A massive alien cloud of energy is detected moving through space toward Earth. It easily subsumes not only the three Klingon warships that attack it, but also the Starfleet monitoring station that was watching it and the Klingons. The Enterprise is undergoing a major refit on Earth. As it's the only ship within range, Starfleet Command assigns it to intercept the cloud entity. Admiral Kirk—who is now Chief of Starfleet Operations—uses his authority to take command of the Enterprise. This angers Captain Willard, who has been overseeing its refit as its new commanding officer. Kirk makes sure that McCoy and Scott rejoin the crew that includes Chekov, Sulu, and Uhura. As Spock is on Vulcan undergoing a ritual to purge himself emotion, he is unable to join. Kirk assigns the Vulcan Sonak to be his science officer. However, testing of the Enterprise's systems go badly, and not only is Sonak killed in a transporter accident, the ship is also almost lost due to engine problems. Shortly afterwards, Spock arrives, explaining that he felt a consciousness that he believes emanates from the cloud, and he somehow feels an emotional connection to it. His arrival only serves to complicate things, as he is unresponsive when asked basically what his purpose for being there is. And soon they arrive at the cloud, which has a tendency to vaporize ships unfortunate enough to merely attempt to scan it.

The Motion Picture is unlike any other Star Trek picture. In some ways, it is bigger and grander than anything that came before and since. It is a wonder to behold such details as a tiny space-suited worker doing a back flip on the dry dock scaffolding when the Enterprise launches. On the other hand, the film proceeds at a snails pace, with a lot of repetitive sequences. Also, while some of the Enterprise sets are vast, spacious, and well lit, others feel cramped and dark. On top of that we have *new* uniforms that are anything but recognizable as Starfleet issue.

While it's great to see the cast from the original series reunited in their first big-screen outing, they are given hardly any opportunities to show their comradeship until the finale. Nevertheless, the conflict between an out-of-touch Kirk and Captain Decker—who Kirk demotes at the beginning of the film—is a refreshing change of pace. Kirk misreading Decker when he is merely doing his job as the First Officer also adds well-needed realism. Nevertheless, this movie is more about its style, special effects, and ambience than it is about things like plot and characterization. Thankfully the special effects get better as the film progresses. The highlight, of course, is the wonderful music, and this reviewer can't help but smile when hearing those classic Trek themes.

Admiral Kirk is training cadets with Captain Spock on Earth in a simulator. He is unhappy about the direction his career has taken. Later, Dr. McCoy visits him on his birthday. Seeing Kirk in low spirits about his age, McCoy advises him to get a new starship command instead of growing old behind a desk. The starship Reliant, led by Commander Chekov and Captain Terrell are searching for a lifeless planet to test the Genesis Device—a technology designed to reorganize 'dead' matter into a habitable world. They beam down to investigate a sensor blip on what they believe is the desert planet Ceti Alpha VI. However, they are soon captured by genetically engineered Khan Singh, who explains that they are on Ceti Alpha V, which was ruined when the neighbouring planet exploded. Khan uses Chekov and Terrell to capture the Reliant. Learning of the Genesis Device, he attacks the Space Station Regula I where the device is being developed by Dr. Carol Marcus and her son David. Khan manipulates them into pleading for Kirk's help. Kirk takes command of the Enterprise, which had just departed on a training mission, and heads to Regula I. However, the Enterprise is flying right into a trap that Khan has set to get revenge on Kirk for marooning him and his comrades 15 years ago!

Wrath of Khan is the polar opposite of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Where the former had a glacial pace and the characters doing not much more than standing around and looking out the view ports, this one is highly paced with a lot going on, and filled with dialogue and character interaction. Above anything else, we get a full view of the characters—who they are, where they're at, and the dramatic changes they go through in this story. On top of that, we get a thoughtful examination of life, death, and aging. Not to mention a sober look at the consequences of Kirk's past womanizing.

