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The story

After decades of hostility toward the Federation, those crafty devils The Romulans are after a peace accord. With Picard acting as an emissary, the Enterprise is sent to Romulan Space, only to encounter a Romulan-made clone of Captain Picard is in charge and at the helm of a weapon of terrible destruction. And oooh boy, is he angry…

Best moments

Data singing at Riker and Troi’s wedding… no, only kidding!

Nemesis features Star Trek‘s first ever car-chase, as Picard, Worf, and Data outrun Kolaran natives in their intergalactic go-cart. The high-speed hijinks continue later, as Picard and Data’s escape from the Scimitar by flying a tiny shuttle that looks like an Apple-designed slipper through the corridors of the ship.

Plus there’s a crash-bang-wallop space battle between the Enterprise and the Scimitar, resulting in the Enterprise voiding its no-claims bonus as it spectacularly rams Shinzon’s ship.

Trivia

» The lowest grossing Star Trek film in the whole franchise, and the only one not to finish at the Number 1 spot at the Box Office in its opening weekend.

» James Marsters, Jude Law and Michael Shanks were all considered for the role of Shinzon.

» Nemesis was originally going to be a direct sequel to the previous film, Insurrection.

» Wil ‘Whil’ Wheaton was invited back to reprise his role as Wesley Crusher, only to have all his scenes cut. He can be seen as a non-speaking extra in the wedding scene at the beginning of the movie though.

» The scene of the Enterprise ramming into the Scimitar is all done with models, filmed crashing together in slow motion and hung upside down so that falling debris would look like it was floating away into space. The resulting explosions are the only CGI component.

Best quotes

» Shinzon: ‘Can you learn to see in the dark, Captain?’

» B-4: [to Picard] ‘Why do you have a shiny head?’

» Admiral Janeway: ‘The Son’a, the Borg, the Romulans…you seem to get all the easy assignments.’
Picard: ‘Just lucky, Admiral.’

» Shinzon: ‘I’ll show you my true nature – our nature. And as Earth dies, remember, I will always, forever, be Shinzon of Remus. And my voice shall echo through time long after yours has faded to a dim memory!’

» Worf: ‘Captain, I do not think it is appropriate for a Starfleet officer to appear…naked.’

The verdict

If there’s one good reason to re-watch Nemesis – and really, there is only one – it’s to savour a young and near unrecognisable Tom Hardy as villainous Shinzon; a million lightyears (and about 150 pounds of pure muscle) away from being the Bat-breaking antagonist most know him as. There aren’t many foes who can seem intimidating against the Shakespearean solemnity of Captain Picard, but Hardy makes for an entertaining adversary, even if the script does make him at times seem like a space brat having a tantrum.

Yet despite his performance, and the bombastic action, you can feel what Patrick Stewart would later call ‘franchise fatigue’ weakening the structural integrity of Nemesis. That weariness isn’t helped by the darker tone of the film, as the back-slapping camaraderie of previous adventures is quickly replaced after the first fifteen minutes with furrowed brows and long stares across the bow.

Top that off with director Stuart Baird’s infamous apathy for the Star Trek universe (he reportedly thought Geordi La Forge was an alien, and kept on forgetting the names of the main characters on set), and it means that Nemesis is a perfunctory salute to a generation 15 years in the making.

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