Trivia / Star Trek: Nemesis

• Acting for Two: Tom Hardy played Shinzon and Picard's younger self.
• Box Office Bomb: More in the sense of how high-profile its failure was, but it still made a fairly significant loss; its estimated production and marketing costs were supposedly in the region of $90 million, and it only made about $67 million worldwide. The fact that Paramount pitted the film against a murderer's row of blockbusters did it no favors, leading it to be the only Star Trek film to not open at number one at the US box office, losing to Maid in Manhattan of all things.
• B-Team Sequel:
  • Jonathan Frakes would have liked to direct, but he was busy with another Paramount film, Clockstoppers.
  • LeVar Burton was also considered as director (he had since ST:TNG directed many episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, and seemed a shoo-in to be 'called up' like Frakes had been), but Paramount went over Berman's head and installed Stuart Baird as director.
  • Nicholas Meyer was originally offered the director's chair, but turned it down because Rick Berman wouldn't allow him to make any serious changes to the script.
• The Cast Showoff: The Argo chase scene was put in because of Patrick Stewart's love of dune buggy racing. He did all the driving except the exit and first sharp turn.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Tom Hardy said that this film (and more specifically, the fact that it was a critical and commercial flop) was the worst thing that ever happened to him, and nearly killed his career before it got off the ground. The commercial failure of the film, and the response from long-time fans, apparently led to his relationship dissolving, his turning to alcohol, and considering suicide. To this day, he still refuses to talk about Nemesis in any significant detail. LeVar Burton, Marina Sirtis and Gates McFadden have also made no secret of the fact that they hate this movie.
  • Sirtis' segment in this video is very telling. Those being interviewed are supposed to be Selling the Show, but Sirtis can't keep her irritation with director Stuart Baird's approach under wraps. Given her and other cast members' description of Baird's actions, her annoyance is completely understandable.
  • Michael Dorn was upset at how little Worf got to do in the film.
• Creator Killer:
  • Stuart Baird, primarily known for his work as a film editor, looked to be carving out a decent career as an action director after Executive Decision and U.S. Marshals — until the failure of Nemesis killed his directing career stone cold dead. To this day, Baird maintains a steady editing career.
  • The film's failure proved the beginning of the end for longtime Star Trek producer Rick Berman, who never worked on another film again, and was Kicked Upstairs on Star Trek: Enterprise a little while later. Following the end of that series, he hasn't been credited as a writer or producer on anything of any description.
• Creator's Apathy: Stuart Baird never watched a single episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and knew so little of the series that he mistook Geordi for an alien multiple times. He later said that his task was to deliver "two hours of entertainment, with as much bang for your buck" and "not to get too precious about it". (This is often suspected of being a significant contributor to the end of his directoral career, as with the increasing trend toward franchise films in the noughts and beyond, producers wanted a director who gave at least a little bit of a shit about the franchise he was working on.)
• Deleted Role: Steven Culp was supposed to appear as Commander Martin Madden, Picard's new first officer, in the end, but he was cut out. Culp would later play MACO Major Hayes on Star Trek: Enterprise.
• Deleted Scene: It's been estimated that 50 minutes of footage was cut from the theatrical version. (Eight scenes were included on the DVD as extras.) Among the deleted material:
  • A different version of the Romulan Senate opening scene in which John Berg's Senator has dialogue.
  • A private conversation between Picard and Data over a glass of wine.
  • An early introduction of Shinzon (right after the wedding reception). This is the scene that includes the dialogue from the theatrical trailers: "But in darkness there is strength..." (Viceroy) and "The time we have dreamed of is at hand... the mighty Federation will fall before us..."
  • Beverly's intention to leave the Enterprise for a post at Starfleet Medical.
  • A conversation at the wedding between Picard and Wesley, who explains that he will be serving as an engineer aboard the Titan under Captain Riker.
  • Worf saying being an ambassador (see DS9) didn't suit him.
  • A scene in the mess hall in which Riker, Troi and Worf discuss the differences between Human and Klingon honeymoon traditions, and Data attempts to share a meal with B4.
  • Picard being outraged there was a clone of him running around. He's talked down by Crusher.
  • A second mind-rape scene of Counselor Troi in a turbolift.
  • Picard walking with Troi down a corridor and Troi explaining to him that he and Shinzon are two different people. This scene includes the line from the trailer, "it was like a part of me had been stolen..." (Picard).
  • Sickbay getting ready for battle, a short dialogue between Picard and Crusher is shown.
  • Worf warning Picard about the Romulans just before they leave for Romulus. This scene includes the dialogue from the trailer, "I recommend extreme caution..." (Worf).
  • Geordi and Worf clearing out Data's personal effects from his quarters, in which several props from the series (including Data's violin and the pipe he smoked as Sherlock Holmes) appear. Spot also appears jumping into Worf's arms; when Worf states that he is "not a cat person," Geordi responds "Looks like you are now!"
  • The original extended ending – a new first officer is introduced on board the Enterprise and two funny moments are shown afterward. Instead of ending while the Enterprise is docked above Earth, this alternative ending shows the Enterprise warping away.
  • A closing scene where the Enterprise has been fully repaired and ready to embark on a new exploration mission.
• Descended Creator: In addition to directing Nemesis, Stuart Baird voices the Scimitar's computer.
• Dueling Movies: With The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Die Another Day. Curb-Stomp Battle doesn't even begin to describe how this film fared in that little competition.
• Executive Meddling: After the film began development, Paramount recruited Stuart Baird over a number of highly qualified number of candidates including LeVar Burton. Some writers have suggested the directorial assignment was a reward for a last-minute re-editing job on Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, where Baird was officially credited as an executive producer.
