Star Trek: Voyager Season One Review (Major Spoilers)
Also reviews for Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
Warning: the reviews for the movies are extra long because I also reviewed the massive Collector's Edition special features discs. If you're interested to read them either set aside some time or scroll past the special features reviews.
To paraphrase Scotty in Star Trek IV: "Aye, there be spoilers here!"
Star Trek: Voyager Season One
The first season of Voyager while tedious in places showed a lot of promise that the series was never able to deliver or build upon. The Pilot is probably the best Trek Pilot after Emissary and The Cage and hooked me from the beginning. Unfortunately the series, (and the season in particular) was never able to live up to that promise. The pilot promised future juicy plot twists (like Tom Paris owning Chakotay's life) which were completely ignored after this episode and never brought up again. I was also angry that the female Caretaker plot thread was only explored in one other episode. Deep Space Nine was so great because they would set up different plotlines and followed through with almost all of them, season to season, right up till the last episode. This show makes NO such effort to satisfy the audience and that is one of my biggest complaints about it.
I feel a bit differently about some of the characters than I did when I first watched the series. Some of them I'm surprised at how much I now enjoy. I really like Jennifer Lien as Kes and I cannot believe how much I'm digging Tuvok (who I previously merely tolerated). I like Neelix and the Doctor as much as I used to (they hadn't yet ruined the Doctor's character yet). B'Elanna Torres is okay but I don't like Tom Paris or Chakotay as much as I used to. And the less said about the annoying Harry Kim, the better.
And then there is Captain Janeway. I never liked her before but rewatching these episodes made me realize how appalling she actually is. She's a terrible captain and rivals Jonathan Archer in suckiness. As least Archer had the excuse of being the first Starfleet captain EVER so it was slightly understandable why he was so bad at his job. After Picard and Sisko, Janeway has no such excuse.
I REALLY hope I'm not just bitter because Kate Mulgrew is completely miscast as the character. I LOVE the idea of a female sci-fi captain and this is one of the few instances of it. But why, oh WHY couldn't they find a better actress or better writers? Sci-fi may be short of female leaders outside of Janeway, Sarah Jane and Buffy but there are a ton of butt-kicking females who would be great in charge (Aeryn Sun, Jadzia Dax, and Martha Jones spring immediately to mind.) But none of those ladies were ever put in the top position. Why is it that they cast someone who sounds like they've been a heavy smoker for eighty years and can't act their way out of a paper bag? She is also annoyingly patronizing to Chakotay's Indian beliefs (so much so it's almost painful to watch).
The problems Voyager wound up having make the first season a bigger chore to watch than it originally was. Watching it over the air, you never realized just HOW big a disappointment it was going to be. You just watched episode after episode assuming the show was going to improve because both Next Generation and Deep Space Nine did. That never happened. Even Enterprise turned into an addictive show in it's fourth season. But Voyager with the exception of a few bright spots has ALWAYS been tedious during all of it's seven seasons.
Best episodes of the year are the promising pilot (Caretaker) and the wonderful Doctor spotlight (Heroes And Demons). Quite a few bad episodes this year but the worst are the cliche Parallax, the bummer Emanations, and the one where the crew acts completely unprofessional (Prime Factors). Season Overall: ***.
Caretaker: It is really too bad that the series was never able to live up to the potential shown here. This episode promised future conflict between Chakotay and Tom Paris and Tuvok and that never happened as well as a female Caretaker that was barely ever mentioned again. SO much greatness. Loved Quark's funny cameo. Neelix AND the Doctor both make memorable impressions (Neelix is adorable and hilarious and the look on the Doctor's face when he's deactivated is priceless) and I love how this set up Tuvok's love/hate relationship with Neelix. Great premiere. *****.
Parallax: I hate this corny episode but I will concede it probably only seems worse than it actually is because they went to time-travel in only the second episode. Janeway and Torres are insufferable together and the plot is completely predictable. *1/2.
Time And Again: And the THIRD episode is a time-travel one as well! It helps that it's MUCH better and is a Trekkie take on 12 Monkeys (with a much happier ending). Only beef: this hits the infamous Total Reset Button at the end. I recently rewatched the original series and even though it had multiple time travel episodes it never used the reset crutch even ONCE. Seriously. The amount of times this show had unsatisfying endings like this are too many to count. ***.
Phage: Spooky episode. The Vidians are scary villains. My only complaint is not minor: Kes was the LAST person who should have donated Neelix a lung. Ocampas have nine year life spans, remember? What happens when Neelix's lung gives out in eight years? The writers did NOT think that one through. ****.
The Cloud: Boring, but the show has done much worse. Watchable. ***.
Eye Of The Needle: I love the Romulan Telek and his relationship with Janeway. I love whenever Trek humanizes Romulans and Telek is incredibly sympathetic. I don't mind the crew failing to find a way home or even a shortcut this episode, but considering they lost EVERY episode until around season three it started an annoying trend. I also really enjoyed Kes sticking up for the Doctor and Janeway not even CONSIDERING that his needs weren't being met. I like Kes. ****.
Ex Post Facto: Lousy mystery (Only Wolf In The Fold tops it in dubious Trek courtroom episodes) but the episode is great fun to watch. But seriously, the resolution was completely insane. First of all, NONE of the "evidence" Tuvok introduced would have held up in ANY court of law and was all completely circumstantial. It was lucky the suspects were boneheaded enough to confess. When Tuvok introduced the barking dog as a "witness" I almost laughed at the unintentional joke that was. ***1/2.
Emanations: The episode sucks for two reasons: the episode is depressing and has no new angle to take on the subject matter. Also the CREW sucks this episode. You'd figure Janeway and Kim would have the LEAST bit of sense to treat the aliens with kid-gloves and not completely and idiotically wreck their belief systems (Prime Directive, remember?). Only a surprisingly on the ball Chakotay makes a good showing this episode. Even the great Jerry Hardin is wasted in his role. 1/2.
Prime Factors: I hated Harry's behavior but I understood it. Janeway however was appalling. Who is she to judge another culture the way she did? I don't care whether or not the aliens DID consider pleasure more important than anything else, it obviously worked for their society and Janeway had no business laying into the guy like that. Completely unprofessional and it reminded me of how some of the moodier aliens treated Kirk and Picard on the other shows. As Janeway noted, the Federation was on the other side of the Prime Directive fence for once and the crew completely failed that test of moral character. *.
State Of Flux: Good episode but unfortunately set off the Seska arc which lasted WAAAAYYY too long and made little sense on a show about a ship going in one direction. Still, it's very good. ****.
Heroes and Demons: Best episode of the season. I love how the Doctor treated the other holograms as equals (because technically they were). It was a fresh take on the subject and I enjoy the Doctor being surprised at how great it was to feel appreciated for once. The death of Freya was touching (and the Doctor confronting Unfurth was awesome) and the episode is mad-funny. One complaint. The Doctor never chose a name on the series. There is only ONE sci-fi character I will ever think of as the REAL Doctor and it ain't the EMH. *****.
Cathexis: Boring but I can't deny it is unpredictable. Well, you knew one of the life forms being Chakotay was coming but the paranoia was payed off nicely and the show had a few twists I did NOT see coming. ***1/2.
Faces: Roxanne Dawson is hot out of Klingon make-up. The episode's quality is technically only so-so but the concept is so neat, I can forgive it. Most chilling moment: the Vidian scientist wearing Durst's face. Yikes. ***1/2.
Jetrel: The episode gives some nice development for Neelix but I didn't really get interested until the last ten minutes. The last scene was perfect with Neelix forgiving Jetrel seconds before he died. The look of relief, serenity, and joy on James Sloyan's face was wonderful. ***1/2.
Learning Curve: The good news: the episode contains possibly the funniest line in Star Trek history. The bad news: it's unintentially funny. When I heard "Get this cheese to sickbay!" I nearly lost it. Best bad Trek line since "Brain! Brain! What is brain?!" I wish they had even played it a LITTLE bit for laughs. Farscape and Doctor Who would have mined a great joke out of it. The rest of the episode was interesting. Imagine if TNG's "Lower Decks" didn't completely suck. Bonus points for the casting of mainstay 80's sitcom guest star Derek McGrath as the Bolian Chell. He was hilarious. ***1/2.
Braving The Unknown: Season One: I really like this interview but I'm saddened Micheal Piller decided to take a less hands-on role on the series. Rick Berman unchecked is a VERY bad thing. ****.
Voyager Time Capsule: Kathryn Janeway: Interview with Kate Mulgrew about her audition and her experience on Star Trek. Mulgrew is gracious and charming in real life. ****.
The First Captain: Bujold: Genevieve Bujold would have been a disaster. As much as I dislike Mulgrew's performance as Janeway, in retrospect I realize it could have been worse. MUCH worse. Bujold is robotic and reads her lines as if she is first seeing them on the cue cards as she's speaking them. She makes Jean-Luc Picard look warm and cuddly. We dodged a bullet. I do not believe the show would have lasted seven seasons with her as Captain. This footage is interesting. ****.
Cast Reflections: Season One: I wish they had filmed some new interviews for this especially since almost none of them were actually ABOUT season one (most were filmed during the series finale). ***1/2.
On Location With The Kazons: This documentary seems pretty old. Were they making DVD features before DVD was invented? ****.
Red Alert: Visual Effects Season One: Nifty FX featurette. ****.
Launching Voyager On The Web: Neat doc about all of the various official Star Trek websites. I'm deducting half a star because the featurette mentions special web exclusive footage of Janeway and The Doctor (an earlier example of a webisode?) and doesn't include it. ****1/2.
Real Science With Andre Bormanis: I love features like this. The special features discs on the first six Star Trek features explored real life science better though. ***1/2.
Photo Gallery: Still gallery of behind the scenes and production photos. ****.
Easter Egg: Kate Mulgrew talks about her emotional scene with Tuvok in Caretaker. ***1/2.
Easter Egg: Micheal Piller talks about Janeway's infamous bun. He cracks that Voyager is the only Star Trek pilot where the hairstyles cost more money than the special effects! And he's probably right! *****.
Easter Egg: Brannon Braga talks Janeway and Phage. He's still a punk. **1/2.
Easter Egg: Vaughn Armstrong (Enterprise's Admiral Forrest) talks about his appearance as the Romulan Telek in Eye Of The Needle. *****.
DVD Menus: Several angles of the Starship Voyager in a blue starfield. Disc 5 (The Special Features disc) has Easter Eggs. DVD Menus: Discs 1 - 4: ****. DVD Menu Disc 5: ****1/2.
Star Trek III: The Search For Spock
"The Needs of the One outweigh the needs of the many."
Truer words were never spoken.
