Star Trek X: Nemesis (2002)

Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

Dir. Stuart Baird

TNG's final cinematic venture was directed by Stuart Baird, who admitted during a video interview that he hadn't bothered to watch even a single episode of The Next Generation television series, and, while viewing Nemesis, it shows.

Instead of constructing what could've been comparable to a TNG version of The Wrath of Khan (1982) he made a dark Star W_rsy film with characters that he clearly didn't understand.

It's saved mostly by the regular cast members, particularly Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Data (Brent Spiner), who imbue their roles with their usual professionalism. And like Insurrection (1998) did, it creates a situation that allows crew members who would ordinarily be absent to be on board the Enterprise (E) when things kick off.

The story involves the Remans of planet Remus, a sister planet of Romulus (the primary homeworld of the Romulans). It's one of the two orbs held by the bird in the Romulan Empire insignia, but the planet and its native peoples hadn't been shown in any previous Star Trek incarnation.

Remus is described as being 'tidally locked', which means one of its hemispheres is permanently facing its primary sun, resulting in one half of the planet being always in daylight, while the other is in what would seem like perpetual night; the Nosferatu-esque Remans live on the night side.

The primary antagonist hails from that dark locale, but he's something more than just another citizen. He's Praetor Shinzon (Tom Hardy) and his personal business involves Starfleet's finest.

- Did someone say 'Starfleet's finest'? Let me make it so. -

Without going into spoilery detail, the story revolves around an exploration of what makes us unique in the universe; i.e. what makes each individual human distinct from the millions of other humans. For Data, who isn't human at all but an android, that same question has been a topic of concern for many years. And it's something that he too has to face, in a more centred capacity.

Visually, much about the work isn't respectful to what TNG had spent years developing. The action-movie car chase on Planet Glare is perhaps the first in-your-face indication that the film is going awry. And while the use of low key-lights and saturation serves a purpose beyond mere spectacle, I feel that the iridescent uniforms of the Remans was a misstep too far.

Personal musings on aesthetics aside, the pacing is terrible most of the time, which is one of the things that reminds most of Lucas' work. The action scenes are reminiscent more of his style, too, than of Trek's; it even has a couple of obvious corridor shootouts. I mentioned above that it gets the old crew back together, but it gives the returning cast members very little to do.

It fails the franchise in a way that's almost analogous to how Generations (1994) did: the latter tried a ruminative approach in its exploration of the passage of time but came across as boring, whereas Nemesis tries to be menacingly introspective but comes across uneven... and boring.

In closing, Baird's a film editor first and foremost, dabbling in directing only occasionally, and he's worked with some notable filmmakers over the years (inc. Ken Russell and Richard Donner), but I don't think it's a coincidence that he hasn't directed anything since Nemesis.

Nevertheless, despite everything that's subjectively and objectively wrong with the film, its best scene really is fantastic, carrying an emotional punch that likely won't soon be forgotten by any TNG fan. But there's more than one way to interpret what happens thereafter: is it reassuring or an addendum that lacks the courage of its convictions? Both have their merits and problems.

- There's a lot of green in Nemesis. -