William Shatner directed the ill-fated Star Trek V: The Final Frontier due to a strange agreement dating back to the days of Star Trek: The Original Series. The Star Trek film franchise was in great shape in the mid-80s, with the triumphant Nicholas Meyer-directed Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan essentially saving the franchise in 1982. Following The Wrath Of Khan, star Leonard Nimoy would direct the next two entries, Star Trek III: The Search For Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

While both of Nimoy's films performed well, The Voyage Home in particular was a massive success with both critics and audiences, its good fortune would prompt Paramount to launch a new Star Trek television series which would eventually become Star Trek: The Next Generation. Nimoy was not particularly interested in directing a third consecutive Star Trek film, and producer Harve Bennett was physically and creatively exhausted after working on the franchise continuously since The Wrath Of Khan movie. This relative uncertainty left a void at the creative center of Star Trek that William Shatner decided he would fill.

The Weird Reason William Shatner Directed Star Trek V


It was a bit baffling when it was announced William Shatner would direct Star Trek V. Other than a handful of TV episodes, Shatner had no real experience as a director, certainly not with anything on the scale of a Star Trek film. Shatner also notably had a contentious relationship with many of the people involved with Star Trek, including much of the cast and creator Gene Roddenberry, though Roddenberry had lost control of the movie franchise by that point.


It turns out Shatner acquired the director's chair through a bizarre contract agreement that existed between Nimoy and himself for decades. Shatner referred to it as a "favored nations clause," where Nimoy would be entitled to anything Shatner got and vice versa. Annoyed with Nimoy's growing influence on the franchise, Shatner invoked this clause, threatening to not participate in Star Trek V at all if he wasn't allowed to direct.

Why Star Trek V Failed & What Happened Next


Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was a critical and box office failure, doomed by a weak story, head-scratching tonal shifts, and franchise-worst special effects. The production and resulting film were such a mess that Shatner would eventually admit he regretted the entire endeavor. Perhaps most painful of all, Star Trek: The Next Generation's vastly improved season 3 would begin airing just a few months later, boosting the show's pop culture footprint considerably and altering the public perception of the TOS crew as outdated.

Paramount seriously considered pulling the plug on the TOS film franchise after Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. However, cooler heads eventually prevailed, and Meyer returned to direct the Shakespeare-inspired Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, with a story partially conceived of by Nimoy. Ultimately, this was a much more fitting farewell to the original Star Trek crew than Shatner's misstep.