Star Trek: Insurrection Review
by Christian Pyle (tlcclp AT aol DOT com)January 30th, 1999
STAR TREK: INSURRECTION (1998)
a review by Christian Pyle
Of the nine Star Trek films, "Insurrection" most closely approximates the style of the television series. It begins, as many TV episodes did, with a surprising turn of events that intrigues the viewer. Working with an invisible survey team, Lt. Cmdr. Data (Brent Spiner) suddenly reveals his presence to the planet's inhabitants and takes hostages. Of course, his pals on the Enterprise rush to investigate. They discover that the planet's inhabitants-the Ba'ku-possess immortal youth thanks to the "metaphasic radiation" provided by the planet's rings and that a Federation admiral (Anthony Zerbe) is plotting with a dying race-the Son'a-to relocate the Ba'ku and steal the radiation.
The inevitable clash between the admiral and Capt. Picard (Patrick Stewart) concerns the Federation's Prime Directive, the rule of non-interference with other cultures. The Directive was invented back in the original 1960's TV series as a band-aid for Star Trek's dirty little secret, its roots in imperialist mythology. All that boldly-go-where-no-one-has-gone-before, basic-human-quest-to-explore stuff is the old cover story for European campaigns to conquer, colonize, and exploit everyone else in the world. The Prime Directive reassures viewers that the Federation has higher, selfless ideals.
Occasionally, Star Trek explores its roots. In one of the last episodes of the "Next Generation" series, for example, the Federation ordered Picard to relocate a tribe of Native Americans because of a treaty the Federation made with the Cardassians. "Insurrection" is in the same mold, but seems artificial: the Ba'ku are peaceloving and kind; the Son'a are twisted and selfish. If the two groups were not so clearly a dichotomy of good and evil, the movie would be more engaging.
"Insurrection" is the best of the "Next Generation" series thus far, and best captures the intelligence of the TV series. However, there are problems with bringing this crew from the small screen to the large. The major one is that the movie is crowded. While the "classic crew" had a subset (Kirk, Spock, and McCoy) that, convention dictated, would receive most of the attention, the six characters serving under Picard all have fan followings and seem to require equal screen time. Characters have to be developed on the fly, and little time is left to introduce each of them to a new audience.
Michael Piller's script is peppered with jokes, probably in an attempt to give this film the appeal that "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" (1986) had. The humor that comes out of the personality of the characters works well-for example, Data, an android long obsessed with understanding the human experience, befriends a child and learns to play-but other gags are just embarrassing.
Grade: C+
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