Among Star Trek fans, Star Trek – Nemesis from 2003 is probably one of the absolute low points of the franchise. Especially since the film marked the conclusion of the popular crew of Star Trek: The Next Century. The film is sometimes accused of carelessly throwing the rules of the Star Trek franchise out the window.
A look at how the crew felt about the Nemesis failure in a book that collects oral histories covering 50 years of Star Trek history. And the director Stuart Baird comes off very badly.
“Not Enough of Family”: Nemesis didn’t feel like Star Trek
The authors Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman have in their two-part work The Fifty-Year Mission* (2016) one “complete, uncensored, unauthorized history of Star Trek” collected. This is based on oral traditions. And even though it is unauthorized, there seems to be little dissent about the content.
Slashfilm published an article about the book with some exciting facts. It’s mostly about Jonathan Frakes’ views on why Nemesis flopped and why it flopped doesn’t feel like Star Trek at all. The Star Trek veteran not only worked in front of the camera as Commander Riker, but also directed several episodes of the series and the two previous films. Why he wasn’t allowed to make the 10th Star Trek film, Star Trek – Nemesis from 2002, is still incomprehensible to many people today.
According to Frakes, the course for a good Star Trek film would have been set:
We had John Logan, who is a first-rate author. We had a great group back together. Tom Hardy was a brilliant guest star.
But one The big problem was the focus of the film:
However, in my opinion there wasn’t enough of the family. There was a bit too much Shinzon and not enough Picard and Data. […] The story of Nemesis was very much a story about the obsession of Tom Hardy’s character, Shinzon.
The director Stuart Baird was also not helpful in making the film the way the crew or fans would have liked it. Nemesis was Baird’s third directorial effort. He is primarily an editor and has had a great career with it. But as He didn’t direct any more films after Nemesis.
The director didn’t want to accept help and angered the stars
Maybe his ambitions for Star Trek were too big. Frakes says he’s trying to reinvent the wheel. The actor even called Baird to offer his help and the help of the crew, who already had years of Star Trek experience:
And he didn’t accept any of these offers. In retrospect, that seems like arrogance. Why shouldn’t you accept such an offer?
According to the Slashfilm article, Star Trek veteran and Deanna Troi actress Marina Sirtis was a little less diplomatic:
The director was an idiot.
Many fans and employees alike felt offended by the TNG crew’s farewell to the 10th Star Trek film. The conclusion was unsatisfactory. Fortunately, the Star Trek: Picard series was later launched. In the excellent third season, almost all of the original stars are reunited and given a much more satisfying conclusion.