MOVIE REVIEW: Star Trek Insurrection (1998)

The search for youth has been fleeting for mankind over its centuries of dominion: most notably the Ponce de Leon expedition to search for the legendary Fountain of Youth, and even more so with abuses of aesthetic or cosmetic surgeries. All were a colossal waste of money and time, much like the third entry in the TNG movie series, Star Trek Insurrection. Only one thing keeps it afloat: addressing the true nature of the Federation.

<<SPOILERS AHEAD; YOUVE BEEN WARNED.>>

Deep in an area of the Beta quadrant called the Briar Patch, there sits a ringed paradise planet called Ba’ku. The rings emit metaphasic radiation with several effects, one of which is the reduction of cellular senescence — essentially canceling the effects of aging. The people are humanoid and warp capable, but they’re not members of the Federation or any other government. As such they are open to unchecked predation from those powers at worst, but not all want to take them over; some just like to watch. This brings us to face one of the most egregious issues of the Federation: the invasion of privacy. The Enterprise-E has been spying on the Ba’ku people using Data (Brent Spiner, Independence Day: Resurgence [2016]) behind a holographic duck blind. When the ruse is disrupted due to space pirates, our heroes step in and reveal themselves to the Ba’ku. This means Starfleet has to move forward with their plan for the Ba’ku.

Because the metaphasic radiation cannot be replicated or found elsewhere, Starfleet and the Federation have decided to forcibly relocate the Ba’ku. They don’t want to go for a host of reasons, so Starfleet Admiral Dougherty (Anthony Zerbe, The Matrix Reloaded [2003], The Omega Man [1971]) came up with an idea: Starfleet would build a city-sized holodeck vessel, move the Ba’ku inside while they’re rendered unconscious, and transport them to a new planet. This completely ignores the fact most Ba’ku cannot survive without the radiation and would age into dust, because most adult Ba’ku are actually hundreds of years old. Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart, Lifeforce [1985]) won’t let that stand so he and the Enterprise-E crew go rogue to save the paradise planet.

Factor in that the attacking space pirates are actually banished members of the Ba’ku called the Son’a (who signed away their claim to the planet in an act of theft and revenge) led by Ad’har Ru’afo (F. Murray Abram, Last Action Hero [1995], Scarface [1982]) who are in cahoots with Dougherty, some goofy reverse-aging antics related to metaphasic radiation, and a romance plot for Captain Picard with the leader of the Baku named Anij (Donna Murphy, Spider-Man 2 [2004], Jade [1995]), and you have what should have been a full episode of ups and downs drowning in the feature length film running time.

I can imagine there are people who don’t like this movie; I count myself amongst them. This movie is not in the same vein as the other Star Trek movies and that’s a good thing because it takes a certain type of director and writer — Jonathan “Two-Takes” Frakes — to truly explore what the Federation is all about. To make my point, the Federation seems to be willing to commit acts that go against its own rules and regulations to achieve certain goals. Most notably is Admiral Dougherty, who was so jazzed on making sure that he could get this rejuvenating energy that he put it in the framework of medical advancement for everybody in the Federation.
A counter are our heroes, the crew of the Enterprise-E, willing to go rogue to protect a bunch of random aliens because their captain fell in love with their leader while on-mission. This is a level of fraternization that would not be acceptable within the rules of conduct for Starfleet captains. Thankfully, this is an product of fantasy and fiction. Otherwise, I might actually have to get angry about it LOL.

Star Trek Insurrection is not the best, and dips its toes into the light hearted comedic side of Trek with poor returns. The returns keep falling with a dark and final entry in the TNG movie canon that brings everything but fandom and audience satisfaction to the table.

CHOICE CUTS

• This is not the first time Starfleet tried to relocate non citizens living in its territory, as Picard was ordered to do this back in “Journey’s End” (TNG s7e20) to satisfy the Cardassians…at the expense of Native American tribes that migrated from Earth.
• Beardless Riker returns! It’s like season 1 TNG all over again.
• I cannot tell you how satisfying it was to watch Admiral Dougherty die at the hands of the Son’a; if he was dumb enough to trust space pirates, what protection does he have from a kinslayer (remember, the Ba’ku and the Son’a are related)?
• Klingon pimples; that is all.
• They should have called this movie “Star Trek: How Picard Got His Groove Back”.
• Filming the Enterprise-E crew fighting teleporter drones on foot must have been weird; just a bunch of grown men and women doing Kirk rolls on picturesque hills.