Star Trek: Nemesis

Let's start this review by saying that John Logan is an amazing screenwriter and that the cast of The Next Generation always delivers their best! The camaraderie between them and their sense of family always shines through on screen. The choice for director of this, the tenth movie in the Star Trek Saga, however, is where they went devastatingly wrong.

With little to no regard for the die hard Trek fans that have made the series the phenomena that it is, Stuart Baird cut up and mutilated John Logan's script to the point where one would guess that it had been written by someone who had never even seen the show before.

Long awaited Cameos by actors like Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher, were cut out to the point where all that remained was his mere presence on screen for a single shot where he is seen, for some reason, wearing a Starfleet Uniform??? Actress Whoopi Goldberg returns as Guinan for again, one scene, with approximately 3 lines of dialogue. One of the most celebrated characters in Star Trek history, the Klingon officer Worf, is treated as little more than a day player with no storyline to follow and of course no explanation of his transition from Klingon Ambassador (where we last saw him on Deep Space Nine) back to security Chief aboard the Enterprise. The character of Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) is ignored as well, as per standard with TNG films, and LeVar Burton's character of Geordi LaForge is relegated to spouting only techno-bable throughout the film.

What I have learned from talking with the cast and the director himself is that this was not the case in the original cut of the movie. The original cut of the film was almost 2 hours and 45 minutes long and it actually dealt with a sub plot for Dr. Crusher about leaving to become head of Starfleet Medical, Worf dealing with and ultimately changing his life long hatred and mistrust of the Romulans, an explanation as to where Wesley has been since he left to join the Traveler in the Nth Dimension, more time spent with Guinan and Geordi and more incidents of Shinzon and the Viceroy assaulting Troi to further justify Rikers’ intense desire for vengence against the Viceroy for what he had done, leading of course to the concluding mano a mano show down.

Now, to me, that all seems like pretty important stuff! However, to quote the director, "It had nothing to do with MY movie."

All of this is not to say that there wasn't anything at all appealing about this film. It did feature one of the best space battle sequences in Trek history as well as a great supporting role for Marina Sirtis as the now finally involved and married, Commander Troi. We also get an impassioned speech from

Picard to Shinzon, appealing to his humanity and addressing the duality of one's innate nature and learned behavior. All of this along with an excellent performance by Star Trek newcomer Tom Hardy are without a doubt the high points for Nemesis.

The DVD does offer some nice extras including; 7 deleted scenes, including one where we meet Picard's new First Officer, a look at the action sequences and unfortunately Far too much of Stuart Baird spewing his musings on the film. The deleted scenes do help the audience to see more of John Logan's original script and intentions but it still leaves out a great deal.

It seems that in order to adequately tell a Next Gen. story, you may need 2 hours and 45 minutes. Some things cannot be easily packaged into under one hundred and twenty minutes and Star Trek seems to be becoming one of them. With fans waiting years in between films, why not give them a longer movie? Give them what they want. They want the back stories, the esoteric references and time to spend with these characters that they have loved for 15 years!

I'm not saying one should ignore the cross over audience, or the "uninitiated," as Jonathan Frakes affectionately refers to them as. But when given a choice between catering more towards one or the other, the choice should be clear that it is the die hard fans they should be speaking to, lest they eventually find themselves with no one listening at all.

Star Trek fans are in a very tough spot right now. If we turn our backs on the show all together, there will be no chance for anything further in the future. But at the same time, if we just accept what they are giving us, it will never be forced back into what made it great!

My humble suggestion to help alleviate this crisis is to do what the fans did back in the 1960's when Star Trek was in danger of disappearing forever"¦ write. Write letters to Paramount, letters to Rick Berman, to the writers themselves, let them know why you are losing interest in Star Trek. If enough people do that, then maybe they will start to listen and adjust their way of thinking.

It was a commonly held belief that no matter what they produced, so long as it had the Star Trek name on the marquee, the fans would go out and support it. Nemesisproved that theory wrong. The fans didn't come out for it as they always had before.

So if you are one of those fans, let them know why you weren't out there opening day! It is once again up to the fans to save Star Trek and to determine whether or not it has a future.

Movie Grade: B+

DVD Grade: B

Overall Grade: B

Original Production Notes:

In the proud tradition of

the most successful franchise in history, "Star Trek Nemesis" is the latest intergalactic adventure to join its triumphant predecessors.

Growing at warp speed since its inception in 1966, the Star Trek motion picture franchise has earned a collective worldwide gross exceeding $1 billion at the box office and has generated well over $3.5 billion from consumer products. With the success of Star Trek: The Experience, a 65,000-square-foot Las Vegas theme park, which has greeted over 2.2 million visitors since its launch in 1998, and given the fact that ten "Star Trek" books are sold every sixty seconds, one thing is universally clear "” when it comes to "Star Trek" "¦ there simply is no final frontier.

In "Star Trek Nemesis," Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the Enterprise crew find themselves on a diplomatic mission to initiate peace with the Romulans. But upon arrival on the alien planet, the crew is faced with a threat that could lead to Earth's destruction, and Picard meets his most dangerous adversary yet, a surprisingly personal nemesis.

Paramount Pictures presents "Star Trek Nemesis," a Rick Berman production.

Reprising their starring roles as the crew of the starship Enterprise are Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander William T. Riker), Brent Spiner (Lieutenant Commander Data), LeVar Burton (Lieutenant Commander Geordi LaForge), Michael Dorn (Lieutenant Commander Worf), Gates McFadden (Doctor Beverly Crusher) and Marina Sirtis ( Counselor Deanna Troi). Produced by Rick Berman and directed by Stuart Baird, the screenplay is by John Logan from a story by John Logan & Rick Berman & Brent Spiner and is based upon "Star Trek," created by Gene Roddenberry. Marty Hornstein serves as executive producer and Peter Lauritson is co-producer.

Joining the cast are Tom Hardy ("Black Hawk Down," "Band of Brothers") as the villainous Shinzon and Ron Perlman ("Enemy at the Gates," "Blade II") as the Reman Viceroy.

Paramount Pictures is part of the entertainment operations of Viacom Inc., one of the world's largest entertainment and media companies and a leader in the production, promotion and distribution of entertainment, news, sports and music.

This film is rated PG-13 for sci-fi action, violence and peril, and a scene of sexual content.