Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

William Shatner directs like he acts: full of unexplained pauses and a general contempt for the meaning of a text. In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier he also has the hubris to believe that he can use an overlong Star Trek feature film to explore genuine issues of divinity. Here, Kirk, Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Bones (DeForest Kelley), and the rest of the long-in-the-tooth Enterprise gang are held hostage by a rogue, cult-leading Vulcan who commandeers the starship for a voyage past the Great Barrier to an Edenic fantasy planet. Writer-director-star Shatner forgoes the galactic battles, unique aliens, and exotic beauties that fueled the franchise, opting instead for lengthy discussions of feelings and theology that bring the series' New Age-y subtext much too close to the surface. Along the way, he steals a cantina scene from Star Wars, the finale from The Wizard of Oz, and subjects Nimoy to the indignities of a lengthy speech contemplating “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” Still, for an installment that even diehard fans admit is a failure, this is an impressively ambitious double-disc package, featuring audio and text commentaries and a whole slew of featurettes. For Star Trek completists only, this is otherwise not recommended. (D. Fienberg)