Director:
Stuart Baird
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 …. The Reman Viceroy
Shannon Cochran …. Senator Tal’aura
Dina Meyer …. Commander Donatra
Jude Ciccolella …. Commander Suran
The Movie
Since its premeire in the summer of 1982, Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan has been the film by which the rest of the Star Trek series has been measured. Its mix of suspenseful action, a great villain and unsurpassed character work in the series has made the picture the one Trekkies compare all others to. While the series has come close to reaching its quality since then with efforts Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and Star Trek: First Contact, none of these movies quite had the right formula to match Khan in the end.
Fast forward to 2002 and the Star Trek series has one more chance to equal its 1982 achievement. With the series’ Next Generation cast coming to the end of its run on screen, everyone wanted to go out with a bang. Critical and audience reception to the franchise’s previous movie, Insurrection, was lukewarm at best, so Star Trek Executive Producer Rick Berman made some big changes up front at the beginning of the next installment, Nemesis.
First and foremost, Gladiator scribe John Logan was brought in to help with the process of giving the film a greater scale and creating a villain worthy of Khan. Next to be brought in was Director Stuart Baird. While Baird had only directed two other pictures, Executive Decision and U.S. Marshals, Baird was one of Hollywood’s premiere editors of Action films. His previous credits had included working on the Lethal Weapon series as well as John Woo’s action packed Mission: Impossible 2, so the hope was that the action in this film would be more up to par with audiences standards.
Nemesis begins with one of the franchise’s most bittersweet moments. Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and the ship counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) have gotten married. Unfortunately, they have also been promoted and will be leaving the Enterprise soon. The crew’s final mission looks as if it will be to take the lovers on their honeymoon, when suddenly they are called away. A military coup on the Romulus (home of the classic Star Trek villains, the Romulans) has overthrown the planet’s government and Enterprise is called in to assess the situation.
Upon arrival, Enterprise Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) learns the new Romulan leader Shinzon (Tom Hardy) wants peace with the Federation and wants to meet with Picard. Unfortunately, upon their meeting Picard learns Shinzon is actually a clone of the Captain. He was originally supposed to replace Jean-Luc, but when that plan was scrapped, he was imprisoned upon the Romulan planet of Remus, a slave colony,
Eventually, the Remans revolted, resulting in this military coup. A nice scene between Shinzon and Picard turns to tragedy when the new Romulan leader turns out to be less hospitable than the Enterprise was lead to believe. Revealing his Romulan Warbird, the Scimitar, the Reman warriors attack the Enterprise on the way to earth.
The Remans are tremendous villains here, resembling Max Schreck’s Count Orlok from the original Nosferatu. Its nice to see villains in a Star Trek film that don’t resemble anything we’ve seen before. These guys are supposed to be the epitome of evil and for the most part they succeed.
This all leads to a fantastic showdown between the two ships. The dogfight is probably the best of the Star Trek series, finally usurping Khan’s final battle. The ships actually move like lumbering starships would in battle. Other nice touches, such as building the sets on a movable gimbals, instead of having actors choreograph the movements of battle provide a bit more reality. One of the best aspects of the battle is a sequence in which the ships ram into each other. The scene is done with minimal CGI and has masterful slow motion model work on screen.
Nemesis is absolutely one of the best of the Star Trek series. It is regrettable that it was totally overshadowed by The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. The swan song for one of the best Science Fiction franchise in history deserved a great sendoff. The movie delivered, the box office did not. Fortunately, we’re still left with this exciting film that has numerous Trek moments that rank as some of the best in the series.
The relationship with Shinzon and Picard is fascinating at times. Many times during the series’ run, Picard wrestled with his own personality and if his decisions changed how his life ended up. Here we see what would happen to the man if he had been thrown into slavery. The relationship is heartbreaking as Picard starts to look at Shinzon as a chance to have a son before he turns on him.
There are also some really nice moments between these cast mates, most of which have been together for a decade and a half. Most of these happen during the film’s opening wedding scene, but there are some nice comedy moments spread throughout. Also, as the tone gets darker, the relationships come even more to forefront as these characters pull together under the worst circumstances. It really feels like these people are a family of explorers and warriors and this is their moment of truth.
