

Star Trek Insurrection (1998)

A Film Review by Mark O'Hara
Visit Online Film Critics Society at http://www.ofcs.org

In time for Christmas we have the ninth 'Star Trek' feature, 
Insurrection, a picture that succeeds largely because of the risks it 
takes.  

In the opening shots we see the idyllic lifestyle of the Bak'u, a people 
who are dead ringers for Homo Sapiens, and who choose to exclude their 
advanced technology from their everyday existence.  (Have you noticed, 
by the way, that intermittent apostrophes in names give them a foreign 
smack?)  Thus there are blacksmiths and bakers and other artisans who 
wear costumes and live in a village reminiscent of the late Middle Ages.  
The set decoration resembles a resort, in fact, a place one might reach 
by a small craft across a man-made bay from Epcot Center.  It is the 
quaintest part of the movie.  Another aspect of the set that accents the 
film's action is the beauty of the planet;  similar to the forests in 
Return of the Jedi, these landscapes provide a natural backdrop in which 
the story unfolds.  The few deep space shots look wonderfully luminous, 
like the multi-colored photographs of gaseous formations sent back by 
the Hubble telescope.

A sudden intrusion on the simple routines of the Bak'u tells us trouble 
is afoot.  Data (Brent Spiner) has gone haywire, and anyone who knows 
'Trek' lore knows Data is an android with the strength of a backhoe.  
Quickly he thwarts the Federation lackeys who pursue him, and then 
uncloaks the spy-post occupied by none other than Starfleet Admiral 
Dougherty (Anthony Zerbe) and some loose-skinned species with whom 
Dougherty is in cahoots.  Soon we witness the re-assembly of the crew of 
the enterprise, whose mission is at first to capture Data.  When matters 
become more complicated, a restored Data, Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick 
Stewart) and a comely Bak'u woman named Anij (Donna Murphy) discover a 
holographic double of the Bak'u village.  It seems that this Admiral 
Dougherty has wheedled the leaders of the Federation into approving the 
evacuation of the Bak'u to another planet, in order to exploit a most 
unusual natural resource.  If carried out, these orders would of course 
violate the Prime Directive.  Will the principled Jean-Luc Picard permit 
these peaceable people to be displaced?

In the tradition of the best episodes of the series, Insurrection floats 
some worthwhile political ideas - a plotting strategy right out of Gene 
Roddenberry's notebooks.  The agenda of this installment attacks the 
relocation of native populations;  at no point does Picard mention 
Stalinist Russia or Nazi Germany, though the comparison comes across.  
So the central conflict of the film springs from a trusty, if 
unoriginal, premise, and director Jonathan Frakes - Cmdr. William T. 
Riker, the loyal 'Number One,' - moves the story engagingly while 
staging variations on familiar themes.  Michael Piller's screenplay is 
well edited, with punchy scene-closings and a few hearty chuckles, nods 
to comic relief generated by Worf's revisted puberty and Data's 
misinterpretation of references to boobs.  Pretty standard stuff, this, 
but it works again.

The villain's seat is occupied by F. Murray Abraham as Ru'afo, an angry 
alien who looks like a mummy with a steel plate in his head.  Abraham's 
makeup is actually a throwback to his Academy Award-winning role of 
Salieri in Amadeus, skin sagging in even greater folds and pouches.  
Ru'afo is moderately effective as a baddie;  it's just that he's mostly 
bark, the script not giving him the menacing bite given Christopher 
Plummer as a Klingon general in an earlier flick.  Not until we discover 
Ru'afo's history with the Bak'u does his character take on more mythical 
proportions of evil.

Once again Patrick Stewart plays a brave and noble captain.  His acting 
is probably the most transparent among the cast.  He makes us believe a 
60-ish action hero whose ethics and actions are beyond question.  Picard 
even gets a love interest in this episode - Anij, whose beauty belies 
her 300-plus age.  Unfortunately, the Captain gets no farther than 
hand-holding, though he promises to spend an upcoming 318-day leave with 
her.  Hints of a rekindled romance turn up repeatedly between Riker and 
the buxom Counselor Deanna Troi, though we do not see much consummation 
in this relationship, either.  (The dearth of affection is probably one 
cause for the PG rating, for which I am thankful;  my 10 year-old was 
able to attend with us when usually she misses 'Star Trek' 
installments.)

Music in Insurrection nicely compliments scenes that require it, giving 
the audience cues for climactic moments.  As I believe the makers of the 
'first' episode of 'Star Wars' are doing with John Williams' theme, the 
'Star Trek' people reuse the famous 'Next Generation' main theme, big on 
horns, at the end.

All the baloney about numerology aside, this odd-numbered 'Star Trek' is 
a solid entry in the series.  It is not as riveting as the last, First 
Contact, which featured the Borg, the worst cross you could imagine 
between zombies and vampires, and which was very heavy on technology and 
space exteriors.  By leaving this trend at least momentarily behind, 
Insurrection takes a chance on a slower pace and more character 
development.  Two decisions that, for my three and a half dollars, make 
for good entertainment.

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