What exactly WAS the point of Star Trek V anyway?

[Ovation]

It does have a message of hope—hope in the capacity for good inherently within people and tangible benefits of friendship, rather than requiring a “supernatural” entity to provide fulfillment. It is a secular message of hope, thus potentially unsatisfying for anyone not so inclined, but it is not lacking in hope itself.

 

[Dukhat]

It does have a message of hope—hope in the capacity for good inherently within people and tangible benefits of friendship, rather than requiring a “supernatural” entity to provide fulfillment. It is a secular message of hope, thus potentially unsatisfying for anyone not so inclined, but it is not lacking in hope itself.

I'm not quite sure that that was the message Shatner was trying to convey, but if that's what you got out of it, more power to you.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Unfortunately, the utter nonsense that the film is filled with overwhelms whatever ‘plot’ there might have been.

I agree, I felt Shatner and the writing team could've put some scrolls or Bible scriptures to aid some connection for Sybok's journey; even for the skeptic audience who don't believe in God the film should capture the dream of the goal. The movie lacked that movie magic of wonder.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

My takeaway is: There is no god, we created him (Kirk's "The human heart" line) and don't look for him because it's a fools errand that'll only be lead into darkness (as Sybok was)

I think the human heart line is like a Rorschach inkblot. It gives something to atheists, and it gives something to people who believe that God is omnipresent. Either way, it's saying that it's not necessary to go on a quest to find God.

It is certainly not necessary to hijack a starship and go on a dangerous mission to the center of the galaxy, which leads to the rest of the message: Beware of false gods, especially false gods leading to extremism.

 

[Crazyewok]

It was basically Shatner having his own fanwank.......

We all have a bad fanwanky fanfic story in us, unfortunately Shatner was in a position to put his on the big screen.

 

[F. King Daniel]

What an ultimate failure of a movie, a Star Trek movie, where the audience leaves the movie thinking it's a fools errand to have faith. On other TFF threads I'd mentioned the tone of the movie should've been more like Indiana Jones, going on an adventure and capturing the wonder to give the audience to say, "What if?"; I am surprised Shatner, after experiencing THV and also being part of a franchise for so long doesn't know that Star Trek always had the message of hope.

Faith =/= hope. They're seperate things. I thought TFF was hopeful and life affirming.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Of course they are, I'm referring to the magic of movies which TFF lacked, I thought my example of the Indiana Jones films was a clue for the audience there's hope in searching for God. You know, hope as meaning to dream.

 

[XCV330]

a mid-life crisis metastasizing into a film.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

We all have a bad fanwanky fanfic story in us, unfortunately Shatner was in a position to put his on the big screen.

That's not fair.

Shatner also put his fanwank into novels.

 

[Khan 2.0]

Shatner was in a difficult position story wise of the Genesis trilogy having been all wrapped up in a nice Enterprise shaped bow so couldn't continue that thread other than the Ent-A, and everyone not being quite ready to end the movie series so it couldn't be the finale movie (despite the title), so it had to be like a standalone story..and he had the TV evangelist thing in his mind so it was born out of that combined with various false God TOS eps (Adonis/Eden) then maybe influenced partly by an Indiana Jones style religious quest with abit of Klingon action.. but hed have been better off with a return to the intense action of II/III after the comedic action lite IV .. maybe something like his Ashes of Eden story would've been better or a Romulan threat/main villain (someone like Michael Ironside) mounting a sneak attack on the Federation after the events of IV weakened Starfleet. (with some Klingon Ambassador influenced bounty hunters trying to claim kirks head)

 

[Dukhat]

...but he'd have been better off with a return to the intense action of II/III after the comedic action lite IV .. maybe something like his Ashes of Eden story would've been better or a Romulan threat/main villain (someone like Michael Ironside) mounting a sneak attack on the Federation after the events of IV weakened Starfleet.)

Agreed. After the 'trilogy' closure of TVH, the best topic that STV could have been about was a 'linking' story between the TMP era and the TNG era, specifically why the Romulans decided to go into seclusion for 70 years. TFF could have been a Romulan terrorist story that could have paved the way for the peace between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, while at the same time disintegrating the relations with the Romulans. Nimbus III could have been a very important planet and the ambassadors could have been far more valuable (say, with Sarek as the Federation ambassador instead of Talbot, and the Klingon ambassador from STIV instead of Koord). And most of all, completely remove Sybok and the search for God story.

 

[Crazyewok]

That's not fair.

Shatner also put his fanwank into novels.

Some just are better fanwankers than others

 

[Khan 2.0]

Agreed. After the 'trilogy' closure of TVH, the best topic that STV could have been about was a 'linking' story between the TMP era and the TNG era, specifically why the Romulans decided to go into seclusion for 70 years. TFF could have been a Romulan terrorist story that could have paved the way for the peace between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, while at the same time disintegrating the relations with the Romulans. Nimbus III could have been a very important planet and the ambassadors could have been far more valuable (say, with Sarek as the Federation ambassador instead of Talbot, and the Klingon ambassador from STIV instead of Koord). And most of all, completely remove Sybok and the search for God story.

sounds good. also add a corrupt Admiral (Michael Ironside) wanting to utilise the BOP cloaking tech (leading to some Ent v cloaked federation ship battles). enlist ILM, retitle it 'The Dark Frontier' and Shats could've had something pretty good

 

[USS Triumphant]

With how badly the movie was received financially and critically I can't imagine it raised any of their shares back then.

They said it was the point. They didn't say it succeeded.

The Superman IV: The Quest for Peace of the Star Trek series.

Hey, now! I still feel that Rebuild-The-Great-Wall-Of-China-Vision is a highly underused power in the Superman / Supergirl productions that have come since!

What was the point of V?

The bit at the bottom surely?

I thought it was to never trust aliens that promise to cure cancer, end world hunger, provide unlimited electricity tech, etc, in exchange for just a little bit of water they could have gotten themselves from Saturn's rings.

 

[Commander Kielbasa]

That 'God' doesn't necessarily need to be 'out there', but rather in all of us - that even Klingons can be good people. It was a film made during a time in which many films exploring the inner divine in man were coming out - for example, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which had a similar theme (Henry Sr in that film says he wanted the Grail for 'illumination' and it's said that the search for the Grail is the search for 'the divine in all of us'); it was an introspective time for people of Shatner's generation and also a time in which the Cold War was pretty clearly coming to an end - even the EVVVULL Communists were being humanized in 1989.

It also had the message that the parts of us we dislike or even can't bear to confront - like pain - are essential and are what make us human.

 

[Maurice]

For the umpeteenth time, the film pays lip service to all these ideas but fails to explore any of them.

 

[Dukhat]

About the only thing the movie succeeded at doing was to make Kirk look great while simultaneously making everyone else look stupid.

 

[Qonundrum]

"The Way To Eden" reboot .... hijacking of the 1701 to go to "eden"...
This:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

02:08 - The Quest For A Soft Spot To Land On after reboot of Spock's Brain footage

 

[Qonundrum]

Wasn't Shatner also mulling over another high concept plot device - "the fountain of youth"? (IMHO, STV > STI, but given enough time and money and proper guidance for a first timer, and nixing the unneeded comedy element because "Well ST IV was funny and made bazillions so logically if more comedy was put in we can have kajillions, so go and dilute that plot but keep it dramatically strong!!!" )