Star Trek: Nemesis

Star Trek Nemesis
File:Star trek nemesis ver2.jpg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Stuart Baird
Written by	Story: John Logan Rick Berman Brent Spiner Screenplay: John Logan
Produced by	Rick Berman
Starring	See Cast
Cinematography	Jeffrey L. Kimball
Edited by	Dallas Puett
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	December 13, 2002 (2002-12-13)
Running time	116 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$60,000,000 (estimated)
Box office	$67,312,826

Star Trek Nemesis is a 2002 American science fiction film directed by Stuart Baird, written by John Logan (from a story developed by Logan, Brent Spiner, and producer Rick Berman), and with music composed by Jerry Goldsmith. It is the tenth feature film in the Star Trek franchise, and the fourth and final film to star the cast from the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. It follows the mission of the crew of the USS Enterprise-E as they are forced to deal with a threat to the United Federation of Planets from a Reman named Shinzon who has taken control of the Romulan Star Empire in a coup.

Nemesis acted as a swan song for The Next Generation cast, as could be seen from the film's tagline of "A generation's final journey begins". The film was the least commercially successful in the franchise, and was poorly received by the majority of critics. Reviews also opined that the response to the film was evidence that the franchise had become stale.

Plot

The film opens on the Romulan Imperial Senate being presented by the military with plans to invade the Federation. The Praetor dismisses the proposal and rebukes the military. Afterward, a senator takes leave of the senate, leaving a small object behind. The object open, releasing a green mist into the air that covers the room. Moments later, everyone in the room, including the Praetor, dies — victims of a political assassination.

As the crew of the USS Enterprise prepares to bid farewell to longtime first officer William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), who are soon to be married on Betazed, they discover a positronic energy signal on a planet in the Kolaran system, a system near the Romulan Neutral Zone. An away team consisting of Picard, Worf, and Data take a shuttle to Kolarus III and discover the remnants of an android resembling Lieutenant Commander Data (Brent Spiner). When the android is reassembled, it reveals its name is B-4, and the crew deduce that it is a less advanced predecessor of Data.

The Enterprise is then ordered by Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) to conduct a diplomatic mission to Romulus. Admiral Janeway informs Picard that the Romulan government has undergone a military coup and is now controlled by a mysterious Reman named Shinzon (Tom Hardy). This is a surprising development, as the Romulans had regarded Remans as an undesirable caste, generally used as slave labor.

Upon their arrival to Romulus, the crew learns that Shinzon is actually a clone of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. While he claims to want peace and freedom for the Remans, he also unveils his flagship, a heavily armed warship named Scimitar.

Shinzon's plan soon becomes apparent. The crew of the Enterprise discovers that the Scimitar is emitting low level thalaron radiation, which is extremely dangerous. Several unauthorized accesses to computer systems take place aboard the Enterprise. Finally, Counselor Troi is psychically attacked by Shinzon. Soon thereafter, Picard is transported aboard the Scimitar so Shinzon may receive a transfusion of Picard's genetic material. Shinzon also transports B-4 aboard his ship, revealing that Shinzon was behind the placing of B-4 on Kolarus III in order to lure Picard to Romulus. However, B-4 is revealed to actually be Data in disguise, and Data rescues Picard and they get back aboard the Enterprise.

The Enterprise heads back to Federation space, and is soon ambushed by the Scimitar. Due to the Scimitar's ability to fire its disruptors while cloaked the Enterprise is outgunned and on the verge of defeat. Two Romulan Warbirds come to the Enterprise's aid, claiming to oppose the rogue Shinzon's plans, giving the Enterprise a fighting chance. Shinzon proves to be a excellent military tactician, destroying one Warbird and disabling the other. Refocusing his attention on Picard, Shinzon heavily damages the Enterprise and gains the upper hand once again.

