Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

Directed by: William Shatner | 102 minutes | action, adventure, science fiction, thriller | Actors: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, David Warner, Laurence Luckinbill, Charles Cooper, Cynthia Gouw, Todd Bryant, Spice Williams, Rex Holman, George Murdock, Jonathan Simpson, Beverly Hart, Steve Susskind, Harve Bennett, Cynthia Blaise, Bill Quinn, Melanie Shatner, Carey Scott, Mike Smithson

The Final Frontier is the fifth installment of the Star Trek films and also the only one written and directed by William Shatner (Kirk). This movie is considered by far the worst of the entire cycle and it won’t be long before you know why.
The story is roughly about the Vulcan Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill) who wants to hijack a spaceship to travel to the center of the galaxy. Here he hopes to find an answer to the most important philosophical questions of our existence. Of course the spaceship he is going to hijack is the ‘Enterprice’ and here the story starts to feel very forced.

The characters are as you can expect from ‘Star Trek’. The original crew as well as Sybok play nice but are swept away by the laughable script they have to function in. What is also very unfortunate is the poor interaction between all crew members. The only ones who really have some roles are Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and McCoy (DeForest Kelley) and although they try their best, the film can’t save them.

As mentioned before, the story feels very forced but also illogical. For example, excuses are made to involve the crew of the ‘Enterprice’ in saving the diplomats that Sybok has taken hostage and there are plot twists that are too predictable for words and sometimes even very laughable. In addition, there are situations that seem to exist purely because the writers were not creative enough to come up with a credible solution.

While the original ‘Star Trek’ series was not known for its momentum, things are now very sad with events. It doesn’t seem to get tense until somewhere halfway through the film, which is quickly toned down again due to far-fetched story elements
In addition, there is a lack of coherence with the original series and the previous films. For example, the Klingons that are being introduced in the meantime are an almost useless addition and although Kirk has lost his son to these aliens in Star Trek 3, there seems to be no hatred between them.

The saddest thing about this movie is the special effects. At best, they were fake and inconclusive; at worst laughable. Especially in the final battle at the end, it’s hard to contain your laughter when Kirk is chased by a face in the air that shoots laser beams from his eyes. No, William Shatner shouldn’t be building Star Trek.

The conclusion may be very simple: skip this movie. Whatever kind of ‘Star Trek’ fanatic you may be, skip straight to ‘Star Trek 6’. Although William Shatner can play nice roles, he clearly hasn’t mastered making a film yet.