Rewatching the Star Trek movies! Insurrection (1998) is a bit of an oddity, more like an episode of the week rather than a grand cinematic adventure. But hey, everybody sings Gilbert and Sullivan!

Here’s what happens: Data goes haywire while on a mission to study a primitive civilization. But those primitives are actually highly intelligent, and their planet is a bona fide foundation of youth, with all kinds of life-giving properties. When rival aliens stake a claim on the planet, Starfleet tells Captain Picard to back off and let them. In response, the Enterprise crew goes rogue and stages an… insurrection.

Captain’s holiday: The life-giving planet has an effect on the crew, making them feel younger – even teenager-like in some scenes. TNG was all about Picard going from a loner to finding a family among the crew. This movie suggests a road not taken for Picard, with him befriending (romancing?) one of the locals, and talk of slowing time for one perfect moment. Picard’s character arc is a little muddled, to be honest. I don’t know that the “feeling young again” parts of the movie parallel with the “rebelling against Starfleet” parts adequately enough.

Ol’ yellow eyes: Data makes friends with a kid on the planet, which has Data musing how he’s never had a childhood, a whole world of experience that will be forever unknown to him. It ends with him further exploring these sensations by learning to play with the kids. You’d think this would be a good use for Data’s emotion chip, but, oddly, we’re told he “left it at home.” That’s a baffling choice by the filmmakers that I just don’t understand.

Welcome aboard: The captain’s yacht is part of the Enterprise mentioned in Next Generation trading cards and those technical manual books, but it was never seen on the TV show. It’s not until this movie we actually see the yacht in action. It doesn’t do much except give Picard a means to return to the planet once the heat is on, but it’s still fun to include for fans.

Continuity café: At the time this movie was released, the Dominion War was in full swing every week on Deep Space 9. Insurrection only barely references the war, so the movie can be a stand-alone. But then there’s another DS9 reference when we learn the villains also produce the drug ketracel-white. Every DS-niner can tell you that this was the drug the Dominion used to keep its Jem Ha’dar troops perfectly loyal. How are these guys producing the drug that comes from the other side of the galaxy via the DS9 wormhole? I suppose they’re just working with the Dominion, and not originating the white themselves.  

What you leave behind: A lot of fans were expecting something a lot bigger with the premise of Picard going rogue against the Federation, and instead most of the conflict is based in this one valley on this one planet. Despite the relatively smaller stakes, the movie does have some interesting ideas and fun bits. The original screenplay was allegedly much bigger and space opera-y, so we’ll always wonder what might’ve been.

Next: Fool Hardy?

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