Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

Director:

Stuart Baird

Writers (WGA):

Gene Roddenberry (television series Star Trek)
John Logan (story) ...

Release Date:

13 December 2002 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

A Generation's Final Journey... Begins

Plot:

After the Enterprise is diverted to the Romulan planet of Romulus, supposedly because they want to negotiate a truce, the Federation soon find out the Romulans are planning an attack on Earth.

Plot Keywords:

Romulan | Planet | Captain | Space | Android

Awards:

1 win & 4 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Wed. Dec. 2	3:00 PM	AMC
Thur. Dec. 3	3:00 AM	AMC

Cast

Patrick Stewart	...	Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Jonathan Frakes	...	Commander / Captain William T. Riker
Brent Spiner	...	Lt. Commander Data / B-4
LeVar Burton	...	Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge
Michael Dorn	...	Lt. Commander Worf
Marina Sirtis	...	Counselor Deanna Troi-Riker
Gates McFadden	...	Dr. Beverly Crusher
Tom Hardy	...	Praetor Shinzon
Ron Perlman	...	Reman Viceroy Vkruk
Shannon Cochran	...	Senator Tal'aura
Dina Meyer	...	Commander Donatra
Jude Ciccolella	...	Commander Suran
Alan Dale	...	Praetor Hiren
John Berg	...	Senator
Michael Owen	...	Helm Officer Branson

Also Known As:

Star Trek X (USA) (working title)
Star Trek X: Nemesis (Australia)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence and peril and a scene of sexual content.

Runtime:

116 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Switzerland:12 (canton of Zurich) | Italy:T | Iceland:10 (original rating) | Iceland:12 (video rating) | South Korea:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Brazil:12 | Canada:PG | Finland:K-11 | Germany:12 | Ireland:PG | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:M | Norway:11 | Philippines:G | Portugal:M/12 (video rating) | Singapore:PG | Spain:7 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:12 (canton of the Grisons) | UK:12A | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

El Mirage Dry Lake, San Bernardino County, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

In a deleted scene near the beginning of the film, it is mentioned that Dr. Crusher is preparing to leave for Starfleet Medical. This further adds to the sense of the ship emptying, and further cements this as the final TNG film.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: While fighting Commander Riker on board the Enterprise, the Reman Viceroy plummets through an endless white chasm to his death. An endless chasm on board a spaceship? This should likely be damage to the ship's decks, but the decks/damage are not shown at all.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Senator: Senators, consider the opportunities for the Empire. At last, the destinies of the planets Romulus and Remus will be united. Shinzon of Remus is offering us a chance to make ourselves stronger than ever before. It would be madness to reject it. I beg you not to let prejudice or politics interfere with this Alliance. By joining Shinzon's forces with ours, not even the Federation will be able to stand in our way.
Praetor Hiren: That's enough!

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Troldspejlet: (#29.12)" (2003)

Soundtrack:

Blue Skies

Hopefully, the DVD will have the director's cut.

6 out of 10

If the rumors are to be believed, then approximately fifty minutes of footage for Star Trek: Nemesis are lying somewhere in Paramount's vault. While the movie itself is technically well-edited with a slick Hollywood gloss, this might explain why everyone but Picard and Data are left short-handed with minimal screen time and dialogue. Hopefully, the missing footage will find its way to the DVD release, where we can get the final tribute the crew of The Next Generation deserves.

As a story for a final adventure, Nemesis isn't quite the epic one may hope for. The plot mostly focuses on the parallels between Picard and the new Romulan leader, a human named Shinzon (Tom Hardy), who claims to desire peace between the Romulans and the Federation. He also has a special bond to Picard, which I won't give away, suffice to say Data also gets to experience something similar throughout the film. Essentially, the plot isn't particularly interesting and it works primarily as a set-up for the climactic space battle, definitely the movie's highlight.

Before then, the only setpieces worthy of interest are a gratuitous but enjoyable car chase (!) on a desert planet that resolves in a grin-inducing fashion, and a fast-paced shootout on board Shinzon's warship, the Scimitar, which also resolves in a pretty cool manner. That's all the action we get in the first 80 or so minutes, meaning there's a lot of talky scenes that go nowhere and clumsily insert the good ol' "Nature vs. Nurture" debate to no avail. Outside of the action, what makes the first 3/4's of the movie watchable are the excellent special effects and the crew's camaraderie. Acting wise, we get excellent performances from Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner (by the way, is it just me or does Stewart look even more physically fit than ever? Old age is doing little to bring him down)

Clearly, the final space battle is what we've been waiting for, and after 10 movies and 23 years, we get what is easily the most elaborate action sequence of the entire Trek franchise. The segment runs just short of a half-hour and features the Enterprise going toe-to-toe with the Scimitar, and to keep the concept of one starship battling another from getting boring (because let's face it, that gets old in a matter of minutes), director Stuart Baird throws in a few more ships, some more phaser fights from boarding enemy parties (which prove to be the most exciting parts of the movie), fisticuffs, and even a self-destruct sequence that could prove fatal for everyone. It's a doozy of an action scene, even if it is slightly marred by Troi's psychic link and tiresome reports of collapsing shields. This is the sequence that makes the movie worth watching to sci-fi action fans.

Personally, I would have preferred had Baird just spaced the action out more evenly (a la First Contact), rather than stuffing it all in the conclusion, since the plot itself is hard to hold interest on its own. Still, from the space battle alone, this is more action-packed than any of the original crew's films and comes out just ahead of First Contact in terms of quantity, if not in quality. The finale also features the death of a beloved character, which isn't executed quite as properly as it should have, but is touching on its own. Once again, I'm hoping the director's cut will fix that up. Until then, this is just satisfying enough to those who thirst for outerspace action.