STAR TREK: INSURRECTION (1998) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

star trek: insurrection (1998) movie

Genre              |   Science Fiction

Classification   |   PG 

Running time   |   103 minutes

Released         |   11 December 1998 

cast

Patrick Stewart ... Picard
Jonathan Frakes ... Riker
Brent Spiner ... Data
LeVar Burton ... Geordi
Michael Dorn ... Worf
Gates McFadden ... Beverly
Marina Sirtis ... Troi
F. Murray Abraham ... Ru'afo
Donna Murphy ... Anij
Anthony Zerbe ... Dougherty
Gregg Henry ... Gallatin
Daniel Hugh Kelly ... Sojef
​Michael Welch ... Artim

director

Jonathan Frakes

writer

​Gene Roddenberry ... (creator: "Star Trek")
 
Rick Berman ... (story) &
Michael Piller ... (story)
 
Michael Piller ... (screenplay)

cinematographer

​Matthew F. Leonetti ... director of photography

music

Jerry Goldsmith

film editor

Peter E. Berger ​

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box office result

Worldwide             $​​​​​​​​​​​112,587,658

Australia                 $​​​​​ not available

North America       $​​​​​​​​​​​​70,187,658

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movie minutiae

​Sir Patrick Stewart wanted his life-long friend Brian Blessed to play Admiral Dougherty. Blessed did over eight hundred hours of astronaut training at Star City in Russia, and remains the number one civilian on the wait list for the International Space Station.

According to a leaked manuscript, "Fade In: The Writing of Star Trek: Insurrection" (written by Michael Piller years before his death, and never released because of studio concerns about the content of said manuscript), initial concepts for this movie were far removed from the final product. The first treatment (called "Star Trek: Stardust") involved Picard and a fellow cadet named Hugh Duffy (who were friends at Starfleet Academy) meeting up after almost three decades because of different circumstances. Duffy has become a renegade who has tried to provoke a war between the Federation and the Romulan Empire, and Picard must travel to the Neutral Zone to bring him back. Picard eventually finds Duffy and risks his career to help the other officer thwart a plan by the Romulans to take over a planet housing "the fountain of youth". At the end, Picard gets arrested (and stripped of his rank) by Starfleet due to his actions during this movie. The plot was similar to Heart of Darkness, and featured numerous references to various episodes of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION (1987).

This is the first of only two "Star Trek" movies not to feature any scenes on or near Earth. The second being STAR TREK BEYOND (2016).

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related movies

STAR TREK: NEMESIS (2002)

STAR TREK: INSURRECTION (1998) MOVIE IMAGES

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STAR TREK: INSURRECTION (1998) STORY SYNOPSIS

​While on a mission to observe the peaceful Ba'ku race, Lieutenant Commander Data suddenly behaves as if having to fear for his existence. The immortal Ba'ku, whose planet offers regenerative radiation, and therefore incredible lifespans, live in harmony with nature and reject advanced technology. Their planet and their culture is secretly researched by the Federation associated with an alien race called the Son'a. But the Son'a intend to abduct the Ba'ku in order to take the planet for themselves and for the Starfleet officials who all would like to regenerate their bodies. But they did not think of the loyalty of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-E to the Prime Directive.

STAR TREK: INSURRECTION (1998) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 11 December 2016

​​Pop Movee Rating

The box office success of STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT (1996) buoyed the executives at Paramount Pictures to green light the next film in the franchise quickly. The Next Generation cast, lead by Patrick Stewart, demonstrated they could draw both old and new fans into cinemas with their battle against the Borg and the studio wanted to capitalise on this appeal.

Unfortunately, the follow-up, INSURRECTION, is an uneven film that feels like too much like a star vehicle for Patrick Stewart and not enough about the adventures of the Enterprise crew. This is confirmed by screenwriter Michael Piller’s unpublished (but readily available) account of the story and script development he undertook when writing INSURRECTION. 

It’s quite a preachy film, with its “how many is too many” discourse and “live in the moment” philosophy. While STAR TREK fans admire this about their favourite franchise, it failed to resonate with mainstream viewer, who sought more straight-forward action, adventure films.

The premise of the story is solid enough; the Enterprise crew mount a mission to recover Data from a First Contact mission, but something has gone wrong with everyone's whip favourite android.

