Review of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) by Jason O — 13 Sep 2009

The classic Enterprise crew from The Original Series (Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc.) are enjoying a fun shore leave. What could be better? Captain Kirk is off scaling mountains without protective gear, Spock is flying around with something like jet-propelled shoes, and Dr. McCoy is in a rather grumpy mood. But all's not bad. The three later have a nice campfire set up as they do things such as try to teach Spock "Row Row Row Your Boat" and share tastes in a secret McCoy recipe.

But little do they know that Spock's half brother, a fellow Vulcan, has a goal of capturing the Enterprise ship and then going on a venture to find God. Will he be one of the crew's fiercest enemies ever? So much for shore leave!

There's not much, if anything, that hasn't already been said in the many reviews for "Star Trek V - The Final Frontier." Its plot is sort of bleh, the main enemy doesn't even seem like an enemy the majority of the time, the special effects are underwhelming, and there are many other things about the movie that are a bit subpar. Yep, I agree that this is the worst Star Trek movie that includes the original members.

However, there are some good times to be had. I thoroughly enjoy the shore leave scenes, especially the ones that take place around the campfire. It's this good-natured humor and reminiscing about the past (Kirk saying he misses his old chair, McCoy getting into his usual arguments with Spock, etc.) that will remind you of the Original Series episodes of Star Trek. I also thought that the character development was done fairly well.

All in all, "Star Trek V - The Final Frontier" is an average movie at heart, but, like all the bad episodes of Star Trek and the other not so spectacular movies, it's worth seeing. If, for nothing else, IT'S STAR TREK. You may not want to own it, but if you're a Trekkie, you KNOW you want to see it. NOTE: That was my Amazon review from the year 2003. What can you say, not one of the better Star Trek films, but it has many classic scenes to give it some brownie points.