is Drowning My Sorrows , though he's snapped out of it by Spock.
• The Alleged Car : Kirk is nonplussed by his squeaky chair, dodgy transporters, and the defective Log transcriber (which keeps popping open with ridiculous SPRONNG! noises). Bennett: Now, I know Enterprise is not exactly up to specs. Kirk: With All Due Respect , the Enterprise is a disaster .
• The novelization by J.M. Dillard adds considerable backstory to Sybok and his mother, and explains that "God" had telepathically sent Sybok a formula for configuring a starship's deflector shields to penetrate the Barrier. After Sybok orders Scotty to set up the Enterprise ' s shields in this way, Klaa's Bird-of-Prey copies the same shield configuration in order to follow the Enterprise .
• The book makes it clear that Kirk is trying to make this movie a Breather Episode for himself and failing, distracting himself by mountain climbing, feeling like he’s ruined his own life and trying to see how close he can get to Dying Alone .
• The Blu-Ray releases include the Library Computer, an interactive database that will appear on screen as the movie plays offering entries on characters, ships, places, etc. with additional information on them. There is one case of the movie defying the Library's logic; the entry on Deck 78 (on a 21-deck starship) simply reads, "Don't ask us!"
• Amazonian Beauty : Vixis. As Chekov put it: "She has vonderful muscles" (by which he meant gluteus maximus ).
• Anti-Villain : Sybok is the villain of the movie, but he really isn't a bad guy, just misguided and a little nutty. Klaa could qualify as well, as by Klingon standards he isn't malicious, just bored.
• Arc Words : Sybok: Each man hides a secret pain.
• Armor-Piercing Question : "What does God need with a starship?" Easily one of the most famous examples of this trope.
• Artistic License – History : Sybok claims that Columbus proved the Earth was round, which is incorrect. The Ancient Greeks determined the Earth was round, and even accurately measured its circumference. Columbus meant to find a faster sea route to Asia and got into the Caribbean because he miscalculated the circumference.
• Artists Are Not Architects : In one scene, the Enterprise is shown to have about twice as many decks as it could possibly contain, and they are numbered in reverse order for some reason. Somewhat explained in the Alternate Universe Star Trek: Myriad Universes story "The Chimes at Midnight"; Kirk was at one point forced to climb the turbolift-shafts and to count the decks as he passed them, "for they were not labeled on the interior of the shaft, although he noted with annoyance that the designers had elected to number the numerous individual turbolift landing decks—each level having several turbolift stops along its breadth—as he passed a sign misleadingly indicating 'Deck 52.'"
• "Ass" in Ambassador : Inverted, unusually for Star Trek . St. John Talbot and Korrd are not unreasonable people (just incredibly jaded), and Caithlin Dar is downright nice (a rarity for Romulans, actually...). This may be precisely why they are where they are (particularly Korrd, who is both disgraced and disgraceful in his drink): the planet is a dumping ground for anyone in the diplomatic corps of the three powers that the leadership wants to be rid of in a non-permanent way. If they hadn't gotten along, they would have died.
• Attack Pattern Alpha : Played with: Kirk: Stand by to execute Emergency Landing Plan ... B. [ Confused looks from everyone on the shuttle ] Chekov: What's Emergency Landing Plan B? Scotty: I don't have a clue. Kirk: "B," as in ... "barricade." Scotty: He can't be serious!
• Author Appeal : Why approach the hostage situation on horseback? Because Shatner is an avid equestrian.
• Bad Liar : Onshore leave, Sulu and Chekov try to extend their hike by saying they've been caught in a blizzard at Yosemite ... when Uhura reports "clear skies and seventy degrees" there. They give up the charade immediately.
• Behind the Black : Scotty, after claiming to know the ship like the back of his hand, concusses himself on a bit of bulkhead that sticks out from the wall. Whilst unseen by the audience before impact, Scotty was walking towards the bulkhead and, in fact, was looking right at it when he hit it.
• Beta Couple : St. John Talbot and Caithlin Dar. One Meaningful Background Event has them sadly comforting each other in a loving embrace.
• Big Bad Ensemble : Sybok and Klaa are an unusual examples in that Sybok isn't evil per se, and for the most part Klaa is more of an annoyance than anything else. "God" eventually turns out to be the film's Greater-Scope Villain , but doesn't show up until the very end.
• Big Damn Gunship : Spock, commanding a Klingon Bird of Prey, opens fire on "God" in order to rescue Kirk.
• Big Ego, Hidden Depths : Sybok. Cruelly invoked by "God", who takes the form of Sybok and mocks, "What's the matter? Don't you like this face? I have so many, but this one suits you best."
• Book Ends : Camping at Yosemite National Park with the Power Trio .
• Kirk states in the opening that men like himself, Bones, and Spock had no families. He later admits he was wrong.
• His premonition that he'll die alone (and is, therefore, safe while Spock and McCoy are there) is also mentioned again.
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture had opened with a Klingon fleet getting destroyed by V'Ger , which is revealed to be the (fictitious) 20th-century space probe Voyager 6 . In this film, we're introduced to the Klingon captain Klaa destroying the 20th-century space probe Pioneer 10 .
• While flying to the Enterprise from shore leave, Kirk quotes John Masefield's line "All I ask is a tall ship, and a star to steer her by", as in the TOS episode "The Ultimate Computer" .
• When Kirk gives a captain's log, his log breaks down and reads "Good morning, Captain", instead, like how in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , the Excelsior 's computer read "Good morning, Captain" when it broke down.
• Cannot Tell a Lie : What Spock claims as proof that Kirk was not aboard the Enterprise . He was lying about not being able to lie, though he was telling the truth about Kirk's location.
• It's still technically part of the canon, but the events have never been directly referenced in another canonical Star Trek work again. Rumor has it the writers are specifically told not to as a matter of course. Gene Roddenberry said he considered invoked some elements of the movie "apocryphal, at best", but he apparently never told anyone which ones. note  Some have contended the main one was the reveal that Sarek had a child with a woman before Amanda Grayson, particularly since D.C. Fontana had gone out of her way to establishing that Spock had no siblings whatsoever, in order to ensure that they weren't deluged with scripts where said siblings showed up. However, as the Vaka Rangi review notes, "nobody at Paramount cared about what D.C. Fontana wanted by this point." Ronald D. Moore , who was working on Star Trek: The Next Generation at the time, has said that while the show's writers accepted the film as canon, they considered it such an embarrassment to the franchise as a whole that they agreed among themselves that they would never cite or reference its events on the show, to the extent that they heavily rewrote the ending of " The Nth Degree " simply because they didn't want it to have anything in common with this film.
• The novels, which are now vetted more thoroughly than they used to be, have featured Sybok exactly twice, both in the Myriad Universe novels, which take place entirely in alternate universes.
• The TOS novel "Child of Two Worlds" had Spock mentioning the existence of his half-brother, but not Sybok's name to a Cyprian teenager named Merata - who was raised by Klingons - in 2255. Spock told Merata that he had not seen his brother in almost a decade and wasn't even sure if Sybok was still alive or not.
• The novels have also mentioned the God-like creature at the center of the Great Barrier; in the Q Continuum trilogy of novels, He referred to Himself as "The One", and was a contemporary of 0 , the Beta XIII-A entity, and Gorgon. The four of them were responsible for the destruction of the Tkon Empire. It is mentioned that pretending to be God and then using the resulting influence to drive civilizations to self-destruction is his entire schtick. In fact, he was imprisoned in the center of the galaxy by the Q for his crimes, while 0 was punished by being thrown out of the galaxy (which was the reason for the galactic barrier as seen in the second TOS pilot).
• The only real survivor, at least according to the Okudas in the Star Trek Encyclopedia , is Captain Klaa, who was apparently demoted for his actions and assigned as a courtroom translator in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . This was due to the coincidence that Todd Bryant played the translator.
• The first time the film got so much as an indirect reference from any other canon Star Trek material didn't come until Star Trek Beyond , and even then didn't go any further than the Kelvin timeline's Spock looking at a photograph of the crew on this film's Enterprise -A bridge. note  It was likely only chosen because pictures from any of the other original cast films would have left casual moviegoers wondering who Decker, Ilia or Saavik were, why Spock was missing , why the crew was on the bridge of a Klingon Bird-of-Prey , or why Sulu was missing .
• Kirk's autobiography says it's an in-universe movie made on Magna Roma , and gives credit to the trio (him, Bones and Spock ) being spot on, but nothing else.
