Star Trek: Nemesis

Star Trek: Nemesis is a 2002 American science-fiction film directed by Stuart Baird. It is the tenth film in the Star Trek film series, as well as the fourth and final film to star the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was written by John Logan from a story developed by Logan, Brent Spiner, and producer Rick Berman. In the film, which is set in the 24th century, the crew of the USS Enterprise-E are forced to deal with a threat to the United Federation of Planets from a clone of Captain Picard named Shinzon, who has taken control of the Romulan Star Empire in a coup d'état.

This article is about the 2002 film. For the 1997 TV episode, see Nemesis (Star Trek: Voyager).

Star Trek: Nemesis
Theatrical release poster
Directed byStuart Baird
Produced byRick Berman
Screenplay byJohn Logan
Story by
Based onStar Trek
by Gene Roddenberry
Starring
Music byJerry Goldsmith
CinematographyJeffrey L. Kimball
Edited byDallas Puett
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • December 13, 2002 (2002-12-13)
Running time
116 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$60 million[2]
Box office$67.3 million[2]

Principal photography for the film took place from November 2001 to March 2002. The film was released in North America on December 13, 2002 by Paramount Pictures, and received generally mixed reviews, with publications criticizing it for being the least successful in the franchise. The film was a box office failure, earning $67 million worldwide against a $60 million budget. Plans for a final film featuring The Next Generation cast were scrapped, and the film series was rebooted instead with Star Trek in 2009.

Plot

On Romulus, members of the Romulan Senate debate terms of peace and alliance from the Reman rebel leader Shinzon. The Remans are a slave race of the Romulan Empire, used as miners and as cannon fodder. While a faction of the military supports Shinzon, the Praetor and Senate are opposed to an alliance. After rejecting the motion, the Praetor and senators are disintegrated by a device left in the room.

Meanwhile, the crew of the USS Enterprise prepare to bid farewell to newly-married first officer Commander William Riker and Counselor Deanna Troi. They discover an energy reading on a planet near the Romulan Neutral Zone. Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Lieutenant Commander Worf, and Lieutenant Commander Data land on the planet and discover the remnants of an android resembling Data named B-4. The crew deduce it to be an earlier version of Data.

Enterprise is ordered on a diplomatic mission to nearby Romulus, where Shinzon has taken over the Empire in a coup and professes a desire for peace with the Federation. On arrival, they learn Shinzon is a clone of Picard, secretly created by the Romulans to plant a high-ranking spy into the Federation. The project was abandoned when Shinzon was still a child and he was left on Remus to die as a slave. After many years, Shinzon became a leader of the Remans, and constructed his heavily armed flagship, Scimitar. The Enterprise crew discover that Scimitar is producing low levels of deadly thalaron radiation. There are also unexpected attempts to communicate with the Enterprise computers, and Shinzon himself violates Troi's mind through the telepathy of his Reman viceroy.

Dr. Crusher discovers that Shinzon is aging rapidly because of the process used to clone him, and the only possible means to stop it is a transfusion of Picard's blood. Shinzon kidnaps Picard and B-4, having planted the android on the nearby planet as a lure. Data reveals he swapped places with B-4, and rescues Picard. They have now seen enough of Scimitar to know that Shinzon plans to use the warship to invade the Federation using its thalaron radiation generator to eradicate all life.

Enterprise races back to Federation space, but is ambushed by Scimitar. Despite the aid of two Romulan Warbirds, Enterprise is heavily damaged. Picard rams Scimitar with Enterprise, crippling both ships. Shinzon activates the thalaron weapon. Picard boards Scimitar alone to face Shinzon, and kills him by impaling him on a metal strut. With Enterprise's transporters damaged, Data leaps the distance between the two ships equipped with an emergency transporter, beaming Picard off the ship, and then sacrifices himself to destroy the thalaron generator and Scimitar with it. The crew mourn Data, and the surviving Romulan commander offers them her gratitude for saving the Empire.

