STAR TREK V, THE FINAL FRONTIER
US, 1989, 105 minutes, Colour.
William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, David Warner, Laurence Luckinbill, Charles Cooper.
Directed by William Shatner.
After its initial success of for television in the 1960s and 1970s, the Star Trek Franchise moved into cinema films in 1979. There followed another five films in the series, featuring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and the popular characters from the television series.
The fourth episode was directed by Leonard Nimoy. This time it is the turn of William Shatner. And this time, most of the action takes place in the future and in the universe – with some time off for Earth sequences, especially Kirk mountain climbing but rescued by Spock, camping out with Bones and Spock, Spock trying to learn the human ways of camping and, especially, though he is able to quote poetry and give authors in verse references, he does not know Row, Row, Row, Your Boat – but learns it by the finale!
The film opens in the desert, warriors, an attack on a club, The Paradise (which has a kind of mutant pole dancer). Then three characters are captured as ransom. David Warner appears as the human character. However, the focus is on Laurence Luckinbill as a Vulcan, who is a crusader, but has a religious urge, wanting to control Kirk and his crew (who do attack the club and there are some battles but this is not what the Vulcan wants, preferring peace, and controlling the emotions of the crew). He is also seeking God, urging Kirk to travel to a mysterious barrier in which he finds God, but a God who feels that he has been imprisoned, who is vengeful, who demands the life of the Vulcan that the others might be free. And then the Vulcan, confronting the God, finds it is his vengeful self and surrenders himself to the God.
A key aspect of the plot is that the Vulcan turns out to be the half brother of Spock, Spock unwilling to support his fellow Vulcan, unable to kill him at Kirk’s command. Bones, always taunting Spock about his lack of humanity, is amazed at Spock’s behaviour towards his half-brother.
The film, as with the series, gives prominence to the regular members of the cast and the Enterprise crew, with some late beaming up by Scotty.
The series was becoming more familiar but also moving towards its end.
