Star Trek: Movies on posthoc

Enterprise Defeats Odd-Numbered Jinx!

by Thomas Burchfield

I am by no means a Trekkie. I never took to Star Trek's first incarnation. It was an insistent roommate (from Germany no less) who put me under the spell of the Next Generation for which I retain a strong fondness and admiration, (though again, the subsequent two series have disappointed me via generally bad acting and a certain exhaustion in the concept).

So, I am pleased to say that I thoroughly enjoyed number nine in this venerable series, Star Trek: Insurrection. It's up to number eight "First Contact) and far superior to number seven (Generations, a movie which screamed contrivance from every frame).

Insurrection opens on an idyllic village in an idyllic world inhabited by a peaceful people called the Ba'ku. Suddenly, out of thin air, the Android Data (Brent Spiner) appears and goes on a violent warpath. It turns out the Federation has been studying the Edenic Ba'ku from behind their cloaking devices (in keeping with the Prime Directive of non-interference in new alien worlds), in league with a grotty looking bunch of thugs called the Son'a, led by F. Murray Abraham, who need to have their faces regularly stretched to retain what passes among them for young good looks. Not that it does any good. Picard, receiving word Data will be destroyed unless he gets to him first, rushes to save the Android and disarms him by getting him to join a Gilbert and Sullivan sing-a-long (one of the movie's many funny moments). Data is saved but Picard wants to know why Everyone's Favorite Robot went haywire in the first place. A trip to the Ba'ku's planet reveals that not only are the Ba'ku living in a total non-technological utopia, but they are *three hundred years old.* To add to the mystery, by being on the surface, the entire crew find themselves getting younger. Mostly good news, as Riker (Jonathan Frakes who also directed) and Troi (Marina Sirtis) fall in love again, Picard breaks into the mambo and Whorf (Michael Dorn) erupts with Klingon pimples. And finally a touching romance blooms between Picard and an earthy elegant Ba'ku woman (Donna Murphy).

Picard and crew further discover a nefarious plot by the Son'a to forcibly remove the Ba'ku from their planet (aided by the Federation), so they can corral the radiation belt around the planet that allow the Ba'ku to remain looking like young Southern Californians despite their great age and use it to regain their lost youth and spread the benefits through the Federation. But where Picard is concerned that is a violation of the Prime Directive and it must not stand! And so the Enterprise crew set about rescuing these innocents from the nefarious plot to take them from their land.

It's all very good, funny and heartfelt and if it seems like an extended episode of the series, which of them, may I ask, hasn't? Star Trek is at it's best with it's loopy inside humor, brushes of satire and (when it isn't being too preachy) the breath of hope it offers our brutalized world. The derring-do is exciting if predictable.

As sometimes happens, the special effects run a little cheap, as the ships look like models and Riker at one point, resorts to a computer joystick to manually steer the Enterprise. But the actors are all up to their tasks with their usual infective joy, which was what made me a fan of Next Generation. Stewart and Spiner are, of course, the best of all. Spiner's Data is emotionally stupid in the way Stan Laurel is intellectually stupid. His childlike cluelessness about the mysteries of humanity provides the series with its richest vein of insight and humor. I hope he never finds his emotion chip.

And what further praise can be heaped upon the noble shining skull of Patrick Stewart that hasn't already been repeated elsewhere? Around this house, it's "William Who?" Shatner may have been the first, God Bless him, but Patrick Stewart will *always* be the Captain.

[Thomas Burchfield can reached at TBDeluxe@aol.com and regularly appears on paper in Swing Time magazine.]

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