The Worst Star Trek Movie Has Some Of The Best Franchise Moments Ever

For example, everybody remembers how goofy Spock’s Iron Man rocket boots are, but his opening scene with Kirk is otherwise perfect. The aging captain climbing a mountain without safety gear is perfectly in character, and as an added bonus, it led to the great “Shatner Of the Mount” video (seriously, go look it up). Plus, there has always been something profound about Kirk’s subsequent declaration that he’s known he will die alone, a statement made more profound by the fact that he is unmarried and has recently lost his only child.

Honestly, the entire camping scene in Star Trek V perfectly distills the spirit of The Original Series, and our trio of core characters–Kirk, Spock, and McCoy–are all in rare form. It’s hard not to grin as the two humans try to teach the incredulous Vulcan to sing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” and that grin only gets bigger as you hear Spock call the favorite human campfire snack a “marshmelon.” Again, though, things veer toward the morbidly profound when Kirk speculates that the trio spend their shore leaves together because they don’t have families like others do (sadly oblivious to the fact that his found family is right in front of him).

Other parts of Star Trek V give us invaluable insight into these characters and their background. For example, Sybok has become something of a fandom punchline, but the very fact that some Vulcans refuse logic altogether was, as a certain science officer might say, “fascinating.” Spock having a secret sibling also gave us insight into his character and laid the groundwork for both The Next Generation and Discovery, each of which confirmed Spock had another sibling that audiences had never heard of before (we still don’t know who his unnamed brother was that Picard mentioned in passing).

We also get some heartbreaking details about Dr. McCoy’s life in Star Trek V. Thanks to Sybok, he experiences the painful memory of euthanizing his elderly father because the man was suffering from a terrible disease. That disease was cured soon after, leaving McCoy with the lingering fear his father might have lived a long life–later, the elderly McCoy’s cameo in The Next Generation pilot would prove just how long humans could live, adding more pain to the memory of his father’s passing.

Speaking of pain, one of the most fascinating moments in Star Trek V is when Captain Kirk refuses Sybok’s offer to remove his own inner pain, shouting “I don’t want my pain taken away–I need my pain!” You don’t have to be Counselor Troi to see how revealing this is: Kirk is a man driven by his own trauma who has devoted his life to easing the pain of others. Removing that pain would effectively put countless others at risk by taking away a big part of what makes Kirk such an effective starship captain (as Spock once noted, his “first, best destiny”).

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I would never look another fan in the eye and tell them that Star Trek V is a great movie–everything from the crazy plot to the broad humor to the slapshod direction drags far too many scenes down. Hidden inside this cinematic stinker, however, are some of the best character moments in the franchise making it worth a rewatch.

And who knows? If you’re full of regrets while the credits roll, maybe you can get Sybok to take away the unique pain that comes from watching a film directed by William Shatner.