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The story

Insurrection opens on a beautiful, serene planet; a little slice of heaven among the stars. The peace is ruined, however, when everyone’s favourite android – there as part of a covert scientific mission – apparently goes rogue. Data begins attacking his own, and exposes the science team to the oblivious population, who are known as the Ba’ku. Having heard of Data’s uncharacteristic behaviour, the Enterprise flies in to find out what’s going on.

The plot widens to take in a fountain of youth scenario, where the Ba’ku live a trouble-free life, without aging and in perfect health, while the physically deteriorating Son’a people want to claim the planet’s unique properties for themselves – aided, apparently, by the Federation, in an act that goes against their Prime Directive of not interfering with alien civilisations.

Will Picard go with the Federation’s orders and allow the Ba’ku to be removed? Or will he heroically go against his powerful superiors to save a small group of innocents? Which do you think?

Best moments

The opening sequence, with Data gone rogue, is quite effective. With the science team cloaked, their attempts to subdue the errant android are invisible, and we – along with the Ba’ku – see the beats of the action sequence take place without actually seeing the action. Also, it’s just creepy to think that there’s a whole science team observing this village and moving among them without their knowledge.

There’s fun to be had with the notion that the planet’s unique properties affect the crew of the Enterprise, with the best moment coming when blind engineer Geordi finds that his eyes have healed, and he gets to witness a sun-rise for the very first time. Aww.

Trivia

» The romantic sub-plot that Captain Picard enjoys with the Ba’ku woman, Anij, had its climactic moment cut from the film by the studio; in the final cut, they never actually kiss. Poor Picard.

» As Data, Brent Spiner was concerned that he was getting too old to play the role of an un-aging android, and actually asked to be killed off in the film. When he was sent the script, it carried a note that simply read “Sorry, kill you later.”

» Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello played one of the Son’a warriors, in full make-up.

» Naming the film was something of an issue. At the script stage, the film was initially going to be sub-titled ‘Stardust’, but many other names were considered, including Prime Directive, The Directive, The Resignation, The Enemy Within, Breach of Promise, Dereliction of Duty and Apostas.

Quotes

» Picard: ‘Does anyone remember when we used to be explorers?’

» Picard: ‘If our first attempt to capture Data fails… I will terminate him.’

» Ba’ku Man: ‘We believe that when you create a machine to do the work of a man, you take something away from the man.’

» Picard: ‘We are betraying the principals on which the Federation was founded. It’s an attack upon its very soul. And it will destroy the Ba’Ku, just as cultures have been destroyed in every forced relocation throughout history.’

» Ru-afo: ‘Look in the mirror, Admiral; the Federation is old. In the past 24 months they’ve been challenged by every major power in the quadrant; the Borg; the Cardassians; the Dominion. They all smell the scent of death on the Federation.’

The verdict

Definitely a step back in terms of scope and scale from First Contact, Insurrection plays far more like an extended episode of the television series, rather than a major movie in its own right. But that’s not to say it’s bad. It’s quite a good episode!

The major theme is that of aging, as Picard acknowledges that he’s not the young man he once was, while the Federation itself is described as aging and past its prime(directive).

The discussion of aging that the youth-giving Ba’ku planet drums up can easily be taken as meta commentary on the Star Trek franchise itself, which many felt was beginning to flag. Insurrection was unlikely to convince anyone that a second wind was imminent, but as a slice of mild sci-fi, it’s perfectly acceptable.

The regenerative power of the planet also allows for plenty of humour – some of it rather misjudged, for instance Commander Worf going through the Klingon version of puberty.

Insurrection definitely tries to have more fun than its predecessor, but it’s only intermittently successful. A sequence where Picard and Data partake in a duet of Gilbert & Sullivan’s ‘A British Tar’ is a delight, where Riker and Troi’s youthful flirting is just uncomfortable for everyone concerned.

Patrick Stewart is as marvellous as ever, and his romantic sub-plot – something so often thrown in merely to pad things out – is curiously the most engaging aspect of the film. The Son’a, as the films antagonists, are effective mostly thanks to some fantastic prosthetics and make-up. The intricacies of the plot are a bit muddled, and there are plot-holes you could pilot a Klingon war-bird through, but the important moments are handled well; Picard’s decision to go against the Federation feels appropriately weighty.

All-in-all, this is fairly classic The Next Generation fare, and that’s just fine, but for a major movie, you’d be forgiven for expecting something a little more.

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