Where No One Has Gone Before by: Diane Duane and Michael Reeves and directed by: Rob Bowman

 

“Where No One Has Gone Before” is written by: Diane Duane and Michael Reaves and is directed by: Rob Bowman.  It was produced under production code 106, was the 6^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was broadcast on October 26, 1987.

 

Let’s not beat around the bush, with a title like “Where No One Has Gone Before” there was a very big chance that Star Trek: The Next Generation was going to remake Star Trek’s second pilot, “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, like “The Naked Now” was a completely inferior remake of “The Naked Now” (and to a lesser extent “The Last Outpost” remade “Errand of Mercy”).  Thematically, there are some similarities, mainly in introducing the Enterprise to going to a very distant setting and encountering an alien that is vaguely godlike, but “Where No One Has Gone Before” is a very different style of plot written by a pair of writers very much in touch with modern writing trends.  This is an episode that uses its plot to really dig deep and explore how the characters interact with one another and form relationships.  Each cast member credited in the opening titles in this episode gets at least one real moment to shine with perhaps the exception of Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi, she is sadly used as an exposition machine to make sure the audience understands the mysterious nature of the character of the Traveler, though she does get a few moments early in the episode playing off Riker.  Now, the plot is definitely in the same vain of an episode from the original series, though the opening act to get us there feels like the 1980s.  Starfleet sends a technician called Kosinski, played by Stanley Kamel, to the Enterprise to perform some improvements on their brand new warp drives, these improvements going wrong and catapulting the ship millions of light years away.  The rest of the episode is getting to the bottom of the why the ship was thrown to the edge of the known universe and how to get back, before reality at this point warps and forces the crew to live their thoughts.

 

It's clear from his very first scene that Kosinski is a fraud, Kamel is playing him as a delightfully over-the-top self-important antagonist throughout, and director Rob Bowman shoots many of his scenes in tighter shots to emphasize this.  Bowman’s direction overall is actually the first director to really attempt to be dynamic in terms of shooting, several tracking shots and wide shots are used to make the weird aspects of the second and third act of the episode really work.  The script also does an excellent job of establishing the episode by establishing Kosinski as a fraud and the Traveler as responsible for whatever improvements to warp that had been performed on other ships.  The episode does struggle with making Kosinski a necessary character after the halfway point when things shift to exploring the Traveler and getting the crew home which is a shame because he really could have been the episode’s antagonist which it lacks after a point.  The Traveler isn’t an antagonist, sure Eric Menyuk is giving a slightly sinister performance but he’s also portrayed as extremely empathetic.  The character strikes up this interesting relationship with Wesley Crusher, Wil Wheaton getting what is essentially another outcast to play off and an episode focused on what Wesley actually brings to the table for the series.  Wesley is the one who actually notices what the Traveler is doing and is continually ignored, something that Picard and Riker both have to learn to except.  The ending of the episode actually gives Wesley a rank, something that I’m sure fans at the time and today actively despise because Wesley’s reputation as a character is the annoying boy genius, but I actually think this is an interesting development for the character with storytelling potential.

 

The idea of the edge of the universe and the Traveler being from a plane of existence where science is magic is a classic use of Clarke’s law in action, and something standard for science fiction as a genre.  In terms of ideas, the reality bending is the unique aspect that “Where No One Has Gone Before” has to offer, though is slightly hit and miss, many of the misses coming when we see what the non-recurring crew members see.  There’s a random crew member menaced by fire which feels like a scene meant to just fill time and is the least interesting of these (there is a ballerina and a violinist that fill time but are at least interesting enough to watch as they fill time), but the main crew members actually get interesting visions.  Picard sees his mother offering him tea in the corridor and guidance, for the first time allowing Patrick Stewart to play into some under the surface insecurities of the character.  This scene is perhaps why this is the first episode where Picard as a character has really begun to click for me, he is still stern and uptight but having a scene like this allows Stewart to adjust his performance in these earlier scenes accordingly.  Worf and Tasha Yar each get visions of their own, Worf’s being an image of his pet, described in the dialogue as the Klingon equivalent of a cat.  Michael Dorn, like Patrick Stewart, is able to a lesser extent use this to show something deeper to Worf as a character, he had a pet that he clearly cared for in his own Klingon way.  It’s the first time we’re actually given some depth to this character in particular while Tasha is forced to revisit the colony where she grew up.  Unlike the callous mention of her past in “The Naked Now” during a comedic scene, Denise Crosby gets one brief moment to really show that Tasha as a character is traumatized by being in that situation and how the threat of violation and assault is under the surface.  It’s still not perfect, it’s very brief and isn’t focused on enough, but it’s certainly a start to improving her character.

