The Worst Star Trek Movie Made History In One Important Way
As weird as it sounds, Star Trek has always lent itself to potty humor. Who hasn’t heard the joke about the Enterprise traveling to Uranus to battle Klingons? From the phrase Captain’s log to Picard calling Ryker “Number One,” the otherwise cerebral sci-fi institution has always made it easy for those with their mind firmly planted in the gutter to make juvenile bathroom puns.
And yet, for all of Star Trek’s innuendo throughout the history of the franchise, only one toilet has ever been shown: in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), AKA the worst Star Trek movie.
Star Trek V Is Not A Good Movie
For anyone who isn’t aware, Star Trek V is the one where Captain Kirk meets god. Or rather, it would have been had director William Shatner been given the freedom to go with his original idea. Instead, Paramount, fearful of offending religious fans, made Shatner change it to a petulant alien head pretending to be God.
Directed By William Shatner
Regardless of his original intention, the film William Shatner eventually handed Paramount was…well…not very good. If Star Trek V has one saving grace, however, it’s that it marked the first and only time a Star Trek toilet has made it onscreen. At one point, Spock’s crazy half-brother Sybock imprisons Kirk, Bones, and Spock in the Enterprise’s brig, where an exasperated Kirk sits down on a closed toilet to think.
The Only Toilet In Star Trek
Ironically, the most hated Star Trek film would be the one to also make history. Most Star Trek fans probably don’t even know about the toilet scene because they probably shut the movie off before that. Even those fans who hate themselves enough to sit through The Final Frontier may have missed the toilet because it’s not super noticeable.
Kirk, after finding out that Sybok is Sock’s brother, declares, “I gotta sit down,” and presses a button on the wall behind him. A “seat” pops out of the wall, and the only indication that it’s Star Trek’s first toilet is that you can see the seam where the toilet lid lifts up just before Kirk sits on it.
The Only Thing Interesting About Star Trek V
Curiously, the words “Do not use while in spacedock” appear above the toilet. Why the ship’s crew can’t go pee while the Enterprise is docking remains a mystery to this day.
While it may not seem important that Star Trek V features the franchise’s first toilet, it is something to be celebrated if only because it makes Star Trek one of the few sci-fi properties to acknowledge its character’s more mundane bodily functions.
Everybody Poops
Sure, Trekkies had always assumed that the crew of the Enterprise did their business somewhere, but actually seeing a toilet on screen makes Gene Roddenberry’s world that much more relatable. After all, everybody poops, even in space.
Overall, Star Trek V might not have much going for it, especially when viewed through a modern lens—Uhura doing a nude fan dance to distract a bunch of rowdy men sure plays differently in 2024—but it will always be notable for showing fans the first Star Trek toilet.
