Oh that it should end like this. After four years of reflection the producers of Star Trek finally realised that they should hire an experienced movie director and writer, one imagines in an attempt to finally give the Next Generation a chance to enjoy a truly cinematic adventure, divorced from the production methodology of the T.V series.
The budget had been upped dramatically and writer John Logan (co-writer of the not especially good Gladiator) made encouraging soundings about an epic, grandiose finale with a brooding revenge story at it's heart. Sounds good doesn't it? But Nemesis is not a good movie, in fact its a fitting epitaph for the way the series had progressed and sheds light on the how and why of its ultimate failure.
Producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga have consistently affirmed that its franchise fatigue that caused the film to die at the box office - a contributory factor perhaps but not the most important reason. In some respects the film's failure was set in stone prior to it's production because the three previous Trek's had been simply so average. You can blame the television shows but frankly, if you've been doing your job right there should be an audience out there looking forward to the new movies because its the kind of event story and spectacle that they can't get on the small screen.
Nemesis had come during a period in which successive Treks both on and off the small screen simply hadn't cut the mustard and this was bound to catch up with Paramount sooner or later. It's ultimate failure though is, as ever, the script.
Logan's story is clearly based on his favourite - The Wrath of Khan and you can see where he's coming from. Khan has it all. The perfectly recreated spirit of the T.V series, the emphasis and development of character, excellent action set pieces and the perfect, solid storyline that mixes the personal and the epic. Nemesis however does none of these things.
It's funny it should be a story about doubles because it's Khan's poorer clone, a sort of a B-4 to the 2nd film's Data if you like, which desperately needs to assert itself an a big-budget action spectacle but in doing so looses the subtly and the character dynamics that produced the best of the T.V series. Stewart and Spiner were given story input and huge salaries to effectively add-testosterone to their characterisations and unsurprisingly place the story emphasis on themselves but in doing so managed to alter both characters so as to divorce from their small screen counterparts. They'll claim they have the right of course but such self-indulgence only points to the general loss of grip exhibited here.
In turning Star Trek into some kind of action-franchise, phaser rifles and the like, the shows heart is gradually lost. In fact the general contempt for the show's history is there everywhere from the way in which Wesley Crusher is relegated to a non-speaking background part (his return warranted explanation), the Romulans are carelessly neutered and Data is needlessly dispatched for for the sake of plot rather than logic. A really awful way to end the series but frankly, if this the kind of thing we're going to get then perhaps it's for the best. Star Treks II, III and IV sure seem a long time ago now...
The budget had been upped dramatically and writer John Logan (co-writer of the not especially good Gladiator) made encouraging soundings about an epic, grandiose finale with a brooding revenge story at it's heart. Sounds good doesn't it? But Nemesis is not a good movie, in fact its a fitting epitaph for the way the series had progressed and sheds light on the how and why of its ultimate failure.
Producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga have consistently affirmed that its franchise fatigue that caused the film to die at the box office - a contributory factor perhaps but not the most important reason. In some respects the film's failure was set in stone prior to it's production because the three previous Trek's had been simply so average. You can blame the television shows but frankly, if you've been doing your job right there should be an audience out there looking forward to the new movies because its the kind of event story and spectacle that they can't get on the small screen.
Nemesis had come during a period in which successive Treks both on and off the small screen simply hadn't cut the mustard and this was bound to catch up with Paramount sooner or later. It's ultimate failure though is, as ever, the script.
Logan's story is clearly based on his favourite - The Wrath of Khan and you can see where he's coming from. Khan has it all. The perfectly recreated spirit of the T.V series, the emphasis and development of character, excellent action set pieces and the perfect, solid storyline that mixes the personal and the epic. Nemesis however does none of these things.
It's funny it should be a story about doubles because it's Khan's poorer clone, a sort of a B-4 to the 2nd film's Data if you like, which desperately needs to assert itself an a big-budget action spectacle but in doing so looses the subtly and the character dynamics that produced the best of the T.V series. Stewart and Spiner were given story input and huge salaries to effectively add-testosterone to their characterisations and unsurprisingly place the story emphasis on themselves but in doing so managed to alter both characters so as to divorce from their small screen counterparts. They'll claim they have the right of course but such self-indulgence only points to the general loss of grip exhibited here.
In turning Star Trek into some kind of action-franchise, phaser rifles and the like, the shows heart is gradually lost. In fact the general contempt for the show's history is there everywhere from the way in which Wesley Crusher is relegated to a non-speaking background part (his return warranted explanation), the Romulans are carelessly neutered and Data is needlessly dispatched for for the sake of plot rather than logic. A really awful way to end the series but frankly, if this the kind of thing we're going to get then perhaps it's for the best. Star Treks II, III and IV sure seem a long time ago now...