 

Overall, “Where No One Has Gone Before” is genuinely a success of an episode.  It slightly loses its way with the fact that there really isn’t an actual antagonist to fight after the halfway point in a way that doesn’t really get strong resolution, even if that is from a great performance.  It's also the first episode to be directed properly and look like it was filmed with intention.  The episode works when it’s focused on creating character relationships and dynamics, laying a particularly strong foundation for Wesley Crusher as a character and giving the rest of the cast an opportunity to click into place for really the first time.  8/10.

The Last Outpost by: Herbert Wright from a story by: Richard Krzmeien and directed by: Richard Colla

 

“The Last Outpost” is written by: Herbert Wright, from a story by: Richard Krzmeien, and is directed by: Richard Colla.  It was produced under production code 107, was the 5^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was broadcast on October 19, 1987.

 

Star Trek introduced the Klingons late into its first season in the episode “Errand of Mercy”, establishing them as already having an intergalactic Cold War with the Federation through their empire and in an episode that saw them coming to blows, already aware of what the other side was capable of.  Star Trek: The Next Generation, in developing a future post-Klingon empire, wanted to recreate a long-running enemy to match the pop culture status of the Klingons and Gene Roddenberry came up with the Ferengi, mentioned in “Encounter at Farpoint” before appearing proper in “The Last Outpost”.  This episode was produced as the seventh episode, but shown fifth for whatever reason and it’s the closest Star Trek: The Next Generation has gotten to producing an episode that is actually good.  This is an episode of two halves: buildup to the reveal of the Ferengi’s actual appearance and the fact that the trouble the Enterprise finds itself in is also affecting them, and the payoff of it being the remnants of a third, godlike empire of aliens turning it into a remake of “Errand of Mercy” with much less charm.  The back half of the episode is really where things fall apart: the Ferengi almost immediately stop being a threat and reveal themselves to be sniveling capitalists and particularly boring ones at that.  When given any real pushback they begin to lie to the godlike alien apparition trying to make humanity look bad, Armin Shimerman playing the Ferengi leader on the planet as especially over-the-top.  This is an episode that also ends in a complete anti-climax, almost rushing to fill the runtime and sidelining the Ferengi as any sort of threat, though allowing Jonathan Frakes as Riker to show off his own philosophy.

 

There is the possibility that this is an episode is attempting to be more comedic when the Ferengi are involved: this has a running gag with Data being trapped in a Chinese finger trap that ends with a box being sent to the Ferengi as a way to annoy them.  A charitable reading is that screenwriter Herbert Wright wants to directly make the Ferengi look pathetic as a way to show the outdated nature of capitalism in the far future, which seems in line with Star Trek in general.  Wright does become another writer who decides to write Tasha Yar as being sexually harassed, this time by the Ferengi who for whatever reason have a culture where Ferengi women are naked and clothes on women make the men wish to assault Yar to strip her.  This is the third episode in a row where something uncomfortable like this happens to Yar.  There are some good things in the back half of the episode however, mainly the few scenes on the Enterprise as the power is going out, Picard, Troi, and Crusher ensuring everyone stays warm as death looms.  There is a particularly interesting scene between Picard and Crusher, Crusher reflecting on the danger and the fact that she’s keeping Wesley in their quarters and contemplated sedating him so he didn’t have to suffer.  It’s quite a dark scene, and is just left hanging in the air that both Gates McFadden and Patrick Stewart play incredibly well, Stewart for the first time in the series really feeling like he’s getting how to play Picard.

