80 Things You Didn't Know About The Star Trek Next Generation Movies

loveed or hated Star Trek generations has a very important place in the cannon of the franchise namely is that we get the Next Generation crew on the big screen and we get Kirk taking a away tumble off a bridge now however you feel about the film there is no denying it's a seriously interesting effort I am Sean feric for Tre culture and here are 20 things you didn't know about starter generations part one number 20 Jean rodeny was firmly opposed to a to TNG team up Generations was the first Trek movie to be produced following the death of Creator Gene rodeny in 1991 and given roden's obstinate approach to deciding which stories could and couldn't be told the creatives decided to push forward with bold new ideas following his death one such concept was the creative team suggestions of a movie that teamed the original series cast up with the Next Generation roster to which rodb had previously expressed firm opposition while it' be easy for fans to view such posthumous chicanery as disrespectful especially so soon after Roden B's death considering the man 's reputation for being stubborn difficult and slow to accept change there was shockingly little outcry plus how could any card carrying treky hear about a Kirk pear team up and not get excited number 19 Paramount allowed it to go 40% over budget the budget of the Star Trek movies have been all over the map and though Generations era bridging premise was an easy sell to even the most casual Trek fan paramet nevertheless wanted to keep the budget tight the initial budget proposal was set at just over $30 million slightly above start six the uncovered country's $27 million price tag with the extra costs largely incurred by planning shoots in Hawaii Idaho and the midwestern United States but Paramount ended up nixing some of the location shoots to get the budget down to a spelt $25 million however production overages and the necessity to spend an extra $5 million re-shooting Kirk's death following poor test reactions bloated the budget out to $35 million all in all generations went 40% over budget though Paramount were smart enough to know know that it was worth throwing extra cash at something as important as Kirk's death even if in the eyes of many fans they ultimately still whiffed it number 18 why the uniforms are totally random fans often question why the Starfleet crew throughout the film are wearing combinations of costumes from The Next Generation and Deep Space 9 with seemingly no explanation or even basic consistency whatsoever the reason for this is that new uniforms had actually been designed for the Enterprise D's crew which would have included minor military style variations on the Next Generation uniforms including colored collars matching the rest of the outfit rank Pips on the shoulder and rank braiding along the wrist ultimately producer Rick Burman wasn't a fan so all of the changes were scrapped save for new angular coms badge design this decision occurred late enough in production that Jonathan Frakes and lar Burton were forced to borrow costumes from deep space 99's Avery Brooks and colum Mei which naturally didn't fit so well though there sadly aren't any surviving images of the plan new uniforms the call was made too late to prevent a series of Playmates action figures based on the designs being produced and released number 17 the saucer Crash Landing was originally written for tg's season 6 Cliffhanger ending one of the most spectacular moments in the movie is the crash landing of the Enterprises sorcerer section which impacts into the jungle on the planet veran 3 as Unforgettable as it is the sequence was actually originally written for the next Generations season 6 Cliffhanger Descent Part One but the sfx team insisted that they would struggle to execute the scene to the satisfaction on a TV budget so recommended that it be saved for the film and so that's precisely what happened with co-writer BR and brager holding on to the idea and finding a way to slot it into Generations given that the sequences VFX are impressively well-aged for the most part it's absolutely the right call to hang on and wait for the money to match the scale of the idea number 16 Paramount requested Carol Marcus's removal from the script the film's original script included a part for Captain Kirk's historic love interest Dr Carol Marcus BB bash for while Kirk and Marcus were long arranged by this point Generations novelization presented them as friends I'll be it not without Kirk making one more attempt to rekindle things Paramount ex XX ended up requesting that Carol be removed from the script though with the film's co-writer Ronald D Moore explaining that the studio was worried about audiences getting confused by Carol's reappearance instead Kirk gets subtledriver in a movie that has to explain the NEX sister audiences worrying about Carol causing confusion is very much besides the point number 15 the Next Generation cast shot their scenes 4 days after wrapping the series Generations was actually shot in conjunction with the final episodes of The Next Generation resulting in a hectic production where principal photography was completed in just 51 days a frankly impossibly short length of time on a modern Star Trek film to add to the stress filmy began less than 8 months before the movie was due to hit Cinemas which again for any contemporary Blockbuster is an absurd turnaround time the scenes that didn't require the next generation's cast members were filmed first while they wrapped up production of the series and just 4 days after rapping on the show they headed over to separate Sound Stage to start filming the movie From the Moment tg's cast finished working on the series there was a mere 6 months to go until Generations was due to release that is what you call pressure number 14 Spock bones and Sulu were originally meant to appear ultimately only three of the original series crew appear in the film Kirk Scotty and checkov those Spock bones and Sulu were originally meant to show up for starters letter nemoy was invited to both play Spock and direct the film but felt that the film didn't give him anything to do and so his lines were largely given to Scotty instead in the case of Taris Kelly it was Sly down to the actor's ailing Health meaning he couldn't receive onset Insurance required to shoot any scenes resulting in his dialogue being given to check of George teay was called back to command the Enterprise B but refused on the grounds that serving under Kirk again would require sulu's rank to be reduced instead his daughter Deora was introduced and given most of his lines sadly some of the cast weren't informed about the original series cast members absences such as whoy Goldberg who arrived on set expecting to share a screen with Nichelle Nichols number 13 numerous shots were recycled to save money because Paramount was desperately attempting to save money during the production they ended up recycling expensive spaceship shots from previous Trek movies and TV most infamously shots of the Kling on bird of prey namely its destruction were lifted from Star Trek 6 the Undiscovered Country having only been released 3 years earlier also some shots of the Enterprise D were simply used from the next generation are these things the end of the world no but they just make it clear just how eager Paramount was to cut Corners even if it made the production seem a little Laz and shoddy to fans eagley enough to notice the bird of prey explosion is especially unforgivable just imagine a new MCU movie trying to get away with recycling one of its many distinctive shots from a few years ago number 12 an early concept involved the two Enterprise Crews fighting one of the earliest concepts for Generations involved having the two generations of Enterprise Crews battle one another Co writer Ronald E Moore said we were obsessed with the pulser image of the two Enterprises locked in combat Kirk versus bicard one must die in terms of an image that would easily sell to fans more certainly wasn't wrong but unsurprisingly problems quickly arose when the writers attempted to develop the idea further namely what event could possibly bring Kirk and Picard into deathly conflict as Batman v Superman proved a few years ago the circumstances that could make two beloved Heroes fight tend to be a bit contrived and unconvincing at best while seeing the two Enterprises fire on one another or Kirk and Picard throw down would have generated thermonuclear levels of fan service would it have actually made a lick of sense number 11 Kirk's death was spoiled before it was even shot those script leaks are infinitely more disastrous today where everyone has a portable camera equipped computer in their pocket there weren't exactly a picnic three decades ago either by March 1994 when Generations was just starting principal photography a script had been leaked in fan circles and online revealing both the film's energy ribbon conceit and and most alarmingly the death of Kirk to make matters worse Scotty actor James Duan confirmed the script's legitimacy at a fan convention that very same month causing his presumably panicked agent to claim that he hadn't actually seen the completed script in September 1994 some two months before Generations was due to release another copy leaked online ensuring the fandom was well aware of what was coming before it happened hilariously Paramount delayed the release of the film's musical score until 3 weeks after the movie hit Cinemas to protect against spoilers what with one of the climactic