The highlight of this film is James Horner's soundtrack. The special effects—albeit limited in number—are an absolute joy as we see the Enterprise and Reliant truly mulched in their battles with each other. It's almost shocking when compared to the standard Trek starship combat that sees shields soaking up blast after blast with not even a scorch mark appearing on the hull. We also get a sense that the baton is being passed to a new generation, but the original crew are not quite willing to relinquish their command of the Enterprise just yet.

That said, the beating heart of this film is Ricardo Montalbán's sublime performance as Khan Noonien Singh. He is a complicated, frightening antagonist, at once both trying to do right for his followers, but also consumed with a singular desire for revenge on Kirk for marooning them on a desert world that resulted in the death of his wife. Montalbán's performance also does the rare treat of capturing and visualizing the character's enhanced intellect at work as he quickly unravels the entirety of Chekov's and Terrell's mission with few clues from either officer. It's to this film's credit that the only way the Enterprise's crew can defeat Khan is by working together to figure out and then exploit his weaknesses—namely being blinded by his thirst for revenge!

The Enterprise is limping home after its battle with Khan Singh. Most of the cadets have been transferred to other ships, and Scottie has rigged the ship to be flight worthy with a skeleton crew. Kirk is in deep mourning over the loss of his friend Spock. Upon arrival at the Earth Spacedock, McCoy begins acting strangely, breaks into Spock's quarters, and is incarcerated. Shortly afterwards, an admiral visits the ship and informs them that the Enterprise is to be decommissioned, and that the crew is forbidden to speak of the Genesis terraforming device and the planet it created (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) due to political concerns. David Marcus—Kirk's son and a key scientist in Genesis's development—and Lt. Saavik are on board the science vessel Grissom, investigating the Genesis planet. Discovering life on the planet, they beam down and find that the Genesis Device has resurrected Spock as a young boy. However, because Marcus used unstable "protomatter" in the device, Spock is rapidly aging, and the planet is intrinsically linked with him. In effect, the planet will begin tearing itself apart within hours when Spock matures through puberty. Meanwhile, a Klingon warship appears at the planet and destroys the Grissom. The Klingon captain then beams down to attempt to capture Marcus, Saavik, and Spock. Concurrently, Spock's father Sarek visits Kirk and tells him that he must bring Spock's body and 'spirit' to their homeworld Vulcan to lay him to rest. Learning that McCoy carries Spock's spirit, Kirk hatches a plan to rescue McCoy, steal the Enterprise and recover Spock's body from the Genesis planet. Even if they make it to the planet in time, however, they still have to face Krudge!

Search For Spock is both intriguing and blase. Intriguing because it delves deeply into Vulcan mind powers and mysticism, as well as the lengths people will go to to help their friends. It feels blase because the film sometimes meanders aimlessly, and Krudge—the villain du jour—isn't allowed by the film to be anywhere near as threatening or malevolent as Khan. This is, of course, despite Christopher Lloyd's best efforts. His scenery chewing is one of the film's highlights, and it's a shame that the film's plot essentially handicapped his character.

Perhaps the greatest weakness is that the film suffers from odd dialogue in certain key scenes. It's almost like there was a disconnect between the writer's dramatic intent and how the actors ended up delivering the lines. There is also some oddball attempts at humour that use Americanisms from the early '80's that have not aged well, and definitely don't fit the Star Trek world—well, the egalitarian and open way that Starfleet graduates are trained to perceive the world, that is.

Nevertheless, the movie's larger budget was used wisely, and the film introduces us to not only the epitomical Klingon Bird of Prey, but also the Oberth class, Excelsior class, and the awe-inspiring Spacedock. There are few times other movies rise to Star Wars original trilogy levels, and the Spacedock sequences are one of them. Despite its flaws, this film cannot be missed as the middle chapter of a 3-film arc in the Star Trek films. It's campy and tonally different from its predecessor and follower, but a fun romp in the classic TOS vein none-the-less.

