Star Trek: Insurrection/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alternative Character Interpretation: A lot of people consider the Ba'ku to be the true villains of the story. Of course, these people are ridiculous, but very loud and insistent.
    • We honestly don't know what the effects of the metaphasic radiation has long term. While its kept the Ba'ku alive for over 300 years, we also know that it increases metabolism, energy levels and youthful feelings from those affected. Hell, that was even a concern in the film, how much it was affecting the Enterprise crew's rationality! What exactly is there to say that the Son'a, once deprived of this, eventually suffered massive withdrawal symptoms? And while 80 years of normal aging clearly has affected them, they constantly have to undergo medical procedures and blood toxin filtering, despite not seeming to be either infirm nor decrepit beforehand. After 300 years of exposure, who's to say that the real reason they have such Body Horror is because the radiation simply destroyed their bodies natural ability to function and they are simply rapidly decaying without it?
    • Given how worn down and tired the entire crew occasionally seems in Nemesis, withdrawal actually might explain a lot. Of course, they are also all older than the original series' crew was when they retired.
  • Anvilicious: Picard's monologues in which he speaks of forced relocation in human history, both with Anij and Admiral Dougherty.
  • Complete Monster: Ru'afu.
  • Continuity Lock Out: This movie contains several references to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that are meaningless if you weren't watching it at the time.
    • It caused an additional problem for non-US viewers as well -- the UK, for instance, was only about halfway through the show's fifth season when the film came out, but the film made references to stuff that happened in the seventh season.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: The theme for the Son'a is just grand.
  • Deader Than Disco: When it was first released, it had pretty positive reviews, with some reviewers even saying that it broke the "Trek movie curse" (even-numbered movies good, odd-numbered bad). But as time passed, with more viewers agreeing with the villains, and the whole Trek franchise grinding to a standstill, it's now regarded as one of the weakest Trek films.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: The "sympathetic" Son'a... y'know, the guys who have enslaved at least two civilizations, want to destroy a planet at least partly out of petty spite, murder casually and without remorse...
  • Fan Dumb: Many of the Son'a's fanclub attempt to use the Star Trek phrase "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" to justify the oppression of the Bak'u and the attempted destruction of their culture. Nevermind that this has been the excuse for every single mass land theft and forced relocation in history, which Picard specifically calls out in the movie itself. But hey, healthcare! Need it gotta have it kill anyone who stands in the way!
  • Growing the Beard: An extremely fitting inversion, as the very beard that inspired the phrase is shaved off right around the point that the entire franchise started to decline.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Brent Spiner wanted Data killed off, but was overruled. Reportedly, his script came with a note reading "Better luck next time." Well...
  • Jerkass Woobie: Ru'afo.
  • Mary Suetopia: The Bak'u society.
  • Narm: Riker steering the Enterprise with an obviously off-the-shelf joystick.
    • Troi and Crusher's girly girl exclamations about how their boobs are no longer sagging.
  • Ron the Death Eater: The relentless villainization of the Bak'u by the fandom, and by association Picard and the rest of the crew. This extends to both inventing things (the idea that the Bak'u were "refusing to share 'their' planet", while the opposite is stated in the movie) and to shouting over or deleting corrections and pointing out scenes from the movie that contradict painting the Ba'ku as mustache-twirling healthcare thieves.
    • It's odd that the idea of a large, powerful military force declaring it owns whatever it wants and is going to drive out any pathetic low-tech savages who don't really appreciate it is apparently good when you toss the concept of "healthcare" into the mix, considering that such an idea would normally be abhorrent to Star Trek audiences.
  • Special Effect Failure: ILM didn't come back for this film (in part due to being busy on The Phantom Menace, though Rick Berman said at the time that he wouldn't have hired them anyway, since he felt other FX houses could provide the same quality for cheaper) and the quality of visual effects suffered a major drop as a result. The effects aren't terrible for the most part, but they were considerably behind even what other film were doing with CGI in 1998.
    • The hummingbird seen during the slowed time scene looks really horrible.
    • The fight scene in the projector, where they just left the bluescreen in instead of chroma-keying whatever was supposed to be there.
  • Squick: Dougherty's murder is one of the more graphic in the Star Trek mythos. Death by skin stretching.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The original script had Data apparently going berserk, and Picard tracking him down and terminating him, only to find out afterward that Data was right; but Patrick Stewart wouldn't go for it.
    • There's also the basic fact that the movie took place during the Dominion War, and the Enterprise is one of the most advanced and powerful starships in the Federation fleet. And instead of showing the Enterprise out on the front line... This.
      • At least one extended universe novel handwaves the Enterprise going in the opposite direction of the war for plot purposes by stating that it and the crew are just as high-profile in-universe as they are to the viewers, if not moreso, and thus they can't be deployed to the front lines for fear of inspiring the Dominion to throw a completely disproportionate response at whatever force its assigned to (unfortunately, why no one thinks to use this to bait the Dominion into an ambush or at least an unwise engagement is not covered.) Or just move the crew to another ship for their diplomatic work and put the flagship back in the fight.
    • The Federation were currently operating in a time of war against the Dominion and they are losing. More than one reviewer has noted that it wouldn't have been too hard to have the crew become divided over whether removing 600 people to potentially save billions is the morally right option.
  • Wall Banger: Enough for a page of their own.
  • Wangst: Ru'afo basically spends the whole movie doing nothing but whining and complaining.