14 Dumbest Things In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is considered incredibly dumb by some. But how dumb is it, really?
Star Trek V is often pilloried as the worst Star Trek feature film starring the original series cast, if not the worst of all of the film series. But there’s no denying it’s got heart, even if that heart is where its liver should be. Kirk, Spock and McCoy are in fine form, even if you can’t stand marsh melons and Row Row Row Your Boat singalongs, and the scene illustrating McCoy’s pain is really good. Sulu even gets to show his stuff in two action beats, but mostly the regular featured players are ill served and the butt of jokes.
Interestingly, the notion of the Enterprise meeting "God" was nothing new when this film came out in 1989. Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's rejected 1975 script for a prospective feature (titled Star Trek II but known in fandom as The God Thing) went there, with Kirk facing off against an alien entity which humans believed was God.
Of the films starring the original series characters, is this one the prime candidate for the number one dumbest? Let's find out.
14. Kirk's Lame Logbook
Okay, fine, the new Enterprise is a lemon and lots of things don’t work. Granted.
But how does that extend to the book-like Captain’s log device which pops apart like a cartoon? Is this an Acme product of the sort used by Wile E. Coyote? Come on, this contraption has a big dedicated SYSTEM FAILURE light on it, which seems to promise just that...and delivers.
In the grand scheme of things this lame gag is small change, but it stands as an example of the movie's biggest dumb: that stupid things happen to get humor into what would otherwise be a dramatic story. But most of this is not in good humor or even good taste. One can be funny without being slapstick, for Spock's sake.