Star Trek V: The Final Frontier - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


​

Movie
It’s been a long running joke in Star Trek that the even numbered movies tend to be good, and the odd numbered movies tend to be the weakest. Star Trek V follows suit with William Shatner taking control of the director’s chair and turning the moving into a sprawling mess. No one will ever say that he didn’t make an exciting and fast paced hour and a half film, but it’s just a mess narratively speaking, and tends to fall apart in the final act with leaps of logic and a lackluster villain for the movie.

The film opens up with a mysterious Vulcan man using his telepathic powers to gain cult like following on a dirt poor world known as Nimbus III. He’s got an enigmatic plan, and it’s going to take luring a federation starship to the planet for us to figure out what it is. Staging a coup of the local government, said Vulcan waits for the Federation to respond with a ship that he can capture. Said ship happens to be the newly commissioned U.S.S. Enterprise. Kirk (William Shatner) shows up on scene ready to kick butt and chew bubblegum, but ends up being captured by what he assumes are the prisoners. Turns out the mysterious Vulcan is none other than Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill), Spock’s own half brother.

Sybok is a bit of a religious zealot and has a wild plan that he facilitates with his own version of Vulcan brain washing. You see, he’s looking for Sha Ka Ree, otherwise known as the birthplace of civilization and the location of God himself. Sybok thinks that he’s got the coordinates, but it’s beyond the great barrier of the known universe for the Federation, and across a no man’s land of deadly cosmic anomalies. Now, under the command of the renegade Vulcan, the Enterprise is once more going to go where no man has gone before, to the edge of space to (hopefully) meet God.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is generally known for being a train wreck from start to finish. Production issues plagued the film, things were cut out that would have made the movie more interesting, and Shatner’s own Hubris and ego got in the way as he writes/directs/stars in what turns out to be a rather interesting mess. A lot of the problems stem from the cheesy dialog (cheesier than usual for a Star Trek film), and the lack of a really good villain. While Sybok initially seems to be the main villain, he’s more of a well intentioned fool who ends up helping them against the main villain. A villain that turns out to be just some nameless entity who feels more at home in an single “one off” episode of the week rather than an end boss villain in a feature film.

It is what it is. Star Trek V is not the best trek ever, but it’s not great at all in my opinion. It’s fun enough as a mindless episodic watch, but the silliness just gets too much (Nichelle Nichols dancing with dual fans to distract some soldiers is eye roll worthy) and Shatner’s own ego trip over the whole “god” thing just doesn’t resonate well. It’s decent enough fodder for a friday night when you’re bored, but easily the least watched of the original 6 films when I put something in the player.




Rating:

Rated PG by the MPAA




4K Video: Video:

The Final Frontier has been a frustrating watch on Blu-ray for quite some time now, as the 2009 release was heavily blown out in the contrast department, with washed out colors and a faded look that marred the graininess of the film. This new remaster (which the Blu-ray enjoys as well) is simply fantastic. The film looks like….well…. Actual FILM for once. It’s got a beautiful grain structure, with rich coloring of offsetting the bleak and barren wasteland of Nimbus III. The image still shows some soft optical effects at times (the movie loves to have out of focus background objects with sharp and in focus foreground characters), which is something the film can never get rid of. Outside of that though, this is a very large improvement. The effects really stand out when they meet “god” on Sha Ka Ree as you can actually SEE into the blue void vs. just seeing a haze. As someone pointed out on Blu-ray.com, you can actually see one of the Rock men in a flashing explosion that were cut from the film (they had a group of rock men at the Sha Ka Ree that the heroes were supposed to battle, but were cut for pacing reasons). Yeah, this is simply superb and a HUGE revelation over the old disc that has been rather annoying to watch for over 13 years.








Audio:

As with all of the re-releases, this sports the same remastered 7.1 Dolby TrueHD that all of the Blu-ray releases have sported since 2009. That’s not a bad thing as the track still holds up well. It’s got a few weird quirks (the shifting of Sybok’s voice around to the left main is a bit distracting), but overall is an excellent mix. Vocals are crisp and clear, and the action sequences really bring out the surrounds. During the confrontation with “god” you get some really cool electrical sizzling effects coming from the rear and side surrounds, and overall bass response gets pretty hefty during that scene as well (although the overall lfe levels for the rest of the film is simply “solid”). All around good mix that has held up fantastically.









Extras:

4K UHD Disc
• Audio Commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda, Judith and Garfield Reeves and Darren Dochterman
• Audio Commentary by William Shatner and Liz Shatner

Blu-ray Disc
• Audio Commentary by William Shatner and Liz Shatner
• Audio Commentary by Michael & Denise Okuda, Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens, and Daren Dochterman
• Library Computer
• Production
-- Harve Bennett’s Pitch to Sales Team
-- The Journey: A Behind-The-Scenes Documentary
-- Makeup Tests
-- Pre-Visualization Models
-- Rockman in the Raw
-- Star Trek V Press Conference
• The Star Trek Universe
-- Herman Zimmerman: A Tribute
-- Original Interview: William Shatner
-- Cosmic Thoughts
-- That Klingon Couple
-- A Green Future?
-- Star Trek Honors NASA
-- Hollywood Walk of Fame: James Doohan
-- Starfleet Academy SCISEC Brief 005: Nimbus III
• Deleted Scenes
-- Mount Rushmore
-- Insults
-- Behold Paradise
-- Spock’s Pain
• Production Gallery
• Storyboards
-- Sha Ka Ree
-- The Face of God
-- Escape
• Theatrical Trailer 1
• Theatrical Trailer 2
• TV Spots
-- Vacation Is Over
-- Renegade
-- Challenge of Rebellion
-- Brothers (
-- Beyond
-- Adventure
-- Warp Speed Now
-- The Gag Reel

Final Score: ​

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is definitely the weakest of the entire franchise (almost tied with Star Trek: Nemesis) and has NOT held up nearly as well. Definitely more life like and “exciting” than The Motion Picture, but can’t really hold a candle to previous films in the series. It’s goofy, silly, got Shatner hamming it up on screen and his ego on full display behind the camera, but it still somehow manages to be entertaining enough to watch in order to complete the series. Fun, stupid, and the 4K UHD is a much needed breathe of fresh air in regards to the video quality (not to mention I love the use of the original cover art for these release). Recommended to the Trek Fans in order to complete that collection, especially with the lavish collector's Edition that Paramount has done for this set.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, George Takei, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols
Directed by: Wiliam Shanter
Written by: Gene Roddenberry (Based on), David Loughery, William Shatner, Harve Bennett
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 German, Spanish, French, Japanese DD 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Studio: Paramount
Rated: PG
Runtime: 106 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: September 6th, 2022

Recommendation: Lowest Tier Star Trek Watch.