Space: the Final Frontier

These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise, folks. You know the drill. We spend the bulk of our time aboard the USS Enterprise, with the other most notable locale being Sha Ka Ree, the mysterious planet at the center of the galaxy.

Cash for Clunkers

As with most Star Trek films, most of our time is spent aboard Enterprise. But this isn't your usual spick-and-span starship: Enterprise has been out of commission so long that it's running worse than your weird uncle's VW bus. In fact, the crew is forced to begin their mission well before repairs are complete, meaning that vital systems—such as the transporter—are unavailable. Not the best way to start off an intergalactic adventure, right?

In a way, this can be seen as a subtle commentary on the series itself. Given that the film was released in 1989 and the original series debuted in 1966, these people had been playing these characters for 23 years—and that number would only continue to grow. Could the state of Enterprise be a cheeky way of commenting on this longevity?

The Greatest Con Ever Sold

Our other main locale is the legendary Sha Ka Ree. The planet, covered in swirling blue energy, is located in the center of the galaxy, beyond the Great Barrier. Sounds more like fantasy than sci-fi to us. Either way, Sybok believes Sha Ka Ree to be the place "from which creation sprang"—and consequently the home of God. Talk about prime real estate.

Well, the truth shocks Sybok—Sha Ka Ree is, in fact, a prison and God a mere con man. How embarrassing. This is Star Trek's way of suggesting that trying to find the literal truth behind religion is a fool's errand because spirituality is primarily an internal experience.

This strange planet is indeed majestic, but it's not the Eden anyone expected it to be.