1998.103 minutes. Rated PG.
“I’m going to miss these little flesh-stretching sessions of ours, my dear.”
Take one messed up alien race, a dash of Oedipal undertones, an intergalactic Federation of friendly space travelers, and some sex appeal, and you’ve got some Insurrection. (Although don’t hold me to the sex appeal, to each their own, I suppose.)
Since 1966, the Star Trek franchise created by Gene Roddenberry has made legions of fans from many generations. Truly an intergenerational hit, most of us can remember hearing about it or even watching it, and for each succeeding generation, a new series became their touchstone. And although my mother claims to have watched reruns of the original series while pregnant with me, I must say that for my peer group, The Next Generation was OUR Star Trek. It defined the future for my friends and I (those few of us who never missed an episode), and energized us with its awe-inspiring technology, Utopian ideals and egalitarian attitudes.
Star Trek: Insurrection – Paramount Pictures
Earth is now a peaceful paradise, and Earthlings are now at the helm of an interplanetary alliance (formerly known as the United Federation of Planets) dedicated to spreading altruism and knowledge as it explores the universe. The Next Generation, or TNG, is smack dab in the middle of that time period, roughly 2364-2370, over 100 years after the original series takes place. The series centers on the Starship USS Enterprise D, led by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his diverse, competent crew. TNG is different than the original series with a different ship and a different crew, but it has the same mission: “to boldly go where no one (man) has gone before!” And so, hundreds of episodes and now nearly a dozen movies later, I want to chat about Star Trek: Insurrection.
I will freely admit, it is not my favorite Star Trek movie, but that is not to say it is not a good movie. Out of all of the Star Trek films that deal with the crew of The Next Generation, it’s pretty decent by all accounts, and director and actor Jonathan Frakes (Commander William T. Riker) does an admirable job. It has an excellent start: a small team of Federation and Son’a officers are hidden in a compound built into a mountainside overlooking a bustling village. They are studying the Ba’ku, and use cloaking technology to remain unseen, which is of the utmost importance.
For the non-Trekkies out there, any observation of other races that are not in the Federation must be done in secret, until they are invited into the alliance. This practice is in accordance with the Prime Directive, the Federation’s guiding principle, which is a pledge of non-interference with civilizations that are pre-warp (incapable of space travel). Once a culture develops warp drive technology, they are invited into the Federation. But the Ba’ku, a peaceful group of very human-looking people, seem to have embraced an agrarian lifestyle, eschewing technology in favor of working with their hands and the land. These alien Luddites are not too fond of technology, so when Lieutenant Commander Data (Brent Spiner), the only android crew member of the Enterprise (and only android in the Federation), goes haywire and destroys the cloaking devices to reveal the hidden officers, the Ba’ku are not pleased.
Data is the only crew member of the Enterprise on this planet; everyone else was otherwise occupied on a diplomatic mission, or aboard the Enterprise. This event also gives ex-crew member Lieutenant Commander Worf (Michael Dorn), a Klingon who was now on the Star Trek series Deep Space Nine, the liberty to return as well. Captain Picard receives word of Data’s malfunctioning from Admiral Matthew Dougherty (Anthony Zerbe), who requests that Picard help him either capture or disable Data, since he is disrupting the joint Federation/Son’a mission. Captain Picard and Worf are able to stop Data with a hilarious rendition of “A British Tar” from H.M.S. Pinafore by Gilbert and Sullivan (you had to be there), and Dougherty tells the Enterprise they can leave, which makes Picard suspicious, so they stay.
As the plot moves forward, we get to see the Son’a up close and personal, and it is not very pretty. They are a race of humanoids who push the limits of genetic manipulation, employing teams of sexy female aliens to slice and stretch (and staple!) their flesh, bent on looking younger and healthier. The Son’a leader Ru’afo (F. Murray Abraham) keeps the pressure on Dougherty to move forward with their ultimate plan; relocating the Ba’ku from the planet so they can collect the unique radiation emanating from its’ outer rings, radiation that seems to reverse the aging process by rejuvenating cells, halting the very deterioration that is destroying the Son’a.
It is the premature discovery of this plan that causes Data to malfunction, and any non-android who comes into contact with this radiation feels the effects. Folks all over the Starship are getting frisky; we are witness to scenes of Riker and Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) being intimate, Worf going through Jak’tahla (Klingon puberty), Lieutenant Commander Geordie LaForge (LeVar Burton) regaining sight as his eyes regenerate, even Captain Picard doing the mambo in front of his mirror. Definitely ripe with humor; in fact, the comedy was frequent and very obvious.
Sight gags like Riker manually piloting the Enterprise with a joystick, quips like Data saying that during an emergency he can act as a flotation device, even Riker referring to his clean-shaven face as “smooth as an android’s bottom” peppered the film, but the jokes did little to pad what seemed like an extended episode; the content simply wasn’t there to truly bolster the run time. Star Trek: Insurrection felt overextended, despite all of the elements that make the show a sci-fi joy; between the thin romance between Picard and the Ba’ku Anij (Donna Murphy), over-the-top villains, heavy-handed subtext of cultural displacement, and yet another example of Picard’s refusal to violate the Prime Directive (like the plots of many previous episodes) leading to complications, this movie left me unconvinced that it needed to exist as a movie at all.
There simply wasn’t enough at stake here, and the underpinning logic was inherently flawed: the Ba’ku number only a few hundred, they migrated to the planet so aren’t indigenous, and arrived via their own spaceships, meaning they’re actually a post-warp civilization, so the Prime Directive doesn’t even apply. But plot holes and grumbles aside, the movie is still a fun ride. Explosions galore, spaceships, big sets, creepy aliens, and the curse of an odd-numbered Trek movie (look it up) makes this an enjoyable flick for most, a treat for a Trekkie, and a smooth transition from First Contact to Nemesis. But as smooth as an android’s bottom? I don’t think so.