tracks being bluntly called Kirk's death could they really not have just named the track something else part two number 10 it was the first film ever marketed with a website though the internet was certainly a thing by 1994 Believe It or Not Generations is the first film in history to have its own official promotional website the site generations. viacom.com went online 3 weeks prior to the movie's release and presented an interface in the style of the Enterprises iconic library computer access retrieval system ELC car's operating system the site included a trailer for the film sound clips and photos behind the- scenes materials and a Star Trek shop for a short while it was one of the most popular sites on the web though unlike other promotional websites of the era such as the Space Jam site from 1996 which is still online today it didn't stand the test of time and eventually disappeared into the Cyber ether number nine the novelization features the original ending and Kirk's funeral the first edition of generation novelization contains a number of ideas from earlier scripts that were ultimately discarded as well as the original ending that was eventually reshot the novel includes Kirk's original death where he's fatally shot in the back by sain and then sain is killed when Picard shoots him with his own disruptor pistol this addition also included Kirk's funeral with a scene where Spock would hesitate to enter the church because it meant admitting that Kirk was really dead before bones convinces him to enter soon enough a second edition of the novelization was released which was more movie faithful especially with regards to Kirk's demise number eight data uses profanity to avoid a g rating it's of course no secret that the vast majority of Blockbuster movie releases aim for a PG-13 rating because a more adult skewing R rating can be incredibly risky where larger budget material is concerned but there's also a fascinating largely unspoken phenomenon that goes the other way whereby Studios prefer to avoid their bigger budget liveaction movies getting a mile G rating because it is historically stunted the box office of films that aren't strictly familyfriendly G gives the impression that a film is harmlessly inoffensive to all and in the context of Star Trek that might imply it's Toothless and sanitized to a fault and so the decision was made to include a single piece of profanity to boost it to a PG rating where data memorably says oh sh as the Enterprise takes a dive ultimately only one more Tre film after this Insurrection was rated PG with a franchise deferring to the Blockbuster typical PG-13 from that point onwards first Contact sandwiched in between these two movies was the the first PG-13 entry in the franchise number seven the death of Picard's family was Patrick Stewart's suggestion one of the most memorable aspects of generation's plot is the Revelation that Picard's brother Rober and his nephew Renee died at a fire though Picard's anguish was originally considerably less dramatic than this the script initially had bicard learned that his brother had died of a heart attack while in his Vineyard but Patrick Stewart suggested that the news had to be more dire and upsetting than this by extending to the future of his family name further still Stuart also said that it had to be harsh unpleasant means of death hence the fire to Stuart's credit he absolutely commits to the Heartbreak of these scenes deepening Picard's characterization as a result number six Captain harman's family are a ferris ber Easter egg Enterprise B Captain John Harman would never rank among anyone's favorite Tre captains but it's probably not entirely fair to disparage him with such a brief amount of screen time especially when he's commanding an underst stocked ship wasn't expecting anything beyond a gentle cruise and has to deal with the ab object stress of Kirk watching him work one of the most amusing nuggets of information about an otherwise Bland and uninteresting character comes from harman's personal file in the 1998 video game Star Trek Starship Creator the file mentions that Harryman has a wife named Sloan and a son named Ferris who both live in Chicago as well as interests in 20th century Italian sports automobiles this is of course all a big cutesy reference to actor Alan rook's much loved role as Cameron in Ferris bu's day off and while the canonicity of this fight can perhaps be disputed does anything in harman's brief screen time actually contradicted nope number five re-shoot were completed just weeks before release the film's massively rushed production schedule was exacerbated by the fact that crucial re-shoot had to be conducted in October of 1994 literally weeks before it opened the scene where Picard is in the Nexus and imagines himself at home with his family was shot in an actual house in California while the initial shoot occurred in May 1994 along with Prince ible photography the crew had to return there 5 months later to add Picard's nephew Renee to the scene while these re-shoot obviously weren't technically complex as they didn't require much if anything in terms of VFX the production was still cutting it massively fine to get the picture locked and completed before the release date number four Kirk can be saved in the video game ending a video game based on the movie and bearing the very same title was released for PC in May 1997 some 6 months after generation movie sequel first Contact had actually been released the game was a first-person shooter which touted the novel feature of allowing players to effectively save Kirk's life and prevent his controversial demise while you can have things play out as in the movie if you so wish you're also able to capture sain before he visits vidiian 3 and defeat his Starship preventing the Enterprise D's destruction and in turn negating Kirk's death in this scenario Kirk isn't actually involved in the game story and is presumed to Simply remain safe and happy within the Nexus number three the Nexus gave gynan her sixth sense in an early draft a fascinating element of generation story that was frustratingly removed from the script is the implication that when gynan enters the Nexus along with some of the other eloran in 2293 this is responsible for developing her famous sixth sense to see beyond the bounds of time and space this of course runs counter to the assertion of fans in the Next Generation that it's a trait common to all the eloran but it's backed up by the movie's companion comic book which similarly mentions that Gyan was fundamentally Changed by her brief stint in the Nexus it's certainly one of the film's more interesting story ideas and so quite a frustrating exclusion number two William Shatner wrote a sequel novel fixing Kirk's death following the overwhelmingly negative fan response to Kirk's death more the nature of it than the actual death itself William Shatner decided to write his own sequel novel The Return with fellow scribes Garfield Reef Stevens and Judith Reef Stevens published in April 1996 the novel saw the romulans Align with the Borg to bring Kirk back to life using alien technology before implanting false memories in his mind to turn him against Picard and the true of the Enterprise in the end Kirk is broken free of his conditioning and sacrifices himself to destroy the Borg but given that Spock can still sense him via their mind melt he doesn't really believe Kirk is dead it's in many ways a more satisfying send off for Kirk than Generations except that the next entry in the Shatner series of novels 1997's Avenger swiftly confirms Kirk's survival thanks to a lucky last minute transporter beam out number one the Nexus energy ribbon was an extremely complicated effort despite the aformentioned budget cuts many of the mov visual effects have actually aged pretty well such as the nexus's beautiful but terrifying energy ribbon director David Carson has famously called the energy ribbon the True Villain of the movie due to the enormous time and general resources its creation expended during the hurried production due to there being no direct frame of reference for the ribbon in nature industrial Light and Magic had to conceptualize it themselves with legendary effects supervisor John null modeling aspects of the ribbon from magnetic fields around Uranus and electrical storms it's incredibly easy to take such such effects for granted today but back in the early days of complex CGI stuff like this was just massively a headache the end result was well worth us at least and we have come to it at last it is the film that proved that the Next Generation crew really could handle a big screen budget and some big screen Adventure now whether we are following Jean Luke Picard on his insane quest to smash every piece of glass that he finds or Riker's quest to figure out what was that third seat originally four in the cockpit of the Phoenix it is the big film of 1996 I'm not going to lie you I've got very happy memories of this film is it a perfect film no no it isn't is it a terrible film no no it isn't is it a film that I shockingly with my father found myself in the middle of when the screen turned off and suddenly we were all given a bathroom break yes yes it is that was very surprising I mean I don't know what to tell you bathroom break in the middle of a 2-hour film Hey listen I I wasn't about to turn it down that is just one of the many things you probably didn't know so with that in mind I am Sean fck for Tre culture and here are 20 things you didn't know about Star Trek first Contact part one number 20 it had a considerably