Star Trek - Nemesis (DVD)

...its producers after the tenth Star Trek film failed to score at the box office, it was clear that 'Star Trek Nemesis' was never going to be the last in this mostly prestigious and highly profitable line, and now an eleventh movie (based on the original crew, but played by a different cast) is due to begin filming in November. Blame for the tenth film's weak box office performance, grossing significantly lower than any of its nine predecessors (even ...
...as 'an over-saturation' of the Star Trek franchise, having run endlessly and desperately for fifteen consecutive years since 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' first brought Gene Roddenberry's franchise back to the small screen, and mostly plummeting into repetitive and meaningless drivel as soon as its brightest spark 'Deep Space Nine' finished in 1999, leaving viewers with the unoriginal 'Voyager' and poorly conceived 'Enterprise' which ended in ... more

Despite the claims of its producers after the tenth Star Trek film failed to score at the box office, it was clear that 'Star Trek Nemesis' was never going to be the last in this mostly prestigious and highly profitable line, and now an eleventh movie (based on the original crew, but played by a different cast) is due to begin filming in November. Blame for the tenth film's weak box office performance, grossing significantly lower than any of its nine predecessors (even the really rubbish ones), was mostly targeted at what the cast, crew and disgruntled television viewers everywhere saw as 'an over-saturation' of the Star Trek franchise, having run endlessly and desperately for fifteen consecutive years since 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' first brought Gene Roddenberry's franchise back to the small screen, and mostly plummeting into repetitive and meaningless drivel as soon as its brightest spark 'Deep Space Nine' finished in 1999, leaving viewers with the unoriginal 'Voyager' and poorly conceived 'Enterprise' which ended in embarrassing cancellation. It might also have had something to do with the direct competition of the reasonably popular 'Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,' 'Die Another Day' and 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' opening around the same time, I couldn't say for sure.

Fandom has long sworn by the so-called 'odd-numbered movie curse' for Star Trek feature films, the theory stating that, by some mysterious phenomenon probably involving subspace or thalaron radiation or other form of technobabble, each even-numbered Star Trek film is guaranteed to be excellent, while each odd-numbered film in-between is sure to be damned. It's a fun theory, but naive and frequently incorrect (though it's right about Star Trek V - what a load of crap), and this tenth film was widely considered to finally put an end to that curse nonsense by failing to live up to its predictions of even-numbered excellence. Always intended as the final voyage of the Next Generation crew whether it bombed at cinemas or not, it seems that 'Nemesis' is widely panned by fans of the series for failing to give it a proper send-off, and instead relying on publicity stunts and gimmicks unsuited to the Star Trek universe, such as a ridiculous desert buggy chase and far too much focus on shooting things. I thought I'd take quite a controversial stance on this film by not completely hating it, and struggling to the best of my objective ability to voice its defence, having just finished watching it for the first time since that disappointing night in the Crewe Apollo all those years ago.

There are indeed numerous problems with Star Trek X; for a start, it's significantly more action-oriented than even the previous Next Generation films, and macho battles between starships and between characters comprise an unusually large portion of the screen time, seemingly around half of the entire film (though I'm sure the actual amount is slightly less). The film's script has also been criticised for being a mere copy of the second Star Trek film, 1982's 'The Wrath of Khan,' which general consensus among Trekkies and casual film fans alike judges (very accurately) to be the best in the franchise. It's true that there are an alarming number of parallels: a dangerous human adversary, a lengthy starship battle in a nebula, homo-erotic sub-text between the main villain and his second-in-command (because it's not enough for Hollywood villains to be English, they have to be gay as well), a potentially catastrophic ultimate weapon capable of instantly wiping out entire civilisations, a conveniently long activation period in which said weapon can be deactivated, and a necessary and noble sacrifice from a popular character at the conclusion. But this paltry list of offenses aside, 'Nemesis' adds a number of exciting and intriguing new elements to the Star Trek film franchise, while acting as a satisfying and thoughtful finale at the same time. Honestly.

