Star Trek IV (1986) and Start Trek V (1989).

[Neville]

I've been trying to delay this, but a voyage to the dark side of the franchise was already scheduled...



What does he mean "No Vulcans allowed"?


Alright, I guess people on this board will have good things to say about "The Voyage Home". I know I don't. Leonard Nimoy's direction is - from a technical point of view - serviceable, but that doesn't solve the movie's biggest flaw, which it is that it is the most silly entry in the series. Yes, even sillier than "Star Trek V", but I'll et there later.

I can buy the crew of the Enterprise doing time travel, I can buy the whole "let's save the whales" angle. What I don't buy it's the entire comic tone of the adventure. The Earth is in danger, people! Let's abandon the comedic tone! It's not even funny to watch Scotty talk to an Apple II! Or to watch Bones cure chronical diseases with pills!

I'll give to Nimoy this: As unfunny as these events are (some of them are even painful to watch), the film is so briskly paced you don't get much time to complain, and the movie even picks up some steam by the climax time.

BTW, I don't know if this was intentional, but I found the whole Kirk - Amanda romance absolutely hysterical. I mean, she constantly berates him, jumps onboard the spaceship without permission, won't apologise for considering Kirk et al. nutjobs, gets a free ticket for the future... and all Kirks gets at the end is a "I'll call you". Man, she's ripped you off, can¡t you see it?



Tired of being defeated by Kirk, the Klingons retort to high seas piracy.


And now, yes... it's time for "Star Trek V".




You had to direct a movie instead... you...

Alright, let me say this loud and clear: As bad, even excruciating this film is, I think it's an improvement over "Star Trek IV" (ducks to doge the tomatos and diet coke cans). Thank you.

I know it's bad. The direction is so-so, the attempts at humour are even worse than in the previous movie, and the ammounts of spirituality are not well handled by the script or by Shatner. And yes, this is the film where the Enterprise crew deliver their worst acting ever. It doesn't help that the "guest star" Laurence Luckinbill overacts like he's on heavy drugs.

So what? This film at least has a decent story. The idea that God may phisically exist and may live in a distant planet is quite daring. It's the mix of ingenuity and genuine philosophical interest that made the series interesting in the first place. And the setting of Nimbus III allows for some westernish action, which is sort of refreshing. I know that all this is later poorly executed, but it certainly makes for a more interesting setup than "Star Trek IV".

If only Shatner had been aware of the lackluster scripting and his own limited skills as a director we may have something good here... but the attempts at fleshing out the Entreprisers by showing their inner pains is hinted and then completely abandoned, the cat and mouse game between the crew of the Enterprise and Shylock's men needed a more lively execution, the westernish action at Nimbus III ends up as a setup for a silly series of action scenes ruined by the rushed camerawork and phony stunt work.

Even the race to the misteryus planet is another disapointment. For all the setup we are given about how dangerous the "Great Barrier" is, it only consist of a few seconds of CGI. Huh? And this is what prevented Federation ships to explore what was beyond? And what about the spaceships the reportedly went missing in the zone?

The events on the final destination are a bit better, though. The God-like creature is well designed, and is interchanges with Shylock and Kirk do a good job at hinting its evil nature. Even the climax is OK, although Shatner's poor direcvting skills fail to extract more suspense from the situation. If only we were given more information about who the creature is and how it ended up stranded in that planet...

So all in all I have to admit it is a badly made movie, but it had a few good things going on. If only Shatner had insisted on a better script or the director's chair had been given to a more skilled director, we may have one o the best Trek films here. Instead we end up with one of the worse entries in the series.



Oh, God, made my men forget they saw Uhura's dance.

[D-Man]

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you on IV.  I think it's one of the more watchable films in the franchise.  Yes, it's silly, but unlike in V, its humor actually works (I for one thought it was great to see Scotty trying to deal with 80's technology).  It's also great to watch with someone who isn't a big star trek fan, which is why it was such a hit to start with.  I can understand why some wouldn't like it, though, so I'm not gonna pelt you with anything, hehe.   

As for V...I'm sorry, but I just can't see this one being an improvement over IV in any way.  The god idea is interesting at first, but the combined scenery chewing of both Shatner and Luckinbill just bogs this film down big time.  The humor is way, way more cringe inducing, especially one groaner of a moment involving Scotty. 

But whatever...Wrath of Khan still pwns both of them.   

