THE AISLE SEAT

Insurrection Disappointing

by Brad Balfour

G21 Roving Correspondent

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NEW YORK CITY - Once again a Star Trek movie appears extending the franchise and assumedly evolving the mythology of this astounding pop culture phenomenon. But, sadly, Star Trek Insurrection does little to add juice to the mythos, further depth to the characters' evolution or entrance an audience growing ever-demanding of thrills that lend import to this the series' hopeful message.

Little more than a regular series episode, the film tells the story of a race called the Son'a which offers the possibility of rejuvenation to members of the Federation in exchange for waiving the Prime Directive --- which says that no Federation member shall interfere or alter the course of a native culture's evolution.

In this case, in order to produce this life-extending solution, the Son'a must annihilate a planet whose rings possess the life-enhancing radiation. Destroying the planet by removing the rings' particles would be okay if it was uninhabited. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Six hundred members of a nearly 400 year old race called the Ba'Ku would be killed as well if the radiation-laden rings are dispersed.

Supposedly, the Son'a have cut a deal with the aging Council heads of the Federation, now beset with galactic wars (the Dominion/Cardassian conflict --- documented as part of the Deep Space Nine saga) and internal strife. They have brought an admiral with them to enforce cooperation from Captain Jean Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) to remove the Ba'Ku from the planet. But Picard has been misinformed and is told a cover story initially.

There's just one rub, the Enterprise's super-android Data (Brent Spiner) goes wacko from the rings' stimulating effect and in the process discovers the deception. Once Picard confronts the admiral and the Son'a leader Ru'afo (F. Murray Abraham) as to the philosophically bankrupt move to violate the Prime Directive --- and finds them downright intransigent --- he resolves to not only ignore the admiral's demands but to go as far as defy them: Insurrection.

Picard and the ST: TNG key players --- Lt. Commander Worf (Michael Dorn), Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) and Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) --- beam to the planet to hide the Ba'Ku in transporter-resistant caves while Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Lt. Commander Geordi LeForge (LeVar Burton) pilot the Enterprise light years away in order to send a transmission to the Federation registering both a protest and testimony about the admiral's duplicity.

The film climaxes into the usual Trekkian resolution with a minor twist (which won't be revealed here though it's no profound revelation). You know the Son'a lose and the Enterprise and Picard win, not only because of cleverness but moral superiority.

Unfortunately, the few interesting subplots are neither toyed with or dramatically developed; the preface of strife within the Federation was squandered with off-handed references, and the visceral effects of the opportunity to enjoy total rejuvenation were lightly touched upon. Without a supermenace such as the Borg --- (the storytelling of the previous film, Star Trek First Contact, was surehanded and added to the future history of the vast storyline) --- it too was easy to slip into stock structures. Maybe there was fear on the part of producers Berman and Stewart to take risks or veer away from the venerable mythos.

I believe that was a fundamental mistake. Star Trek has been a grand experiment because its creators never feared to extend the myth and further explore both its key villians and characters even at the risk of being overly sentimental or precious.

The preciousness is here but the enrichment of the characters is not.