In 2286, a gigantic cylindrical probe heads toward Earth sending out indecipherable signals that disable every starship it passes. Arriving at Earth, its signals disable power grids and generates a planetary storm whose cloud-cover threatens to completely block out the sun. On Vulcan, the officers of the USS Enterprise are living in exile after resurrecting Spock. Joined by Spock, they take their captured Klingon warship and head back to Earth to face trial for their actions (Star Trek III: The Search For Spock). After receiving Starfleet's warning of the planetary emergency, Spock determines that the probe's signals matches the songs of long-extinct humpback whales and surmises that the probe won't stop its destructive signals until its call is answered. The crew travels back in time planning to return with a whale to answer the probe's signal. Arriving in San Francisco in 1986, the ship's power is completely draining by the time travelling, and in addition to finding whales and constructing a tank to carry them, they also need to find a nuclear reactor to collect energy to re-power their starship. Before the officers break into groups to complete the tasks, they are soon overwhelmed by the completely different customs and culture of the time period—their first challenge being the acquisition of money just to get around the city!

Star Trek IV is the conclusion of the three-film arc started in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and is a refreshing change of pace with its lighthearted fish-out-of-water story, focus on the characters, and challenging theme. While commercial whaling is much, much less of a problem 30 years after the film's release (with this film arguably increasing the number of voices that called for that practice to be stopped), the film still asks some challenging questions about animal intelligence—namely pointing out that many animals have it, and that humans may not be the most evolved intelligence on Earth!

The film rightly keeps that the overall 'goal', and wisely focuses on the characters, who are allowed to just be in the various situations they find themselves in. The highlight of the film is when DeForest Kelley's McCoy being essentially unleashed in a late 20th century hospital. The film gains high marks as it gives each of the main characters their own moments to shine. However, William Shatner's expressions when his character Kirk is sharing a drink with Dr Taylor is particularly intriguing—is he savouring the beer, or is he covering his dissatisfaction with the beverage to avoid offending the doctor in a pivotal exchange? The film is also a little tongue in cheek when it comes to time travel. Such as when Spock points out that the historical glasses Kirk is selling to raise funds are a birthday present (Star Trek II), Kirk cheekily replies that he'll get them back again in the future!! This breezy attitude permeates the film. While some may disagree with it, I think it is one of the films charms, and lets the viewer sit back and enjoy the film for what it is: a fun romp with a great cast.

The majority of the command staff are taking shore leave while the newly commissioned USS Enterprise is undergoing repairs in Spacedock. Their leave is interrupted when the Enterprise is ordered to rescue the three human, Klingon, and Romulan diplomats taken hostage on Nimbus III, a neutral planet set aside to advance dialogue between the Federation, Klingon Empire, and Romulan Star Empire. Learning of the Enterprise's mission, the Klingon captain Klaa decides to intercept and attack Kirk for personal glory. On Nimbus III, the Enterprise discovers that Sybok, a renegade Vulcan, is behind the hostage crisis. He quickly overcomes the majority of the Enterprise's away team and converts them to his side using a kind of Vulcan mind meld. He locks Kirk, McCoy, and Spock in the Enterprise's brig while he takes control of the ship. Sybok's ultimate goal is to cross the seemingly impenetrable energy field known as the Great Barrier at the centre of the galaxy to reach the mythical planet Sha Ka Ree: the purported place where creation began!

Star Trek V is the misfire among the TOS Star Trek movies. While it would be easy to lay the blame on Dir. Shatner, even the cast members with whom he had strained relationships spoke positively about his directing. It appears that Star Trek V is another victim of a movie studio rushing a film into production while the script wasn't finished. This time, it was partially due to the Writers Guild of America also going on strike and cutting into pre-production. The result is a mess of a script that—while having all the elements and potential to make a great story—ends up forgetting characters almost immediately after they are introduced, and focusing on and spending too much time on minor elements at the expense of such things as building suspense and the overall story.

