Cast
Picard: Patrick Stewart
Riker: Jonathon Frakes
Data: Brent Spiner
Worf: Micheal Dorn
Crusher: Gates McFadden
LaForge: LeVar Burton
Troi: Marina Sirtis
Ru'Afo: F. Murray Abraham
Admiral Daugherty: Anthony Zerbe
Anij: Donna Murphy.
Directed by: Jonathon Frakes; Screenplay by: Brannon Braga, Ronald Moore and Rick Berman
Released: December 11, 1998. Domestic Gross: $70 million
My Rating: ***
The Plot
On a planet inside a nebulae, called the Briar Patch, Data is part of a team observing the natives. Then,
after phaser fire, he goes nuts, exposing the covert team. That requires Admiral Dougherty to put a call into
the Enterprise-E and Picard. Picard and crew, plus Worf, on a visit from DS9, head to the Briar Patch to see what went wrong.
What Picard and crew find is not just an observing mission. It turns out that the race working with the Federation team, the Son'a,
are planning to move the indiginous race, the Baku, so the Son'a can benefit from the youthful effects of the planet. Picard is enraged
that the Federation would do such a thing. Plus, the Son'a use illegal weapons, and are generally not nice.
Picard and crew stand-up to Dougherty and Ru'Afo, helping the Baku stay on the planet. In the end, Picard destroys the Son'a weapon,
along with Ru'Afo, and the Baku stay at home.
My Comments
This movie, the dreaded number 9, breaks the odd/even curse. It has the humour of STIV, and the action of Generations. After putting Picard through
the emotional wringer (his brother dying, the Borg) he gets a love interest. The almost-kiss with Anij makes this worthwhile. Plus, the heart-wrenching
scene of Geordi seeing the sunrise with regenerated eyes, makes this movie one of the best.
The other facet of this movie is the Data storyline. He is operating without his emotion chip, which opens the possibilities of his part in the movie.
He learns what its like to be a child, which he really is. The emotion chip played a large part in Generations, and a small part in First Contact. The decision
to exclude it from Insurrection almost seems like a step backward, but it helps the story immensly.
As they release these movies on dvd as two-disc sets, my opinions have changed on a few of them. Generations is one of them, and so is Insurrection. After sitting and watching them, and pouring over the extras, which is something Paramount has not skimped on, I realize that the whole series of films are pretty solid. With the exception of #5, I enjoy all 10 films. This one is no exception. Yes, the story was a little weak, but so was the story of #4, when you think about it. A story about saving the whales is about as solid as this one. But, its all in how its executed. And, this film is very well executed. It shows how well this cast knows each other and how effortless they work together.
I liked it when it originally came out, and I was one of the few who liked this movie right from the start, and I will continue to stand behind it as one of the shining spots of the franchise.
