Star Trek: Insurrection
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| Star Trek: Insurrection | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Directed by | Jonathan Frakes |
| Produced by | Rick Berman |
| Written by | Rick Berman Michael Piller |
| Starring | See table |
| Music by | Jerry Goldsmith |
| Cinematography | Matthew F. Leonetti |
| Editing by | Peter E. Berger |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 11, 1998 |
| Running time | 103 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $58,000,000 |
| Preceded by | Star Trek: First Contact |
| Followed by | Star Trek: Nemesis |
| IMDb profile | |
Star Trek: Insurrection (Paramount Pictures, 1998) is the ninth Star Trek feature film. Directed by Jonathan Frakes, from a script by Michael Piller, it features the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
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[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Patrick Stewart | Captain Jean-Luc Picard |
| Jonathan Frakes | Commander William T. Riker |
| Brent Spiner | Lt. Commander Data |
| LeVar Burton | Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge |
| Michael Dorn | Lt. Commander Worf |
| Gates McFadden | Commander (Dr.) Beverly Crusher |
| Marina Sirtis | Counselor Deanna Troi |
| F. Murray Abraham | Adhar Ru'afo |
| Donna Murphy | Anij |
| Anthony Zerbe | Admiral Matthew Dougherty |
| Stephanie Niznik | Ensign Kell Perim |
| Daniel Hugh Kelly | Sojef |
| Gregg Henry | Gallatin |
| Michael Welch | Artim |
[edit] Plot summary
During a diplomatic mission, the USS Enterprise receives a communication that Lt. Commander Data has gone berserk during an observation mission on the Ba'ku homeworld.
The peaceful Ba'ku, whose planet offers regenerative radiation and therefore incredible lifespans, live in harmony with nature and reject any kind of technology. Their planet and their culture is being secretly studied by the Federation and the associated Son'a in a joint venture under the command of Admiral Matthew Dougherty in which Data was participating.
After capturing and fixing Data, the Enterprise crew find Dougherty eager for them to be on their way -- too eager. Suspecting something, they return to the Ba'ku village on the planet's surface to find out what caused Data to malfunction. They find a Federation ship which contains a holodeck reproduction of the Ba'ku village, apparently so the Ba'ku can be unwittingly relocated without their consent, and learn that Data had stumbled upon it previously and had been shot by one of the Son'a aboard, causing his malfunction. During the course of their investigations, odd effects occur -- Picard seems to grow slightly younger; Riker and Deanna become affectionate and seem on the verge of renewing a long-abandoned relationship; and Geordi's optic nerves begin to regenerate. Picard even becomes attracted to a Ba'ku named Anij, a forty-something-looking woman who claims to be ten times that age. There's regeneration, anti-aging effects, and hormones rushing, in the natives and now also in the crew that have been exposed to the planet's environment.
Aided by these clues, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew discover that the Briar Patch (the area of space in which the planet Ba'ku is located) is filled with metaphasic radiation particles, which are especially concentrated in the planet's rings where they impart the "fountain of youth" qualities -- particles that the Son'a and corrupt elements within the Federation wish to harvest. However, harvesting the particles would cause the planet to become uninhabitable; hence the need for the "holoship" to relocate its population, whose destruction Dougherty won't countenance.
Aghast at this clear violation of the Prime Directive, Picard confronts Dougherty about this larcenous scheme only to be ordered to accede to it.
Against these orders, Captain Picard and some other senior members of the Enterprise crew return to the planet's surface to prevent the relocation of the Ba'ku. They expose the "holoship" and the plans of Admiral Dougherty and Son'a leader Adhar Ru'afo to the Ba'ku. Ru'afo and Dougherty change their plans and start simply transporting Ba'ku to the holoship by force. When Picard and crew lead the Ba'ku to areas resistant to transporter locks, robotic devices are sent after the Ba'ku to tag them to make them easy to lock onto.
Meanwhile the Enterprise, with Riker in command, heads out of the Briar Patch to communicate with the Federation and raise a stink to shine a spotlight on what's going on. Dougherty seemingly completes his transformation to villainy by acceding to a demand by Ru'afo that he be allowed to send two armed Son'a ships to prevent this. These ships are defeated by the Enterprise due to clever but risky maneuvering by Riker.
Picard pilots a shuttle from the surface of the planet, intending to prevent the Son'a from using an orbiting harvester device to collect the ring particles. When Picard is captured by the Son'a and Dougherty, he reveals to Admiral Dougherty that the Son'a are actually Ba'ku who were exiled from the planet a century ago and are simply out for revenge, a fact Dr. Crusher's medical examinations had recently revealed.
Unable to pry all of the Ba'ku off the planet or stop the Enterprise from bringing unwanted attention to his activities, Ru'afo insists that the device that will harvest the ring particles be used immediately. This will presumably kill most of the older Ba'ku still on the planet's surface, and Dougherty voices his demand that Ru'afo cease the campaign immediately. The two struggle briefly and Dougherty is killed. Son'a starts the harvester on a countdown.
Picard convinces one of the Son'a, who seems ambivalent, to betray Ru'afo and spring Picard and some other captured Enterprise crew. They take control of the holoship. An attempt to capture the harvester by deception, using the holoship to trick Ru'afo and the other Son'a, fails, and a climactic battle ensues in which Picard and Ru'afo fight onboard the harvester. Picard succeeds in activating a self-destruct and, having sent its message, the Enterprise returns just in time to rescue Picard. Ru'afo is killed.