Negativity aside, what I did like is the character side of the film: it delves deeply into the past histories of Kirk, McCoy, and Spock, and gives us a glimpse of their deepest secrets—the ones that form them and spur them on. I also liked how the film showcases the chemistry of all the veteran TOS actors and how that allows them to mine the dialogue for even more laughs. The film is also poignant when the command staff talk about family, and eventually realize that they have become each other's family. However, these finer character points are not enough to save the film, and the movie can be a bit of a struggle to sit through. Even the special effects don't hold up, and are either at par or below the level set in the spin-off series such as The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine. In other words, I was struck by how few, if any, are movie level in quality. While I could recommend avoiding this movie, I won't, as seeing Star Trek at its nadir underlines just how good it can be when it's at its apex.

The Klingon moon Praxis suddenly explodes. The loss of Praxis and the destruction of the ozone layer over their homeworld throws the Klingon Empire into turmoil. As they can no longer afford war with the Federation, the Klingons pursue peace. The Enterprise, commanded by Kirk, is sent to meet and escort Klingon Chancellor Gorkon to negotiations on Earth. Kirk, whose son David was killed by Klingons, opposes the conciliation. After rendezvousing with the chancellor's battlecruiser, the command crews of the two ships share a tense meal on the Enterprise. Later that night, the Enterprise appears to fire a pair of photon torpedoes at the Klingon ship, disabling its artificial gravity. During the confusion, two men wearing Starfleet spacesuits beam aboard the disabled ship, kill several crew-members, and mortally wound Gorkon. In order to avoid an armed conflict, Kirk beams aboard the chancellor's ship, accompanied by Doctor McCoy, in an attempt to save Gorkon's life. The chancellor dies, and General Chang—Gorkon's chief of staff—promptly arrests them. Kirk and McCoy are quickly put on trial, and sentenced to life imprisonment on a frozen planetoid. Gorkon's daughter Azetbur becomes the new chancellor, and continues the diplomatic negotiations. While several Starfleet officers want to rescue Kirk and McCoy, the Federation President refuses to risk a full-scale war. Concurrently, Spock and the remaining senior officers on the Enterprise are searching for clues on their ship to help unravel the mystery of the conflicting evidence that indicates that their ship is responsible for the assassination. Most troubling of all is that either the assassin or a conspirator is hidden amongst their crew!

Star Trek 6 is warmly welcomed as a return to form that washes away the gunge left by Star Trek 5 and finishes The Original Series (TOS) crew's run on a high note. The film's strongest aspect is seeing everyone working together to solve the mystery of Gorkon's assassination. While it is great that the film depicts Sulu having moved on and been promoted to captain of another starship, it also feels like a missed opportunity as the character spends the majority of his time separate from the rest of the TOS cast. Not to mention, given that he was XO of a starship in Star Trek 2, wouldn't Chekov be the more logical choice? Nevertheless, the high point of the film is seeing it establishing the building blocks of the foundation of the alliance between the Federation and Klingon Empire that is a fundamental part of Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) and its sequel shows and movies.

Compared to the other Star Trek films, this one is very sombre. While this plays into the menace of an empire in turmoil and the potential dark outcome, it makes the film tonally different from its lighter predecessors and sequels (Star Trek 4, among others). Nevertheless, the mood plays into the end-of-an-era feeling that permeates this film. Star Trek 6 also effectively mines its grand theme, and highlights the monumental effort required to get two warring nations to sit down and sign a peace treaty, as well as the almost insurmountable grudges and grievances that individuals hold on a personal level against the other side. That said, the highlight of the movie is, of course, Christopher Plummer's scenery chewing as General Chang—especially when he's quoting Shakespearean! It's also fun seeing McCoy digging into Kirk and his relationships with alien women. This film cannot be missed, as not only does it send the TOS crew off into their proverbial sunset, it is also a large part of the setting of the TNG era TV shows and movies.

