Rating: Country: USA Release Date: October 4, 2005 Distributor: Paramount Home Video Director: · Stuart Baird Cast: · Patrick Stewart: Captain Jean-Luc Picard · Jonathan Frakes: Commander/Captain William T. Riker · Brent Spiner: Lt. Commander Data/B-4 · LeVar Burton: Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge · Michael Dorn: Lt. Commander Worf · Marina Sirtis: Counselor Deanna Troi-Riker · Gates McFadden: Dr. Beverly Crusher · Tom Hardy: Praetor Shinzon · Ron Perlman: The Reman Viceroy Related Sites: · Full Cast & Crew (IMDb) Grade: B+

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After celebrating Riker and Troi's wedding, the Enterprise is en route to Betazed to deliver the new couple to their honeymoon destination. Sidetracked by a cryptic signal, they soon discover a prototypic twin of android Data located near the Romulan Neutral Zone, humorously named B-4 (as in "before" Data). Further diverted, they take up an invitation from the Romulans to engage in peace negotiations. There they learn the new leader, Shinzon, is actually a half-Reman clone manufactured from DNA stolen from Captain Picard. The appearance of peace with the Federation is discovered to be a ploy -- Shinzon needs Picard's genetic material for continued survival, and besides, he's really a villain determined to destroy Earth and the Federation with his new super-weapon. A nifty space battle ensues, with the Enterprise matching tactical wits with the Scimitar, Shinzon's cloaked warbird. A major character ultimately sacrifices himself to destroy the super-weapon and save his shipmates.

If it sounds like you've heard this before, you have. The plot borrows heavily from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, with little of its weightiness or charm. The film is decidedly darker in look and tone, which is a fine and dandy choice, though I think it strays from the Star Trek vision. It mostly stays away from the inside humor prevalent in the franchise's theatrical history, and also does its best to minimize plot elements from the series, presumably to cater to the general movie-going audience. Certainly there were plenty of opportunities to tie-in to previous stories shown on Star Trek: The Next Generation. We know Sela is still wandering about and Spock remains on Romulus, though admittedly their inclusion could be seen as a contrivance. After stumbling upon Data's doppelganger, no one sees fit to mention Data's "other brother", Lore. But the real missed opportunity was Picard's failure to discuss his ambivalence toward the existence of a copy of himself with Riker, who has experience with his own duplicate.

With all due respect to actor Tom Hardy, I never for one instant believed his character was a clone of Picard, and this undermined many of the emotions and motivations that were played out. They attempted to explain this away with some "he-was-beat-up-as-child" rubbish about how the looks of a person are shaped by events and not only by genetics. At certain points it seemed as if Picard were nurturing Shinzon as the child he never had, which was a nice touch. The other major characters seemed comfortable in their roles, even when they had little to do. Worf was naturally temperamental over Riker and Troi's hook-up given his past relationship with the counselor, and he manifests his annoyance by hemming and hawing about attending the wedding ceremony on Betazed, a ritual performed with all participants naked. Later on in the movie Troi penetrates the Reman Viceroy's thoughts to pinpoint the enemy's cloaked ship, and guides Worf's hand at the firing controls. Such intimate proximity in the heat of battle -- Worf exhibited astonishing self-control! Elsewhere, Troi is treated badly when a lovemaking session with new husband Riker takes an abusive turn with Shinzon playing telepathic mind-games. There is seemingly no point or explanation as to why this happens, and it just comes across as gratuitous. This "scene of sexual content" is what garners the film a PG-13 rating, along with sci-fi action peril and violence, including a rather graphic, though bloodless, impaling.

The special effects are just "okay," with a notable exception being the Enterprise's collision with the Scimitar. That was a way-cool scene, especially after viewing the how-they-did-it segment in the special features. The repeated maiming (and occasional destruction) of the Enterprise during the course of the theatrical films is a bit disconcerting, treating it like a beater vehicle rather than a multi-gazillion dollar state-of-the-art paragon. The climax, rather than being the pinnacle of action and emotion, just defies logic. If all it took was pointing a phaser and discharging it at the super-weapon's energy matrix while it was building up to fire, well, that's just too easy. That, and the fact it could have been done about a hundred times during the action leading up to it not only suspends belief, but tension as well. And which major character performs this self-sacrifice felt entirely arbitrary. My first thought was not shock, tears, and loss, but that the actor must not have wanted to continue doing Star Trek films and wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. Somehow those thoughts didn't occur to me as I watched Spock kick the bucket. To add insult to this injury, rather than closure the film has a cop-out ending in which this character might not really be dead (again, where have you heard this before?) and another sequel might be squeezed out of this scenario.

Despite these faults, the movie really is entertaining. Rather than being a treatise on the issue of cloning, it shoots for space adventure, and in that it delivers. There are three commentaries available, all distinctly different. Director Stuart Baird provides a subdued narrative that's not too talky and gives perspective from a non-Trekkie. By contrast, producer Rick Berman's commentary comes from someone who knows the Trek universe in and out. The text commentary by Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda points out plotline tie-ins with the other Star Trek series, as well as revised set elements from these shows. For information overload you can watch the text commentary while listened to one of the audio commentaries simultaneously. All commentaries mentioned the fine musical work of Jerry Goldsmith, who has since died. While the commentaries provided are voluminous and informative, it still would have been nice to have some input from the cast.

There are three deleted scenes, including an extended dialog with Data and Picard. Rumor has it nearly fifty minutes of extra footage was cut out of the final product, so it is disappointing that these few scenes are all we get. It appears that character-driven scenes were dropped in favor of action, a point admitted to by Berman in one of the featurettes. Wesley Crusher and other minor characters from the series were completed removed by this editing. If they are bothering to release a "Special Edition" of this movie, why not include these items which will appeal to Trekkies? Finally, I was a bit perplexed by the width of the box used to package to two DVDs. It seemed inordinately wide until I viewed it together with the other "Special Collector's Editions" of previous Star Trek films. I can see why they did this to differential them from the "normal" version, but it still seems like a waste of space. Also, I had a heck of a time removing the discs from the packaging and feared permanent damage every time I pried them loose.

Grade
Episode Content: B
Special Features: A-