Insurrection is a decent TNG two-parter with a better than TV budget. It's pretty solid.

Remember, Worf and Riker were quasi-romantic rivals for Troi at the end of TNG. Also, in the future Picard experienced thanks to Q, that rivalry had come to a head and severely damaged their friendship. It made sense that Worf was the one to validate Riker's feelings for Troi.

Picard never left the Nexus. He's been living out a more realistic fantasy life ever since. He proved himself better than the borg, then he proved himself better than the Federation, and finally proved himself better than himself.

"And Ruafo's like 'Did I ever tell you I killed Mozart?'" OH MY GOD HE DID AND I JUST NOW NOTICED IT

I am not ashamed to admit that I sang along to the Gilbert and Sullivan bit.

I actually like Insurrection as well, but initially it was somewhat of a disappointment because the trailer hinted at a Federation Civil War... and it ended up being Picard and crew doing the right thing against a rogue Admiral (serious Starfleet needs to do a better job at screening potential Admiral candidates...).

My favorite TNG movie is "All Good Things".

It's interesting you describe First Contact as being darker and grittier. While the Enterprise plot might focus on the Borg and on Picard's need for revenge, I'd argue that First Contact has a very positive and hopeful tone, with even a traumatized Picard ultimately realizing the goal is not "destroy the Borg" but "ensure first contact and humanity's bright future."

I've always enjoyed Insurrection, but it's definitely felt Episode more than Movie to me. I do like it, though.

I actually loved Insurrection! It was just like another fun episode of Star Trek!

"Geordi's eyes finally grow in." That's the line that made me subscribe to your channel.

I can’t say that I love Insurrection, but agree that it does have some great moments and is more like TNG than any of the other movies. The scene where Geordi is looking at the sunset makes me tear up every time.

Insurrection was a solid Star Trek movie. It's still low on my list of Star Trek movies, but I don't dislike it. Plus I can at least _remember what happened_ in Insurrection. I've seen Nemesis 4 times and I still can't remember anything about it other than it had Tom Hardy in a PVC suit and Buffyesque uber-vampire Romulans.

Two points: 1) My parents bonded and fell in love over a mutual appreciation of Gilbert and Sullivan while drinking each other under the table (according to my mother's stories); one of my father's favorite college memories was acting in a student production of H.M.S. Pinafore. I may have to check out this movie for that scene alone (I also grew up on TOS: the first season of its original run aired when I was two years old, and it was appointment viewing for my parents -- and, thus, me -- back in the day). 2) (and this is a comment I *almost* posted to "Why Geordi la Forge Actually Deserved Better" video): Growing up as a Disabled kid, I loved seeing evidence of Disabled people still existing in a future "Utopian" World (so often, "people like me" are unapologetically erased from the future)... But that didn't stop what I see, now, as the ableist trope of the Disabled Character being "Romantically Inappropriate / inept / needy / stalkery" (in short, "deviant"), so I am disappointed but not surprised that his character arc is centered around a miraculous "Disability Drop." And one day, can we please have a sci-fi show where the villain is *Not* motivated to commit evil against by the dread fear of decline and disability? 'Kay? Thanks. That would be great. (I've been growing more radical and angry in my middle age)

I like how you compared the similarity between Insurrection and Nemesis. I never would've thought until you mentioned it.

I really liked Insurrection. As you pointed out, it ties together some themes from several quite memorable episodes of the series. It's very much like an episode from the series, but by tying together multiple themes, they're simultaneously calling back to the series and increasing the scale to that of a movie. As good as First Contact is, Insurrection might in fact, be my favorite TNG movie.

Also get one of the best quotes/scenes in star trek when riker is walking with data after shaving and saying as smooth as an androids bottom. Data touches rikers chin and shakes his head no.

I ensure my fish is always deboned before I text and drive.

I want to hear Shives describe Star Trek: The Motion Picture!

What I always liked about "Insurrection" was that it took another look at Star Trek's moral philosophy about the needs of the many. I saw the makes asking, "What if the many are wrong?"