The finality of the film is one of its greatest strengths. This film is a fitting tribute to a great series that has helped pave the way for many others. Perhaps down the line, another Enterprise crew can take to the skies, but until then, this film is a proper sendoff.
Score: 9.0/10
The DVD:
The Video
The film is presented in a beautiful Anamorphic Widescreen in its original aspect ratio of 2:35.1. Colors are wonderfully vibrant here and Paramount has done a fantastic transfer of this print.
Score: 10/10
The Audio
The soundtrack here is available in Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0. Both are great tracks and will satisfy all wanting to hear Data sing Blue Skies or the Enterprise and Scimitar ramming together.
Score: 9.0/10
SPECIAL FEATURES: Deleted Scenes, Archives: Storyboards, production, props,
Theatrical and teaser trailers, 14 separate featurettes, screen tests, Commentaries
Deleted Scenes – This is a tremendous selection of Deleted scenes here. Its tough to go into many of them due to spoilers, but of note is one scene featuring Wil Wheaton’s Wesley Crusher, who has not been seen since Star Trek: The next Generation went off the air. Another scene introduces Shinzon too early and another reveals that Doctor Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) also has left Enterprise.
Nemesis Revisited Featurette – This is a half hour documentary into the film’s production. The best bits are where Jonathan Frakes speaks about how eerie it was to step back into their roles after a three year absence.
The Romulan Senate Featurette – The film’s production designer goes into great detail about the design of the set and how it differs from the rest of the locations.
Storyboarding the Action Featurette – This looks at the film’s preliminary work on the action.
The Scimitar Featurette – This looks at the Reman Warbird and how it looks different compared to the other ships in the Star Trek Universe.
The Enterprise E Featurette – This featurette talks about how many sets came back and which were newly constructed for this film,
Build and Rebuild Featurette – The film’s production and art designers take center stage and speak about the complexity of the film’s sets.
Romulan Lore Featurette – This is an extensive examination of the Romulans from their inception on the original TV series to Nemesis. This is the best of the featurettes and has some nifty shots of Romulans through the years from various shows.
Shinzon & The Viceroy Featurette – This looks at the relationship of the Reman Vicerory and his adopted son Shinzon. This featurette goes into detail about Shinzon’s quest for domination of the universe.
Romulan Design Featurette – This is a small documentary of the design for the Romulans and their home planet, which has never really been seen before on TV or in film.
Four-Wheeling in the Final Frontier Featurette – This goes into the fun Patrick Stewart was having in an off road battle sequence that takes place in the film. This also looks at the design for the vehicle that appears in the sequence.
New Frontiers: Stuart Baird on Directing Nemesis – Director Stuart Baird talks about his passion for film making. He also speaks about how he wanted this film to not only be a good Star Trek entry, but a good film in general.
A Star Trek Family’s Final Journey – This documentary goes into the dynamic of the relationships of the cast and characters. For those that love this cast, it’s kind of a sad moment, but a nice tribute.
Red Alert! – Shooting the Action of Nemesis – This goes into great detail about the various action sequences from the dune buggy chase, to the Riker/Viceroy showdown, and finally to the climatic Enterprise/Scimitar battle.
A Bold Vision of the Final Frontier – Once more the production designers take center stage talking about various aspects of the film from the ships, to the uniforms, and finally to the weapons used in the picture.
Archives: Storyboards, production, props: Various production designs and story boards.
Commentary by Producer Rick Berman – This is kind of a sparse commentary here. Berman talks about various aspects of production from cast to hiring John Logan (seemingly one of his favorite subjects) but much of the track is silent.
Commentary by Director Stuart Baird – Once again this is commentary is on the light side. One section that seems interesting is how Baird keeps having air decompression sequences in his films. Otherwise, this is kind of a snoozer.
Text Commentary by Star Trek Historians Michael and Denise Okuda – This is actually the most fun of the commentaries as it has little tidbits on every little nod to each of the series that was put into the film.
Score: 10/10
