The big picture
- by Shatner
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
tackles God in space, raising Roddenberry's ire and falling short of previous Trek films. - Roddenberry's rejected script “The God Thing” clashes with Shatner's vision, creating controversy on set.
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The last frontier
's poor reception highlights the potential lost due to poor execution and a comedic focus on darker tones.
The Star Trek The franchise seems to have an unspoken rule when it comes to movies: odd movies tend to be weaker than even movies. This rule was maintained for some time (with Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan i Star Trek: First Contact being the great examples) until he was shaken by the bad reception of Star Trek: Nemesis i JJ Abrams taking the franchise in a whole new direction and a whole new universe. The most infamous example of an odd number Star Trek it should be Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, which also marked the directorial debut of William Shatner.
The last frontier sees the crew of the USS company traveling to Nimbus III to rescue a trio of diplomats, where they encounter Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill), Spock's half-brother (Leonard Nimoy). Sybok wants to use the Enterprise to transport a being who claims to be God across the universe, spreading his wisdom along the way. That's okay: this is one Star Trek movie where the main antagonist is God. 35 years later, this story, along with a number of other factors, has done The last frontier one of the most poorly received Star Trek movies But it also led to a showdown of biblical proportions between Shatner and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.
'Star Trek V: The Final Frontier' had a rocky pre-production process
In his book Memories of the movie Star Trek, Shatner said the idea for Kirk to confront God came from watching televangelists, including Jim Bakker. “They [the televangelists] they were repulsive, strangely horrifying, and yet I was absolutely fascinated,” he wrote. But Shatner had trouble getting his version of The last frontier in theaters, especially regarding the script. After a long search, David Loughery began co-writing the script with Shatner until the Writers Guild of America went on strike in 1988. Even after the strike ended, The last frontier it still went through a series of rewrites as Paramount wanted to speed up production on the sequel. This caused a sequence with angels and demons to be transformed into a scene where the company The crew is faced with a group of rock men, and then only one rock man due to budget issues.
The biggest change involved Sybok, or rather, the actor who would have played him. Shatner originally wanted Sean Connery for the role, but Connery ended up turning it down The last frontier for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The last frontier pays homage to Connery as the “God” planet he's stuck on is named Sha Ka Ree after him. But all of that paled in comparison to Roddenberry's anger The last frontier and their efforts to prevent it from going into production.
Gene Roddenberry hated the story of “Star Trek: The Final Frontier,” because it addressed ideas he had already conceived
At the time The last frontier shot, Gene Roddenberry was billed as an “executive consultant” to the Star Trek movies, which meant he didn't have much control over the direction of the story. He was outraged by Shatner's story as he wanted to do a Star Trek film centered on similar ideas. Roddenberry previously wrote a screenplay titled “The God Thing,” where the company the crew had to come together to stop a powerful alien entity that was wreaking havoc across the universe. But Paramount rejected the script because of its religious elements, with a planned novelization never materializing. Although Roddenberry would attempt to explore the central idea of ”The God Thing” a Star Trek: The Movie and his Star Trek: Phase II pitch (which later served as the basis for Star Trek: The Next Generation), never came to fruition, which meant that Shatner's success infuriated him.
Roddenberry took extreme measures to express his displeasure with Shatner, including the sending of an official note denunciating The last frontierthe story of. But he didn't stop there, as Roddenberry was also an acclaimed science fiction author Isaac Asimov in his corner Asimov didn't mince words when Roddenberry asked for his input, calling it an “out and out disaster.” “Bringing in a charismatic preacher who appears to be all-powerful and ends up being ridiculously wrong will make the more educated and sophisticated end of the audience laugh in shame,” he wrote. It's quite ironic that Shatner claimed that Roddenberry would be “rolling in his grave” in the state of modernity. Star Trek when his own creative decisions drew the ire of Roddenberry.
35 years later, 'The Final Frontier' is still one of the weakest 'Star Trek' movies
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier struggled when it hit theaters, and while part of that was due to the onslaught of blockbusters that included Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade i Tim Burton's Batman, it's also because the film does not match its predecessors or successors. Much of the film's focus is on Kirk, Spock, and Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley); this doesn't leave the rest of the cast with many memorable moments except for Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) and their famous fan dance. Paramount also wanted more humor because of the reception of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, which led to scenes like Spock mispronouncing “marshmallows” as “swamp melons” and singing “Row Row Row Your Boat” with Kirk and McCoy. Compared to the tragedy of The Wrath of Khan or the triumphant ending that is Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered County, The last frontier is below the Star Trek standard.
Even Shatner feels he could have done better The last frontierand expanded it in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter:
“I wish I had the support and the courage to do the things I felt I needed to do. My concept was:”
Star Trek
go in search of God,” and management said, “Well, who is God? We'll alienate the non-believer, so, no, we can't do God.” And then someone said, “What about an alien who thinks he's God?” Then it was a series of my inability to deal with the management and the budget. In my mind, I failed miserably. When they ask me, 'What do you regret most?'
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is an example of how ideas can suffer with poor execution. The concept of meeting God in space was full of potential, but Shatner swung too hard for the fences when he tried to bring it to the big screen.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is available to stream on Max in the US
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