• The Star Trek: Lower Decks episode " Crisis Point " had a ton of references, both subtle and overt, to all the Star Trek films to have been released until that point... except for this one, which was the only film in the series to be completely ignored. However, the following season's " wej Duj " would finally make the franchise's first explicit on-screen reference to this film, after a whole thirty-two years .
• Star Trek: Discovery shows Spock's family in detail including his Remember the New Guy? sister being the protagonist but there's no mention of them having a brother.
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , though set well before the events of the films, acknowledges Sybok's existence as Spock's half-brother.
• Scotty records a "shakedown cruise report" for the Enterprise -A. "I think this new ship was put together by monkeys. Oh, she's got a fine engine, but half the doors won't open, and guess whose job it is to make it right."
• Defied by the log recorder itself when it conks out. "GOOD MORNING, CAPTAIN."
• Card-Carrying Villain : Klaa does what he does because ... he's bored.
• Catch a Falling Star : Spock grabs Kirk by the ankle after he falls off El Capitan without so much as causing him a bruise.
• Cat Girl : With three breasts. Defeated by Kirk when he throws her into a literal pool table .
• Cerebus Syndrome : The alleged comedy disappears and the movie becomes much more serious once they begin their trip to the Great Barrier.
• Early in the film, Spock appears using Jet Boots to fly. Later in the film, when he, Kirk, and McCoy need to travel up a long turbolift shaft he dons the same boots and uses them to fly the whole group up to the top of the shaft.
• Klingon Captain Klaa shoots an old Earth space probe with one of the cannons of his Bird of Prey. Late in the movie, Spock uses the same weapon to shoot "God" and save Captain Kirk from an early grave.
• Chewing the Scenery : In-universe, Chekov seemed to have a little too much fun pretending to be captain of the Enterprise to distract Sybok while Kirk and Spock are attempting to rescue the hostages.
• Circle of Standing Stones : The meeting with "God" takes place in a circle of stones that rise out of the ground as Kirk and company approach.
• Climb, Slip, Hang, Climb : In the rock-climbing scene.
• Clueless Aesop : Contemplation of God's existence, or otherwise, would have been interesting were it not so overshadowed by slapstick comedy.
• Comic-Book Adaptation : Written by Peter David and published by DC Comics , the adaptation served as a launching point for DC's second Star Trek monthly series.
• Coming in Hot : " Plan B ... as in Barricade !"
• The last line in Star Trek IV was Kirk saying, "Let's see what she's (the Enterprise-A ) got." Scotty's opening log in this movie says as he complains about the shape the new ship is in, "The captain said, 'Let's see what she's got, and we found out, now, didn't we!"
• When Kirk, Spock, and Bones are back at the campsite at the end of the movie, Spock can be seen playing a Vulcan harp, a nod to the original series where he played the instrument in several episodes.
• This isn't the first time McCoy has expressed concern to himself that he may end up talking to himself .
• Captain Klaa refers to Kirk as the "great renegade", echoing the Klingon Chancellors' beliefs that Kirk was escaping justice for his killing of Klingons in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock . The death of Kirk's son David at the hands of a Klingon, though not explicitly referenced, is also alluded to when Kirk is reminded that the Klingons don't like him and he responds, "Well, the feeling's mutual."
• Contrived Coincidence : Kirk and company in the shuttlecraft just happen to land near horses when they arrive on Nimbus III. (It's clear they expected to have to walk to Paradise City because on the planet itself Spock refers to taking "1.2 hours" to walk there.)
• Crapsack World : "The Planet of Galactic Peace." Nimbus III neatly scuttles Roddenberry's tenets regarding the future: the planet set aside for the cooperation of three powers has fallen into anarchy, the technology of the future has turned to rusted crap , and poverty is still rampant. Ironically, one could argue that it succeeded in establishing galactic peace ... as the various ambassadors are either too drunk to bother fighting each other or have grown united in their shared hatred for their own governments for assigning them there!
• Creator Cameo : Harve Bennett sends Kirk off to investigate.
• Critical Staffing Shortage : That the Enterprise has "less than a skeleton crew" is just one of her problems.
• Cultural Rebel : Sybok, who is definitely the most emotional Vulcan we've ever seen.
• Custom Uniform : Each of the Power Trio is given an alternative uniform, which looks a bit like a grey pullover/sweatshirt. Captain Kirk is also seen in a "Captain's Jacket" at one point, underneath which he wears a white T-shirt bearing the slogan "Go climb a rock."
• Danger in the Galactic Core : The galactic core is an area of intense radiation that makes life unlikely. The planet of Sha Ka Ree located there is also the prison of a powerful alien that lured Sybok and the Enterprise there in an effort to escape.
• Shatner wanted to depict an edgier future, so we got a desolate city named "Paradise" , a malfunctioning Enterprise , and the Star Trek universe's first fart joke.
• Shatner was also (reportedly) never thrilled with Roddenberry's idea of a utopian future, so he introduced those elements to show a more "realistic" future.
• Not having the same “this must have slapstick” restriction the movie did, the book does this genuinely, having Kirk confirmed as a Death Seeker after… everything (where the film could only imply it), more angst with Sybok and Spock, Uhura being a Stepford Smiler even before being brainwashed, and Sulu’s pain including a terrorist attack as a child.
• Deadpan Snarker : McCoy is running on all cylinders in this film. For instance, he scoffs at Kirk's tirade at Spock being unable to shoot his own brother, and states that if he's that upset, he should toss Spock in the brig (stated while the three of them are already in the brig) — Kirk takes his point.
• Death from Above : Kirk calls down some Close Air Support from the Enterprise to try to cover his escape from "God". While a photon torpedo should have been quite a bit more powerful than shown, it was still cool.
• Demoted to Extra : Shatner has handwaved criticisms from his co-stars in the past, dismissing it as actors' egos run amok (“ there was nothing to nick ”), but scripting like this doesn't help his case much. Indeed, one section of the commentary has Shatner passive-aggressively blame his co-stars for the movie’s dodgy appearance ( "A disproportionate amount of money is spent on talent as against production..." ). Not only are the characters in the film betraying Captain Kirk, but the actors in the film are also sabotaging Bill Shatner. It’s worth noting that his original outline for the film had both McCoy and Spock turning against Kirk — which would have left Kirk the only hero of the film. Both Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley simply refused to participate in a storyline where Spock and Bones respectively would betray Kirk, for which most people who've seen the film have probably thanked them.
• Depth of Field : The scene where Kirk clings to the El Capitán's face is shot with large depth-of-field to create the illusion of height.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? : Or, in this case, shoot a Sufficiently Advanced Alien posing as a deity with a torpedo and then a disruptor cannon. Yes, Spock did.
• Distracted by the Sexy : In-universe, anyway; clearly someone failed to point out that viewers might not see it the same. Uhura does her infamous nude fan dance to distract some mooks so the Starfleet team can capture them and steal their alien horses. (It was in the dark, they spotted her from a distance, and the planet has very few women, so it could be excusable in that context.)
• Don't Call Me "Sir" : During the camping trip, Kirk asks Spock to call him Jim instead of Captain, reminding him that they're off duty.
• Door Jam : In the finale, the transporter has just enough power to beam up Spock and McCoy , leaving Kirk to face off with a vengeful god alone.
• Dramatic Sit-Down : When Spock reveals who the loony Sybok is... Spock: Sybok also is a son of Sarek. Kirk: You mean he's your brother brother? [ Beat ] You made that up. Spock: I did not . Kirk: You did too. Sybok couldn't possibly be your brother because I happen to know for a fact you don't have a brother. Spock: Technically, you are correct. I do not have a brother . Kirk: There, you see? You see? Spock: I have a half -brother. Kirk: [ Beat ] I gotta sit down.
• Eldritch Abomination : It's never stated precisely what not- God is, but it's clearly an example of this trope.
• Epiphany Therapy : Sybok uses this as part of his brainwashing, making people face their greatest pain.
• Everyone Knows Morse : Justified, as Starfleet is one part military, and Morse Code could be part of their training. Still, it's clearly not used often as both Kirk and Spock are very rusty with it.
• The Exact Center of Everything : Spock's long lost half-brother Sybok commandeers the Enterprise and makes the crew set a course for the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, where Sybok believes God is waiting.
• Eye Beams : After Captain Kirk and Spock question the authenticity of "God", he fires beams of energy out of his eyes at them. He does it again while pursuing Kirk later.
