- It is usually the worst cop-out a writer could pull on an audience but think about it: Star Trek V is All Just a Dream. Specifically, it's one of Captain Kirk's dreams. As such, it reveals a lot about his inner psyche:
- Kirk doesn't have any moments of weakness. Wouldn't Captain Kirk like to think of himself this way and dream of himself in this way?
- Spock and Sybok: is there a deep-seated pyschological fear of someone, even a (gasp) strange relative that Kirk has never even met coming and taking Spock away from him?
- With the ease at which Sybok "converts" the Enterprise crew members, is Kirk worried about someone taking them away? Or does he have a deep-seated fear of loss of control ("I'm LOSING COMMAND!")
- Uhura dancing naked: Kirk Fantasy #546. 'Nuff said.
- And pretty much everyone else's too. Did adolescents in the 60s really watch TOS to see Kirk or were they looking over his right shoulder?
- Scotty is shown as pretty bumbling in this movie. Could it be that Captain Jimbo doesn't have an entirely positive view of his Chief Engineer?
- For that matter, does he not have entirely positive feelings for the Enterprise? It is shown as being constantly breaking down in this movie. Or is it just the "new" Enterprise? Maybe Kirk is pitching an unconscious hissy fit: "Starfleet gives me a replacement Enterprise, but it's not my Enterprise! I want my old Enterprise back!"
- "I miss my old chair."
- The Crack Pairing of Scotty and Uhura: again, is Kirk afraid the Uhura might not devote all her attention to him, or does this show that he is just a closet shipper?
- The Special Effects Failure: Things in a dream would seem this way.
- YMMV. When black-and-white film was first introduced, some people started to dream in black and white (there's research on whether this increased when black and white TV came in), so the only way to have a Special Effects Failure in someone's dream is if s/he enjoys watching films with a Special Effects Failure. If, instead, s/he only watches movies with good special effects, his/her dreams will be full of awesome.
- The Klingons destroying a poor, helpless, little Pioneer 10 space probe (complete with pathetic scream!) deep in Federation space! Those bastards! They killed my son!
- On that note, of course they want to track me down and engage me in battle ("if I could defeat Kirk..." "...you'd be the greatest warrior in the galaxy!")! I'm James ***ing Kirk the Magnificent! ...Okay, killing Kirk may have been a dream of a lot of Klingons at this point, but remember from Star Trek IV that Kirk is more infamous than revered by Klingons at this time. The "Kirk is a great legendary warrior" thing doesn't seem to stick until well after he's dead... or at least Star Trek VI.
- More than once, Spock talks about whether life is a dream, as he deals with the image in the bookending song "row, row, row your boat".
- "The Planet of Galactic Peace" is a lawless wasteland, with the posted ambassadors nothing more than misfits that nobody else wants to deal with. His belief that the three powers can't ever find peace? Naturally, the very next film thrusts him into the great unknown of attempting to navigate a political minefield and ensuring peace between the Federation and the Klingons, despite his personal feelings.
- It was directed by William Shatner. Of course it's one of Kirk's dreams.
- Or, alternately, he's just telling this as a camp-fire story to Spock and McCoy (note how they are sitting around the fire at both the beginning and end of the movie) who probably, because of all of the examples above call him out on his crappy story telling and tell him to just shut up already so they can drunkenly sing "Row, row, row your boat."
- Then, feeling a deep sense of guilt and regret over the whole thing and wanted to atone for it in his own way Spock 'volunteered' Kirk to go get Chancelor Gorkon, the rest is how do they say?
- Maybe they really did go camping though, and McCoy did put (too much!) whiskey in the beans. The rest didn't happen.
- The use of the "Life is but a dream" lyric could actually be lampshading this fact.
- Seemingly Jossed by Star Trek: Discovery, where Sybok is completely absent from flashbacks to Spock's childhood, and goes entirely unmentioned by Sarek, Spock, Amanda, and Michael Burnham.
- So essentially, Kirk and Spock punched out the Master?