• Franchise Killer: The film's resounding failure at the box office took the Star Trek film series down for the count, and it would ultimately stay off the silver screen for the better part of a decade. While Star Trek eventually returned to the cinematic format, as Star Trek (2009), it was in the form of a Soft Reboot set in a Alternate Universe, and with the timeline reset all the way back to The Original Series. At the very least Nemesis killed off the TNG movie series — most notably, tentative plans for a Grand Finale film with the TNG crew were scrapped entirely — along with almost everything TNG related (the prequel comic to the Star Trek reboot involves some of the TNG crew), and put the entire 24th century branch of the franchise (including Deep Space Nine and Voyager) on ice for seventeen years until 2019, when two new series were finally greenlit — the comedic Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Picard.
  • While this did kill the Trek film series for a good long while (and killed the TNG film series entirely; the aforementioned Picard and Lower Decks are series, not movies), on television, the franchise was still going strong, with Star Trek: Enterprise just getting started. It would continue airing new episodes until it's cancellation in 2005, at which point the next installment was only 4 years out. Still a bit of a Sequel Gap; not nearly as long.
• Killed by Request: Brent Spiner insisted on Data's death because he didn't think he could convincingly play an un-aging android anymore as he got older. The final film still includes a Sequel Hook hinting at Data's possible resurrection in B-4's body, which is fulfilled in Star Trek: Picard. (Out of canon, the Star Trek Novelverse and Star Trek Online also both took advantage of it.).
• Recycled Script:
  • The death of Data tries and fails to mirror a similar moment in The Wrath of Khan. Hell, even the main villain feels like a poor man's Khan.
  • Picard beaming over alone to the enemy ship to confront the cheesy villain and blow up the Applied Phlebotinum of Doom sure sounds familiar...
  • In all of the TNG movies, it's often Picard who goes alone to confront the villain (aside from Generations, where he gets royally schooled before recruiting Kirk to help him).
  • The finale featuring the Enterprise facing off against an experimental ship that can fire while cloaked is taken from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
  • Also, the Enterprise battling in a nebula that disrupts some major systems is from Star Trek II.
• Refitted for Sequel:
  • The Valdore-type Warbirds resemble the early concept drawings for the D'deridex warbirds seen on TNG. Star Trek: Armada, made 2 years earlier, had the Raptor class ships which resembled◊ the Valdore.
  • Brent Spiner wanted Data to die in the last movie, but was overruled by Patrick Stewart.
• Role Reprise:
  • Whoopi Goldberg returns as Guinan eight years after Star Trek: Generations.
  • Wil Wheaton returns as Wesley Crusher eight years after his last appearance in the final season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
• Screwed by the Network: In two different ways. Firstly, when they installed Stuart Baird as director over any number of more qualified candidates. And secondly when they decided to release it days before The Two Towers, and with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Die Another Day still in the midst of strong box-office runs, turning what would likely have still been an underwhelming box-office performance into one of the most notorious flops in the history of any major franchise.
• Similarly Named Works: The film shares its title with an episode of Star Trek: Voyager and the final issue of the comic book series Star Trek: Early Voyages.
• Star-Derailing Role:
  • Nemesis was supposed to be Tom Hardy's Star-Making Role as Shinzon, but Nemesis nearly killed his career, until he greatly rebounded with both Bronson and Inception nearly a decade later.
  • This was also one of two films from 2002, with Adam Sandler/Dana Carvey's The Master of Disguise being the other, that delivered a nasty punch to the career of Brent Spiner.
• Troubled Production:
  • While writing and filming went smoothly, Oscar-nominated writer John Logan was given Protection from Editors in his contract, and director Stuart Baird was only there for the paycheck, and so wasn't inclined to ask Logan for rewrites (Logan's contract meant Rick Berman couldn't fire him or have the screenplay rewritten without his permission, but there was nothing stopping Berman, Baird or the studio just asking him to change the script).
  • Baird's unfamiliarity with the series led to some conflicts with the cast, to the point where he mistakenly thought Geordi was an alien instead of a human with artificial eye implants, and repeatedly mispronounced LeVar Burton's name as "Laverne" during filming, even after Burton had repeatedly tried correcting him. While Marina Sirtis considered Nemesis a slight improvement on Insurrection (as did Burton), she didn't have too many kind words to say about Baird afterwards. Even Stewart and Frakes, while liking him personally, later admitted him to be a poor fit for the series.
  • What few character scenes were in the film were deleted by Baird during editing, in order to emphasize the action sequences, resulting in Shinzon's original introductory scene and most of the Enterprise crew's character moments being deleted, to the point where Dr. Crusher doesn't even get a single line after the final battle commences.
  • It was after production had finished where things started to go wrong; the film's screenplay was leaked, and heavily mocked by fans, and then the trailers hit, confirming said screenplay had been used without any major revisions. After its release, it got the worst reviews of any film in the series outside of The Final Frontier, being hit with a healthy amount of It's the Same, Now It Sucks! from critics, and also picking up some backlash from the tepid second season of Star Trek: Enterprise.
  • However, it was the choice of release date that sent things really, spectacularly downhill. When Nemesis was released in early December 2002, it faced competition with Maid in Manhattan on its opening weekend and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on its second weekend. It, along with the continued poor ratings of Enterprise (despite the show Growing the Beard the following year) ultimately killed off the Next Generation incarnation of Star Trek, at least until Star Trek: Picard premiered in 2020.
• Uncredited Role: Whoopi Goldberg went uncredited. Bryan Singer makes an unbilled cameo as a crewman.
• Wag the Director: Originally, Riker was involved in the Car Chase, but Patrick Stewart requested that Picard do it, as he loves off-road driving.
• What Could Have Been: See the page.
• Written by Cast Member: Brent Spiner has "Story by" credit with John Logan and Rick Berman.

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