 

The first half of the episode is all buildup, but it’s quite good buildup.  The decision is made to start the episode with a chase between the Enterprise and a Ferengi ship, taking nearly a third of the episode before hearing from a Ferengi, and a further five minutes to actually show the Ferengi, the leader on the ship being played better by Mike Gomez going less over the top than those on the planet.  It takes cues from the original series episode “Balance of Terror”, the best episode of the original series, though it lacks any parallelism between the two captains and crews at play.  It is, however, the setup for a good episode even if the setup is derivative, the derivative nature allows the crew to actually begin to gel slightly, though this could be because this was the seventh episode produced.  It is not until getting to the planet that the Ferengi become incompetent villains, the initial discussions are largely played straight and that is for the best.  The design is also quite impressive, if a bit silly which adds to the question if the Ferengi were ever really meant to be taken seriously like the first half of the episode attempts to make them.  Some of this also may be down to director Richard Colla, once again a director who only did a single episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and he doesn’t really set up a whole lot of interesting shots.  At best his direction is incredibly flat, and at worst it actually is quite poor at framing a lot of things in the episode, making this one slightly more difficult to actually watch, especially on the bridge viewscreen where the Ferengi leader really needed to be framed as intimidating.

 

Overall, it’s actually quite surprising that “The Last Outpost” is heralded as one of the worst episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, because it’s actually the closest the series has come so far to being good.  The main cast is finally starting to click or at least understanding their roles with even the weaker material given to them and the first half of the episode is a fairly enjoyable watch.  The back half lets it down completely as things devolve into an incredibly inferior, almost poorly comedic remake of “Errand of Mercy”, simplified and rushed, but it is more an average hour of television instead of anything all that bad, and after the streak it feels like maybe something good could be on the horizon.  5/10.

Code of Honor by: Katharyn Powers and Michael Baron and directed by: Russ Mayberry

 

“Code of Honor” is written by: Katharyn Powers and Michael Baron and is directed by: Russ Mayberry.  It was produced under production code 104, was the 4^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was broadcast on October 12, 1987.

 

The two-part pilot and third episode for Star Trek: The Next Generation came directly from minds that worked on the original series with Gene Roddenberry and D.C. Fontana, two writers very much from the 1960s for better and for worse.  “Encounter at Farpoint” and “The Naked Now” are both episodes that feel as if there are from the original series to their detriment.  “Code of Honor” is the first episode to be from a writer not connected with the original series: Katharyn Powers and Michael Baron are the ones who write their only episode for Star Trek: The Next Generation, although Powers would write an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.  Likewise, this was the only episode of Star Trek to be directed by Russ Mayberry.  It is also an incredibly racist and sexist piece of storytelling, and somehow nosedives the already rocky quality of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  The bigotry on display is something that is really indefensible, something that the cast and crew were clearly aware of when making it as director Russ Mayberry was fired during production and replaced with an uncredited Les Landau.  The entire aesthetic of creating an alien race of humanoids entirely played by black actors costumed in tribal gear, defined by a culture of honor and domination of the few female characters there are is just blatantly a caricature of cultures.  The dialogue given to the Ligonians, mainly in their leader Lutan, played by Jessie Lawrence Ferguson, is delivered in this clipped style, their culture is seen as primitive but they have a necessary resource for the Federation.  The conflict of the episode is getting that resource, a vaccine that the episode goes to great length to say is impossible to replicate so it must be traded, but Lutan becoming impressed with a mere female as Chief Security Officer kidnaps Tasha Yar.  She is held hostage as a potential mate for Lutan and forced to fight his previous wife to the death (through a weird and roundabout challenge that is part of Lutan’s plan), to get the vaccine and in the process transferring her lands to Lutan.  Read that back and tell me it’s not racist.

 

The sexism of the episode really affects both Yar and Yareena, Lutan’s current wife, both reduced throughout the episode to sex objects.  “Code of Honor” is clearly an episode that is focusing on Yar as a character, but doesn’t actually give her any real agency or character.  She becomes a plot device, made worse by Denise Crosby really struggling with a script full of weak dialogue.  For whatever reason Powers and Baron decide that Yar as a character actually has attraction to Lutan deep down, something that Counsellor Troi reveals through dialogue and a trick that both Marina Sirtis and Crosby are overacting.  It’s also incredibly annoying when before this point, in the previous episode both in terms of production and broadcast, Yar was established as having her own sexual trauma due to her upbringing.  Yes, that was established in a bad comedy scene, but as a character the entire premise of “Code of Honor” should have Yar facing her past trauma.  It is only made worse when the focus of the episode is not on Yar, but on Picard trying to get her back through diplomacy as well as getting the vaccine.  It’s trying to be an ensemble episode when it really should not be an ensemble piece, we are focusing on the men and how the Enterprise crew can’t treat this backwards culture with any real aggression for what is essentially crimes.  This is not some great commentary on hesitancy to act in dangerous situations and how that can lead to worse outcomes, instead everything in the episode turns out absolutely fine and there is no danger.  The only casualty in the episode is a no-named Ligonian extra and technically Yareena, who is magically brought back to life through science at the end.  The only other thing “Code of Honor” does is attempt character development for characters like Wesley and Beverly Crusher which is ancillary while Data is used for comic relief with Geordi and Worf outright doesn’t appear.

