Themes: Fighting the System, Benign Aliens, Evil Aliens
Main Cast: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn
Release Year: 1998
Country: US
Run Time: 111 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Star Trek: Insurrection manages to recall the original 1960s series' spirit of liberalism, while transcending it for sheer boldness, embracing issues that are on the political cutting edge in the 1990s and beyond. The fact that the first 30 minutes are presented as a mystery only makes the material more engrossing. While assisting a survey team of Federation allies observing the populace of a distant planet, Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) seemingly goes berserk and attacks the survey team, exposing their existence to the populace and jeopardizing the mission. Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) brings the Enterprise into orbit to try and apprehend Data and find out what happened . He discovers that the mission isn't one of observation, but the involuntary relocation of a small, peaceful population, undertaken by the Federation and its rogue planet allies the Son'a, supposedly to secure the planet's youth-restoring qualities. As it turns out, there's a much darker side to the plans of the Son'a, and a personal side to the carnage planned by the Son'a leader Ru'afo (F. Murray Abraham). Picard and his officers, suitably outraged by this violation of the Prime Directive -- that no Federation mission may interfere with the natural evolution of an alien culture -- take matters into their own hands in an attempt to expose the plot to public scrutiny, risking their lives in the process. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Review
Star Trek: Insurrection is the most complex and ambitious feature film in the entire Star Trek franchise. It doesn't always succeed, but it goes where no part of the franchise ever went before. The plot is filled with elements that refer clearly to events in the real world of the 1990s and beyond. The Federation, going into an alliance with a rogue planet, is prepared to violate the precepts upon which it was founded, ostensibly for the greater good of all; in the process, Captain Picard and his crew discover that, beyond the dubious morality and legality of the Federation's actions, there is also a blood feud being given new life with Star Fleet's help, and they decide to make this known to the public, risking their lives in the process. The treatment of the Ba'Ku by the Federation recalls the history of the United States and Native Americans, but the notion of nations compromising their ideals resounds all the way from Vietnam to recent events in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The entire movie is a cautionary allegory about the care that empires must take in choosing their allegiances, and the harm that they can do when making deals with the devil, all in the name of the "greater good." The action and plot may seem small scale by the standards of the best Star Trek movies, but by its nature the script is very bold, dealing with moral questions that the earlier entries (except for The Undiscovered Country) usually didn't embrace. Even during the 1960s, when the original series was trying for topicality on a weekly basis, the show almost never used scripts that brought into question much of American history or current foreign policy in the way that Star Trek: Insurrection does. The movie's only flaw lies in the level of sophistication of the writing -- the authors were so subtle, that the topical nature of the plot eluded most critics and audience members. In fact, if one looks closely at the movie, it seems almost subversive, and it's all the more rewarding for this quality. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Ron Wilkinson - Art Director, Patrick Stewart - Associate Producer, Junie Lowry-Johnson - Casting, Peter Lauritson - Co-producer, Sanja Milkovic Hays - Costume Designer, Jerry Fleck - First Assistant Director, Jonathan Frakes - Director, Peter E. Berger - Editor, Martin Hornstein - Executive Producer, Jerry Goldsmith - Composer (Music Score), Michael Westmore - Makeup, Herman Zimmerman - Production Designer, Matthew Leonetti - Cinematographer, Rick Berman - Producer, John M. Dwyer - Set Designer, R.J. Hohman - Special Effects, Thomas D. Causey - Sound/Sound Designer, Rick Avery - Stunts Coordinator, Michael Westmore - Supervisor/Manager, Terry Frazee - Special Effects Supervisor, Jim Rygiel - Special Effects Supervisor, Adam Howard - Special Effects Supervisor, Michael Piller - Screen Story, Rick Berman - Screen Story, Michael Piller - Screenwriter
Veteran composer Jerry Goldsmith made a full return to the scoring stage for this 1998 underscore (Star Trek: First Contact was composed in part by his son, Joel Goldsmith). For the film, Goldsmith was called upon to provide both softer romantic music and grand action music, and delivered both reasonably well. The music covers a very broad dynamic range, with some extremely quiet and delicate passages, as well as the expected fortissimo sections involving copious amounts of brass and percussion. Still, while Goldsmith doesn't turn in a disappointment here, this is overall a relatively minor score for him. The orchestral performance is good, but not outstanding, and Bruce Botnick's engineering work is, as always, on the mark, providing both the orchestra and the electronic instruments room to breathe and range to punch. ~ Steven E. McDonald, All Music Guide
Jerry Goldsmith (Conductor), Jerry Goldsmith (Producer), Neil Norman (Liner Notes), Neil Norman (Executive Producer), Mark Banning (Executive Producer), Mark Banning (Art Direction), Mark Banning (Associate Executive Producer), Bruce Botnick (Engineer), Bruce Botnick (Digital Mastering), Bruce Botnick (Editing), Bruce Botnick (Mixing), Alexander Courage (Orchestration), Paul Wertheimer (Assistant Engineer), Daniel Schweiger (Liner Notes), Sandy DeCrescent (Orchestra Contractor), Lois Carruth (Assistant), Ken Hall (Music Editor), Nick Vidar (Programming), Norm Dlugatch (Assistant Engineer), Dominic Gonzales (Assistant Engineer), Jo Ann Kane (Music Preparation)
The film received a mixed reception from critics, with a general consensus that it seemed to be little more than a "glorified episode of the television series".[1]
Lt. Cmdr. Data (Brent Spiner) loses control while observing the peaceful Ba'ku people on their homeworld, revealing the presence of the joint Federation and Son'a taskforce to the Ba'ku. Admiral Matthew Dougherty (Anthony Zerbe) requests the help of the USS Enterprise-E to help them capture and repair Data. Though they are able to do so, Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) becomes suspicious of Dougherty's insistence that the Enterprise is no longer needed, and instead has his crew investigate the cause for Data's malfunction. They come to find that the Ba'ku are well aware of technology but have opted to reject it, instead living in harmony with nature, and they also later reveal they are much older than they appear. Picard asks Anij, the unofficial Ba'ku leader, "You have warp capability?" to which she replies mildly, "Capability, yes...but where can warp drive take us, except away from here?"
