"We are betraying the principles upon which the Federation is founded. It is an attack upon its very soul."

- Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Star Trek: Insurrection "” Special Collector's Edition

Insurrection is a very different kind of Star Trek adventure that many were extremely disappointed in, myself included. The stakes of this film were not the destruction of the human race or the life or death of a great Starfleet hero; it was simply the relocation of a unique culture short sightedly committed by the Federation itself. I'm sure some would argue that betraying the fundamental principles of the Federation is pretty high stakes, but when you wait years for a new addition to the Trek saga, you expect more.

This Jonathan Frakes helmed film finds the crew of the Enterprise investigating a malfunction in Data (Brent Spiner) that has caused him to take federation hostages on an isolated planet during a covert survey mission. Further investigation into this world and the inhabitants reveal that the planet itself is the ever sought after "fountain of youth." A rare element found in the planets rings, continually regenerate the cells of everyone living on it. Aging is slowed to a veritable halt, increasing life spans from decades to centuries.

A ruthless, decaying race known as the Sona have developed a way to collect these particles and use them to their own advantage. The procedure, however, has the unfortunate side effect of destroying all life in the system for generations. A top level Starfleet Official, Admiral Dougherty (Anthony Zerbe), has his own intentions of bringing this miraculous new medical resource to the people of the Federation even at the cost of surreptitiously relocating the planets population. It's up to Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his crew to keep the planet occupied and delay the procedure long enough to make their plea to the Federation Council to stop Dougherty and his Sona ally, Ru'Afo (F. Murray Abraham) from completing the procedure.

The main strength of this film has constantly been said to be the twist on morality. Questioning decisions made by higher powers to defend what is truly the right thing to do. This is what Star Trek has always done and is probably the single biggest reason for its enduring success. The only problem with this, is that at no point during the film is the audience questioning what is right and what is wrong. It's clear from the outset that the Sona are evil and the Ba'ku are good. The only real debate over the issue occurs between the noble Captain Picard and the evil Admiral"¦ c'mon now, who are you going to agree with?

Had the debate actually raged from both sides, if the subtleties of the issues were flushed out more it WOULD have been interesting, but we immediately agree with Picard who never waivers from his opinion. Debate amongst the crew would

have been much more compelling then all of the crew immediately agreeing with Picard. One of the best moments of the previous Next Gen film, First Contact occurs when Worf overtly challenges Picard on the bridge because he disagrees with his decision. If something like this had happened in Insurrection it really would have upped the emotional stakes of the film and would have drawn the audience into the film, making them an active participant in the debate, rather than a practically comatose observer of events.

There were several obvious opportunities for this type of conflict that were sadly overlooked. Let's take LeVar Burton's character of Geordi LaForge, who after a lifetime of being blind has regained his site thanks to this "fountain of youth." I know that it's the 24th century and everyone is evolved and inherently unselfish, but to not even for a second consider the advantages of what the Sona proposed was ridiculous. Even inwardly wanting to keep his site and struggling with that would have been a great opportunity to show some complex and conflicting emotions in what has become a bland uninteresting character in the films.

The other often overlooked character of Beverly Crusher, played by the lovely Gates McFadden could have provided a fantastic foil for Picard's position by challenging him and citing all of the amazing medical benefits that they were passing up, all of the lives that could have been saved. Right there they could have finally brought her character and that relationship to life in way that had never been accomplished before.

Picard standing his ground against the faceless Federation Council and the Admiral of the week is one thing"¦ but to stand against the opinions of his own crew? That would have been amazing. Of course by the end we all would have agreed with Picard, but it would not have been nearly as cut and dry as this film made it.

The only really fun and interesting scenes character wise in the film deal with the relationship between Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Troi (Marina Sirtis) as it is finally developed back into the romantic phase which is fantastic to watch! I guess there are certain advantages to being the director. If only Gates had continued directing we might know what the hell she's still doing on the ship.

And, of course, the character who has logged more on screen time than any other in the history of the franchise is completely wasted once again. Worf dutifully portrayed by Michael Dorn has only one good moment in the entire film and it takes place at the very end; where with just a few lines he wraps up the Worf / Troi past relationship and gives Riker his blessing to pursue her as he always knew he would. The Riker / Troi / Worf love triangle was never a fan favorite,

but at least that's one thing they didn't choose to ignore. Aside from that small moment he is relegated to comic relief and techno-bable. They don't even attempt to explain his presence on the ship even though timeline wise he is supposed to be aboard Deep Space Nine. Picard simply asks, "Mr. Worf, what the hell are you doing here?" and then the sound fades out on his response. Awful.

The action sequences are forced and purport to hold an amazing amount of jeopardy for the crew where none really exists; with lines like, "Set a Collision course," and "If we don't the manifolds will be all that's left of the ship!" Please. This is the ship that just busted up the Borg in the last movie and now they are running at full speed away from this piddly new enemy? C'mon now.

OK, now that I've totally bitched out the movie, let's move on to something I can really praise"¦ the extras. For once, the extras in this 2 disc set are surprisingly good. Listening to the cast talk about the filming, their friendships and the overall goals that they had for the film really make you wish that you had enjoyed the film more. I admittedly forgave much more about the movie after watching the making of featurette and the director's notebook.

It is an amazing ensemble of actors who always give their best and never fail to deliver in that sense. The fact that the often quoted, "powers that be," don't know their Klingon asses from their Romulan elbows at this point isn't their fault. So it's a real struggle to separate your love for the cast and the franchise from your disgust for the execs in charge.

In addition to those featurettes there are also uncredited deleted scenes which took me completely off guard. Deleted scenes are among the most coveted of all extras especially on a Star Trek DVD and they are not even mentioned on the box. An odd omission? Or proof positive that they don't really care anymore at this point?

The deleted scenes themselves were largely pretty useless so it made sense that they were cut; including one extended scene of Riker and Troi in a library on the Enterprise being chastised by a 24th century spinster librarian with bifocals; Odd and out of place to say the least. There was also an alternate ending which I feel would have wrapped the film up far more interestingly than just repeating the same ending we saw in Generations, but hey, what do I know right?

There are also some great featurettes that go into the make up effects of not only this movie but Star Trek in general so we get to hear from a lot of other Trek actors like Terry Farrell, Alice Krige, Robert Picardo and Connor Trinneer just to name a

few.

So definitely thumbs up on all of the wonderfully produced extras for this edition.

For die hard Trekkies, you're going to go out and add this to your collection just because it's a part of the Star Trek saga, and to be honest I probably would to. But for anyone who is just a casual fan or viewer, this is one you can really save your money on.

Movie Grade: C

DVD Features Grade: A-

Overall Grade: B-