DVD Review HTF REVIEW: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1 Viewer)

[Ric Easton]

Wow, and I kinda liked number six!

The only thing that really bothered me was that the whole Valeris thing would have worked much better if it was a half Vulcan half Romulan Saavik. I mean, she would have had more reason to hate the Klingons.

Of course, they I don't think the half Romulan thing ever made it into the movies. And after watching ST 4, who thought that Saavik might be prego with Spock's son?

Ah, the lost opportunities... Still, I thought The Undiscovered Country was a much better send off for the original cast than The Final Frontier.

Yes, the little things, bother me a bit too. Like Khan recognizing Chekov in The Wrath of Khan. But, give Nick Meyer a little credit! After all, it was Star Trek 2 that saved the franchise!

Ric

 

[Bill Williams]

Officially, if we were to go by just the movies themselves, Saavik is fully Vulcan. However, in one of the first preview assemblies of footage for Star Trek II, there is a scene that was filmed which showed more footage of Kirk and Spock walking the halls of Starfleet Academy. Kirk mentions how first-rate Saavik is as a cadet, and Spock replies, "She's half-Romulan, Jim. The mixture of blood makes her more emotionally volatile than me." I have that on videotape, and it was clearly filmed. It's only been in the novels and comics that Saavik's half-Romulan origin has been explored.

Another interesting sequence that didn't make it into Star Trek II involves Saavik and David Marcus at the end of the film. There's a hint of romantic attraction between them, and Kirk muses, "Ah, she's learning by doing."

As for Saavik being pregnant with Spock's child in Star Trek IV, this is only suggested in discussions on the making of the film, suggesting why Saavik is left behind on Vulcan. In the comics adaptation, Kirk asks Saavik how she's feeling, and she replies, "My condition remains unchanged." (Or to that effect.) This intimates but does not come out and say that she's pregnant.

And as an interesting sidebar to Star Trek VI, as we know from the final film,

Valeris turns out to be the hired guns' assassin on the Enterprise and attempts to kill Kirk and Spock in Sickbay.

In early drafts of the script, however, it is written that
Saavik was originally going to be the assassin.


Arrangements with Kirstie Alley couldn't be worked out, which explains why Kim Cattrall comes into the picture as Valeris.

 

[Jack Shappa]

Arrangements with Kirstie Alley couldn't be worked out, which explains why Kim Cattrall comes into the picture as Valeris.

Kirstie Alley was, and always will be, Saavik. Too bad she couldn't play the role in all the films. Also, if she had ended up being the assasin in ST6, it would have made Spock's emotional dissapointment in the assasin that much more powerful.

- Cryo

 

[Lyle_JP]

And the invasion/battle plans being written on paper and a black marker. If memory serves too, they were talking about invasion in front of the enemy in that part as well!

To be fair, none of that was part of the film as seen in theaters.

-Lyle J.P.

 

[Ric Easton]

Arrangements with Kirstie Alley couldn't be worked out, which explains why Kim Cattrall comes into the picture as Valeris.

But why didn't they use Robin Curtis? She had already been established as Saavik in 3 and 4.

Ric

 

[Sergio Martorel]

Why do they have a galley? Even in classic Trek days they had synthetic food.

It´s established that the food synthesizer wasn´t functioning at the time.

 

[Nelson Au]

I believe that Nick Meyer who originally cast Kirsty Alley as Savvik wanted her back as Savvik for Trek 6. He was not going to compromise the character with a different actress; unfortunately for Robin Curtis.

As for a galley and bunk beds, that's all Nick Meyer's doing. He likes to show that in the future, they still cook and read books(Trek2). And he stated he wanted the Enterprise to feel more like a cramped submarine, even the TNG corridor sets used in this film were adjusted to make them more narrow, thus cramped crews quarters with bunk beds.

There's also a precedent for a galley on the Enterprise. From "Charlie X", Kirk asks the cook to prepare meatloaf to look like turkeys for Thanksgiving. Later the cook calls Kirk from the galley and says they have real turkeys.