bigger budget than Generations first contact's final budget was set at $45 million making it the most expensive film in the franchise up to that point tied with the very first film in the series Star Trek the motion picture after the release of the motion picture the sequels received considerably smaller budgets with first contact's predecessor originally priced at a slender $25 million before re-shoot and overage is pushed to 35 first Contact having 10 million more to play with allowed the production team to plan and Stage more elaborate effects driven action sequences as ultimately became a large part of the movie's mainstream appeal its subsequent box office success prompted Paramount to drop a stuning 70 million on the direct sequel Star Trek insurrection which wasn't nearly as well received either critically or commercially number 19 Picard and Riker's planned roles were swapped in earlier drafts of the script the plot rolls assigned to Captain Picard and rker were actually reversed Picard would remain on Earth to help with the Phoenix's historic warp drive flight while rker would fight the Borg aboard the Enterprise as a result the bulk of the earlier drafts were focused on Earth which Patrick Stewart reportedly objected to resulting in Picard and ryker's arcs being switched around this explains why Picard assumes a more action Centric role in this film it was originally written for reker while Picard was supposed to replace zeph from Cochran in launching the Phoenix after the Borg puts Cochran in a coma number 18 it almost took place in medieval Europe as soon as writers bran Braga and Ronald D Moore committed the idea of a time travel movie they began tossing around potential settings and settled on one distinct time period Medieval Europe this version of the story aply entitled Star Trek Renaissance would have revolved around the Borg attempting to prevent the development of modern civilization in the 15th century Europe the Borg's base would have been an ornate castle that would have been half assimilated there would have been sword fight sequences and data would end up as Leonardo da Vinci's Apprentice ultimately Moore felt that the idea risked becoming too campy the more they dug into into the bones of it and Patrick Stewart refused to wear tights so the concept of scrapped while it does sound a little Bill and Ted all in all it could have been a lot of fun number 17 the Borg were given a big budget redesign budgetary constraints meant that the crew of The Next Generation weren't totally happy with how the Borg looked on the show but first contacts beefier budget allowed them to take the intended design much further and retain the costumes and sets for later use on Star Trek Voyager the makeup team's process for Borg actors on the movie took five times as long compared to the Next Generation as they opted for a more visceral and involved look that better conveyed how thoroughly an assimilated person is subsumed by the Borg once shooting was complete for the day it reportedly took a borg actor 2 hours to get out of the elaborate costume and remove all of their makeup number 16 Zep from Cochran is greeted by Spock's great-grandfather the Vulcan captain of the Tana hath who crucially greets zephon Cochran and initiates first Contact is never named in the movie itself or its end credits though it's stated in a Star Trek card game and also a reference book that it is in fact Soulard Spock's great-grandfather we first hear mention of SAR way back in Star Trek 3 The Search for Spock when he's named as the father of scone and the grandfather of sarak Spock's own father fan service of this sort is tricky and often ends up confusing or enraging fans but in this case it's a meaningful addition that's just subtle enough to pass by more casual observers number 15 Q appeared in a draft of the script there's no denying how much fans love q and so it's little surprised he almost wound up in first Contact having been part of one of the SC earlier drafts there's no word on precisely what his role might have entailed but his presence surely would have dovetailed neatly into the time travel plot yet the decision was ultimately made to exclude him potentially due to the script already having so many spinning plates to keep track of a q Cameo is rarely a bad thing and Paramount was reportedly angling hard for the character's inclusion but it never came to pass it would have been neat but it's not like the end results suffered at all due to his absence number 14 jordy's visor was replaced at Lavar Burton's request Jordi lege ditched his iconic visor from the Next Generation in this movie switching it out for ocular implants which aren't given any further explanation the change was actually suggested by AR dear Burton himself who for years had been lobbying to get rid of the visor feeling that had encroached upon his performance due to his lack of eyesight and that preventing the audience from seeing his eyes lessened their emotional connection to him Co Rider Moore eventually complied and came up with the implants which Jordi continued to wear for the remainder of his cinematic Trek tenure by that subplot and Insurrection where his eyes temporarily regenerate number 13 it was the last Trek film to use practical models first Contact marked a major milestone for the Star Trek movies by being the final one to use a practical scale model of the Enterprise during production most of the shots of the Enterprise throughout the film were achieved through practical motion control photography with the model being filmed and then inserted into a CGI environment or enhanced with digital effects from Star Trek insurrection onwards the various effects sh of the ships were entirely digital initially working from high resolution images of the Enterprise model taken during production on Star Trek first Contact naturally it go with that saying that the JJ Abrams produced reboot franchise also optioned for 100% CGI ships given that VFX are considerably cheaper than practical elements these days number 12 the Borg eyepiece is secretly flash Morse coat each Borg drone of course wears an electronic eyepiece which could be seen periodically blinking red but what you surely didn't realize is that these blinks were actually spelling out Morse coat makeup Designer Michael westmore's son Michael wesmore Jr programmed the lights to spell out the names of various members of the film's production team though you struggle to make any these names outg given that a single board drone is rarely lingered upon for long it's a Most Fascinating peculiar Easter egg for sure allegedly some of the names included our producer Rick Burman former Paramount CEO Sher Lancing and Michael westmore's dog Bonnie number 11 shooting started just 7 months before release this fact is scarcely believable considering how polished and well-aged the movie is but first Contact didn't start shooting until April 8th 1996 just 7 and 1/2 months before the film ended up releasing in cinemas this trunk ad production schedule comprised of 3 months of shooting and almost 5 months of post production forced visual effects company industrial Light and Magic to rush to complete the film's effects on time the most complicated effect in the film the Borg Queen's head being lowered onto her torso alone took 5 months to satisfactorily finish the prospect of a Sci-Fi tent pole film hitting Cinemas less than 5 months after the last piece of principal footage is shot is absolutely mind-boggling to consider today where it's not unheard of for glossy tent BS to spend 188 months in postproduction part two number 10 the Norway class ships never appeared again because the CGI files got lost or corrupted first Contact depicts the Battle of sector 001 in which Starfleet destroys the Bor Cube at considerable cost to their number among the vessels involved in the battle are a fleet of Norway class Federation Starships which were designed among others by industrial Light and Magic's longtime art director Alex joer a year after the film's production however ilm asked Paramount to send them the CGI models for these ships for use in an episode of Star Trek Deep Space 9 season 6's sacrifice of angels to be precise and according to the show's VFX supervisor David stypes the files were rendered inaccessible for technical reasons it's been heavily suggested that the Norway class model data was either lost or corrupted at some point explaining why the ships have never appeared in any other liveaction Star Trek media given the massive effort of reconstituting the entire model from scratch number nine there was pre-release rumors about data being recast before first contact's release aggressive rumors did the rounds that the film would feature a subplot where data's skin is removed by the Borg leaving the door open for another actor to take up the role in the future this rumor emerged amid concerns about an aging Brent Spiner who was seemingly no longer able to convincingly play the Ageless Android and though the film does feature a sequence where the Borg Queen graphs human skin onto data it's only temporary given the iconic stature of data and the utterly statuesque nature of spiner's portrayal this is one of those parts that just can't be recast so thankfully the pre-released scuttlebut was allowed a bll number eight the Borg Queen exists for one major reason the Borg Queen actually didn't exist in earlier versions of the film script with the leader of the Borg being instead a central computer yet it was eventually decided that both the movie's characters and the audience needed a more