Fails the Bechdel test
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
1989. Directed by William Shatner, written by William Shatner and Harve Bennett and David Loughery.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
5 women characters. 5 of them speak. -
No
2. Who talk to each other
Our parser found no scene where two women talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Not reached: the film fails an earlier rule.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
When the newly-christened starship Enterprise's shakedown cruise goes poorly, Captain Kirk and crew put her into Spacedock for repairs. But an urgent mission interrupts their Earth-bound shore leave. A renegade Vulcan named Sybok has taken three ambassadors hostage on Nimbus III, the Planet of Galactic Peace. This event also attracts the attention of a Klingon captain who wants to make a name for himself and sets out to pursue the Enterprise. Sybok's ragtag army captures the Enterprise and takes her on a journey to the center of the galaxy in search of the Supreme Being.
- Released
- 09 Jun 1989
- Genres
- Action, Adventure, Fantasy
- Rated
- PG
- IMDb
- 5.5 / 10
- Metascore
- 43 / 100
- Awards
- 5 wins & 6 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Kirk 186 lines, man
- Spock 127 lines, man
- Sybok 99 lines, man
- Mccoy 78 lines, man
- Scotty 36 lines, man
- Uhura 32 lines, woman
- Chekov 26 lines, man
- Caithlin 20 lines, woman
- Being 18 lines, man
- Sulu 18 lines, man
Full cast, 24 people
- William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk
- Leonard Nimoy as Captain Spock
- DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy
- James Doohan as Captain Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott
- George Takei as Cmdr. Hikaru Sulu
- Walter Koenig as Cmdr. Pavel Chekov
- Nichelle Nichols as Cmdr. Uhura
- Laurence Luckinbill as Sybok
- David Warner as St. John Talbot
- Charles Cooper as Gen. Korrd
- Cynthia Gouw as Caithlin Dar
- Todd Bryant as Capt. Klaa
- Spice Williams-Crosby as Vixis (as Spice Williams)
- Rex Holman as J'onn
- George Murdock as God
- Jonathan Simpson as Young Sarek
- Beverly Hart as High Priestess
- Steve Susskind as Pitchman
- Harve Bennett as Starfleet Chief of Staff
- Cynthia Blaise as Amanda
- Bill Quinn as McCoy's Father
- Melanie Shatner as Yeoman
- Michael Berryman as Sybok Warrior (uncredited)
- Carey Scott as Young Spock
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 3% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 155
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | 0 | 37 |
| 5 to 8 | 13 | 12 |
| 9 to 12 | 7 | 11 |
| 13 to 16 | 5 | 72 |
| 17 to 20 | 0 | 0 |
| 21 to 24 | 2 | 3 |
| 25 to 28 | 3 | 34 |
| 29 to 32 | 3 | 11 |
| 33 to 36 | 4 | 26 |
| 37 to 40 | 1 | 7 |
| 41 to 44 | 0 | 6 |
| 45 to 48 | 1 | 11 |
| 49 to 52 | 1 | 12 |
| 53 to 56 | 1 | 25 |
| 57 to 60 | 0 | 3 |
| 61 to 64 | 0 | 17 |
| 65 to 68 | 0 | 10 |
| 69 to 72 | 0 | 2 |
| 73 to 76 | 1 | 1 |
| 77 to 80 | 0 | 2 |
| 81 to 84 | 1 | 12 |
| 85 to 88 | 1 | 45 |
| 89 to 92 | 0 | 40 |
| 93 to 96 | 0 | 18 |
| 97 to 100 | 1 | 4 |
| 101 to 104 | 6 | 101 |
| 105 to 108 | 0 | 0 |
| 109 to 112 | 1 | 15 |
| 113 to 116 | 0 | 1 |
| 117 to 120 | 0 | 1 |
| 121 to 124 | 1 | 1 |
| 125 to 128 | 0 | 4 |
| 129 to 132 | 0 | 33 |
| 133 to 136 | 0 | 21 |
| 137 to 140 | 0 | 3 |
| 141 to 144 | 0 | 9 |
| 145 to 148 | 0 | 2 |
| 149 to 152 | 1 | 19 |
| 153 to 155 | 1 | 20 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 8 are women's.
55 lines from women, 651 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
5 women and 17 men in the cast. 5 women and 13 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 41 of 728.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 81 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 8% of the words (558), men 92% (6,241).
Exhibit D: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
0
Two men
83
Exhibit E: behind the camera
None of the 12 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 11% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- William Shatner (man)
- Written by
- David Loughery (man)
- Story by
- Harve Bennett (man), William Shatner (man), David Loughery (man)
- Produced by
- Harve Bennett (man)
- Shot by
- Andrew Laszlo (man)
- Edited by
- Peter E. Berger (man)
- Music by
- Jerry Goldsmith (man)
- Production design by
- Herman F. Zimmerman (man)
- Costumes by
- Nilo Rodis-Jamero (man)
- Cast by
- Bill Shepard (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
2 women, 14 men, 3 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
2 women, 9 men, 4 not listed
-
Production
2 women, 5 men
-
Sound
0 women, 7 men
-
Camera
0 women, 3 men, 3 not listed
-
Writing
0 women, 5 men
-
Directing
0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 2 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 56 on average. Men: 58 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Nichelle Nichols 56
Men
David Warner 47, George Takei 52, Walter Koenig 52, Laurence Luckinbill 54, William Shatner 58, Leonard Nimoy 58, Charles Cooper 62, DeForest Kelley 69, James Doohan 69
Exhibit G: the money
It made 1.9 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $33 million
- Box office
- $63 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 155 scenes and 728 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
