Star Trek: Insurrection
Director: | Jonathan Frakes |
Writer: | Michael Piller |
Paramount; PG; 105 minutes | |
Release: | 12/98 |
Cast: | Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marini Sirtis, F. Murray Abraham, Donna Murphy and Anthony Zerbe |
Ever since the 1960s series debut, Star Trek has been operating under an interior logic that blends intergalactic heroics with an odd take on futurism that has high-ranking Starfleet females exploring the universe's outer reaches in miniskirts. Insurrection, the ninth Star Trek film, is set deep in space on a planet whose neo-Luddite inhabitants don't age, a rustic place of peace that resembles heaven — or white, middle-class America. Sometimes it can be hard to tell if the future is forward-looking or regressive. Stalwart Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Stewart) is forced to rebel against the Federation in order to protect the ageless, innocent Ba'Ku from a forcible relocation at the hands of the evil Son'a people. Majestic, human, and fantastical, Star Trek: Insurrection is a fine, if formulaic, film. Shakespearean actor-turned-TV darling Stewart yields a typically noteworthy performance, bolstered by lively interplay with Data (Spiner).