Summary

• Laurence Luckinbill saw his character, Sybok, as a complex figure searching for God, resembling Lenin's transformation into a dictator.
• Luckinbill refused to have Sybok armed with weapons, wanting to portray him as a peaceful seeker, which director William Shatner ed.
• Despite mixed reviews, Luckinbill praised Shatner's directing, valuing the opportunity to play the tragic and Shakespearean role of Sybok.

Star Trek movie after seeing the lauded stage actor's performance as President Lyndon B. Johnson in Lyndon. As Sybok, Luckinbill played a holy man who was the Vulcan half-brother of Spock (Leonard Nimoy). However, Sybok was no mere heavy, and the emotional Vulcan was unlike previous Star Trek movie villains.

Laurence Luckinbill appeared on All Access Star Trek - A TrekMovie.com Podcast hosted by Anthony Pascale and Laurie Ulster to promote his memoir, "Affective Memories," and to mark the 35th anniversary of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. When Pascale asked Luckinbill how he saw Sybok as the actor portraying the Vulcan, Laurence gave a fascinating response. Listen to the podcast in the link above and read Luckinbill's quote below:

It was written a bit like a villain, except there was this search for God. Well, we’re all searching for God, aren’t we? In some way… After I accepted the role, [I met with William Shatner] and he asked, ‘How do you see the character?’ And I said, ‘Lenin.’ Vladimir Ilyich Lenin… Lenin had a great dream that he could free Russia. He could make it all good and better for the people. But as he gradually got into it, and he felt the obstacles rushing against him, he gradually turned into a dictator.

And that’s where Sybok was headed because he made that choice. And then he stole the Enterprise. And that was the first big action, which was a theft. And gradually, as the [movie] moved along, and we got to that last scene where I exchange hands with Leonard, with Spock, my brother, and then sacrifice myself to save him, to this evil god. Which was, to me, Shakespearean. It was tragic, and I played it that way.

Regarding Sybok originally being armed with rock guns or weapons in Star Trek V's script, Luckinbill said no and explained his reasoning to William Shatner:

I said I don’t want to because I am the human part of Spock. I am a peaceful person. Sybok is a peaceful person. He is looking for God. He is looking for help. He’s looking to relieve pain. Why would he carry a gun around? So Bill eventually said, ‘Well, we’ll fix that.’ And he did. We were able to do a big fight, and the gun wasn’t important. I actually love Bill Shatner. So he was a good director for me. Other people complained about him. I don’t.

Sybok Is Unlike Other Star Trek Movie Villains

There hasn't been a villain like Sybok before or since

Among Star Trek's movie villains, Sybok is unique and stands apart. Most Star Trek movie villains follow the mold of Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban) in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The vengeance-lusting, scenery-chewing Khan set the standard for Star Trek movie villains, and the films have tried to replicate Montalban's iconic heavy, without the same success. Star Trek's cinematic Big Bads like Kruge (Christopher Lloyd) in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Shinzon (Tom Hardy) in Star Trek: Nemesis, Nero (Eric Bana) in Star Trek (2009), and Krall (Idris Elba) in Star Trek Beyond have all tried to be Khan's second coming.

Khan literally had a second coming in Star Trek Into Darkness, with Benedict Cumberbatch playing Khan in Star Trek's alternate Kelvin Timeline.

As Laurence Luckinbill explained to TrekMovie, Sybok is cut from a different cloth than Khan. Sybok is not driven by revenge or a lust for power. Sybok is a Vulcan holy man, a believer who seeks God and the answer to the universe's greatest questions. Sybok's folly is that he was manipulated by a malevolent alien posing as God (George Murdock). But when he realizes his grave error, Sybok saves his brother, Spock, and sacrifices himself at the end of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Sybok is tragic in a Shakespearean sense, just as Laurence Luckibill played him.

Source: All Access Star Trek - A TrekMovie.com Podcast