Nelson

 

[Chucky P]

There's also a precedent for a galley on the Enterprise. From "Charlie X", Kirk asks the cook to prepare meatloaf to look like turkeys for Thanksgiving. Later the cook calls Kirk from the galley and says they have real turkeys.

And the person providing the voice of the cook is none other than Gene Roddenberry!

 

[RickER]

OK...like i say im picking nits. Phasers in the galley, and neumatic tubes to send the food are still stupid. So is Uhura going all the way down their to ask who set off a phaser. Just to give her something to do. In Star Trek III i could belive that 5 guys had to do it all cause they stole the Enterprise. But the Enterprise in V and VI was manned to full compliment. The part where they look in books to see how to translate Klingon. It was a good laugh, that just made me cringe. You know, the same way Jar-Jar does in Star Wars I know this thread is about Trek V, and the new DVD release. But come on guys, i remember when Star Trek: TMP was the worst, now it looks like gold next to V, VI, Insurrection. I guess i hold Trek to a higher standard. I got used to good writing on the Next Generation, loved Trek II, III, IV, and yes even TMP. And i saw some good stuff in V, but not enough to say yea, thats how you do a Trek film! I would sit through Plato's Stepchildren before Trek V...now thats bad! LOL

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I like Star Trek V. I know that's an unpopular view, but it was ambitious, and if not entirely successful, it did boast some of the best performances of the series, and the comraderie between the characters is done excellently. It also has Jerry Goldsmith's best score for the series.

I'm not such a huge fan of the ST:TMP director's cut. Every time they drop a new special effect in, it looks like a made for TV movie and sticks out so obviously. I was all for making a little trim here and there (and am glad that they included the deleted material in the supplements), but most (if not all) of those new effects don't work. If I notice them as being new, they've done a lousy job. The part that made me cringe the most was seeing the full V'Ger craft - seeing it from the outside made it suddenly seem a lot smaller after the whole film was based around how huge it was. I also thought that the end where they leave the Enterprise to "meet" V'Ger was horrendously redone - animated Enterprise, animated actors, animated footbridge. Ugh. Was this Star Trek the movie or Star Trek the cartoon?

As for VI, it's the Manchurian Candidate in space. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It was the first bit of Trek I ever saw in my life, and I still feel fondly about it. I again like how they decided to go against type and give the film a much darker tone than the other films had. As for the purple blood, I'm pretty sure it was purple because the MPAA threatened an "R" if it had been red. Doesn't really matter much. It's a fitting send-off that acknowledges their age rather than just pretending that their adventures will go on and on forever.

The Next Gen movies at times suffer from "big episode syndrome" - they don't always take enough advantage of the differences between a weekly television show and a feature film. Insurrection (9) is an especially strong example of that - it would have been perfectly believable as a two part episode in the series.

I liked Nemesis as a stand-alone film, but if you pick too closely at it, you find a lot of breaks with series continuity. Why wasn't Lore ever mentioned? If I had found another Data android my first thought would be of Data's existing twin brother. All they needed was a quick mention and maybe a brief interspace chat with someone at Starfleet confirming that Lore was still disassembled and locked away safely. The Shinzon actor, Tom Hardy, doesn't really look anything like Patrick Stewart so the shock I was supposed to get when the lights came up in that scene wasn't there, because he was just another guy - he was only a clone once they said he was, there was nothing in his appearance that would make me think he was Picard's double. The supporting cast is left out of most of the film, especially Riker. When Frakes was directing I understand that they perhaps cut his role back a little so he wasn't too swamped directing and starring, but it was almost a joke how little he was in this film. That said, I think the film moves very well, and the performances by Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner are among the best ever in a Trek film.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Wow - I never knew there was any anti-VI sentiment.

But why didn't they use Robin Curtis? She had already been established as Saavik in 3 and 4.