tangible villain to latch onto as would make the central conflict more dramatic and cinematic and so the boor Queen came into existence kickstarting a lengthy and challenging casting process whereby Jonathan Frakes attempted to find an actress who could be both intimidating and slightly sexy in the role he certainly found that in Alice cre though she absolutely suffered for her art receiving blisters from the tight costume and wearing painful silver contact lenses that she could only keeping her eyes for about 4 minutes at a time number seven the defiant was originally going to be destroyed during the Battle of sector 001 earlier script at deep space 99's USS defiant destroyed by the Borg but concerns from from several key Trek creatives caus this to be changed in later drafts for starters DS9 showrunner and executive producer Iris Steven bear took major exception that one of the series ships was going to be flippantly destroyed in a film that didn't even feature DS9 main cast members writer Ronald D Moore agreed with the destruction being unnecessary so the decision was made to give the defiant a stay of execution all in all though the inclusion of the defiant does feel like a little bit of a missed opportunity a chroma fan service without the Personnel who would have actually made it worthwhile number six the title was changed due to Alien Resurrection the film went through many different titles before first Contact was settled on including Star Trek borg and Star Trek Resurrection though just about everybody was in agreement that Resurrection worked it ended up getting thrown out after Paramount realized that fox had already registered the name for use in their upcoming alien sequel Alien Resurrection while first Contact was wrapped before Alien Resurrection had even started shooting and released more than a year earlier it was in nobody's interest to create potential brand confusion among audiences so the decision was made to name the film after an episode from the next generation's fourth season instead number five it created a fan debate about the Enterprise E deck count as beloved as first Contact is among fans it did generate a fiery debate about exactly how many damn decks there are on board the Enterprise E in the movie Bard explains to Lily Sloan that the ship was 24 decks though just about 5 minutes earlier we hear security officer Lieutenant Daniel say it looks like the board control deck 26 up to 11 so how many decks are there complicating matters even further a few years on Star Treck Nemesis sees both Warf and Jordy mention the Enterprise E having a 29th deck there's sadly no real Cannon answer to this and so fans remain engaged in Spirited discourse about it to this very day it may not matter that much but it's still an annoying oversight for sure number four Lieutenant Hawke was rumored to be the first openly gay Star Trek character character actor Neil McDonna appears in first Contact as the doomed Enterprise Helmsman Lieutenant Hawk and while the film must be being shot there were persistent rumors that he would be revealed as the first openly gay Star Trek character there's no sign of this in the final film and both the filmmakers and McDonna himself have denied it curiously though in the 2001 non-canon novel section 31 Rogue Hawk is indeed depicted as a gay man while it's possible that authors Andy mangles and Michael a Martin were working from information they had about earlier drafts of first Contact there's ultimately little reason for the filmmakers or McDonald to lie about those earlier intentions for the character it's far more likely that the writers heard about the rumors then decided to incorporate them into their depiction of hawk in an interview mangel said of the decision I found it frustrating and disappointing not just as an openly gay writer but also as a lifelong fan that gays and lesbians had almost no representation in the future world of Star Trek just as Trek has over the decades been a Beacon of Hope for millions of minority racial ethnic and philosophical groups who have had reason to worry about their future it seemed only fitting the Trek fans of varying sexual orientations got to share that optimism of a better and more inclusive world number three it was the first Star Trek film to receive a PG-13 rating first Contact was the first Star Trek movie to receive a PG-13 rating from the npaa which reflected both the film's more menacing Violence by way of the Borg and of course the Borg Queen's undeniable sensuality but the rating also reflected Blockbuster Cinema's increasing tendency to favor the PG-13 rating over PG because it simply indicated a film more likely to appeal to both younger and older audiences the previous film Star Trek generations famous had to include data dropping an s bomb to prevent it from scoring a g rating which would have unequivocably labeled it as a child-friendly movie and possibly dis suaded more mature viewers curiously first contacts follow-up Star Trek insurrection went back to the PG rating with perhaps an attempt to mitigate its larger budget ending up having the opposite effect those lured by the intensity of first Contact maybe found it a little too mild hence its disappointing box office performance as a result Insurrection would end up being the last Trek movie not to be rated PG-13 and P p13 is now standard for Blockbuster films aiming to hit all four quadrants number two Voyager cameos were added in final script revisions as much as fans were disappointed by the absence of any Deep Space 9 crew members especially Captain Benjamin Cisco who was heavily rumored to appear first Contact did compensate somewhat by including two cameos from Star Trek Voyager characters voyager's holographic doctor makes a brief but amusing appearance as the Enterprise ease emergency medical hologram a cameo which was suggested by Robert picardo himself who felt it would make sense for the technology invo to appear in this film secondly actor Ethan Phillips who played neix on Voyager makes an uncredited Cameo as a nightclub Matra D in the holic it's easily missed if you're not familiar with phillips' regular appearance and according to Phillips himself The Producers wanted to leave eagle-eyed fans unsure if his character was neelix or not but these cameos were actually added late in pre-production when a third and final draft of the script was completed adding some welcome interconnectedness between the movie and the then airing Voyager number one a planned video game was scrapped mid production publisher micro Pros originally owned the video game rights to the Next Generation and in 1997 released the poorly received tie-in for Star Trek generations inexplicably arriving 2 and 1 half years after the film's release that year however micro Pros also announced that an adaptation of first Contact was in the works centered around the crew of the Enterprise fending off the Borg Invasion but financial difficulties caused the studio to shutter as it prepared to be acquired by Hasbro in 1998 and so the game was never completed from that point the rights to the franchise were snapped up by activis who skipped over first Contact and in 1999 released the Insurrection tie-in Star Trek hidden evil to mixed reviews every once in a while a film comes along that is both amazing wonderful and slightly forgettable and sometimes that happened several times in the same franchise we have some of the earlier Kirk films and then we have Star Trek insurrection for all of the effort that went into this movie a lot of love did go in so did a hell of a lot of rewrites we had the very first fully CGI version of of the Enterprise E some of which looks lovely emphasis on some we also had some wonderful Sona ships that were lost to time until recently thank you very much Eagle moss and we have an entire version of a script that was started by Michael pillar and then completely lost chopped up and changed along the way thank you Patrick Stewart there's also and I am not going to lie about this scenes that feature Arman Jimmer in full makeup as Quark in a swimsuit and people say Insurrection isn't interesting it may be the extra long TV episode that got turned into a film but I will defend Star Trek insurrection to the ground with that in mind I am Sean fic for Trek culture and here are 20 things you didn't know about Star Trek insurrection part one number 20 Patrick Stewart didn't want television Picard to return Patrick Stewart had felt a bit let down by the direction in which starter Generations had taken his character for him he felt that Picard was far too much like his television self rather than a movie role when Star Trek first Contact was released he felt that the character achieved that movie star action hero status that he so wanted specifically the scenes between himself and the board Queen and Engineering helped to sway him so when the script for Insurrection came along he was able to request additional changes being made so he wouldn't be going backward this included the Love Story between bicard and an along with the scenes featuring The evacuation of the Baku the deployment of the captain's yacht and all of the scenes on The Collector with raao Michael pillar said that for Bard to truly be the hero he had to be Mar Al and ethically in the right even though he was effectively leading a mutiny against both Admiral Dary and Starfleet itself number 19 the kiss got cut one thing that is noticeably missing from the release of Star Trek insurrection is an on-screen kiss between Captain Bard and Anish the two characters have clearly been set up as a