Smooth as an Android's bottom: behind the scenes on the ninth film to bear the name Star Trek.
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00:00 Every once in a while a film comes along that is both amazing, wonderful, and slightly forgettable.
00:06 And sometimes that happens several times in the same franchise.
00:09 We have some of the earlier Kirk films, and then we have Star Trek Insurrection.
00:13 For all of the effort that went into this movie, a lot of love did go in, so did a hell
00:18 of a lot of rewrites.
00:19 We had the very first fully CGI version of the Enterprise-E, some of which looks lovely
00:25 (emphasis on "some").
00:27 We also had some wonderful Sona ships that were lost to time until recently, thank you
00:32 very much Eagle Moss.
00:34 And we have an entire version of a script that was started by Michael Piller and then
00:39 completely lost, chopped up, and changed along the way.
00:43 Thank you Patrick Stewart.
00:44 There's also, and I am not going to lie about this, scenes that feature Armand Jimmerman
00:49 in full makeup as Quark in a swimsuit.
00:52 People say Insurrection isn't interesting.
00:54 It may be the extra-long TV episode that got turned into a film, but I will defend Star
00:59 Trek Insurrection to the ground.
01:01 With that in mind, I am Sean Ferrick for Trek Culture, and here are 20 Things You Didn't
01:07 Know About Star Trek Insurrection, Part 1.
01:11 20.
01:12 Patrick Stewart didn't want television Picard to return
01:15 Patrick Stewart had felt a bit let down by the direction in which Star Trek Generations
01:18 had taken his character.
01:19 For him, he felt that Picard was far too much like his television self rather than a movie
01:24 role.
01:25 When Star Trek First Contact was released, he felt that the character achieved that movie
01:28 star action hero status that he so wanted.
01:31 Specifically, the scenes between himself and the Borg Queen in Engineering helped to sway
01:34 him.
01:35 So, when the script for Insurrection came along, he was able to request additional changes
01:38 be made so he wouldn't be going backward.
01:40 This included the love story between Picard and Anij, along with the scenes featuring
01:44 the evacuation of the Ba'ku, the deployment of the Captain's yacht, and all of the scenes
01:47 on the Collector with Ruafo.
01:49 Michael Piller said that for Picard to truly be the hero, he had to be morally and ethically
01:53 in the right, even though he was effectively leading a mutiny against both Admiral Doherty
01:57 and Starfleet itself.
01:59 Number 19.
02:00 The Kiss Got Cut
02:02 One thing that is noticeably missing from the release of Star Trek Insurrection is an
02:05 on-screen kiss between Captain Picard and Anij.
02:08 The two characters have clearly been set up as a romantic couple, with this status earned
02:11 as they attempt to save the Ba'ku together, along with their eventual capture by the sauna.
02:16 According to Patrick Stewart, a kiss was indeed filmed for the climax of the film.
02:20 This would have been a more direct payoff than what the audience received, which was
02:23 effectively a tease for a sequel that never materialised.
02:25 Picard tells Anij that he has accrued almost a year of shore leave, which he intends to
02:29 take with her.
02:30 The kiss, according to Stewart, was cut by the studio for a reason he was not made aware
02:35 of.
02:36 Number 18.
02:37 Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here
02:39 Anthony Zerbe plays Admiral Matthew Doherty in the film, though he was actually considered
02:43 originally for the role of Arda Ruafo.
02:45 Though he auditioned well, the role was given to F. Murray Abraham.
02:48 As part of his audition, Zerbe used his own unique style of acting to secure the part,
02:52 including going completely off script.
02:53 Rather than recite the lines as provided, he instead performed a chunk of Dante's
02:57 Inferno.
02:58 Only after he had completed these passages did he then switch back to the script as it
03:01 was.
03:02 This would prove to be a slightly apt decision, as Admiral Doherty himself makes many bargains
03:06 with the devil during his time in the film.