There is an observation amongst Trekkies (or Trekkers if you want to be a snob about it) that the odd numbered movies suck and the even numbered movies rule. Supposedly the recent reboot broke this curse but as far as I'm concerned the "curse" idea was nonsense because the third, awesome Star Trek movie completely invalidates the theory.
This movie is GREAT and an terrific follow up to Khan. The only reason I can think of that it's not as much loved by the fans as it should be is because it's sandwiched between The Wrath Of Khan and The Voyage Home, arguably the best pictures in the franchise. So even a great movie seems smaller than it would have otherwise.
The movie is also packed with television stars from the eighties, some well-known (Christopher Lloyd, James B. Sikking), some that would be well-known in the future (Miguel Ferrer, Phil Morris) and some that fall somewhere in between (John Larroqette). Heck, even Janice Rand (played by Grace Lee Whitney) has a blink and you'll miss it cameo (even though she's annoyingly billed as the "Woman In Cafeteria" in the end credits).
I loved the touch of the Tribbles. VERY geeky moment.
It was SO great to see Mark Lenard as Sarek again. The movies gave him a bigger role than he ultimately wound up having on the old show and I couldn't be happier. Which is a shame considering how important the character is to the canon. Maybe if there had been a fourth season. Alas. He also got the best line of the picture: "My logic is uncertain where my son is concerned." Sarek rocks!
This is the first of the movies that really allowed all of the characters to have their own little moments and owning scenes ("Don't call me Tiny"). The first two movies focused almost exclusively on Kirk, Spock and McCoy (and to a lesser extent Scotty and Chekov in the second movie). All of the following movies continued the tradition of giving everyone something to do.
Saavik (recast with the lovely Robin Curtis) makes the cutest Mrs. Robinson EVER Yeah, she's not as good as Kirstie Alley but as far as I'm concerned she's fine and in two great movies. It's Alley's loss. The look Curtis gives Spock at the end of the movie is memorable.
This was the first Star Trek project that implied Klingons have a strong sense of honor. It's just a throwaway line at the beginning but it was heavily developed for The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.
Speaking of Klingons, Christopher Lloyd does a surprisingly good job as Kruge. I knew he could play scary and creepy because of Judge Doom but it's cool that he's able to convey strength, cunning, and thuggishness here. He's certainly the smartest adversary Kirk has faced, if not the best.
I wish William Shatner had done a better job upon learning the death of his son but I DID like him tumbling backward into the chair to convey vulnerability. It's funny because he didn't overplay the heavy scenes in Khan too much but here he's a bit hammy. But it's just something you have to accept as a Trek fan.
But those are just quibbles and I loved the movie. It was a super movie that I enjoyed immensely. ****1/2.
Terraforming And The Prime Directive: This is a bit dull in places but I was kind of interested in the guy who talked about terraforming on Mars, whether or not there was life there at one time, and how long it would take to make it habitable again. ***.
Archives:
Storyboards and Photos. Overall: ****
Storyboards:
These were more detailed than Wrath of Khan but not as detailed as The Motion Picture. The battle and action scenes are good but the character designs and movements are terrible and off-model. Overall: ***1/2.
Main Titles: These were very funny, especially the captions that said "Insert Exciting Title Here", "Important Guy's Name" and "Even More Important Guy's Name". *****.
The Klingons Attack: Fun fact: Kruge was originally going to be bald! We didn't get a bald Klingon until General Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. ****.
Entering Spacedock: This was all right. **1/2.
Search For Life: Marcus and Saavik finding Spock's coffin covered in giant worms. ***1/2.
Finding Spock: Saavik finding boy Spock. ***1/2.
The Destruction Of The Grissom: Kruge destroying the Grissom. ***1/2.
Stealing The Enterprise: I know these are storyboards for the ships themselves but the characters are so off-model here, it's jarring. **.
Self Destruct: The destruction of the Enterprise. ***1/2.
Kirk Fights Kruge: Pretty good. ***1/2.
The Katra Ritual: This was even better than what was in the movie! I guess they didn't have the budget for those crowds. ****1/2.
Photos:
Photos for the production and the movie. Overall: ****1/2.
Production: Behind the scenes photos from the set. I especially like seeing Leonard Nimoy out of make-up and wearing thick bottle glasses. ****.
The Movie: Promo stills from the movie. Excellent. *****.
Theatrical Trailer: This spoils the destruction of the Enterprise! Dirty pool, man. Dirty pool. *1/2.
Captain's Log: Loved the interview with Nimoy. But Shatner's ego is so massive that you are never quite sure if he's joking or not. ***1/2.
The Star Trek Universe:
Featurettes. A Mixed bag. Overall: ***.
Space Docks And Birds Of Prey: Boooooring! Like watching paint dry or snails race. *.
Speaking Klingon: Neat interview with Mark Okrand who talks about how he created the Klingon language. ****1/2.
Klingon And Vulcan Costumes: Some of the costumes were cool. ***1/2.
Easter Egg: An interview with one of the ILM guys about some of the visual tricks and effects. ***.
Disc 1 DVD Menu: The Klingon Bird of Prey on Vulcan. ****1/2.
Disc 2 DVD Menu: Up to the cliffs of Vulcan where the Katra ceremony takes place. ****.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
This is my second favorite Trek movie after First Contact and it's easily the biggest crowd-pleaser. Yeah, technically the quality of the writing and plot aren't as good as Contact or Wrath Of Khan but this is the easiest movie for general audiences to dip into without knowing any previous Trek lore and it's actually sort of the last part of a trilogy! It's also a quintessentially 80's movie which is something no Trek movie or TV project has been able to claim before or since. Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on how much you enjoy the movie.
I loved spacey, ditzy Spock and thought he was hilarious. I especially liked that in his supposedly fragile state of mind Dr. McCoy was treating him with kid gloves and gently trying to make peace. And he didn't ONCE lose his temper with Spock. Which has to be a first.
Speaking of McCoy, the scene of him in the 20th Century hospital getting angrier and angrier at the barbarism was DeForest Kelley at his righteous best. I especially liked him giving that old woman a pill that regrew her kidneys and how astonished the doctors were as she shouted with glee as Kirk, McCoy, Chekov and Gillian escaped.
Once you see Spock in the tank mind-melding with the whale you knew exactly what the tone the rest of the movie is going to be. The 80's music and film style is a bit jarring at first but when Spock's in his underwear talking to Gracie you're completely sold on the concept.
I loved Scotty speaking into the mouse and then grumpily rocking the keyboard. Guy's a computer genius in ANY century.
I forgot Janice Rand cameoed in this movie too as did Christine Chapel (this was her final appearance). That was another cool thing.
The movie had SO many funny scenes. Some of my favorites were Spock declaring Gracie was pregnant and Gillian slamming on the brakes, the brilliant interplay between Shatner and Nimoy when they try to get their stories straight on whether or not they like Italian food, and Scotty excitedly declaring "Aye, there be whales here!"
I loved the scene of reconciliation at the end between Sarek and Spock. I'm still mad at Next Gen for retconning that. It was good to see Amanda and Saavik one last time too.
Best line in the movie goes to Spock when commenting on Jacqueline Susann, Harold Robbins, and other trash writers of the 20th Century: "Ah. The Giants."
Dulmer and Lucsly at Temporal Investigations rightly called Kirk a menace when it came to tampering with history (in DS9's "Trials And Tribble-ations") but he was a complete amatuer compared to the rest of the crew. Scotty basically introduced transparent aluminum to Earth and Chekov left both his Klingon Phaser and Communicator behind, while McCoy saved the life of a woman who was supposed to die. And yeah, Kirk brought Gillian to the 23rd Century but I don't hold it against him because it wasn't his fault. Man, I know circumstances required a certain amount of leeway on the Prime Directive but how sloppy and unprofessional everyone was was delightful.
By the way, I don't buy the producers' claim that the movie followed set time travel rules a la Gargoyles. Gargoyles' time travel rules (you cannot change history, you can only be a part of it) work because you cannot break them and the writers of Gargoyles never did. This is the only Star Trek story to use Gargoyles rules. The rest of Trek's MANY time travel stories never have used those rules before or since. The rule only works if it's absolute.
My only real complaint was the language in the movie. I didn't so much mind the swearing as the Navy guy calling Chekov a "retard". I know that was a popular insult in the 80's so it gets points for authenticity, but it's in SUCH bad taste even now, much less the 23rd Century.
But that took me out of the movie for all of thirty seconds. The rest of the movie is a blast and it's easily the most fun anyone ever had at any Trek movie then or now. *****.
The Star Trek Universe:
Featurettes about the some of the concepts of the movies and their real-life applications, as well as familiar primers and looks back at Trek lore. Overall: ****.
Time Travel: The Art Of The Possible: I liked this a lot. Especially cool was the scientist explaining that when you are going just below the speed of light, time slows down so it would be exactly like time traveling. I liked the little cartoons too. And this explains WHY they are called wormholes. And when that guy said he went to Cornell I thought to myself "Maybe you've heard of it?" ****1/2.
The Language Of Whales: This was an interesting feature too. Whales even seem to have distinct dialects in different groups. I didn't know that. ****.
A Vulcan Primer: A Star Trek novelist discusses Vulcans and what makes them tick. I knew all this stuff before but I imagine this is handy for Trek newbies. ***.
Kirk's Women: Interviews with Catherine Hicks and some of the female guest stars Kirk romanced on the show. I know the interview is ten years old but I must say the actresses still look beautiful 30 years later. I love that. ****.
Production:
Featurettes and features focusing on (what else?) production. The first three are cool, the last is a dud. ***1/2.
Future's Past: A Look Back: It looks like everyone had as much fun making the movie as the fans did watching it. For the record: I agree with Nimoy and Nicholas Meyer that the suits who suggested subtitles for the probe and the whales were boneheads. Part of the enticement of science fiction is the mystery and even though I usually crave answers from my movies and TV shows this was one of those few instances where I thought the ambiguousness is a big part of the reason it is so cool. Another movie/show I feel this way about is Lost. ****1/2.
On Location: I still think Chekov's "Nuclear Wessels" is funny too. ****.
Dailies Deconstruction: This was a cool multi-angle feature. I liked it because you could just play it and not have to toggle back and forth between the angles. ****1/2.
Below-The-Line Sound Design: Gotta say that that VERY animated Sound Designer is really annoying. He speaks excessively with his hands and his demeaner is similar to either a motivational speaker, a self-help guru, or a cult leader. I kept thinking "Tony Robbins hungry!" **.
Visual Effects:
Two features about the VFX. Overall: ****1/2.
From Outer Space To The Ocean: This documentary narrated by Jim Cummings (!) is ridiculously cool. It features old interviews and a bunch of cool footage. Neat. *****.