Refusing to surrender, Picard orders the damaged Enterprise to ram the Scimitar, disabling it, and preventing it from continuing on to Earth. Shinzon then activates the Scimitar's super weapon, bent on taking the Enterprise down with him. Picard boards the Scimitar to stop the weapon and ends up fighting Shinzon. Picard kills Shinzon by impaling him through the abdomen with a long piece of metal, which the murderously determined Shinzon then forces into his own body to get close enough to confront Picard. The fight ends with Picard victorious, but unable to deactivate the weapon.

Data arrives with a single use personal transporter and has the captain beamed back to the Enterprise before ultimately sacrificing himself to shut down the weapon and destroy the ship.

While the severely damaged Enterprise is repaired in a space dock, Picard bids farewell to newly promoted Captain Riker, who is off to command the USS Titan. Picard then meets with B-4, whereupon he learns that, much like when Spock's katra had been planted in Leonard McCoy's mind at the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Data had copied the seeds of his neural net into B-4's positronic matrix not long before his death, giving hope that B-4 may one day have the same capacity for growth that Data enjoyed and keeping Dr. Soong's legacy alive.

The DVD release has an alternate ending titled "The Captain's Chair" that features the goodbye scene between Riker and Picard, as well as the introduction of the new Enterprise first officer. The Captain's Chair is newly installed with the special feature of automatic restraint straps that trigger when the ship goes to alert, to which Picard responds with a smile "It's about time!"

Cast

• Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard
• Jonathan Frakes as Commander/Captain William T. Riker
• Brent Spiner as Lieutenant Commander Data and B-4
• LeVar Burton as Lieutenant Commander Geordi LaForge
• Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Commander Worf
• Gates McFadden as Commander (Doctor) Beverly Crusher
• Marina Sirtis as Commander (Counselor) Deanna Riker
• Tom Hardy as Praetor Shinzon
• Ron Perlman as Reman Viceroy
• Dina Meyer as Romulan Commander Donatra
• John Berg as Romulan Senator
• Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan (uncredited)
• Kate Mulgrew as Admiral Kathryn Janeway
• Majel Barrett as Computer voice

Production

Star Trek: First Contact and Insurrection director Jonathan Frakes was not offered to direct; if he had, he would have accepted it again. Frakes has gone on record that if he had directed Nemesis, the box office business would have been better than it was. He has said that director Stuart Baird (who had no prior knowledge of the franchise) is one of the reasons why the film failed at the box office.

The film, as with Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, was cut by about a third from a much longer running time. Many of the deleted scenes in the movie were "character moments", which served to further the characters' relationships with one another and the reason why they were cut was more emphasis on the battle between the Enterprise-E and the Scimitar. Rick Berman has stated that about 50 minutes worth of scenes were filmed, but cut (though not necessarily all of them were usable in a final form, some might be redundant with other scenes, etc.). Around 17 minutes of deleted scenes were included on the DVD, including:

• A private conversation between Picard and Data over a glass of wine ("Chateau Picard," which is also drunk in the toast to Data at the end of the film) in which they discuss the fact the crew of the Enterprise is starting to move on with their lives; Data examines the flute from "The Inner Light" at the start of the scene.
• Early introduction of Shinzon in the film (right after the wedding reception). This is the scene that includes the dialogue from the theatrical trailers, "But in darkness there is strength..." (Viceroy) and "The time we have dreamed of is at hand... the mighty Federation will fall before us..." (Shinzon).
• The second mental invasion scene of Counselor Troi in the Turbolift. It also includes Shinzon's line from the teaser, "Don't fear."
• A scene of Picard walking with Troi down a corridor and Troi explaining to him that he and Shinzon are two different people. This scene includes the line from the trailer, "it was like a part of me had been stolen..." (Picard)
• Sick-bay getting ready for battle, in which a short dialogue between Dr. Crusher and Picard is shown.
• An extended version of the scene in which Crusher visits Picard in his quarters. In this extended version Crusher tells Picard that Shinzon is a different person, not the man [Picard] she has known for over 30 years. Picard kisses Crusher on the cheek to thank her for her visit.
• Worf warning Picard about the Romulans just before they leave for Romulus. This scene includes the dialogue from the trailer, "I recommend extreme caution..." (Worf)
• Riker and Troi discussing their honeymoon plans with Worf.
• An extended version of Picard's first meeting with Shinzon.

