After achieving the nadir of the series with the misleadingly named Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) and then offering a second false promise with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1992), the Star Trek brigade return with yet another big-screen adventure (1994). Cast members from the 60s TV series and Star Trek: The Next Generation (including an uncredited Whoopi Goldberg) join captains Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and James T. Kirk (William Shatner) in the 24th century, where we find them pondering their mortality (or their immortality) in separate scenes. A lot of time is spent tweaking and indulging Trekkie nostalgia and recycling favorite motifs (while boring everybody else), so that an Aw, shit! from a robot character is clearly meant to resonate with something like the emotional complexity of Shall We Gather at the River in a John Ford picture, but at least the special effects and outer space vistas are more handsome than usual. Directed by David Carson from a script by Ronald D. Moore, Brannon Braga, and producer Rick Berman. With Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Levar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Malcolm McDowell, James Doohan, and Walter Koenig. (JR)