The Bird Of Prey: This was about the design of The Bird Of Prey. Good, but much of this was covered on the Collector's Edition DVD of The Search For Spock. ***1/2.
Original Interviews: I have never fully appreciated the thought and time that goes into DVD interviews until I saw these old promotional tour interviews. The questions were astoundingly terrible and I was embarrassed for Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, and DeForest Kelley. These are questions an overachieving 10 year old would ask for the school paper. In the 1950's. These questions make Barbara Walter's "If you were a tree, what kind would you be?" seem like a hardball interview from Rachel Maddow. Have these interviewers ever even SEEN an episode of Star Trek before? Or ANY science fiction? Or seen or interviewed anyone from a TV show or movie ever? The questions go from the inane (Could you tell us the top-secret plot of the movie that you were contractually obligated not to reveal? How are you like your character?) to obvious (have you ever been typecast?). Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley were charmingly gracious to put up with the nonsense but I nearly cheered at the gruff way a clearly annoyed Shat answered the questions. The half star I give out is sympathy for the interviewees. Awful. Overall: 1/2.
Leonard Nimoy: "Are the plots on Star Trek based on real life?" Yes, they seriously asked that question. Nimoy gives an interesting answer about how the science fiction is based on credible science but that's not how I took the question. Was Michelle Bachmann giving the interview? 1/2.
William Shatner: The Shat looks completely annoyed and embarrassed to be interviewed on a backlot while there is construction work going on in the background. To be clear, I admire him for his truthful answer to the typecasting question. He said he didn't understand actors who gave different reasons for why they chose a part. He was the kind of guy who just took the work and was grateful for it. That's kind of awesome. 1/2.
DeForest Kelley: This interview gave the most interesting answers but I think even though the questions weren't QUITE as bad as Nimoy and Shatner's, that the reason this was even a TINY bit illuminating, is that the pleasant Kelley steered the questions in that direction. *.
Tributes:
Tributes to the late Gene Roddenberry and Mark Lenard by their families. Lovely. Both: ****.
Roddenberry Scrapbook: I have my problems with Roddenberry, the man. But there is no question in my mind that he was a fantastic father. Eugene Roddenberry is a great (not a) kid (anymore). ****.
Featured Artist: Mark Lenard: Mark Lenard sounds absolutely wonderful in this interview with his wife and daughters. These were great stories I had never heard before. ****.
Archives:
Production and storyboard galleries. This gets bonus points for making the Production Gallery animated. Overall: ****.
Production Gallery: I love animated still galleries with music. This was the first one I'd seen for Star Trek. Pretty slick. *****.
Storyboards:
Still galleries. I wish these had been animated too but I understand it might have been difficult to do so. Note: These are not as good as the storyboards for any of the other movies because this movie had the least amount of visual effects and action set pieces of all 11 films. ***.
Encounter With The Saratoga: Nice. ***.
The Probe Approaches Earth: Good. ***.
Time Warp: A major let-down. This doesn't even HINT at the trippy CGI morphing dream sequence. That must have been a late addition. ***.
Mind Meld: Spock and the whale. ***1/2.
The Whaling Ship: Decent. ***.
Return To The 23rd Century: All right. ***.
Communication: Okay. ***.
NCC 1701-A: The best of the storyboards. The movie looks exactly like this. ****1/2.
Theatrical Trailer: Funny, shows the tone of the movie, and doesn't spoil TOO much (unless you somehow managed to watch it several times). Best one so far. *****.
Disc 1 DVD Menu: At Starfleet Headquarters on Earth during a Red Alert. This is the first Star Trek Menu with spoken dialogue. It reminded me of a Red Dwarf menu. *****.
Disc 2 DVD Menu: The HMS Bounty in the San Francisco Bay, next to the bridge and above the whales. With the sound of the ocean and ships, THIS reminded me of a Lost DVD menu. ****1/2.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
I'm just going to say it: this is nowhere NEAR as bad as it's reputation suggests.
I know. Sacrilege. Especially considering how much Gene Roddenberry hated it and fought to keep it out of the official canon. And to be fair, this has quite a few Star Trek regulars acting a bit out of character (and for some that is an understatement). And parts of it ARE awful. But as a whole I kept an open mind and was able to enjoy it.
First off, let's get the movie critics' beefs about the film out of the way. I understand completely why critics hated it but I think a certain segment of Star Trek fans (those interested in the relationship between Kirk, Spock and McCoy) should be able to look past its flaws. I said SHOULD. There are no guarantees and I still respect any Trekkie who doesn't share that opinion. I think parts of Kirk's infamous shore leave were kind of corny (and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" has always been lame; I don't care that it's a round) but honestly after seeing these characters for so long, it's kind of nice to finally see them sitting down and b-s-ing and just enjoying each other's company off-duty. They talk about philosophical stuff and how much they mean to each other and that's just kind of cool. I can totally understand a critic, one who isn't invested in the franchise or the characters, having no patience for those moments and want to get right to the exciting stuff. But a certain kind of Trekkie, those that watch the show for the characters and not the space battles, can appreciate it.
Secondly, and this is a complaint from the critics I share: how big a let-down is it that it isn't actually God they find? Honestly, the only thing that could possibly justify spending an entire movie on a wild goose chase is if the producers were staunch athiests and didn't believe answers are out there. And if that was the case, they should have at least tried to make the movie from that angle. Don't chicken out. That's Rick Berman/Brannon Braga type thinking. Boxing in Star Trek because you want to offend the least amount of people and keep focus groups happy isn't something the original series worried about. If you were gonna be offended, so be it. Star Trek: The Next Generation and all of the later spin-offs except for Deep Space Nine never really challenged the audience. Sure, they took moral stands on certain social issues. But they (except DS9) never challenged the audience's beliefs and made them think about The Big Questions. Star Trek became an unbearably safe show where nothing bad ever happened and our characters never REALLY had to make tough decisions. Or if they did, they didn't really have any major repercussions (see the actual outcome to "Mr. Worf. Fire." or Data's behavior in Descent). Futurama had Bender find God. Why wasn't Trek allowed to give Kirk that experience?
However there were a ton of things I enjoyed. I'm saddened this is the only Trek outing where I was able to become a Scotty/Uhura shipper. Yeah, the fan dance was embarrassing, but that was one of those "so wrong, it's right" moments. Spock got the best line in the movie at the end when Kirk tried to hug him: "Please, Captain. Not in front of the Klingons." And this is the return of Jerry Goldsmith's magnificent theme. I also really enjoyed the Federation, Klingon, And Romulan Ambassadors (especially David Warner and TNG's Charles Cooper). I ESPECIALLY love that it was McCoy of all people who defended Spock's decision not to kill Sybok. That was just great and a very true thing.
But the thing I liked best? Forget all of my previous gripes about Next Generation a couple of paragraphs up. The really cool thing about that show was how Captain Picard solved problems with diplomacy and didn't run around causing interstellar incidents every week. That's how Spock smartly solved the problem with the Klingons. I imagine there were quite a few fans who felt cheated that they didn't get a big Enterprise/Klingon space battle but TNG had been on the air a couple of years at this point, and the future peace treaty between the Federation and the Klingons had already been established, so this was a cool foreshadowing that was continued in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered County. We didn't think of the Klingons as bad guys anymore so the movie took the tack that the Klingon captain was more misguided than evil. I didn't mind that at all.
Now I'm going to talk about stuff that I haven't heard professional critics talk about but that I wasn't happy with. The opening scene on Nimbus III is so Un-Star Trek-like that it feels wrong on every level. I guess they maybe made that scene so preview audiences thought they had stepped into the wrong movie theater but that's a very self-indulgent reason to write and shoot the scene the way they did.
I also didn't enjoy the scene where Sybok puts the whammy on both McCoy and Spock. McCoy's trauma was all too predictable and trite and Spock's trauma was appalling. I mentioned people being out of character earlier? Well nowhere is this more egregious than with Sarek's portrayal of disgust at Spock's birth. I can actually imagine someone like Spock being disappointed in having a "too human" son. But Sarek loved and married Amanda and has always been ironically portrayed as much more tuned in to emotions than Spock even though he's full Vulcan. There's no way he would say something this hurtful in front of Amanda. To see the right way to show the birth of Spock, check out the deleted scenes on the two-disc edition of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot. It may not have made it into the actual movie, but I'll consider that scene canon before I do this one.
It's hard for me to put my thoughts down in writing for this movie. They are definitely mixed feelings involved. But I also remember how appalled I was rewatching Star Trek Generations and this was nothing like that experience at all. It (like Insurrection and even The Motion Picture) felt like a reunion, spending time with old friends. I can't really complain about that. An underrated movie. ***.
The Star Trek Universe:
Featurettes. A mixed bag. ***1/2.
Herman Zimmerman: A Tribute: Nice tribute to the late set designer. ****.
Original Interview: William Shatner: Shatner can be such a blowhard. Tedious. *1/2.
Cosmic Thoughts: About space exploration and God. Boring. **1/2.
That Klingon Couple: Interview with Spice Williams (Vixis) and Todd Bryant (Captain Klaa). I love how much the barely dressed, glittery Williams is always hanging off Bryant. Sexy. A delight. ****1/2.
A Green Future?: About environmentalism and Star Trek. **1/2.
Production:
A featurette and a ton of different test footage and behind the scenes stuff. I think 1989 is when movie companies started saving all that footage and stuff so there's definitely much more stuff on this release than the first four movie DVDs combined. Overall: *****.
Harve Bennett's Pitch: Oversell much? Good thing to include however. **1/2.
The Journey: After hearing this I can see this movie was going to be a disaster from the beginning. I think it's a miracle it was as decent as it was. Everything, the story, the budget, the ending, the character development, seemed like a train wreck waiting to happen. I still don't understand why Shatner's original concept of searching for God but finding the Devil was rejected. Good sci-fi takes bold concepts and makes people think. However I think the idea that Shatner had of the entire crew mutinying except for Kirk sounded much worse than I originally thought after hearing the whole story. I used to think DeForest Kelley and Leonard Nimoy should have gotten over themselves but I didn't know before that Sybok wasn't originally going to put the whammy on everyone and everyone was going to betray Kirk of their own free will. That seemed to be Shatner's way of showing the audience how much better than everyone else Kirk was. ****.
Make-Up Tests: I like seeing these sorts of things. ***1/2.
Previsualization Models: These were actually kind of cute. ****.
Rockman In The Raw: I'll be the one to say it: the Rockman didn't actually look that bad. I've seen worse puppets on Farscape and you never even think about how cheesy they are when you're watching it because you're absorbed in the story. Besides, this is Star Trek. Embrace the cheese. It's a shame that had this movie been made only even ten years later there wouldn't have even HAD this problem thanks to CGI. *****.
