Star Trek: Insurrection

For other uses, see Star Trek (disambiguation).

Star Trek: Insurrection
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jonathan Frakes
Produced by	Rick Berman
Written by	Rick Berman (story and screenplay) Michael Piller (screenplay) Gene Roddenberry (creator)
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.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$58,000,000 (estimated)
Preceded by	Star Trek: First Contact
Followed by	Star Trek Nemesis

Star Trek: Insurrection is a 1998 science fiction feature film, the ninth based on the Star Trek television series. It is the third film to star the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the second to not feature the original series' cast. The film was directed by Jonathan Frakes, from a script by Michael Piller and Rick Berman, with music composed by Jerry Goldsmith.

Plot

During a diplomatic mission, the USS Enterprise receives a communication that Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) 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 (Anthony Zerbe) 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 to the crews liking. 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 (Jonathan Frakes) and Deanna (Marina Sirtis) become affectionate and seem on the verge of renewing a long-abandoned relationship; and Geordi's (LeVar Burton) optic nerves begin to regenerate. Picard even becomes attracted to a Ba'ku named Anij (Donna Murphy), a forty-something-looking woman who claims to be ten times that age. Localized effects such as regeneration, anti-aging, and hormonal increases that at first affected the natives are now also affecting the crew that have been exposed to the planet's environment.

Aided by these clues, Captain Picard 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 will not countenance.

Aghast at this blatant 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 (F. Murray Abraham) to the Ba'ku. Ru'afo and Dougherty change their plans and start simply transporting Ba'ku off the planet 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 in order to communicate with the Federation and expose what is happening to the Ba'ku. 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, that involves using the Enterprise's Bussard Ramscoop to scoop up some of the flammable gaseous particles that permeate the Briar Patch. The gas is then released near the Son'a ships and ignited by the Son'a's firing at the Enterprise.

Picard is captured by the Son'a and Dougherty, where 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; the genetic relation is a fact Dr. Crusher's (Gates McFadden) medical examinations have 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. Ru'afo kills Dougherty and starts the harvester on a countdown.

Picard convinces Ru'afo's exec, Gallatin (Gregg Henry), 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 itself. Picard succeeds in activating a self-destruct just as the Enterprise arrives and rescues Picard. Ru'afo is killed when the harvester is destroyed.

The Son'a, suddenly leaderless, running out of oxygen 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 have participated in. Meanwhile, the Enterprise returns to its usual duties.

Cast

Notes

• The movie's filming locations included the Sierra Nevada. Specific filming locations were Convict Lake (near Mammoth Lakes, California) and Lake Sabrina.
• Later novels in the non-canonical Star Trek spin-off fiction explicitly link Admiral Dougherty and his operation to Section 31.
• The PC video game Star Trek: Hidden Evil (Activision, 2000) is a sequel both to this movie 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 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."
• 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.
• Insurrection grossed $70,187,658 in the U.S. and $112,600,000 worldwide against a $58,000,000 budget.^[1] The previous Star Trek movie, First Contact, grossed $92,027,888 in the USA and $146,027,888 worldwide.
• 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.^[2]

Many of these scenes were included in the 2005 Special Collector's Edition release of the film.

References

External links

• Star Trek: Insurrection at the Internet Movie Database
• Star Trek: Insurrection at Allmovie
• Star Trek: Insurrection at Rotten Tomatoes
• Star Trek: Insurrection at Metacritic

• Star Trek: Insurrection at Box Office Mojo
• Official Star Trek: Insurrection web page
• Star Trek: Insurrection article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki