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Star Trek Sunday: The Final Frontier

A review by Brooks Rich

When I reviewed the Motionless Picture to start Star Trek Sunday, I said that was the worst Star Trek film. It took rewatching The Final Frontier to change my mind. This film is garbage. Motionless Picture might be boring but this film is incompetent on nearly every level. Shatner is at full ego trip as director here and thinks he is making some spiritual film about finding God and instead is nearly nuking the franchise. The Next Generation debuted a year after Voyage Home and this point is well on it's way to establishing itself as the next great thing in Star Trek. I'm sure Shatner took exception to this. Of course he's the one to direct the film that comes after TNG's debut. This film even opens with the TNG theme. Consider this the second entry for Cinematic Disasters as well. This film is a monumental failure.

The plot concerns a rogue Vulcan who of course is Spock's half brother hijacking the Enterprise to travel to an unexplored planet at the center of the universe where he believes he will find God. There's also the worst looking crew of Klingons looking to avenge the deaths of the Klingons from Search for Spock. Yeah that's it. That probably sounds more interesting than the actual film.

Shatner's ego is all over this film. Nimoy was a subtle director and always put story over everything else. Shatner wants to be a cinematic master and find interesting shots. First off, the effects in this film are shit. The models in the original run in the '60s looked better. And what is going on with the hair of the head Klingon? They don't always have to look like they belong in an eighties hair metal band. Good god this film.

The main problem with this plot is Shatner trying to do something kind of spiritual, which is more in line with what they did in TNG. TNG was more thoughtful and insightful at times then the original series. Final Frontier is Shatner trying to have Kirk be Picard. He was jealous of the new show's success and of Nimoy having directed. Thank God the franchise managed to dust itself off two years later. Skip Final Frontier. If you're following along and haven't watched it yet, don't. No need.

Rating: 0/5 (complete garbage)


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