Considering some of the major stylistic changes made by this film, and the nine-year legacy of Next Generation films taking the series increasingly away from its roots, I was pleasantly surprised at how authentically Next-Gen the film managed to be, at least for the first 12 minutes and 46 seconds. Not only are all the original main cast members present, with the exception of characters such as Tasha Yar and Dr. Pulaski whose tenure on the television show was comparatively brief, but several unexpected surprises turn up at Riker and Troi's wedding ceremony early in the film (itself a nice, if sudden conclusion to their relationship arc) and in some of the later scenes, namely Whoopi Goldberg's Guinan, Wil Wheaton's much-hated Wesley Crusher (who doesn't get any lines in the final version, but hangs around in shot near his mom the Doctor), and even Data's pet cat Spot. Some of the series' most effective character dynamics also make a long-awaited return, the scenes between Data and Geordi LaForge in particular (Brent Spiner and LeVar Burton) making me feel right at home in the old Enterprise again. Of course, being a stand-alone film there isn't adequate time to focus equally on all the characters like the television series managed, especially in its later years, and 'Nemesis' follows the example of its three predecessors by centring primarily on lead man Patrick Stewart in his most famous role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, with the customary secondary role for Spiner's lovable android.

The female characters Deanna Troi and Beverley Crusher (Marina Sirtis and Gates McFadden) are largely ignored as usual, though Deanna does get a larger role in her capacity as empathic damsel-in-distress and bit-of-alright (nice to see these modern series progressing from the sexual exploitation of the 1960s), and for the second film in a row, Michael Dorn's heroic Klingon officer Worf is largely wasted as the mere butt of badly written jokes. To the writers' credit, they attempt to provide the Enterprise's often overlooked first officer Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) with a more prominent role and story arc in this final outing before he leaves to pursue an intended command of his own, and although his main action scene is largely pointless and confusing, it at least makes more sense within the context of the series than Patrick Stewart's vest-clad 'Die Hard Picard' action hero scenes in the previous couple of films, which still remain to a smaller extent as the old man pilots an assortment of testosterone-fuelled (metaphorically speaking) vehicles and ships. All the performers know these roles like the ridges on their foreheads, and it's an unadulterated delight to see them playing these famous characters for one last time to the best of their abilities. The final ingredient is the film's necessary enemy, Picard's titular nemesis Shinzon, who turns out rather unexpectedly to be some form of clone of the captain at a younger, more reckless age, and ultimately loyal to the cause of conquering the Federation to make his adoptive race strong. Tom Hardy's main responsibility is to look and sound like a convincingly youthful Patrick Stewart and he does this about as well as can be expected, though his character moves on from sympathetic figure of mystery to clichéd villainous enemy commander before the film's half-way point, and is given little to work with thereafter.

What really surprised me about this film was its focus on the Romulans, a prominent enemy power in the Star Trek universe in the original series and even more so in The Next Generation, who have nevertheless remained oddly obscure in comparison to the more famous Klingons and Borg used to pull in the viewers to previous films. Focusing and expanding on this interesting and highly secretive race is another satisfying gift to fans, as is the first ever exploration of Romulus' sister planet Remus after it was mentioned in a passing comment in the original series episode 'Balance of Terror' back in the sixties. Romulan concerns shift into the background after the horrific opening scene as focus shifts to Shinzon and his Reman brothers, a ghoulish, bat-like race clearly owing to the silent classic 'Nosferatu' in the make-up department. Their homeworld, the twin of Romulus, is a veritable Hell of fire, darkness and thankless slave labour, and the hellish metaphor is handled slightly less clumsily than the Roman one, which bears no real relevance in the series outside the Centurions and winged helmets of the original series. There is a B-plot to this film that attempts to mirror the main events, which was largely written by Brent Spiner himself; in this, which originally serves as little more than a distraction from the Shinzon plot, a dismantled android twin of Data is located on a planet near the Romulan Neutral Zone, and after some terrible car-chase shenanigans designed to appease brainless cinemagoers and annoy Trek fans, the android is eventually re-assembled aboard the Enterprise. This plot primarily gives something for Data to do, and although it is eventually weaved fairly well into the larger story in the second half of the film, it still seems quite distracting and redundant on the whole. Earlier 'models' of Data had already been used in the TV series to great effect, which only makes this disappointing by comparison as well as confusing in the characters' failure to even name-check the recurring villain Lore, who was originally found in similar circumstances and subsequently attempted to annihilate the Enterprise crew on several occasions. But then, this film wasn't just made for the fans.