romantic couple with this status earned as they attempt to save the Baku together along with their eventual capture by the Sona according to Patrick Stewart a kiss was indeed filmed for the climax of the film this would have been a more direct payoff than what the audience received which was effectively a tease for a sequel that never materialized the card tells Anish that he has acred almost a year of Shor Leaf which he intends to take with her the case according to Stuart was cut by the studio for a reason he was not made aware of number 18 abandon hope all ye who enter here Anthony zerb plays Admiral Matthew Dary in the film though he was actually considered originally for the role of ardar rfo though he auditioned well the role was given to F Murray Abraham as part of his audition zerb used his own unique style of acting to secure the part including going completely off script rather than recite the lines as provided he instead performed a chunk of Dante's Inferno only after he had completed these passages did he then switch back to the script as it was this would prove to be a slightly apt decision as Admiral Dar himself makes many Bargains with the devil during his time in the film though it is all done for altruistic reasons the Sona Alliance is one that is clearly about as secure as an alliance with the Borg number 17 sorry kill you next time Bren Spiner was thoroughly done with the character of data by the time Star Trek insurrection rolled around he had initially even been reluctant to appear in Star Trek generations though negotiations did go his way he preferred the script for Star Trek first Contact as it allowed him a large range to act alongside Alice C's Queen by Insurrection he was beginning to have concerns that aging out feeling that it was beginning to stretch plausibility for him to play the Ageless Android a couple of factors went into his agreeing to appear first he credited his then girlfriend who persuaded him that being the only hold out from the main cast would be a decision he would go on to regret the second reason was the handsome salary he received thirdly he wrote a note to Rick asking for data to be killed in the movie that way he reckoned no one would have to go through this process again for a future film however when he received the script from Burman it came with the note sorry kill you next time and data survived the events of the Brier patch number 16 can I interest you in a time share there was a scripted scene involving Arman Jimmer in the script for starrik Insurrection which may have reached the filming stage as evidenced by the onset photo of Quark in a bathing suit however the scene has failed to see the light of day The Script featured an exchange between Quark Warf and and Captain bicard the fangi barman was to have approached them with the idea of building time shares all along the lakefront while two Dabo girls were perched on each arm bicard bluntly states that there will be absolutely zero chance of that happening ordering Warf to beam him to the Enterprise Quark sulkily then says that the nus will be in touch while the scene is a fun tie in the then ongoing Deep Space 9 it was deemed Superfluous by The Producers as Warf himself was already a crossover with the series despite quark's best efforts the time shares were cut from the film entirely number 15 Michael pillar was stuck in development hell before Rick Burman called him Michael pillar had joined the Star Trek franchise as the Next Generation had gone into its third season though when the time came for a script for Star Trek generations he turned it down he recommended brenon Braga and Ronald D Moore to write that film instead he had stepped back from Star Trek a bit by then having been deeply involved in DS9 and Voyager as well in the Years between generations and Insurrection he had written several projects that he thought were quite strong though there was one glaring issue with them none of them had actually been produced it was what the industry referred to as development hell or in other terms everyone really liked the pieces but not quite enough to Greenlight them Rick Burman then called pillar asking him if he would be interested in Penning the script for the ninth Star Trek film pillar accepted and 2 years of a laborious process began number 14 Burman wanted an old David OS selnik film to be the inspiration during the brainstorming phase of writing the script Rick Burman was intrigued with having the story resemble the Prisoner of Zenda the original novel had been released in 1894 by Anthony hope with the Ronald Coleman and Douglas Fairbank Jr starring 1937 adaptation being a prime inspiration in the story a man discovers that there is another person out there who was almost identical to him though is soon to be the leader of another state sound familiar Star Trek insurrection veered away from this storyline though elements of it would resurface in Star Trek Nemesis while shinzon is clearly not a heroic character by any means he is still a clone of the Le protagonist and he is recently the head of the Romulan State that's about the extent of the similarities between the Coleman film and the final Next Generation movie but the inspiration can clearly be seen for Stuart be's offering to the franchise here number 13 despite spiner's reluctance there could have been two Androids in the film Michael pillar toyed with the idea of bringing lore back to the franchise he had last been seen in Descent Part Two where he was shot by data though disassembled death was never truly certain for data's brother so a return could easily have been achieved pillar took inspiration from Star Trek 2 the Wrath of KH for this idea lore would have returned hellbent on seeking revenge against both data and the crew of the Enterprise E while the exact reasons that this didn't progress into a story are a little vague spiners were relance to return to even the role of data may have played a part in a similar move to burman's idea of having two bards two soon type Androids would appear in the following film B4 is said to be a prototype Android far less sophisticated than data and certainly less advanced than lore himself while fans were disappointed that the evil twin didn't return at least Spiner got to pull double duty one more time number 12 roddenberry's box when writing about the process by which Michael Piller was assigned the film The Writer spoke of the problem of roden's Bock as he called it this was the set of rules that each and every writer on Star Trek had to fight with when they came on board pillar himself got first experience of this with the bonding back in tg's third season Ronald D Mo submitted the bonding an episode dealing with grief rbur flatly rejected it as humans didn't grieve in his 24th century Piller wrote that while many writers could and did balk at these kind of restrictions he simply took it as a challenge and reworked the script if there is one consistent complaint about Insurrection it's that it feels like an extra long episode of Star Trek in a way this is completely accurate pillar wrote the film with Roden B's box in mind allowing the process to speed through the editors without the slug of trying to find new writers to take on the challenge number 11 Iris Steven bear and the Paper Tigers when Piller completed his third version of the script he showed it to Iris Steven bear who was the showrunner and executive producer on Star Trek Deep Space 9 he handed the script straight back to pillar calling the Sona a good idea though describing them as Paper Tigers a paper tiger is something that seems intimidating frightening or even powerful but is in fact far from it the first version of the sonar effectively fell apart on the most casual of glances leading them in desperate need of a rapid rewrite pillar took the script back and began to work on it the Romantic subplot was added though what was also added was The Collector the massive ship that comes to harvest the energy of the Rings upon which Picard and ruu have their final fight in the film though that final scene would undergo several treatments and even feature in an unired ending it was entirely missing from all early drafts of the script which would have led to a rather interesting plot hole when it came time to collect that radiation part two of 20 things you didn't know about Star Trek insurrection number 10 Patrick Stewart held a lot of sway on stard Trek insurrection after returning to the film franchise as a producer as well as an actor this time around Patrick Stewart was able to influence the story of the film this didn't cause issues so much as it added a series of delays to pre-production this was due mainly to his suggestions for story ideas one of his ideas that the crew of the Enterprise E defend the Baku Village in the style similar to the Battle of the Alamo was nixed from the film it it was deemed too logistically difficult and the original version of the villager's flight into the hills was kept instead the final version of the script was given to everyone bar Stewart which made Rick Burman very nervous at this oversight he worried that this would make the man feel deliberately excluded thankfully the first that he heard about it was when Lavar Burton called him to praise the script he called a meeting with Michael Piller who attended nervously but the only further notes were on several lines of dialogue number nine the pitch Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is many things but light it is not so when Rick Burman and M pillar chose to use it as a jumping off point for the film that they