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Star Trek: Nemesis

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Star Trek Nemesis
Theatrical release poster
Directed byStuart Baird
Screenplay byJohn Logan
Story byJohn Logan
Rick Berman
Brent Spiner
Produced byRick Berman
StarringSee Cast
CinematographyJeffrey L. Kimball
Edited byDallas Puett
Music byJerry Goldsmith
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • December 13, 2002 (2002-12-13)
Running time
116 minutes
CountryTemplate:Film US
LanguageEnglish
Budget$60 million
Box office$67,312,826
Not to be confused with Nemesis (Star Trek: Voyager).

Star Trek Nemesis is a 2002 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 clone of Captain Picard 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.[1]

Plot

The film opens on the Romulan Imperial Senate being presented by the military with plans to join forces with the Reman Military and invade the Federation. The Praetor dismisses the proposal and rebukes the military. A female official departs after leaving a small object behind which releases a green mist into the air that covers the room. Everyone present, including the Praetor, quickly dissolve into dust and die in an act of political assassination en masse.

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 reading on a planet in the Kolaran 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 it to be 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), who claims to want peace with the Federation and bring freedom to Remus. This is a surprising development as the Romulans had regarded Remans as an undesirable caste used principally as slave labor, due to their long history of prejudice.

Upon their arrival on Romulus the crew learns that Shinzon is actually a clone of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, a remnant of a secret experiment conducted by the Romulans to take Picard's place in starfleet as a spy; however, he and the project were abandoned after a political change in the Romulan Imperial government that left him cast away to Remus as a slave. It is there that he meets his Reman brethren and effects his rise to power. It was also on Remus where Shinzon constructed his flagship, a heavily armed warship named Scimitar, with completely undetectable cloaking devices, an arsenal of weapons, and virtually impregnable shields.

Though the diplomatic missions seems to go smoothly, Shinzon's true intentions become apparent as the crew of the Enterprise discovers that the Scimitar is emitting low levels of extremely dangerous thalaron radiation (the same substance used to assassinate the Romulan senate as seen in the film's beginning), several unauthorized computer accesses take place aboard the Enterprise, and Counselor Troi is psychically attacked by Shinzon while she is making love to First Officer Riker. Soon thereafter, Picard is transported aboard the Scimitar so Shinzon may receive a transfusion of Picard's genetic material. Shinzon has kidnapped Picard because he is slowly dying from the accelerated aging from his cloning process, and thus needs Picard's blood to live. 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 actually revealed to be Data - he rescues Picard and they make their escape back to their ship. During the escape, Data discovers the true purpose of the Scimitar's thalaron radiation source: the entire ship is a weaponized thalaron emitter with enough power to destroy all life in a fleet of ships and by extension, an entire planet. It is deduced that Shinzon plans to use this unbeatable ship to attack and destroy Earth and conquer the Federation.

The Enterprise heads back to Federation space with all haste but is soon ambushed by the Scimitar, disabling the Enterprise's warp drive in the process to prevent them escaping. Due to the latter's ability to fire its disruptors while cloaked the Enterprise is outgunned and on the verge of defeat. Two Romulan Warbirds come to the aid of the Federation vessel, claiming to oppose the rogue Shinzon's plans and thereby giving the Enterprise a fighting chance. Shinzon proves to be a excellent military tactician, however, destroying one Warbird and disabling the other. Refocusing his attention on Picard, Shinzon seriously compromises the Enterprise and gains the upper hand once again.

Refusing to surrender, Picard uses his nearly crippled ship to ram the Scimitar, but only succeeds in slightly damaging it. Picard even tries to initiate the Enterprise's self-destruct sequence, but finds it disabled from the attack. Shinzon, on the verge of death having not yet receiving his transfusion and not having long enough to live in order to do so, initializes the Scimitar's thalaron weapon in a last-gasp attempt to take the Enterprise down with him. Picard boards the vessel alone to stop deployment of the weapon and face Shinzon. Jean-Luc fatally wounds Shinzon by impaling him through the abdomen with part of a metallic support strut. The determined Shinzon then pulls himself along the length of the strut to get close enough to confront Picard before dying, but instead says he is glad to be with him for his destiny is complete.

Picard is still unable to deactivate the weapon in time, and sits idly, unable to grip that he has failed his crew. just then, Data arrives with a single-use personal transporter, using it to quickly beam the Captain back to the Enterprise. Data then sacrifices himself to shut down the weapon and destroy the ship.

While the severely damaged Enterprise is repaired in a space dock in near-Earth orbit, Jean-Luc bids farewell to newly promoted Captain Riker who is off to command the USS Titan, to begin a true peace negotiation mission with Romulus. Picard then meets with android B-4, whereupon he learns that Data had succeeded in copying the engrams of his neural net into B-4's positronic matrix not long before his death. This then implies that B-4 may one day have the same capacity for growth that Data enjoyed and so keep Dr. Soong's legacy alive.

