So listen. Is there anyone here who is confused about the fact that the god who needs a spaceship in Star Trek V is
not a god?
Because he’s
not.
Just to make sure everyone knows.
Sorry, I’m sure it’s obvious at least to almost everyone here if not everyone. But I just heard the movie mocked by a couple of people chatting in line, yet again, because “there’s a god in it who needs a spaceship.” Haha! Stupid movie!
I know I’ve heard this several times before. Hence the thread, just to make sure that people here are mocking this very mockable movie for actual reasons of mockability, and not because of a massively dunderheaded misunderstanding of the plot.
You gave me a horrible scare. When I saw the [SPOILER] I thought you might be talking about a more recent film. And I was just joking with Pepper Mill that I’d be really disappointed if the new Star Trek film ended with them on a planet with God.
By the way, I’[m not sure how common knowledge it is, but Stephen King in Danse Macabre retells a story about Harlan Ellison pitching a Star Trek movie script to the company suits and ending with the Enterprise going to a planet where they find God. The suits consider, then complain that “It isn’t BIG enough.”
Please note that, even in the story, Ellison isn’t being serious. And it’s not clear to me that the story is meant to be true. But the publication of thi8s predates even the second Star Trek movie.
Not that closely related, but there’s a story about one of the few times Muhammad Ali got one-upped. He had just boarded a plane, and when the stewardess asked him to fasten his seat belt, he just answered “Superman don’t need no seat belt!”
She simply answered “Superman don’t need no plane, either”. Ali smiled, shut up, and buckled.
Well, how do you know he isn’t ? They ran into Apollo, after all. For all we know, he really IS the being behind the myths of the Abrahamic God in the Star Trek universe.
There was, in fact a Star Trek novel where he was supposedly “the inventor of monotheism”, apparently DID consider himself God, and ended up as a glowing head that needed a spaceship because he lost a war with the Q. The head was all that was left.
I think what’s being mocked by repeating Kirk’s line is not the ridiculousness of a god who needs a spaceship, but that fact that the only person in the movie to ask the question is Kirk - is everyone else in the movie an idiot or what?
I might be misremembering, but I don’t think it’s clear that the god/alien’s goal is to get access to a starship until just before Kirk says that line.
The rest of the movie, we’re just following Sybok on his quest to find the physical location of God. I think it’s clear that most people (until they get brainwashed) find this quest to be ridiculous or futile, without them saying so explicitly.
I had a conversation with my father back in the dark ages sometime, and I mentioned ST:V and he said “Is that the stupid one where they go meet God?”, and I was thinking to myself “Did you even watch the same movie I did?”
I’m not going to spend much time defending that movie, but at least let’s criticize it for it’s actual flaws.
Thanks for checking that - I guess I was mistaken. I actually resent the movie for the sight gag with Scotty knocking himself out on a girder, more than any other thing. Scotty’s the man, after all.
[In the Style of a certain old Credit Card Commercial]
Hi! Do you know me? Billions of people pray to me every day, yet they Don’t See My Face.
That’s why I carry Deity Express. With Deity Express, I get discounts on clerical garb, religious texts, and Ecclesiatical Implements. And if I’m late with a payment, they’re cool with that.
Deity Express – Don’t leave Heaven Without It
Cardholder since 4004 BC
