The Star Trek V Affirmation Thread

[Amaris]

I love Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. I watched it again tonight, and I realized just how much more I like it every time I watch it. Oh, I'm well aware of the plot and sfx gaffes, but some of the most powerful moments in Trek happen in this movie. The bond of Kirk, Spock & McCoy are never more evident than here, particularly with Sybok in the Officer's Lounge where they confront their own personal demons. McCoy's in particular still has a lasting impression on me. I love the musical score in this movie, too. It really feels like exploration and the unknown are touched upon in the soundtrack. Once again, Jerry Goldsmith worked his wonderful talent and made a beautiful orchestral work. I believe it is his music that lends the movie most of it's magic.

I know I'm not the only one who loves this movie and counts it as a favorite.

J.

 

[ancient]

J. Allen said:

I love Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. I watched it again tonight, and I realized just how much more I like it every time I watch it. Oh, I'm well aware of the plot and sfx gaffes, but some of the most powerful moments in Trek happen in this movie. The bond of Kirk, Spock & McCoy are never more evident than here, particularly with Sybok in the Officer's Lounge where they confront their own personal demons. McCoy's in particular still has a lasting impression on me. I love the musical score in this movie, too. It really feels like exploration and the unknown are touched upon in the soundtrack. Once again, Jerry Goldsmith worked his wonderful talent and made a beautiful orchestral work. I believe it is his music that lends the movie most of it's magic.

I know I'm not the only one who loves this movie and counts it as a favorite.

J.

Preach it!

Sure, the effects aren't TMP quality, and some technical details are screwy, but I'll take cheesy fun and warm-hearted character scenes over hollow and boring movies like NEM any day.

 

[Sharr Khan]

I agree! This was one of those moments when a Star Trek feeling like a tv episode was actually a good thing. To me it felt the most "Trek Like" of most of the movies.

Sharr

 

[Centurion]

I've said this before on this board; if this film had been ST:TMP, it would have been a HUGE hit and not be so ridiculed. This was the type of movie people wanted in 1979. Classic characterizations, an "in continuity" mission and some good humor. Except for the "God" stuff which was a joke, I liked it. I used to think I was the only person who did. Others thought I was weird. BFD

 

[RyanKCR]

I like parts of the film and some great important moments but overal it fell flat. It has the feeling of being someone's dream and I was waiting for one of the charecters to wake up. The general look was off and too many things were just off and or forced. It didn't even have a flow with it.

I have it because of some of the great moments. The observation deck scene is one of the best in all of the movies.

 

[ancient]

STV was one of the reasons I got into Trek in the first place. (the other reason being STIV) The characters really seemed like awesome people that would be cool to hang out with, fighting God-like entities and crashing alien ships into San Francisco Bay.

 

[Amaris]

Yep. For me, one of the best scenes ever (toward the end of the movie):

Kirk:
Cosmic thoughts, gentlemen?

McCoy:
We were speculating.
... is God really out there?

Kirk:
Maybe he's not out there, Bones.
Maybe he's right here... in the
human heart.

Spock?

Spock:
I was thinking of Sybok. I've
lost a brother.

Kirk:
Yes. I lost a brother once.
I was lucky. I got him back.

McCoy:
I thought you said men like us
don't have families?

Kirk:
I was wrong.






I love this movie.

-J.

 

[ncc-1017-e]

I like the design of the captains chair! It would have looked better on TMP's bridge!

 

[A beaker full of death]

I've always liked it. It feels the most like TOS. I was amazed at how well Shatner knew the characters.

 

[Timby]

While I love the movie and I will watch it anytime before TMP, TSFS, TVH, TUC, FC and INS, it's rather difficult to say whether it was Shatner who knew the characters or David Loughery who knew the characters. After all, Shatner positioned the camera. Loughery wrote the dialogue.

 

[Jack Bauer]

I've always liked it. The hatred for it always seemed over the top.

 

[sbk1234]

^^^Agreed. It seemed dissing it was the in thing to do. Whatever problems it had seemed, IMHO, to stem from the success of TVH, and the studio. TVH was successful. It was very humerous. Therefore I think the studio mandated they put more humor into it, whether the situations called for it or not. So we were given a script with one-liners instead of legitimate situational humor. Of course, the special effects weren't the greatest, but I think they could have been easier overlooked by many if the script was better in relation to the humor.
Just my two cents worth.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

I love TFF simply because it seems to capture the feel to TOS so perfectly.

 

[Eddie Roth]

If anything, I like it better than pretty much all the TNG movies. Why? Because TFF had heart. The plot has weaknesses for sure, but it was well intended and the characters are right there and they have some great moments together.

 

[Botany Bay]

A real shame that the rumoured "Director's Edition" that would have allowed Shatner to give us the ending he envisaged never happened.

I still have no idea how that film's special effects and budget problems were allowed to get so out of control with someone as experienced as Harve Bennett supervising.

It's a real shame, because, as you guys have mentioned there is some stuff for TOS fans to like in this film.

 

[MyCylon]

I really liked TFF for a time. As others have mentioned, it has some really beautiful character moments.
However, at one point or other, I rewatched it and just couldn't sit through it. I have to add that I've found the same with TWOK.
In TFF, the plot just seems too contrived. I also felt that some of the elements involving e.g. the different ambassadors just didn't feel like they were taking place in the right Sci-Fi universe, if you know what I mean.
However, I'll take TFF over INS and NEM any day.

 

[137th Gebirg]

TFF was the one movie - of ALL the TOS-style movies - where we saw the closeness of friendship the "big three" had with each other. No other time since TOS did we get the feeling that they were all friends to the end. "I lost a brother once - I got him back".

Had a few good one-liners in there too:
- "Please, Jim, not in front of the Klingons."
- "What does God need with a Starship?"

 

[Pro Populo]

Well, it's not my favorite, not by a long shot, but I do think it gets an unnecessarily bad rap. The best parts of it are the characterizations of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. That's what makes the movie, and it's not hard to see why others feel the same way. Without their dynamic, the movie would, in fact, be mostly crap. But the way they're written and played, it provides a center to the film that makes the rest of it bearable.

The plot is farfetched, the FX are often really execrable, and the supporting cast totally gets the shaft in terms of their characters (mostly Scotty), but for some reason I still enjoy the movie. Jerry Goldsmith does his best Trek score apart from TMP, and the whole thing moves along at a decent enough pace that the bad parts are never bad for too long.

So yeah, I'm a TFF apologist, and I, too, will take it any day over the last two TNG snoozefests.

 

[Basill]

It's not one of my favorite, but I still have a fondness for it. I have to think after all this time that it was the book adaptation that saved it for me. One of the few instances where I read a book before I saw a movie and was glad I did.

 

[Geoff]

J. Allen said:

Kirk:
Yes. I lost a brother once.
I was lucky. I got him back.

See, I think this is one of the most callous lines in the whole film.

Kirk did have a brother who died -- Sam, who was killed by the fried-egg creatures in "Operation: Annihilate!" Kirk's dialogue implies that the death of his real brother is completely inconsequential.

And sadly, nearly all the other characters have some incredible WTF? moments as well. Uhura dancing naked? Every member of the bridge crew going AWOL because some hippy Vulcan made them happy?

Coupled with the implausibility of traveling to the center of the galaxy in about a day, this film just has way too many contrivances that throw me right out of the story.