Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (DVD)

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Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 English is pretty good for a movie made in 1989. While the sound field seems to be condense to the front center channel for most of the movie, there are quite a number of directionality effects and deep booms when they are required. The audio mix also does a great job of carrying Jerry Goldsmith´s lively music score.

There are DD 2.0 surround English and DD 2.0 surround French tracks. Optional English subtitles as well as optional English closed captions support the audio.

Extras:
Since, for me, the quality of extras is limited by the quality of the films that they accompany, I can´t rate the extras offered by this two-disc set more than a "5" because there´s nothing substantive to say about the film and because there´s nothing substantive to be learned from the making of the movie (the extras on the "Pearl Harbor" VISTA discs at least showed people how a huge production was undertaken).

--Disc 1--
The audio commentary by William Shatner and his daughter Liz Shatner, author of "Captain´s Log: William Shatner´s Personal Account of the making of ´Star Trek V: The Final Frontier´", tries to make the best of things even though it´s known that Shatner wanted to re-do some of the film´s effects and re-edit the movie in general. There´s also an informative text commentary by Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda, co-authors of "The ´Star Trek´ Encyclopedia", though it, too, shies away from the controversy surrounding the film.

--Disc 2--
"The ´Star Trek´ Universe Featurettes"
--"Herman Zimmerman: A Tribute" gives major props to the "Star Trek" universe´s production designer.
--"Original Interview: William Shatner" is a compilation of footage of Shatner talking about the movie while he was on location in Yosemite.
--"Cosmic Thoughts" offers interviews with people talking about science´s relationship with religious matters.
--"That Klingon Couple" offers interviews with the actors who played the Klingon captain and his female first officer.
--"A Green Future?" discusses the filmmakers hopes for a world that is less polluted in the future than it is now.

"Production Featurettes"
--"Harve Bennett´s Pitch to the Sales Team" features footage of executive producer Harve Bennett trying to get his PR people pumped up about their job selling the movie to the world.
--"The Journey: A Behind-the-Scenes Documentary" is a "making of" that doesn´t say much about the negative aspects of production (I´m sure that there were more minuses than pluses when it came to making "Star Trek V").
--"Make-up Tests" looks at the work that was done for the Klingons and other aliens.
--"Pre-Visualization Models" looks at what was done in order to achieve the film´s special effects.
--"Rock Man in the Raw" looks at an abandoned concept that would´ve had Kirk fighting ten rock men.
--"´Star Trek V´ Press Conference" is the one extra that is really worth watching because you can see how embarrassing it was for Harve Bennett to tell jokes to a bunch of reporters who never laugh once during the presentation.

There are a couple of deleted scenes that, had they been re-inserted into the film, would not have added to the film experience. Finally, there are two theatrical trailers, some TV spots, and a "Production Gallery" of still photos.

--Miscellaneous--
A glossy booklet provides chapter listings as well as a re-listing of the DVDs´ features (already enumerated on the Alpha thick double-keepcase back cover art).

Film Value:
"Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" is more of a bore than it is an outright bad movie. The filmmakers really did make the best of available sets and money. However, the script is so poorly conceived--did William Shatner want to meet God or not?--that none of the characters have anything substantive to say about the metaphysical aspects of existence. For a little more than an hour and a half, we have to sit through a ham-fisted attempt to make "Star Trek" "mean" something. Sadly, "Star Trek V" reveals the limitations of its creators´ visions.