As the third TNG movie, it's middle of the road for me, but my god there are some moments where you can tell the cast is phoning it in (the "list" dialogue when the crew confronts the captain as he is prepping to start his little Insurrection--Worf alone just "lists" the weapons he is taking as if he is bored or has had to delivery the line for the thousandth time) and as big of a fan as I am, the shoe-horning of Worf into this movie was a bit much. Again, he is one of my all time favorite TNG characters, but they could of had a "guest star" be the new security chief/tactical officer without much concern for "establishing his character" considering that Worf really had nothing more than a supportive role in this third installment. Plus, in retrospective (looking back after these years) it appeared to me that they were rehashing the formula that became prevalent in the four TNG films: Picard is the star (the action man/hero) who had to solve some dilemma that Data was involved in. In Generations Data was the comic relief with his emotions chip while Picard battled Soren from weaponizing the Nexus; in First Contact, Picard faced down his "Hyde-persona" in preventing the Borg from assimilating pre-Contact Earth while Data flirted with the Borg Queen operating as a double-agent to later foil her ultimate plan; to now in Insurrection Picard comes in like "John Wayne" to right a wrong that the bad guys were undertaking--and Data was the catalyst of said dilemma. Now I get it, Data is the "Spock analog" of TNG (emotionless, logical, etc. etc.), just a spin or tweak on a character archetype, but I feel like by the third movie, the poor TNG cast was ranked into this hierarchy of the "Picard and Data Show" where Picard was the headliner, Data became the deuteragonist, Riker got to be Picard's dutiful "deputy", while Geordi and Worf were relegated to "mechanic" and "gunslinger", with poor Beverly and Deanna left in the lowest rung as "the women" who took on supportive roles. Now I am all for the "assemble" cast in movie franchises, but the token character growth we get over four movies is a bit insulting to the viewer and lazy (of my own opinion) on the behalf of the producers/writers. TOS movies were guilty of it from Search For Spock to Undiscovered Country. Now I digress; I enjoyed this movie (the opening sequence and sweeping musical score was brilliant) but similar to Generations this third TNG movie really felt like it was a beefed-up TNG episode from a hypothetical 8th season of ST:TNG. The Sona came across of aliens-of-the-week, although I do appreciate they branching out and having new enemies rather than recycle the already established antagonists from TNG/DS9.

Insurrection is my favorite TNG movie. Not my favorite Star Trek movie, but I would never say no to watching it.

When Insurrection came out in theaters I was working at one during my college's Christmas break. This film was the 1st and only movie I got to start manually at one of the projectors and I have a soft spot for it. Your review was solid. I enjoyed this at the time and still do. It's, of all the TNG films, the one that feels the most like a TV 2-parter. In some ways the characters seemed to behave more like themselves during this story than in any other theatrical outing. A friend of mine writes scripts and we can both be pretty demanding of our pop culture, but he once asked me if a film I was critiquing entertained me. Not if it was award-winning or life-changing, but did I have a fun experience. In that sense, yes, I had a fun experience with Insurrection. It was better than the mega downer that followed. While TNG never got the proper send-off it earned, the upcoming Picard series has a chance to fix that.

I 100% agree. I like this movie too. It’s one of only three Star Trek movies that actually have nothing to do with saving Earth/Federation from a Doomsday/Invasion (the only other two are Beyond and… Final Frontier)

I'm glad somebody finally said it! Insurrection is not that bad! I'd watch it over The Final Frontier and Nemesis ANY DAY!

I liked Insurrection too. Seriously, it gets alot of hate for no reason. I always look at it as a way to show that sometimes, you have to speak out, and maybe even rebel, to show the system that it's disgracing / willfully ignoring it's ideals, promises, and standards.

To be honest, while constantly rewatching all Trek for almost 30 years, I didn't miss Insurrection for a minute, until lately. I salute you Steve. Your depth of analysis and the comparison to Nemesis were actually eyeopening to me. Thank you!

This has to be the best description of Star Trek Insurrection I have heard 😁.... Thanks Steve

I like it too, I always thought nemesis was the black sheep.

"Did I tell you I killed Mozart?" "What?" "What?" *shifty eyes*

Over the years, Insurrection has become my favourite of the TNG movies. It's the closest they came to capturing the spirit of the show.

Despite growing up a tng fan, I somehow was completely unaware of this (and only this) Star Trek movie until just several years ago. I was so confused, and then delighted, when I found out about it.

On Insurrection: All the things you mention are good points, though I think the humor falls flat in some spots that should have been obvious. My gripe is that they had a chance to go deeper, in character development and didn't. Crusher got boob jokes. They had a chance to show actual rifts in the Federation instead of merely another corrupt admiral who hoodwinked the Federation Council. Again. How about some tension and jealousy between Picard and Crusher? And the movie could have been tighter, no offense to Frakes. The lost potential sours me on the movie. On the other hand no one is asking why God needs a starship. As for Nemesis being a rehash of Insurrection - yeah. And Nemesis is even more of a lost opportunity than Insurrection. Who needs a new villain? There are at least.. six or seven bad guys who could have been brought together as a Legion of Doom to go after Enterprise from the series. And Q could have been smack dab in the middle. All of it academic, I suppose. Both movies could have been hits and a lack of vision prevented it.

