(NOTE: Capsule version of the review is available here.)
Widely, and often justly, regarded as the nadir of the Star Trek film franchise, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) is a film of grand, even noble, ambition that is tragically undone by a profound lack of execution. It is generally regarded to be the worst in the history of the franchise, a reputation cemented by its messy plot, tonal dissonance, and, most notoriously, its shoddy production values. Yet, to dismiss it as a complete failure is to ignore the flickers of a compelling idea buried beneath its many flaws.
The film’s premise is undeniably intriguing. It begins on the Nimbus III, the “Planet of Galactic Peace,” a desolate wasteland in the Neutral Zone. Here, we are introduced to Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill), Spock’s long-lost Vulcan half-brother, who has rejected his people’s rigid logic in favour of embracing emotion. Sybok possesses a unique and dangerous ability: he can delve into a person’s psyche, uncover their deepest, most hidden pain, and then “take it away,” offering a form of cathartic release that is indistinguishable from religious conversion. Using this power, he amasses a devoted cult, seizes control of Paradise City, and takes hostage the three galactic consuls—the Federation’s cynicial St. John Talbot (David Warner), Klingon Korrd (Charles Cooper), and the Romulan Caithlin Dar (Cynthia Gouw). This act is merely a ruse to lure the newly refitted USS Enterprise to Nimbus III, where Sybok intends to commandeer the ship for his true quest: to journey to the mythical planet of Sha Ka Ree at the very centre of the galaxy, a place he believes is the abode of God.
This central theme—the confrontation between faith, science, and the human need for a higher power—was a bold and mature direction for the franchise, inspired by William Shatner’s own critical view of the televangelist scandals that plagued 1980s America. However, this serious philosophical inquiry is fatally compromised by Paramount Pictures’ commercial mandate. Fresh off the enormous success of the light-hearted and comedic Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, the studio insisted that its successor maintain a similar, crowd-pleasing tone. The result is a catastrophic tonal shift. The film lurches awkwardly from cheap, often crass, humour—such as the infamous scene in a Mos Eisley-style saloon featuring a four-breasted alien dancer, or Uhura’s moonlit fan dance seduction of Sybok’s followers—to the profound, almost mystical, journey to Sha Ka Ree. This dissonance renders the film’s climax, which could have been a powerful episode of The Original Series, into a messy conflic” that feels artificially padded with a pointless Klingon subplot (Captain Klaa, played by Tood Bryant, searching for glory) and unnecessary fan-service, like the opening sequence of the “Big Three” camping in Yosemite National Park.
The script, written by David Loughery from Shatner’s story, is another major failing. The dialogue is frequently clunky and uninspired, failing to capture the gravitas of its central theme. Even the potentially powerful scenes where Sybok forces Dr. McCoy and Spock to confront their deepest traumas—the death of McCoy’s father and Spock’s childhood rejection by his father—feel emotionally hollow and “lame compared with [the] higher emotion and melodrama of Wrath of Khan or Search for Spock.” The film’s ambition is further crippled by its notoriously poor special effects. With Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) unavailable due to their work on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Paramount was forced to rely on the clearly subpar work of Bran Ferren . The result is a film that, despite a respectable $27-33 million budget , often looks like a cheap episode of the television series , its space vistas and alien landscapes lacking the polish and grandeur expected of a summer blockbuster.
Much of the blame for this disaster has historically fallen on William Shatner, who directed the film in an effort to prove his mettle behind the camera, following Leonard Nimoy’s successful directorial turns. Shatner himself has since admitted, “I failed horribly” . His vision was further hampered by a bitter conflict with Star Trek’s creator, Gene Roddenberry. Shatner’s story bore a striking resemblance to Roddenberry’s own unproduced 1975 project, The God Thing, leading Roddenberry to accuse him of plagiarism. This created a deep rift between the two men in the final years of Roddenberry’s life, and the creator of Star Trek vehemently distanced himself from the film, famously labelling it “apocryphal” . This official disavowal only served to legitimise the feelings of many “trekkies” who would prefer to pretend the film never existed.
It would, however, be unfair to declare the film utterly worthless. Jerry Goldsmith’s score is, as ever, a masterclass in orchestral storytelling, providing a sense of grandeur the visuals cannot match. Laurence Luckinbill’s Sybok is a genuinely compelling and charismatic antagonist, one of the more interesting in the franchise’s history. Most importantly, the core trio of Shatner, Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley retain their decades-old chemistry, bringing a sense of dignity and gravitas to even the most poorly written scenes. Their final confrontation with the malevolent entity masquerading as God—a being Kirk rightly suspects because it asks for a starship, a decidedly un-Godlike request—is the film’s one true moment of philosophical clarity.
At the box office, The Final Frontier was a significant disappointment, earning a domestic gross of just $52 million, less than half of its predecessor’s haul . It was savaged by critics and its failure was felt even more acutely because it arrived just as Star Trek: The Next Generation was finding its stride in its acclaimed second season. For a moment, it seemed the entire franchise was at a nadir, its cinematic future dead. Yet, this very disaster served as a necessary corrective. Paramount, recognising the need for a strong, sure hand, brought back Nicholas Meyer to helm the next film. The result, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, was a critical and commercial triumph that provided the original crew with the dignified and poignant farewell they deserved, a stark and welcome contrast to the messy, ambitious, but ultimately failed odyssey of The Final Frontier.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
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