STAR TREK: INSURRECTION - DVD review

There is a very telling line early in the ninth film in the "Star Trek" franchise where Captain Jean Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) turns to his crew and asks, "Do you remember when we used to be explorers?" That brief beat is an indicative remark on the very nature of the direction the "Star Trek" franchise has gone in the past ten years. Rather than being a show about exploration and occasional conflict the programs, "The Next Generation," "Deep Space Nine," "Voyager" and "Enterprise" have all entered into multi-episode spanning wars that dominate the program. Part of what drew me, and many other fans, to the original program was the sense of adventure and fun, the fact that we could meet a new, colorful, and weird alien species each week. But gone are the carefree days of Roddenberry… and now we're found in the heavy-handed world of Brannon and Braga.

I would like to talk briefly about the plot of the movie before moving into more distinct criticisms. The plot begins when the crew of the Enterprise is called to a remote planet encapsulated by a mix of dangerous gasses called "The Briar Patch" to the report of friendly, if naïve android Data (Brent Spiner) malfunctioning. The pasty-faced alien construct accidentally stumbled upon a plan to export the perpetually-young inhabitants of the planet in order to harvest the life-giving particles found only in the planets rings, thus necessitating Data's demise. Unfortunately for the antagonists of the story, Data doesn't do his due duty and die; rather he exposes the Starfleet observers to the world.

The antagonists of the film are a group of stretch-skinned aliens who are slowly dying, for whatever reason. Their skin is rotting on their bodies and the only chance of survival is harvesting the particles from the planet, a process which would render it uninhabitable, and resurrecting themselves. Kill a few… so that the majority may live.

The noble crew of the starship Enterprise, however, take issue with the plan and do what they do best… interfering. Picard and his motley band of interstellar travelers take a page from Captain Kirk and go against the direct orders of the Starfleet Council. A bit of insurrection, if you will. This installment reunites the cast in its entirety, even bringing back Worf (Michael Dorn) who had gone on to other permutations of the popular program.

During the main-run of the story a few subplots develop. The healing powers of the planet give Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) the use of his eyes for the first time in his life. It gives Picard a sense of vigor he's not experienced since youth, and turns his eyes toward a not-so-young woman named Anij (Donna Murphy, most recognizable from "Spider-Man 2") That amorous feeling spreads to former lovers William T. Riker (director Jonathan Frakes) and the ship's councilor Deanna Troy (Marina Sirtis), causing them to rekindle something long thought dead (especially considering she and Worf were hooking up at the end of the series, but I digress). Perhaps the most touching subplot involves the aforementioned Data and his relationship with a young boy who teaches him one of the essential lessons of youth… the ability to play.

The main plot of the story is very dark and sinister, with a good mix of intrigue added in for good measure. The adversarial aliens in this story are, honestly, without good intention. They will get the elements they need from the planet by whatever means necessary. If that includes killing the surface dwellers, Ru'afo (F. Murray Abraham) will do it.

This entry into the Star Trek series is often considered the worst. A few reasons I can surmise include the somewhat silly moment in the story with Worf hitting puberty (brought on by exposure to the planet) and his battle with a pimple. Many of the subplots retain that lack of tension and distracts from the main story. The problem is that I don't feel as though the main story in itself is strong, or long, enough to carry the complete film. "Insurrection" feels like an episode of "The Next Generation" spread out through a movie's run-time with a good amount of filler.

For good or for bad, "Insurrection" also doesn't feel like an entry into the "Next Generation," rather it is a return to the more lighthearted faire of the original "Star Trek." The captain gallivanting around with a phaser, taking the fight to his enemies is something that Kirk would do, but was never the modus operandi of the cultured Picard. One could blame his brash behavior on the effect of the planet, but by and large it feels like a gigantic character departure. Were this an entry into the previous series I doubt very much that anyone would have had a problem with the captain's actions. And were that true, I would really appreciate this movie as an entry into the "Star Trek" franchise; but as it stands it doesn't feel like "The Next Generation."

No review of this movie would be complete, however, without mentioning the use of a joystick to control the Enterprise. I'm sorry, but who thought it would be a good idea to eschew the control scheme used for decades in favor of a little plastic joystick? What could have been a tense and dramatic scene with Commander Riker barking orders and trying to pull off a delicate maneuver turned into a machismo-laden scene out of "The Last Starfighter."

The acting is capable through the film, though a few actors feel like they are skating through their parts, notably Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher) who had little of substance to do in the film. Stylistically the film is solid. The direction is capable, the designs acceptable and the effects work impeccable. The best thing I can say about "Insurrection" is that it is fairly unremarkable. It's not a bad film, per se, just not a particularly good one either.

