20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Trek V - The Final Frontier 1989 Part 2
Transcript
00:00 Hello my friends, I hope you're well, I hope you managed to enjoy the first part of
00:04 this list and that it hasn't turned you off from coming back.
00:06 I am your host Sean Ferrick for Trek Culture and here are 20 Things You Never Knew About
00:12 Star Trek V The Final Frontier Part 2.
00:16 Number 10.
00:17 A Family Affair Star Trek V, for William Shatner at least,
00:21 was very much a family affair.
00:22 His youngest daughter, Melanie, appears as the yeoman who hands him his jacket near the
00:26 beginning of the film.
00:28 She also then returns to help him with a failed attempt at a captain's log.
00:31 This, in a way, was a follow-on from an Oldsmobile commercial in which she had appeared in 1988,
00:37 one which ended with her father beaming into the car with her.
00:40 She was the third of his daughters to appear in the franchise, with his elder children,
00:44 Elizabeth and Leslie, appearing in the original series episode, "Mary".
00:48 Elizabeth would go on to write a book about her father's experiences while directing
00:51 this film.
00:52 Number 9.
00:53 The Novel Tries to Explain the Time and Distance Issue Badly
00:57 Of the plot issues in Star Trek V, one fairly glaring problem is that the galaxy seems to
01:02 shrink in a matter of minutes when compared to what had been shown in both the original
01:06 series (bar one episode) and The Next Generation.
01:09 The planet at the centre of the galaxy is reached in mere hours by the Enterprise A,
01:13 despite the vast distances the ship would have had to travel.
01:16 In where no man has gone before, the original Enterprise warps to the edge of the galaxy.
01:20 When the barrier is seen again, it is thanks to the tinkering by the Kelvins on the engines.
01:25 This was Star Trek's own subtle retcon of that earlier gaffe.
01:29 The novelisation for Star Trek V attempts to explain the Enterprise A's enormous burst
01:33 of speed.
01:34 Cyborg is able to tune the nacelles and shields so that the ship is able to reach Sha'Kari
01:39 relatively easily, and a lot faster than intended.
01:42 If one allows for the suspension of disbelief, then that's fine and the story can continue.
01:47 So how did the Klingons get there without any damage from the barrier in the same time
01:51 frame?
01:52 Number 8.
01:53 Sorry Jim, you're stuck with us.
01:56 William Shatner had story approval on Star Trek V, which gave him the power to change
02:00 what he needed where he saw fit.
02:03 That meant absolutely nothing, however, when Leonard Nimoy and T'Faras Kelly flat out
02:07 refused a story change that Shatner sought to make.
02:10 In his treatment, both Spock and McCoy would join Cyborg, leaving Kirk alone.
02:15 Nimoy was the first to speak up.
02:17 He said that, after everything the two characters had been through together, including Kirk
02:21 sacrificing his commission, his ship and even his son to save Spock, there would never be
02:26 a chance that Spock could betray him.
02:27 It was too far out of character to work, and Nimoy stuck to his guns.
02:31 Kelly followed suit, arguing that there was no way McCoy would turn against both of his
02:35 oldest friends.
02:36 Shatner was forced to concede the point that they were probably right, reflecting years
02:40 later that if someone had unilaterally decided a seismic change of Kirk's character without
02:44 consulting him, he was likely to hit the roof as well.
02:47 For its flaws, Star Trek V contains some of the best scenes of friendship between the
02:51 main trio, somewhat ironic considering the turn it could have taken.
02:56 Number 7.
02:57 V'ger makes a cameo.
02:59 As already stated, the effects on Star Trek V were a rushed affair, suffering from the
03:03 absence of ILM.
03:04 However, like most of the films in the franchise, it reused some footage to help.
03:08 Several shots of the Bird of Prey are lifted from the search for Spock, while the footage
03:11 of the Enterprise A in space dock is taken from the Voyage home.
03:14 There is not a thing wrong in reusing footage, frankly it can make a cheaper production look
03:19 sleeker.
03:20 Star Trek Generations would slip up here in its reuse of the Bird of Prey explosion from
03:24 the Undiscovered Country, but in all of these cases, the footage that's reused makes sense.
03:29 That is less applicable to the decision to reuse the energy weapon fired by V'ger in
03:34 the motion picture as the torpedo effect in Star Trek V.
03:38 The first four films used the same orange glowing effect for torpedoes.
03:43 The complete change here serves as another example of the audience being lifted out of
03:47 the events of the movie, only to be reminded of a far better film.
03:50 At least the motion picture is a far superior visual film than Star Trek V.
03:56 Number 6.
03:57 I miss my old chair.
03:59 The bridge on the Enterprise A looks very different from its previous appearance in
04:02 the Voyage home.
04:03 There's a very good reason for this, as most of it was a complete rebuild and redesign
04:08 for the movie.
04:09 The original plan was to use the set that featured as the Enterprise, the Reliant, the
04:14 Grissom and the Saratoga over the first four films.
04:17 However, between productions, there were a couple of contributing factors as to why that
04:21 set was ineligible.
04:22 First, while in storage, it had been exposed to a windstorm.
04:26 This caused sufficient damage to require a new set.
04:29 Sources differ on this as another potential reason was that much of it was stripped for
04:33 use in the next generation.
04:35 Like Avonsulu's station, the turbolifts and the handrails are among the only pre-existing
04:39 parts of the bridge to return.
04:41 Kirk's joke is a nod to this, though.
04:43 To be fair, the new chair does look far more comfortable.
04:46 We're all about armrests here at Trek Culture.
04:49 Number 5.
04:50 The sad tale of the Rockmen that never were.