03:07 Though it is all done for altruistic reasons, the sauna alliance is one that is clearly
03:11 about as secure as an alliance with the Borg.
03:14 Number 17.
03:15 Sorry, Kill Ya Next Time
03:16 Brent Spiner was thoroughly done with the character of Data by the time Star Trek Insurrection
03:21 rolled around.
03:22 He had initially even been reluctant to appear in Star Trek Generations, though negotiations
03:25 did go his way.
03:26 He preferred the script for Star Trek First Contact as it allowed him a large range to
03:30 act alongside Alice Krieg's Queen.
03:32 By Insurrection, he was beginning to have concerns that ageing out, feeling that it
03:36 was beginning to stretch plausibility for him to play the ageless android.
03:39 A couple of factors went into his agreeing to appear.
03:42 First, he credited his then-girlfriend who persuaded him that being the only holdout
03:45 from the main cast would be a decision he would go on to regret.
03:48 The second reason was the handsome salary he received.
03:50 Thirdly, he wrote a note to Rick Berman asking for Data to be killed in the movie.
03:54 That way, he reckoned, no one would have to go through this process again for a future
03:58 film.
03:59 However, when he received the script from Berman, it came with the note "Sorry, Kill
04:02 Ya Next Time" and Data survived the events of the Briar Patch.
04:06 Number 16.
04:07 Can I Interest You In A Timeshare?
04:08 There was a scripted scene involving Armin Zimmerman in the script for Star Trek Insurrection,
04:12 which may have reached the filming stage as evidenced by the on-set photo of Quark in
04:16 a bathing suit.
04:17 However, the scene has failed to see the light of day.
04:19 The script featured an exchange between Quark, Worf and Captain Picard.
04:23 The Ferengi barman was to have approached them with the idea of building timeshares
04:26 all along the lakefront, while two dabbo girls were perched on each arm.
04:29 Picard bluntly states that there will be absolutely zero chance of that happening, ordering Worf
04:34 to beam him to the Enterprise.
04:35 Quark sulkily then says that the Nagus will be in touch.
04:38 While the scene is a fun tie-in to the then-ongoing Deep Space Nine, it was deemed superfluous
04:42 by the producers, as Worf himself was already a crossover with the series.
04:46 Despite Quark s best efforts, the timeshares were cut from the film entirely.
04:50 Number 15.
04:51 Michael Piller was stuck in development hell before Rick Berman called him.
04:55 Michael Piller had joined the Star Trek franchise as The Next Generation had gone into its third
04:59 season, though when the time came for a script for Star Trek Generations, he turned it down.
05:03 He recommended Brandon Braga and Ronald D. Moore to write that film instead.
05:06 He had stepped back from Star Trek a bit by then, having been deeply involved in DS9 and
05:10 Voyager as well.
05:11 In the years between Generations and Insurrection, he had written several projects that he thought
05:15 were quite strong, though there was one glaring issue with them.
05:18 None of them had actually been produced.
05:20 It was what the industry referred to as "development hell", or in other terms, everyone really
05:23 liked the pieces, but not quite enough to greenlight them.
05:26 Rick Berman then called Piller, asking him if he would be interested in penning the script
05:29 for the ninth Star Trek film.
05:31 Piller accepted, and two years of a laborious process began.
05:34 Number 14.
05:35 Berman wanted an old David O. Selznick film to be the inspiration.
05:39 During the brainstorming phase of writing the script, Rick Berman was intrigued with
05:42 having the story resemble The Prisoner of Zenda.
05:44 The original novel had been released in 1894 by Anthony Hope, with a Ronald Coleman and
05:48 Douglas Fairbanks Jr. starring 1937 adaptation being a prime inspiration.
05:53 In the story, a man discovers that there is another person out there who is almost identical
05:56 to him, though is soon to be the leader of another state.
05:59 Sound familiar?
06:00 Star Trek Insurrection veered away from this storyline, though elements of it would resurface
06:04 in Star Trek Nemesis.