I have always felt like it should have been maybe a good two-parter in a later season of the show.

I do get what you're saying, and having read Michael Pillar's "Fade In", I can definitely at least appreciate that he was trying to give a more "classic" type of Trek tale on the big screen. So the thing is, I actually don't have a problem with most of the things you listed- a "lighter" story with no huge stakes, having a moral dilemma, having more character moments...these are all fine. My problem has more to do with how the movie handled the story. Nobody is going to argue that forced relocation isn't bad (though I feel the need to point out that stuff like the Trail of Tears was motivated by pure racism and expansionism, whereas the dilemma in Insurrection was about...the needs of the many, which Trek has said a few words about before), but one thing that always stuck out to me is how nobody in the movie brings up to the Baku that what Dougherty was trying (or at least appearing) to do was try to save billions of people by harnessing the radiation- because there's just no way the Baku characters could answer that with a "no" without sounding like assholes. If someone had just directly asked them, "We feel bad about forcibly relocating you guys, but we're trying to save billions of people", there's little reason these seemingly decent people wouldn't just say, "ok" and then the movie ends. Why is the main moral dilemma essentially kept a secret from the Baku if that's supposed to be what the whole movie is about? Because then they couldn't have the movie be the way it was, so instead they just don't mention it. That's just lazy writing. You can still have Picard and co. standing on the side of not moving them because of the details involved. You could show the people having trouble uprooting themselves, people who would die without the radiation, the fact that the Baku had too small a population to be sustainable (something a producer actually pointed out as noted in "Fade In" I believe). If they really got into the nitty gritty of the moral dilemma I thought it would've been far more interesting. This isn't even getting into a huge problem I had with Pillar as a writer late in his life, which is that he had some real "noble savage" kind of tendencies in his idealized view of man returning to nature. This really showed with the character Chakotay especially, and it lightly permeates this movie as well.

The duck blind thing just starts this off so badly. I know they’re immortal, but how much can be learned watching them stack fruit carts all day.

Are we not gonna talk about the "perfect moment in time" Steve? Seriously though, I agree - Insurrection isn't great, but it isn't terrible. Good video.

All my friend's liked Nemisis and made fun of my like for Insurrection. Guess i can show them this huh? Never thought of how similar the two movies were.

There’s a moment in this movie that has always bothered me: When the crew first beam down to the planet, Picard is introducing everybody and when he gets to Crusher and Troi, Troi nods her head when Picard says, “Dr. Crusher”, and Crusher nods her head when Picard says, “Counselor Troi”. It sticks out like a sore thumb lol.

You're right, I always enjoyed the Insurrection for it's simplicity and how it mostly related to the TNG series. I saw it in the theater and left very satisfied.

For me, this movie has the most mileage out of any that I have ever watched then re-watched. It's my favourite movie of all time. That's right folks. I've watched Star Trek for so long that I can't even remember what my first episode was. However, one of my first memories that I can actually recall is watching this movie with my dad when I was an infant. As far as I'm concerned, this is my first instance of Star Trek and watching the movie just brings back so many memories of my childhood. True, some could say that I'm simply nostalgic, but that's not the case. I genuinely love this movie and despite the countless number of times that I've re-watched this movie, I've never, ever gotten bored of it.

Mostly agree. Insurrection was fine, not great, but fine, definitely better than Nemesis, whoa! That one sucked! TNG movies ranked: 1) First Contact 2) Generations 3) Insurrection 4) Nemesis

"It's perfect! I'll get what I want and they'll all die and I'll get what I want." XD

This movie isn't anywhere near as offensive as say Generations or Nemesis but it just felt like a squandered opportunity, I think like with Chain of Command, it should've been a crossover with DS9 The plot had a scenario that could've fit with both styles of TNG and DS9 Straight forward deontic (naive) values of TNG vs grey compromising nuanced utilitarianism of DS9 A clash of values manifested through Sisko and Picard and much like how Picard vented over the Borg in First Contact, Sisko could've had a moment or two like that Two bald Captains with deep voices enunciating and speechifying against each other with well-written dialogue would've moistened our federation jammies.

You made good points here, and now I have to revisit it and enjoy it in that frame of mind. Thanks, man!

"Good" is strong language. I prefer "Star Trek Insurrection is a perfectly serviceable movie."