 

Overall, while I don’t know if the assessment of “Code of Honor” as the worst piece of Star Trek ever made is correct, but it certainly is the worst episode of Star Trek that I have seen, somehow worse than the worst of the original series in “The Omega Glory” and “The Savage Curtain”.  This is an episode that should have been stopped in its tracks before making it to air, even the script should have been stopped when every Ligonian except Lutan was specified to be black and then Lutan was also cast as black taking a script with heavy racist undertones and putting it into racist overtones under Russ Mayberry’s incredibly poor direction.  The sexism feels worse than anything Roddenberry wrote in the 1960s.  None of the regulars are having a good time or even giving a good performance making Star Trek: The Next Generation batting zero four episodes in in terms of good episodes.  1/10.

The Naked Now by: J. Michael Bingham, from a story by: John D.F. Black and J. Michael Bingham, and directed by: Paul Lynch

 

“The Naked Now” is written by: J. Michael Bingham (a pseudonym for D.C. Fontana), from a story by: John D.F. Black and Bingham, and is directed by: Paul Lynch.  It was produced under production code 103, was the 3^rd episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was broadcast on October 5, 1987.

 

“The Naked Time” was the fourth episode of Star Trek and is one of those early episodes that really was successful at endearing the audience to characters by playing on what had come before to subvert who these characters are.  Star Trek: The Next Generation decided that the third episode they aired, the second time the show was airing, was to remake the episode after a pilot that was almost entirely unsuccessful in establishing new character dynamics or even really doing characterization.  “The Naked Now” was assigned to D.C. Fontana, who co-wrote the pilot and is genuinely one of the best writers for Star Trek, but during production Fontana requested her name to be taken off the script, another indication of the behind the scenes production issues with Star Trek: The Next Generation, Fontana going on to write two more episodes of the season and would have story credit on one final episode before leaving the show entirely, though returning to pen an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.  The trouble with discussing the plot of “The Naked Now” is that despite the production team saying they simply wanted to homage a classic episode of Star Trek, “The Naked Now” is quite literally the same plot with the aesthetic difference of instead of a planet falling apart, it is a star that is about to collapse.  The Enterprise sends a team to investigate a ship in orbit of the collapsing star after receiving a message of the crew sounding drunk and apparently being blown out into space.  The team investigating the ship is the episode’s best sequence, director Paul Lynch is quite dynamic with the lighting creating an atmosphere that is quite good despite any viewer who has seen “The Naked Time” knowing exactly what is going on.  Geordi La Forge is the first to be infected here and the episode attempts to be a little slow with his descent into the illness, complete with one interesting if slightly problematic scene with LeVar Burton really playing Geordi’s disability as awkward.

 

After this point, things really start to go wrong as more people become infected, including all three of the female main cast members and Wesley Crusher.  Wesley is the one that causes actual problems on the ship, he takes up the role of Lt. Riley from “The Naked Time” in commandeering engineering and holding the Enterprise hostage complete with the same demands for more dessert.  Wil Wheaton is clearly trying with the role that he is given, and I do think Lynch is giving him direction: his scenes with Geordi and Beverly Crusher hint again at deeper character relationships, but the material he is given is quite literally a spoiled brat who thinks he can be in command.  This goes against what was established in “Encounter at Farpoint” where he was characterized as in awe at the Enterprise and wanting to prove himself, not one to just take over the ship and have no regard for the crew and passengers being in danger.  Fontana’s script is smart enough to have him take part in the solution, even if it is an utterly ridiculous amount of technobabble for a quick climax while Data works on drunkenly fixing the ship.

