Yesterdays Movies on Tuesday: Star Trek The Final Frontier 1989
Star Trek The Voyage Home is considered to be the most successful movie in the Star Trek franchise, a record that is believed to might be broken with the release of the new film. The success of Star Trek 4 made Paramount Pictures eager to start production on a fifth film with William Shatner at the helm. With Shatner's contract in Star Trek 4, he was granted permission to direct the fifth film which is something that excited him. All of us know the outcome of Star Trek: The Final Frontier but if you read about the production of this film it seems apparent, it was just one of those movies were nothing went their way.
Nicholas Meyer was to busy to return to write the film, another screenwriter was asking for way too much money, ILM was busy with other films forcing Shatner to go to a shitter visual effects company, and several more things causing Star Trek 5 to fall apart. The bottom line is that because Paramount wanted to understandably stay with the momentum of Star Trek 4, things were rushed causing things to fall apart. Honestly, there isn't one person or group to blame, it's just another example of how rushing films cause films to suck.
After a bad shake down cruise of the new USS Enterprise A, Kirk and co return to Earth for some much needed shore leave. On a desolate planet called Nimbus III a renegade Vulcan takes hostages and the Enterprise is dispatched to rescue them. While there, the Vulcan is identified as Spock's half-brother and a Vulcan who embraces emotion, Sybok. After Sybok captures the Enterprise, they set a course for the middle of the galaxy, the great barrier, to find God on a planet called Sha Ka Ree. The whole time, the Enterprise is being stalked by a Klingon Bird of Prey with a commander looking for glory. Directed by William Shatner, he returns to play Captain James T. Kirk with Leonard Nimoy as Spock, DeForest Kelly as McCoy, James Doohan as Scotty, George Takei as Sulu, Walter Koenig as Chekov and Nichelle Nichols as Uhura. Star Trek 5 introduces Laurence Luckinbill as Sybok with Todd Bryant as Klaa, Spice Williams as Vixis and David Warner as Talbot.
I honestly don't know where to begin with Star Trek The Final Frontier. I suppose I could say everyone's heart was in the right place but nothing seemed to work. I will say this for the film - its plot concept seemed very original Trek which is something that I always admired. It's just absurd and cheesy enough were it probably would have made a great TOS episode but as a film, ehh. The best thing this film had to offer was its comedy and although some people may have been annoyed by the comedy in Star Trek, I can say I loved it especially from Dr. McCoy. Just like the rest of the films, Star Trek The Final Frontier has some fun character moments but the overall momentum built up by Star Trek 4 was halted when it comes to story telling and special/visual effects. Both the story and the effects aren't that spectacular. As a uber Trek fan like myself, I don't mind Star Trek 5 at all and can watch it over and over again without a problem but there's no doubt it's the worst in the TOS franchise. Some of the things that happen in this film, for example some of the crew turning on Kirk is simply ridiculous and even both Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelly were very angry at that notion. In fact, the film was rewritten for both of them so that they wouldn't be forced to turn on Kirk which was wise. Those of us who watch Star Trek know that none of his crew would ever betray eachother and in this movie, they played with that idea. I wouldn't mind it if it was a story that called for it, but The Final Frontier didn't.
By the way, Spice Williams was born to play a Klingon woman. She was perfect.
Sadly I don't recommend this film to anyone really, except if your an experience Star Trek fan. If you have no experience with the franchise you'll probably be left thinking "WTF did I just watch?" or "Well, it was funny."
-Phil
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