Today in Star Trek history: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier premiered (1989)

(L-R) Leonard Nimoy as Spock, William Shatner as Captain Kirk, Lawrence Luckinbill as Sybok, and DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

It was today, June 9th, back in 1989, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier premiered in movie theaters in the United States. The film was helmed by series star William Shatner in his feature film directorial debut.

The action takes place soon after the events of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. We follow the intrepid crew of the brand-new Enterprise-A as they confront a maverick Vulcan named Sybok and his followers. Sybok, who we discover is Spock’s half-brother, (spoiler alert!) hijacks the ship as he attempts to reach what he thinks is God, residing in the center of the galaxy.

The movie opened #1 at the box office, with a record opening weekend for a Star Trek film. Sadly the film hasn’t quite stood the test of time, as it’s currently sitting with a 24% Rotten Tomatoes score with over 50,000 audience ratings.

Correction 9 June 2021 by Alison Pitt: An earlier version of this article asserted that this was the last film to feature all the TOS bridge crew, but that’s not true: all of them appeared in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (Sulu had been promoted to Captain of the U.S.S. Excelsior).