 

Where the episode struggles further is in characterizing everybody else.  The only main cast member who remains uninfected by the end is Michael Dorn as Worf, the trouble being that we don’t actually know much about these characters to understand where their actions while infected take place.  The female characters are given the worst of it: Troi, Yar, and Crusher are all reduced to various states of sexual arousal.  Denise Crosby as Tasha Yar is given the worst of it, being forced to slink around the ship randomly kissing men and getting into a sexual encounter with Data where the episode decides to use that moment to establish the fact that Tasha’s upbringing is one of avoiding rape gangs.  This is a character with sexual trauma that just isn’t explored, it’s using some of the worst possible sexual violence as a background detail in a scene played for comedy.  Gates McFadden probably gets the best treatment of the three (Troi is just reduced to wanting to get back together with Riker), Crusher being the one to still research how to stop the infection.  The male characters, on the other hand, are infected and characterized as bravely pushing through it, especially Jonathan Frakes as Riker, despite the fact that he doesn’t really do anything in terms of solving things.  Picard just gives a bunch of orders and looks confused as Patrick Stewart clearly doesn’t quite know who the character is yet while Brent Spiner as Data is the one doing comic relief.

 

Overall, if “Encounter at Farpoint” was a pilot that was deeply flawed but showed promise of improvement with time, “The Naked Now” is a step in the complete opposite direction.  At its best it is an episode remaking the plot of a far superior episode with characters who had already been established, and at its worst it’s an incredibly uncomfortable and sexist experience, using sexual violence as a joke instead of actually developing the little bit of the characterization the pilot laid down.  3/10.

Encounter at Farpoint by: Gene Roddenberry and D.C. Fontana and directed by: Corey Allen

 

“Encounter at Farpoint” is written by: Gene Roddenberry and D.C. Fontana and is directed by: Corey Allen.  It was produced under production code 101/102, was the 1^st and 2^nd episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was broadcast as a TV movie on September 28, 1987.

 

The beginning of Star Trek: The Next Generation is one of those long journeys to screen.  Obviously, Gene Roddenberry wanted to get Star Trek back on television or on film as soon as it was cancelled, and before Star Trek: The Motion Picture was greenlit extensive pre-production was done on a potential Star Trek: Phase II, though that would have been made with the original cast.  Even with the films, Roddenberry still wanted to produce a television series with which he would have influence, Paramount pushing him into an executive consultant role starting with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.  Roddenberry wanted control to see his vision of the future on screen “updated” for the 1980s, yet pitching to networks would be unsuccessful, the series eventually airing in first run syndication and produced by Paramount Pictures.  The production team gathered for the pitch is one made up of people who worked on the original series, including D.C. Fontana and David Gerrold.  Fontana would be tapped to write the pilot before Paramount asked for it to be a 90 minute TV movie, produced and occasionally aired as two episodes so Gene Roddenberry stepped in to write extra material.  This is where the problems of “Encounter at Farpoint” really begin.

 

“Encounter at Farpoint” as a pilot episode is incredibly padded to meet the TV movie runtime, the script itself having several scenes that really go nowhere and are there for exposition.  The Enterprise is a brand new ship with a fantastic new model actually reflecting that this is a production for the 1980s and not a retread of the 1960s design, but it seems in places Fontana, and more likely Roddenberry, are more interested in showing the viewers the new features.  There’s an extended sequence where the two sections of the ship are separated, largely to get the non-Starfleet personnel to safety as humanity is being put on trial by the Q, played by John de Lancie, which is a fine enough explanation and it helps characterize Captain Jean-Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart, but it doesn’t actually move anything forward for the plot.  There’s a moment when new first officer Riker, played by Jonathan Frakes, doesn’t know how to navigate the large ship and is told about helpful arrows on the walls.  There’s an extended sequence introducing the holodeck that has absolutely nothing to do with the plot of the episode, it’s just another diversion to fill time when it would have been effective to introduce both of these elements in episodes where they would be more relevant.

 

