Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Year:
1989
Directed by:
William Shatner
Rated:
PG
Country:
United States
Runtime:
1 hr. 47 min
Production Company:
Paramount
Written by:
William Shatner
Harve Bennett
David Loughery
Starring:
William Shatner
Leonard Nimoy
Laurence Luckinbill
DeForest Kelley
Similar Films:
Contact
Intriguing setup, disastrous execution.
There is a well-known theory that circulates among Star Trek fans that the Trek films with odd numbers are "cursed," as they are often considered terrible compared to their even-numbered counterparts. While the legitimacy of this Trekkie lore is debatable (after all, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock was one of the more decent entries), there is little doubt in any moviegoer's mind that Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is a terrible entry in an otherwise mostly golden series. Much like the other Trek films, Final Frontier promises great wonders as the Enterprise crew explores the deepest reaches of the galaxy. But while most other films in the series ultimately deliver on those promises, this one leaves viewers with nothing. Horrendous pacing hinders the film's ability to tell a comprehensive and enjoyable story, and the plot is bogged down with its fair share of troubles, too. There's little reason to watch Final Frontier except to try to figure out how it all went so horribly wrong.
Surprisingly the film starts on the up and up. On the desolate wasteland planet Nimbus III (which is also known as the Planet of Intergalactic Peace), a rebellious Vulcan named Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill) has taken three prisoners: Klingon general Korrd (Charles Cooper), Romulan ambassador Caithlin Dar (Cynthia Gouw), and Federation consul John Talbot (David Warner). Sybok plans to lure a spacecraft to the planet on a rescue mission and hijack it for his own nefarious purposes, which remain hidden from the audience for most of the film. The Federation responds quickly to the hostage crisis, sending Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and the rest of the Enterprise crew to the planet for negotiations. Upon arriving, Kirk and co. discover the hostage situation to be a rouse and find themselves kidnapped aboard their own vessel as Sybok commandeers the Enterprise. He then reroutes the ship toward the fabled Great Barrier on the outer reaches of space on a mission to find ... God.
There's an intriguing premise somewhere in that plot outline, but Final Frontier has such a painstaking pace that by the time the movie actually gets to the point where it might be meaningful, the viewer has long-since stopped caring. It takes nearly thirty minutes just to assemble the Enterprise crew onboard their vessel. Instead of cutting to the chase, the film opens with scene after scene of inconsequentiality, like Kirk and Bones camping out with Spock and attempting to teach him to sing "Row, Row, Row your Boat." It is nearly an hour into the film when Sybok stands up and says, "It's time I announced my intentions to the rest of the ship," and finally proceeds to explain himself. Thirty minutes later the crew encounters "God" (who turns out not to be God), and ten minutes after that, all of life's questions are still unanswered.
But forget answering life's questions, the film could have at least answered its own questions. For starters, after the Enterprise crew is kidnapped on Nimbus III, Kirk asks of Sybok: "You staged all this to get your hands on my ship?" Considering the ease at which Sybok assembles an army to take the three hostages, surely he could have commandeered a ship already on the planet. Also, if he can convince a Federation consul, a Klingon general, and a Romulan ambassador to join his cause why not just ask for one of their ships? How did the three to-be hostages get to the planet anyway? Did they all arrive in their own ships or is there an intergalactic carpool out there somewhere? But the most alarming unanswered question that the film possesses has to do with the entity that the characters encounter at the end of the film and his/her/its inability to escape the Great Barrier without having some sort of starship. How does "God" manage to put on such an elaborate smoke and mirrors show but not possess the ability to leave the Great Barrier? Does this suggest that the entity is weak or that the Great Barrier has some sort of unnatural power? Are there others coming, or was this the only plan "God" had? And just who is this guy, anyway? Should we be concerned about the possibility of him eventually succeeding in his plan to enter our universe? To answer all the questions Final Frontier leaves open would take an entire other film.
