Sentiment over what was at the time expected to be the last of the Star Trek films, nicely rounded off with the signatures of the cast, can't cloak the fact that it isn't actually the finest entry in the captain's log.

Kirk's old enemies the Klingons are faced with extinction and agree to attend a world conference relevant to their survival.

Faced with the unthinkable - peace and retirement - Kirk and his men are perhaps more relieved than they'd care to admit that certain elements are determined to destroy the conference and ensure the continuance of war.

The film's centrepiece is the imprisonment of Kirk and Dr McCoy (William Shatner, DeForest Kelley) in the mines beneath a planet of icy wastes.

Here as elsewhere, though, the pace is pretty lethargic, and a sense of urgency only grows towards the end - almost as if the crew was reluctant to say farewell.

'Once again,' smirks Shatner, tongue-in-cheek, at the end, 'I've saved civilisation as we know it.' And so he has. But perhaps the bigger miracle is that the entire cast was still alive after 25 years on board.

Michael Dorn, here seen as a Klingon defence attorney, plays Lt Worf in the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation and its film spin-offs.

Still a Klingon after all these years!