(Borrowed from SF Debris)
I mean, look at it. The ships are broken piles of crap that are incapable of even the most basic of functions. All the captains except for Kirk are incompetent fools promoted through loyalty to party doctrine, not through merit. They can't even properly outfit one damn ship with competent people, but take whatever schlubs they can bribe with forbidden goods. Doctors practice euthanasia (even with their own relatives) like it's no big deal. Their public works projects (like Nimbus III, the "Planet of Galactic Peace") are unmitigated disasters.
No, my friends, William Shatner did not create a masterpiece to his own ego. He was mocking Gene Roddenberry's naive, socialist vision of the future and socialism in general.
Proof? The Berlin Wall fell five months after the premiere.
Coincidence?
I think NOT!
Reagan didn't end Communism. BILL SHATNER did.
It just really fell off the rails.
Starfleet wanted to rid themselves of James Kirk, by then a glory hound, egomaniac, and all around embarrassment, but was at a loss as to how. Since Kirk was viewed as a hero throughout the Federation, the admiralty couldn't just kick him out of Starfleet or simply kill him. Therefore, they had to devise this "rescue mission" on Nimbus III by having a rogue Vulcan named Sybok kidnap the ambassadors, sending the broken Enterprise with a skeleton crew under the guise of "Kirk you are so awesome!" to "rescue" them.
This plan served as a precursor to the assassination of Chancellor Gorkon aboard the Enterprise in "The Undiscovered Country", meant to create a casus belli for war against the Klingon/Romulan Empires, and to rid themselves of Kirk while allowing them to use Kirk's "death" as propaganda.
Starfleet, however, was not aware of Sybok's powers and failed to account for them.
- It would also explain how the ship got there, if it was a Cytherian that planted that knowledge in Sybok's head. Presumably the Klingon ship would have followed through the resulting subspace rift.
Sybok presents the inner pain of McCoy and Spock via mind-meld (Kirk having demurred from the process). McCoy of course he wouldn't have had any prior knowledge about; he's a human born and educated on Earth. Everything he knew of McCoy's inner trauma came from McCoy's own memories and subconscious.
Spock is different. Spock is his younger brother by several years. It's entirely possible that Sybok was present for the events he showed to Spock (maybe the whole family is there for the birth under some Vulcan ritual, or Sybok was where he shouldn't have been—take your pick). Sybok is showing Spock that Sarek's rejection of him was from birth and in fact was what led to Sybok abandoning Sarek and his influence in an adolescent fit of rage characteristic of a Vulcan who decided to embrace his emotions. Sybok is sharing his own pain with the one being in the universe who could possibly understand.
- Remember that time the starship Constellation took a hit from a planet buster, and it only took Scotty and a small team of engineers a few hours to repair it enough to participate in a running firefight? This theory would neatly explain how he could manage that, but it took him and a full staff months of effort just to make Enterprise-A semi-spaceworthy.
- This would also explain why the Enterprise has a new bridge design after the last film. Expanded Universe material states that ship bridges are replaceable modules that can be swapped out to increase a ship's life span. The bridge could have been replaced during the time between films, which is why it looks dismantled at the start of the movie.
TMP: The Enterprise-A has system integration problems, resulting in several system failures. Also, Sybok wears a robe with the same pattern as Spock did during the Kholinar ritual.
Wo K and Search for Spock: Dr. McCoy mentions he liked Spock better before he died, and also mentioned that he thought "[Spock] was the only one who was immortal." Also, Kirk's log recorder cheerfully says "Good morning, Captain!" after malfunctioning, much as the Excelsior did when Scotty sabotaged it.
The Voyage Home: This movie is a direct sequel. Scotty records a log report about the results of the shake- down cruise, and also mentions that Kirk said "let's see what she's got." And we found out, didn't we?
- Has anything else ever referenced it, though? That's the real test of canonicity.
- If you subscribe to the idea that Captain Klaa was demoted and is the translator in the Klingon Court during the next film (since actor Todd Bryant played both parts), then yes.
