Paramount Pictures, Rated PG
Directed by Jonathan Frakes
Written by Rick Berman & Michael Piller

Last time we saw the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" crew, they had gone back in time to fight their archenemies, the Borg, and stop them from preventing humans from making first contact with the alien race in the fantastic film Star Trek: First Contact. This followup and ninth in the Star Trek series (that's an odd number, rarely a good sign for this series for some strange reason) sees the same crew and the same director, Jonathan Frakes (who also plays Commander Riker), who directed First Contact as his first feature. However, the magic seems to be missing this time.
It starts out with resident android Data (Brent Spiner) going berserk and Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Worf (Michael Dorn) having to stop him. This leads to a great special effects sequence and the three singing a song by Gilbert & Sullivan (yes, you read that right). This scene, which has little to do with the rest of the plot, summarizes the film quite well. It has some great action and special effects, but feels overly obligated to camp it up. While this was done from time to time in all of the Trek films and fit in well, here it happens far too often and feels forced. The first half hour seems more like a spoof of Trek than anything else (one of the sorriest moments in Trek history has to be Picard wearing some goofy alien wig early on). Eventually, we get to the plot but the movie still doesn't get off the ground. It concerns a small colony of people on a planet with a "fountain of youth" who are being driven away by an evil group of aliens who have to have a facelift every day. The leader is Ru'afo, played by F. Murray Abraham, trying desperately to copy Ricardo Montalban's performance in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and failing utterly. It's rarely a good idea to introduce new villains in Trek features, and this movie proves that point. The fountain causes Worf to grow a zit (groan), Riker and Troi (Marina Sirtis) to rekindle their romance and act like adolescents (double groan) and Picard to do the mambo (triple groan). The only good thing that comes from this phenomenon is that the sadly underused Geordi LaForge (LeVar Burton) to gain his sight back and watch a sunset with his own eyes for the first time in his life. This is the kind of moment that would make this a fantastic movie, but soon it's back to the weak plot and cheap gags. The little action that there is (far less than in the previous film) is fantastic but even that gets tiresome by the end. Stewart does a great job, as always, whenever he doesn't make a fool of himself from time to time. Spiner has become the star of these films and does as good a job as usual, but his schtick can get old at times too. The same old crew is always great to see no matter what, but one feels embarrassed for them every once in a while. You don't need much of a reason to re-visit what in my opinion was the best Star Trek cast, but you do need something resembling a good plot. Let's hope they realize next time that no one goes to see these movies for laughs (unless they're unintentional, but that left with the original cast). It is an even number coming up in 2001, so we can only hope Star Trek's still got it, and we'll try to forget this movie ever happened. **