I remember, long before Star Trek Nemesis was to be released, I read somewhere that the film’s screenwriter was using Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan as his inspiration for the film. Considering that The Wrath of Khan was the best Trek film ever made, even surpassing First Contact, this was good news. After a period of time passed, I heard that the script was leaked online. I read it, and immediately concluded that the whole thing was a hoax. It had to be. The entire premise, from the villain to the finale, were some of the absolute worst ideas I had ever heard of for a film – let alone for a film from a well-established, highly successful franchise. And as promotional materials began to appear, I continued to hold out hope that, somewhere along the line, someone had made drastic script changes and, somehow, had managed to salvage a respectable outing.
Sadly, such salvation was not to be had.
The fact is, Star Trek Nemesis is an endless parade of contrivances to artificially recreate the deeply personal duel between Captain James T. Kirk and his nemesis, Khan. To do this, the film had to have a villain that could rival Picard in almost every way imaginable. But instead of going back into the vast canon of TNG episodes for that character, as The Wrath of Khan did, the film conjures up a brand new character. It’s not a bad idea except that the conjuring was the epitome of laziness and sci-fi cliché. The villain, a human by the name of Shinzon, was to be … a clone. This, coming in the same calendar year as Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, no less.
The clone idea becomes even more preposterous when the backstory is revealed. Shinzon turns out to have been part of some bizarre Romulan scheme to replace the real Picard with a clone – as if such a scenario could ever have been plausible, considering the incredible gaps in experience between the clone and the original. And yet, the plan was not only approved, but set into motion. That the plan wasn’t followed through on had nothing to do with plausibility – it was simply jettisoned when a new Romulan administration came to power. So Shinzon was sent to the planet Remus, home to an orc-like race of sub-Romulans, called Remans, to die in slave mines. He survived, but grew to be consumed by bitter hatred. And he plans to unleash that hatred on … Earth. Why Earth and not, say, Romulus? Because he has to be Picard’s villain, that’s why.
It’s such a convoluted construct that I am simply baffled that anyone thought that this would be viable on screen. It isn’t. In fact Shinzon, who happens to be younger, but inexplicably more bald than Picard, is not only a bad contrivance, he’s a walking cliché of a bad guy. Somehow the caricature worked for Khan – most likely because his mania was much more plausible – but it’s utterly ridiculous from Shinzon. Added to the bad history and bad writing, the performance is just as atrocious. Shinzon never comes across as anything other than a raving lunatic. Who wears shoulder pads.
It’s all unfortunate because the clone happens to represent an important archetype: The Shadow. For Picard to confront his dark self (literally) could be the basis for a very compelling story. Indeed, the film is at its most engaging when Shinzon and Picard spar over their “mirror” images of each other. But because Shinzon is so contrived, and so unimaginatively evil, he doesn’t represent a “dark” at all (even though the film tells us that he is supposed to). Plus, by making Shinzon so evil, the film basically says that whether or not we are good or evil comes purely from our own experiences – that there is no inherent “self” – it’s all learned.
As for Shinzon’s plans of retribution, he commands a gargantuan ship called the Scimitar – basically an “invincible” ship which has a perfect cloak, the ability to fire when cloaked, superfast top speed, a biogenic superweapon, and the ability to make tea. It’s the worst possible excess for a film. The sheer size and weaponry evoke laughter, rather than awe. As a frame of reference, think of Spaceball-1 (kudos if you get the reference without having to look it up on google or wikipedia).
As a “mirror” story line, we also get the contrivance of B4 – a heretofore unknown prototype android created by Data’s “father” – Dr. Noonian Soong. B4 turns out to have been planted by Shinzon on some remote planet for the sole purpose of being discovered by the Enterprise, reassembled and then allowed to gain access to vital ship systems. How did Shinzon manage to procure a prototype Data when the entire galaxy would want nothing less than that?
Contrivance.
I’ll give the film credit for trying to work the B4 story into the overall plot – by way of Shinzon’s overwrought plan, and by way of a poetic conclusion to Data’s eventual sacrifice. But the gesture is so clumsily executed – and I’m not talking about the intentionally juvenile performance of B4 – that the whole concept is entirely vapid.
The rest of the film doesn’t far a whole lot better, from the opening scenes in the Romulan Senate, to Shinzon’s moronic scheme, to Super Data, to the final scene between Picard and B4. And when Data commits the ultimate selfless act of sacrificing himself for the ship and the crew, it’s horribly anti-climactic. Data was such a strong character in the series that his demise demanded a sequence that was much better executed. Really, the film plays like a really, really atrocious sample of fan fiction – from someone who is completely clueless about the subject matter.
What, if anything, does the film do right? Well, the wedding ceremony between Riker and Troi was enjoyable for its nostalgia factor – seeing the entire cast altogether again, including Wesley and Guinan (though, Data’s serenade was stretching things a bit). I think kudos should go to the sound crew. I’m not exactly sure how they managed it, but the entire film had a very polished sound – almost like it “shimmered” in the ears. (Work with me, I’m grasping for compliments here.) The visual effects were stunning – easily the best that has ever been seen in Star Trek. And the space battle between the Enterprise, the Scimitar and two Romulan Warbirds was likewise impressive. And I suppose that the various references to the other Trek films and series were nice “easter eggs” for Trekkies.
Star Trek Nemesis is simply a very bad movie with a high production budget. The result is a film that looks and sounds impressive, but is otherwise incredibly vacant. Even the underlying “mirror” subtext plays out very poorly because the “mirror” of Shinzon is so cracked and cloudy that nothing can be seen in it. For the life of me, I will never understand how this film has gained as many fans as it has.
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