"Nice Hair." Picard comes face-to-face with his clone.

Star Trek: Nemesis
Paramount, 2002
Directed by Stuart Baird

$$$1/2

If George Lucas hadn't beaten them to the punch, producers of the tenth Star Trek movie could have easily called their film, "Attack of the Clones". Not only does the movie feature mirror-images of two main characters, the filmmakers themselves succeed in fabricating a mirror-image of the long-running series' most successful installment.

Most fans agree Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, with its mano-a-mano fight-to-the-death between a heroic captain and a villain hell bent on revenge, is the best of the franchise. Each subsequent installment has tried to varying degrees, with varying formulas, to match that film's action, intensity and drama. The results have been, shall we say, uneven. (As Trekkers know, the even numbered films are always better.) This time out, rather than trying to plot yet another new course, the filmmakers seem to have decided the best way to match the success of Wrath of Khan is to essentially remake Wrath of Khan. So, once again, a heroic captain is plunged into a battle with an over-the-top baddie fueled by vengeance. In other words, the movie -- which is about clones, is itself a clone. That may sound like a complaint, until you realize in this case, a perfect copy can be nearly as good as the original.

As Star Trek: Nemesis begins, Captain Picard and crew have just come from the long-awaited wedding of First Officer Will Riker and Counselor Deanna Troi. They're on their way to another ceremony on Troi's home world, when the crew takes a detour to a barren desert planet where they come upon yet another android twin brother of the positronic-brained Commander Data. This one is appropriately named B-4, since he's a prototype who came before Data. (Strangely, Data's other evil twin brother, Lor, is never mentioned.) Next, the Enterprise takes another detour -- to the home world of the Romulan Empire. There they meet the new Romulan leader -- a guy with a bald head and a British accent. In other words, he looks an suspiciously like a younger version of you-know-who.

We soon discover the enemy leader, Shinzon (played with seething menace by Tom Hardy), is indeed a clone of Picard, the result of a discarded project on Romulus designed to replace the captain with an exact duplicate who could then spy on the Federation. Naturally, he's up to no good. And we soon see that B-4's discovery was no coincidence -- he's all part of Shinzon's master plan to unleash an ultimate weapon against the people of Earth.

Star Trek: Nemesis is easily the darkest Star Trek movie yet -- and not just because of its serious tone. I mean it looks dark -- like somebody turned off all the lights. Much of the movie takes place in shadows. Even the desert planet looks really overcast.

The darkness motif is also appropriate since this film gives us our first ever glimpse of the Remans, a vampire-like race who don't like the light. They inhabit Romulas's twin planet, Remus, one side of which always faces away from the sun. (Twin Datas, twin Picards, twin planets -- do you sense a theme here?) The Reman make-up, inspired by F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu, helps make these alien villains especially grotesque.

While the movie introduces new bad guys, there's also a new emphasis on action, with several elaborate stunt sequences -- including a dune buggy chase early on that feels more like something out of a James Bond movie. There's also a space battle with some unexpected twists that ranks among the series' best.

But it's not all phasers and fireworks. No Star Trek film would be complete without grand statements on the nature of human existence. This time the central question is: Where does evil come from? Are you born evil? Or do circumstances make us who we are?

That debate is just one of the many currents running through writer John Logan's terrific script. Logan, who wrote Gladiator, is a lifelong Star Trek fan, and seeing his script come to life, you can imagine the fun he had writing it. He throws in several fun Trek references for the hardcore fans. But Logan's script works because it's also accessible, and he keeps the technobabble to a minimum. If only the same could be said about the musical interludes -- Brent Spiner must have it in his contract that he gets to sing (then again, maybe there's a reason he has a story credit on this film).

The choice of screenwriter wasn't the only wise move by the producers. They also made a smart pick behind the camera. In a sequel like this, the actors already know exactly how to play their parts. As long as the script is good -- and this script is good -- then the director just needs to know where to aim his lens. This film's director, Stuart Baird, an editor who's worked on many high profile action films, certainly knows how to do that quite well. As a result, the movie looks less like an episode of the TV show (which some films have resembled) and more like the Hollywood blockbuster it's supposed to be.

Whether or not this is the last Next Generation film remains to be seen. But if it is, then the crew is going out on a good note -- with a thoroughly satisfying adventure that exemplifies the best of Star Trek.
(c) Copyright 2002