This film is a confusing mess of loyal fan service and Hollywood clichés, and this is probably its biggest failing. It was widely reported that director Stuart Baird was hired specifically to provide a new perspective on the dwindling franchise, and his inexperience with the Star Trek universe really shows. While Nicholas Meyer succeeded in a similar task with Star Trek II, Baird opts for a hugely action-oriented direction, cutting many 'non-essential' character scenes that can be found on the DVD extras, and are among the best written and performed. Even despite all the explosions, photon torpedo battles and random fist-fights, the film falls into the trap of featuring far too much dull, moralising conversation between the two enemies Picard and Shinzon, falling into all the usual clichéd traps to disappoint fans, and only getting in the way of the loud explosions that the rest of the audience came to see. Watching the final battle in the nebula is like watching someone play one of the Star Trek video games that similarly don't fit into the tone of the franchise, and much of the action seems to occur purely for the sake of it, most evident in Riker's arbitrary and dialogue-free hand-to-hand struggle with a random Reman inside the Enterprise's service ducts towards the end. While such scenes do indeed expand the Star Trek franchise, they only make it seem more like other, more famous, and far better films. The stealthy sneaking around on Shinzon's ship, culminating in a corridor phaser fight complete with corny "this isn't really the time for witty banter, but we're going to have a conversation anyway, while I score direct hits against the idiotic stormtroopers who are all useless at shooting, despite this being the precise thing they are trained to excel at" event. Just in case the Star Wars homage/theft wasn't already obvious enough, they blow a hole in the wall and jump into it after the prisoner is rescued.

I really quite enjoyed 'Star Trek Nemesis' for the first 12 minutes and 46 seconds. The wedding reception was rife with cringe-worthy banter, but felt like a proper send-off for the characters about to embark on their final mission, and all the stuff with the Romulan Senata being wiped out makes for a nice shocker opening. Once everybody is aboard the Enterprise and a suitable amount of weak gags have been made at Worf's expense, the film really captures the atmosphere of the TV show as Geordi detects an unusual positronic signal coming from a planet and the ship warps off to investigate. Picard decides to lead the away team in an uncharacteristic move, and the shuttle lands in a tense silence... then a Starfleet desert buggy leaps from its interior, and the film goes downhill instantly. The special effects and explosions are all quite good, if that's what you enjoy about films, but there's really very little point for anyone else to watch this, a significant and tragic mis-step in the even-numbered Star Trek film legacy (even performer LeVar Burton has gone on record as saying "it sucked"). The DVD has long been available as a budget release with some special features, but was more recently re-released as the final instalment of the often-impressive 'Special Edition' line, though disappointingly this only adds some interviews to the previous list of extras and doesn't attempt to modify and improve the film by re-inserting deleted scenes as was done for the special editions of the first two Trek films, before Paramount decided to stop wasting money on such a silly idea and simply repackage their budget releases with some hastily filmed interviews and a snazzy new cover tagged on. Fans of Picard and his Enterprise crew that dominated science fiction television from the late eighties to the mid-nineties will almost certainly be disappointed by this (presumably) final chapter of its legacy, and are far better off collecting the TV series on DVD. Many of the earlier Star Trek films are well worth watching too, especially if you stick to the even numbers (though 'The Search for Spock' isn't all that bad). 

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