Among Star Trek films, Nemesis has a few distinctions. First, it is the only Star Trek film not to introduce all of the actors in the opening credits. Second, it is the only Star Trek film to lose money at the U.S. box office. Star Trek V, widely regard among fans and non fans alike as an abysmal piece of bantha poodoo, did nearly twice it’s budget in the U.S. alone, and over twice when worldwide numbers are added. Insurrection, the most expensive Trek film (and another one fans didn’t really welcome wholeheartedly) managed to scrape up a slim profit in the U.S.

So, what does all of this say for Nemesis?

At first glance, it would suggest that the film sucks more than any film has ever sucked before. After all, Trekkers are die hard loyalist, who will buy anything with the Trek name attached, right? So the film must have been terrible for it to do so badly. It would seem, however, that is one of those cases where the first glance is deceiving.

Unfortunately, I never managed to see Nemesis in the theater. I meant to, just couldn’t make it work. So, I don’t know how it came across to moviegoers, but I did rent the DVD when it was first released. I remember thinking it was a fair movie, not the best of the lot, but certainly not the worst. I didn’t buy the DVD. In all fairness, I didn’t actually sit down and watch the film- I was busy doing other things while it was on.

About six months ago I got a sudden desire to watch the movie again, so I went to Best Buy and bought it, deciding it best to just add it to my Trek collection. I will eventually have them all anyway, and it was one of the ones I was missing. I popped the disc in, and decided that, again, it was not so bad. In fact, maybe a litter better than I remembered from my first viewing. There were a few plot contrivances that grated on me a bit, but overall I decided fans must have all been having whatever issues I had that had kept me from the theater when it was showing- it should have done better than it did.

Fast forward to now, and I have been given the Special Edition version of Nemesis for review. I popped the disc in my player, and, since I was doing a review, I gave it my full attention.

The third time watching Nemesis was a charm. It is true that those nagging plot problems still exist, but I decided that taken against the whole of the film, they mean very little, and compared to some in other Trek films and TV series’, they were quite small indeed.

The overall story of Nemesis is once again familiar ground for Trek viewers. “Bad guys want to make peace blah blah Enterprise is the only ship blah blah nefarious villain hatches diabolical blah blah battles in space blah blah thrilling climax and then we all learn a valuable blah blah”. Yeah, it is easy to bag on Trek for being so cookie cutter, but they do it to themselves. Nemesis is Wrath of Khan with a dash of The Undiscovered Country thrown in for flavor, and while Nemesis does manage to stand out and be unique, one can’t help feel they’ve seen it all before. Or, as the case might be, B4 (I’ll get to that in a minute). Still, what Nemesis does bring to the table is a unique villain, great character interaction, and as always, a perspective on a topical issue. Not to mention a pretty cool space battle.

One of my pet peeves with Trek is that almost every other species our heroes encounter turns out to be jerks. If they don’t belong to the “enlightened” Federation, then they are shown to be barbaric, cruel, greedy, or just plain stupid. Some of my favorite episodes of TNG are the ones in which we see a positive side of an alien species, simply because it happens so rarely. Also, many of the races we see are never really fleshed out in any meaningful way. Sure, the Klingons finally got their due, but only because they allied themselves with the Federation in the TNG timeline. And silly, arbitrary limitations on what could and could not happen on a Trek series meant that other races, such as the Romulans, would never get fleshed out much more than “those pointy eared bastards who are shifty and devious and want to take over the universe behind our backs”. I always wanted to know more about the Romulans, and while Nemesis does not give us a whole lot more than we already know, we do get a glimpse of a few sides of their society that we have never seen, and the fact that they are *not* the “villain of the week” in a movie in which they are prominently featured gives Nemesis an automatic plus in my view.

So, the story- Enterprise picks up a strange signal from a planet near the Romulan boarder, and goes to investigate. On the planet, Picard, Data, and Worf find the scattered bits of what appears to be an early prototype of Data- a simpleton android known as B4. Soon enough, the three are getting chased about by a group of shady aliens, getting shot at, and have to escape by jumping their dune buggy off the edge of a cliff and into the back of the waiting shuttle, being remotely piloted by Data.

Yes, I said “dune buggy”. It is fortunate for Picard and crew that off road vehicles are now apparently standard equipment on starships, just when they happened to need one. I guess it would be too easy for them to have just gone about in a regular shuttle and pick up the bits. It would have been less exciting, at least, and though the whole scene feels a bit forced and makes one wonder exactly why dune buggies would suddenly be on starships, the scene is fun to watch nonetheless. Also, it sets the crew up for the Next Big Adventure- while they are there, Starfleet contacts them with some big news. The Romulan Empire has a new Praetor, and he wants to make nice with the Federation. Of course, the Enterprise is the closest ship, so guess who gets to play ambassador?

Upon arriving at Romulus, Picard and crew are greeted by what has to be the single coolest, and deadly, ship ever to appear in Star Trek. (Excepting the Borg, of course, but they don’t count.) It is a massive, fearsome looking vessel called the Scimitar, and it is the ship of the new Praetor, a man called Shinzon. Upon meeting Shinzon, Picard is shocked to discover that the man is not a Romulan at all, but a human. And more than that, he is a clone of Picard himself, at about his mid twenties in age.

From here, the story goes on in pretty standard “A Story, B Story” fashion. Picard gets to know this member of his “family” while Data gets to know his, in the person of B4. These storylines will parallel one another very closely throughout the film, and both will learn that their new siblings are not what they would have hoped for. B4 is a simpleton, very much the “other” brother that mom and dad don’t talk about much, while Shinzon is an angry, alienated young man who dreams of punishing the galaxy around him for all the hell his unwanted life has been. These are stories of people, and how upbringing and environment can be the difference between a life full of potential, or a life wasted in hatred and rage.

