William Shatner has a lot to be proud of. Sure, he’s sometimes unnecessarily grumpy on social media, and his distinguished music career is certainly debatable. But as the original Starship Enterprise captain, no one can fool him and in 2021, at the age of 90, he became the oldest person to ever fly into (real) space.
But it also lies in the Star Trek franchise the Canadian actor’s biggest career disappointment buried: His directing and screenplay work on the movie Star Trek V – At the Edge of the Universe, which is also rated the worst by the Moviepilot community (currently with 5.8 out of 10 points).
Sci-fi mystery on Star Trek: Let’s go visit God
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Shatner shared the painful memories of the project and explains what he saw went wrong:
My concept was: ‘Star Trek is looking for God’ and management said: ‘Well, who is God? We scare away the non-believers, so no, we can’t do anything with God.’ Then someone said, ‘What about an alien who thinks he’s God?’ After that it was my inability to deal with management and budget.
He further admits:
I have failed. I have failed terribly, as I see it. […] I regret not being able to cope emotionally with a big film. And because of my powerlessness, the power vacuum was filled by people who didn’t make decisions that I would have made. Star Trek 5: Really as bad as everyone says?
In Shatner’s Star Trek film, the Enterprise crew is kidnapped by Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill), the Vulcan half-brother of Spock (Leonard Nimoy). His goal is to overcome the great barrier at the center of the galaxy to meet God in what is believed to be paradise. So far so good. However, when Kirk arrives on the mystical planet, he becomes suspicious when the creature reveals that it wants to escape with the USS Enterprise and asks the much-quoted (and absolutely justified) question: “Why does God need a spaceship?”
Perhaps the most memorable scenes, however, have nothing to do with science fiction and space gods. The highlight for many fans are the shore vacation scenes with Kirk, Spock and Pille (DeForest Kelley), where the legendary trio camps in Yosemite Park and around the campfire Row, Row, Row Your Boat sings. Even if the text is nonsense, as Spock says.
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Despite everything, the legacy of the sci-fi flop lives on
With only $70 million in international box office sales, Star Trek 5 also fell short of expectations financially. But that doesn’t stop the creatives of the current series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds from taking up aspects of the film. Specifically it’s about Sybok, who is in the episode The cheerful squall (1×07) was teased as a future opponent. Who the current actor is, whom we could only briefly see from behind, has not yet been revealed.
Like all Star Trek series, Strange New Worlds and the film Star Trek 5 can also be found streaming on Paramount+. Even without a spaceship at all.