In 2293, retired Starfleet officers Kirk, Scott, and Chekov attend the maiden voyage of the USS Enterprise-B. During its shakedown cruise, the ship is pressed into a rescue mission to save a pair of ships carrying El-Aurian refugees snared in a massive energy ribbon. The Enterprise is able to save some of the refugees, however Kirk is lost in space and presumed dead when the trailing edge of the ribbon tears a hole in the Enterprise-B's hull as the ship moves away from the ribbon. In 2371, the crew of the Enterprise-D is celebrating the promotion of Worf to Lt. Commander when Picard receives tragic news: his brother and nephew were killed in a fire. He becomes distraught that the Picard family line will end with him. The Enterprise receives a distress call from a stellar observatory. Investigating, they learn that it was attacked by Romulans, and most of the station's crew were killed. The El-Aurian Dr. Tolian Soran launches a probe from the observatory at the nearby star, causing it to implode and release a shockwave that destroys its planetary system. Soran kidnaps La Forge, who was on the observatory at the time, and is transported off the station by a Klingon Bird of Prey commanded by the Duras sisters. Guinan tells Picard that she and Soran were among the refugees rescued in 2293, and that Soran is obsessed with reentering the energy ribbon—as it is the entrance to an extra-dimensional realm that Guinan describes as "pure joy". Picard and Data determine that Soran, unable to fly a ship directly into the ribbon, is altering its path by removing the gravitational effects of nearby stars. He plans to destroy another star to bring the ribbon to him on the planet Veridian III, killing millions on a nearby inhabited planet. Upon arriving in the Veridian star system, however, they are confronted by the Duras sisters, who offer to exchange La Forge for Picard. Picard agrees, but only if he is beamed directly to Soran on Veridian III.

Generations is both a compelling story, but also unnecessarily convoluted with the appearance of some of the TOS characters. While the movie is ostensibly about the TNG crew, it ultimately ends up telling us much more about Kirk than it does about any of the TNG characters. The lone standout is Data's growth with the addition of an emotion chip, and the complications and personal growth that arise from that. Picard's family tragedy fills out some things we already knew, but mostly ends up being the reason why Picard ends up making certain decisions and critical choices—and once he's over the grief, there doesn't appear to be any lasting changes from it. In the end, Picard's moral dilemma and reason for wanting to leave the energy ribbon are far less well defined and explained than Kirk's—making the film appear more akin to the end of Kirk's story, than the beginning of the TNG film stories.

The highlight of the movie is the way that the interior of the Enterprise-D was filmed. Having grown accustomed to the bright, even white lighting in the TV series, it's almost shocking to see the sets bathed in orange light with deep shadows from a star set almost perpendicular to the ship! Even though it was a mere three years since Star Trek VI, the special and visual effects appear to have advanced by leaps and bounds. It's a shame that the story isn't as consistently compelling as it could have been, as this is a gorgeous Star Trek film to look at!

The USS Enterprise-E is in the midst of its shakedown cruise when Captain Jean-Luc Picard is contacted by Admiral Hayes: there is a new Borg threat on the Earth. However, due to Picard's assimilation by the Borg six years earlier, the Enterprise is ordered to patrol the Neutral Zone due to concerns about its captain. Overhearing that the fleet is losing the battle, the Enterprise crew disobey orders and head to Earth, where a single Borg cube is successfully fending off a group of Starfleet ships. Picard takes control of the fleet, and they successfully destroy the cube. However, a smaller sphere-ship launches as from the Cube as it is being destroyed, and heads toward Earth. The Enterprise pursues the ship into a temporal vortex. Arriving hundreds of years in the past, they find the sphere shooting at Earth's surface, and destroy it. Realizing that the Borg were trying to stop Earth's first contact with alien life, an away team beams down to survey the damage—a settlement over an underground missile silo that was being used to build Earth's first warp-capable ship. The project is led by Zefram Cochrane, who is now drinking himself into oblivion as most of his ground crew are dead, and the ship is damaged. Picard orders Commander William T. Riker to take charge of repairing Cochrane's ship while he returns to the Enterprise to investigate some anomalies that are appearing inside the ship. However, the anomalies are actually being caused by Borg survivors, who are now moving to take control of the Enterprise!

