On the plus side, it is certainly admirable that screenwriter Michael Piller (working from a story he concocted with fellow Next Generation scribe and producer Rick Berman) would stay true to Roddenberry's spirit and use the film as a pretext for exploring important issues. The idea of science fiction as a forum for the expression of liberal consciousness is hardly new, but as sci-fi movies in recent years have become more about special effects and spectacle than ideas and ideology, such a move is very nearly radical.

On the negative side, the ideas are, not surprisingly, handled without a modicum of subtlety, with the most explicit messages being stated in sometimes ham-handed fashion by various characters making grand speeches. Again, this is really just par for the course; it's not that Star Trek: Insurrection handles its ideological material badly, but rather than it replicates a little too closely the obviousness of the television series, which was forced to explicate its message in a brief 45 minutes. The movie ends up feeling, then, like an elongated TV episode.

Much of the story takes place on the planet Ba'ku, where a colony of 600 people have been peaceably living for ... well, a very long time. It turns out that the radiation from the rings that surround Ba'ku have regenerative properties, in essence turning the entire planet into a fountain of youth. As complex societies are wont to do, the first inclination is to turn Ba'ku into a commodity, under the guise, of course, that it will be used for the beneficial purposes of healing and medicine. Thus, the Federation teams up with the Son'a, a race of humanoids who have been unsuccessfully trying to defeat the ravages of time with constant skin stretching, which has resulted in them looking more like mummies than the pride of youth.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the rest of the Enterprise crew discover a secret plot to remove the inhabitants of Ba'ku so that the planet can be harvested for its regenerative powers, which will apparently destroy it in the process. Thus, Picard is faced with a moral quandry. He realizes that it is wrong to forcible remove the planet's inhabitants against their will, especially since it goes against one of the Federation's prime directives (the obvious allegorical implications here point to the U.S.'s forced removal of various Native American tribes from their lands throughout the 19th century). Yet, at the same time, the removal of the colony is by order of the Federation itself, thus to stop it Picard will have to lead an insurrection. Being the upstanding pillar of moral authority that he is, it isn't surprising that Picard chooses moral right over bureaucratic decision making, but it is not without its consequences.

Given its ideological implications, Star Trek: Insurrection contains more than its share of speechifying, some of which is admittedly powerful in its own way. In response to a Federation bureaucrat's assertion that it's “only 600 people” who are being moved, Picard's piercing question about how many it takes before it's wrong is a cogent and memorable summation of the ages-old quandary about balancing what's right for a few with the needs of the many. Of course, when you step back and really think about it, it's fairly difficult to justify why the 600 Ba'ku shouldn't move when it means great gains for the rest of the universe. The movie attempts to sidestep some of these philosophical difficulties by casting the debate in black-and-white terms via the clearly self-interested Son'a and their “blood feud” against the Ba'ku, but it is a rather flimsy device that doesn't hold up in the long run.

The speechifying is balanced by a fair number of well-wrought action sequences, most of which are rendered with CGI that varies from excellent to almost embarrassingly cartoonish. Picard's final showdown with Ru'afo (go-to baddie F. Murray Abraham), the Son'a's embittered leader, is a suspenseful bit of action filmmaking, as is the chase sequence in which the Enterprise, led by Commander William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes, who also directed), evades a pair of So'na ships. There is also a clear desire to sex up the Star Trek universe, as we are treated to not only a candle-lit bubble-bath scene with Riker and Commander Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), but also a burgeoning romance between Picard and a lovely resident of Ba'ku (Donna Murphy). (There is also a gag about the women of the Enterprise crew noting the planet's regenerative effects on the perkiness of their breasts, which surely marks the first time the word boobs has been uttered in a Star Trek show.)

Star Trek: Insurrection was not one of the more well-received movies in the series, especially as it followed on the heels of the more action- and melodrama-oriented Star Trek: First Contact (1996). Nevertheless, it is a well-mounted production that is never dull, and the simple fact that it engages its audience intellectually and asks them to mull over difficult philosophical questions while also delivering a fair share of sci-fi action would certainly, at the very least, make Gene Roddenberry proud.

