Thought it would be fun to re-watch these, since I finally picked up a copy of Star Trek - Into Darkness from the cheapie bin, which means I now have copies of all of them.
So, on into space, the filmic frontier...
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Star Trek V - The Final Frontier (1989)
Directed by William Shatner
Story by William shatner & Harve Bennett & David Loughery, screenplay by David Loughery.
Overall: I was surprised by this picture. I had remembered it as being the worst one they did. Well, I think I still feel that way, but it had alot of good moments. I think that with a little re-writing and some judicious editing, this could've been quite good.
I few good moments but beyond that I didn't like it either.
It didn't have the ending that Shatner wanted.
And they made Spock an only child in the TV series to prevent writers from using Spock-siblings as story ideas.
This was the fruit of the deal Leonard Nimoy made to revive the Spock character after he was killed off in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. To wit: He agreed to come back in the third movie if he could direct an installment in the series, which he did, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Well, William Shatner couldn't abide Nimoy getting to direct a movie if he didn't get to direct a movie, so Shatner got his turn, with Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is well-regarded as a popular favorite in the series. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier cemented the popular notion that the even-numbered movies in the series are the good ones, and the odd-numbered movies are bad.
Yes, Trek V gives us lots of the Big Three, but I found their interactions simplistic and clumsy.
As General Korrd turned out to be key to the resolution, they shouldn't have portrayed him as a rude, drunken fool right up to the end.
Bad playing by the rest of the cast (some good actors, and that Romulan non-actress) resulted in Luckinbill getting over-praised by contrast. Heck, there's no wrong way to play a crazy holy man, but he almost did. "Very well, do what you have to but no more." "He has his doubts!" Makes me wince.
I dunno, maybe they need a director. I remember Shatner making the rounds of the talk shows thinking it was the best damn picture ever. He seemed to think that "Nimbus Three" was really clever.
Goldsmith's score was the only good thing about it.
We start with a dedication to the crew of Challenger, which I thought was a nice touch.
Unfortunately, today they would have to include Columbia. And maybe a nod to Apollo I.
The "Leningrad" reference dates the film a little
For those who don't know, the city name Leningrad has reverted to its old name of St. Petersburg; Stalingrad, to Volgograd. Of course Chekhov might not be wrong. Putin probably wants to change them back again.
"This is an extremely primitive and paranoid culture." Lots of dumping on the 20th Century in this.
We couldn't be too bad or Star Fleet wouldn't have ever existed.
The bus passengers all applaud Spock for knocking out the punk. But why? They don't know what the Vulcan neck pinch is - for all they now, Spock just quietly snapped the guy's neck.
Good point. I hadn't thought of it. OTOH, Maybe they didn't care if he snapped his neck.
They could have just beamed Gillian back out of the ship again, at the end. sure hope she wasn't meant to have any important descendants or anything.
She wouldn't necessarily have to have important descendents. All the people she and her children (if any) would interact with in the future would have been affected. (Unless going to the future WAS her destiny)
Earth is lucky the whales told the probe to leave.
Yeah. If the whales held a grudge they could have said "The humans killed all my family and friends. Wipe them out!"
And they get a new Enterrpise. I recall some source material suggesting that they just took a new ship that they happened to have ready and hastily re-named it.
That does make more sense than building a new ship that large and complex from scratch in very little time.
ClarkKent_DC said:
Yeah, it was kind of odd that they left the invisible spaceship in the park and it was fine. I would have to think that more than a few people might have bumped into it, and that would have attracted some attention.
They should have had that in the movie. A guy bumps into the invisible ship and calls the cops. They consider taking him in for psychiatric observation.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is well-regarded as a popular favorite in the series. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier cemented the popular notion that the even-numbered movies in the series are the good ones, and the odd-numbered movies are bad.
Although I've seen all the movies my collection consists of I through IV. The Voyage Home is probably my favorite because of all of the interaction with "civilians."
I often think that instead of coming up with new scripts they just should have adapted some of the old Star Trek books. "Spock Must Die" by James Blish would have been good to see on the screen.
I saw V in the theaters and once on VHS. I remember it being almost unwatchable. It also made me reluctant to see VI in the theater (but I am glad I did).
Star Trek VI - The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Directed by Nicholas Meyer (No more letting the actors direct them, I guess!)
Story by Leonard Nimoy and Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal
Screenplay by Nicholas Meyer & Denny Martin Flinn
Overall: By and large, this was a pretty good final outing for the entire original crew. Very much a film of its time.
I liked it ok, but there were some plot problems. They should have been working on a way to crack that cloaking device on the way to the conference, not just when they got there.
The Baron said:
"They're dying." "Let them die." I've read that Shatner hated that line, and did his best to make it look like Kirk regretted it the minute he said it.
Around the time the movie was out, I saw William Shatner on some TV show discussing that scene. He said he said the line, but immediately shook his head and waved his arms to show he didn't mean it, but that bit landed on the cutting room floor.