wanted to be lighter in tone than what had come before this left people scratching their heads a little to quote pillar they knew it would be foolish to out Borg the Borg and a curveball was needed to be thrown in Heart of Darkness a team is sent to retrieve a man who has gone mad in the jungle in heart of lightness as pillar jokingly called it bicard is sent to retrieve a friend of his from the academy he has apparently turned mutineer against Starfleet and is attacking ships in the Brier PCH when the Enterprise E arrives they find that he looks exactly the same as Picard remembers him from all those years before this was the same Fountain of Youth promise that evolved into the Baku Planet itself the idea of Picard's Academy friend melted away though eventually being replaced with a shady Starfleet Admiral instead number eight it was the first Star Trek film that didn't use practical models Star Trek insurrection was the first film in which all of the space-based scenes in the franchise were achieved using CGI though practical model of the Enterprise E had been constructed for Star Trek first Contact it was not used in this film save for reference photos to build the CGI model the Enterprise E is a mostly impressive construct though the years have been a little unkind to it at the time it was cutting edge it was designed by John EES and built by Santa Barbara Studios who also built the rest of the Starships the Sona the Scout ship and the captain yacht however they failed to Archive the ships and they used their own software the company has since gone out of business which meant that the original designs were all but lost they had also worked on elements of Deep Space 9 and Voyager as well as the opening scene of the Enterprise B and the champagne bottle in Arc Generations number seven the Sona were a calculated attempt to reach a younger demographic the Sona renamed from an earlier version that saw them called the Sony appear in this film as the main villains the first draft had featured the romulans who at that time had not yet appeared in the movie franchise as a primary antagonist however the producers went cold on them with these new younger villains taking their place the son now were hedonistic and loved life a cut line from the script described them as loving wine women and song however their obsession with enjoyment and the L youth on the Baku Planet LED them to experiment with daging the skin stretching techniques were deliberate nods to plastic surgery culture ironically this meant that the filmmakers wanted to cast younger actors and age them which in turn they believed would attract younger audiences to the film it had varying levels of success the film did do well in its initial weekend and for a couple of weeks after but then quickly dropped off number six it was finally time for the crew to receive fancy new dress uniforms the dress uniforms for the Next Generation crew were first introduced in the season 1 episode lonely Among Us serving as a variation of the regular colored uniforms that the crew wore from week to week this evolved but only slightly over the course of the show for this film costume designer Robert Blackman wanted to go slightly old school his initial design for the Insurrection uniforms was inspired by old Naval ideas the first scene for the Next Generation crew in Star Trek generations saw them in a literal Navy uniform and Blackman liked the Blue Jackets shorter and trim however once he sat down to really think about it he turned on the idea altogether next he came up with a color palette for the film he believed that white on black would always pop no matter the situation therefore the white short jacket made its first appearance sitting on top the high-waisted black trousers the only real variation was that peard wore an allh variant while the rest of the crew wore two-tone jackets number five he's back back back again Jerry Goldsmith to the rescue Star Trek insurrection was Jerry Goldsmith's fourth Star Trek score and it reuses many of the themes that originated in the motion picture the main Enterprise theme along with the Klingon March both make an appearance so too does Alexander courageous six note Motif the soundtrack features a brand new theme for the Baku no theme for the Sona this was deliberate Goldsmith wanted to include a queue in the score that the Sona and the Baku were the same race therefore there was only an action queue that plays over their scenes one interchangeable with the rest of the action music in the film The Baku theme that appears in the first scene sets the scene for the lighter tone of the film compared to Star Trek first Contact with opened with a Sinister rendition of what would become the Borg theme the Baku theme then reappears at the end of the film as things have been set to WR again this would be gold Smith's second to last project for Star Trek as he would return for Star Trek Nemesis number four a British tar is a soaring Soul there were a couple of conflicting accounts as to how peard Warf and data ended up singing Gilbert and Sullivan in the final film all agree that peard had to distract data long enough for the other two to capture him one suggestion had peardon data quoting King Lear rather than singing altogether this would call back to episodes of The Next Generation while also serving as a nod to Stuart's Shakespearean pedigree however Stuart claimed he was against it he then said said that he suggested something like Tony Bennett which would give Brent Spiner a chance to show off his tenor Berman and Piller felt that it was corny and Stuart says that Piller suggested Gilbert and Sullivan while pillar stated that it was either way round both men agree however that Stuart was not a fan of the composers despite his misgivings Stuart agreed to HMS pinor after his first idea Three Little Maids was shot down for being too vulgar once he saw the finished product he admitted that in the end Burman and pillar had made the right call after all number three a beautiful sunrise there is one scene in Star Trek insurrection that stands out which is of course the sunrise scene featuring Jordy the forge using his new eyes for the first time though the character had managed to ditch the visor in Star Trek first Contact this scene marked one of the very few times that Lavar Burton got to appear without any Prosthetics or appendages over his eyes in Star Trek the scene was included not to make Lavar Burton's life any easier but to make Captain Bard's life more difficult Rick Burman initially wasn't sold on the idea of having the forge's eyes regenerate feeling that it was a little too heavy on the emotional side of things however pillar managed to argue his case successfully he felt that if Picard had to make the choice of asking his officer to give up his eyes it would help give him a bit of pause but that ultimately he would decide to go ahead with saving the Bak coup thus giving him an even greater ethical and moral standing once the script was shown to Burman as finished and the rest of the executives they all agreed that it was one of the best scenes in Star Trek insurrection number two the original ending Michael pillar had serious concerns about the first ending in the script as he felt it was too similar to the ending of Star Trek generations both films came to to a close with bicard fighting the villain in hand-to-hand combat along with both films featuring the villain dying at the controls of their own weapons the original version of The Collector also saw a device shot into a star rather than the Rings pillar changed the weapon's Target and then switched the circumstances of rufo's death most importantly there is a moment before the character's death that sees peard extend a hand to help him Escape only for them to realize a moment too late that there's too great of a physical distance between them ruaa would then be on board the injector as it harnesses the radiation from the Rings growing younger and younger on until Fading Into nothing this version was shot but only to be replaced with a more action Centric ending eventually featured in the film something closer to the generations ending after all number one the test audience loved the humor and killed that ending Michael pillar recalled being extremely nervous as test screenings began the audience have been pulled together from various street corners and Pavements in Los Angeles and represented a mix of both Star Trek fans and those who weren't familiar with the franchise Piller sat there knowing that it would not score as well as first Contact had but still hoped for the best he relaxed the film went on as the audience seemed to be enjoying the humor of the piece when the screening was over pillar felt that it went really well the executives did not they felt that the film's pacing was completely off they also felt that there was no sufficient climax to the film this was a belief shared by the test audience although they did like Picard's romance Roo's final fate though still in its early stages of post-production effects was immediately scrapped as several members of the audience weren't even sure that he had died or not with barely any time to spare several million dollars were dropped on reworking the ending The film's Bu budget came in at roughly $70 million and it went on to gross about $117 million this was lower than both generations and first Contact though still high enough to Greenlight Star Trek Nemesis I wonder how that one went well my friends the time has come it was something we put off for as long as we possibly could but no no no no