Nemesis was to have been the first Star Trek film to feature the character of Wesley Crusher (played by actor Wil Wheaton). His scenes were almost entirely cut from the film, leaving only a brief, silent cameo during the wedding (which itself is only visible in widescreen presentations as he sits at the far end of the table). A deleted scene on the collector's-edition DVD features a brief conversation between Wesley and Picard: Wesley, now a lieutenant in operations-division gold, has returned to Starfleet and is a member of Captain Riker's engineering crew on the USS Titan.

Two "extended ending" clips were included on the two-disc edition. The first was Picard talking to Dr. Crusher about her return to Starfleet Medical and Crusher remarking how she works with a bunch of young doctors who are ready to cure the entire quadrant. The second was Geordi and Worf packing Data's possessions in his quarters. As they are cleaning up Data's cat Spot jumps into Worf's hands and Worf states he is not a cat person. Geordi sees how Spot has taken to Worf and replies, "You are now." Immediately following this scene is the introduction of Commander Madden, which is included in the deleted scenes of the DVD.

Nemesis was also the final Star Trek film to have a Jerry Goldsmith soundtrack, as the veteran composer died two years after its release.

Reception

Box office

Star Trek Nemesis was released on December 13, 2002, in direct competition with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (released November 15, 2002), the 20th James Bond film Die Another Day (released November 22, 2002), and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (released December 18, 2002).

The film's gross domestic income was the lowest of the franchise at $43,254,409 as of September 2008. It opened at #2 in the US box office (just $200,000 behind Maid in Manhattan) and was the first (and thus far the only) Trek film not to debut at #1. It earned $67,312,826 worldwide on a budget of $60,000,000.

Critics

Out of 148 professional reviews compiled by the Rotten Tomatoes film review database, 53 (37%) are positive, giving the film a "rotten" rating. The film has earned a Metacritic score of 50 out of 100 (mixed or average) from 29 reviews.

Some reviewers felt the response to Nemesis indicated that the Star Trek franchise had become worn. Roger Ebert stated in his review, "I'm smiling like a good sport and trying to get with the dialogue … and gradually it occurs to me that "Star Trek" is over for me. I've been looking at these stories for half a lifetime, and, let's face it, they're out of gas." Rotten Tomatoes ratings consensus as of 16 March 2009 indicates “Nemesis has an interesting premise and some good action scenes, but the whole affair feels a bit tired.” Rick Berman (executive producer of the film) has suggested that Nemesis's performance may have been negatively affected by "the competition of other films".

In promotional interviews for the film, Patrick Stewart stated that room for a sequel was left as B-4 begins singing, "Blue Skies."

Home media

On May 20, 2003, Star Trek Nemesis was released on DVD in both anamorphic widescreen and full screen editions in Region 1 (it was also released on full screen VHS). This initial release contained an audio commentary by director Stuart Baird, four featurettes on the film's production, seven deleted scenes, a photo gallery, and a preview for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on DVD at Amazon.com. Also on October 4, 2005, Star Trek Nemesis was released on UMD in widescreen for Region 1 only; it's the only Star Trek ever released on UMD.

The initial release was followed up with a "Special Collector's Edition" in Region 1 on October 4, 2005. Although this two-disc set contained several additional features, it also duplicated some of the features found in the initial release. It has also been criticized for not reintegrating several deleted scenes into the film, à la Star Trek: The Motion Picture, to improve the narrative.

External links

• Star Trek Nemesis at IMDb
• Star Trek Nemesis at AllMovie
• Star Trek Nemesis at Rotten Tomatoes
• Star Trek Nemesis at Metacritic
• Star Trek Nemesis at Box Office Mojo
• Official Star Trek Nemesis web site
• Star Trek Nemesis at Memory Alpha