Star Trek: Insurrection, the ninth of the Star Trek cinema releases, is due out on a Special Edition two disc DVD set on August 1. Originally released as a ‘vanilla’ version back in 1999, this edition is filled with all the obligatory extras we have come to expect on DVD.
This may be considered sacrilege, but I have never been a fan a Star Trek, in any of its incarnations. I have nothing against it, as such, I just don’t get what all the fuss is about. Then again, I know people who feel the same way about Buffy/Angel – different strokes, as they say. Strange as it may seem, for someone who enjoys sci-fi, the whole space travel genre has never really done that much for me. There are exceptions, of course, but that is usually using the genre as a setting for a character-driven drama, or comedy, that is accompanied by excellent writing. Hopefully this will mean I watched Insurrection with some objectivity.
Insurrection, made in 1998, is from the Next Generation story thread, featuring Picard and his crew. The story starts with Data going haywire during a secret mission to observe the inhabitants of Ba’ku. These peace-loving people live a technology-free existence in harmony with their environment, which happens to have a regenerative radiation that makes the inhabitants incredibly long-lived. Another group, the So’na, along with some other less scrupulous members of the Starfleet, want to relocate the Ba’ku so they can harvest the radiation for their own gain. In order to defend the Federation’s Prime Directive, and the people of Ba’ku, Picard, and his faithful crew, must rebel against the Starfleet superiors at the risk of loosing his ship and his life.
This DVD is definitely one for the fans, as it assumes knowledge of the characters and their stories to date, and although I have seen one or two episodes, not knowing their history left me feeling I was missing details of relationships and the point of some of the asides. As a standalone film it did lack exposition but, to the writer’s credit, the story was sufficiently engaging to maintain my interest throughout the 100 minutes, with a good variety in its pace and settings, although some of it was a bit too predictable. Unfortunately, it did seem like an extended episode of the TV series, which in essence it is.
The acting cannot be faulted, especially from Patrick Stewart, as Picard, and F. Murray Abraham, almost unrecognisable as Ru’afo, the leader of the So’na. Jonathan Frakes, who plays Riker, directed. He also directed the Star Trek: First Contact movie, as well episodes of Star Trek: Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, so he was more than familiar with the storyline and the cast.
His enthusiasm for Star Trek is evident in the extras on the second disc of this set. The Director’s Notebook is an interview with Frake where he recounts the making of the film and some of his insights into the production. Apart from this are all the usual extras we have come to expect from a ‘Special Edition’ DVD: a host of making-of docs looking at the production and set designs and locations, production artwork and storyboards, a look at how the (slightly dated) special effects were done, a couple of featurettes on Star Trek aliens and alien women, the obligatory deleted scenes and trailers. Perhaps the most interesting of the extras, at least for me, was an interview with the writer. He explained the underlying ideas behind the script – vanity, greed and moral judgement – which did give the film a bit more depth and credence, that I seemed to have missed at the time, thinking it was just another Star Trek tale.
All in all, given its price, this Special Edition is really just for Star Trek fans. The movie itself isn’t bad, with the widescreen and 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound adding extra dimension to what would make an otherwise passable Sunday evening TV viewing. The extras don’t give any blinding new insights into the movie-making process, but plenty of fodder for Trekkie completists.