First Contact breathlessly introduces us to the new Enterprise-E before throwing us right into the thick of the action! While the Enterprise-D's crash landing at the end of Generations was astounding, First Contact ups the bar with the astounding Starfleet vs Borg cube space battle. However, that's not what the movie is really about, and it shuttles the story along to the past, where we are introduced to Cochrane—the person instrumental in not only building Earth's first warp-capable spaceship, but bringing humanity out of the dark period after a devastating global war, and uniting humankind. Cochrane is wonderfully played by James Cromwell, who shows the human side of a revered figure in the Enterprise crew's past, as well as the less-than illustrious *real* goals behind his epoch-making invention. A lot of the films humour comes from Cochrane's struggles to get away from the visitors from the future who are hero-worshipping him for something he has yet to do.

Concurrently, we have a true follow-up to Picard's assimilation in The Best of Both Worlds (The Next Generation's season 3's ending) and how that has deeply affected him. This takes on some alarming developments as Picard takes more and more risky and ill-thought out actions. Data is also taken prisoner by the Borg, and we get the horrifying—yet occasionally bemusing —reverse assimilation with skin being grafted to his artificial body! Alice Kridge is wonderfully thrilling as the Borg Queen. The Queen is a wonderful addition as it provides a human point of contact for the protagonists to interact with. However, in the grand scheme of things it reduces the Borg's fear-factor as they are no longer a group led by their collective consciousness, and all the creepiness that that implies. This movie also turns the Borg into Hollywood movie monsters with the introduction of nanobots that convert people into Borg seemingly dozens of minutes after being infected. This also reduces the Borg even further as it removes the body-horror aspect of their forced and unnecessary amputations on unwilling victims! Nevertheless, this film can't be missed, as it not only takes The Next Generation in a bold new direction, it also goes back to the arguable beginning of Star Trek and shows us how it all began.

Data is on assignment in an undercover mission observing the peaceful Ba'ku people. He malfunctions, and reveals the presence of the joint Star Fleet and Son'a observers to the startled Ba'ku villagers. Admiral Matthew Dougherty contacts Picard on the Enterprise to obtain Data's schematics to restore the android, but also states that the Enterprise is not needed. Picard delays his immediate orders and takes the Enterprise to recover Data. They succeed, but Picard becomes suspicious when Dougherty insists that the Enterprise is no longer needed and should leave as soon as possible. Picard orders an investigation into Data's malfunction. In the process, they learn that the Ba'ku possess advanced technology but rejected it to live simpler lives. Due to "metaphasic particles" emanating from the planets rings, the Ba'ku also remain eternally youthful. On the other hand, the Federation's Son'a allies are a decrepit race that relies extensively on medical technology to stave off death—with their excessive use of cosmetic surgery giving them a horrific appearance. The Enterprise crew soon also begin experiencing the rejuvenating effects. The most vivid example is La Forge discovering that his eyes have regenerated and that he no longer requires ocular implants! Continuing the investigation, Data and Picard soon discover a submerged and cloaked Federation cargo ship with a gigantic holodeck set up to recreate the Ba'ku village. Data's malfunction appears to have stemmed from a Son'a attack after he accidentally discovered the ship! Picard confronts Dougherty, and learns that the top Federation officers colluded with the Son'a to deceptively move the Bak'u into the ship and forcibly relocate them to another planet. This is so that the metaphasic particles can be collected en masse, a process that would render the planet inhospitable to all life! Dougherty orders Picard to leave. He retorts that the medical benefits do not justify the forced relocation plan, and violates the Prime Directive. Having little recourse, Picard opts to load the Captain's Yacht with supplies and sneak down to the planet to help the Ba'ku protect themselves. He is discovered by the Enterprise's senior staff. The majority opt to go with him to fight the battle, while Riker and La Forge take the Enterprise to a place where they can radio for assistance. The problem is that they are all in Son'a occupied territory, and a small fleet of Son'a reinforcements has just arrived!

At its core, Insurrection has a noble theme. However, because of how ill thought-out and convoluted the setting of the Ba'ku and Son'a is, the theme becomes so heavily diluted that this viewer was left nodding in agreement but also wondering if the arguments are even applicable in this case. While the family reunions that end this film are also satisfyingly Trekkian, the film also misses a beat: couldn't the three sides in this conflict work out an agreement to share the planet? The film goes to great lengths to indicate just how small the Ba'ku number on the planet—around 600—and as it's implied to be an Earth-sized planet, that leaves plenty of unused space. In the Trek universe, people go to Risa for a holiday, why can't they do the same with the Ba'ku's planet?

