 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
Star Trek Insurrection
|
 |
|
Some Star Trek films feel like real movies,
and others seem simply to be typical TV episodes padded out with a few extra
plot moves and more spectacular production values.
The big
screen instalment prior to this one, First
Contact (1996), was one of the best in
the series because, under the direction of Jonathan Frakes (who also plays
Commander Riker), it had a genuinely cinematic speed and energy.
Insurrection is a more mundane affair. It serves
to keep the Star Trek machine ticking
over, rather than daring to make a knight's move or two with the given
elements. It will undoubtedly please Trek fans (of which I am one) with its humour and occasional bursts of action-packed
excitement – but it fails to honour the more philosophical, thought-provoking
side of the Gene Roddenberry legacy.
The film
begins from a familiar Trek premise.
The crew of the Enterprise, led by the redoubtable Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick
Stewart), is called to a planet that resembles Eden – a paradise of learning,
peaceful co-existence and (as soon becomes clear) eternal youth. The
spokespersons for the Ba'ku preach the abandonment of all technology – which
is, to say the least, an odd fantasy for a special effects blockbuster to
peddle.
But there
is trouble in paradise, both external and internal. The external threat comes
from the militaristic meddling of the decrepit Son'a, led by Ru'afo (F. Murray
Abraham). Understandably, they want this fountain of youth for themselves. Where
the Bak'u are monuments to New Age health and
wellness, Ru'afo is a pathetic slave to cosmetic surgery – every day his facial
skin is stretched and stapled. Yet, even within the seemingly perfect society
of the Ba'ku, there is unrest and dissatisfaction – particularly among
(surprise, surprise) “the young”.
Caught in
the middle of these clashes of values, Picard and crew must decide whether to
intervene and thus alter the natural course of a society's evolution in order
to save it. This is the foreign-policy dilemma beloved of Star Trek's creators, a mirror to every crisis of American politics
from
However, Insurrection goes easy on the
allegorical possibilities, and remains largely content to be a stirring action
film of the Star Wars variety.
Insurrection most resembles a TV episode in its
elegant but lightweight use of sub-plots as counterpoints to the main theme.
Since the central storyline grapples with the issues of eternal youth and
culture clash, every smaller intrigue or interaction reflects, in a minor key,
these concerns.
To this
end, screenwriter Michael Piller has devised some fascinating twists for the
regular characters: La Forge (LeVar Burton) facing the possibility of attaining
normal eyesight; Worf (Michael Dorn) undergoing an
enforced “second puberty”; Data (Brent Spiner) receiving lessons on the “spirit
of play” from a young boy.
Unfortunately,
none of these developments really lead anywhere
interesting – just as, in the main plot, the potential romance between Picard
and local Ba'ku sage Anij (Donna Murphy) has a lacklustre, indifferent air.
Even the
merry apparition which kicks off the story – Data transformed into a violent,
berserk subversive – is quickly smoothed over and forgotten. Nonetheless, dear
Data still gets the best moment of the movie, when he investigates the effects
of physical regeneration on the planet of the Ba'ku by innocently asking Worf:
“Are your boobs firming up?”
© Adrian Martin December 1998 |