• Fake Static : Done twice: once for laughs when Chekov pretends he and Sulu have been caught in a blizzard to avoid admitting he's lost, and once for drama when the Enterprise broadcasts static to delay talking to Sybok. Uhura: Is there a problem, gentlemen? Sulu: Um, yes. We've been caught in a... we've been caught in a blizzard . (Chekov has a brief " You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me! " look on his face before blowing into the communicator) Chekov: (while blowing) And we can't see a thing! Request you direct us to the coordinates! (continues blowing) Uhura: My visual says sunny skies and 70 degrees note  in Fahrenheit instead of Celsius, oddly enough . Chekov: (stops blowing) Sulu, look. The sun has come out. It's a miracle.
• False Innocence Trick : The Enterprise passes through the barrier around the heart of the galaxy and finds the legendary planet Sha Ka Ree, believed to be the home of God. The protagonists do find an entity claiming to be God who is apparently imprisoned there and it tries to trick the crew into helping it escape. It's a subversion because Kirk figures out there's something funny going on and manages to get "God" to reveal its true evil nature before it gets away.
• Famous, Famous, Fictional : Sybok tries to spin his quest to Kirk as another attempt to do the impossible among the many Earth has achieved, such as proving the world is round (incorrectly credited to Columbus ), breaking the sound barrier, and flying at warp speed. Sybok: The people of your planet once believed their world was flat. Columbus proved it was round. They said the sound barrier could never be broken! It was broken. They said warp-speed could not be achieved.
• Fan Disservice : Fifty-seven-year-old Nichelle Nichols doing a nude fan dance. And bizarrely, all evidence is that Shatner genuinely thought this would be plain old Fanservice . To be fair, Nichelle Nichols looks very good for 57.
• First-Name Basis : Harve Bennett cameos as a Starfleet Admiral who Kirk knows well enough to address by his first name, Bob.
• The novelization, for instance, has Sybok using his knowledge of engineering and spatial anomalies to make the trip to the galactic core possible.
• The comic book written by Peter David adds a subplot that implies Kirk has never really gotten over the death of his elder brother Sam (one of the film's most glaring continuity errors is the implication that Kirk never had a brother), and also has Sybok's attempt at Epiphany Therapy on Spock fail because he'd already resolved the conflict between his Human and Vulcan halves.
• Kirk's autobiography says the movie never happened and was just an in-universe movie made on a planet that the Enterprise visited.
• Foreshadowing : A subtle one. When Kirk tells Sybok he's crazy for hearing God's voice beckoning him, Sybok gives a long take before saying "We'll see". Sybok is unsure himself whether God is really communicating with him.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With : When they meet God, God cycles through depictions of deities, eventually settling on bearded God as something he believes they'll be comfortable with. After his true nature is revealed, he takes the form of Sybok to mock him.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus : When Sybok's forces break into Paradise City, you can see that someone has painted "LOST" next to "PARADISE".
• Fridge Logic : Invoked in-universe when Kirk asks, "What does God need with a starship?"
• As pointed out in the commentaries, when Kirk first reaches the bridge, he hands off his jacket to an unnamed yeoman portrayed by Shatner's daughter Melanie. Over the course of the scene the yeoman wanders in and out of frame, looking for a place to put the jacket.
• Additionally, during scenes at the bar, the TV screen/emergency communicator tends to display a Shady Real Estate Agent trying to describe the beauty and wonder of Nimbus III , complete with cheesy and obviously bluescreened exotic vistas, in order to scam people into buying land on the useless planet.
• Garden of Eden : The Garden of Eden, along with the Klingon Qui'Tu , the Romulan Vorta Vor , and whatever the unpronounceable Andorian equivalent would be, is conflated with the Vulcan creation myth of Sha-Ka-Ree , a location from which all life originates and where man's questions could be answered.
• Gave Up Too Soon : McCoy's greatest regret is reluctantly assisting the suicide of his father, who was suffering from an incurable disease and wanted to die. Mere months later, a cure was found.
• Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul : Sybok's telepathy, which makes everyone he "treats" euphoric and immediately ready to join his cause.
• A God Am I : "One voice, many faces."
• God Is Evil : Well, it's not really our God as we know it but it's certainly evil.
• God Test : Kirk asks why God would have need of a starship. "God" zaps him and then Spock to prove his power but abandons the pretense when this fails to sway them. Also serves to demonstrate McCoy 's bravery: he's the oldest of himself, Spock and Kirk, and has just seen his two closest friends felled by energy blasts that were (judging from Kirk's reaction) incredibly painful, yet he faces "God" down without hesitation. "God": Do you doubt me too? Bones: I doubt any god who inflicts pain for his own pleasure!
• Glowing Eyes of Doom : "God" has these when it's angry.
• Heroic Sacrifice : Sybok, when he tries to mind meld with "God" so Kirk, Spock, and McCoy can escape.
• Horse of a Different Color : The alien horses on Nimbus III have horns on their heads.
• Hurricane of Puns : "I do not believe you realize the gravity of your situation," "Mind if we drop in for dinner?", "I've always wanted to play to a captive audience," etc.
• Hyperspeed Escape : Enterprise warps away from Nimbus III a half-second before a Klingon torpedo would have hit her.
• I Have Many Names : As the alien claims "One voice, many faces". The planet is supposedly a location common to all mythologies as well.
• I Need a Freaking Drink : When Sybok and his army storm Paradise City and Talbot tries to send a Distress Call , Korrd heads straight for the bar.
• Informed Attribute : The planet Sha-Ka-Ree is conflated with the creation myths of all species in the galaxy, and referred to in tones that suggest it to be a paradise. What the Enterprise crew find is a completely barren desert.
• Inventional Wisdom : The "System Failure" light on Kirk's logbook.
• I Owe You My Life : J'onn, after Sybok relieves him of the pain in his soul. J'onn: It's ... as if a weight has been lifted from my heart! How can I repay you for this miracle ? Sybok: Join my quest.
• It's All My Fault : Invoked verbatim by Sybok, leading to his Heroic Sacrifice .
• Jet Pack : Spock has rocket boots which allow him to hover or fly rapidly with booster rockets, the latter lacking fine control.
• Kick the Dog : Klaa shoots down Earth's first deep space probe. Although, considering what happened with Voyager 6 , Nomad , Friendship One , etc., it could be argued that he was performing a public service to the galaxy!
• Kill Him Already! : Kirk pulls this on Spock with Sybok, until he finds out that the two are half-brothers.
• Know When to Fold 'Em : Surprisingly enough, after failing repeatedly to regain control of the ship, and having already arrived where Sybok was taking them anyway, Kirk basically gives up and willingly assists him in the last stage of his plan, taking him down to the surface of "Eden".
• The Last Title : The second part of the title.
• The Friendship Theme, introduced in "The Mountain".
• The infamous Klingon theme from Star Trek: The Motion Picture is generously applied as well.
• Let Me Get This Straight... : McCoy : Let me get this straight ... you and Sybok have the same father, but different mothers? Spock: Exactly. That is correct.
• Living Prop : The Space Marines during the rescue attempt.
• Long-Lost Relative : Sybok. Spock doesn't like to speak of his past.
• Low Clearance : Scotty: I know this ship like the back of my hand. [ Bangs his head and falls over, unconscious. ]
• Man Hug : Subverted. After Spock saves him from a Sufficiently Advanced Alien , Kirk is about to hug him when Spock says quietly, "Please, Captain, not in front of the Klingons."
• Mathematician's Answer : McCoy : What do you do after we toast the marsh - er, marsh melons? Spock: We consume them.
• Meaningful Appearance : Sybok wears a white robe, obviously intended to evoke Jesus .
• Meaningful Background Event : While Sybok treats McCoy and Spock, and speaks about his plan, you can see the Great Barrier growing closer thought the ship's windows.
• Mercy Kill : Bones relives one of his most painful moments, where his father is dying and suffering from an incurable disease. He begs Bones to stop treatment so that he can finally die. Bones does so, and mere months later a cure for David McCoy 's disease was discovered.
• Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot : A routine hostage situation turns out to be an attempt to hijack a starship.
• Misery Builds Character : Discussed by Kirk when he refuses Sybok's treatment, as he believes such traumatic experiences are integral to a person's being.
• Mood Whiplash : Executive Meddling invoked insisted that the film include more comedy after that worked so well in the previous film. Unfortunately, the story here is rather less appropriate for it, resulting in the mood careening wildly between Big Important Events and broad slapstick.
• More than Mind Control : Anyone who is "helped" by Sybok tends to follow him around like a puppet.
• Multiboobage : The Cat Dancer .
• Mundane Made Awesome : Only an actor of Leonard Nimoy 's caliber could turn the line "Damn you, sir; you will try" from a fairly standard Precision F-Strike into one of Spock's greatest lines in the franchise. Guess he got the hang of those " colorful metaphors " after all.
• My God, What Have I Done? : Sybok.