[Dennis]

I liked the humor in IV, I found the way the characters dealt with our 20th century civilization to be quite funny, on the otherhand I found V to be entirely too serious for my taste, I've seen all of the Star Trek movies and I would rate them in the following order:
1) The Wrath of Khan
2) The Voyage Home
3) The Undiscovered Country
4) The Search For Spock
5) The Final Frontier
6) Star Trek, the Motion Picture
After Star Trek VI you get into TNG territory and while I've enjoyed those movies and TV series they just don't have the same appeal to me as the original.

[Andrew]

I like "The Voyage Home" as the cheesiest film in the franchise.  Come on, they have to go back in time and save a pair of whales or else the Earth will be destroyed by some crazy whale-loving probe from another galaxy!  Plus, you have Spock wandering around acting goofy, Scotty (as has been said) dealing with the technologically backward society of 1986, and all sorts of other silly stuff.

IV is the classic b-movie of the series to me, while V was an effort in dogged determination for me to sit through.  The saving grace in "The Final Frontier" is that Kirk goes face to face with "God."

[D-Man]

Yes...Shatner directing a movie where Kirk faces off against "god"...if that doesn't reek of sheer egotism, than I don't know what does.   

[Him]

The original premise of Trek V was traveling to a planet in search of god, but finding the devil there instead.

[Shadow]

Well, I always preferred the music in V to that in IV. Plus it has a few good lines, like Kirk's "What does god need with a starship?" I actually read the novelization for V, which naturally goes into greater detail. I guess this is why I don't despise it like so many do.

[trekgeezer]

I of course disagree about IV and won't go into it. Star Trek V is a different matter.  Shatner had the greatest intentions for this movie and on top his lack of skill as a director the production was plagued with a writer's strike and budget cuts.

The effects are the worst part of the movie to me. Some of the space scenes look they were done by the guys that make South Park .

Shatner intended the big finale to be Kirk pursued by and army of rockmen, and in fact they had one suit built (it was all they could afford).  There is some test footage of it on the second disk of the Collector's Edition.

As far as Shatner's acting/directing himself, you need to see Nicholas Meyer's comments about that on the special features for Star Trek VI. He tells how they had to do take after take with Shatner to a good performance from him.  He did mention also that DeForest Kelly was quite good at getting it the first time around.


The best thing that Star Trek V did was add number 4 to the list of reasons Kirk is superior to Picard as a Starship Captain.

[Zap Rowsdower]

   I was always a fan of Star Trek and had seen all the movies but my best friend was not. He had seen maybe a few TV episodes and none of the movies and did not get the whole Star Trek thing. One day we were talking and I explained the plot of Star Trek IV with the time travel and the whales and he did not believe me! So we rented it and the kid actually liked it and went on to watch all the movies in the series.
      So I agree that it was a good movie for the average person to watch but alittle too silly for the fan that likes to see more the serious stuff.

   And BTW             

I've seen all of the Star Trek movies and I would rate them in the following order:
1) The Wrath of Khan
2) The Voyage Home
3) The Undiscovered Country
4) The Search For Spock
5) The Final Frontier
6) Star Trek, the Motion Picture
After Star Trek VI you get into TNG territory and while I've enjoyed those movies and TV series they just don't have the same appeal to me as the original.

   I rate the movies:
1)Star Trek, the Motion Picture     Number one always!!!!
2)The Wrath of Khan
3)The Final Frontier
4)The Undiscovered Country
5)The Voyage Home
6)The Search For Spock

[Dennis]

The reason I rate Star Trek, the Motion Picture last on my list is that while the visuals and the sound track are excellent, the story itself is almost exactly the same as the Changling episode from the original series. In both there is a probe, originally from Earth, but with added alien technology, Nomad from the series and Veeger from the film. In each case the probe is on a course for Earth, looking for the creator, the term is used in both the series episode and the movie, and Capt. Kirk and the Enterprise crew are the only hope of stopping them. The movie was so hyped by everyone that I couldn't wait to see it, probably due to this build up I was let down to see what I felt was a movie version of an episode from the series, even a high quality one. Having said that I must say in all fairness that seeing the film turned my surfing buddy and my daughter into Star Trek fans, probably did the same for a lot of others as well.
One thing I feel has been consistently good through out all the movies has been the musical score.

[Raffine]

STAR TREK V always seemed like a big-screen remake of The Way to Eden to me.

"Headin' out to Eden, yea, brother!"
"Headin' out to Eden, yea, brother!"
"No more trouble in my body or my mind."
"Gonna live like a king on whatever I find."
"Eat all the fruit and throw away the rind."
"Yea, brother!"

- Space Hippies singing