Right well I thought it was time for a review on Star Trek V: The final frontier, as I've already done II, III and IV. This time William Shatner took over the directorial duties here from Leonard Nimoy, so let's gie it a look then....
So the film begins with the crew of the new Enterprise (after the destruction of the original one in Star Trek III) taking shore leave after their first cruise in the ship goes awry. And Kirk (Shatner) is sharing his shore leave with Spock (Nimoy) and McCoy (Kelley) as they are in Yosemite Park, but they soon receive a call from Starfleet command which brings their leave to an end. Kirk and his crew are ordered to go and rescue human, Klingon and Romulan hostages on the planet Nimbus III. On arrival at Nimbus III, Kirk and his crew discover that the man behind the hostage crisis is in fact a Vulcan named Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill) which Spock soon reveals is in fact his half brother. During an attempt to end the seige, Sybok captures the Enterprise crew and he also uses his mind melding powers to bend the crew to his will, and he tells them that he plans on taking their ship past the great barrier, to a planet that is known as Sha ka Ree, a place that is shrouded in myth that is said to be the place that was responsible for the creation of life itself. However passing the great barrier in itself could prove to be a journey that could destroy the Enterprise, and as Kirk placed in the ship's brig along with Spock and McCoy, it is up to him to try and stop Sybok from achieving his plan....
Star Trek V it has to be said in comparison to the previous films is a bit of a letdown, although it is still fairly entertaining, Shatner seems to have made the franchise a bit of a joke. Plus also the Star Trek crew at this point are also starting to look that bit older and we are subjected to one or two moments you wish you had never seen, such as Uhura dancing wearing very little and using large feathers to cover herself, which is cringeworthy in itself! The humour is also a bit more heavily accented and while there are certainly some amusing moments it is also a bit cheesy at times, and it feels less grounded than the previous films and a bit more like slapstick. The film itself underwent multiple re-writes and also it suffers somewhat from the fact that ILM were unable to do the special effects for the film, and they used a different team run by Brian Ferren, in order to keep the costs down, so the effects look distinctly less impressive than before.
Performance wise the film is actually not too bad and one of the things that works better here is the dynamic between the three leads of Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley and the scenes they share together are the best in the film. The best scene in the film they have together is arguably the best scene in the film where Sybok makes McCoy face his pain, as he shows him the image of his dying father and he chose to euthanise him to spare him the pain, only to find not longer after a cure was found for his condition. They also share some funny moments such as where they are locked in the Enterprise's brig and Kirk tries to escape by being given a hoist to reach the bars above in the ceiling but instead he get's zapped by a defensive electric shock. Spock then tells Kirk that the brig is inescapable as it was tested by the Starfleet's best officer for the job, and Kirk asks "did this officer have by any chance pointed ears and the endless capacity for getting his shipmates into trouble??" and Spock replies "he did have pointed ears". James Doohan as Scotty once again also delivers an amusing performance as the ship's chief engineer and he helps Krik, Spock and McCoy escape from the brig and he yells "don't you know a prison break when you see one!". Scotty amusingly later on tells the trio how to escape back to the communications room, and Kirk says he is a miracle, and Scotty replies "oh I know this ship like the back of my hand!" and he then walks into a high beam, knocking himself out.
As for the film's main antagonist, Sybok, Laurence Buckinhill gives a decent performance as Spock's far more emotional and passionate Vulcan brother. However it has to be said his performance is a bit melodramatic at times especially in the moments where he uses his mend melding powers to relieve people from their pain and he says "this pain has poisoned your soul for a long time!". Also the scene where he introduces himself to Spock, he sounded almost like a gameshow host "Spock its me! Its Sybok!". Although the interesting thing about Sybok's character is that he isn't really a vilaiin and he in the end his just wants to achieve his goal of reaching Sha ka Ree rather take any lives in the process.
Getting on to the flaws of the film, well there are a fair few, starting with the useless addition of the enemy Klingon captain Klaa, who is far from menacing and is a bit of a joke as far as baddies goes, he decides to pursue Kirk for his own personal glory. However when Klaa catches up with the Enterprise, the Klingon ambassador stops him from carrying out his attack, and he is told off like a schoolboy and forced to apologise to Kirk. The group dynamic of Kirk, Spock and McCoy does work well in the film, but I do find it a bit difficult to digest that they would spend their shore leave together, as something just doesn't sit right with that. Surely you would think as McCoy suggests "all that time we spend on the ship getting on each others nerves, and what do we do? We go on vacation together!" that they would want to spend their shore leave apart. Also the main villain piece of the film turns out to be (PLOT SPOILER) the God of Sha Ka Ree who is no more than a powerful existential being that wants to escape its planet, and it makes for a rather hasty decision to turn him into a baddie, which leads to the film's rather poorly concieved climax. Although this scene leads into a funny line from Kirk when Klaa's klingon vessel appears and aims its gun at Kirk who says "so its me you want, you Klingon bastards!".
On the plus side however the film sees the return of the composer Jerry Goldsmith and he provides the film with a pretty good score and its good to hear that familiar main theme of Goldsmith's (which was at the time used also for the TV series: Star Trek The Next Generation).
So that's it for my look at Star Trek V, which doubtless remains one of the weakest entries in the franchise, and although it is still fairly enjoyable its far from one of the best.
And that's it for the now.
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