Here are Justin's comments for
Insurrection. Misplaced them on that particular podcast. If y'all like reading this, we may post a lot more on the blog in the future.
Insurrection.
The first TNG movie not written by Braga and Moore but scribed by the series' former executive producer Michael Piller, the man who took over the show in the third season and saved the show.
Insurrection is the re-write of his original screenplay. The original premise was essentially Star Trek: Apocalypse Now in which Data goes crazy (par for the course) but sets himself up as the leader of the Baku and Picard is sent to destroy him and does actually succeed in killing him, but then a whole conspiracy is revealed and it finds Picard and crew actually rebelling against the entire Federation and Starfleet and not just Admiral Doherty and the Son'a. It had the potential to being the darkest, grittiest Trek movie ever, but Patrick Steward (executive Producer Patrick Stewart that is) got wind of it, hated it and said, "let's do funny." Because, it worked so well in Stark Trek 5, right?
Taking place in the latter half of the DS9's 7th season, they don't even try that hard to expalin Worf's presence, just a brief off-screen remark that he was at the Manzar Colony. Since you guys are going to be watching DS9 the events that were taking place at this time in Trek history and for Worf in particular, will make you realize why the fans of DS9 cried foul at his just "appearing there" because it was a TNG movie. on DS9, the Federation was fighting a 2 year-long war against the Dominion and Worf's wife had just been murdered by a Cardassian. Not the best time to give him Klingon puberty
So Data can now remove his emotion chip? What, did Brent Spiner get tired of having emotions? He seems to be Season One Data again, learning to play tag in the wheat fields with little boys.
Once again we see Riker's combat skills at work. Let's give a brief rundown of Riker's tactical abilities. In
In Rascals he let two salvaged Klingon birds of prey, crewed by a bunch of Ferengi, cripple and capture the Enterprise. The man fired one shot! A “point seven-five burst” to “get their attention.” In Generations the Duras sisters got a hold of the Enterprise’s shield frequencies and started firing madly, Riker again, fired one phaser shot and then came up with some technological solution to getting the Klingon’s shields down. Here he fires a couple of torpedoes then essentially throws gasoline on the Son'a and lights them on fire.
The Son'a. What a waste of F. Murray Abraham. if you look at the special features or read any of the behind the scenes stuff, you'll find Rick Berman constantly trying to find a new Kahn for a villian. Let's face it, there was no one that can duplicate what Montalban did with Kahn, so you really need to stop trying to come up with Trek's "ultimate villian." JJ Abrams realized this when he had a Romulan truck driver become the villian in last year’s movie.
At its core it really was a Trek tale, following the Prime Directive and so forth. But it was a glorified episode with “wacky” moments with firm boobs, flotation devices, Klingon pimples, Riker shaving, Picard doing the MAMBO and a CGI little chipmunk created to pre-empt Jar Jar Binks and as annoying CGI in the late 90’s.
But it did have its moments. The crew standing together with Picard to save the Baku, Geordi seeing a sunrise and Riker and Deanna finally getting together.
But the whole movie collapsed with this one scene:
“Mister Worf, do you know Gilbert and Sullivan?”
“No, sir, I have not had a chance to meet all of the new crewmembers since I’ve been back.”
Queue the bouncing ball lyrics. Who would’ve thought that Data could be incapacitated the same way Sideshow Bob was?
Best Villian: Data.
Favorite Name: Adhar Ru'afo
Hot Chick Budget: Stephanie Niznik as Kell Perim, Enterprise’s new helmswoman.
Hot Dude Budget: Michael Horton as Lt. Daniels. Finally been promoted to Bridge duty after retreating down many hatches and getting his butt handed to him by the Borg in First Contact.
Favorite Planet: The Manzar Colony. A strategically placed world to the plot of the movie where Worf was apparently vacationing.
Favorite Cameo: Gate McFadden as Beverly Crusher, because apparently she had 4 lines in the entire film.
Favorite Technology: The razor, because it lures Deanna Troi into a bath tub. Followed up closely by Star Trek Fan’s most hated piece of tech. The manual steering column. Still curious to what the trigger actually does.
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