• Mythology Gag : The shuttle's name Galileo as well the script it is written by on the ship.
• Nobody Poops : Averted, at very least whenever the Enterprise is not in spacedock.
• Noodle Incident : Spock's briefing on Korrd reveals the General's fallen out of favor with Klingon High Command. What exactly Kordd did or didn't do to end up on their shit list isn't revealed (though a careful look at the briefing graphic indicates it may have been an Orion Pirates-related event dubbed the Feira Incident).
• Ordered Apology : He elicits one of these from Klaa over his attack on Kirk.
• No Infantile Amnesia : Spock remembers his own birth. The novels explain that this is a product of a mind meld with his father, who let slip the memory by mistake. note  In " Unification 2 ", however, Spock tells Picard that he never mind-melded with his father.
• No One Gets Left Behind : Kirk orders McCoy and Spock to beam out first when the transporter conveniently can only beam up two at a time. McCoy calls BS on this mid-beam.
• The Nose Knows / Stink Snub : In the turbolift as Kirk and crew return from their camping trip. Kirk: I could use a shower. Spock: Yes.
• No-Sell : When Sybok tries to take away Spock's pain, Spock calmly explains that he has already dealt with that pain, so Sybok cannot use it against him. Kirk simply refuses, while Bones holds greater loyalty to his friends than Sybok even after Sybok does it to him.
• No Such Thing as Space Jesus : Kirk quickly debunks "God" as a fraud. After all, God should be all-knowing and all-powerful, yet this one is neither.
• Not the Fall That Kills You… : Kirk falls several thousand feet down El Capitan only for Spock to catch him about a foot away from the ground. Cue to Kirk humorously trying to shield himself with his hands against the rocks that are mere inches below him.
• In the Everyone Knows Morse scene, the protagonists realize what's going to happen just in time. "Stand back?" [ Beat ] "Stand back!" [ BOOM ]
• Bones, when Sybok forces him to relive his worst memory. "Father? Oh my God, don't do this to me !"
• One-Liner, Name... One-Liner : After viewing Sybok's hostage demands, Kirk sees the look on Spock's face. Kirk: What is it? You look like you've just seen a ghost. Spock: Perhaps I have, Captain. Perhaps I have.
• The Only One : Kirk is supposedly the best person to send in for hostage negotiations. It is acknowledged that there are other available ships , but Admiral Bennett doesn't think their captains can handle the negotiations.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business : When Sybok - a member of the typically emotionless Vulcan race - starts laughing gleefully in the prologue, we know that this is a disturbingly wrong Vulcan.
• Ordered Apology : Just after "God" has been destroyed and Kirk beamed aboard the Bird of Prey, Korrd makes Klaa apologize to him for attacking the Enterprise . Korrd: Kirk, my junior officer has something he wants to say to you. [Turns to Klaa] yIjatlh ! ["Speak!"] Klaa: [Sheepishly] I ... apologize. [Kirk looks absolutely stunned.] Korrd: maj. 'ej...? ["Good. And...?"] Klaa: [still sheepish] The attack upon your vessel was not authorized by my government.
• Path of Inspiration : Sybok's offer of internal peace.
• Pillar of Light : How "God" first appears.
• Sending a barely functioning, untested ship with "less than a skeleton crew" into a hostage situation when it doesn't even have functioning transporters. This is so the Enterprise -A doesn't simply beam up the hostages and end the movie in five minutes. A hand wave was attempted by saying other ships were around, but only Kirk had the experience. By that logic, they could have just sent a working ship to meet Kirk. (Even an inexperienced captain could have beamed the ambassadors out, for that matter, given the absence of defences worthy of the name on Nimbus III.) Starfleet could have simply assumed that a hostage situation wouldn't need a fully functional ship, but as the admiral giving the assignment admits, the Klingons are likely to send their troops, too. They consider Kirk their mortal enemy and, as it turns out, Klaa is going there solely so he can start a fight with a Federation ship . Even Kirk thinks the reasoning is bullshit.
• Likewise, Sybok's plan is to get a starship. It wouldn't have worked at all if not for Starfleet's incompetence. He even tries to call Chekov's bluff by inviting him to beam down, having apparently expected Starfleet would have sent a ship with functional transporters but not realizing this would have ruined his plan in a flash. This one can be excused by his limited options: Sybok and everyone else is stuck on Nimbus III. There are no ships and only a few settlements. He'd likely been living on the planet for some time (given he's a Technical Pacifist , he may have gone there when it was first made a "neutral planet" that was supposed to unite the Romulans, Klingons, and Federation), and he only started having his visions from "God" after he was already stuck there. So, since getting off the planet would be just as tricky as getting an advanced ship, he might as well kill two birds with one stone.
• The Pollyanna : You just get that vibe from Caithlin Dar. She's young, sweet-natured, and extremely naive. She contrasts her Federation and Klingon counterparts, who are older, more cynical, and really stopped caring.
• The Power of Friendship : McCoy refuses to desert Kirk even though he's been brainwashed by Sybok. Likewise for Spock, who just flat-out rejects the attempt.
• Power Trio : Kirk, Spock, and McCoy , obviously. Notable as, while an important part of all the movies and the show, this movie focuses on them as a trio more than any of the other movies, albeit (in most viewers' eyes) despite Shatner's intentions.
• Pragmatic Adaptation : The comic book cuts several of the more embarrassing moments from the storyline.
• For all that the movie gets wrong, it pulls one of the best of these in the franchise's history. One of the only times that Spock gets genuinely angry (even if only momentarily), it also goes to show the depth of his feelings toward Kirk. (And one of the few times that he uses a " colorful metaphor " correctly.) Spock: General, I require your assistance. General Korrd: My assistance? Spock: You are his superior officer. Korrd: I am a foolish old man. Spock: Damn you, sir. You will try.
• McCoy on his greatest pain: McCoy : Not long after, they found a cure. A GODDAMN CURE !
• Pulled from Your Day Off : The opening has the main characters called back from their vacation in order to deal with a hostage situation on another planet.
• Reassigned to Antarctica : The three ambassadors on Nimbus III. The reasons for this are noted in the novelization — St. John Talbot severely screwed up while trying to negotiate an Andorian hostage situation, which rapidly turned into a massacre; Korrd fell out of favor with the Klingon High Command (Spock exposits only that much in the movie proper) after he advocated pursuing peace with the Federation, and Caithlin Dar couldn't get an any better position than Nimbus III due to her facing discrimination for having a human grandfather .
• Redemption Equals Death : Sybok 's remaining lifespan falls to about fifteen seconds once he realizes the error of his ways .
• Renegade Splinter Faction : Captain Klaa and his crew are just flying around looking for a fight under no orders of any sort. He decides to go to Nimbus III not to save the hostages but to fight the rescue ship the Federation is sending . When he learns it's Kirk being sent, it only makes him more eager to attack. It's only when General Korrd steps in that Klaa apologizes for his unauthorized aggression.
• Retired Badass : Kirk is in awe of Korrd. Unfortunately, these days he's Drowning His Sorrows .
• Retcon : At the end of the previous film, the Enterprise -A is bright and clean and in 100% working order. When we see her in this one, she's falling apart and most of the systems are barely functioning or offline, and the implication is that immediately after we see her warp away, she just turned to garbage.
• Sarcasm Mode : Talbot introduces Korrd as his "charming companion". Korrd is at that moment draining the contents of his ale mug, and his first "line" is a belch.
• At least they had the foresight to downscale Shatner's original idea of going to the center of the universe .
• Near the beginning of the film, Klaa shoots up Pioneer 10 probe. Provided it has been drifting through space normally, this is happening only about 1/100th of a light-year from Earth.
• The photon torpedo that Chekov fires at "God" should have caused a much bigger explosion, since ... you know ... antimatter .
• Scotty Time : Inverted . When Kirk beams up to an Enterprise falling apart, Scotty says, "You may have given me too much time, Captain."
• Sealed Evil in a Can : "God" . It claimed to have been imprisoned on the planet in the center of the galaxy and wanted to "join" with the Enterprise so it could escape.
• Secret Ingredient : Tennessee whiskey, for the McCoy family beans.
• Seeking the Intangible : Sybok, the main Anti-Villain of the film, is searching for God , whom he believes resides on a mythical planet within the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
• She Cleans Up Nicely : After arriving at Sha-Ka-Ree prior to leaving the Enterprise Sybok has his hair cut, has his beard trimmed, and changes into a fresh set of clothes to be presentable for meeting "God." Kirk, Spock, and McCoy also make a stop on the way to the shuttlecraft in order to change into dress uniforms and make themselves presentable as well.
• Sexy Cat Person : A female feline humanoid of some kind turns up as a stripper in a couple of scenes.