Back at Earth, Picard bids farewell to Riker, who is leaving to command the USS Titan. Picard meets with B-4, and discovers that, before he boarded the Scimitar, Data downloaded the engrams of his neural net into B-4. As B-4 starts singing "Blue Skies", a song Data sang at Riker and Troi's wedding, Picard leaves B-4's quarters, smiling.

Cast
According to Sirtis, she was "ecstatic" about the role Troi plays in the movie.[3] She was pleased with the wedding scene, saying that the dress she wore for Nemesis was nicer than the one she wore at her actual wedding. She was happy to work once again with Wil Wheaton and Whoopi Goldberg, but felt that the film would be the last one with the entire cast of The Next Generation. She remained certain that it would not be the last Star Trek film to be made, however, as she thought that Paramount would want to make a film involving a variety of characters from the different Star Trek series.[3]
  • Tom Hardy as Praetor Shinzon, the leader of the Reman people.
Baird and Berman had been searching for someone who resembled Patrick Stewart but looked about 25 years younger; at one point they considered Jude Law. Baird specifically wanted an unknown actor, and Hardy auditioned by tape after Stewart asked Hardy's agent if he thought any of his clients were suitable for the role. Hardy was filming Simon: An English Legionnaire in Morocco at the time,[4] and decided against using the requested text for the audition. Instead, he got possession of a full script for Nemesis, used a different part of the script, and filmed it partly nude.[5] He was flown to Los Angeles to do a screen test with Stewart; Hardy later described his performance there as "appalling".[6] However, he had recorded himself performing the same piece in a hotel room the night before, and gave that tape to Baird, resulting in his being cast as Shinzon a few days later.[6]
Perlman and Hardy became friends on the set. Perlman said in an interview eight years after the release of the film, "I loved him when I first met him. I loved working with him. I found him to be really smart, really a great kid."[7]

Production

Development and filming

Principal photography began in December 2001 in Southern California.[8] The film was cut by about a third from a much longer running time. Many of the deleted scenes in the movie were "character moments", which served to further the characters' relationships with one another; the reason why they were cut was to put more emphasis on the battle between the Enterprise-E and the Scimitar. Rick Berman has stated that about 50 minutes' worth of scenes were filmed but cut (though not necessarily all of them were usable in a final form). Around seven deleted scenes were included on the DVD when it was first released in 2003; when the Special Collector's Edition was released in 2005, around 14 deleted scenes were included.

Glenn Cote and Brent Spiner on the set of Nemesis

Nemesis was to have been the first Star Trek film to feature the character of Wesley Crusher (played by Wil Wheaton). His scenes were almost entirely cut from the film, leaving only a brief, silent cameo during the wedding (which itself is visible only in cinemascope presentations, as he sits at the far end of the table). A deleted scene on the collector's-edition DVD features a brief conversation between Wesley and Picard: Wesley, now a lieutenant in operations-division gold, has returned to Starfleet and is a member of Captain Riker's engineering crew on the USS Titan.

Three "extended ending" clips were included on the two-disc edition. The first featured Picard talking to Dr. Crusher about her return to Starfleet Medical and Crusher remarking how she works with a bunch of young doctors who are ready to cure the entire quadrant. The second one showed Geordi and Worf packing Data's possessions in his quarters. As they are cleaning up, Data's cat Spot jumps into Worf's hands and Worf states he is not a cat person. Geordi sees how Spot has taken to Worf and replies, "Looks like you are now." Immediately following this scene is the introduction of the new first officer, Commander Madden, which is included in the deleted scenes of the DVD. The third, titled "The Captain's Chair", features the goodbye scene between Riker and Picard, as well as the introduction of the new Enterprise first officer (Madden). The Captain's chair is newly installed with the special feature of automatic restraint straps that trigger when the ship goes to alert, to which Picard responds with a smile, "It's about time!"