The Son'a, suddenly leaderless and mostly more moderate than Ru'afo was, decide to try to put aside their long-standing blood feud and try to live among the Ba'ku, who welcome them despite the scheme they've participated in. Meanwhile, the Enterprise returns to its usual duties.
[edit] Notes/trivia
- The original music score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith.
- At 103 minutes in length, Insurrection is the shortest Star Trek feature film to date.
- The movie's filming locations included the Sierra Nevada. Specific filming locations were Convict Lake (near Mammoth Lakes, California) and Lake Sabrina.
- While it is never identified as such in the film, the operation in the Briar Patch is strongly reminiscent of tactics employed by the secret organization Section 31. Later novels in the Star Trek Expanded Universe explicitly link Admiral Dougherty and his operation to Section 31.
- The "Special Collector's Edition" DVD release for this movie is the first one to not have an audio commentary by cast or crew which can be played while watching the film.
- This is the only Star Trek film not to feature any scenes on or near Earth.
- A Captain's yacht is finally seen for the first time in Star Trek. One was known to be on the previous Enterprise-D but was never seen on screen (or even built). Insurrection, however, shows the Enterprise-E Captain's yacht several times.
- It's sometimes hypothesised that the film takes place concurrently with the final DS9 episode, "What You Leave Behind," specifically between that episode's depiction of the end of the Dominion War and the signing of the peace treaty. Picard makes mention of "Dominion negotiations," which implies the treaty hasn't been signed but a state of war no longer exists. The war's end might also indicate why Starfleet is working with the Son'a, who are mentioned as Dominion allies on DS9, when a state of war would make such cooperation unacceptable. Also, Worf is not yet the Klingon ambassador, which he becomes at the end of DS9. Others believe it took place during and between the DS9 episodes "It's Only a Paper Moon" and "Prodigal Daughter", when Worf didn't appear for several weeks.
- The PC video game Star Trek: Hidden Evil (Activision, 2000) is a sequel both to this movie and to "The Chase (TNG episode)", 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 bit 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 proto-humanoids were killed off by so-called "xenophors," an assortment of bizarre creatures that are apparently the product of a proto-humanoid genetic engineering project gone bad. The player's mission is to prevent the xenophors from escaping the complex and also prevent the technology inside the complex from falling into Romulan hands. Salome Jens, who portrayed the proto-humanoid hologram in "The Chase", voices the last surviving proto-humanoid in the Hidden Evil game.
- During the fourth season of "Star Trek: Enterprise", the scientist/renegade "Arik Soong" (played by Brent Spiner (Data) as an ancestor of his creator, Noonien Soong) refers to the Briar Patch as an excellent hiding place for the Augments (genetically enhanced humans from the Eugenics Wars). While they do not choose to go there, it is thus proposed that the area was known to humans in the 22nd century, although the navigational difficulties mentioned in "Insurrection" obviously kept the Ba'ku from being discovered for several centuries. Further, the area may be assumed to be in proximity to the Orion empire, as this takes place close to one of the Orion's slave market planets.
- Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello plays a Son'a warrior. (Morello also appeared in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Good Shepherd", as Crewman Mitchell.)
- Breaking a long pattern, Riker goes back to being clean-shaven in this movie, although his beard returns in Nemesis.
- During an appearance with LeVar Burton at the 2005 DragonCon in Atlanta, Marina Sirtis said that the last TNG movie, Star Trek: Nemesis, "didn't suck as much as Insurrection." She went on to say that she fell asleep during the premiere of Insurrection, then mockingly slumped back in her chair and made a thumping sound with her microphone.[1]
[edit] Errors and inconsistencies
- In the scene where Data and Picard discover the cloaked holoship, they and Anij paddle a small boat out to the ship with Picard on the left and Data on the right. After Data opens the holoship's doors with his tricorder, the next shot shows Data suddenly on the left side of the boat and Picard on the right.
- After Data forces the Son'a to reset their shields, and they return fire upon the captain's yacht, as Data is telling Captain Picard that they must return to the surface, a "red alert" tone can be heard sounding in the cockpit of the craft. Oddly, the tone is originally heard on Romulan ships when Red Alert is sounded, however, more extreme-sounding tones are usually heard when cabin pressure and/or life support has been compromised.
[edit] Deleted scenes
The original version of the movie contained several scenes that were cut before release:
- 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-Biggs) 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" is still listed in the credits.
Many of these scenes were included in the 2005 Special Collector's Edition release of the film.
- 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.[2]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Star Trek: Insurrection at the Internet Movie Database
- Star Trek: Insurrection at Rotten Tomatoes
- Star Trek: Insurrection at Box Office Mojo
- Official Star Trek: Insurrection web page
- Star Trek: Insurrection article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki.
| Star Trek television series and feature films | ||
| Television series The Original Series · The Animated Series · The Next Generation · Deep Space Nine · Voyager · Enterprise |
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| TOS-Era Feature films The Motion Picture · The Wrath of Khan · The Search for Spock · The Voyage Home · The Final Frontier · The Undiscovered Country |
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| TNG-Era Feature films Generations · First Contact · Insurrection · Nemesis |
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| Unknown-Era Feature films XI |
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