• Show Some Leg : Uhura doing the previously mentioned fan dance.
• Space Clothes : Still Averted by Starfleet and not just because of the "monster maroon" uniforms. During the attack on Paradise City, they wear darker uniforms that are more practical for nighttime and desert operations. And while on shore leave, they wear civilian clothes that wouldn't raise any late-20th- or early-21st-century eyebrows.
• Space Marine : A squad is seen on the shuttle. They do nothing and say nothing.
• Stealth Pun : During the infamous Cat Girl bar scene, a Klingon, a Romulan and a Human walk into a bar...
• The establishing shot of the Enterprise -A in spacedock is taken from the previous film.
• Several shots of the Enterprise and the Klingon Bird-of-Prey are taken from the previous film (and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock in the case of the latter), and they're rather jarring when compared to the generally poor new effects shots in this film.
• Sufficiently Advanced Alien : The being they meet on the other side of the barrier.
• Surprise Vehicle : On the planet where "God" is imprisoned, the Klingon Bird-of-Prey rises up from behind a hill to rescue Kirk.
• Taken Off Life Support : When Doctor McCoy 's father developed a illness that caused intense pain and begged McCoy to stop the pain by letting him die, McCoy turned off his father's life support system, killing him. It still haunts him that a cure for his father's illness was found shortly thereafter.
• That Was Not a Dream : "I dreamt that a madman had taken over the Enterprise !"
• They Don't Make Them Like They Used To : Scotty says of Enterprise -A.
• Thinking Out Loud : Bones while on shore leave. Bones: (watching Kirk through his binoculars) You'll have a great time, Bones. You'll enjoy your shore leave. You'll...you'll be able to relax. (lowers his binoculars) You call this "relaxing"? I'm a nervous wreck! If I'm not careful, I'll end up talking to myself.
• Time for Plan B : The normal docking procedure is a no go, so it's time for plan B: barricade. Like a crash landing on an aircraft carrier, Sulu flies the shuttle at full speed into the docking bay, where a net is thrown up to stop them from slamming into the wall.
• Trashcan Bonfire : During the Federation attack on Paradise City, several oil drums with flames inside can be seen on the city's streets, providing light and heat.
• Traveling at the Speed of Plot : We're told that no ship can survive the journey through the barrier, which lies at the center of the galaxy. Not that the laws of physics apply to ships with awesome names, like Enterprise .
• Trial by Friendly Fire : Kirk orders Chekov to fire a torpedo at "God" despite standing only a few meters away. Kirk: Enterprise , are you ready? Sulu: In firing position. Torpedo armed. Chekov: But, sir, we're firing directly on your position! Kirk: Send it down, Mr. Chekov! Now!
• Truce Zone : Nimbus III is supposed to be this. It's proven to be a failure.
• True Companions : Kirk , Spock , and McCoy , are this, naturally, but the movie takes it up to eleven. A redeeming quality of the movie is the focus on this trope and the bond between these three. McCoy : I thought you said men like us didn't have families. Kirk: I was wrong.
• Understatement : Sybok: I imagine the Klingons will be quite angry. Chekov: You are a master of understatement. They are likely to destroy the planet !
• Undying Loyalty : Even after Sybok has performed his pain removal technique on McCoy , he refuses to part ways with Kirk and Spock when they refuse to go along with Sybok's plan.
• Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway : The Enterprise -A is sent into action to investigate a Hostage Situation despite being barely operational and manned with "Less than a skeleton crew" .
• The Unpronounceable : According to Sybok, the Andorian name for Sha Ka Ree can't be pronounced by humans or Vulcans.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension : Implied to be between Uhura and Scotty.
• Villain Ball : You staged all this to get your hands on my ship? If Starfleet had sent literally any other ship with a working transporter then Sybok's plan would have failed immediately as the hostages would have just been beamed aboard the moment they entered orbit. The plan itself doesn't even seem all that necessary anyway as with his mind manipulation powers he could easily have found a far more direct way to get hold of a ship than this.
• Villain Opening Scene : An Anti-Villain variant, where on Nimbus III Sybok approaches J'onn, a man who is digging "a field of empty holes" for no apparent reason.
• Villainous Breakdown : After having been blasted with a photon torpedo, "God" comes out of it as a rather goofy invoked distorted face exclaiming " YOOOOOUUUUU! " while floating after Kirk. This is because the ending had to be radically changed, and they couldn't afford to get the actor, George Murdock, back to record any new material.
• Walk into Mordor : Its said that the Great Barrier surrounding the core of Milky Way Galaxy was extremely dangerous to enter as "no ship has ever entered and no probe has ever returned.", yet the Enterprise breaches it with virtually no trouble note  perhaps because, unlike others, it actually has the power to get in/out like the entity desires .
• Well-Intentioned Extremist : Probably the saddest thing about Sybok is that he's sincere. He honestly wants to help people, he honestly wants to do good, and he stands up to what he believes is God to demand to know why he's hurting his "friends". He also avoids taking lives if possible and (in his own estimation) helps others by making them confront their pain. And while he is endangering lives, he doesn't realize that and tries to minimize damage where he can.
• What the Hell, Hero? : McCoy , of all people, defends Spock when Kirk chews him out for not shooting Sybok. This, of course, comes after he jokingly offers to "hold him" when Kirk threatens to knock him on his ass.
• What Other Galaxies? : The Great Barrier was planned to be located at the center of the universe but is changed to be placed at the Milky Way Galaxy's center instead. Beyond the Great Barrier is Sha Ka Ree, where creation is said to have begun as if the center of the Milky Way Galaxy were the center of the universe.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist : Caithlin Dar truly wants to realize the dream of the Planet of Galactic Peace. A year or two there probably would have left her as jaded as her counterparts.
• Klaa feels this way about Kirk, since of course Kirk's battles with the Klingon Empire are legendary. He's not even vindictive about it. He's more excited at facing off against such a foe. When Kirk outsmarts him by getting the shuttle into the Enterprise and then it going to warp right under Klaa's nose, after giving the order to track the ship, a wide-eyed Klaa murmurs "He's good ."
• Likewise, Kirk around Korrd. He acts like a military cadet discovering General Rommel is slinging drinks in some backwater.
• Wretched Hive : Nimbus III is a godawful hellhole.
• You Are Not Alone : During the campfire scene, Kirk tells Spock and McCoy that he knows he'll die alone, leading to the following heartwarming moment near the end of the film. Kirk: Spock? I thought I was going to die. Spock: Not possible. You were never alone.
• You're Insane! : Kirk tells this to Sybok, when Sybok says God told him to traverse the Great Barrier. Sybok actually seems to consider it. Kirk: You are mad. Sybok: Am I? [ Long Beat ] We shall see.
• Your Worst Memory : Sybok's power lies in his ability to target the "secret pain" of individuals and eliminate it; eventually, he goes after Bones and Spock, both of them reliving the moments that first imbued them with said "secret pain."
• Spock holds Sybok at gunpoint once they reach the Enterprise , but Sybok refuses to surrender, instead just walking up and taking the gun. He does admit to being worried that Spock might have done it, though.
• J’onn aims a rifle at Sybok when he doesn’t know what the approaching stranger wants. Sybok continues to approach and says, “I can’t believe you’d kill me for a field full of empty holes.”