In promotional interviews for the film, Patrick Stewart stated that room for a sequel was left as B-4 begins singing "Blue Skies".[9]

Direction and writing

Stuart Baird was brought in to direct Nemesis by executive producer Rick Berman. It was Baird's third film following US Marshals and Executive Decision, although he had directed a variety of second units previously. Baird did not have a background in Star Trek; he was aware of the films and television series but did not consider himself an expert on the subject.[10] Berman explained that Baird would bring "fresh blood" to the film and that Berman had enjoyed "the sense of fun and action that existed in Executive Decision."[11] Baird said in a promotional interview that this resulted in a non-typical Baird film, saying that it was "perhaps a little different from the dynamics of the previous films."[10] He wanted to add energy to the action scenes and added some set pieces, such as the car chase. He called that scene a "signature piece" for the film, which turns dark after the crew is put in danger by the inhabitants of the planet.[10] He also found that the cast would discuss any issues they had with the direction he gave to their characters. Despite Frakes' being in the cast and having directed the previous two Star Trek films, Baird decided not to seek his opinion on the direction of the film. He said that there was no resentment on set, noting that Frakes was completing work on directing Clockstoppers at the time and so likely could not have taken on directing Nemesis even if Baird had not been given the job. Baird had hoped that Nemesis would be enough of a success that he could consider whether to take the lead on a future, eleventh Star Trek film.[10]

Make-up

The make-up team sought to make Hardy look more similar to Stewart by creating latex prosthetics from moulds of the latter's face. These included numerous versions of noses and chins, and in order to reduce the visible size of Hardy's lips a fake scar was added.[12]

Music
Main article: Star Trek: Nemesis (soundtrack)

The music to Star Trek: Nemesis was composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith, who composed previous entries in the franchise, such as the Academy Award-nominated score for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek: First Contact, and Star Trek: Insurrection, as well as the themes to the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation (arranged by Dennis McCarthy) and Star Trek: Voyager. One of the final works written before his death in 2004, Goldsmith had also previously collaborated with Baird on Executive Decision and U.S. Marshals.

The score opens with airy synthesizers under a trumpet performing an augmented triad before preceding into Alexander Courage's Star Trek: The Original Series fanfare. The score then quickly transitions into a much darker theme to accompany the conflict between the Reman and Romulan empires. Goldsmith also composed a new 5-note theme to accompany the character Shinzon and the Scimitar, which is manipulated throughout the score to reflect the multiple dimensions of the character. The score is book-ended with Goldsmith's theme from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, following a brief excerpt from the song "Blue Skies" by Irving Berlin and the original Star Trek fanfare.[13]

Release

Box office

The premiere of Star Trek: Nemesis took place at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. It was attended by the cast and crew, with the exception of Jonathan Frakes who was away directing the film Thunderbirds. The after party was held in the Kodak Theater complex.[14] Nemesis was released on December 13, 2002, in direct competition with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (released November 15, 2002), the 20th James Bond film Die Another Day (released November 22, 2002), and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (released December 18, 2002). Rick Berman (executive producer of the film) has suggested that Nemesis's performance may have been negatively affected by "the competition of other films".[15] This poor performance was predicted by reviewers, due to the short period in the film's release before The Two Towers was released.[16] The film's gross domestic income was the lowest of the franchise at $43,254,409 as of September 2008. It opened at #2 in the US box office ($200,000 behind Maid in Manhattan) and was the first Trek film not to debut as the highest-grossing film of the week.[17] It earned a total of $67,312,826 worldwide, against a production budget of $60 million.[2]

Home media

On May 20, 2003, Nemesis was released on DVD in both anamorphic widescreen and full screen editions in Region 1, and was also released on VHS. The initial DVD release contained an audio commentary by director Stuart Baird, four featurettes on the film's production, seven deleted scenes, a photo gallery, and a preview for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on DVD at Amazon.com. Also on October 4, 2005, Star Trek: Nemesis was released on UMD in widescreen for Region 1 only; it is the only Star Trek ever released on UMD. The initial release was followed up with a "Special Collector's Edition" in Region 1 on October 4, 2005. Although this two-disc set contained several additional features, it also duplicated some of the features found in the initial release.[18] The film was released on Blu-ray on September 22, 2009 as part of the Star Trek: The Next Generation Motion Picture Collection in the United States. It was subsequently released individually in Japan and the United Kingdom. The Blu-ray edition contains high definition bonus features not seen on previous DVD releases.[19]