Star Trek V Press Conference: Harve Bennett got a frostier reception at this than Micheal Scott usually does on his disasters of speaking tours. Shatner fared a bit better but mostly the rest of the cast looked a bit embarrassed to be there. ***.
Archives:
Animated Production Gallery and three storyboard sequences. Overall: ****1/2.
Production Gallery: Another animated gallery this time with Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek Movie and Klingon Themes. Terrific. *****.
Storyboards:
Storyboards for the climax of the film. Overall: ***1/2.
Shakari: According to the Okudas' commentary it's actually spelled "Sha Ka Ree". ***1/2.
The Face Of God: God smiting Kirk and Spock. ***1/2.
Escape: The original Rockmen storyboards. This would have been neat. ****.
Deleted Scenes:
Two great ones, one good one, and one bad one. Overall: ****.
Mount Rushmore: The fifth face added is a black woman. Michelle Obama maybe? ****1/2.
Insults: I love the ambassadors especially how sweet and friendly the female Romulan ambassador is. And more David Warner and Charles Cooper is a good thing. *****.
Behold Paradise: Sort of an action piece. It's kind of slow so I can see why they cut it. ***1/2.
Spock's Pain: I mentioned before that Sarek was out of character in Spock's flashback. Well, this scene with Spock is almost worse. *.
Advertising:
Trailers and TV Spots. Overall: ****1/2.
Theatrical Trailer 01: Awesome. I'm surprised the movie flopped. *****.
Theatrical Trailer 02: Not QUITE as good but still pretty great. ****1/2.
TV Spots:
Some good ones. Overall: ****.
Vacation Is Over: Funniest gag of the movie. ****.
Renegade: Pretty good. ****.
Challenge Of Rebellion: A bit confusing. ***.
Brothers: Juicy. ****1/2.
Beyond: Oversells the movie. A good trailer SHOULD do that but it's kind of annoying if the movie is only so-so. ***.
Adventure: Spotlighting the cast. ****.
Warp Speed Now: Chekov rules! ****1/2.
Easter Egg: A gag reel using the scene of the turbolift and Spock's leg rockets. Hilarious. Great find. *****.
Disc 1 DVD Menu: The Enterprise-A and the Klingon Bird of Prey arriving at the God Planet (Sha Ka Ree). ****.
Disc 2 DVD Menu: The Shuttlecraft Copernicus launching and then landing on Sha Ka Ree. ****.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
I've always held a special place in my heart for Star Trek VI. It's not the first Star Trek movie I've seen but it's the first one I saw as a Trekkie. I saw Wrath of Khan in the theaters when I was little (it terrified me) and I thought The Voyage Home was cool but Undiscovered Country was the first Trek movie I'd seen after I got hooked on Next Generation. It also happened to be the last movie for the original crew. And that's too bad.
I tend to agree with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy who noted in the commentary for Voyage Home that the old crew could have gotten out a few more movies (at least until DeForest Kelley got sick) but that the current producers of Trek decided to put their attention toward the newer crews. That's a pretty good (and true) slam at Rick Berman. They should have waited a few years to start Next Generation movies. Still this was a great movie to go out on.
I like that this is the first and only Trek project where the Federation is the bad guy. Oh sure, Christopher Plummer makes a great, hammy villain as Shakespeare-quoting Klingon General Chang but the true adversary is Kirk and the crews' prejudices. I love how Kirk admits to Bones that it never even occured to him to take Chancellor Gorkon as his word. I LOVE Chancellor Gorkon (this is one of David Warner's better Star Trek roles). He's pretty much the only Klingon in the first six movies that I've liked.
This movie was also great for continuity geeks. Micheal Dorn makes a cameo as Worf's Grandfather General Worf and the role of him being Kirk and Bones' public defender in the Klingon court was a stroke of genius. I also loved Kirk incorporating "where no ONE has gone before" in his last log entry and especially the Klingon peace talks taking place at Khitomer. Heck, even Rene Auberjonois has a small pre-Deep Space Nine role as General West and there are cameos by Grace Lee Whitney, Christian Slater, character actors W. Morgan Shepard and Jeremy Roberts, DS9's Brock Peters as Admiral Cartwright, Mark Lenard as Sarek, Kurtwood Smith (That 70's Show, The Zeta Project) as the funky Federation President, Kim Cattrall as Lt. Valeris and even Iman as the hot shape-shifter.
About Lt. Valeris. I hear Robin Curtis was disappointed that she wasn't going to return as Saavik (and Kirstie Alley didn't work out) but the producers made completely the right move in making the traitor be a different character. There aren't that many strong Star Trek women and having the only other untainted one except Uhura turn out to be a bad guy was a terrible idea.
I love this movie so much and it's one of the things that really made me a voracious Trekkie. I'm sad this is the last movie and the final Star Trek project by both DeForest Kelley and Nichelle Nichols. But as I already said, it was a high note to end on. ****1/2.
The Perils Of Peacemaking: A documentary exploring the parallels between The Undiscovered Country and the end of the Cold War. I knew some of this stuff already but I never made the connection that the explosion on the Praxis moon echoed Chernobyl. The was interesting. ****.
Stories From Star Trek VI:
Featurettes about the movie. Overall: ****.
It Started With A Story: That Star Trek prequel sounded like an awful idea, if only because it would have been unforgivable to leave the original cast on a so-so movie like The Final Frontier. This was a MUCH better story. ****.
Prejudice: I'm glad Nichelle Nichols refused to say her line about "How would you feel about your daughter marrying one" as that was out of character for Uhura. I tend to agree with William Shatner that Kirk's "Let them die" was out of character for him too, but on the other hand it was almost kind of understandable. I DO wish Nick Meyer had included the take of Kirk walking it back though. By the way, Brock Peters was a wonderful actor to recognize how important it was to convey Admiral Cartwright's bigotry even though the lines were so personally repugnant to him. Unlike Uhura, since Cartwright had only appeared once before, it was hardly out of character and was disgusting and shocking to hear someone from Starfleet say those words. I understand why Gene Roddenberry hated the script too, but it turned out to be a good movie. *****.
Director Nicholas Meyer: Some of the cast and crew's experience with Nick Meyer is detailed here. ***1/2.
Shakespeare & General Chang: Great interview with Christopher Plummer. He seemed to be enjoying himself in the role. And as Shatner noticed, his hamminess made Captain Kirk's seem tame in comparison. ****1/2.
Bringing It To Life: This got less interesting as it went along but I'm giving it a passing grade for Shatner's great story about how he demanded $20 for every bite of blue squid he ate. Classic Shatner. ***1/2.
Farewell & Goodbye: A nice tribute to the original crew. It's nice to know Gene Roddenberry wound up liking the movie before he died especially knowing how much he hated the script. Maybe some ideas can't be conveyed on the page. ****1/2.
The Star Trek Universe:
More featurettes. Overall: ****.
Conversations With Nicholas Meyer: Interview with Meyer. ***1/2.
Klingons: Conjuring The Legend: Best part of this were the interviews with Micheal Dorn and William Campbell particularly Campbell trying to ask the DS9 producers why he had to wear the new, elaborate make-up and Rick Berman's embarrassingly honest answer: "I don't know." ****1/2.
Federation Operatives: Cool special feature. This movie probably had more recurring Trek cast members than any other. ****1/2.
Penny's Toybox: This has got the be the greatest job ever. ****.
Together Again: Christopher Plummer and Shatner playfully ragging on each other. Funny stuff. ****.
Farewell:
A tribute to DeForest Kelley and original interviews with the entire cast. Overall: ****1/2.
DeForest Kelley: A Tribute: Wonderful tribute to the later Star Trek actor. I loved seeing all of the old footage of the Westerns and noir films he starred in. Great stuff. *****.
Original Interviews:
Interviews from 1991 with the cast. Overall: ****.
William Shatner: Shatner talking about the historic kiss? Fun. Shatner talking about mortality? Not so much. ***1/2.
Leonard Nimoy: Leonard Nimoy talks about how they tried to tie this movie into concepts already started by Next Generation. I have never seen the continuity-fest this movie actually is acknowledged anywhere else so I'm glad to know I'm not crazy. ****1/2.
DeForest Kelly: Nice interview. ****.
James Doohan: I will never get tired of hearing that story about the suicidal woman who became an engineer. Doohan must have been SO proud. *****.
Nichelle Nichols: I didn't laugh at the racist Star Trek fan's letter like Nichols did, but I always love hearing about her meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King. This goes into deeper depths than most accounts. ****1/2.
George Takei: I love Takei ticking off his of his fingers all of the times that everyone thought it was gonna be the end of Star Trek and it never was. Sure, he was wrong this ONE TIME, but his argument was still plausable. *****.
Walter Koenig: Koenig on the other hand seems to know this is the last Trek. Interesting that he never got any hate mail for playing a Russian. Koenig notes that this was probably because Chekov was so benign and non-threatening. ****.
Iman: Weakest of the interviews, but it's fun to see her complain about the color eye contacts. You'd figure Hollywood producers would have found away around them by 2011 but genre actors are still suffering from them. ***.
Promotional Material:
Two trailers and a promotional video originally screened at a Star Trek convention. The first trailer is SO great however I'm giving this section of the special features a perfect grade even though the convention preview is far from it. Overall: *****.
Teaser Trailer: This is easily the best Star Trek movie trailer of all time and I'm SO happy I finally have it on DVD. A must see. *****.
Theatrical Trailer: This was good too although I wish it were in anamorphic widescreen. ****1/2.
1991 Convention Presentation By Nicholas Meyer: This fails for one reason: Nick Meyer ain't funny. Now, I've seen the guy crack wise and speak off the cuff in recent interviews but he can't deliver funny prepared material to save his life. **.
Archives:
A production gallery containing video footage and a still storyboard galley. Overall: ****1/2.
Production Gallery: Instead of a photo gallery, this is a "video" gallery with all sorts of behind the scenes footage from 1991. Awesomesauce! *****.
Storyboards:
Four storyboards. Overall: ****.
Praxis: The Excelsior catching the brunt of the explosion of the Klingon moon. ****.
Assassins: The assassination scene. I wish they had included Gorkon's death though. Spooky. ****.
Rura Penthe: On the Klingon Ice Prison Planet. ****.
Leaving Spacedock (Omitted): A deleted scene of sorts that never made it past storyboards. ****1/2.
Disc 1 DVD Menu: In The Klingon Courtroom with a ton of CGI Klingons in the stands. ****1/2.
