Review of Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) by Elizabeth H — 12 Nov 2008

The most common complaint levelled at Star Trek films is that they're too much like extended episodes of the TV show. Rarely have such complaints been as accurate as in Star Trek: Insurrection, which lacks the greater appeal of earlier, better films like The Wrath Of Khan and The Voyage Home. This is middling, lighthearted fare, doomed only to amuse determined - but surely bored - Trekkies.

The plot just isn't grandiose enough for a movie, but the writers seem to think it is. The Baku are a peaceful lot living on a planet that keeps them eternally young and healthy. Naturally, forces are at work to steal it from them. These are the stretchy-faced Son'a, led by the bitter Ruafo (F. Murray Abraham), and a few suspicious members of Starfleet, led by Admiral Dougherty (Anthony Zerbe). Captain Picard gets wind of this, and is so appalled that he stages - you guessed it - an insurrection. The Enterprise crew follow him in going against the Starfleet baddies, and they protect the Baku from the invaders.

Firstly, the Baku are boring. Typical Trek utopians, they enjoy the simple life, dress mostly in brown, and refer to "off-worlders" with scorn. Who cares what happens to them? The best Trek films have something at stake that we can relate to, whether it's a crew we love (The Wrath Of Khan) or our own troubled race (First Contact). Picard draws a few big-talking parallels here between the Baku and some of human history's other relocated innocents, but it's not a strong enough link. And it doesn't help that the easy-living Baku are so *calm* about everything.

Secondly, not enough is made of the supposed insurrection. Picard isn't going against Starfleet here - he's just disobeying one errant Admiral, who is himself going against Starfleet rules. Picard is, if anything, just playing by the rules. It would be a lot more interesting if the Enterprise lot ever came up against other members of Starfleet, or even humans of any kind, but they spend all their time battling Son'a, who are a suitably generic alien menace that we could be watching an uninteresting scuffle from any given episode of Star Trek. It makes no difference that our heroes are supposedly rebelling. It's not a mutiny if the whole crew, captain and all, is in on it.

The lack of cinematic scale isn't helped by the characterisation, which is in "quirky" mode. This is, or at least it would like to be, a funny movie. That means characters singing, flirting, and - on a planet that makes them physically younger - talking about boobs. Some of this is genuinely amusing, some is just laboured. As for the reverse-ageing planet, a few good ideas come out of it, such as the blind Geordie LaForge getting his sight back and the relationship between Riker and Troi rekindling. But not enough comes of them. Data, the best character, once again gets to do a few things slightly out of character, firstly by going beserk and attacking the bad Starfleet guys, and secondly by trying to learn how to have "fun" with one of the Baku kids. The former idea is a possibly exciting one, which they dump as fast as possible. The latter isn't. Robots trying to learn about fun is like aliens trying to learn about love; silly, cliched, stock Trek.

Some of these problems seem inevitable with this cast of second-tier characters. Creations like Crusher, Troi and LaForge are never going to be as interesting as the grumpy old Original Series lot. But First Contact made a good fist of their characters, and got the best out of them. Insurrection simply left me coldly aware that these were not the first, or the best people to travel around on the Enterprise, and without a really excellent script and a formidable threat, they're totally unengaging.

As a Trek fan, there is a certain watchability to Insurrection. It may be unoriginal and unexciting, but it is occasionally funny and the cast do seem to be enjoying themselves. Some of it just never gets off the ground, like Picard's insinuated relationship with Anij, a nauseatingly aloof member of the Baku who lectures him about living life too fast. Some of it doesn't make any sense, such as Anij's apparent unexplained ability to stop time. Some of it seems like a total waste, like Picard sending the Enterprise to blow the whistle on crooked Admiral Dougherty, when it would be a lot more useful in fighting the Son'a. But it's a brief, likeable movie, at least for fans, and there are worse Trek films out there, such as the next one. It's just a pity this followed on from the formidable First Contact, which wrung the best out of its second-tier crew. Insurrection seems content not to aspire to such heights, and as if expecting people to hate it simply on the basis that it's an odd-numbered Trek movie, it embraces its smallness without complaint.

Okay in many respects, but probably a major disappointment if you saw it on the big screen, Insurrection is reasonable enough for very undemanding fans. Everyone else shouldn't bother, but then, they probably weren't going to anyway.