Star Trek: Nemesis
Star Trek: Nemesis | |
---|---|
Directed by | Stuart Baird |
Screenplay by | John Logan |
Story by |
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Based on | Star Trek by Gene Roddenberry |
Produced by | Rick Berman |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Jeffrey L. Kimball |
Edited by | Dallas Puett |
Music by | Jerry Goldsmith |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 117 minutes[1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $60 million[2] |
Box office | $67.3 million[2] |
Star Trek: Nemesis is a 2002 American
Principal photography for the film took place from November 2001 to March 2002. Nemesis held its world premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on December 9, 2002. The film was released in North America on December 13, 2002 by
Plot
On Romulus, members of the Romulan Senate debate terms of peace and alliance from the Reman rebel leader Shinzon. The Remans are a slave race of the Romulan Empire from the neighboring planet Remus, used as miners and cannon fodder. While a faction of the military supports Shinzon, the Praetor and Senate are opposed to an alliance. After rejecting the motion, the Praetor and senators are disintegrated by a device left in the room.
Meanwhile on Earth, the crew of the starship Enterprise prepare to bid farewell to newly married officers William Riker and Deanna Troi. The android officer Data serenades the couple with a rendition of "Blue Skies" at a reception. En route to a second ceremony on Troi's homeworld, they discover an energy reading on the planet Kolarus III near the Romulan Neutral Zone. Captain Jean-Luc Picard, security officer Worf, and Data land on the planet and discover the remnants of an android resembling Data, named B-4. The trio are attacked by the native population, and leave the planet with B-4, which they deduce to be an earlier prototype built by Data's creator.
Enterprise is ordered on a diplomatic mission to Romulus, where Shinzon has taken over the Empire and professes a desire for peace with the Federation. On arrival, they learn Shinzon is a clone of Picard, secretly created by the Romulans to plant a high-ranking spy into the Federation. The project was abandoned when Shinzon was still a child, and he was left on Remus to die as a slave. After many years, Shinzon became a leader of the Remans, and constructed a heavily armed flagship, Scimitar. The Enterprise crew discover that Scimitar is producing low levels of deadly thalaron radiation, the same radiation used to wipe out the Romulan Senate. There are also unexpected attempts to communicate with the Enterprise computers, and Shinzon invades Troi's mind through the telepathy of his Reman viceroy.
Medical officer Doctor Beverly Crusher discovers that Shinzon is dying rapidly because of the process used to clone him, and the only possible treatment is a transfusion of Picard's blood. Shinzon kidnaps Picard and B-4, having planted the android on Kolarus as a lure. Data reveals he swapped places with B-4, and rescues Picard. They determine Shinzon plans to use Scimitar to invade the Federation, using its thalaron radiation generator to eradicate all life on Earth.
Enterprise races back to Federation space but is ambushed by Scimitar in the Bassen Rift, a region which prevents subspace communication. Despite the aid of two Romulan Warbirds, Enterprise is heavily damaged. Picard rams his ship into Scimitar, crippling both vessels. Shinzon activates the thalaron weapon in an act of
Back at Earth, Picard bids farewell to Riker, who is leaving with Troi to command the USS Titan. Picard meets with B-4, and discovers that, before he boarded the Scimitar, Data downloaded his memories into B-4, allowing him to live on. As B-4 starts singing "Blue Skies", Picard leaves B-4's quarters and smiles.
Cast
- Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard
- Jonathan Frakes as Commander / Captain William T. Riker
- B-4
- LeVar Burton as Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge
- Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Commander Worf
- Gates McFadden as Doctor Beverly Crusher
- Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi
- Shinzon, the leader of the Reman people.
- Ron Perlman as the Reman Viceroy
- Dina Meyer as Romulan Commander Donatra
- John Berg as Romulan Senator
- Kate Mulgrew as Admiral Kathryn Janeway
- Shannon Cochran as Senator Tal'aura
- Jude Ciccolella as Commander Suran
- Alan Dale as Praetor Hiren
- Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher (non-speaking role, apart from a deleted scene)
- Majel Barrett voice of the Enterprise's computer
- Stuart Baird voice of the Scimitar's computer
- Bryan Singer as Kelly (uncredited)
- Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan (uncredited)
Production
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Casting
Baird and Berman had been searching for someone who resembled Patrick Stewart but looked about 25 years younger; at one point they considered Jude Law. Baird specifically wanted an unknown actor, and Hardy auditioned by tape after Stewart asked Hardy's agent if he thought any of his clients were suitable for the role. Hardy was filming Simon: An English Legionnaire in Morocco at the time,[3]: 37 and decided against using the requested text for the audition. Instead, he got possession of a full script for Nemesis, used a different part of the script, and filmed it partly nude.[3]: 38 He was flown to Los Angeles to do a screen test with Stewart; Hardy later described his performance there as "appalling". However, he had recorded himself performing the same piece in a hotel room the night before, and gave that tape to Baird, resulting in his being cast as Shinzon a few days later.[3]: 39
Sirtis was "ecstatic" about the role Troi plays in the movie.[4] She was pleased with the wedding scene, saying that the dress she wore for Nemesis was nicer than the one she wore at her actual wedding. She was happy to work once again with Wil Wheaton and Whoopi Goldberg, but felt that the film would be the last one with the entire cast of The Next Generation. She remained certain that it would not be the last Star Trek film to be made, as she thought that Paramount would want to make a film involving a variety of characters from the different Star Trek series.[4]
Perlman and Hardy became friends on the set. Perlman said in an interview eight years after the release of the film: "I loved him when I first met him. I loved working with him. I found him to be really smart, really a great kid."[3]: 43
Development and filming
Principal photography began in December 2001 in Southern California.[5]
In promotional interviews for the film, Patrick Stewart stated that room for a sequel was intentionally left.[6]
Direction and writing
Stuart Baird was brought in to direct Nemesis by executive producer Rick Berman.