Disc 2 DVD Menu: On Rura Penthe. ****1/2.
Warning: the reviews for the movies are extra long because I also reviewed the massive Collector's Edition special features discs. If you're interested to read them either set aside some time or scroll past the special features reviews.
To paraphrase Scotty in Star Trek IV: "Aye, there be spoilers here!"
Star Trek: Voyager Season One
The first season of Voyager while tedious in places showed a lot of promise that the series was never able to deliver or build upon. The Pilot is probably the best Trek Pilot after Emissary and The Cage and hooked me from the beginning. Unfortunately the series, (and the season in particular) was never able to live up to that promise. The pilot promised future juicy plot twists (like Tom Paris owning Chakotay's life) which were completely ignored after this episode and never brought up again. I was also angry that the female Caretaker plot thread was only explored in one other episode. Deep Space Nine was so great because they would set up different plotlines and followed through with almost all of them, season to season, right up till the last episode. This show makes NO such effort to satisfy the audience and that is one of my biggest complaints about it.
I feel a bit differently about some of the characters than I did when I first watched the series. Some of them I'm surprised at how much I now enjoy. I really like Jennifer Lien as Kes and I cannot believe how much I'm digging Tuvok (who I previously merely tolerated). I like Neelix and the Doctor as much as I used to (they hadn't yet ruined the Doctor's character yet). B'Elanna Torres is okay but I don't like Tom Paris or Chakotay as much as I used to. And the less said about the annoying Harry Kim, the better.
And then there is Captain Janeway. I never liked her before but rewatching these episodes made me realize how appalling she actually is. She's a terrible captain and rivals Jonathan Archer in suckiness. As least Archer had the excuse of being the first Starfleet captain EVER so it was slightly understandable why he was so bad at his job. After Picard and Sisko, Janeway has no such excuse.
I REALLY hope I'm not just bitter because Kate Mulgrew is completely miscast as the character. I LOVE the idea of a female sci-fi captain and this is one of the few instances of it. But why, oh WHY couldn't they find a better actress or better writers? Sci-fi may be short of female leaders outside of Janeway, Sarah Jane and Buffy but there are a ton of butt-kicking females who would be great in charge (Aeryn Sun, Jadzia Dax, and Martha Jones spring immediately to mind.) But none of those ladies were ever put in the top position. Why is it that they cast someone who sounds like they've been a heavy smoker for eighty years and can't act their way out of a paper bag? She is also annoyingly patronizing to Chakotay's Indian beliefs (so much so it's almost painful to watch).
The problems Voyager wound up having make the first season a bigger chore to watch than it originally was. Watching it over the air, you never realized just HOW big a disappointment it was going to be. You just watched episode after episode assuming the show was going to improve because both Next Generation and Deep Space Nine did. That never happened. Even Enterprise turned into an addictive show in it's fourth season. But Voyager with the exception of a few bright spots has ALWAYS been tedious during all of it's seven seasons.
Best episodes of the year are the promising pilot (Caretaker) and the wonderful Doctor spotlight (Heroes And Demons). Quite a few bad episodes this year but the worst are the cliche Parallax, the bummer Emanations, and the one where the crew acts completely unprofessional (Prime Factors). Season Overall: ***.
Caretaker: It is really too bad that the series was never able to live up to the potential shown here. This episode promised future conflict between Chakotay and Tom Paris and Tuvok and that never happened as well as a female Caretaker that was barely ever mentioned again. SO much greatness. Loved Quark's funny cameo. Neelix AND the Doctor both make memorable impressions (Neelix is adorable and hilarious and the look on the Doctor's face when he's deactivated is priceless) and I love how this set up Tuvok's love/hate relationship with Neelix. Great premiere. *****.
Parallax: I hate this corny episode but I will concede it probably only seems worse than it actually is because they went to time-travel in only the second episode. Janeway and Torres are insufferable together and the plot is completely predictable. *1/2.
Time And Again: And the THIRD episode is a time-travel one as well! It helps that it's MUCH better and is a Trekkie take on 12 Monkeys (with a much happier ending). Only beef: this hits the infamous Total Reset Button at the end. I recently rewatched the original series and even though it had multiple time travel episodes it never used the reset crutch even ONCE. Seriously. The amount of times this show had unsatisfying endings like this are too many to count. ***.
Phage: Spooky episode. The Vidians are scary villains. My only complaint is not minor: Kes was the LAST person who should have donated Neelix a lung. Ocampas have nine year life spans, remember? What happens when Neelix's lung gives out in eight years? The writers did NOT think that one through. ****.
The Cloud: Boring, but the show has done much worse. Watchable. ***.
Eye Of The Needle: I love the Romulan Telek and his relationship with Janeway. I love whenever Trek humanizes Romulans and Telek is incredibly sympathetic. I don't mind the crew failing to find a way home or even a shortcut this episode, but considering they lost EVERY episode until around season three it started an annoying trend. I also really enjoyed Kes sticking up for the Doctor and Janeway not even CONSIDERING that his needs weren't being met. I like Kes. ****.
Ex Post Facto: Lousy mystery (Only Wolf In The Fold tops it in dubious Trek courtroom episodes) but the episode is great fun to watch. But seriously, the resolution was completely insane. First of all, NONE of the "evidence" Tuvok introduced would have held up in ANY court of law and was all completely circumstantial. It was lucky the suspects were boneheaded enough to confess. When Tuvok introduced the barking dog as a "witness" I almost laughed at the unintentional joke that was. ***1/2.
Emanations: The episode sucks for two reasons: the episode is depressing and has no new angle to take on the subject matter. Also the CREW sucks this episode. You'd figure Janeway and Kim would have the LEAST bit of sense to treat the aliens with kid-gloves and not completely and idiotically wreck their belief systems (Prime Directive, remember?). Only a surprisingly on the ball Chakotay makes a good showing this episode. Even the great Jerry Hardin is wasted in his role. 1/2.
Prime Factors: I hated Harry's behavior but I understood it. Janeway however was appalling. Who is she to judge another culture the way she did? I don't care whether or not the aliens DID consider pleasure more important than anything else, it obviously worked for their society and Janeway had no business laying into the guy like that. Completely unprofessional and it reminded me of how some of the moodier aliens treated Kirk and Picard on the other shows. As Janeway noted, the Federation was on the other side of the Prime Directive fence for once and the crew completely failed that test of moral character. *.
State Of Flux: Good episode but unfortunately set off the Seska arc which lasted WAAAAYYY too long and made little sense on a show about a ship going in one direction. Still, it's very good. ****.
Heroes and Demons: Best episode of the season. I love how the Doctor treated the other holograms as equals (because technically they were). It was a fresh take on the subject and I enjoy the Doctor being surprised at how great it was to feel appreciated for once. The death of Freya was touching (and the Doctor confronting Unfurth was awesome) and the episode is mad-funny. One complaint. The Doctor never chose a name on the series. There is only ONE sci-fi character I will ever think of as the REAL Doctor and it ain't the EMH. *****.
Cathexis: Boring but I can't deny it is unpredictable. Well, you knew one of the life forms being Chakotay was coming but the paranoia was payed off nicely and the show had a few twists I did NOT see coming. ***1/2.
Faces: Roxanne Dawson is hot out of Klingon make-up. The episode's quality is technically only so-so but the concept is so neat, I can forgive it. Most chilling moment: the Vidian scientist wearing Durst's face. Yikes. ***1/2.
Jetrel: The episode gives some nice development for Neelix but I didn't really get interested until the last ten minutes. The last scene was perfect with Neelix forgiving Jetrel seconds before he died. The look of relief, serenity, and joy on James Sloyan's face was wonderful. ***1/2.
Learning Curve: The good news: the episode contains possibly the funniest line in Star Trek history. The bad news: it's unintentially funny. When I heard "Get this cheese to sickbay!" I nearly lost it. Best bad Trek line since "Brain! Brain! What is brain?!" I wish they had even played it a LITTLE bit for laughs. Farscape and Doctor Who would have mined a great joke out of it. The rest of the episode was interesting. Imagine if TNG's "Lower Decks" didn't completely suck. Bonus points for the casting of mainstay 80's sitcom guest star Derek McGrath as the Bolian Chell. He was hilarious. ***1/2.
Braving The Unknown: Season One: I really like this interview but I'm saddened Micheal Piller decided to take a less hands-on role on the series. Rick Berman unchecked is a VERY bad thing. ****.
Voyager Time Capsule: Kathryn Janeway: Interview with Kate Mulgrew about her audition and her experience on Star Trek. Mulgrew is gracious and charming in real life. ****.
The First Captain: Bujold: Genevieve Bujold would have been a disaster. As much as I dislike Mulgrew's performance as Janeway, in retrospect I realize it could have been worse. MUCH worse. Bujold is robotic and reads her lines as if she is first seeing them on the cue cards as she's speaking them. She makes Jean-Luc Picard look warm and cuddly. We dodged a bullet. I do not believe the show would have lasted seven seasons with her as Captain. This footage is interesting. ****.
Cast Reflections: Season One: I wish they had filmed some new interviews for this especially since almost none of them were actually ABOUT season one (most were filmed during the series finale). ***1/2.
On Location With The Kazons: This documentary seems pretty old. Were they making DVD features before DVD was invented? ****.
Red Alert: Visual Effects Season One: Nifty FX featurette. ****.
Launching Voyager On The Web: Neat doc about all of the various official Star Trek websites. I'm deducting half a star because the featurette mentions special web exclusive footage of Janeway and The Doctor (an earlier example of a webisode?) and doesn't include it. ****1/2.
Real Science With Andre Bormanis: I love features like this. The special features discs on the first six Star Trek features explored real life science better though. ***1/2.
Photo Gallery: Still gallery of behind the scenes and production photos. ****.
Easter Egg: Kate Mulgrew talks about her emotional scene with Tuvok in Caretaker. ***1/2.
Easter Egg: Micheal Piller talks about Janeway's infamous bun. He cracks that Voyager is the only Star Trek pilot where the hairstyles cost more money than the special effects! And he's probably right! *****.
Easter Egg: Brannon Braga talks Janeway and Phage. He's still a punk. **1/2.
Easter Egg: Vaughn Armstrong (Enterprise's Admiral Forrest) talks about his appearance as the Romulan Telek in Eye Of The Needle. *****.
DVD Menus: Several angles of the Starship Voyager in a blue starfield. Disc 5 (The Special Features disc) has Easter Eggs. DVD Menus: Discs 1 - 4: ****. DVD Menu Disc 5: ****1/2.
Star Trek III: The Search For Spock
"The Needs of the One outweigh the needs of the many."
Truer words were never spoken.
