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

[Rob Gardiner]

This disc has some of the best supplements on any Trek DVD.

While William Shatner is by no means one of our greatest actors, he is (in my opinion) one of our most beloved celebrities. I particularly enjoy his off-the-wall side projects such as THE TRANSFORMED MAN, FEAR OF POP, Priceline commercials with Ben Folds, NO TEARS FOR CAESAR, and IRON CHEF (althoug the Japanese version is superior). Add to this list the Original Shater Interview on ST:V. Shot in Yosemite the day before filming is to begin, Shat is decked out in denim and flannel, with brand new sneakers and hairpiece. He gets all philosophical, even "new age-ey" in a creepy sort of way. He says "because it's there" is a cop-out answer to the question, "Why climb the mountain?" The real reason is because the climber wants to hug, physically envelop, and/or make love to the mountain!

On a more serious note, I really enjoyed the featurette COSMIC THOUGHTS which features scientsts, sf authors, and theologians discussing the spiritual themes of various TOS episodes and movies I, II, III, and V. If only we could have something like this on the DS9 discs, instead of ten minutes of Michael Westmore's aliens each and every season.

 

[Jack Shappa]

He says "because it's there" is a cop-out answer to the question, "Why climb the mountain?" The real reason is because the climber wants to

Heh, but why does the climber want to? Because its there.

- Cryo

 

[Todd K]

Saavik would have made ST VI more enjoyable, even though I'm still fond of it as is. As the movie stands now, it's all too obvious that the traitor on board is going to be the new girl.

And on the real topic of V, it would take a number of carefully placed cuts in addition to Shatner's desired additions to make it watchable. Would we still hold a classic like The Godfather in such high regard if Don Corleone knocked himself out on a beam, or danced naked with leaves? Hard to say.

 

[danak]

One of the problems I have with Star Trek V that I haven't seen mentioned is that the ship got past the barrier awfully easily. It was supposedly incredibly hard thing to do, but the next thing we know, they are past the barrier.

I did like the relationship between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy but the story itself didn't make a lot of sense overall.

Dana

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

In the novelization, Sybok devised a way to alter the shields of the Enterprise to get through the barrier. Captain Klaa was monitoring the ship and noticed the change, which is how the Klingons were also able to get through the barrier.

One of the things that took Sybok so long to get to Sha Ka Ree was to figure out how to get the shielding to work.

Neil

 

[Tony Whalen]

... if Don Corleone knocked himself out on a beam, or danced naked with leaves?

Oh hell. THERE is a mental image I didn't need. Don Corleone doing a naked fan-dance. *shudder*

'scuse me. I'm gonna go scoop out my mental eye.

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

I know it wouldn't do anything to help the story but a special edition of ST.V really needed a wholesale replacement of every single spaceship effect. Somewhere on this planet there is a 12 year old who could have redone them on a PC in about half an hour.

 

[Tony Scello]

My favorite feature on this DVD has to be The Original Shatner Interview. This has to be one of the best, unintentionally funny pieces I've seen in a long time. Only Shatner, in his hammy, dead serious, over-dramatic way, could explain that people climb mountains because they are really trying to "hug, physically envelop, and/or make love to the mountain"

The cringe/laugh factor is way up for this one. A classic:wink:

 

[Bryan Tuck]

Only Shatner, in his hammy, dead serious, over-dramatic way, could explain that people climb mountains because they are really trying to "hug, physically envelop, and/or make love to the mountain"

One of the reasons we love him.

By the way, has anyone found the Easter egg on disc 2? Just go to the middle of the deleted scenes menu and click left. It's actually a pretty funny little gag reel (no bloopers, but a goofy re-edit of a key scene).

 

[Larry P]

I feel the humor works well for this film at this point in the series. This was the fourth sequel to a series that itself was a sequel to the TV series. The actors were getting pretty old at this point. It was a new ship, not everything was working properly. I felt it drove home the fact that this was the new Enterprise, not the same old one.

The overall plot of taking a spaceship and trying to find God was just a great, campy, classic SF premise. It is an exciting premise. Once you've found God, what else is there to do in the universe? The idea really promises to take you to the "final fronteir". And that's what sequels do, they take the situations from previous films, and expand on them; and since they had done most everything else in the ST Universe, really what was left? The fans wanted something more intellectual at that point though so the idea didn't sit well with them.

As far as the incosistancy of the center of the galaxy only being ten minutes away, the same thing was done in ALIENS and nobody ever complains about that. They didn't have warp drive in the Alien universe, yet the marines were able to get out to the planet really quickly. Without that revisionism, the story in ALIENS could have never happened either and we would have missed out on one of the all time greats.

I will never understand why so many people hate this film, yet don't complain nearly as much about ST III, which was truly one of the worst big budget movies ever made. Shatner seemed to understand the material much better than Nimoy ever did, and showed more talent. And I'll also take this over the bloated overdramatic Undiscovered Country or the bland ALIENS wannabe that was First Contact. Nemisis wasn't a bad movie, but it was 100% formulatic, offering nothing new, just recycled bits of the lore from the last 35 years. At least Trek V dared to take viewers somewhere new, though it never really got there.