This was one thing I never understood. Why did they have Saavik return after Kirstie Alley refused to come back? She did nothing in the films that a small rewrite and character change couldn't have covered - and the sudden change in actor really is distracting.

 

[Jack Shappa]

This was one thing I never understood. Why did they have Saavik return after Kirstie Alley refused to come back? She did nothing in the films that a small rewrite and character change couldn't have covered - and the sudden change in actor really is distracting.

Not to mention Alley was HOT, and Robin was more of a soccer-mom (not that there aren't any hot soccer moms).

- Cryo

 

[Bill Williams]

You must remember that it was in the early script treatments that Saavik was included. Star Trek VI went through, like, 20 different work-in-progress scripts before the final draft was approved. I have a copy of one of the early scripts, and while most of the content in the final film appears there, Saavik is present at this time. It was because they couldn't get Kirstie Alley back as Saavik due to her work on "Cheers" that they decided to scrap Saavik altogether and write in a new character, Valeris.

 

[Tony Whalen]

Spock: "I've lost a brother"
Kirk: "I lost a brother once. I was lucky enough to get him back."
McCoy: "I thought you said men like us don't have families"
Kirk: "I was wrong"

(quote may not be exact...)


Best lines in the whole damn flick. Really helps demonstrate the relationship these three men have.

 

[Jack Shappa]

Spock: "I've lost a brother"
Kirk: "I lost a brother once. I was lucky enough to get him back."
McCoy: "I thought you said men like us don't have families"
Kirk: "I was wrong"
Spock: "Jim, it is not logical for you to place your hand there"

- Cryo

 

[John_Berger]

Spock: "Jim, it is not logical for you to place your hand there"

That deserves a and a at the same time.

 

[Steve Christou]

One of my favorite lines is near the end of Trek V when Kirk is on the Klingon ship and about to embrace Spock for saving him...

Spock: "Captain, not in front of the Klingons."

Love that line.

 

[paul_austin]

I had to drive all over town to find this DVD today.
I finally found one at Circuit City........they got ONE in. This plus paramount not wanted to get behind a new version make we wanna shout "conspiracy theory" and "self fulfilling prophecy"

 

[Josh Steinberg]

As I remember it... and I'm piecing this together from interviews or texts by Shater, Nimoy, and Nick Meyer (director of II and VI)...

Nick Meyer created the character of Saavik for Star Trek II. Although he didn't get screen credit for it, he did write the screenplay for that film, taking a bunch of loose ideas that hadn't really worked in earlier drafts by different writers and really turned it into a cohesive whole. After the first film, Paramount basically bought Roddenberry off - they sent him a check and gave him an "Executive Consultant" title, but he was no longer the driving force behind the original Enterprise crew and films.

When it came time to do VI and Nimoy got Meyer to come back, Meyer again rewrote the script (with his friend Denny Flynn, I believe). Because of WGA rules, two other writers who wrote drafts that were unused and bore little resemblance to the finished film had to be given screen credit.

It was Meyer's idea to bring Saavik back as the traitor; Meyer thought it was interesting for a number of reasons. But he only wanted Kirstie Alley for the part, as she was the actress he had cast in II (he had nothing to do with III). As "Cheers" was enormously successful and had made Kirstie Alley a huge star, she was asking a price that apparently was higher than what Shatner and Nimoy were paid - combined. Needless to say, she wasn't in the film.

At this point, Roddenberry was ill and towards the end of his life, but complaints came from his office (perhaps "signed off" by him but not really his ideas) that making Saavik a traitor would upset the fans and that it wouldn't fit in with the character, and all of that. It's funny how Roddenberry was very defensive about a character that he didn't create, who appeared in a movie he had little to do with and protested against. (It was Roddenberry who leaked the info about Spock's death before shooting began in an effort to start a fan campaign to shut down the film.)

Meyer's solution was to take the Saavik role and make a new character out of it. In the role he cast Kim Cattrall, who was actually his first choice for Saavik when he was casting STII.

 

[Jason Borchers]

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