04:53 The Rockmen have, at various points in the story of Star Trek V, been hailed as potential
04:57 saviours, but for the grace of God, or a doomed project from the off.
05:01 William Shatner had planned a climactic face-off on the surface of Sha'kar-Re with these creatures
05:06 appearing to fight Kirk, Spock and McCoy.
05:08 They looked ridiculous.
05:09 Now, a ridiculous suit can be made fantastic in post, so the actual behind-the-scenes footage
05:15 could have been taken with a pinch of salt had the finished product paid off.
05:18 Unfortunately, the Rockmen never saw the light of day, at least not in terms of after-effects.
05:23 The suits were clunky, the actors could barely move in them, and there were leaking cigarette
05:27 smoke from every hole.
05:28 This had been Shatner's clever idea to bypass complicated effects, just blow smoke through
05:32 a tube, and it would seep out of the costumes painting the image of a sizzling heat.
05:36 But it was not meant to be.
05:37 There wasn't enough time in the shooting schedule to pull off the effects he wanted.
05:41 In the years that have passed, despite the images that have leaked, both Harve Bennett
05:46 and Ralph Winter have quashed the idea that it was a budget problem that killed the Rockmen.
05:51 They had a much simpler explanation.
05:53 They just looked bloody stupid.
05:55 Number 4.
05:56 All I Ask is for a Tall Ship.
05:58 Although unnamed in the film, the observation lounge in The Final Frontier serves as the
06:02 Enterprise-A's very own ten-forward set.
06:05 It was a new build for this film, featuring the antique steering wheel, on which the legend
06:09 "To boldly go where no man has gone before" is emblazoned.
06:13 Several key scenes in the film take place here, including the share-your-pain exchange
06:18 between Cybock and the main trio.
06:19 An issue arose when it came to depicting the set as an exterior.
06:23 There are three large windows that look directly forward.
06:25 Toward the end of the film, the bright blue Chakarri planet is shown through these portals,
06:30 but according to Michael Okuda, the plans to represent them on the filming model simply
06:35 couldn't come to fruition.
06:37 The original plan would have been the addition of these windows at the front of the saucer
06:41 section, pointed directly forward.
06:43 The refurbishment that was required on the filming model pushed any hope to include these
06:47 windows away, as there wasn't anywhere near enough time to include them.
06:50 Therefore in the film, this observation lounge contains windows, frankly, to nowhere.
06:56 Number 3.
06:57 Dating the film is a bit of a challenge.
06:59 The original series-era movies, from The Wrath of Khan until The Final Frontier, all seemingly
07:04 take place in 2286.
07:06 The Final Frontier, in fact, follows the voyage home by a matter of weeks, which itself was
07:11 only three months after the end of Search for Spock.
07:13 All four films are then crammed into a very short space of time.
07:16 The Romulan ambassador to Nimbus 3, Catelyn D'Arr, states that the planet was established
07:21 20 years prior as the first great attempt by the Romulan, Klingon and Federation governments
07:27 to foster a peace treaty, however.
07:29 The third season of The Next Generation premiered not long after the film's release.
07:33 In its first episode, "Evolution", Data states that there hasn't been a ship-wide
07:38 systems failure in 79 years.
07:40 As this is most likely a tongue-in-cheek reference to The Final Frontier, that would place the
07:44 events of the film in 2287.
07:47 Though the dating issue is the least of the film's problems, it just seems to be one
07:50 more thing that Star Trek V The Final Frontier has standing between it and film perfection.
07:56 Number 2.
07:57 Sean Connery's involvement has been exaggerated throughout the years.
08:01 One of the first facts that seems to pop up whenever discussing Star Trek V is that the
08:05 mystical planet of Sha'kar-Re was named in honour of Sean Connery, who had been approached
08:10 to play the role of Cybok in the film.
08:12 However, his commitments on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade prevented him from appearing,
08:16 and that was that.
08:17 In an interview before his death, Harve Bennett was asked about the film.
08:20 In the article, he was asked "Was Connery ever close to signing on?"
08:23 Bennett, without any hesitation, bluntly stated "No".
08:26 Now, whether that means he was never actually approached, or that there simply never was
08:30 an option of having him appear is a little unclear, but reporting that Connery almost
08:34 played Cybok is certainly an exaggeration of the facts when it came to making the film.
08:40 Number 1.
08:41 The Moon is a Window to Heaven
08:44 The fan dance has become an iconic scene in the franchise for its slightly ridiculous,
08:49 yet inarguably sensual delivery.
08:50 There is no question in that it most certainly is Nichelle Nichols standing on that hill.
08:56 When asked if she really was nude for filming, she said yes bar a g-string.
08:59 What the audience sees on screen is exactly what happened on set.
09:02 What the audience hears is another thing altogether.
09:05 Nichols was an accomplished singer, so when she was told that she would be involved in
09:09 a musical scene of the film, she naturally believed that she would also be providing
09:12 the vocals.
09:13 However, at the end of the production schedule, as it loomed, she noted that ADR had not taken
09:17 place, which left her curious as to what the plan was.
09:20 When asked by fans if they would be hearing her voice, she enthusiastically replied "Yes",
09:25 and then the film was released.
09:26 The singing voice heard in the film is credited to Manchon, the vocalist for the band Hiroshima.
09:31 The band, along with Jerry Goldsmith and lyricist John Bettis, composed the tune.
09:36 While the song was a success and would be one of the few original songs ever written
09:39 for Star Trek, no one informed Nichols of the switch, leaving her both embarrassed and
09:44 angry at the film's premiere.
09:46 And that is everything for our list on 20 Things You Never Knew About Star Trek V The
09:50 Final Frontier.
09:51 Do you reckon I missed anything off this list?
09:52 Let me know, drop it in the comments below.
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