Reception

Critical response
There is a scene in the movie in which one starship rams another one. You would think this would destroy them both, and there are a lot of sparks and everybody has to hold onto their seats, but the "Star Trek" world involves physical laws which reflect only the needs of the plot. If one ship rammed another and they were both destroyed and everyone died, and the movie ended with a lot of junk floating around in space, imagine the faces of the people in the audience.

—Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times[20]

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a critic rating of 38%, based on 162 reviews. This was the second-lowest rating, behind Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, with an average rating of 5.2/10 with the site's consensus: "Nemesis has an interesting premise and some good action scenes, but the whole affair feels a bit tired."[21] The film has earned a Metacritic score of 51 out of 100 based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[22] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times had mixed feelings about the film, stating, "I'm smiling like a good sport and trying to get with the dialogue ... and gradually it occurs to me that 'Star Trek' is over for me. I've been looking at these stories for half a lifetime, and, let's face it, they're out of gas." Ebert gave the film two out of four stars.[20] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said that the film is a "rather harebrained story that's relieved to a degree only by some striking visual effects and by Patrick Stewart's outstanding presence as Picard". LaSalle complained that Stewart gave "integrity and wry stoicism to Nemesis, but the movie [was] unworthy of him".[23] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a positive review, commenting that the crew "indulge[s] the force of humanity over hardware in a way that George Lucas had forgotten." Gleiberman gave the film a "B-".[24] Stephen Holden of The New York Times said that the film is a "klutzy affair whose warm, fuzzy heart emits intermittent bleats from the sleeve of its gleaming spacesuit". Holden praised the scenes where the Enterprise and the Scimitar ram into each other during the final battle.[25]

In 2019, Screen Rant ranked a character introduced in this film, Donatra, as the 2nd most important Romulan of the Star Trek franchise.[26] They note that Donatra, while overall a high ranking Romulan and participant in the antagonist's plot, ultimately did not approve of eradication of Earth life and in the end helped the Enterprise.[26]

Cast response

Actors LeVar Burton and Marina Sirtis have spoken unflatteringly of Baird, criticizing him for not watching any of the episodes of The Next Generation.[27] Sirtis has bluntly called Baird "an idiot."[28] Jonathan Frakes, while praising both the character of Shinzon and actor Tom Hardy, said that if he himself had directed, as he had done with the previous two Trek films, he would have made the film less villain-centric and given more screen time to the regular Next Generation cast.[29] In January 2020 when discussing his return for Star Trek: Picard, Patrick Stewart described Nemesis as a "pretty weak" finale for The Next Generation.[30]

Accolades

Hardy was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor, although he lost out to Andy Serkis for his role in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.[31]

Future

Possible sequel

During production of Nemesis, a script developed by John Logan and Brent Spiner was in the works for a fifth and final film featuring the TNG cast that would have wrapped up the adventures of the Enterprise-E crew, with tie-ins to historical aspects of the Star Trek franchise. However, the poor performance of Nemesis at the box office convinced Paramount that Star Trek was suffering from "franchise fatigue", and the script was abandoned.[32]

Television series

On August 4, 2018, Star Trek: Picard, featuring Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard was announced. The series is set eighteen years after the events of Nemesis,[33] and developed for CBS All Access.[34] Besides continuing the story of Captain Picard, it also features the destruction of Romulus, an event from the film Star Trek (2009).

