Rewatching the Star Trek movies! Nemesis (2002) brought in a new director, Stuart Baird, who had no Trek experience and allegedly knew nothing of the franchise before this. The hope at the time was that he’d be an exciting new voice for the series. Was this a smart choice or was it fool… Hardy? (Couldn’t resist.)

Here’s what happens: The Enterprise is sent deep into Romulan space following a coup by the Remans, the Romulans’ worker class. What’s more, the leader of the coup, Praetor Shinzon, is a clone of Picard, discarded after a failed plot to replace him. Shinzon has a plan of his own, setting his sights on both Romulus and Earth – and Picard himself.

Captain’s holiday: What’s the point of making the villain a clone of Picard, rather than the usual scheming Romulan? Picard got his found family on board the Enterprise after being a loner for so long, and now here comes Shinzon to suggest the path Picard’s life might have gone if things had been different.

Ol’ yellow eyes: Oh yeah, there’s a whole other storyline. The Enterprise randomly (or not?) finds another Data-like android on a desert planet. This is B-4, an early Data prototype from Data’s creator. The idea is that B-4 is another road not taken. He’s what Data could have been if Data had not longed to be human. I get it, but I don’t know if Data’s story mirrors Picard’s in the ways the filmmakers hoped. (This would have been another good use of Data’s emotion chip, but it’s not even mentioned this time.)

Welcome aboard: At the time, actor Tom Hardy was considered to be a “boy band” type (silly in retrospect), but his back-and-forth dialogues with Patrick Stewart are electric, and the movie’s best scenes. I find Shinzon’s story to be quite tragic. Picard easily could have saved Shinzon and taken him away from the Remans to start a new life. But in the end, Shinzon only had his hatred.  

Continuity café: Does Data ever return? Does B-4 become the new Data? Uh… both and neither, kind of. Continuity gets really weird in following what becomes of them in the various novels/comics/games that followed. The short version is that many writers took a stab at bringing back Data and/or B-4, each putting their own bizarre spin on it. Then Star Trek: Picard apparently closed the book on all things Data… but you never know.

Continuity café dessert: And just because I know everyone’s going to ask, my antiquated two-disc DVD set has the Wil Wheaton deleted scene where we catch up with Wesley Crusher. There’s no mention of him running off with that Traveler guy, but we learn he’s back in Starfleet and that he’s joining the crew of Riker’s new ship the Titan. (Talk of the Titan in this movie sets up a long-running series of novels, but that’s a whole other thing.)

What you leave behind: This is an overstuffed movie with a bunch of other subplots and sci-fi business I haven’t mentioned. It’s also a lot of action, fighting, and explosions, but I must admit I enjoy the talky dialogue scenes more than all the bombast. My big concern is Data’s exit from the franchise. After all this talk about aspiring to be something better than who we are, I don’t see Data’s sacrifice as him fulfilling that. Again, I’m in that place where I enjoy the movie, but I wonder about the movie it could have been.

Next: The young captain.

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