There is an observation amongst Trekkies (or Trekkers if you want to be a snob about it) that the odd numbered movies suck and the even numbered movies rule. Supposedly the recent reboot broke this curse but as far as I'm concerned the "curse" idea was nonsense because the third, awesome Star Trek movie completely invalidates the theory.
This movie is GREAT and an terrific follow up to Khan. The only reason I can think of that it's not as much loved by the fans as it should be is because it's sandwiched between The Wrath Of Khan and The Voyage Home, arguably the best pictures in the franchise. So even a great movie seems smaller than it would have otherwise.
The movie is also packed with television stars from the eighties, some well-known (Christopher Lloyd, James B. Sikking), some that would be well-known in the future (Miguel Ferrer, Phil Morris) and some that fall somewhere in between (John Larroqette). Heck, even Janice Rand (played by Grace Lee Whitney) has a blink and you'll miss it cameo (even though she's annoyingly billed as the "Woman In Cafeteria" in the end credits).
I loved the touch of the Tribbles. VERY geeky moment.
It was SO great to see Mark Lenard as Sarek again. The movies gave him a bigger role than he ultimately wound up having on the old show and I couldn't be happier. Which is a shame considering how important the character is to the canon. Maybe if there had been a fourth season. Alas. He also got the best line of the picture: "My logic is uncertain where my son is concerned." Sarek rocks!
This is the first of the movies that really allowed all of the characters to have their own little moments and owning scenes ("Don't call me Tiny"). The first two movies focused almost exclusively on Kirk, Spock and McCoy (and to a lesser extent Scotty and Chekov in the second movie). All of the following movies continued the tradition of giving everyone something to do.
Saavik (recast with the lovely Robin Curtis) makes the cutest Mrs. Robinson EVER Yeah, she's not as good as Kirstie Alley but as far as I'm concerned she's fine and in two great movies. It's Alley's loss. The look Curtis gives Spock at the end of the movie is memorable.
This was the first Star Trek project that implied Klingons have a strong sense of honor. It's just a throwaway line at the beginning but it was heavily developed for The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.
Speaking of Klingons, Christopher Lloyd does a surprisingly good job as Kruge. I knew he could play scary and creepy because of Judge Doom but it's cool that he's able to convey strength, cunning, and thuggishness here. He's certainly the smartest adversary Kirk has faced, if not the best.
I wish William Shatner had done a better job upon learning the death of his son but I DID like him tumbling backward into the chair to convey vulnerability. It's funny because he didn't overplay the heavy scenes in Khan too much but here he's a bit hammy. But it's just something you have to accept as a Trek fan.
But those are just quibbles and I loved the movie. It was a super movie that I enjoyed immensely. ****1/2.
Terraforming And The Prime Directive: This is a bit dull in places but I was kind of interested in the guy who talked about terraforming on Mars, whether or not there was life there at one time, and how long it would take to make it habitable again. ***.
Archives:
Storyboards and Photos. Overall: ****
Storyboards:
These were more detailed than Wrath of Khan but not as detailed as The Motion Picture. The battle and action scenes are good but the character designs and movements are terrible and off-model. Overall: ***1/2.
Main Titles: These were very funny, especially the captions that said "Insert Exciting Title Here", "Important Guy's Name" and "Even More Important Guy's Name". *****.
The Klingons Attack: Fun fact: Kruge was originally going to be bald! We didn't get a bald Klingon until General Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. ****.
Entering Spacedock: This was all right. **1/2.
Search For Life: Marcus and Saavik finding Spock's coffin covered in giant worms. ***1/2.
Finding Spock: Saavik finding boy Spock. ***1/2.
The Destruction Of The Grissom: Kruge destroying the Grissom. ***1/2.
Stealing The Enterprise: I know these are storyboards for the ships themselves but the characters are so off-model here, it's jarring. **.
Self Destruct: The destruction of the Enterprise. ***1/2.
Kirk Fights Kruge: Pretty good. ***1/2.
The Katra Ritual: This was even better than what was in the movie! I guess they didn't have the budget for those crowds. ****1/2.
Photos:
Photos for the production and the movie. Overall: ****1/2.
Production: Behind the scenes photos from the set. I especially like seeing Leonard Nimoy out of make-up and wearing thick bottle glasses. ****.
The Movie: Promo stills from the movie. Excellent. *****.
Theatrical Trailer: This spoils the destruction of the Enterprise! Dirty pool, man. Dirty pool. *1/2.
Captain's Log: Loved the interview with Nimoy. But Shatner's ego is so massive that you are never quite sure if he's joking or not. ***1/2.
The Star Trek Universe:
Featurettes. A Mixed bag. Overall: ***.
Space Docks And Birds Of Prey: Boooooring! Like watching paint dry or snails race. *.
Speaking Klingon: Neat interview with Mark Okrand who talks about how he created the Klingon language. ****1/2.
Klingon And Vulcan Costumes: Some of the costumes were cool. ***1/2.
Easter Egg: An interview with one of the ILM guys about some of the visual tricks and effects. ***.
Disc 1 DVD Menu: The Klingon Bird of Prey on Vulcan. ****1/2.
Disc 2 DVD Menu: Up to the cliffs of Vulcan where the Katra ceremony takes place. ****.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
This is my second favorite Trek movie after First Contact and it's easily the biggest crowd-pleaser. Yeah, technically the quality of the writing and plot aren't as good as Contact or Wrath Of Khan but this is the easiest movie for general audiences to dip into without knowing any previous Trek lore and it's actually sort of the last part of a trilogy! It's also a quintessentially 80's movie which is something no Trek movie or TV project has been able to claim before or since. Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on how much you enjoy the movie.
I loved spacey, ditzy Spock and thought he was hilarious. I especially liked that in his supposedly fragile state of mind Dr. McCoy was treating him with kid gloves and gently trying to make peace. And he didn't ONCE lose his temper with Spock. Which has to be a first.
Speaking of McCoy, the scene of him in the 20th Century hospital getting angrier and angrier at the barbarism was DeForest Kelley at his righteous best. I especially liked him giving that old woman a pill that regrew her kidneys and how astonished the doctors were as she shouted with glee as Kirk, McCoy, Chekov and Gillian escaped.
Once you see Spock in the tank mind-melding with the whale you knew exactly what the tone the rest of the movie is going to be. The 80's music and film style is a bit jarring at first but when Spock's in his underwear talking to Gracie you're completely sold on the concept.
I loved Scotty speaking into the mouse and then grumpily rocking the keyboard. Guy's a computer genius in ANY century.
I forgot Janice Rand cameoed in this movie too as did Christine Chapel (this was her final appearance). That was another cool thing.
The movie had SO many funny scenes. Some of my favorites were Spock declaring Gracie was pregnant and Gillian slamming on the brakes, the brilliant interplay between Shatner and Nimoy when they try to get their stories straight on whether or not they like Italian food, and Scotty excitedly declaring "Aye, there be whales here!"
I loved the scene of reconciliation at the end between Sarek and Spock. I'm still mad at Next Gen for retconning that. It was good to see Amanda and Saavik one last time too.
Best line in the movie goes to Spock when commenting on Jacqueline Susann, Harold Robbins, and other trash writers of the 20th Century: "Ah. The Giants."
Dulmer and Lucsly at Temporal Investigations rightly called Kirk a menace when it came to tampering with history (in DS9's "Trials And Tribble-ations") but he was a complete amatuer compared to the rest of the crew. Scotty basically introduced transparent aluminum to Earth and Chekov left both his Klingon Phaser and Communicator behind, while McCoy saved the life of a woman who was supposed to die. And yeah, Kirk brought Gillian to the 23rd Century but I don't hold it against him because it wasn't his fault. Man, I know circumstances required a certain amount of leeway on the Prime Directive but how sloppy and unprofessional everyone was was delightful.
By the way, I don't buy the producers' claim that the movie followed set time travel rules a la Gargoyles. Gargoyles' time travel rules (you cannot change history, you can only be a part of it) work because you cannot break them and the writers of Gargoyles never did. This is the only Star Trek story to use Gargoyles rules. The rest of Trek's MANY time travel stories never have used those rules before or since. The rule only works if it's absolute.
My only real complaint was the language in the movie. I didn't so much mind the swearing as the Navy guy calling Chekov a "retard". I know that was a popular insult in the 80's so it gets points for authenticity, but it's in SUCH bad taste even now, much less the 23rd Century.
But that took me out of the movie for all of thirty seconds. The rest of the movie is a blast and it's easily the most fun anyone ever had at any Trek movie then or now. *****.
The Star Trek Universe:
Featurettes about the some of the concepts of the movies and their real-life applications, as well as familiar primers and looks back at Trek lore. Overall: ****.
Time Travel: The Art Of The Possible: I liked this a lot. Especially cool was the scientist explaining that when you are going just below the speed of light, time slows down so it would be exactly like time traveling. I liked the little cartoons too. And this explains WHY they are called wormholes. And when that guy said he went to Cornell I thought to myself "Maybe you've heard of it?" ****1/2.
The Language Of Whales: This was an interesting feature too. Whales even seem to have distinct dialects in different groups. I didn't know that. ****.
A Vulcan Primer: A Star Trek novelist discusses Vulcans and what makes them tick. I knew all this stuff before but I imagine this is handy for Trek newbies. ***.
Kirk's Women: Interviews with Catherine Hicks and some of the female guest stars Kirk romanced on the show. I know the interview is ten years old but I must say the actresses still look beautiful 30 years later. I love that. ****.
Production:
Featurettes and features focusing on (what else?) production. The first three are cool, the last is a dud. ***1/2.
Future's Past: A Look Back: It looks like everyone had as much fun making the movie as the fans did watching it. For the record: I agree with Nimoy and Nicholas Meyer that the suits who suggested subtitles for the probe and the whales were boneheads. Part of the enticement of science fiction is the mystery and even though I usually crave answers from my movies and TV shows this was one of those few instances where I thought the ambiguousness is a big part of the reason it is so cool. Another movie/show I feel this way about is Lost. ****1/2.
On Location: I still think Chekov's "Nuclear Wessels" is funny too. ****.
Dailies Deconstruction: This was a cool multi-angle feature. I liked it because you could just play it and not have to toggle back and forth between the angles. ****1/2.
Below-The-Line Sound Design: Gotta say that that VERY animated Sound Designer is really annoying. He speaks excessively with his hands and his demeaner is similar to either a motivational speaker, a self-help guru, or a cult leader. I kept thinking "Tony Robbins hungry!" **.
Visual Effects:
Two features about the VFX. Overall: ****1/2.
From Outer Space To The Ocean: This documentary narrated by Jim Cummings (!) is ridiculously cool. It features old interviews and a bunch of cool footage. Neat. *****.