Cast

Production

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 to put 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 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.

Three "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 the new first officer, Commander Madden, which is included in the deleted scenes of the DVD. The third, titled "The Captain's Chair" features the goodbye scene between Riker and Picard, as well as the introduction of the new Enterprise first officer (Madden). 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!"

In promotional interviews for the film, Patrick Stewart stated that room for a sequel was left as B-4 begins singing, "Blue Skies."[2] Star Trek: First Contact and Insurrection director Jonathan Frakes was not offered to direct; if he had, he would have accepted it again.[3]

Music

The music to Star Trek Nemesis was one of the last works by veteran composer Jerry Goldsmith, who composed such previous entrees to the franchise as the Academy Award nominated score for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek: First Contact, and Star Trek: Insurrection as well as the themes to the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation (arranged by Dennis McCarthy) and Star Trek: Voyager.

The score opens with Alexander Courage's Star Trek: The Original Series fanfare, but quickly transitions into a much darker theme to accompany the conflict between the Reman and Romulan empires. Goldsmith also composed a new 5-note theme to accompany the character Shinzon and the Scimitar, which is manipulated throughout the score to reflect the multiple dimensions of the character. The score is book-ended with Goldsmith's theme from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, following a brief excerpt from the song "Blue Skies" by Irving Berlin. The soundtrack was released 26 September 2002 through Varèse Sarabande and features fourteen tracks of score at a running time just over forty-eight minutes, though bootleg versions containing the entire score have since been released.[4][5]

  1. "Remus" (1:55)
  2. "The Box" (2:20)
  3. "My Right Arm" (1:02)
  4. "Odds and Ends" (4:37)
  5. "Repairs" (6:26)
  6. "The Knife" (3:09)
  7. "Ideals" (2:15)
  8. "The Mirror" (5:21)
  9. "The Scorpion" (2:21)
  10. "Lateral Run" (3:54)
  11. "Engage" (2:12)
  12. "Final Flight" (3:47)
  13. "A New Friend" (2:36)
  14. "A New Ending" (6:08) (contains music from "Blues Skies" by Irving Berlin)

Reception

Critical response

Out of 148 professional reviews compiled by the Rotten Tomatoes film review database, 53 (37%) are positive, giving the film a "rotten" rating.[1] The film has earned a Metacritic score of 50 out of 100 (mixed or average) from 29 reviews.[6]

The movie received mainly negative 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."[7] Rotten Tomatoes ratings consensus as of March 16, 2009 indicates "Nemesis has an interesting premise and some good action scenes, but the whole affair feels a bit tired."[8]

Actors LeVar Burton and Marina Sirtis who play Geordi La Forge and Counselor Troi respectively in the film were openly critical of director Stuart Baird, and criticised him for not watching any of the episodes of The Next Generation. Burton in particular is on record for saying that Nemesis "sucked".[9]

Box office

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). Rick Berman (executive producer of the film) has suggested that Nemesis's performance may have been negatively affected by "the competition of other films".[10]

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)[11] and was the first Trek film not to debut at #1. It earned $67,312,826 worldwide on a budget of $60,000,000.[12]

Home media

On May 20, 2003, 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.[13] 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.[citation needed]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Star Trek Nemesis at Rotten Tomatoes
  2. ^ Patrick Stewart interview on Nemesis Revisited DVD Featurette
  3. ^ Anthony Pascale (2009-02-08). "Jonathan Frakes On Nemesis, JJ Abrams Star Trek, A Return of TNG + more". TrekMovie. Retrieved 2009-02-09.
  4. ^ Clemmensen, Christian. Star Trek Nemesis soundtrack review at Filmtracks.com. Retrieved 2011-04-10.
  5. ^ Peterson, Matt. "Taking the Trek Once More: Star Trek Nemesis by Jerry Goldsmith" soundtrack review at Tracksounds.com. Retrieved 2011-04-18.
  6. ^ Star Trek Nemesis at Metacritic
  7. ^ Ebert, Roger. Star Trek: Nemesis review, Chicago Sun-Times, 13 December 2002.
  8. ^ [1]
  9. ^ http://trekmovie.com/2006/08/01/sirtis-burton-want-trek-xi-to-be-a-tng-filmsay-nemesis-sucked-video/
  10. ^ Rick Berman Talk Trek Franchise' Future
  11. ^ Box Office Mojo: Nemesis
  12. ^ Figures according to Box Office Mojo
  13. ^ Star Trek - Nemesis (Special Collector's Edition) DVD at Amazon.com.

References

  • Nemecek, Larry (2003). Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion (3rd ed.). Pocket Books. ISBN 0743457986.
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