06:05 While Shinzon is clearly not a heroic character by any means, he is still a clone of the outlied
06:10 protagonist and he is recently the head of the Romulan state.
06:13 At about the extent of the similarities between the Coleman film and the final Next Generation
06:16 movie, the inspiration can clearly be seen for Stuart Baird's offering to the franchise
06:21 here.
06:22 Number 13.
06:23 Despite Spiner's reluctance, there could have been two androids in the film.
06:27 Michael Piller toyed with the idea of bringing Lore back to the franchise.
06:30 He had last been seen in Descent Part II, where he was shot by Data.
06:34 Though disassembled, death was never truly certain for Data's brother, so a return
06:37 could easily have been achieved.
06:39 Piller took inspiration from Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan for this idea.
06:42 Lore would have returned, hell-bent on seeking revenge against both Data and the crew of
06:46 the Enterprise-E. While the exact reasons that this didn't progress into a story are
06:50 a little vague, Spiner's reluctance to return to even the role of Data may have played a
06:55 part.
06:56 In a similar move to Berman's idea of having two Picards, two Soong-type androids would
06:59 appear in the following film.
07:01 B-4 is said to be a prototype android far less sophisticated than Data and certainly
07:05 less advanced than Lore himself.
07:07 While fans were disappointed that the evil twin didn't return, at least Spiner got
07:10 to pull double duty one more time.
07:13 Number 12.
07:14 Roddenberry's Box
07:16 When writing about the process by which Michael Piller was assigned the film, the writer spoke
07:20 of the problem of Roddenberry's Box, as he called it.
07:22 This was the set of rules that each and every writer on Star Trek had to fight with when
07:26 they came on board.
07:27 Piller himself got first experience of this with The Bonding.
07:30 Back in TNG's third season, Ronald D. Moore submitted The Bonding, an episode dealing
07:33 with grief.
07:34 Roddenberry flatly rejected it, as humans didn't grieve in his 24th century.
07:39 Piller wrote that while many writers could and did balk at these kind of restrictions,
07:43 he simply took it as a challenge and reworked the script.
07:46 If there is one consistent complaint about Insurrection, it's that it feels like an
07:49 extra long episode of Star Trek.
07:51 In a way, this is completely accurate.
07:53 Piller wrote the film with Roddenberry's Box in mind, allowing the process to speed
07:57 through the editors without the slog of trying to find new writers to take on the challenge.
08:02 Number 11.
08:03 Ira Stephen Bear and the Paper Tigers
08:05 When Piller completed his third version of the script, he showed it to Ira Stephen Bear,
08:09 who was the showrunner and executive producer on Star Trek Deep Space Nine.
08:12 He handed the script straight back to Piller, calling the sona a good idea, though describing
08:16 them as "paper tigers".
08:18 A paper tiger is something that seems intimidating, frightening or even powerful, but is in fact
08:22 far from it.
08:23 The first version of the sona effectively fell apart on the most casual of glances,
08:27 leading them in desperate need of a rapid rewrite.
08:30 Piller took the script back and began to work on it.
08:33 The romantic subplot was added, though what was also added was the Collector, the massive
08:36 ship that comes to harvest the energy of the rings upon which Picard and Rooff will have
08:41 their final fight in the film.
08:42 Though that final scene would undergo several treatments and even feature in an unaired
08:46 ending, it was entirely missing from all early drafts of the script, which would have led
08:49 to a rather interesting plot hole when it came time to collect that radiation.
08:53 And that's everything for this first part of our list.
08:55 Please make sure you check back for the second part, which will be coming soon.
08:58 Remember you can catch us over on Twitter @TrekCulture, you can catch myself @SeanFerric
09:02 on Twitter as well.
09:03 Whatever you do until I'm talking to you again, you look after yourself, you look after
09:06 your friends and family, and in today's world, just do me and everyone else a favour, you
09:09 stay safe, you live long and prosper, and thank you very much.