Star Trek: Nemesis is better titled as Star Trek: Attack of the Clones

I liked Insurrection. The humor really made me think that this is a crew who have been working together long enough to have their little in-jokes and idiosyncrasies. It made then feel human to me rather than just characters on the screen. I also felt it was in keeping with their characters as well. Unlike Picard at the end of Nemesis...

awesome! love your channel.

I loved "Insurrection". Thank you for this, Steve.

"Did I ever tell you I killed Mozart?" Great line.

This is actually a pretty compelling perspective on Insurrection. And I'm with you on the point of "as long as I care about the broad outcome of the story and care about the characters, I'm pretty happy". I often am able to overlook quite a lot of technical script or filmmaking issues if I'm enjoying myself and like and care enough about the characters. If I'm having a good time, that's at least *as* important to me (if not more) as watching something that's technically well made.

Also liked this movie and Picard looked great in that greyish t-shirt.

I always enjoyed it as well. The jokes, while full of cheese, make my heart happy. 🖖

I actually think Insurrection holds up better over time. About a year ago, I watched again for the first time in about twenty years and I actually really enjoyed it. I think Insurrection is kind of a nostalgia movie now because it's funny seeing the TNG cast together again and having a bit of fun.

Totally agree with you about the lower stakes not being a problem - The stakes could be as low as a single character and if the writer, director, and performances are strong enough it will work. Not necessarily their life, either - I'd have been here for a Voyager film that's a courtroom drama with the Doctor trying to free the EMH Mark I miners we see in Author Author. Lower than that, in some cases.

Worf's "explanation" is one of the worst parts for me. Trek was always SO good at explaining everything even if the explanation was just making up tech based jargon shit. With the Worf explanation of why he's there Riker just ends up talking over him so we can't hear what he says.... Blah Oh, and Riker's joystick too... other than that, movie is fine

I liked Insurrection, I am glad I am not alone. Now if I can find someone that enjoys watching the extended version of Star Trek The Motion Picture as much as I do, not great but I enjoyed TMP.

Thanks for all you do. love the channel. live long and prosper

I honestly enjoy Insurrection. It's not the best film, but not the worst either. I love that it's basically an episode in movie form. It's a fun film to just sit back and watch the TNG crew go on an adventure. Also bonus points for finally giving Starfleet a dress uniform I'd actually wear.

Thank you Steve. You may not have changed my mind about Insurrection but I will watch that film with a new eye.

For some reason I thought you were defending Nemesis. I was hurting in my soul. Don't judge me. I haven't had coffee yet.

All of the Star Trek movies are enjoyable (for me) what I like most about Insurrection is the sense of unity/family from the cast, the exterior shots look great and the music is brilliant.

Picard:worf are u familier with gilbert and sulivan Wirf: no captain i didnt look at the crew roster Picard: the look Lol best scene in the film

Insurrection is my favorite TNG movie and one of my favorite Star Trek movies overall. Like you said, far from perfect, but it most reminded me of the feel and themes of the actual show.

I like this one too--mostly because I really like Donna Murphy, and I love the Ba'ku village. I'd love to live that way. Can you imagine having enough time in life to devote to your passions that you could spend 40 years as an apprentice? Heavenly. Human life is so short. But then I stop watching once it turns into shooting and Dr. Beverly Dingbat picks up a blaster. Good lord.

Funny you mentioned the joystick. For me, what made that moment downright immersion breaking was that my brother had the exact same model joystick the set designers used. Like, they didn't even paint it. (I guess, in fairness, he bought it for flight/dogfight sims so....)

Awesome video. Loved your analysis!

I actually loved Insurrection. I loved the singing part too lolol.

I always just found it kind of meh. Since I was a kid growing up with the TNG cast, it was disappointing that this was one of the few outings for this set of characters (save Worf) after loving them for seven years. I remember comparing it to episodes of TNG that aren't particularly memorable. It has beats that are important, but overall not much in the way of important events. But it being a film made it more important, and so it is going to be seen in a different light. For me it was also harmed because it came out during the run of DS9's final season, where nearly every story really mattered. It was a meh romp of the TNG crew during the middle of the Dominion War.

Subtle John Candy reference from SCTV. "We done blowed 'em up, REAL good!" Good work.

I really enjoy your explanations of movies and shows Thank you!

Other than maybe First Contact, these Next Generation movies were all pretty average. Insurrection was a glorified high budget TV episode, nothing epic about it, it could have been just a series plot.