Nemesis is here listen I will defend some parts of this film there are very interesting stories behind the scenes and it's entirely unfair what happened to Tom Hardy after the release of this film and it was hafeld he didn't write it for however the very legitimate problems that there are with Star Trek Nemesis think of the positives we have those beautiful new simitar designs and of course the warber designs even though I do miss Andrew probert's warber a lot but anyway we have that beautiful score from Jerry Goldsmith which would of course unfortunately be his final act for Star Trek before he passed away there are wonderful scenes including the wedding there's the return of Wesley Crusher even if it's a blink and you'll miss it Cameo there's of course there's G and there is so much so what the hell went wrong I'm Sean fah for Tre culture and here are 20 things you didn't know about Star Trek Nemesis part one number 20 Patrick Stewart originally played both Picard and shinzon though Tom Hardy of course ended up playing the part of the villainous rean leader and Picard clone pror shinzon the very first version of the script actually had shinz on being portrayed by Patrick Stewart as a more direct older clone of Picard there sadly aren't any further details available online about how this would have changed the story though it's fair to assume that Nemesis would have climaxed with Patrick Stewart effectively battling himself ultimately the potential for goofiness would have been extremely high had they gone this route so bringing in a young actor to portray a younger clone was probably the right call however a few years ago a curious fan cleverly deep faked Stewart into the role of shinzon to give fans a speculative glimpse of how it could have turned out number 19 Brent Spiner wanted data to die for one specific reason data actor Brent Spiner actually helped write data's Arc for the movie in turn earning the single writing credit of his entire career to date though John Logan is credited as Nemesis sole screenwriter Spiner received a story by credit Spiner had been lobbying for many years at least since the days of first Contact for data to be killed off and so conceived a storyline for Nemesis where he would sacrifice himself to save Picard and blow up shins on simitar spiner's reasoning for wanting data to die was simply as he felt he had aged too much and that it made no sense for data to be so noticeably advanced years being an Android and all and so data died in Nemesis albeit with the door being left a jar for him to return through his Android brother B4 in the end much of Star Trek Bard's first season was ultimately concerned with tying off data's Arc seemingly once and for all number 18 numerous Legacy characters almost had cameos Nemesis memorably features a fleeting Cameo from Voyager Captain Janeway as vice admiral Janeway who briefly interacts with Picard in a video call but several other peripheral Star Trek characters were intended to make cameo appearances in varying capacities most prominently seven of nine was written a role in the film and according to Jerry Ryan herself it was intended to be a substantial supporting part rather than a quick wink wink Cameo Ryan turned it down though because she wanted to take a break from her busy schedule working on Boston public and also felt that the part never Rose above being pure fan service she also turned down an offer to Cameo at Ryker and Troy's wedding because she again felt it didn't make any sense for seven to be there elsewhere Ashley Juds Starfleet enson Robin leer a minor character who had appeared two episodes of the next generation's fifth season was written into an early draft but it never panned out and finally Denise Crosby lobbied producer Rick Burman to bring Tasha yar's half Romulan daughter CA back into the fs somehow but the writer never found a way to work her into the movie number 17 director Stuart beard clashed with the cast it's been frequently reported that many cast members ended up clashing with director Stuart beard who wasn't particularly familiar with Star Trek before shooting started yet producer Rick Burman felt he would bring a fresh energy to the flagging front Choice Lavar Burton and Marina cus have since spoken disparagingly of be Burton claiming that be often referred to him as lever on set and cus calling him an idiot there were also reports that be was clueless enough about Trek that he thought Jordy was an alien bloody hell though Jonathan Franks was more diplomatic he did speak about how he would have directed the film differently namely Shifting the focus away from shinzon and more towards the TNG cast on the film's Blu-ray commentary it's abundantly clear that beard wasn't exactly happy with how the movie came out either namely the enormous cre a restrictions placed upon Him throughout the process such as the nature of working on a gargantuan movie number 16 Wesley Crusher originally had a speaking role one of the odder things about Nemesis is the blink and you'll miss at Cameo from Wesley Crusher which can be seen momentarily at rker and Troy's wedding yet he strangely doesn't say a word this is because most of Wesley's role was cut during editing on the movie's DVD there's a brief scene at the wedding after Picard's toast where he speaks with Wesley who's preparing to run the engineering night shift on the USS Titan serving alongside rker and Troy it's a small moment but like so many other deleted scenes in Nemesis added welcome shade in character to a film that was so thoroughly lacking in it fans would have loved to have seen Wesley chatting with Picard again after years apart but alas bird made the bizarre decision to leave this short exchange on The Cutting Room floor number 15 Riker's back hair was removed with CGI CGI sure is capable of incredible things eh well it played a major role in one nemesis's most infamous and oft ridiculed scenes the sex scene between Riker and Troy which is interrupted by the extremely egregious and inappropriate scene of shinz On's attempted mental rape of Troy because much of the scene focuses on Riker's back the filmmakers asked Jonathan Frakes to shave his back for a more aesthetically pring visual but he refused and so it fell to VFX company to do the work instead giving Riker's back a digital shave and to be fair you'd never even know it even though it's tough to believe that somebody actually cared this much about rker having a toughy back number 14 Marina irus almost didn't return as much as she's an integral member of the TNG crew Dianna Troy almost ended up being conspicuously absent throughout Nemesis due to negotiations breaking down between Marina cus and Paramount as it often does the Croc of the issue came down to money with cus feeling insulted by the apparent lowball offer given to her in interviews cus has spoken extensively about feeling undervalued compared to her male coal stars in particular and claims that Paramount threatened to put seven of nine in the movie in her place if a salary agreement couldn't be reached cus ply retorted to the studio Jerry Ryan don't won't do it for that money that's for sure thankfully the matter was eventually resolved and though cus was ultimately one of the cast's more vocal critics of Nemesis or to be exact of director Bears she maintains that she was happy with Troy's role in the film number 13 the Enterprise ramming into the Scimitar was a mostly practical effect though the previous few next Generation movies began progressively phasing out practical effects and had deferred to almost entirely digital shots of the Enterprise in Action a practical Enterprise effect was employed in Nemesis for one sequence when the Enterprise Rams the Scimitar on Picard's order during the final battle a practical 17 ft Enterprise saucer was built and collided into a model of the cimeter the film's production crew shot the effect in slow motion at 360 frames per second to imply a greater sense of heft to the Miniatures and also hung the models upside down so the resulting debris from The Clash would fall up as it would in zero gravity VFX company digital domain then added explosions and other ambient elements to the scene ensuring the end result is a winning marriage of practical and digital effects Wizardry number 12 an estimated 50 minutes of material was cut on nemesis's DVD Rick Burman claims that roughly 50 minutes of material was cut from the theatrical release in order to achieve a more commercial 117-minute runtime though 17 minutes of cut material appears on the DVD that leaves over half an hour of footage unaccounted for most of the cut material was a apparently character Centric scenes that fleshed out the relationships of the Enterprise's crew which were cut to keep the emphasis on the battle between the Enterprise and the Scimitar this includes a far longer wedding sequence in which Picard and data have a lengthy heart tohe heart a more involved subplot about shinz On's obsession with Troy more scenes with data and B4 bigger parts for Warf and Dr Crusher and a more prolonged epilogue it's infuriating that so much of this material remains locked away because much of it sounds like it would have added considerable weight and Nuance to a fundamentally threat bear film number 11 Jude Law was considered for shinzon in the summer of 2001 A few months before shooting was set to begin rumors did the rounds online that Jude Law had been cast in the role of shinzon and though this of course turned out to be untrue he was indeed in contention for the part originally the plan was to find a name actor who resembled