Video:
Presented in 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, I cannot comment on the improvement of this transfer to previous versions on DVD because I have not seen them. On its own merits, however, this transfer looks fairly lackluster. The colors are muted and there seems to be a thin film or haze over everything, dulling the colors. Even edges seem to lack a solid definition. Black levels are good and there weren't any scratches or blemishes on the film stock, nor any edge enhancement on the transfer. The transfer looks overly bright, almost washed out as a result. I tried turning down the bright and contrast levels on my monitor to little effect.

Audio:
I listened to the 5.1 dts track on this DVD set and was suitably impressed. While it's nothing to write home about, the set does have good channel separation and uses the rear channels to good effect. The subwoofer does get a good workout but it's never an unnatural sound. Phasers and explosions have a good solid low frequency response. The sound never came across as "gimmicky" which is wont to happen with films of this nature. There was little difference between the Dolby Digital and dts tracks.

Extras:
These new "Star Trek" movie DVD sets have been nothing if not flush with extra features and "Insurrection" is no different.

The first disc houses a text-based commentary by Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda. I remarked, in my review for "Enterprise" just how much I appreciated the wealth of information they imparted and the same is true here.

The second disc is broken up into a few different sections. The first deals with the act of producing the film.

"It Takes A Village" is an overview of the creation of the movie. Production Designer Herman Zimmerman takes us on a tour of the different sets they needed to create and the challenges of shooting the bulk of the movie on location.

"Location, Location, Location" deals with going… on location. Shocking, I know. Actors and production staff reflect on working in an actual location as opposed to a constructed soundstage. Director Jonathan Frakes opines on how they created the sets and why the construction worked. The reason it's easier to work on a set is that it, simply put, is a controlled environment. Zimmerman goes through the pains they had to do for consistency on screen as well.

Johnny Eaves, the art director for the movie goes through the design process in "The Art of Insurrection." He talks about going into CGI graphics for the first time, creating a whole new group of ships and working on scale. This feature is primarily focused on the ships, whereas the previous extra looks more at the planet.

"Anatomy of a Stunt" is the process by which a stunt is created and executed… one which never made the final cut of the movie. It's interesting, too, because a lot of work is put into it for naught.

I find it a little humorous that the extra feature that goes into the story of "Insurrection" is found half-way through second DVD. Writer Michael Piller begins a discussion of the "Fountain of Youth" theme and how we would react were a place like this planet ever found. Piller talks about the difficulty of merging the "Seven Samurai" protection story along with the fountain of youth construct. He is honest with what works and what doesn't work and why that is. This is perhaps the most earnest extra feature I've seen on DVD, especially when Piller talks about "Star Trek" moving away from Roddenberry's moral principles. Piller's way of going about this, making Picard the "Moral Center of the Universe" is very heavy-handed, but it works.

The cast and crew ruminate on the nature of the story and its repercussions in the extra "Making Star Trek Insurrection." This feature is very "EPK" but houses a nice dialogue on the themes of the film. I wouldn't say it's fluffy, but the discussion is fairly obvious. It's nice to see the process behind the actor's choices.

"Director's Notebook" is a behind-the-scenes look at Jonathan Frakes at work behind the camera. Frakes discusses the look of the movie, which I appreciated, and using it to mask the weaker story. It's interesting to see how he balanced his different roles and the familial relationships of the cast.

The second section of extras is aimed less at this movie and more the entire Star Trek Universe. "Westmore's Aliens" details the designs, from Neelix to Worf and everyone in between. Make-up and Design Supervisor Michael Westmore talks about his work in creating entire races of people.

And what would a phalocentric DVD set be without a look at the beautiful women of Star Trek? This extra looks at the lovely women and their designs over the years of Trek. Frakes is hysterical looking back, while other crewers, including Marina Sirtis and Conner Trinneer (Trip Tucker from "Enterprise") all reflect on sex in the various series. Luckily everyone is talking firmly tongue-in-cheek so this comes off as pretty funny. Unfortunately they skip over the most beautiful woman of "Star Trek," Ensign Hoshi Sato, the lovely Linda Park. A shame.

The features under the heading of "Creating the Illusion" deal with the staging of, and special effects in "Insurrection." Specifically the designers detail the Shuttle chase, the flying drones, and the so-called "Duck Blind" where Starfleet studies the residents unseen. These are pretty standard as far as special effects extras go, but it's nice to see the creative process broken down.

There are a few "Deleted Scenes" included for your perusal as well. Seven, to be specific. Each has a brief introduction that explains why they didn't work and were ultimately removed.

The archives contain a selection of storyboards for the "Secondary Protocols" scene and a photo gallery as well. If you've seen one…

The final set of extras houses a selection of promotional items, specifically theatrical teaser and final trailers and an EPK featurette.

Film Value:
While "Insurrection" is a very different movie than the "Star Trek" features that preceded it, and from the material that spawned it, I feel that it is a good return to the Roddenberry ideals that are the true heart of this space opera. As a stand-alone movie it's a mixed bag, but the wealth of extra features take this from being a rental to a purchase for Trek fans. If the video quality were as stellar as the audio this could be an easy recommendation as a DVD package.