There was no way Paramount was going to spend money on a director's cut of ST V because this film is so loathed by its fans. It will never happen.

 

[Larry P]

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.)

One of the huge problems I had with ST VI was that it was a "whodunnit?" that had no payoff. I kept hoping/fearing the conspirator aboard the ship would have been one of the original crew. It was all building up to something like that, then it copped out at the end by putting it all on the guest star.

They should have gotten Robin Curtis back, that way the revelation at the end could have held some weight.

 

[Osato]

The new transfer looks great on this disc!! I thought it was great that a new one was done. I was really surprised as well after hearing that a new version was not done.
I am disappointed that one of the deleted scenes was only included in one of the featuretees and not in the deleted scenes extras. It was hard to hear with the interview dialogue on top of the scene. Any reason for this?

Well, if The Original Series can be released twice, now in box sets, I think there is a possiblity of another version at some point. It took 20+ years for The Motion Picture to be completed correctly or more toward the Director's vision.
I have multiple friends who were very interested in the new cut when it was being discussed, as was I. They would've bought the film had the cut been done as well. They are passing on the disc as it is not a new version though.

Is it possible the first two Director's cuts opened the door to the other films being done as well, and Paramount couldn't justify the upgrades?
I found it curious that after the first two films were released as Director's Cuts that they have gone to Collector's Editions for the other films. Just wondering.

 

[Todd Stout]

I watched Star Trek V last night for the first time since seeing it on VHS in the early 1990's. It really was not as bad as I had remembered. I was pretty much enjoying watching it again after all these years until the somewhat of a letdown ending.

 

[Harry-N]

Actually, this was also confirmed in the TNG episode "Enisgns of Command" when the one character joked that he hoped he would get promoted so that he could finally "have his own room". Considering the enormous size of the Enterprise-D as opposed to the Enterprise-A, I am not surprised at all that the "enlisted" were doubled up in ST VI.

I think the actual episode you're referring to is called "Lower Decks". "Ensigns Of Command" dealt with Data's difficulties in getting a well-entrenched colony to move off of their planet.

Harry

 

[John_Berger]

I think the actual episode you're referring to is called "Lower Decks".

Yeah, I thought about that after I posted, but I couldn't remember the actual name. Whoops.

 

[Seth--L]

Well, with Trek II they just spliced in a minute or two of extra footage. It's not like new effects had to be rendered a lot of time was spent in the editing room thinking about how to insert the footage with out disrupting continuity. The cost of doing this was small, and the odds were in Paramount's favor for making a lot off the DVD since it is the most popular Trek film.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again: I think that HTF members are grossly overestimating the number of people that would come out of the woodwork to buy a Trek V DVD featuring a new cut, with new footage and special effects. The box office of the last Trek film demonstrated that there is not this buy anything Trek loyalty. At most a new cut would boost rentals. Besides if Paramount thought that they would profit from a new cut, I'm sure they would have done it.

It's interesting that suddenly the legions of HTF members that despise film revisionism want a Trek V with new FXs and extra footage.

 

[nolesrule]

It's interesting that suddenly the legions of HTF members that despise film revisionism want a Trek V with new FXs and extra footage.

Don't confuse revisionism and a wish for the story to be completed the way it was supposed to be (a la TrekTMP). If you are familiar with the production story behind Five and how it is incomplete because Paramount shortchanged SHatner on the budget, you'd understand better where everyone is coming from.

 

[Seth--L]

So it comes down to fulfilling the director's intentions and vision. So how is that different than what Lucas and Spielberg have done? Maybe the studio didn't interfere with their films in the same why, but for reasons x, y and z, 20 years later they can now better complete the film they wanted to make.

 

[Jeff D Han]

I watched this movie only once, and that was enough
for me. It won the Razzie for worst picture, and it
deserved to. I don't think only special effects
doctoring or the rock people sequence could fix a
horrible screenplay (Uhura's fan dance, the Row Row
Row Your Boat sing along, Scotty hitting his head,
etc). I have the first four collector's editions
and I'll buy the collector's edition for #6, but
I'll pass on this one.

 

[Harry-N]

Trek V is a 'love-it-or-hate-it' movie, with most falling on the 'hate-it' side. It has its problems, but some of us Trek fans have the ability to look past it to find what good it has to offer us. As mentioned, the humor and big-three relationships are the highlights, the fact that it's a mission of the Enterprise story, remeniscent of the old TV series is a plus.

I have the older-issued DVD, but hopefully plan to buy the CE when I find it for the right price at the right time. I like it enough to upgrade it to whatever version is the best, just like any other Trek movie out there.

Surely, even fans of the movie realize that Trek V is no classic, but like finding some good points in a Ferengi episode of Deep Space Nine, some of us are willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and overlook the failings.

Harry