Star Trek 9. Insurrection

Movie number 9, the third TNG based one. And another good one if you ask me. It has drama, suspense and mystery, betrayal and even a love story with Picard as one of the lovers. Of course it stays all very dignified, Picard never losing control. The movie starts with Data malfunctioning and being out of control on an undercover mission on the planet of the Ba’ku. The Enterprise goes to pick him up and to investigate the reason his malfunctioning. While doing so they uncover a plot against the Ba’ku in violation of the Prime Directive. The crew of the Enterprise side with the Ba’ku against the Federation. Compared to Star Trek 8 the story of this movie is a lot brighter and human. Most of the story takes place on the idilic planet of the Ba’ku who age very slowly and have abandoned the use of technology. They have created their own garden of Eden living in isolation from the rest of the universe. But the Federation has discovered the cause of the Ba’ku longevity with the help from the So’na and of course want to use it for themselves. But they cannot do this without removing the Ba’ku. Reference is made to the Nazi relocation plans during World War 2 and the rural and technological lifestyle ideals are confronted with each other in the movie. This black and white opposition between a bad technology based society and the romanticised rural one is in some ways obviously simplistic but it turns out that the So’na are actually expelled Ba’ku that wanted to break out of their isolation and discover the universe bringing some balance. Without it this would have been too much of caricature. The plot with the conspiracy is well done with the Federation helping the bad guys for a change. With the exception of the crew of the Enterprise of course. The story taking place on a beautiful unspoilt planet is reminiscent of a typical Western and quite different in atmosphere compared to the previous movie entering around the Borg. It adds welcome variety to the movie series.