Star Trek V: The Final Frontier directed by: William Shatner

 

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier stars William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, and George Takei.  It is directed by: William Shatner, written by: David Loughery, from a story by: William Shatner, Harve Bennett, and David Loughery, and is produced by: Harve Bennett.  It was released theatrically June 9, 1989.

 

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is the definition of an unnecessary film.  The first four cinematic Star Trek installments are each films that cover the same ground thematically and in terms of character development, all with the overarching theme of the Enterprise crew as a family going out to explore space with the end of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.  The film only came about because of a favored nations clause in the contracts of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy during the filming of the original series, meaning that Shatner and Nimoy would be offered the same opportunities.  Nimoy directed Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and when being selected to direct Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home it was agreed William Shatner would direct Star Trek V.  Now going into the production of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier does show that there were production problems outside of the control of Shatner: the budget was cut causing the climax to be redesigned, there was both a Writer’s Guild of America and Teamsters Strike, the production itself was rushed to completion, and the effects teams at Industrial Light & Magic were too busy with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to work on this film.  Shatner also had no experience directing film before this point, though Leonard Nimoy was also an untested director when selected for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

 

William Shatner is actually a good actor, despite his reputation in pop culture for over the top delivery and outbursts.  His performances in the original series and the previous films is enough to show this because Captain Kirk is a character fully in depth and Shatner gives him life.  William Shatner is not, however, a good director.  While there were plenty of production problems outside of Shatner’s control, his directorial style could best be described as amateur.  Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, despite a large budget of $33 million looks incredibly cheap, with the sets of the Enterprise being over lit and the general shot composition of the film being basic.  Some of this can be explained away from Shatner’s previous directorial work, mainly television episodes of his own show T.J. Hooker which is a show I have never seen an episode of, but the way the film is directed feels like how television was shot especially during the 1980s.  That and a general mix of admiration and pale imitation of popular films from the late 1980s: there are sequences straight out of Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark but without the filmmaking experience or magic of George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg.  The opening 30 minutes is where a lot of Shatner’s directorial decisions can be put on full display, the first big sequence of the film being incredibly oddly paced as Shatner attempts to establish the villain Sybok, played by Laurence Luckinbill, the planet Nimbus III in the Neutral Zone, and his general motivation.  The expository dialogue in the sequence is incredibly off kilter, the lighting is overdone with the sun of the planet in the background in what Shatner is attempting to display a prophetic idea as this is a film largely concerned with religion.

 

Things only get more awkward from there with the introduction of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy all on shore leave.  Now Shatner, Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley are giving fine performances, good especially for Shatner who is juggling acting and directing, but again this is a sequence that keeps cutting from Kirk and Spock on a mountain and McCoy watching.  The cuts to McCoy are placed awkwardly throughout the scene.  The film thematically wants to have the arc of Kirk over everyone else realize that his crew is in fact his family.  There is a scene in the first act around a campfire with a painfully unfunny round of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” which has a great idea of Kirk being isolated and scared of dying alone.  This is after the initial four films having a cohesive arc culminating in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home having the Enterprise crew as an actual family in the end.  This just adds to the pointless nature of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Kirk doesn’t actually have an arc because he has already learned what the character arc is attempting to teach him.  It does not help that between Shatner being in charge of the story and the screenplay from David Loughery doesn’t understand Spock as a character.  Spock is the alien in the film.  He is back to being completely emotionless and his dialogue is particularly stilted throughout, his familial relation to Sybok being a particular twist that means they must respect each other for no real reason.  Again the previous four films have had Spock have an arc throughout where he genuinely has love for both Kirk and McCoy, that was the point of his sacrifice in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and his arc of integrating back to life in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. 

 

The rest of the Enterprise crew also give generally good performances despite this film reverting to the problem of rarely giving them things to do.  Nichelle Nichols and James Doohan are paired early on, with some dialogue that is oddly flirtatious for Uhura and Scotty (which is explicit but goes absolutely nowhere) though they at least get things to do early on, while George Takei and Walter Koenig are paired though given even less to do then be comic relief and Chekov becomes a distraction at one point.  Koenig’s portion in the comic relief is particularly bland.  The Enterprise itself is also falling apart for some reason, mainly for comic relief for the film which is more tedious than anything and makes the film feel slower than it is.  The rest of the film’s cast really does not excel under Shatner’s direction.  Luckinbill as Sybok, revealed to be Spock’s half-brother for attempted drama, is not a good villain nor is giving a good performance, though he at least delivers his lines the best he can.  David Warner has a smaller role where it’s clear that he is bored in the role but he’s David Warner so he is still quite fun to watch.  The whole idea of finding God who is essentially a televangelist is another of those ideas that could make an interesting film but again this is a film with a plot by William Shatner who does not understand how to execute the ideas.  The climax of the film is structurally similar to the climax of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, yet somehow executed more poorly than that film’s already messy climax.  It’s got some fun lines for Shatner and goes on far too long because the final scene needs to ram home the poorly defined theme of family.

 

Overall, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is a poorly defined film.  The direction is from an amateur, the themes are just outright stated in stilted dialogue, the performances don’t actually have anything to happen.  There’s also some really random moments added in for sex appeal that just feels wrong.  There are points where it is outright aping imagery from other films and while there are decent ideas for commentary, Shatner is rightfully angry at televangelists, but this is just a slog to get through.  This is through and through a bad film from a bad director with really a score from Jerry Goldsmith and actors attempting to work through it to work.  3/10.