Surprisingly, the mystery is wrapped up fairly quickly and the story shifts focus to the default STAR TREK storytelling method of an ‘A’ story and a ‘B’ story. The ‘A’ story is the film’s “mystery”; uncovering the secret of planet Baaku’s regenerative powers. The ‘B’ story looks to develop a relationship between Patrick Stewart’s Picard and Donna Murphy’s Anij; an alien whom the Captain has encountered in the planet below. The emphasis on these two characters was clearly at the behest of Stewart, whose behind-the-scenes influence had grown over the four years since the conclusion of the TV show four years earlier.

Screenwriter Michael Piller tries to balance the need of the two story threads, but, time and again, forward momentum is interrupted by the need to service the film’s star with a romance that remains ambiguous throughout. Stewart and Murphy fail to develop any real chemistry and the entire film suffers as a result.

As poorly executed as the film’s romance is executed, that alone is not enough to derail the entire film. It’s the ‘A’ story that is film’s real killer.

Somewhere along the way, Producer Rick Berman and Writer Michael Piller, who had worked together on the TV shows, decided it was a good idea to tell a story about a planet where the population never grows old; a fountain of youth story. Good storytellers always make a point of saying that if a story relies on revealing “what’s around the corner” at its conclusion, it had better justify the journey.

In the case of INSURRECTION, the reveal is not worth the journey and the audience has worked out where the film is headed long before the story itself arrives at its conclusion. Piller is forced to use the ‘A’ story to shoehorn the obligatory “moment-to-shine” scenes for the supporting cast; at the same time providing the fan service that is required of every STAR TREK film to generate positive word-of-mouth among franchise devotees. The difficulty with such a long-running series like STAR TREK are limitations imposed upon casual viewers by the show’s long history. Knowledge of the original STAR TREK, THE NEXT GENERATION and DEEP SPACE NINE is required to comprehend the story’s background details and character interactions. It’s a built-in audience inhibitor.

The limitations of the film also extend to its production values. The film looks cheap; especially the interior sets. Casual viewers wouldn't be aware, but the majority of the sets for STAR TREK movies were redressed from whatever series was filming at the time. Only toward the end of the film, when the Enterprise crew evacuate the Baaku village and trek into the mountains, does the film feel like it achieves the kind of scope expected of a feature film.

The film’s cinematography is quite uneven, which is surprising given Matthew F. Leonetti, with Director Jonathan Frakes, did such a good job on FIRST CONTACT. Adopting the same kind of close quarter shots doesn't work nearly as well for INSURRECTION and there are scenes that look like it was simply a case of point the camera and shoot the scene because of time and money restrictions. INSURRECTION is a very flat looking film and the camera, for the most part, feels locked in position.

The same could also be said of the film’s actors. Outside of Patrick Stewart, only F. Murray Abraham, as the villainous Ru’afo, and LeVar Burton, as erstwhile Chief Engineer, Geordi LaForge, show any sign of commitment to their role.  Abraham is at his scenery-chewing best, full of piss and vinegar as the outcast looking for revenge against those who have wronged him. Burton, who only has a handful of scenes, makes for one the most memorable character moments ever captured in STAR TREK as his character, who has been blind since birth, sees his first sunrise as the regenerative powers of the planet have an unexpected effect upon his sight. Outside of this, there is very little else to recommend in terms of performance.

In addition to his duties as Director, Jonathan Frakes suits up as Riker, the Enterprise First Officer, but the ask is too great. He’s far too glib and lacks authenticity when called upon to deliver on his action scenes. Brent Spiner as Data has aged too much to be credible as an android and the other supporting players, such as Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis and Gates McFadden, struggle to make an impact in a movie that shifts the emphasis from the TV ensemble to star Patrick Stewart.

INSURRECTION does just enough to pass as a STAR TREK film, but it is well below par as a mainstream feature with appeal for the broader movie-going public. The story is not as nearly compelling as it needs to be to compensate for the television production qualities, the mediocre acting and the indulgence of the star’s need to have a romantic storyline that turns out to be entirely platonic and more concerned with preaching to the audience about “loving life”. It’s a story that sits well within Gene Roddenberry’s humanistic philosophy, but it was wrong to make it a focus of the film. It drains the film of energy and ends up making INSURRECTION the least interesting of the four NEXT GENERATION feature films.

STAR TREK: INSURRECTION (1998) USEFUL LINKS

Star Trek: Insurrection - Wikipedia
​Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) - IMDb
​Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) - Rotten Tomatoes​

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