Make-up and effects
The make-up team sought to make Hardy look more similar to Stewart by creating latex prosthetics from moulds of the latter's face. These included numerous versions of noses and chins, and in order to reduce the visible size of Hardy's lips a fake scar was added.[3]: 41
Special effects were done by Digital Domain. Although the majority of the exterior shots of ships were computer generated, a practical 17-foot Enterprise saucer was built and collided into a model of the Scimitar for the film's climax.[10]
Music
The music to Star Trek: Nemesis was composed and conducted by
The score opens with airy synthesizers under a trumpet performing an
Release
Marketing
Nemesis had comparatively little marketing, despite releasing so long after the previous film. Merchandise included a line of action figures, trading card set, soundtrack, novelization, and tie-in official magazines. Regional food promotions with Safeway Grocery Stores and Del Taco occurred in Southern California.[12]
Home media
On May 20, 2003, Nemesis was released on
Reception
Box office
The premiere of Star Trek: Nemesis took place at
Critical response
Nemesis received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a critic rating of 38%, based on 170 reviews. This was the second-lowest rating, behind Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.[20] On Metacritic it has a score of 51% based on reviews from 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[21] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A−" on scale of A to F.[22]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times had mixed feelings about the film, stating: "I'm smiling like a good sport and trying to get with the dialogue ... and gradually it occurs to me that Star Trek is over for me. I've been looking at these stories for half a lifetime, and, let's face it, they're out of gas." Ebert gave the film two out of four stars.[23] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said that the film is a "rather harebrained story that's relieved to a degree only by some striking visual effects and by Patrick Stewart's outstanding presence as Picard". LaSalle complained that Stewart gave "integrity and wry stoicism to Nemesis, but the movie [was] unworthy of him".[24] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a positive review, commenting that the crew "indulge[s] the force of humanity over hardware in a way that George Lucas had forgotten." Gleiberman gave the film a "B−".[25] Stephen Holden of The New York Times said that the film is a "klutzy affair whose warm, fuzzy heart emits intermittent bleats from the sleeve of its gleaming spacesuit". Holden praised the scenes where the Enterprise and the Scimitar ram into each other during the final battle.[26]
The film was nominated for the Saturn Awards for Best Science Fiction Film and Best Costume but lost to both Minority Report and Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, respectively, while Hardy was nominated for Best Supporting Actor but lost out to Andy Serkis for his role in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.[3]: 45
The movie was not well-loved among the cast, with LeVar Burton and Marina Sirtis speaking unflatteringly of Baird, criticizing him for not watching any episodes of The Next Generation.[27][28] Frakes said that if he himself had directed Nemesis, he would have made the film less villain-centric and given more screen time to the regular Next Generation cast.[29] Patrick Stewart later described Nemesis as a "pretty weak" finale for The Next Generation.[30]
Some of the events of the film would later be followed up on in the 2020 television series Star Trek: Picard, set twenty years after the events of Nemesis.[31][32]
References
- ^ "STAR TREK - NEMESIS (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. October 24, 2002. Archived from the original on January 28, 2015. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
- ^ a b c "Star Trek: Nemesis". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com. Archived from the original on February 22, 2015. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
- ^ ISBN 9781782190233.
- ^ a b Spelling, Ian (January 2003). "Bride of the Stars". Starlog. Vol. 1, no. 306. pp. 23–26. Retrieved May 15, 2015.
- ^ "Paramount Pictures Announces 'Star Trek: Nemesis' Begins Principal Photography". PR Newswire. Cision. December 11, 2001. Archived from the original on December 20, 2001. Retrieved June 20, 2019 – via Yahoo.com.