The Enterprise crew also begins to experience the rejuvenation effects of the planet; LaForge (Levar Burton) finds his eyes can see instead of requiring Optical Implants, Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Troi (Marina Sirtis) rekindle their long-abandoned relationship, and even Picard experiences romantic feelings for the Ba'ku woman Anij (Donna Murphy).
The crew discovers that the Briar Patch, the area of space that the Ba'ku homeworld is located, contains metaphasic radiation particles, more concentrated in the planet's rings, which impart the rejuvenation effects to those exposed to them but also block communications to the rest of space. They also discover a cloaked Federation ship that contains a gigantic holodeck recreating the Ba'ku village; Data's malfunction was apparently caused by his previous discovery of this ship. Picard surmises that corrupt Federation officers and the Son'a are attempting to collect the metaphasic particles with a large harvester. This would leave the planet uninhabitable, and Dougherty, who would not allow for the destruction of the Ba'ku, prepared the "holoship" to transport the Ba'ku off the planet without their knowledge. When confronted with these charges against the Prime Directive, Dougherty orders the Enterprise to leave.
Picard orders Riker to take the Enterprise out of the Briar Patch in order to communicate the situation with the Federation while he and others beam down to the planet to help the Ba'ku evacuate to nearby caves that will prevent them from being transported. While the Son'a send out robotic probes to tag the fleeing Ba'ku, allowing them to be transported individually, the Son'a leader Adhar Ru'afo (F. Murray Abraham) convinces Dougherty to allow him to send two Son'a ships to attack the Enterprise. Riker is able to destroy one ship and cripple the other through a risky maneuver and continues to leave the Briar Patch. With their plan exposed, Ru'afo insists that they must begin to harvest the metaphasic particles immediately, only to have Picard deliver a revelation: the Son'a and the Ba'ku are the same race. The Son'a are a breakaway Ba'ku faction who failed to convince the rest of the colony to embrace "offlander" ways, were exiled and have spent a century since trying (and failing) to preserve their lives; hence their desperate attempt to harvest the metaphasic particles. Dougherty then confronts Ru'afo, who kills him when he refuses to allow Ru'afo's scheme to continue.
Picard, his crew, and the Ba'ku are eventually transported onto the Son'a ship, but manage to break free. They then use the ship to transport Ru'afo and the Son'a from their ship to the holoship, making them believe they are still in their bridge as they launch the harvester. Ru'afo eventually discovers the deception, and transports to the harvester to start it himself. Picard defeats Ru'afo and activates the harvester's self-destruct mechanism, killing Ru'afo as it explodes. The remaining Son'a are welcomed back by the Ba'ku who forgive them for their actions, this process beginning when Picard arranges a meeting between Gallatin (who, then, was Gal'na) and his mother. The Enterprise crew take one last moment to enjoy their rejuvenated selves before returning to their mission.
Insurrection grossed $70,187,658 in the U.S. and $112,600,000 worldwide against a $58,000,000 budget.[2] The previous Star Trek movie, First Contact, grossed $92,027,888 in the USA and $146,027,888 worldwide.
Video game
Though not a direct tie in to the film, the PC video game Star Trek: Hidden Evil (Activision, 2000) is a sequel both to this film and to "The Chase," a sixth-season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It revisits the Ba'ku homeworld, and features some of Insurrection's Ba'ku and Son'a characters in minor roles (and in most cases voiced by actors other than the ones in the movie), although most of the game's storyline takes place in an underground complex that turns out to have been constructed by the proto-humanoid race revealed in "The Chase."
The "Red Alert" Klaxon from Star Trek: Voyager is heard in Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek Nemesis.
Deleted scenes
Several scenes were cut before release of the movie:
An extended library scene in which Riker and Troi throw small paper balls at each other. This scene also includes some lines by the librarian (Lee Arnone-Briggs) and a Trill officer (Max Grodénchik)
A scene in which Picard and Anij kiss each other.
A scene in which Picard spills cheese on a PADD displaying the Briar Patch.
The actual ejection of the warp core.
Data reporting the condition of the Captain's Yacht being "precarious" and then beaming out before it explodes, explaining why the yacht is ultimately absent in the end.
Data punching some Son'a on the Ba'ku planet and nailing them with isolinear tags.
The line "There will be no cover-up" on the Son'a ship.
The original version of the fight between Picard and Ru'afo contained an additional scene. After Picard was beamed away by the Enterprise, Ru'afo fell into the rings of the Ba'ku planet and was regressed into a young child. This scene was cut from the final film, but a "Young Ru'afo" (played by Phillip Glasser) is still listed in the credits.
Armin Shimerman was originally to appear at the end of the film as his Star Trek: Deep Space Nine character Quark; the scene was filmed, but Frakes felt it did not fit in with the rest of the film and cut it.[3]
Many of these scenes were included as a supplement in the 2005 Special Collector's Edition release of the film.
