Break out the marshmelons ’cause we’re sharing our pain over the beautiful mess of “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier”!
Writer and podcaster Joe Mazel joins the show this week to discuss the installment of the Trek film franchise that everyone loves to hate (or hates to love). Life is returning to normal for the crew of the Enterprise-A, if you can ignore the ship’s gremlins and Bones’s singing. But when Kirk and crew are ordered to deal with a hostage crisis, they’ll be pulled into a tale of false prophets, long lost brothers, and the secrets of the universe!
No film could have adequately followed the commercial and critical success of The voyage Home, so it’s perhaps fitting that Star Trek V was such an odd and experimental departure for the franchise. Even though the production of the film itself was almost derailed by behind-the-scenes disasters, The Final Frontier had the courage to challenge what fans expected from a Trek feature and explore the seldom-considered topic of faith and religion in the 23rd century. On this episode, we talk about the late-night-TV origins of the film’s premise, the deftness of the script despite its many rewrites, the film’s often murky social commentary, getting everyone around the campfire, “deciding” to become a Star Trek fan, the “Odd-Numbered Curse”, and the film’s place in the Bennett Quadrilogy.
We also discuss the changing comics industry, Old Man Scorsese, whether Johnny Storm is a Mets fan, fighting Batman and the Ghostbusters, shooting God in the face, learning that movies can be bad, space evangelists, Laurence “Mr. Hollywood” Luckinbill, the many faces of patriarchy, how Starfleet hates Kirk, “kitty pools”, burying the lirpa, Deep State Nine, getting your socialist utopia food card, and why there are no conservative utopias.
ROCK MONSTER!
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Listen to “Season 7, Episode 5 “Star Trek IV: The Final Frontier” with Joe Mazel” on Spreaker.