Admiral Dougherty claims that warp drive made “Romulan thugs” an empire, but the Romulans did not possess warp drive when first encountered by
Enterprise in “Balance of Terror,”
nor, according to dialogue, 100 years earlier.
Star Trek: Insurrection was the first Star Trek film to use exclusively CGI special effects.
After ejecting the warp core, would not shields & phasers be compromised?
Star Trek: Insurrection is the shortest of the Trek films & is the only Trek, which does not include scenes on or near Earth.
Star Trek: Insurrection showcases the first instance of LaForge taking the conn since the first season of TNG.
The very title “Insurrection” is extreme & hyperbolic in view of the circumstances of the film.
Most of the two-part TNG episodes were much better than Star Trek: Insurrection. It isn’t so much that Star Trek: Insurrection
is bad. It just isn’t very good, & episodes like “The Best of Both Worlds,” “Chain of Command,” “Redemption,” &
“Time’s Arrow” lead us to expect much more.
Mark Lenard, who portrayed Spock’s father in the TOS episode “Journey to Babel”
as well as the Romulan Commander in “Balance of Terror,”
plays the Klingon captain in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Thus, Lenard was the first person to play Star Trek’s three major alien
races—Vulcan, Klingon, & Romulan.
Some fans have speculated that perhaps V’Ger (Voyager 6) ran into the Borg, & they rebuilt the hapless probe, making it better, stronger, & faster than
it was before. In an oddly accommodating mood, Kirk the computer-slayer allows V’Ger to complete its mission, rather than using its programming to destroy it...
Ilia, a Deltan portrayed by Perses Khambatta, is not an especially great addition to the cast. Many of Ilia’s traits are similar to those of Deanna Troi.
This is not surprising, because Star Trek: The Motion Picture & Star Trek: The Next Generation both derive from Roddenberry’s scripts for
Star Trek: Phase II.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture was directed by Robert Wise, the legendary director of The Sound of Music, West Side Story, & the seminal
SF tale The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Unfortunately, Wise seems to have been more concerned with creating a grandiose epic than with avoiding the creation of a ponderous spectacle.
Not only does Jerry Goldsmith’s score supplant Alexander Courage’s classic theme, it leaves nothing remotely as memorable in its place.
In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Enterprise is always on the defensive. The closest the classic cast ever gets to taking action is a scene in which they
almost fire phasers at a meteor. They fire a photon torpedo at it instead. They do kill the meteor... Fans would have to wait two-and-a-half years for
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan to see both hand phasers & ship phasers fired. (Even so, in that film the hand
phaser is only used to kill a small eel...)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture features the second of three TOS-era Vulcan matriarchs who preside over religious/mystical/philosophical rituals.
The other two such officials appear in “Amok Time” & Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, are different characters, & are played by different
actresses. The unnamed matriarchal official (named T’sai in the film novelization by Roddenberry) who presents Spock with the Kolinahr in
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is played by Edna Glover.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture reveals that Starfleet Command is located in San Francisco.
Although Kirk is referred to as “Chief of Starfleet Operations” when “Chief of Naval Operations” is the senior admiral of the modern US
Navy, another admiral—Nogura—is frequently referred to in dialogue (although not seen) & is clearly Kirk’s superior. In fact, many sources maintain
that in the first four Star Trek films James Kirk is, in fact, merely a rear admiral, which is the most junior admiral rank, just one step above commodore
in Star Trek: TOS.
Will Decker, the Enterprise’s new captain, is the son of Matt Decker, skipper of the USS Constellation, which was destroyed in
“The Doomsday Machine.”
In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, after assuming command of Enterprise from Captain Decker, Admiral Kirk actually begins wearing uniforms with the
rank insignia of a Starfleet captain, while Decker dons those of a commander. Not only would this not happen in the United States Navy, it has not occurred in
Star Trek under similar circumstances. For example, in the TOS episode “The Doomsday Machine”
when Commodore Decker (Captain Decker’s father) assumes command of Enterprise, he continues to wear the rank of commodore. & in
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, when Kirk again assumes command of Enterprise, he continues
to wear the rank of admiral, & Spock continues wearing that of captain.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier features David Warner
(Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, The Omen, Time after Time)
as the Terran ambassador. Warner would return as the ill-fated Chancellor Gorkon in
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (and as Gul Madred in the Star Trek: TNG episode
“Chain of Command”). Star Trek V: The Final Frontier also features Romulan Ambassador Caithlin Dar, the first Romulan to appear in the feature
films; she does not sport the then-standard appearance of Romulans on Star Trek: TNG. Dar, who looks rather like Princess Leia, is also the first Romulan
woman with a name. The Romulan ambassador in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country also does not have the brow ridges associated with Romulans in
Star Trek: TNG.
The Enterprise has been hijacked too many times to count... But Sybok’s ragtag bunch of misfits’ ability to pull this off betokens an all-time low for
Kirk, his crew, & Starfleet.
In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Enterprise travels to the center of the galaxy too quickly. Other canonical sources establish that this voyage would
require hundreds of years.
In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Spock delivers the Vulcan nerve pinch to a horse—a la Mongo in Blazing Saddles.
In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, the Enterprise crew works amicably with Klingons, all indications of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
to the contrary.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier contains, perhaps, three really good lines—the first pertaining to Spock’s ignorance of
“Row, Row, Row Your Boat” despite being “well-versed in the classics,” the second is Kirk’s question of why God needs a Starship
(a concise statement of the thesis & basic silliness of the film), & the third when Kirk attempts to hug Spock, Spock saying “not in front of the Klingons.”
Mr Scott appears to have been promoted to captain again in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier after his demotion to commander in
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (after his promotion to captain in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock).
Perhaps the greatest contribution of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier to the Star Trek franchise was the introduction of actor Charles
Cooper as Klingon General Korrd. Cooper would reappear in Star Trek: TNG as the similar-looking leader of the Klingon Council, K’mpec, who
appears in the episodes “Sins of the Father” & “Reunion.”
The simultaneous production of Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade had a detrimental effect on Star Trek V: The Final Frontier—Sean Connery
was unavailable to portray Sybok (so Laurence Luckenbill was cast instead) & Industrial Light & Magic (which had done the special effects on the previous three
Star Trek films) was similarly unavailable. (Purportedly, the planet on which “God” lives in the center of the Galaxy—Sha-ka-ree—is
named for Connery.)
Harve Bennett, producer of both The Six Million Dollar Man TV series & the second, third,
fourth, & fifth Star Trek films does a cameo as Admiral Robert Bennett, credited as Starfleet Chief of Staff. Admiral Bennett is just the third of four Starfleet
officers (with a name & dialogue) to wear the rank insignia of Fleet Admiral in the TOS-era feature films. Admiral Bennett’s title, Starfleet Chief of Staff,
is perhaps the most realistic (in terms of the modern US military) for the senior officer of an Armed Service of the three TOS-era feature films that clearly incorporate
such a character, although the senior officer of the US Navy is termed Chief of Naval Operations.
Melanie Shatner—William Shatner’s youngest daughter—and the only one not to have appeared in episodes of TOS—has a rather conspicuous role
as Captain’s yeoman in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
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