Video Example(s):

Captain kirk asks a question.

What does God need with a starship?

Example of: God Test

Alternative Title(s): Star Trek V

• Starship Troopers
• Creator/Galoob
• Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
• Recap/Star Trek: The Original Series
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
• These Tropes Should Watch Their Language
• QuoteSource/Star Trek
• Recap/Star Trek
• Hospital Gurney Scene
• ImageSource/Star Trek
• Star Trek: Enterprise
• Creator/Illusion Arts
• Star Trek: Generations
• Franchise/Star Trek
• Films of the 1980s
• The Empire Strikes Back
• Creator/Paramount
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
• Creator/Visual Concept Engineering
• Tango & Cash
• Alien Works
• Science Fiction Films
• MediaNotes/Parental Guidance Suggested Rating
• AmericanFilms/N to S

Important Links

• Action Adventure
• Commercials
• Crime & Punishment
• Professional Wrestling
• Speculative Fiction
• Sports Story
• Animation (Western)
• Music And Sound Effects
• Print Media
• Sequential Art
• Tabletop Games
• Applied Phlebotinum
• Characterization
• Characters As Device
• Narrative Devices
• British Telly
• The Contributors
• Creator Speak
• Derivative Works
• Laws And Formulas
• Show Business
• Split Personality
• Truth And Lies
• Truth In Television
• Fate And Prophecy
• Edit Reasons
• Isolated Pages
• Images List
• Recent Videos
• Crowner Activity
• Un-typed Pages
• Recent Page Type Changes
• Trope Entry
• Character Sheet
• Playing With
• Creating New Redirects
• Cross Wicking
• Tips for Editing
• Text Formatting Rules
• Handling Spoilers
• Administrivia
• Trope Repair Shop
• Image Pickin'

Advertisement:

How well does it match the trope?