The Bird Of Prey: This was about the design of The Bird Of Prey. Good, but much of this was covered on the Collector's Edition DVD of The Search For Spock. ***1/2.
Original Interviews: I have never fully appreciated the thought and time that goes into DVD interviews until I saw these old promotional tour interviews. The questions were astoundingly terrible and I was embarrassed for Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, and DeForest Kelley. These are questions an overachieving 10 year old would ask for the school paper. In the 1950's. These questions make Barbara Walter's "If you were a tree, what kind would you be?" seem like a hardball interview from Rachel Maddow. Have these interviewers ever even SEEN an episode of Star Trek before? Or ANY science fiction? Or seen or interviewed anyone from a TV show or movie ever? The questions go from the inane (Could you tell us the top-secret plot of the movie that you were contractually obligated not to reveal? How are you like your character?) to obvious (have you ever been typecast?). Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley were charmingly gracious to put up with the nonsense but I nearly cheered at the gruff way a clearly annoyed Shat answered the questions. The half star I give out is sympathy for the interviewees. Awful. Overall: 1/2.
Leonard Nimoy: "Are the plots on Star Trek based on real life?" Yes, they seriously asked that question. Nimoy gives an interesting answer about how the science fiction is based on credible science but that's not how I took the question. Was Michelle Bachmann giving the interview? 1/2.
William Shatner: The Shat looks completely annoyed and embarrassed to be interviewed on a backlot while there is construction work going on in the background. To be clear, I admire him for his truthful answer to the typecasting question. He said he didn't understand actors who gave different reasons for why they chose a part. He was the kind of guy who just took the work and was grateful for it. That's kind of awesome. 1/2.
DeForest Kelley: This interview gave the most interesting answers but I think even though the questions weren't QUITE as bad as Nimoy and Shatner's, that the reason this was even a TINY bit illuminating, is that the pleasant Kelley steered the questions in that direction. *.
Tributes:
Tributes to the late Gene Roddenberry and Mark Lenard by their families. Lovely. Both: ****.
Roddenberry Scrapbook: I have my problems with Roddenberry, the man. But there is no question in my mind that he was a fantastic father. Eugene Roddenberry is a great (not a) kid (anymore). ****.
Featured Artist: Mark Lenard: Mark Lenard sounds absolutely wonderful in this interview with his wife and daughters. These were great stories I had never heard before. ****.
Archives:
Production and storyboard galleries. This gets bonus points for making the Production Gallery animated. Overall: ****.
Production Gallery: I love animated still galleries with music. This was the first one I'd seen for Star Trek. Pretty slick. *****.
Storyboards:
Still galleries. I wish these had been animated too but I understand it might have been difficult to do so. Note: These are not as good as the storyboards for any of the other movies because this movie had the least amount of visual effects and action set pieces of all 11 films. ***.
Encounter With The Saratoga: Nice. ***.
The Probe Approaches Earth: Good. ***.
Time Warp: A major let-down. This doesn't even HINT at the trippy CGI morphing dream sequence. That must have been a late addition. ***.
Mind Meld: Spock and the whale. ***1/2.
The Whaling Ship: Decent. ***.
Return To The 23rd Century: All right. ***.
Communication: Okay. ***.
NCC 1701-A: The best of the storyboards. The movie looks exactly like this. ****1/2.
Theatrical Trailer: Funny, shows the tone of the movie, and doesn't spoil TOO much (unless you somehow managed to watch it several times). Best one so far. *****.
Disc 1 DVD Menu: At Starfleet Headquarters on Earth during a Red Alert. This is the first Star Trek Menu with spoken dialogue. It reminded me of a Red Dwarf menu. *****.
Disc 2 DVD Menu: The HMS Bounty in the San Francisco Bay, next to the bridge and above the whales. With the sound of the ocean and ships, THIS reminded me of a Lost DVD menu. ****1/2.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
I'm just going to say it: this is nowhere NEAR as bad as it's reputation suggests.
I know. Sacrilege. Especially considering how much Gene Roddenberry hated it and fought to keep it out of the official canon. And to be fair, this has quite a few Star Trek regulars acting a bit out of character (and for some that is an understatement). And parts of it ARE awful. But as a whole I kept an open mind and was able to enjoy it.
First off, let's get the movie critics' beefs about the film out of the way. I understand completely why critics hated it but I think a certain segment of Star Trek fans (those interested in the relationship between Kirk, Spock and McCoy) should be able to look past its flaws. I said SHOULD. There are no guarantees and I still respect any Trekkie who doesn't share that opinion. I think parts of Kirk's infamous shore leave were kind of corny (and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" has always been lame; I don't care that it's a round) but honestly after seeing these characters for so long, it's kind of nice to finally see them sitting down and b-s-ing and just enjoying each other's company off-duty. They talk about philosophical stuff and how much they mean to each other and that's just kind of cool. I can totally understand a critic, one who isn't invested in the franchise or the characters, having no patience for those moments and want to get right to the exciting stuff. But a certain kind of Trekkie, those that watch the show for the characters and not the space battles, can appreciate it.
Secondly, and this is a complaint from the critics I share: how big a let-down is it that it isn't actually God they find? Honestly, the only thing that could possibly justify spending an entire movie on a wild goose chase is if the producers were staunch athiests and didn't believe answers are out there. And if that was the case, they should have at least tried to make the movie from that angle. Don't chicken out. That's Rick Berman/Brannon Braga type thinking. Boxing in Star Trek because you want to offend the least amount of people and keep focus groups happy isn't something the original series worried about. If you were gonna be offended, so be it. Star Trek: The Next Generation and all of the later spin-offs except for Deep Space Nine never really challenged the audience. Sure, they took moral stands on certain social issues. But they (except DS9) never challenged the audience's beliefs and made them think about The Big Questions. Star Trek became an unbearably safe show where nothing bad ever happened and our characters never REALLY had to make tough decisions. Or if they did, they didn't really have any major repercussions (see the actual outcome to "Mr. Worf. Fire." or Data's behavior in Descent). Futurama had Bender find God. Why wasn't Trek allowed to give Kirk that experience?
However there were a ton of things I enjoyed. I'm saddened this is the only Trek outing where I was able to become a Scotty/Uhura shipper. Yeah, the fan dance was embarrassing, but that was one of those "so wrong, it's right" moments. Spock got the best line in the movie at the end when Kirk tried to hug him: "Please, Captain. Not in front of the Klingons." And this is the return of Jerry Goldsmith's magnificent theme. I also really enjoyed the Federation, Klingon, And Romulan Ambassadors (especially David Warner and TNG's Charles Cooper). I ESPECIALLY love that it was McCoy of all people who defended Spock's decision not to kill Sybok. That was just great and a very true thing.
But the thing I liked best? Forget all of my previous gripes about Next Generation a couple of paragraphs up. The really cool thing about that show was how Captain Picard solved problems with diplomacy and didn't run around causing interstellar incidents every week. That's how Spock smartly solved the problem with the Klingons. I imagine there were quite a few fans who felt cheated that they didn't get a big Enterprise/Klingon space battle but TNG had been on the air a couple of years at this point, and the future peace treaty between the Federation and the Klingons had already been established, so this was a cool foreshadowing that was continued in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered County. We didn't think of the Klingons as bad guys anymore so the movie took the tack that the Klingon captain was more misguided than evil. I didn't mind that at all.
Now I'm going to talk about stuff that I haven't heard professional critics talk about but that I wasn't happy with. The opening scene on Nimbus III is so Un-Star Trek-like that it feels wrong on every level. I guess they maybe made that scene so preview audiences thought they had stepped into the wrong movie theater but that's a very self-indulgent reason to write and shoot the scene the way they did.
I also didn't enjoy the scene where Sybok puts the whammy on both McCoy and Spock. McCoy's trauma was all too predictable and trite and Spock's trauma was appalling. I mentioned people being out of character earlier? Well nowhere is this more egregious than with Sarek's portrayal of disgust at Spock's birth. I can actually imagine someone like Spock being disappointed in having a "too human" son. But Sarek loved and married Amanda and has always been ironically portrayed as much more tuned in to emotions than Spock even though he's full Vulcan. There's no way he would say something this hurtful in front of Amanda. To see the right way to show the birth of Spock, check out the deleted scenes on the two-disc edition of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot. It may not have made it into the actual movie, but I'll consider that scene canon before I do this one.
It's hard for me to put my thoughts down in writing for this movie. They are definitely mixed feelings involved. But I also remember how appalled I was rewatching Star Trek Generations and this was nothing like that experience at all. It (like Insurrection and even The Motion Picture) felt like a reunion, spending time with old friends. I can't really complain about that. An underrated movie. ***.
The Star Trek Universe:
Featurettes. A mixed bag. ***1/2.
Herman Zimmerman: A Tribute: Nice tribute to the late set designer. ****.
Original Interview: William Shatner: Shatner can be such a blowhard. Tedious. *1/2.
Cosmic Thoughts: About space exploration and God. Boring. **1/2.
That Klingon Couple: Interview with Spice Williams (Vixis) and Todd Bryant (Captain Klaa). I love how much the barely dressed, glittery Williams is always hanging off Bryant. Sexy. A delight. ****1/2.
A Green Future?: About environmentalism and Star Trek. **1/2.
Production:
A featurette and a ton of different test footage and behind the scenes stuff. I think 1989 is when movie companies started saving all that footage and stuff so there's definitely much more stuff on this release than the first four movie DVDs combined. Overall: *****.
Harve Bennett's Pitch: Oversell much? Good thing to include however. **1/2.
The Journey: After hearing this I can see this movie was going to be a disaster from the beginning. I think it's a miracle it was as decent as it was. Everything, the story, the budget, the ending, the character development, seemed like a train wreck waiting to happen. I still don't understand why Shatner's original concept of searching for God but finding the Devil was rejected. Good sci-fi takes bold concepts and makes people think. However I think the idea that Shatner had of the entire crew mutinying except for Kirk sounded much worse than I originally thought after hearing the whole story. I used to think DeForest Kelley and Leonard Nimoy should have gotten over themselves but I didn't know before that Sybok wasn't originally going to put the whammy on everyone and everyone was going to betray Kirk of their own free will. That seemed to be Shatner's way of showing the audience how much better than everyone else Kirk was. ****.
Make-Up Tests: I like seeing these sorts of things. ***1/2.
Previsualization Models: These were actually kind of cute. ****.
Rockman In The Raw: I'll be the one to say it: the Rockman didn't actually look that bad. I've seen worse puppets on Farscape and you never even think about how cheesy they are when you're watching it because you're absorbed in the story. Besides, this is Star Trek. Embrace the cheese. It's a shame that had this movie been made only even ten years later there wouldn't have even HAD this problem thanks to CGI. *****.