Superfluous introductions can also be extended to the character introductions of our cast.  Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered with eight characters introduced intended to be regulars, a ninth promoted to being a regular after this episode, and a tenth as a recurring villain.  “Encounter at Farpoint”, having 90 minutes to work with, should be able to introduce each character and give them at least a little role.  The only characters who get a proper introduction is Frakes as Riker, introduced over halfway through the episode on Farpoint station, Stewart as Picard who gets a dramatic establishing shot where the character is shrouded in shadow on the Enterprise because director Corey Allen doesn’t seem to understand how to introduce a protagonist, and Q whose arrival in the plot works because it’s over-the-top and John de Lancie leaning into the camp is one of the few things holding the episode together.  The rest of the characters are just there, which would be fine if Roddenberry and Fontana were proactive in establishing the character relationships and characterizations, but these are either absent or one-note.  Riker gets to have an established relationship with counselor Deanna Troi, played by Marina Sirtis, mainly a romantic one that is communicated through a look and a nice music cue from Dennis McCarthy which is actually one of the few pieces of information not conveyed through exposition.  The ship’s new doctor Beverley Crusher and her son Wesley, played by Gates McFadden and Wil Wheaton respectively, have a nice mother/son relationship with tension about the death of Wesley’s father and the beginnings of Wesley’s own ambitions to join Starfleet.  Wesley may be infamous as an annoying kid character, but here through Wheaton’s earnest performance while he makes some mistakes he’s actually a perfectly fine character.  Everyone else gets a one-note beat: Denise Crosby and Michael Dorn as Tasha Yar and the Klingon Worf respectively both fill the tough guy roles, LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge is blind (and sadly forgettable), and Brent Spiner as Data is a discount Spock with even less understanding how conversations and words work.

 

Nothing is helped by everyone’s performance is stilted, de Lancie is the only actor in the pilot making any sort of performance choices and Stewart is skating by on his powerful voice despite Picard’s main trait being hard, cold diplomat.  Some of this is likely down to Allen’s direction, many of the shots are aimless or fairly standard in terms of blocking indicating that there is any motion to any of the scenes.  It doesn’t help that the actual plot on Farpoint, a mystery about how the station grants people’s desires as shown through clothes and food appearing, is also barely enough to fill a single episode, much less two, with the Q trial plot really only being bookends until the denouement revealing that everything about this was Groppler Zorn, played by Michael Bell, and his people have been torturing an alien jellyfish which needs to be freed so it can mate.  There’s potential with both of these plots, they just do not mesh together at all and really there isn’t much to discuss in terms of what it does because there really isn’t much plot.

 

Overall, “Encounter at Farpoint” is a pilot that suffers from both poor direction from Corey Allen and a script where Roddenberry and Fontana are clearly fighting for control to build things up, making it so none of the characters really get any depth or an introduction.  Roddenberry as a writer in particular is stuck in the 1960s, setting things up like he would an episode of the original series with characters in those roles, smart enough to not rely on emulating the performances of the previous cast, but not enough to replace those performances with anything.  There are moments of potential, both plots could make an interesting episode, the resolution and general reliance on diplomacy helps set Picard out as budding towards his own character, and of course John de Lancie is stealing the show, but this is a rocky start.  4/10.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country directed by: Nicholas Meyer

 

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country stars William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Kim Cattrall, David Warner, and Christopher Plummer.  It is directed by: Nicholas Meyer, written by: Nicholas Meyer and Denny Martin Flinn, from a story by: Leonard Nimoy, Lawrence Konner, and Mark Rosenthal, and is produced by: Ralph Winter and Steven-Charles Jaffe.  It was released theatrically December 6, 1991.

 

This is the end.  My first viewing of Star Trek has finally reached the ending of the original crew, all together for one last adventure in a film celebrating the franchise’s 25^th anniversary.  Like all the films up to this point, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country had a long road to production.  Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was both a critical and commercial disappointment, in my estimation it is one of the weakest outings for the cast and just a bad film all around, so the producers thought to genuinely end the story there and do a prequel for the anniversary with a new cast playing younger versions of the crew.  As an idea, this is honestly not a bad one since Star Trek: The Next Generation had aired multiple seasons at this point so the thought process believed audiences would have likely accepted a new cast.  However, the idea made it to Star Trek fans who reacted with a backlash so Leonard Nimoy suggested an idea of the fall of the Berlin Wall but in space.  This is the germ of the idea for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.  Nimoy was initially approached to direct the film, but he declined (partially to avoid the clause that would have given William Shatner a second film to direct as well) instead staying on as executive producer and Nicholas Meyer was brought in after his work directing Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and co-writing Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.  Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is one of those films that went through several drafts, each main cast member getting input and the focus of the film being a one last hurrah to say goodbye to this cast.