YES. I agree with everything here. Except, I'm surprised you didn't mention Anij's ability to slow time (or whatever). It's my only big complaint about the film. Like, what is that? (I'm also not wild about ignoring Data's character progression in First Contact. In this outing, he suddenly returns to his Pinocchio shtick from the show. But they do it in a fun way, so I forgive it.) I'm hoping one of the books you mentioned at the end is Trekonomics, which I absolutely adore!

I love Insurrection. It’s my second fav of the Next Gen films. I greatly enjoyed the humor. But more than that, character moments were wonderful (except for Beverly, but at least she made the crucial discovery about the Sona and the Baku). We did get to see that Beverly and Deanna have a good character moment disguised as humor (have you noticed your boobs are firming up?). Hey, at least this film passes the Bechdel test (I think). And they are each other’s best female friend. I was happiest with the developing relationship between Will and Deanna, and Picard and his new friend. Disappointed that neither that relationship nor his totally blocked thing with Beverly was followed up on. The morality of the storyline is pretty solid. It’s definitely in the same mold as the ‘crazy captains and admirals plots’ (something you should do a couple of videos on, both TOS and TNG era), and Into Darkness really copies Insurrection hard in this matter. Yes, it is a good film. I rank the films as 2, 6, 8, 4, 2009, Insurrection, Beyond, (good cutoff), 3, Generations, TMP, Into Darkness (I like these), 5, Nemesis (little desire to ever watch again except when binging).

Thank you for making this. :)

Insurrection would have been a good single part episode of TNG.

Actually this was always my favourite Star Trek movie!

I love listening to your, Steve! And I'm a Star Trek fan, so your Trek, Actually vids are lush. Thanks!

OMG! “Did I ever tell you I killed Mozart!” LOL 😂!!!

This video is very good and I have thought Insurrection is a great Star Trek movie for years and I hope other people enjoy this video and Insurrection

You have never seen BSG reboot past first season??? Heresy!! Joke aside, i think it's really good and it's the tv series which i always recommend to anyone, even if they don't like sci-fi stories, because it's a story which everyone can like. I think DS9, BSG and now The Expanse are the top 3 best sci-fi series ever made Back in the topic, IMO Insurrection it's a good movie, maybe because when i have seen it, it was before i actually saw TNG (or any other Star Trek series) and i have never really understood all the hate, all in all it feels more like a long episode of TNG than a movie

This was awesome!! Thank you!

I walked out of the theater and said "That was a nice episode."

I highly recommend Michael Pillar's book Fade In, lots of great information about TNG in general and the process of birthing this particular film. It's aimed at writers, but should fascinating to any TNG fan.

Nemesis is very clearly a remake a Wrath of Khan. A dangerous foe in possession of a planet-killing weapon is obsessed with the killing the captain. After the bad guy's ship is crippled, he activates the doomsday weapon. The crew member without emotions sacrifices himself to save the Enterprise, but the door is left open for the character's possible return.

LOVED that moment with Worf at the beginning! Picard goes, "Mr. Worf! What the devil are you doing here?" Then turns away before he can even respond. We never get an answer! Great joke by the writers. Also Insurrection has always been a good movie for me too. It was like a feature-film episode of TNG, not perfect, but deep and insightful, funny as hell, and beautifully realised in settings and graphics.

I do the "sing Worf, sing" thing too..... The similarity in structure that Nemesis has always bothered me, but I wasn't able to put my finger on it. So a genuine thank you for that!

I never hated _Insurrection,_ but I never thought of it as one of the better films. I will say that the Son'a and many scenes from the film are often in my headspace when I think of _Next Gen_ films, so it can't be too poorly remembered by me. All said, I pretty much have to agree with you here. I guess I simply never gave it that much thought.

If you like F. Murray Abraham, check out the movie "The Ritz" it's outrageous.

My thing about this movie is: if they had personal cloaking devices for field research why in the hell werent they made available to the ships crews? That's a powerful tool man

"Does anyone remember when we used to be explorers?" -- Picard. (Bless you, Michael Piller for this line. May you forever Rest In Peace, oh savior of modern Star Trek.)

Hard agree. Insurrection is pretty decent.

I am glad other people like Insurrection, I thought I was the only one!

Star Trek V the final frontier and Star Trek insurrection are my favorite Star Trek Movies I am dead serious

I lost it with “Did I ever tell you I killed Mozart?”

Thank you for this. I've always said Insurrection is a good movie, but a great episode.

I couldn't disagree with you more Steve, but thanks for the content!

Someday I hope to get a stern lecture about the prime directive from Picard.

This entire video is amazing but thank you SO MUCH for the Hardcastle & McCormick refs. Haha ❤️❤️