Example of:

Media sources:

11,241--> Report

Screen Rant

Star trek v: what went wrong with the final frontier.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is the franchise's worst film for a multitude of reasons, having run into numerous issues during production.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier has been hailed by fans and critics alike as the worst film in the franchise, and seems to have been doomed to fail from the start for several key reasons. The Final Frontier  was the fifth film in the Star Trek franchise overall and also the penultimate film starring the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series . Captain Kirk actor William Shatner directed the film, making his directorial debut for  Star Trek after Spock actor Leonard Nimoy's success in directing the previous two films.

The plot of The Final Frontier revolved around the film's main antagonist, Sybok, a rogue Vulcan who was also revealed to be Spock's half-brother. After staging a coup on Nimbus III and capturing three Federation diplomats, Sybok commandeered the Enterprise when the ship was sent to stop him and used it to reach Sha Ka Ree, a planet at the center of the galaxy that he believed was the place where "God" resided. Sybok manipulated the Enterprise crew into helping him get to Sha Ka Ree by compelling them to share their deepest pain and subsequently healing it through a mind-meld. However, when the ship arrived at Sha Ka Ree, "God" was revealed to actually be a very powerful and dangerous alien entity who attempted to steal the Enterprise to escape its captivity on the planet. Horrified by his mistake, Sybok helped the Enterprise crew defeat the entity by sacrificing himself to prevent its escape.

Related: Star Trek: What Happens To Earth Religions In The Future

Although The Final Frontier established some interesting additions to the  Star Trek canon, it was heavily disliked by fans and critics, and it bombed at the box office. To this day,  The Final Frontier is generally the most disliked film in the Star Trek franchise. Numerous script and production issues, coupled with an already unhappy fanbase and behind-the-scenes conflicts with Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry all contributed to The Final Frontier going down in history as the worst Star Trek film.

Conflicts With Gene Roddenberry

Despite being Star Trek's creator, Gene Roddenberry lost creative control over the Star Trek movies that came after Star Trek: The Motion Picture . Roddenberry was given the title of Executive Consultant on all subsequent Star Trek films until his death in 1991, but this was only as a courtesy since the scriptwriting and creative decision were being handled by other people. Unhappy about being ousted from power, Roddenberry condemned all the subsequent movies in the franchise, but The Final Frontie r was the film that he hated the most. Roddenberry even went so far as to attempt to bring legal proceedings against William Shatner, although none of it was ever taken to court.

Roddenberry's biggest problem with The Final Frontier was the story, which he perceived as having been stolen from him by Shatner. Roddenberry's original idea for Star Trek: The Motion Picture was a script called The God Thing , which was ultimately rejected by Paramount.  The Final Frontier's storyline bears a number of similarities to Roddenberry's original script for The God Thing , and Roddenberry was under the impression that Shatner had taken his idea without permission and managed to repackage it so that it would be more interesting to Paramount. Shatner admitted later that he might have taken accidental inspiration from The God Thing , as he'd heard about the script when Roddenberry was originally working on it. Accidental or not, Roddenberry was arguably justified in his anger about having his ideas seemingly stolen and derided The Final Frontier as "apocryphal" when it was released.

Script Issues

When it came to scripting The Final Frontier , William Shatner had planned to hire thriller and fantasy writer Eric Van Lustbader to write the screenplay. Shatner even met with Lustbader and talked over ideas, and the author apparently seemed interested, but things fell apart with contract negotiations and novel rights. In the end, Lustbader wasn't included in the project, which Shatner has said made him feel like The Final Frontier was "going downhill" before it even got off the ground.

Related: Why Star Trek's New Shows Completely Ignore Kirk (& How To Fix It)

The script was eventually co-written by Shatner, producer Harve Bennet, and writer David Loughery. However, issues arose when Paramount told the writing team that they wanted The Final Frontier to have the same level of humor as its predecessor, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home . The Voyage Home is considered one of the more successful Star Trek films, partially because of its comedic elements. Of course, a directive to be funny almost always means that whatever humor is included is going to feel forced, which is exactly what ended up happening with  The Final Frontier . When watching the film, much of the dialogue feels forced and awkward, and the comedic elements verge on corny and ridiculous rather than funny, especially in the opening scenes depicting the crew on shore leave in Yosemite National Park.

Production Issues

Several production issues contributed to The Final Frontier being especially poorly received at the box office. The Writer's Guild Strike of 1988 caused the film's pre-production and shooting schedule to be severely curtailed, which resulted in a rushed and stressful shoot. Additionally, Industrial Light and Magic, the company that had historically done the special effects for the  Star Trek  movies , was unavailable to work on The Final Frontier due to being busy with other projects. The producers hired a lesser-known special effects company, Associates and Ferren, but the company's work ended up creating effects that were shoddy and in some cases entirely unfinished. The result was a noticeably less polished look to the movie.

Additionally, some involved with The Final Frontier have blamed the film's poor performance on the intense box office competition it faced with other movies releasing around the same time. The summer of 1989 was a big one for blockbuster movies, with the release of films including Tim Burton's Batman and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade . Compared to those classics, a film like The Final Frontier that had already faced numerous problems didn't stand a chance of making as much of a splash at the box office. In the end, The Final Frontier only garnered $63 million worldwide, a significantly smaller number than its two predecessors The Voyage Home and The Wrath of Khan , which grossed $133 million and $97 million respectively.

Fan Reaction

The Final Frontier was not only a commercial failure but also heavily criticized among fans. The film's ratings remain low even to this day, and many fans have derided the humor and other strange elements of the film. Some of the fans' criticism at the time of the film's release however has been attributed to dissatisfaction with another piece of the Star Trek franchise. The second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation  was airing at the same time The Final Frontier premiered, and the early seasons of TNG were famously unpopular among fans. It is very possible that this general disappointment with the franchise contributed to the overwhelmingly negative reaction to The Final Frontier , although it is also true that what with the script and production issues, many of the criticisms leveled at the film were arguably warranted.

