Summer of '89: Star Trek and the Captain as Director

Television sees the premiere of a great horror anthology show and the end of the 1989 NBA Finals.

Between June 6th and 13th, 1989, cinemas saw the release of the latest Star Trek film, CBS aired the NBA Finals, and HBO premiered one of its most famous shows.

Let’s recreate it all this week in our Summer of ‘89 series.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

The crew of the Federation starship Enterprise is called to Nimbus III, the Planet of Intergalactic Peace. They are to negotiate in a case of kidnapping only to find out that the kidnapper is a relative of Spock. This man is possessed by his life long search for the planet Sha Ka Ree which is supposed to be the source of all life. Together they begin to search for this mysterious planet.

June 9, 1989

William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei
cinematography by Andrew Laszlo
music by Jerry Goldsmith
screenplay by David Loughery
produced by Harve Bennett
directed by William Shatner

After the mixed reception of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the next three films were approached with a back-to-basics mindset. Wrath of Khan felt like what fans of the television show imagined a big-screen adventure with this crew to look like. The Search for Spock dipped a little in quality, largely because they were searching for Spock (while Leonard Nimoy worked in the director's chair) and the lack of that dynamic makes it feel hollow. When Nimoy returned to direct The Voyage Home, all of his strengths as a director (mainly light-heartedness) worked well with all of the themes they had been tackling for a few movies and, as a result, the movie feels like the end of this story. The second, third, and fourth films work as their own trilogy of sorts. It ends with that hard-to-grasp feeling of finality.

But wait - William Shatner wanted to direct one! Before signing on for the fourth film, he worked out a deal that he could direct a fifth entry since Nimoy (so often the scene-stealer) had helmed the past two.

If you know anything about Shatner, you can easily see why his Star Trek film is the one where they...literally search for God. Trippy! Especially for a science fiction series. But that's what Shatner does. He thinks about the afterlife. He wonders what's next. He launches himself into space just so he can properly mourn the planet. When he dies, he plans to replace himself with a tree. He likes to bathe naked in the river, stare at lizards, and think about existence.

It's no wonder this film begins with Kirk free-soloing in Yosemite while pondering his own mortality. The crew is getting old and they need to know what it was all for. Shatner is getting old¹ and he needs to know what it was all for. He learns some of the wrong lessons from the previous film and it's a little jokey (The line "What does God need with a starship?" kinda ruins the moment), but it's so clearly autobiographical that the occasional ham still feels honest.

But between the budget cuts and the insistence on headiness, the whole thing just feels slow. On this week's episode of Siskel & Ebert, Roger opened the show with a witty "The fifth Star Trek film is also the worst. Star Trek V is so slow to get moving and so confused in its plotting that it's going to be of interest mainly to Trekkies so they can analyze what's wrong with it."  

This is the first TOS film to come out after the premiere of The Next Generation and even though they would always be beloved, they just couldn't keep up with the new guys anymore. One more film, The Undiscovered Country, would be released to celebrate the franchise's 25th anniversary, but then the torches would be passed in 1994's Generations.

Tales from the Crypt: "The Man Who Was Death", "And All Through the House", "Dig That Cat…He's Real Gone"

Rest your bones, boos and ghouls, and settle in for the anthology series you’ve been dying to see. Cadaverous scream legend the Crypt Keeper hosts these forays of fright and fun based on the classic E.C. Comics tales from back in the day – and drawing on the talents of top filmmakers Richard Donner, Walter Hill, Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis and more. So shamble up to the bar and pick your poison. (Complete First Season DVD)

June 10, 1989

William Sadler, Mary Ellen Trainor, Joe Pantoliano
created by William Gaines, Steven Dodd
music by Danny Elfman
screenplay by Robert Reneau and Walter Hill, Fred Dekker, Terry Black
produced by Richard Donner, David Giler, Walter Hill, Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis
directed by Walter Hill, Robert Zemeckis, Richard Donner

Tales from the Crypt, the most recognizable horror anthology television program and HBO's flagship series for many years, premiered on this date 35 years ago. Three stories were told: