home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
The Final Frontier 2
/
Final Frontier 2 (Disk 2 of 3).adf
/
ARTICLES
/
DEFENCE
/
DEFENCE
Wrap
Text File
|
1999-12-25
|
5KB
|
80 lines
STAR TREK V...... IN DEFENSE
------------------------------
By Colin Gunn
---------------
STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER. Fans loved it, crtics slagged it off and
James Doohan thinks its the biggest load of crap this side of Santa Barbara.
(By the way, did you know that in an interview with Starlog, that James
Doohan said he thought Bill did a good job and would be more then happy if he
directed 6!) But why was it given such bad press. I'm personally fed up with
the slating this film gets, and hope to try and explain why this movie should
sit highly on anyone's best of Trek list. What follows is my opinion of what
to me is one of the best Trek films of the series. Included will be some
quotes from the press and a brief look at the film itself. Let's face it,
William Shatner had one hell of a job to follow Star Trek 4 (Which until the
release of Star Trek 6 was the most successful ST movie).
From the very start, William Shatner was hit with bad press when his
synopsis for the film was leaked to the press - Kirk meets God! Sit down and
watch the movie again. Where does it state that what they encounter is
catagorically God? - The answer, nowhere. Let's look at the movie. It starts
on a barren world (Nimbus III), where we first meet Sybok, a renegade Vulcan.
He needs a starship for his quest (Note: HIS QUEST). So along with some
followers he kidnaps the three delegates stationed on the planet, Federation,
Klingon and Romulan. This brings the Enterprise and crew to Nimbus on a
rescue mission, which fails and Sybok takes the Enterprise. He again uses his
mental powers (which previously were used on some inhabitants of Nimbus and
the delegates) to sway the crew of the Enterprise in his favour (with the
exception of Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scott). He desparately wants to reach the
mythical planet of Sha Ka Ree, which HE believes to be the home of God. The
problem, it lies beyond the Great Barrier at the centre of the known
Universe. The Enterprise manages to breach the barrier and finds Sha Ka Ree.
Once on the planet Sybok, Kirk, Spock and McCoy find what could be God, as
the being demands the Enterprise for safe passage beyond the barrier. You
know the rest.
The newspapers favourite quote for this movie was "Star Trek goes where no
man has gone before and bumps into God on the way". No prizes for guessing
which esteemed british paper printed that. But the numerous articles written
by the press putting down this movie (and there were alot), had never (it
would seem) seen any of the original series. Lets look at some of the old
episodes. In WHO MOURNS FOR ADONIS we meet the God Apollo. In numerous other
episodes we meet beings with Godlike powers, the Thasians from CHARLIE X,
Trelane from THE SQUIRE OF GOTHOS, the Metrons from ARENA. The list goes on.
No one had trouble in accepting these characters. So why put down THE FINAL
FRONTIER?
The movie played like any of the old episodes. It had the action and humour
of some of the best of Trek we've seen. The characters were directed by Bill
really well and had some good scenes. Scotty in the access corridor, (Which,
by the way, at the time of 5's release he thought that that was a really good
scene), Sulu and Chekov lost on earth, Spock's disgust at what Sybok is
trying to do and his loyalty to Kirk and McCoy. So on the whole it's good
Trek. So what made it a miss?
As stated before the press gutted it by leaping striaght in and giving what
they felt was the story premise - TREK MEETS GOD . How wrong they were. The
movie is about ONE MAN'S vision of HIS god, not THE God. Upon first contact
with the being, it did not know who Sybok was (surely God would), also as
Kirk said in the movie "Why does God need a Starship?". God would not need a
Starship as God must be above a material existence. Would God lash out at
Kirk in the way he did? No he wouldn't. Look at the scriptures (As McCoy
quotes) God is a caring God.
So what do we have? THE FINAL FRONTIER is not a film about meeting God, but a
film of one man's passion and dream in his belief that the being on Sha Ka
Ree is God. This being obviously had great "Godlike" power and reached out to
Sybok at an early age and began to mould his life in such a way as to draw
him to it's prison planet in an attempt to trick him to release it to the
galaxy. So there we have it. Five is about one man's vision of God (a theme
used more than once in Trek) and not a meet God film.
Watch the film again with that in mind and I assure you you will see beyond
the crap written about it and agree with me that THE FINAL FRONTIER is Trek
at its best. And a good job done by William Shatner.