Related: Star Trek: TNG Almost Had A Black Captain Picard

Ultimately, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier  did not end up being the most commercially unsuccessful Star Trek film. That distinction went to Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002, a movie that did so poorly at the box office that it effectively put the franchise on hold for 7 years until J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot film in 2009. However, The Final Frontier's ratings from critics and fans continue to be worse than Nemesis's , which is arguably a better metric to measure a movie's success, especially one that has been out for decades. In the end, because of everything that went wrong with the film, it is likely that Star Trek V: The Final Frontier will always be considered the worst film in the franchise.

More:  Star Trek: Every War In The Franchise, Chronology Explained

GameSpot may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and from purchases through links.

Star Trek Prequel Movie In The Works With Star Wars Director

Toby Haynes, who directed episodes of Black Mirror, Doctor Who, and Andor, is lined up to make a Star Trek movie.

By Eddie Makuch on April 11, 2024 at 12:06PM PDT

A Star Trek prequel movie is in the works with Star Wars director Toby Haynes attached to direct, Paramount announced during CinemaCon. This has been rumored since January , and now it's confirmed. The movie is set for release sometime in 2025.

Haynes previously directed episodes of Doctor Who, Black Mirror, Sherlock, and the Star Wars series Andor. Collider reported on these details from CinemaCon.

Seth Grahame-Smith, who wrote The Lego Batman Movie, is writing the untitled Star Trek film. Haynes has never directed or written a Star Trek movie, but he directed Black Mirror's Star Trek-inspired USS Callister episode.

The film is said to be an "origin story" that will take place prior to the events of 2009's Star Trek, which took place in 2255 and was itself an origin story. This likely means it will feature a different cast. The stars of the latest series, including Chris Pine, Karl Urban, Zachary Quinto, and Zoe Saldana, have been rumored to be coming back for a fourth film in their series, but it hasn't happened yet.

2016's Star Trek Beyond is the latest entry in the main Star Trek movie series, but the franchise has lived long and prospered on streaming with the TV shows Picard and Strange New Worlds.

The 2009 Star Trek reboot and its 2013 sequel Into Darkness were directed by JJ Abrams, before he handed off directing duties to Justin Lin for Star Trek Beyond. The three movies collectively earned around $1.2 billion at the global box office.

In addition to Pine, Saldana, and Quinto, the latest Star Trek movie series featured John Cho as Sulu and Anton Yelchin as Chekov. Yelchin tragically died in 2016 at the age of 27 after a motor vehicle accident in his driveway.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email [email protected]

• Leave Blank

Join the conversation

Use your keyboard!

Log in to comment

Anton Yelchin's Chekov Accent In Star Trek Was Inaccurate On Purpose

Viacom, the parent company of Paramount, underwent a dramatic split in 2005, causing the TV rights to "Star Trek" and the movie rights to "Star Trek" to be divided among two separate companies. This meant that if the movie-owners wanted to make a new feature film, they would have to license "Star Trek" iconography from the TV-owners. Under the conditions of such a liscense, a movie had to look legally distinct from the old TV show. What a headache.

This situation led to the creation of the Kelvin-verse, a "Star Trek" continuity that took place in a parallel timeline. The 2009 "Star Trek" movie featured the same ships and characters as the 1966 "Star Trek," but altered into something similar-yet-different. New actors played younger versions of the 1966 originals, and the U.S.S. Enterprise was now twice as big. Director J.J. Abrams also made the new movie more dramatic, action-packed, and full of explosions. There's some debate among Trekkies as to whether or not the Kelvin-verse is in the spirit of "Star Trek" or if it should be considered an autonomous media entity. 

What everyone seemed to agree on, however, was the new film's savvy casting. The newer, younger actors all did exemplary jobs of capturing the looks, mannerisms, and personalities of their 1960s counterparts. They were youthful, more impulsive versions of the characters we knew, but held the same appeal. 

The role of Ensign Pavel Chekhov, previously played by Walter Koenig, went to the late Anton Yelchin. Yelchin captured Koenig's cockiness, Russian-centric ego, and dazzling charm. He also recreated Koenig's broad Russian accent, a notable feature of the character. 

In 2009, Yelchin spoke with TrekMovie , and he revealed that the accent was deliberately broad; it wasn't supposed to sound authentic. He also explained why he made that decision. 

Star Trek: Discovery Just Brought A Legendary Original Series Episode Back Into The Mix

Let's fly ... away from spoilers . Read no further if you haven't watched the latest episode of "Star Trek: Discovery."

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the strangest of them all? In "Star Trek," that title goes to one of the zaniest concepts ever introduced into the canon: The Mirror Universe. The idea of our alternate selves living completely different lives somewhere out there is no longer the sole domain of perhaps the nerdiest franchise in all of sci-fi (although shows like "For All Mankind," "Foundation," and "3 Body Problem" are creating some stiff competition), the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or the best episode of "Community" ever made . Fans might be surprised to find out that many in the scientific community believe the theory is worth discussion these days . But "Trek" put its own unmistakable fingerprints on the multiverse by emphasizing one in particular that stands at odds with the usual Prime Universe -- one that poses a fundamentally moral dilemma between the paragons of Starfleet we know and love, and the absolute worst versions of themselves.

It doesn't come as a huge surprise that "Star Trek: Discovery" would use its final season to travel full circle and return to the Mirror Universe that played such a significant role back in season 1 (even if, ironically, there might be a parallel universe out there where we were able to see  former showrunner Bryan Fuller's more complex and nuanced take on it ). But what's sure to shock and delight longtime fans in episode 5, aptly titled "Mirrors," is a deep-cut reference to arguably one of the most influential hours of "Trek" ever made, and the one that introduced the Mirror Universe in the first place.

Read more: Every Star Trek Show And Movie In Chronological Order

A Different Kind Of Black Mirror

There might not be any sinister goatees or chest-baring V-necks in sight throughout this episode of "Discovery," but the lasting effects of "The Original Series" episode "Mirror, Mirror" are plain to see. Upon entering the wormhole that took scavengers Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis) into multidimensional space, Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Book (David Ajala) discover the wrecked remains of their ship ... alongside the still-functioning husk of a familiar-looking Starfleet vessel, emblazoned with the name, "ISS Enterprise." For those who haven't brushed up on their 1967 "Trek" lore (and, quite frankly, shame on you if that's the case), Burnham helpfully points out that this isn't exactly the same starship captained by the fabled James T. Kirk thousands of years ago. It's one that has somehow found its way from the depths of the Mirror Universe (the exact specifics are oddly brushed aside) and remained stranded ever since.

But then "Discovery" goes a step further and hearkens back to "Mirror, Mirror" more thematically. While exploring the derelict ship, Burnham and Book stumble upon information about the previous occupants of the ISS Enterprise and specifically that of a certain Kelpian who rose from a slave to a leader in his own right. That, of course, refers to none other than the Mirror version of Saru (Doug Jones) seen in season 3, whom Emperor Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) saved from certain death and pointed towards his proper path. Where the ending of "Mirror, Mirror" suggests that Mirror Spock is still "a man of integrity" despite the ruthlessness of the Empire he serves, "Discovery" reconfirms that even the comically rampant evil of the Mirror Universe is no match for the stubborn idealism of "Trek."

New episodes of "Star Trek: Discovery" stream on Paramount+ every Thursday.

Read the original article on SlashFilm