ALL SCI-FI

[bulldogtrekker]

“Insurrection—Just the Ships”
Julie Muncy, I09

....Star Trek: Insurrection was the first Star Trek movie to fully embrace CGI for its space-faring scenes, it also features some distinctive ship designs in the form of Son’a vessels, which have an interesting, angular design to them, like blades shot through the stars. The CGI isn’t anything amazing, and like anything from that era it has a sort of glossy goofiness to it, but it’s neat.



Which is why “Insurrection—Just the Ships”, a fan edit on YouTube, is probably the only version of Insurrection worth watching. Cut down to, well, just the ships, it’s a fun, brief look at the interesting designs of the movie and nothing more. Forget the fountain of life stuff, forget the character derailment, forget that this is some of the last of The Next Generation we ever got, and enjoy them spaceships. Mmm, that’s good spaceship....

BDT: I like Star Trek: Insurrection.

YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKg6bvCV2bQ

Click here for full story:
https://io9.gizmodo.com/star-trek-insurrection-is-better-with-just-the-spacesh-1823672817

[Pow]

ST:I does not receive a lot of love but I enjoyed this movie.

The Sovereign Class Enterprise is a stunning looking ship, and the alien vessels were also awesome in design.

The design of the Ba'ku village was impressive as was the location shooting Sierra Nevada.

Both Anthony Zerbe & F.Murray Abraham are outstanding actors.

The theme of eternal youth & immortality are always intriguing.

This isn't their greatest adventure but it is a fun romp.

[johnnybear]

I can't remember if I've seen Insurrection or not? I think I saw it years back on Sky Movies but I'm not terribly sure! Was it good or bad? I don't know..

Wasn't his film written in the TOS style or something? I remember reading this somewhere and that's why it was not the success it should have been!
JB

[Bud Brewster]

[Bogmeister]

____________




Many fans of the Star Trek franchise opine that this 9th film amounts to a double-length episode of the TNG series, just another standard mission — and not a very exciting one at that.

I'm forced to agree, to a large extent. The plot revolves around two sets of people introduced here: the pleasant Ba'ku and the unpleasant Son'a. The Ba'ku, which number about 600, have really lucked out; they settled a planet about 300 years ago whose planetary rings and surrounding radiation have extraordinary properties in terms of halting the aging process. Based on the exposition, these Ba'ku sound to me like people who escaped Earth's 3rd World War in the 21st century. They have knowledge of advanced technology such as holograms, but choose to spend their time in pre-industrial farming technique. It's basically a return-to-nature scenario.



The Son'a, on the other hand, indulge in grotesquely extreme plastic surgery to fend off advancing years, and they are understandably temperamental due to all the skin stretching. Their technology is, in some ways, even more advanced than the Federation's, and they covet what the Ba'ku have (naturally nice skin).

At least one Starfleet admiral agrees with the Son'a that the benefits of these planetary rings should be spread around more, and so an underhanded plan ensues. Despite the "warm & fuzzy" tone of some scenes, I found all the scenes involving the Son'a and their skin problems to be quite creepy and even sickening.



But there is an unintentionally amusing tone to this set-up, dark as it is, slipping nearly into satire, almost as bad as the silliness in the 5th film, The Final Frontier. Essentially, this Trek film chooses to poke fun at Hollywood itself and its preoccupation with 'looking' youthful. This reminds me of a few episodes in the 3rd season of TOS, which tried too hard to comment on some social issue of the sixties. Those episodes came across as parodies of the sixties decade, and this film is a throwback to the eighties or late-20th century thinking. It's hard to take very seriously, especially with all the lame jokes involving Worf's pimple, as an example.



This was the follow-up Star Trek film to First Contact and the 2nd directing job for actor Frakes (this follows the pattern established by actor/director Leonard Nimoy on the 3rd & 4th Star Trek films).

There are intriguing plot points early on involving Starfleet's and the Federation's attitude towards the relocation of colonists, an obvious parallel to our 19th century approach towards American Indians. There's an obvious problem with applying 19th or 20th century political expediency to 24th century bureaucracy on Star Trek; this tells us that the Federation & Starfleet are largely the same as current governments.

I'm pretty sure this is not what Gene Roddenberry had in mind when he conceived the whole Star Trek universe, which seemed a bit more evolved in comparison to our current approach on the political front.



Or is it another take on the oft-used phrase "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" (or the one)? There are also brief references to other problems plaguing the Federation of this time frame, related to the Borg threat and the Dominion war. These are nice nods to continuity but, again they create a very unpleasant picture of what we used to think of as a solid framework for near-utopia and the grand notion of exploration.

Even actor Patrick Stewart's character Capt. Picard addresses this briefly, when he wonders out-loud on whatever happened to their status as explorers? What, indeed?



Of course, when Picard learns of this unscrupulous plot against the Ba'ku, he will have none of it, and this at least puts us all back on track in terms of Federation principles and the well-known honor of the TNG crew. There are some nice bits related to the crew becoming somewhat rejuvenated while on this planet, some poignant (LaForge's eyes) and some satisfying (Riker & Troi getting together).


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus