Posted: 12/15/2002

Star Trek: Nemesis

(2002)

by Hank Yuloff

Either Hank’s finally seen too many movies, or he’s lost his ability to perform the Vulcan mind meld…

As the final credits rolled the conversations and murmurs began…

“Did you get that “Kirk Epsilon escape” reference?”

“Did you notice that as soon as Picard said to keep the bow of the ship facing the enemy, they showed the Enterprise facing away from it?”

“They even showed the shadow of the shuttle craft going across the Enterprise.”

“So why didn’t Data die when he was in space without a suit?”

“He’s not human, you idiot - he doesn’t need oxygen, just the occasional lube job.” (Don’t we all?)

Now don’t get me wrong, I love Star Trek in both the original and the Next Generation version (don’t start with that Deep Space 9 and Voyager crap) so the thing is, even though there are lots of little holes in the plot of this, the 10th feature length version of the TV show, I’m willing to cut it LOTS of slack because it IS Star Trek and over the years I, like hundreds of thousands of others, have come to love ST and its Prime Directive its belief that there is hope that mankind in the not too distant future, will get its collective act together. This was a very well done Star Trek movie and should not be missed by the fans of the shows.

The story, like every episode is a struggle between Good and Evil.

There has been an upheaval in the Romulan Empire and the Enterprise is, conveniently, the closest Federation Starship in the area. Oddly enough, they discover, the new head of the Romulan Empire is a clone (Tom Hardy from The Reckoning) of Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). An enemy plot gone awry. Just go with it.

Anyway, blah blah blah, Enterprise, the Federation, Earth are in danger, yadda yadda, Lassie go get help, things are always darkest before the dawn (except in space where it’s always dark and no one can hear you scream) and Jean-Luc & Co. save the day with white hat heroics. This may sound like cynicism but it isn’t. I really enjoy ST movies. If you compare them to the Star Wars series, I think they hold consistency better. They continue to hold attention where the Wars series has gone stale.

I don’t have to tell you about the acting - you’ve seen these characters before. If you like them in the past, you’ll like them now. Nothing new here. There are bunches of inside jokes and tips of the cap to other ST properties. The action is typically Star Trek - lots of things get blown up and the brilliant captain of the Enterprise shows why he makes the big bucks.

All of this brings us back to the one major question that Trekies have been struggling with since 1987 - could Kirk kick Picard’s ass? Or would Picard send in his Klingon security officer to kick James T’s butt?

The conversations will continue.

Hank Yuloff is a fan of Star Trek but, aside from the “Live Long and Prosper” thing with the hands, couldn’t tell you the difference between star dates without some kind of manual.

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