I will forever curse Paramount Pictures and Director Stuart Baird for the fact that the last cinematic adventures of The Next Generation crew were captured on film in Star Trek Nemesis. The previous installment, Star Trek: Insurrection, (which was tentatively titled “Star Trek: How Picard Got His Groove Back”) was not very good by any means and there was definitely a lot riding on it.
Admittedly I was very excited for Nemesis spefically for the fact that Romulans were involved. During the course of The Next Generation they had some pretty significant story lines and an established history with Picard … how could it go wrong? Let’s count all of the reasons …
A Picard Clone. Fake Data. Picard Clone Mind Raping Troi. A Director Who May Not Have Ever Seen A Single Episode of Star Trek. Data Sacrificing Himself To Save Picard. Oh Look Fake Data Now Has Data’s Memories.
Seriously STUART BAIRD CAN GET FUCKED. I’m pretty sure he filmed Nemesis while having Wrath of Khan playing on a monitor just out of his field of vision.
“Oh yes, a vital crew member and friend of the Captain should sacrifice himself for the good of the many”.
“Where are we having the space battle? Well can’t call it a nebula why don’t we call it a rift instead?”
While I’m sure Baird wanted to make a film in the vein of Wrath of Khan, but the end result than can only be described as a diluted and completely disingenuous to Star Trek fans. I am a very forgiving person, but Data’s sacrifice in the closing minutes of Nemesis are completely wasted on “resurrecting” him within the neural net of the android B-4 (who is essentially the Cousin Balky of Star Trek).
I can forgive a lot of what happens in Star Trek. Sure there is a lot of goofy techno-babble and glaring plot holes, but in the end it is about the characters and their journey together. Over nearly 15 year stretch The Next Generation spawned two other series and four feature length movies. And that great run was completely squandered after roughly 45 minutes into Nemesis, which is why it is the worst Trek ever.