The god in the center of the galaxy. Was that always left unexplained or is there some backstory that was developed for it?
I’m assuming it was some entity more powerful than carbon lifeforms (but not as powerful as the Q) that was imprisoned there for destructive behavior. But I really don’t know for sure.
It was the Acme VP of Unfairly Promoted.
I’d say you nailed it - some entity, trapped or imprisoned in the matrix, that could communicate with a receptive mind like Sybok’s but not escape without help.
A dear friend, now gone, once described his vision of the writer’s conference for ST5: It has gone on until the small hours of the morning. Spilled booze covers the table, blue haze hangs in the air. Finally, a voice (probably Dee Kelley’s) comes from the back: “Let’s have Kirk go up against God… and WIN!”
That’s how I saw it. Just some vast powerful entity – like Metrons, Q, Organians, etc. – that happened to be malicious, and thought that playing on human religious beliefs would be a good way to catch a ride.
(Jack McDevitt has a somewhat similar plot in “Cauldron.”)
A bloke I know showed up to a sf convention wearing an ST:TOS style velour shirt with eleven (count 'em, eleven!) gold stripes up the sleeve. I raised an eyebrow, and he said, “God.”
I said, “What does God need with a starship?”
Old, old thread on the subject:
I don’t think it was ever explained in canon other than it was some kind of malevolent entity that was, indeed, trapped in the center of the galaxy. Author Greg Cox wrote a series of novels in which the being was imprisoned in the center of the galaxy by the Q. There was another powerful being that was cast out of the galaxy by the Q and they had created the barrier at the edge of the galaxy (from “Where No Man Has Gone Before”) to keep that one out.
Because, of course, insanely powerful insane galactic entities have no notion of this third dimension thing.
Every single time I have watched that film I’ve felt like I fell asleep in the middle of it and it just ended. What a piece of shit.
So you’re saying the Genesis Device gave Khan magic powers?
Well after they escape the planet Kirk says “maybe god is in here” and points to his own chest.
So I suppose Kirk ate him.
Just some alien
Much less powerful than Q. Q doesn’t need a starship
Are you sure you didn’t actually fall asleep in the middle?
Heh, I just listened to the Mission Log podcast where they talk about Star Trek V. Man, what a complete misfire that movie was and it’s too bad. Some of the ideas in it were decent - I like the idea of Sybok and how he was gathering followers by taking away their pain, I like the idea of the malevolent entity, and I like the idea that the Federation, Klingons, and Romulans were actually engaging in peace talks. This movie is awful because of a lot of reasons including the endless flying boots chase up the turbo lift, the bad flying boots rescue off the mountain, the flimsy plot element that Sybok is Spock’s brother, the three breasted cat woman who gets thrown in the pool, the campfire singing, or the weak special effects. What’s worse though is that these characters (Kirk/Spock/McCoy) really didn’t seem like they were best friends who have been together and been through it all together.
Shatner’s directing and story idea was a big part of the reason. This was also when Roddenberry began to lose his day to day control of the franchise and that hurt it as well. On top of that, there was a writer’s strike that affected the production.
Why would you watch it more than once 
Letters from the Roddenbery Archive -
Interesting stuff there - responses from Asimov, Clarke, etc -
Insomnia cure.
To give it the MST3K treatment of course. Also, because I started to disbelieve how bad I remembered it being and needed to prove to myself it really was as bad as everyone says.
I mean, everyone hates Lost in Space, but I loved that movie.
Does anyone else remember the promotional posters for this movie? With the big headline “Why are they putting seatbelts in movie theaters this summer?”
After I saw the movie, I came up with two possible responses:
I firmly believe that Kevin Pollak should have directed Star Trek V.
So the entity is a manifestation of William Shatner’s ego?
Dude, the Rifftrax for that movie was the first one I saw, and it was EPIC.
I believe I may still have one of those rolled up somewhere.