Nevertheless, the film's strengths are its characters. We get little updates on what the characters have recently been up to in their off-duty times, and some of those are even used to move the story forward. The real fun begins once the crew start experiencing the rejuvenating effects of the metaphasic particles. The highlight of the film is La Forge regaining the use of his eyes, and as Dir. Frakes is cognizant of its significance, the movie pauses long enough to let him—and be extension, us—thoroughly relish it. The other great thing about this film is the starship battle in its final act. The film makes great use of the "landscape" that it takes place in, and vividly reminds us that this is Trek on a movie budget. This is neither the best nor the worst Trek film (or episode), but it can't be missed for its big budget, big screen visuals!

On Romulus, members of the Romulan Senate are debatubg the terms of a peace treaty and alliance from the Reman rebel leader Shinzon from the neighbouring planet Remus. While a faction of the military supports Shinzon, the Praetor and Senate are opposed to an alliance. After rejecting the motion, Senator Tal'aura excuses herself. Moments later, a device she left in the room opens, and disintegrates the Praetor and Senators when it releases a cloud of deadly thalaron radiation. Concurrently, the crew of the Enterprise prepare to bid farewell to newly married officers Riker and Troi. En route to the planet Betazed for the final wedding ceremony, the ship detects a positronic energy signal from an unexplored planet near the Romulan Neutral Zone. Picard redirects the ship to the planet, and heads to the surface with Worf and Data to investigate. They discover the pieces of an android that resembles Data, named B-4. They deduct that B-4 is an earlier prototype of Data, but the investigation is slow going as B-4 struggles to grasp what is happening to him, let alone explain what happened to anyone else. The Enterprise is then ordered on a diplomatic mission to Romulus, where Shinzon has taken over the empire and has indicated a desire for peace with the Federation. On arrival, the crew of the Enterprise learns that Shinzon is a clone of Picard, secretly created by the Romulans to plant a spy inside the Federation. The project was abandoned when the government changed, and Shinzon was left on Remus to die as a slave. After many years, he became the leader of the Remans and constructed the Scimitar, a heavily armed warship. The Enterprise crew soon detects the Scimitar emitting low levels of thalaron radiation. Crusher also discovers that Shinzon is dying rapidly, and that only a transfusion of Picard's blood will save him. Before the crew can act, Picard is beamed off of the ship, and the Scimitar disappears!

Nemesis is a somewhat disappointing entry in the Star Trek film series. Namely, it is Star Trek without the 'Star Trek'—the analysis, investigation, and discussion of problems, and the parables for things in the real world. For example, cloning: aside from saying that secretly harvesting DNA is wrong, the film offers no other comment. Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Up The Long Ladder did it much better with the crew arguing against cloning and being repulsed to the point of destroying copies of themselves that were being grown from stolen DNA. Next there is B-4, Data's 'mentally challenged' sibling that serves as the parallel story to Picard's cloning. Not much is done with it aside from showing Data's disappointment, and the film soon turns off the 'dumb' brother to focus on the action plot. Again, something handled better in the Star Trek: The Next Generation series when they dealt with Data's difficulties with his malevolent older brother or attempts to produce an "offspring".

However, the biggest strike against the film is that almost every character acts out of character at one point or another. Was that Picard belittling Riker? What was his aside about 'hitting the gym'? I thought the Star Trek universe had evolved from such things as judging people on their appearance? In addition to that, we get Romulans who are also a lot more chumming and emotionally expressive then they are regularly portrayed in their TV appearances. Nevertheless, the film is suitable epic in scale, and one would be hard pressed to name a collision between two spaceships that has been depicted more vividly. While the film is worthwhile for seeing the major developments in some of the main characters on-screen lives and has top-notch visual effects and makeup, there's not much else going for the film.