- ^ Patrick Stewart interview on Nemesis Revisited DVD Featurette
- ^ Rick Berman (February 10, 2011). "Rick Berman Looks Back at 18 Years of Trek - Part 3". StarTrek.com (Interview). Archived from the original on February 28, 2022. Retrieved February 28, 2022.
they were quite persuasive about me using Stuart Baird. Stuart was an English director. He'd made two good movies. He was a world-class film editor.
- ^ a b c d Spelling, Ian (February 2003). "Galactic Action". Starlog. Vol. 1, no. 307. pp. 46–50. Retrieved May 15, 2015.
- ^ Spelling, Ian (November 2001). "The Long Trek". Starlog. 1 (292): 67–69. Retrieved May 15, 2015.
- ^ Moltenbrey, Karen (January 2003). "Collision Course". Computer Graphics World. Archived from the original on November 15, 2022. Retrieved November 15, 2022.
- Filmtracks.com. Archivedfrom the original on January 22, 2011. Retrieved April 1, 2021.
- ^ Tenuto, John (February 3, 2008). "The History of Trek Movie Merchandising". TrekMovie. SciFanatic Network. Archived from the original on February 24, 2021. Retrieved March 1, 2021.
- Amazon.com.
- ^ "Star Trek: The Next Generation Motion Picture Collection Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com. Archived from the original on November 18, 2020. Retrieved July 18, 2012.
- ^ Axon, Samuel (April 10, 2023). "For the first time, you can now watch every Star Trek movie in 4K HDR". Ars Technica. Retrieved June 27, 2023.
- ^ ""Star Trek Nemesis" Gala Premiere at Grauman's". StarTrek.com. December 10, 2002. Archived from the original on December 21, 2002. Retrieved May 3, 2015.
- ^ "Rick Berman Talk Trek Franchise' Future". killermovies.com. Archived from the original on May 13, 2008. Retrieved August 26, 2008.
- ^ Foundas, Scott (December 9, 2002). "Star Trek Nemesis". Daily Variety. Archived from the original on April 9, 2016. Retrieved April 28, 2015.
- ^ "December 13-15, 2002". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on March 26, 2015. Retrieved April 28, 2015.
- ^ "Star Trek - Nemesis (2002)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Archived from the original on August 20, 2020. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
- ^ "Star Trek: Nemesis". Metacritic. Archived from the original on July 11, 2018. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
- ^ "CinemaScore". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on April 13, 2022. Retrieved April 16, 2022.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (December 13, 2002). "Star Trek: Nemesis". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on February 8, 2021. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
- ^ LaSalle, Mick (December 13, 2002). ""Star Trek Nemesis" fails to emerge". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on May 14, 2005. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
- Glieberman, Owen (December 13, 2002). "Star Trek: Nemesis Review". Entertainment Weekly. Time, Inc. Archivedfrom the original on November 18, 2020. Retrieved March 12, 2020.
- ^ Holden, Stephen (December 13, 2002). "Star Trek: Nemesis". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 18, 2020. Retrieved March 12, 2020.
- ^ "Sirtis & Burton want Trek XI to be a TNG film ... say Nemesis 'sucked' VIDEO". TrekMovie.com. Archived from the original on January 13, 2012. Retrieved December 10, 2011.
- ^ "DST3: Sirtis Calls Star Trek Nemesis Director 'Idiot' + Crosby & Ryan Talk Proposed Nemesis Roles". TrekMovie.com. Archived from the original on November 18, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
- ^ Anthony Pascale (February 8, 2009). "Jonathan Frakes On Nemesis, JJ Abrams Star Trek, A Return of TNG + more". TrekMovie. Archived from the original on February 11, 2009. Retrieved February 9, 2009.
- ^ Holloway, Daniel (January 8, 2020). "'Star Trek: Picard': Patrick Stewart on Why He Returned to the Final Frontier". Variety. Archived from the original on January 8, 2020. Retrieved January 25, 2020.
- ^ Patches, Matt (August 4, 2018). "Patrick Stewart's Picard to return in new Star Trek series". Polygon. Archived from the original on August 5, 2018. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
- ^ Goldberg, Lesley (August 4, 2018). "Patrick Stewart to Reprise 'Star Trek' Role in New CBS All Access Series". The Hollywood Reporter. PMRC. Archived from the original on August 4, 2018. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
Further reading
- Nemecek, Larry (2003). Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion (3rd ed.). Pocket Books. ISBN 0743457986.
- Norton, Bill (April 2003). "Through a Glass Darkly". ISSN 0198-1056.
- Okuda, Michael (October 5, 2005). Star Trek: Nemesis; Text commentary (DVD; Disc 1/2). Paramount Pictures.
External links
- Official website
- Star Trek: Nemesis at IMDb
- Star Trek Nemesis title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Star Trek Nemesis at Memory Alpha