

STAR TREK: INSURRECTION
                    A film review by Mark R. Leeper

               Capsule: In a relatively minor STAR TREK
          story, the "Next Generation" crew stop a
          miscarriage of justice against a group of six
          hundred people living a sort of idyllic existence
          on a magical planet.  Beautiful special effects,
          but a somewhat lackluster story.  Rating: 5 (0 to
          10), low +1 (-4 to +4)
          New York Critics: 6 positive, 3 negative, 7 mixed

     Maybe STAR TREK is growing up and what we are seeing with STAR
TREK: INSURRECTION is really a good thing.  For once the Next
Generation crew are not out trying to save the universe from a mad man
trying to destroy it.  The basic issue being discussed is one that gets
seen in American courtrooms every year.  The issue is one of eminent
domain. Does the Federation have the right to relocate a group of six
hundred colonists from a planet and turn that planet into a boon to the
entire human race?  Do the colonists have a right to say they do not
want to give up their planet at the expense of the greater number of
people?  It is an important legal point.  Certainly there are examples
in the past when relocating people has been a great injustice.  What is
at stake are the principles of the Federation.  But do we really care,
given that we are living in a decade when many large institutions seem
to be betraying their founding principles?  The idea that the
Federation of Planets may be no better than many of our own government
agencies is hardly shocking today.

     This principle of possession is an odd basis for what is in large
part an action film.  It certainly is a complex moral issue.  Or it
could have been a complex moral issue if the writers had the courage to
leave it ambiguous.  But not surprisingly they did not have that
courage.  Rest assured that when the movie is over--and in fact from
very early in the film--the viewer will know who the good guys are and
who the bad guys are.  And what is more--I doubt that this is a
spoiler--it is the pretty people who will be the good guys and the ugly
people who will be the bad guys.  So if the themes are a little more
sophisticated than usual, the approach is not.

     The Ba'ku are an advanced race who have abandoned their advanced
technology and returned to a simple life in which they can do simple,
pleasant, creative tasks all day long.  They have found themselves a
planetary Shangri-La that keeps them forever young.  It is the kind of
non-technological utopia where everybody has nice creative tasks like
baking bread or making pottery and nobody within range of the camera
has to do laundry, scrub mildew stains, or clean toilets.  But another
race, the Son'a, are plotting to get control of the Ba'ku's planet so
that the Federation can analyze the magic of the planet.  The Son'a
people look like they were inspired by the Katherine Helmond character
of BRAZIL.  They look like they started human looking but have had too
many facelifts so the flesh is pulled too tightly over their skulls.
It is a kind of nightmare that people must have in affluent
neighborhood of Los Angeles.  There is also something of The Shadow in
them as they and the Federation were able to build a large observation
station within yards of the Ba'ku encampment, all the while clouding
Ba'ku minds so they were never detected.

     The Enterprise crew get involved on the side of the Ba'ku,
defending their right to monopolize the positive effects of their
planet.  Curiously this film almost directly contradicts the theme of
STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN in which Spock tells us that the needs
of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

     The actors playing crew of the Enterprise do their standard
competent acting job.  It may take a little while to get up to speed
remembering the personalities of each of the characters as one viewer
told me.  But they step through their roles with performances that are
equally without flaw or excitement.  Even the former great Patrick
Stewart is a competent but pedestrian starship captain. Rejoining the
crew is Michael Dorn as Worf who manages to be assigned to the
Enterprise or to Deep Space Nine, whichever this agent prefers at the
moment.  F. Murray Abraham is the alpha Son'a, but even he cannot put
much passion into his role.  The actors are much upstaged by the usual
exquisite Enterprise effects.  Views of the old starship tacking in and
out of nebulae where this film shows its real artistry.

     The STAR TREK: INSURRECTION might make a decent episode or two of
the TV-series, but it has hardly the makings of a classic film.  It
just is not sufficiently involving.  I give it a 5 on the 0 to 10 scale
and a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.

					Mark R. Leeper
					[email-masked]
					Copyright 1998 Mark R. Leeper