Star Trek: Insurrection (Paramount Pictures, 1998) is the ninth Star Trek feature film. Directed by Jonathan Frakes, from a script by Michael Piller, it features the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Synopsis

During a diplomatic mission, the Enterprise receives a communication that Lieutenant Commander Data (Brent Spiner) has gone berserk during an observation mission at the Ba'ku homeworld.

After capturing and fixing Data they return to the Ba'ku village on the planet surface to find what caused him to malfunction. They find a Federation ship which contains a holodeck reproduction of the Ba'ku's village, apparently so the Ba'ku can be unwittingly relocated without their knowledge.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his crew discover that the Briar Patch (the area of space the Baku planet is located in) is filled with metaphasic radiation particles, which imparts fountain of youth qualities which the Federation and the Son'a wish to harvest. However, harvesting the particles would cause the planet to become uninhabitable, hence the need for the holo-ship.

Against orders, Captain Picard and the Enterprise crew return to the planet surface to prevent the relocation of the Ba'ku. When Picard is captured by the Son'a and Federation, he reveals to the Federation Admiral that the Son'a are actually Ba'ku who were exiled from the planet years ago and are simply out for revenge.

Notes/Trivia

• Music was scored by Jerry Goldsmith.
• The movie's filming locations included the Sierra Nevada. Specific filming locations were Convict Lake near Mammoth Lakes, California and Lake Sabrina .
• In the opening sequence showing life in the Ba'ku village, the "alien" knife used to cut bread dough is actually an Alaskan Ulu knife.
• The manual control column that Riker uses to steer the Enterprise is a modified Gravis Thunderbird PC joystick.
• Anthony Zerbe 's character is stretched to death. In "Licence to Kill", his character expands to death (inside a decompression chamber).
• So far, this is the only Star Trek movie in which absolutely no scenes take place on or near Earth.
• First Star Trek movie where all the space shots are computer-generated.
• Its network television premiere had been scheduled for 16 September 2001 on NBC, but was scrapped because of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
• The character Gallatin was named for Gallatin county Montana, where the town of Bozeman is located, birth place of Star Trek writer Brannon Braga.
• The Sona's plastic-surgery room was recycled into the Museum of Kyrian Heritage in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Living Witness" (1998).
• In the original ending to the film Adhar Ru'afo was to escape in a craft that fell into the rings that surrounded the planet, where he would get younger and younger. After it was changed the director sent F. Murray Abraham a tape of the original ending to see how it had turned out anyway.
• One of the sound effects used during the "skin stretching" scenes is that of a recharging camera flash.
• All the Ba'ku buildings were created using a foam-like material cut by computer.
• When Data is malfunctioning, Picard gets him to recite Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore. In the Isaac Asimov story "Runaround" a malfunctioning robot recites Gilbert and Sullivan while evading capture by his human masters. Much of Data's character is taken from Asimov's writings (such as Data's "Positronic Net", adapted from Asimov's "Positronic" brains).
• Scenes involving Armin Shimmerman's Quark character from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine were filmed, but cut.

External links

• Official Star Trek: Insurrection web page