Star Trek: Insurrection Special Collector's Edition Two-Disc DVD Set
Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
Anamorphic	Yes
Audio	English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround English DTS 5.1 ES Surround English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround French Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Subtitles	English
Supplements	Text commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda Production “It Takes A Village” featurette “Location, Location, Location” featurette “The Art of Insurrection” featurette “Anatomy of a Stunt” featurette “The Story” featurette “Making Star Trek: Insurrection” featurette “Director's Notebook” featurette The Star Trek Universe “Westmore's Aliens” featurette “Star Trek's Beautiful Alien Women” featurette Creating the Illusion “Shuttle Chase” featurette “Drones” featurette “Duck Blind” featurette Seven deleted/alternate scenes Photo gallery Storyboard gallery Teaser trailer Theatrical trailer Original promotional featurette
Distributor	Paramount Home Video
SRP	$19.99
Release Date	June 7, 2005
VIDEO
Paramount has delivered another first-rate transfer for Star Trek: Insurrection. The anamorphic widescreen image is clear, sharp, and finely detailed without any dirt or blemishes.
AUDIO
Like the last two Star Trek DVDs, Generations and First Contact, Insurrection includes a 5.1 DTS surround track along with the Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track (the previous six films only had Dolby Digital). Both the DTS and DD tracks sound fantastic, with great sonic detail, an effective use of the surround channels (note especially when the drones zip by), and a good, solid low end that gives the explosions some weight.
SUPPLEMENTS
As on all the previous Star Trek Special Collector's Edition discs, Michael and Denise Okuda, coauthors of The Star Trek Encyclopedia, offer an exhaustive text commentary track that is packed with tidbits and trivia about the making of the film and how it fits into the continually expanding Star Trek universe. Unfortunately, Insurrection is the first of the Star Trek discs not to feature an audio commentary, which is surprising since Jonathan Frakes contributed one for First Contact. The second disc is packed with a wide array of supplements and featurettes, organized in a familiar pattern. The first set of featurettes, most of which run roughly 15 to 20 minutes, are organized under the heading “Production” and focus on various aspects of the making of the film. “Making Star Trek: Insurrection” is the most general, focusing on the production as a whole. “It Takes A Village” is about the design and construction of the Ba'ku village, with the primary interview time going to production designer Herman Zimmerman. Insurrection is a rare Trek film in that it was shot largely on location, rather than on soundstages, and the featurette “Location, Location, Location” looks at the various northern California locales used. “The Art of Insurrection” looks at the meticulous design of the various ships, while “Anatomy of a Stunt,” the shortest of the production featurettes, explores the preparation for and execution of a stunt that, ironically, never made it into the final film. In “The Story,” screenwriter Michael Piller explains the ideas behind the film's story, while “Director's Notebook” gives Jonathan Frakes time to discuss his ideas about the film and his experiences directing it. “The Star Trek Universe” section only has two featurettes, both of which focus on make-up special effects. “Westmore's Aliens” looks at the various alien designs concocted by Michael Westmore, who has worked on Star Trek for 12 years. The second featurette, “Star Trek's Beautiful Alien Women,” is fairly self-explanatory. The “Creating the Illusion” section contains three featurettes -- “Shuttle Chase,” “Drones,” and “Duck Blind” -- each of which looks at a major special effects sequence at various stages with commentary by co-producer/second unit director Peter Lauritson and interviews with the various FX wizards. The last two sections of the disc are “Archives” and “Advertising.” The former contains two stills galleries, one of storyboards for the film's opening sequence and the other of production and behind-the-scenes photos, while the later contains the original theatrical and teaser trailers and a circa-1998 promotional featurette. There is also a section of seven deleted/alternate scenes (one of which is an alternate ending involving unfinished special effects), each of which is introduced by Peter Lauritson.

Overall Rating: (2.5)

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All images copyright ©2005 Paramount Home Video