CertainlyThe SearchforSpock
sucksaudiencesin withanemotional
andpersonalarc,butthemoviestill
boastsanimpressiveamountof eye
candy.There’stheKlingonBird-of-Prey’s
cloakingdevice;theEnterpriseexploding;
theGenesisplanet’sdestruction;not
to mentionsuchvisualstaplesas the
transporterbeamsandthewarpdrive.
Inretrospect,thosevisualeffectsonly
enhancedtheviewingexperience.
05 The
Enterprise
reaches
itsfinal
destination,
inTheFinal
Frontier.
06 William
Shatner
directsonthe
Enterprise
bridge.“Wefeltgoodaboutthem,”
Winterstates.“Again,wewere
focusingonthestory.Weweren’t
tryingtowinanOscar.Wewentafter
theeffectsina strongerwayinThe
VoyageHomeanddida superiorjobon
thoseeffects– wewereaimingtomake
it sorealisticthatyouwouldn’tthink
twicethatthosewhalesweren’twind-
uptoysina bathtub.ButI remember
beingsatisfied.”“I think we had done
so well on The Voyage
Home that we were
smoking our own
press releases.”
A New Frontier
While the third installment in the Star
Tr e k fi lm franchise is generally well
liked, the fi fth entry in the series is
more divisive. Th irty years old this year,
Th e Final Frontier sees the Enterprise
crew hunt down the renegade Vulcan,
Sybok, who is busy searching for God
in a distant galaxy. Th e movie has
proved to be one of the more polarizing
Tr e k fi lms among fans and critics alike.
“I think we had done so well
on Th e Voyage Home that we were
smoking our own press releases,”
Winter explains. “We thought we
could do no wrong.
“Ironically, in building a movie
that Bill [Shatner] wanted to make
about searching for God, in an odd
way, we were sort of remaking Th e0506RALPH WINTER