Star Trek V Press Conference: Harve Bennett got a frostier reception at this than Micheal Scott usually does on his disasters of speaking tours. Shatner fared a bit better but mostly the rest of the cast looked a bit embarrassed to be there. ***.
Archives:
Animated Production Gallery and three storyboard sequences. Overall: ****1/2.
Production Gallery: Another animated gallery this time with Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek Movie and Klingon Themes. Terrific. *****.
Storyboards:
Storyboards for the climax of the film. Overall: ***1/2.
Shakari: According to the Okudas' commentary it's actually spelled "Sha Ka Ree". ***1/2.
The Face Of God: God smiting Kirk and Spock. ***1/2.
Escape: The original Rockmen storyboards. This would have been neat. ****.
Deleted Scenes:
Two great ones, one good one, and one bad one. Overall: ****.
Mount Rushmore: The fifth face added is a black woman. Michelle Obama maybe? ****1/2.
Insults: I love the ambassadors especially how sweet and friendly the female Romulan ambassador is. And more David Warner and Charles Cooper is a good thing. *****.
Behold Paradise: Sort of an action piece. It's kind of slow so I can see why they cut it. ***1/2.
Spock's Pain: I mentioned before that Sarek was out of character in Spock's flashback. Well, this scene with Spock is almost worse. *.
Advertising:
Trailers and TV Spots. Overall: ****1/2.
Theatrical Trailer 01: Awesome. I'm surprised the movie flopped. *****.
Theatrical Trailer 02: Not QUITE as good but still pretty great. ****1/2.
TV Spots:
Some good ones. Overall: ****.
Vacation Is Over: Funniest gag of the movie. ****.
Renegade: Pretty good. ****.
Challenge Of Rebellion: A bit confusing. ***.
Brothers: Juicy. ****1/2.
Beyond: Oversells the movie. A good trailer SHOULD do that but it's kind of annoying if the movie is only so-so. ***.
Adventure: Spotlighting the cast. ****.
Warp Speed Now: Chekov rules! ****1/2.
Easter Egg: A gag reel using the scene of the turbolift and Spock's leg rockets. Hilarious. Great find. *****.
Disc 1 DVD Menu: The Enterprise-A and the Klingon Bird of Prey arriving at the God Planet (Sha Ka Ree). ****.
Disc 2 DVD Menu: The Shuttlecraft Copernicus launching and then landing on Sha Ka Ree. ****.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
I've always held a special place in my heart for Star Trek VI. It's not the first Star Trek movie I've seen but it's the first one I saw as a Trekkie. I saw Wrath of Khan in the theaters when I was little (it terrified me) and I thought The Voyage Home was cool but Undiscovered Country was the first Trek movie I'd seen after I got hooked on Next Generation. It also happened to be the last movie for the original crew. And that's too bad.
I tend to agree with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy who noted in the commentary for Voyage Home that the old crew could have gotten out a few more movies (at least until DeForest Kelley got sick) but that the current producers of Trek decided to put their attention toward the newer crews. That's a pretty good (and true) slam at Rick Berman. They should have waited a few years to start Next Generation movies. Still this was a great movie to go out on.
I like that this is the first and only Trek project where the Federation is the bad guy. Oh sure, Christopher Plummer makes a great, hammy villain as Shakespeare-quoting Klingon General Chang but the true adversary is Kirk and the crews' prejudices. I love how Kirk admits to Bones that it never even occured to him to take Chancellor Gorkon as his word. I LOVE Chancellor Gorkon (this is one of David Warner's better Star Trek roles). He's pretty much the only Klingon in the first six movies that I've liked.
This movie was also great for continuity geeks. Micheal Dorn makes a cameo as Worf's Grandfather General Worf and the role of him being Kirk and Bones' public defender in the Klingon court was a stroke of genius. I also loved Kirk incorporating "where no ONE has gone before" in his last log entry and especially the Klingon peace talks taking place at Khitomer. Heck, even Rene Auberjonois has a small pre-Deep Space Nine role as General West and there are cameos by Grace Lee Whitney, Christian Slater, character actors W. Morgan Shepard and Jeremy Roberts, DS9's Brock Peters as Admiral Cartwright, Mark Lenard as Sarek, Kurtwood Smith (That 70's Show, The Zeta Project) as the funky Federation President, Kim Cattrall as Lt. Valeris and even Iman as the hot shape-shifter.
About Lt. Valeris. I hear Robin Curtis was disappointed that she wasn't going to return as Saavik (and Kirstie Alley didn't work out) but the producers made completely the right move in making the traitor be a different character. There aren't that many strong Star Trek women and having the only other untainted one except Uhura turn out to be a bad guy was a terrible idea.
I love this movie so much and it's one of the things that really made me a voracious Trekkie. I'm sad this is the last movie and the final Star Trek project by both DeForest Kelley and Nichelle Nichols. But as I already said, it was a high note to end on. ****1/2.
The Perils Of Peacemaking: A documentary exploring the parallels between The Undiscovered Country and the end of the Cold War. I knew some of this stuff already but I never made the connection that the explosion on the Praxis moon echoed Chernobyl. The was interesting. ****.
Stories From Star Trek VI:
Featurettes about the movie. Overall: ****.
It Started With A Story: That Star Trek prequel sounded like an awful idea, if only because it would have been unforgivable to leave the original cast on a so-so movie like The Final Frontier. This was a MUCH better story. ****.
Prejudice: I'm glad Nichelle Nichols refused to say her line about "How would you feel about your daughter marrying one" as that was out of character for Uhura. I tend to agree with William Shatner that Kirk's "Let them die" was out of character for him too, but on the other hand it was almost kind of understandable. I DO wish Nick Meyer had included the take of Kirk walking it back though. By the way, Brock Peters was a wonderful actor to recognize how important it was to convey Admiral Cartwright's bigotry even though the lines were so personally repugnant to him. Unlike Uhura, since Cartwright had only appeared once before, it was hardly out of character and was disgusting and shocking to hear someone from Starfleet say those words. I understand why Gene Roddenberry hated the script too, but it turned out to be a good movie. *****.
Director Nicholas Meyer: Some of the cast and crew's experience with Nick Meyer is detailed here. ***1/2.
Shakespeare & General Chang: Great interview with Christopher Plummer. He seemed to be enjoying himself in the role. And as Shatner noticed, his hamminess made Captain Kirk's seem tame in comparison. ****1/2.
Bringing It To Life: This got less interesting as it went along but I'm giving it a passing grade for Shatner's great story about how he demanded $20 for every bite of blue squid he ate. Classic Shatner. ***1/2.
Farewell & Goodbye: A nice tribute to the original crew. It's nice to know Gene Roddenberry wound up liking the movie before he died especially knowing how much he hated the script. Maybe some ideas can't be conveyed on the page. ****1/2.
The Star Trek Universe:
More featurettes. Overall: ****.
Conversations With Nicholas Meyer: Interview with Meyer. ***1/2.
Klingons: Conjuring The Legend: Best part of this were the interviews with Micheal Dorn and William Campbell particularly Campbell trying to ask the DS9 producers why he had to wear the new, elaborate make-up and Rick Berman's embarrassingly honest answer: "I don't know." ****1/2.
Federation Operatives: Cool special feature. This movie probably had more recurring Trek cast members than any other. ****1/2.
Penny's Toybox: This has got the be the greatest job ever. ****.
Together Again: Christopher Plummer and Shatner playfully ragging on each other. Funny stuff. ****.
Farewell:
A tribute to DeForest Kelley and original interviews with the entire cast. Overall: ****1/2.
DeForest Kelley: A Tribute: Wonderful tribute to the later Star Trek actor. I loved seeing all of the old footage of the Westerns and noir films he starred in. Great stuff. *****.
Original Interviews:
Interviews from 1991 with the cast. Overall: ****.
William Shatner: Shatner talking about the historic kiss? Fun. Shatner talking about mortality? Not so much. ***1/2.
Leonard Nimoy: Leonard Nimoy talks about how they tried to tie this movie into concepts already started by Next Generation. I have never seen the continuity-fest this movie actually is acknowledged anywhere else so I'm glad to know I'm not crazy. ****1/2.
DeForest Kelly: Nice interview. ****.
James Doohan: I will never get tired of hearing that story about the suicidal woman who became an engineer. Doohan must have been SO proud. *****.
Nichelle Nichols: I didn't laugh at the racist Star Trek fan's letter like Nichols did, but I always love hearing about her meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King. This goes into deeper depths than most accounts. ****1/2.
George Takei: I love Takei ticking off his of his fingers all of the times that everyone thought it was gonna be the end of Star Trek and it never was. Sure, he was wrong this ONE TIME, but his argument was still plausable. *****.
Walter Koenig: Koenig on the other hand seems to know this is the last Trek. Interesting that he never got any hate mail for playing a Russian. Koenig notes that this was probably because Chekov was so benign and non-threatening. ****.
Iman: Weakest of the interviews, but it's fun to see her complain about the color eye contacts. You'd figure Hollywood producers would have found away around them by 2011 but genre actors are still suffering from them. ***.
Promotional Material:
Two trailers and a promotional video originally screened at a Star Trek convention. The first trailer is SO great however I'm giving this section of the special features a perfect grade even though the convention preview is far from it. Overall: *****.
Teaser Trailer: This is easily the best Star Trek movie trailer of all time and I'm SO happy I finally have it on DVD. A must see. *****.
Theatrical Trailer: This was good too although I wish it were in anamorphic widescreen. ****1/2.
1991 Convention Presentation By Nicholas Meyer: This fails for one reason: Nick Meyer ain't funny. Now, I've seen the guy crack wise and speak off the cuff in recent interviews but he can't deliver funny prepared material to save his life. **.
Archives:
A production gallery containing video footage and a still storyboard galley. Overall: ****1/2.
Production Gallery: Instead of a photo gallery, this is a "video" gallery with all sorts of behind the scenes footage from 1991. Awesomesauce! *****.
Storyboards:
Four storyboards. Overall: ****.
Praxis: The Excelsior catching the brunt of the explosion of the Klingon moon. ****.
Assassins: The assassination scene. I wish they had included Gorkon's death though. Spooky. ****.
Rura Penthe: On the Klingon Ice Prison Planet. ****.
Leaving Spacedock (Omitted): A deleted scene of sorts that never made it past storyboards. ****1/2.
Disc 1 DVD Menu: In The Klingon Courtroom with a ton of CGI Klingons in the stands. ****1/2.
Disc 2 DVD Menu: On Rura Penthe. ****1/2.