20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
7. V'Ger Makes A Cameo
As already stated, the effects on Star Trek V were a rushed affair, suffering from the absence of ILM. However, like most of the films in the franchise, it reused some footage to help. Several shots of the Bird-of-Prey are lifted from the Search for Spock, while the footage of the Enterprise-A in Spacedock is taken from The Voyage Home.
There is not a thing wrong in reusing footage. Frankly, it can make a cheaper production look sleeker. Star Trek: Generations would slip-up here in its reuse of the Bird-of-Prey explosion from the Undiscovered Country. But in all of these cases, the footage that's reused makes sense.
That is less applicable to the decision to reuse the energy weapon, fired by V'Ger in The Motion Picture, as the torpedo effect in Star Trek V. The first four films used the same orange, glowing effect for torpedos, be it from the back of a Klingon Battlecruiser, the battle in the Mutara Nebula, or the swift fight over the Genesis planet.
The complete change here serves as another example of the audience being lifted out of the events of the movie, only to be reminded of a far better film. At least, the Motion Picture is far superior visually to be fair.