Cast
Kirk: William Shatner
Spock: Leonard Nimoy
McCoy: DeForest Kelley
Scotty: James Doohan
Uhura: Nichelle Nichols
Chekov: Walter Koenig
Sulu: George Takei
Sybok: Laurence Lukinbill
Talbot: David Warner
Klingon Captain Klaa: Todd Bryant.
Directed by: William Shatner; Story by: William Shatner, Harve Bennet and David Loughery;
Screenplay by: David Loughery
Released: June 9, 1989. Domestic Gross: $55 million
My Rating: *
The Plot
The Enterprise-A, still not quite up to snuff, gets called out to a frontier colony set up by the
Romulans, Federation and the Klingons. It seems that a fanatic Vulcan has taken it over. They get there,
infiltrate the place, and get captured by that Vulcan. He turns out to be Spock's full-Vulcan
half-brother, Sybock.
Sybock then captures the Enterprise and takes it to the center of the galaxy. He thinks that God is there.
They find God and it attacks Kirk, Spock and McCoy. It also kills Sybock. Then, Spock commendeers a Klingon cruiser
which has been following the Enterprise as almost a footnote, and kills "God". Turns out, it was just
a malevolent being trying to escape exile.
My Comments
This movie was almost as bloated as ST:TMP. William Shatner turned the odd/even; bad/good curse into reality. This, except for possibly the opening shore-leave scenes, was the most terrible movie of the ten. All the performances were overdone, especially Sybock. This movie really tried to be William Shatner's attempt to upstage Leonard Nimoy, but it really didn't work.
If TMP started the odd/even curse, then V continued it. III was good, not at the level of II and IV, but watchable. Shatner's attempt at a movie is the reason everyone automatically condemns the odd numbered Trek movies. Pardon me for repeating myself, but this
movie sucked.
This is a kind of 'looking for the answers' movie. Shatner seems to be looking for that supreme being that looks over everything. This is that New Age storytelling, as in trying to feel good about yourself to the point where you feel good about life. That sucks. This movie sucked!
The release of the Collector's Edition DVD didn't help things any. It only brought to light how pompous and self-important Bill Shatner really is. He made every effort to let us know that this movie was HIS. His story, his direction, HIS. So, because of him, this movie was ass. HIS movie sucked because of HIM. And that's all I have to say about that.
