In the pages of Captain's Log, Shatner stated, "Somewhere along the line, Leonard's lawyers and my lawyers had gotten together and drawn up a favored nations clause, which meant everything he got, I got and vice versa. Well, in the beginning, I was commanding more money, so that any raises I was getting, Leonard would get also. So I made Leonard a great deal of money on my lawyers by bringing him up to the salary I was getting. We used to joke about that, how that clause had benefitted him so much. But in the end, the fact that Leonard directed a picture, which meant that I would get to direct one, was by far the most important consequence of that clause."

The result was the universally-razzed Star Trek V -- The Final Frontier.  The film was the one that cemented the lore of odd-numbered Star Trek movies, and while admittedly bad, on viewing again after fourteen years it is not the ferocious failure we remember.  Oh sure, the campfire scene remains painful to watch -- in fact, so are all of the "Star Trek family bonding" scenes -- and Uhura's moonlight dance can make you wince in ways few films outside of Gigli can -- but the film is fun in a way that the later films, particularly the egregious Star Trek Insurrection, are not.

The biggest problem with the film was the main plotline -- the crew go off in search of God.  While we may be willing to wait to see what the filmmakers give us in terms of "God," we are all pretty sure at the start that it won't be God; the Star Trek universe is just not built that way. And it is that buzz of information (and perhaps cynicism) that prevents us from feeling the anticipation that Shatner evidently thought we would feel.

Outside the recurring Star Trek cast, whom we would willingly watch reciting the phonebook in a deadpan monotone, the performances are uniformly excellent; particular notices should go to Laurence Luckinbill (Sybok) and Rex Holman (J'Onn, who seems vaguely related to The Hills Have Eyes' Michael Berryman).

As the last feature film featuring the entire TOS cast, though, Star Trek V stands as a "cheapskate epitaph, a cardboard tombstone."

Film Synopsis:

It's Stardate 8454.13, andia vacationing Captain Kirk faces two challenges: climbing Yosemite's El Capitan anditeaching campfire songsito Spock. But vacations are cut short whenia renegade Vulcan hijacks theiEnterprise, andipilots it onia journeyito uncover theiuniverse's innermost secrets.

Technical

Video:	Widescreen 1.85:1 (Anamorphic)
Audio:	ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 [CC] ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Surround [CC] FRENCH: Dolby Digital Surround
Subtitles:	English, Closed Captions
Chapters:	15

It ain't over until...

The film is presented in a 1:85 anamorphic widescreen, enhanced for 16:9 TVs. The film previously appeared on laserdisc, both in a fullscreen version and a 2:35 widescreen; this DVD cuts a little off the two sides, but adds a sliver more information to the top of the frame, compared to the widescreen laserdisc. The colors and image are excellent, as befits the pride of Paramount's franchises; the early CGI that is used intermittently (the shuttlecraft landing on the planet, for instance) now sticks out like a sore digital thumb, its lack of photo-realism glaringly evident under the new higher-definition presentation.

The sound is sharp and clear, and features a few distinctive seperation effects; while the rear channels are not as active as one would like, their contribution to the soundscape is noticeable. The sound is noticeably improved over the previous DVD release.

Supplements

Disc 1

• Feature commentary by director William Shatner and daughter Liz Shatner
• Text commentary by Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda

Disc 2

• The Star Trek Universe:
• Herman Zimmerman: A Tribute (19:08)
• Original Interview: William Shatner (14:36)
• Cosmic Thoughts (13:05)
• That Klingon Couple (13:05)
• A Green Future? (9:25)
• Production:
• Harve Bennett's Pitch (1:41)
• The Journey (28:54)
• Makeup Tests (9:50)
• Pre-Visualization Models (1:40)
• Rockman In The Raw (5:38)
• Star Trek V Press Conference (13:42)
• Archives:
• Production Gallery (4:05)
• Storyboards:
• Shakari
• The Face Of God
• Escape
• Deleted Scenes:
• Mount Rushmore (0:19)
• Insults (2:03)
• Behold Paradise (0:52)
• Spock's Pain (1:03)
• Advertising:
• Theatrical Trailer 1 (2:41)
• Theatrical Trailer 2 (1:33)
• TV Spots:
• Vacation Is Over (0:30)
• Renegade (0:30)
• Challenge of Rebellion (0:30)
• Brothers (0:30)
• Beyond (0:30)
• Adventure (0:30)
• Warp Speed Now (0:30)

If there is any knowledge to be gleaned from the feature-length audio commentary, featuring director/star William Shatner and his daughter Liz Shatner (author of the book Captain's Log: William Shatner's Personal Account of the Making of 'Star Trek V -- The Final Frontier'), it is that Shatner's primary directorial tool is to "keep people moving."  If the scene is flat, dull, and uninteristing -- it can usually be fixed by having people move around. Ah, if only Kurasowa and Kubrick and Welles could have learned at the feet of the master... Far more worth the time is the Pop-Up Videos-style "text commentary" by Michael and Denise Okuda, as interesting as ever -- perhaps more so in this case, as they contrast to the rest of the film.

For the record, Shatner feels that the campfire sing-along scene was one of the best of the film.

The bulk of supplements appear on the second disk. "Herman Zimmerman: A Tribute" is a twenty-minute celebration of the film's production designer, who joined the Star Trek franchise in 1987 and has headed up design of the films beginning with Star Trek V, as well as TV's Next Generation and DS9. There is a 15-minute interview with Shatner filmed in Yosemite during production of the film, as well as some fluff pieces (Cosmic Thoughts and Green Future). That Klingon Couple is a newly-filmed interview with Todd Bryant (Klingon Captain Klaa) and a body-glittered and frighteningly-muscled Spice Williams (Vixis), as they speak Klingon (Spice comports herself well here) and reminisce on their tour of duty in the Star Trek world.

The most interesting supplement dealing with Production is Rockman In the Raw, a five-and-a-half minute look at a creature character that -- sadly -- never made it into the final cut. Played by an actor in a suit designed to appear to be made of rock, the creature is perhaps the practical ancestor of the CGI Rockmen that appeared in 1999's Galaxy Quest, and this supplement unreels the only remaining test footage of the character.

Four deleted scenes are included, the shortest -- and most interesting -- being "Mount Rushmore." Although it was never very clear in the actual film, in the opening scenes only Kirk, Spock and McCoy were at Yosemite; Sulu and Chekov (also camping) were hundreds of miles away at Mount Rushmore. The deleted scene in question makes this clear, with a slow pan upwards to a badly-painted matted rendering of Mount Rushmore -- with an additional face, a black woman, added to the left of Washington.