That's my actual reaction to this movie. “What just happened???”
You would think that, coming off of the literally fun adventure we just had with this crew in The Voyage Home, and the promise of Kirk being demoted back to Captain and taking command of a brand new Enterprise, meant that we were about to get more of the same with the fifth film of the series. Maybe even better! Unfortunately, that doesn't turn out to be the case here. This movie is uh... A departure from the previous three installments, to say the very least.
Despite my grievances when it comes to lead actor William Shatner in my past reviews and the fact that he was promised that he could direct this one, I can't really lay the blame entirely with him. The story concept in The Final Frontier, which essentially revolves around the idea of the crew finding God at the center of the universe, is actually pretty compelling, and could have made for an excellent film. There was sadly a tremendous amount of behind-the-scenes and external factors that went up against the production though, and many of them made pretty negative impacts on it.
By the way, this is my latest review in a series I'm doing for my complete Star Trek rewatch I've been working my way through! If you're interested in my previous thoughts on the franchise, you can find them all here:
You can also follow me on Bluesky for commentary while I watch live and any other random thoughts that pop into my head. I also have a personal website at jiggyflyjoe.com!
For starters, pre-production on the film was interrupted by a Writers Guild of America strike in 1988, which didn't really do the film any favors in its early stages. Industrial Light & Magic, the special effects studio that had created effects for the last three films, were already too busy working on other big films of the time (primarily Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Ghostbusters II) and were therefore unavailable for The Final Frontier. They instead went with a different company that was unable to replicate decent effects in the limited time they were given or were forced to scale many of them back to save money, which explains why many of the special effects sequences don't look that great, even by that time's industry standards. Shooting on-location in some areas, primarily Yosemite National Park when Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are camping during their off-time, also proved troublesome, with Shatner and the crew being stranded in the Mojave Desert. Both the script and the final film wound up needed to be reworked a number of times as well, which weren't helped by the fact that Paramount was also trying to rush the movie's production.
As I mentioned earlier, the story and script are actually pretty decent. After a weirdo rogue Vulcan named Sybok, who also turns out to be Spock's half-brother(!!!)1, takes several diplomats hostage in order to bait the Federation starship to his location. Naturally, the brand new Enterprise-A receives the assignment from Starfleet. Upon rescuing the hostages, Sybok explains that he needs to use the ship in order to travel to a planet located beyond the Great Barrier at the center of the galaxy because that's where God is!2 After breaching the Barrier, they do indeed manage to find a singular planet there, which appears to be completely devoid of life. Kirk, Spock, and Bones beam down to the planet with Sybok to investigate his claims, and sure enough, somewhat magically, a figure appears to them in a glowing aura of sorts. The party is surprised as it does appear as though they're speaking to God, or at least some God-like being. The jig is up, however, after “God” informs them that he will use the Enterprise to travel the galaxy and... I don't know, influence it? Complete intent unclear, honestly. Which Kirk eventually latches onto himself, causing him to eventually ask, “What does God need with a starship?” The questions eventually anger the entity who then attempts to just kill the landing party.3 It eventually does kill Sybok, while the other three eventually beam away to safety and leave “God” on the planet, still surrounded by the Great Barrier.
Shatner stated that he was inspired by fraudulent televangelism when he developed the story along with Harve Bennett and David Loughery. Gene Roddenberry and Paramount had issues with the script, however, and thus it went through several revisions before being made. Weirdly, I remember liking this film a lot when I was younger, because the thought of them dealing with GOD of all things was really interesting. My opinion has definitely changed since viewing these films as an adult though, because I also found myself really enjoying The Voyage Home, which I generally just wrote off as “the one with the whales” in my younger days. Regrettably, this particular film doesn't hold up today like the other Star Trek films, and despite best efforts by the cast and crew, the story isn't really capable of carrying the film on its own. Audience reception wasn't much warmer back in the day. The Final Frontier wound up being both a critical and financial disappointment for Paramount.
All things considered, if you decide to revisit the original cast's six Star Trek films, I think you'd probably be better off skipping this one.