We’ve covered the other three, now it’s time for this one.
It looked good, the scenes in the Briar Patch and the thing with the wings that spread out all look good on film. That’s about it. Most “bad” Star Trek movies are still better than most other things out there, so I can sit through this one and enjoy it. The only one I do not enjoy is V.
I don’t like how Data removes his emotion chip and it’s never heard of again. The Borg have just made him more human that he ever thought possible, so it’s followed up by that?
This thread can also be used as a flotation device.
For all its flaws, I like Insurrection. It’s certainly not the best Star Trek movie ever made, but it’s enjoyable enough. It reminds me a bit of The Voyage Home; doesn’t take itself too seriously, and it’s kind of a fun ride.
Oddly enough, despite all of the things that are wrong with it, the only thing that really, really gets to me is the freaking joystick. Really? Let’s assume for the moment the necessity of some kind of “manual control.” A Logitech Wingman is the best we can do in the 24th century? Couldn’t even spring for a Saitek X37 or something? And, is the XO really the best guy to “fly” Enterprise through that? Not the helmsman who, oh I don’t know, does it EVERY DAY!?
But I do have a soft spot in my heart for that movie. Heck, anything that introduces me to Donna Murphy can’t be all bad, right?
It made perfect sense to me that he would junk the emotion chip. Thematically it was a bad idea in the first place; moreover, it’s a clear security risk. It got exploited TWICE. The only odd thing is that Starfleet would be smart enough to insist on it.
I think the last episode of TNG was better. But I did like getting rid of the emotion chip. I never liked the idea of it in the first place. Data has emotions. They just aren’t the same as human ones. It’s about time he realizes he needs to stop trying to be someone he can never be. Imagine if Spock thought he still had to be a perfect Vulcan.
In fact, I think he becomes more human when he accepts his limitations, and works with them.
I’d appreciate it if someone could answer a question about this movie that’s been bugging me. I’ll warn you up front it’s probably just my faulty memory that’s causing the confusion. I haven’t seen the movie in many years.
Here’s the scene I’m thinking of from the IMDB’s goofs section for Insurrection.
What I remember of the circumstances leading to that scene was that they were trapped and they knew they were going to be rescued but due to something like an injury or lack of air they weren’t sure they would be rescued quickly enough leading up to her slowing time.
The thing that has been bugging me (and it’s not listed under goofs at IMDB) is that if they wanted to bleed or breathe less then yes, they would want to slow time but that means that outside the ‘bubble’ things would be moving much faster in relation to you. If you’re observing things moving very slowly then you’re moving much faster then the outside world.
So is that a mistake by the filmmaker? Am I misrembering and they really did want to speed up time for themselves? Or the ever popular, ‘What the heck are you talking about?’.
I’m glad to see this thread went the opposite direction than I thought it would. Most people tear this movie apart. Other than a lack of grandeur and some dumb lines, I’ve always thought it was a fun movie. Like I said, a “bad” Star Trek is still better than most of the movies or tv shows.
I mean, besides the fact that the plot makes no sense.
Here you have a village of “natives” on a planet that grants magical rejuvenating powers. Picard and the gang cite the Prime Directive in order to prevent the “natives’” exploitation. Except:
The “natives” have a single village on an entire Earth-sized planet. I know you don’t want to damage their equilibrium and all (and I know that in ST, planets average 3 acres in size), but if you built a series of anti-aging resorts on the other side of the planet, would they really mind?
All of which is moot because the so-called “natives” are not native to the planet at all, but rather a bunch of starfaring humans who settled the world a few centuries before. The Prime Directive does not apply to them in any way, shape or form. Picard et al are completely and utterly in the wrong.
Alessan, part of the deception pulled on Starfleet was the idea that the Son’a were too far gone for the natural radiation to heal them. Thus, they had to harvest it and use it in concentrated form. This was later exposed as a lie; the Son’a said this so that they could justify wiping out the Ba’ku. Also, the Federation couldn’t build resorts there because the planet wasn’t in Federation space so they had to go through the Son’a for access. Otherwise the Son’a’s big bruiser-cruisers would come along to “escort” them away.
Also, the Ba’ku were native to the planet and it was the Son’a who took off into space when their parents decided to go all hippie on them.
I liked Insurrection myself. The jokes didn’t bother me all that much (Trek has never done humor all that well, DS9 aside) and the plot was a bit of a relief after the nail-biting anxiety of First Contact. I knew in advance that there was no way this movie was going to be bigger in scope than First Contact so I wasn’t let down.
The only thing that doesn’t work for me is the boy’s pet, which looks like a nutsack with eyes.
I’m not saying the Son’a were right; its just that the Ba’ku came across as dicks who had the secret of eternal life and refused to share it with anyone. Besides, do you really think the Son’a (a minor race we’d never heard of before or after)would have started a war with the Federation?
First of all, I’m not sure they weren’t natives (how did they evolve a high-technology culture and then manage to hide it from Starfleet?). But even if they were, they were still a starfaring race, and the Prime Directive only applies until a culture discovers warp drive - which they obviously had.
Riker is a particularly good pilot; it’s discussed in at least one episode. (I have no idea of the name; Picard isn’t there and the admiral in charge needs Riker to pilot a shuttlecraft or something.) Besides, it’s within the captain’s rights to do so if he thinks he can control the tactical situation better by doing it directly than by shouting at the helmsman.
I’m with you on the joystick, though.
There’s nothing wrong with the movie, it just would have made a better two-part episode.
There are a few echoes here of this fellow’s reviews.
It really did feel like a two parter from the TV series. Its a lot calmer and less violent and fraught than the TNG movies that came before and after. From that it feels a lot more TNGish.
Not much more to say than that, it feels a little forgotten coming just after First Contact, perhaps not entirely fairly.
I remember something, possibly a deleted scene, that suggested that after the end, the Ba’ku did indeed open up other parts of their planet to settlements from Federation citizens, possibly only the seriously ill or elderly. Quark shows up, trying to make a killing off his own string of resorts, and Riker slaps him around or something.
But, of course, the bad guys weren’t interested in settling there, they claimed they wanted to harness the anti-aging mojo and duplicate it, and the only way was to scorch the planet. (I’m not sure that the effectiveness of this process was ever refuted, just their ultimate motives for doing so.)
Picard’s motives are not ultimately about the Prime Directive - he’s told early on that it doesn’t apply and decides that this is the right thing to do anyway, that the Ba’ku shouldn’t be shoved off this planet because they don’t believe in violence. I think he has a point - even if the Ba’ku aren’t native, they have some rights to their homes and their peace because they FOUND the planet in the first place.
I have to admit, I always liked the idea of having a Star Trek adventure taking place centuries after TNG/DS9/Voyager, where it’s revealed that Picard is still secretly alive, having quietly retired to the Ba’ku village after being diagnosed with a neurological condition (like the one from ‘best of both worlds’) and been restored to perfect health and the prime of his life - until some situation arises that calls for his experience, and one of the few people with need-to-know on Picard’s full file gives a hint to the captain of the newest Enterprise…