 

The title of the film is taken from Hamlet, quoted with other Shakespeare quotes within the film, the major theme of the film is changing with the times.  The Klingons and the Federation are coming together to dismantle the Neutral Zone, there is a conference coming to facilitate this, and universal peace is coming.  That is the backdrop of the film, the conflict becoming an assassination on the Klingon chancellor Gorkon, played by David Warner working much better with the brief material here than in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, framing the Enterprise and specifically Kirk and McCoy who are exiled to a harsh mining colony while Spock and company on the Enterprise defy orders to unmask the conspirators.  The film is particularly reflective on the political situation of the unity being allowed, William Shatner as Kirk is portrayed in this film as understandably stubborn about the Klingons being integrated, partially reflected in minor Klingon characters equally worried about losing their culture and identity in the integration.  The Klingon perspective sadly isn’t nearly as well explored in the film, however due to this being filmed during the fifth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, it is likely that that perspective is there in the post-integration world.  Shatner plays Kirk as at the very end of his career when everything is said and done, he has made his legacy known but he cannot grow past the death of his son at the hands of the Klingons in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.  This is the point that damns him and McCoy to their fates while it also informs the way he acts towards the Klingons throughout the film.  The dinner sequence in the first act of the film is probably where Shatner gets his best performance in the film, despite Shatner not entirely liking the tension he had to portray, but he played it well.  While Kirk and McCoy are in exile, DeForest Kelley is used largely for comedy, though their trial has a cameo from Michael Dorn playing an ancestor of his character from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

 

The Kirk and McCoy plotline which becomes a prison break featuring a very fun performance from Iman, is sadly slightly less interesting than the plot on the Enterprise as Leonard Nimoy as Spock gets to be in command, playing off Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, and James Doohan to maneuver the politics and discover who the real assassins are.  It’s essentially a murder mystery in space tinged with political thriller.  George Takei as Hikaru Sulu (being given a first name for the film) has the least amount of scenes in the film, though his role is still important as Captain of the Excelsior.  Sulu has the least to do in terms of the original cast members, but it still feels like a nice button for his character, growing to lead his own ship.  On the Enterprise proper, like in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Uhura and Chekov get elevated roles because they are the ones being used as the replacements for the missing Kirk and McCoy, both Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig giving great performances.  Nichols in particular gets to shine by being on top form in terms of comedic wit while James Doohan as Scotty gets to be the more outrageous comedic relief.

 

Thematically the reveal of those responsible for the assassination is one of those that is slightly obvious, a new Vulcan character of Valeris played by Kim Cattrell is part of the conspiracy and is close to Spock as his potential replacement.  The motivation of the conspiracy is a stronger stubbornness to accept change than Kirk’s.  Cattrell’s performance is fascinating, her emotion is intentionally subtle but not too subtle to not be there.  The main threat of the film is the Klingon commander Chang, played by Christopher Plummer giving his usual caliber of performance.  Despite being under a lot of makeup Plummer is still quoting Shakespeare the most of anyone in the film, and because it is Christopher Plummer it seems entirely natural.  Chang is the most obvious conspirator: he is disappointed he never got to face Kirk as a warrior in battle and is adamant on finding him and McCoy guilty for the assassination.  Importantly, while Valeris provides some commentary on Federation having deeper layers of mistrust, the third conspirator is a higher up in Starfleet: Admiral Cartwright, a minor character from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home played by Brock Peters once again.  Now there is one final aspect of the film underneath the compelling characters and Nicholas Meyer’s direction and the almost haunting score from Cliff Eidelman and that’s while it deals with its themes nicely there is a slight sense that it doesn’t quite grapple with the allegory entirely well.  Early in the film, Chekov says “Guess who’s coming to dinner?”, a line originally meant for Uhura that Nichelle Nichols rightly refused to say.  The Federation conspirators are motivated largely by xenophobia and racism, which is a little uncomfortable hearing racist tirades coming from Brock Peters, whose most famous as Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird.  Peters apparently expressed discomfort at some of the dialogue as well.  This is not enough to entirely bring down the film, at least for me, but it adds this layer of seemingly intentional discomfort that doesn’t quite understand the complexities of racism.  Then again Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country isn’t really about race, it’s about unity and going into that undiscovered country of the future (and not death as the original line in Hamlet details).

 

Overall, the one last hurrah nature of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is only succeeded by Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in terms of a film.  It’s close to a pure distillation of everything that this particular cast of characters are and succeeds at, with each of them getting a happy ending (even Janice Rand gets a slightly larger cameo with Grace Lee Whitney returning to the role).  It’s all about looking to the future and albeit retroactively is the perfect setup to open the doors to the new era of Star Trek which I will be boldly going into.  9/10.

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.