a younger Patrick SE to portray shinzon and Rick Burman settled on law however director be argued that shinzon should be portrayed by a basically unknown actor eventually leading to Tom Hardy being cast in the part following an extensive and by Hardy's word appalling audition process part two number 10 Patrick Stewart teared up while shooting his Farewell scene one of the best scenes in the film is the brief but poignant farewell between bicard and rker as rker heads off to Captain the USS Titan it isn't overly sentimental but gives the two characters fitting closure as they go their separate ways despite its restraint though Patrick Stewart struggled to keep his emotions in check during shooting while filming accidentally wept Off Script and started crying having been affected by the palpable emotion of it all as a result the scene had to be shot again once Stuart regained his composure and to his credit you'd never guess he was on the verge of tears in the final version number nine the climax went through many changes during production nemesis's climax went through numerous changes both big and small before shooting began for starters a concerted attempt to keep the budget in check meant that the climactic space battle between the Enterprise and the Scimitar was considerably smaller than initially planned originally the space batttle featured a Romulan Armada which teamed with the Enterprise to take the Scimitar on but this was deemed too expensive and so the Romulan presence was scaled down to just two warbirds also late stage drafts of the script actually had data sacrifice himself by shooting a warp core located on the simar's bridge but longtime Trek technical adviser Rick sternbach felt that this made no sense and so the warp core explosion was swapped out for data shooting the Theon generator instead which was moved to being situated just behind the bridge rather than on it number eight Tom Hardy more subtle Prosthetics to more closely resemble Patrick Stewart though there's no mistaking that young Tom Hardy and Nemesis looks pretty damn different from current Tom Hardy most viewers would simply put that down to the changes that every human face under goes over the course of like two decades right but Hardy's face was actually subtly altered through clever makeup techniques to make him more closely resemble Patrick Stewart Hardy wore latex Prosthetics that were molded from Stewart's actual face with latex noses and chins being fitted to Hardy's own additionally because it was felt that Hardy's lips were too plump and full compared to steuart's a fake scar was added to draw attention away from them the effects certainly work because unlike a lot of sci-fi movie makeup it's basically invisible to the average viewer's eye number seven a deleted scene introduced Riker's replacement on the Enterprise one of the most significant sequences is cut from the movie was the introduction of Commander Martin Madden who was played by Steven kulp he would appear at the end of the film as the Enterprise's new first officer replacing rker as he takes over the USS Titan a highly entertaining beat plays out where Madden asks Ryker for advice on making a good impression with Picard only for ryer to insist that he's casual and likes being called Jean Luke naturally Picard isn't terribly amused when Maden follows worker's advice though the scene ends with a clear implication that Madden is a competent officer who will be taken under Picard's wing it would have been a sweet uplifting ending to the movie so its deletion seems completely baffling cul later made a canonical appearance in Star Trek however by having a five episode stint in the third season of Star Trek Enterprise as major Haze of the makos number six the citar was modeled after a lion fish for one special reason say what you will about Nemesis but shinzon ship the simitar sure is a unique and interesting vessel from a design perspective it's probably best remembered for the almost animalistic form it takes when deploying its cascading biogenic pulse weapon against the Enterprise at the end of the film as it turns out the sar's design was indeed inspired by an animal a lion fish which had a distinctive venomous spines protruding from its body in much the same fashion as the simitar it gets even better though the lion fish wasn't something the ship's designers simply stumbled across but it served as a nod to the commonalities between peard and shinzon in the Next Generation peard had a lionfish named Livingston in his ready room for many years so it's rather poetically apt that his clone's vessel is modeled after it that's surely no coincidence number five Lavar Burton nearly directed the film the director's chair for Nemesis sure was busy before the production finally settled on Oscar nominated film editor turned director Stuart be initially Rick Burman approached the wrath of KH and Undiscovered Country director Nicholas Meer to helm but meer would only agreed to come aboard if he could rewrite the screenplay Burman had to turn Meer down as he'd already promised writer John Logan full creative control over his script so Burman then considered offering the job to Jordy thege himself Lavar Burton by the time Nemesis Was preparing to shoot Burton had directed 20 episodes across the Next Generation Deep Space 9 and Voyager and so was certainly an inspired Choice following the tradition of Leonard nemoy William Shatner and Jonathan Frakes a stars turn directors however Paramount ultimately ordered Burman to offer the gig to beard instead with this the last TR movie of this era Burton sadly never got the chance to take the big screen Helm behind the camera number four Picard's chair got a seat belt in a deleted scene another amusing part of the deleted epilogue in which Picard is introduced to Commander Madden involves a gamechanging alteration to the furniture on the Enterprise Bridge it's been something of a running joke among Tre fans for decades that there are very few situations where anybody ever wears a seat belt while hurtling through space the typical explanation being that the ship's inertial dampeners would negate any potentially trauma atic acceleration or deceleration but in this hilarious deleted scene from Nemesis it was actually revealed that a very special delivery came for Picard a new ergonomic captain's chair that came complete with a seat belt that he could activate with the mere press of a button as if to acknowledge the in joke peard says about time bringing another welcome moment of light-hearted levity to the movie Al be at one which was again left on The Cutting Room floor number three the Gorn were referenced in the original script one of writer John Logan's cookier original ideas was to make an amusing reference to the Gorn at Riker's wedding the Gorn are of course the infamous reptilian alien species popularized by the original series episode Arena where Gorn has a stiff clunky battle with Captain Kirk on a rocky planet in Logan's first draft Picard's best man speech for rer included a line about ryker's bachelor party where bicard said included three andorians two terites and a Gorn for whatever reason the line was sadly erased before Logan finalized the shooting script robbing fans of a hilarious Sly sliver of fan service number two it's the lowest grossing Star Trek film in history there's no way to be kind about this despite being produced on a not indecent $60 million budget a whole 10 million less than its predecessor starrik Insurrection due to Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner both agreeing to take pay cuts Nemesis was an absolute dud at the box office it ended up grossing just $7.3 million worldwide making it the lowest grossing film of the series pulling in even less than the consensus worst film Star Trek 5 the final frontier additionally Nemesis was also the first of the 10 Trek films released at that point not to win its opening weekend at the box office opening a hair behind Jennifer Lopez romcom made in Manhattan which kind of says it all really nemesis's catastrophic failure becomes easier to understand when you consider that it was effectively released in a death slot against a number of heavily anticipated Blockbusters like Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Die Another Day and The Lord of the Rings The Two Towers that combined with a surprisingly lowkey marketing campaign and the four-year Gap since Insurrection surely did it no favors at all number one its commercial failure caused a planned sequel to be scrapped during nemesis's production John Logan and Brent Spiner got to work on a script for a potential fifth film starring tg's cast which would serve as a concrete farewell to this iteration of the Enterprise crew the planned film would have apparently been a crossover event involving the Next Generation Deep Space 9 and Voyager crews in addition to rker as captain of the Titan nemesis's atrocious box office performance quickly pumped the brakes on the proposed sequel though and so the movie franchise lay dormant for 7 years until JJ Abrams rejuvenating reboot was released in 2009 with its Slicker broader appeal the tk09 became the highest grossing Trek movie at the time more than doubling second place held by Star Trek first Contact

Channel: TrekCulture

Views: 233,504

Keywords: Star Trek, Original Series, Animated Series, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, Prodigy, TOS, TAS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT, SNW

Id: aFkpZvxgMm8

Length: 65min 45sec (3945 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 25 2024