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Star Trek: Insurrection


Star Trek 9: Insurrection



Year Of Release
1998

Director
Jonathan Frakes

Producer
Marty Hornstein, Rick Berman, Peter Lauritson, Patrick Stewart, Michael Piller

Writer
Gene Roddenberry, Rick Berman, Michael Piller

Cast
Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Donna Murphy, Anthony Zerbe and F Murray Abraham

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The crew of the Enterprise launch a rebellion on the Baku home world against Picard’s superior officer, Admiral Dougherty, and his Son'a cohort, Ru'afo who want to relocate the Baku to gain possession of the medicinal cosmic radiation that floods their planet.


This is more like it. The filmmakers gladly learned from their mistakes and actually wrote a proper story this time round based solely on the premise of The Prime Directive.
It's pretty simplistic but certainly imaginative, has many never before seen ideas, and original characters involved throughout that add depth to the story being told raher than just having them there for the sake of it.

The other thing is use of ideas that we are all familiar with but used in ways that make us raise an eyebrow as well, namely with the use of Holo-deck Technology.

The other plus point is the expanded relationships between the crew members and Picard finding a love interest.
Seeing Picard make a more emotional and traditional connection with a member of the opposite sex is a really nice touch to the story that adds a real connection to his character.
Other characters are built on too… Data and his learning of how children play and how youngsters view the world and Riker and Troy having their relationship built on and so on.
It feels much more like a soap style script that builds character rather than just having our beloved cast being all samey again.

Jonathan Frakes seems to have learned a few lessons as well from directing the previous film First Contact and has improved somewhat considerably.


Some standout roles are Patrick Stewart and Donna Murphy in their blossoming love story. They’re highly engaging and have massive charisma.

The main standout role though is F Murray Abraham as villainous Son’a leader Ahdar Ru'afo. His role isn’t just that of a basic bad guy for the sake of it either, his role comes alive in the third act that gives more depth to his reasons for his villainy.


The action is a touch more toned down for a Star Trek movie, it's more about small skirmishes and running and hiding but it's the story, and especially the acting involved that make the movie watchable.

This was the first time as well that Star Trek used full on CGI effects while the outer space sequences were put together, there are no models or miniatures used at all. The thing is, also, you can’t tell. They’re smooth, rendered extremely well and never fail to impress.

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All in all an improvement, still not perfect but they're getting there.

The broadened character writing and a little playfulness on behalf of the cast make Insurrection probably the most universally watchable of the series, and the overall premise makes for some nice audience-character connections.

My rating: 84%