While the film does feel like old hat on a number of levels, in many respects Nemesis surpasses the Next Generation films that have come before it. The most easily recognizable way is the look and scope of the film. This is the first Next Gen movie that does not make me think it is just a long TV episode in a wider format. The pacing, sets, and lighting, all give Nemesis a much darker and much “larger” look. It is the only TNG movie I have seen where I really think they simply could not have pulled it off on TV. The dark, moody atmosphere lends itself well to the story being told, as do the Spartan, elegant sets.

The most welcome aspect of the movie has to be the interplay between the characters. Next Generation is well known as having an excellent cast that really works well together, and nowhere is it more evident than in Nemesis. As some cast members relate in the interviews included on disc 2, these people are more than just coworkers- they are friends beyond the set as well, and those relationships come through on the screen. Some of the best lines in the movie are some of the simplest, most true- at the beginning of the film, Data begins to ramble, as he often does, and in a good humored way, Picard tells him to shut up. The gathered crowd chuckles, and Picard says, “I’ve been wanting to say that for fifteen years”. It is simple, but fans who have been with this cast for those fifteen years know exactly what he means. This is what it means to be family, and it is a feeling that will be welcome to long time fans of the series, as well as being one of the underlying concepts behind the movie.

If there is any area where Nemesis is wanting, it is in the action. While there is a good deal of it, it feels somehow slower than in previous films. I got the impression watching Nemesis that the movie really was more about the ideas and concepts, rather than the shooting and brawling. Though there is a good bit of that as well, it does not really stand out compared to other Trek films. The high point comes in the final space battle between the Scimitar, and the Enterprise, joined by a few new design Romulan Warbirds. I don’t want to spoil the ending for those who may not have seen it, but it is a pretty cool piece of work.

Now, on to the particulars of the Special Edition DVD release. As has been the case with previous SE DVD releases of the Trek films, the video transfer is superior to the original release in any way you could care to look at. Clean, crisp, and vivid, it is definitely worth looking at on a good TV. More than that, the audio stands out on this edition. The DTS sound is by for the best of any of the SE releases I have seen so far. It is rare that I am impressed by the sound coming from many DVDs I watch anymore, having been spoiled by the X-Men 2 DVD, but Nemesis ranks right there, and it was indeed noticeably better than previous efforts. If you have only seen this film on the first DVD release, you owe it to yourself to give this one a look- so long as you have the A/V equipment to really do it justice.

The DVD packaging promised me three hours or so of special features, and it did not lie. The second disc is packed full of goodies sure to please any Trek movie junkie or trivia head. While not all of it is spectacular, I have to say that most of it actually stuff that is interesting, and makes you want to watch. I am not one who really cares much about special features, and in most cases, I will never even look at a second disk, if one is included, unless I am doing a review. In the case of Nemesis, I checked out everything Paramount threw on there, and came away impressed. It seems as though they wanted to send the Next Gen crew out with much love on their final voyage, or, as is more probable, give fans a reason to shell out bucks for this version if they already own the original release or none at all. One of the highlights of these extras is, oddly enough, the Shinzon screen test with actors Patrick Stewart and Tom Hardy, the man who plays Shinzon. I usually find screen tests boring beyond belief, but this one is well worth watching. Tom Hardy does an excellent job opposite Patrick Stewart, and the scene is actually an extended version of one from the film. Beyond the great interplay of the actors, the added dialogue gives us a little more background on the Shinzon character, and it actually plays better than the version included in the film. I can understand why the scene was abbreviated for the final film, as it would have been too long winded to keep viewers attention in the theater, but as an extra bit here, it was well worth the few minutes it took to watch it.

All in all, I have come away from my viewing of this SE release of Nemesis with a much greater appreciation of the movie than I had before. I think this movie represents the best of what Trek was meant to be, and hardcore fans can’t really find fault with that, in my opinion. It is a fact that as time goes on, it seems audiences respond more and more to flat out action and edge of your seat thrills, while the “smarter” and more eloquent films get left out in the cold. I think not even Star Trek is immune to this effect, and perhaps that is why Nemesis really didn’t do as well as it should have on the big screen. However, for fans that might have been turned off by Nemesis in the past, I would highly recommend checking out this version. As was the case with me, multiple viewing might just let you see something you missed before, and that is one of the joys of being able to see a movie again and again. Rarely does my opinion of a movie change after the first viewing, but I am happy to say that Nemesis was one of the exceptions. Buy it for your collection, then sit down and really watch it. I think you will be glad you did.

-Ed-
 

Directed by: Stuart Baird   Written by: John Logan, Rick Berman & Brent Spiner   Cast: Patrick Stewart Jonathan Frakes Brent Spiner LeVar Burton Michael Dorn Gates McFadden Marina Sirtis Tom Hardy Ron Perlman

DVD Features: Disc 1 Widescreen Version Enhanced for 16:9 TVs Audio Commentaries by Stuart Baird and Rick Berman Text Commentary by Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda Dolby Digital Sound- English 5.1 Surround English Dolby Surround French Dolby Surround English DTS Surround English Subtitles Spanish Subtitles   Disc 2 PRODUCTION- Nemesis Revisited New Frontiers: Stuart Baird on Directing Nemesis Storyboarding the Action Red Alert! Shooting the Action of Nemesis Build and Rebuild Four-Wheeling in the Final Frontier Shinzon Screen Test THE STAR TREK UNIVERSE- A Star Trek Family’s Final Journey A Bold Vision of the Final Frontier The Enterprise E THE ROMULAN EMPIRE- Romulan Lore Shinzon & The Viceroy Romulan Design The Romulan Senate The Scimitar DELETED SCENES ARCHIVES- Storyboards Production Props TRAILERS- Teaser Theatrical