The Fatal Flaw Which Forever Ruined ‘Star Trek V’ for Me
Years later, much can be forgiven -- except for one thing
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is among the movies in the franchise I've seen the fewest times.
It’s certainly the one among the original series-era movies that I’ve rewatched the least.
Star Trek V is just one of two films in canon — Star Trek: Nemesis is the other — that I’ll skip over, even when it’s come on free cable on a Sunday afternoon.
Yet I’ve been eagerly following along as Cassie from Popcorn In Bed has been discovering, watching — and reacting to — the Star Trek franchise.
So when she got to Star Trek V, I bit the bullet (you can't really bite a phaser beam after all) and watched along.
Attitudes towards the film have softened somewhat over the years, and some fans have even offered some revised opinions about it, although no one has ever fallen in love with it either.
But even if you're feeling generous enough to overlook Star Trek V’s poor plotting, sub-par visual effects and its myriad other faults, it suffers from one fundamental flaw at its core that I just can never ignore, and which just always ruins it for me.
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That being the characterization of Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and how that terrible portrayal of the Vulcan was such an abject disappointment following the emotional and triumphant trilogy of movies which preceded The Final Frontier.
Specifically, it’s Spock’s relationship and interaction with Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill), the brother we only learn that he has in this movie.
Consider the epic arc that runs through Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Spock sacrifices himself to save his friends and shipmates from certain death at the hands of Khan (Ricardo Montalban) and his stolen Genesis device.
His erstwhile comrades then turn around and give up everything — including the son (Merritt Butrick) which Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) just learned he had, as well as the Enterprise, itself — to reunite Spock’s consciousness with his body, in effect, bringing him back from the dead.
All of that heroism and sacrifice from all sides through those films should have created a transcendent level of camaraderie and only an even deeper level of friendship among our heroes.
Yet, in Star Trek V, Spock not only gives up the ship to Sybok, but betrays every one of those compatriots who had given so much to revive him.
Spock clearly recognizes Sybok the moment he sees him on the Enterprise-A viewscreen, but makes excuses to Kirk, essentially lying to him.
Once Sybok and his followers are aboard the Enterprise, there’s a struggle and Spock takes a weapon and points it at the renegade Vulcan.
But Spock refuses to fire, and Sybok gains the upper hand to commandeer the ship.
True, Spock refuses Sybok’s offer to join him, but his actions — or rather, inaction —enables the hijacking of the Enterprise just the same.
And no, his fraternal relationship with Sybok does not excuse the backstabbing and complicit behavior that we see from Spock.
It doesn't jibe.
Spock himself allowed that he hadn't seen Sybok since his youth, or a span of half an Earth century or more.
And in the original series episode, “Journey To Babel,” Spock resists giving a needed blood transfusion to his father, out of a sense of duty to his ship.
But by Star Trek V, he’s completely lost that sense of duty for someone he hasn't seen in decades?!?
I’m really not buying it.
Quite honestly, the horrible way that Spock’s portrayed in this movie was the result of nothing more than lazy writing in service to Shatner’s plot, which never properly honored the great storytelling that came before.
And that's a sin I just can never forgive.
We’re only fortunate that we would continue to see him several more times in the franchise so the sloppily written Spock isn’t the way we’re left to remember him.
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