In 2233, the USS Kelvin is investigating a "lightning storm" in space when the Narada, a giant ship, emerges from the storm and attacks them. Mid-fight, the commander of the Narada demands that the Kelvin's Captain Robau come aboard to negotiate a truce. Robau is questioned about the current stardate and an "Ambassador Spock", whom Robau doesn't recognize. Nero, the Narada's commander, kills the captain, and resumes attacking the Kelvin. George Kirk, the Kelvin's first officer, orders the ship's personnel—including his pregnant wife Winona—to abandon ship while he pilots the Kelvin on a collision course into the Narada. Seventeen years later on planet Vulcan, a young Spock rejects his admission into the Vulcan Science Academy when he realizes that they view his human mother as a "disadvantage". He joins Starfleet instead. Five years later on Earth, George's son James Kirk has become a reckless but intelligent adult. Following a bar fight with Starfleet cadets, Kirk meets Captain Pike, who encourages him to enlist in Starfleet Academy. Kirk joins the next day. Three years later, Commander Spock calls Kirk to a disciplinary hearing where he accuses Kirk of cheating during a no-win training simulation. Kirk argues that cheating was acceptable because the situation was designed to be unbeatable. The hearing is interrupted by a distress signal from Vulcan. With the primary fleet out of range, the cadets are mobilized, and Kirk boards the Enterprise, Captain Pike's ship. Realizing that the "lightning storm" observed near Vulcan is similar to the one that occurred when his father died, Kirk convinces Pike that the distress signal is a trap and to raise their defences. When the Enterprise arrives shortly after the rest of the ships, it finds them all destroyed and the Narada drilling into Vulcan's core. The Narada attacks the Enterprise until Nero recognizes the ship's registry. He then pauses his attack and summons Pike to his ship. Pike delegates command to Spock, promotes Kirk to first officer, and takes Kirk, Hikaru Sulu and Chief Engineer Olson with him in a shuttle craft. He commands the three to perform a space jump en route and disable the drill. While they succeed, Olson is killed in the process. However, Nero launches "red matter" into Vulcan's core, which forms an artificial black hole that destroys the planet. Spock rescues his father and the Vulcan high council just before the planet's destruction, but loses his mother. As the Narada heads toward the Earth, Kirk goes ballistic when Spock orders the Enterprise to rendezvous with the primary fleet. Spock maroons Kirk on an icy world in response. However, Kirk soon meets an older Spock who claims that he and Nero are from the future. He tells Kirk that he must take command of the Enterprise. However, before Kirk can even attempt to do that, they have to make their way through the icy wilderness to the safety of the small Starfleet outpost on the planet!

In a word, this is Star Trek on overdrive! The film put's the pedal to the metal at the very beginning, and barely lets off throughout its run time. It doesn't slow down to catch its breath at all—which is a good thing, as it is full of gaping plot holes and inconsistencies. Never mind that the Narada and Spock's ships look nothing like any of the Romulan or Vulcan ships that we have seen before, what was Nero and his crew doing during the 25 years that the film leapfrogs over? It's best not to dwell on such things, as this is Star Trek as a big, dumb action flick. The best thing to do is to turn off your brain and go with the flow.

The highlight of the film is the casting: all the actors are pitch-perfect for their respective characters—concurrently revisiting the classic characters will also updating them and making the character's their own. The cast also has great chemistry with each other. The biggest let down in the film is the bad guys: aside from the lack of exposition on who they are and their motivations (let alone what they've been up to for a quarter of a century), they just aren't very colourful nor compelling. The worst thing about the film, however, is that it contains a handful of examples of Dir. Abrams's poor understanding of science. It's a real head scratcher, as a) the main fans of Star Trek have an above average understanding of science, and b) the Star Trek IP has decades upon decades of experience in depicting realistic science and realistic looking pseudo-science. Nevertheless, the film is worth viewing just for Leonard Nimoy's appearance as the older Spock. The jolt from from the solemnity and seriousness that he brings to his performance, as well as the nostalgia for the other Star Trek films is an intriguing sensation, but oddly doesn't ruin one's suspension of belief!