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See also

References
  1. "STAR TREK - NEMESIS (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. October 24, 2002. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  2. "Star Trek: Nemesis". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com.
  3. Spelling, Ian (January 2003). "Bride of the Stars". Starlog. 1 (306): 23–26. Retrieved May 15, 2015.
  4. Haydock (2012): p. 37
  5. Haydock (2012): p. 38
  6. Haydock (2012): p. 39
  7. Haydock (2012): p. 43
  8. "Paramount Pictures Announces 'Star Trek: Nemesis' Begins Principal Photography". PR Newswire. Cision. December 11, 2001. Archived from the original on December 20, 2001. Retrieved June 20, 2019 – via Yahoo.com.
  9. Patrick Stewart interview on Nemesis Revisited DVD Featurette
  10. Spelling, Ian (February 2003). "Galactic Action". Starlog. 1 (307): 46–50. Retrieved May 15, 2015.
  11. Spelling, Ian (November 2001). "The Long Trek". Starlog. 1 (292): 67–69. Retrieved May 15, 2015.
  12. Haydock (2012): p. 41
  13. Clemmensen, Christian. Star Trek Nemesis soundtrack review. Filmtracks.com. Retrieved April 10, 2011.
  14. ""Star Trek Nemesis" Gala Premiere at Grauman's". StarTrek.com. December 10, 2002. Archived from the original on December 21, 2002. Retrieved May 3, 2015.
  15. "Rick Berman Talk Trek Franchise' Future". killermovies.com.
  16. Foundas, Scott (December 9, 2002). "Star Trek Nemesis". Daily Variety. Archived from the original on April 9, 2016. Retrieved April 28, 2015 – via HighBeam Research.
  17. "December 13-15, 2002". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 28, 2015.
  18. Star Trek - Nemesis (Special Collector's Edition) DVD at Amazon.com.
  19. "Star Trek: The Next Generation Motion Picture Collection Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved July 18, 2012.
  20. Ebert, Roger (December 13, 2002). "Star Trek: Nemesis". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
  21. "Star Trek - Nemesis (2002)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  22. "Star Trek: Nemesis Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  23. LaSalle, Mick (December 13, 2002). ""Star Trek Nemesis" fails to emerge". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
  24. Glieberman, Owen (December 13, 2002). "Star Trek: Nemesis Review". Entertainment Weekly. Time, Inc. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
  25. Holden, Stephen (December 13, 2002). "Star Trek: Nemesis". The New York Times. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
  26. "The 10 Most Important Romulans In The Star Trek Universe". ScreenRant. July 4, 2019. Retrieved July 6, 2019.
  27. "Sirtis & Burton want Trek XI to be a TNG film ... say Nemesis 'sucked' VIDEO". TrekMovie.com. Retrieved December 10, 2011.
  28. "DST3: Sirtis Calls Star Trek Nemesis Director 'Idiot' + Crosby & Ryan Talk Proposed Nemesis Roles". TrekMovie.com. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
  29. Anthony Pascale (February 8, 2009). "Jonathan Frakes On Nemesis, JJ Abrams Star Trek, A Return of TNG + more". TrekMovie. Retrieved February 9, 2009.
  30. Holloway, Daniel (January 8, 2020). "'Star Trek: Picard': Patrick Stewart on Why He Returned to the Final Frontier". Variety. Retrieved January 25, 2020.
  31. Haydock (2012): p. 45
  32. "Final TNG Movie Was Pulled Due To Franchise Fatigue". airlockalpha.com.
  33. Patches, Matt. "Patrick Stewart's Picard to return in new Star Trek series". Polygon. Polygon. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  34. Goldberg, Lesley. "Patrick Stewart to Reprise 'Star Trek' Role in New CBS All Access Series". The Hollywood Reporter. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 5, 2018.

Bibliography
  • Haydock, James (2012). Tom Hardy - Dark Star Rising. John Blake Publishers. ISBN 978-1-78219-023-3.

Further reading
  • Nemecek, Larry (2003). Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion (3rd ed.). Pocket Books. ISBN 0-7434-5798-6.
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