Patrick Stewart shares his thoughts on the Star Trek: The Next Generation movies in his memoir, echoing fan opinions on Insurrection and Nemesis.
Patrick Stewart shares his opinion on the final two Star Trek: The Next Generation movies, and he doesn’t like Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek: Nemesis either. After 7 years of playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard on the small screen, Stewart led the TNG cast’s takeover of the Star Trek movie franchise. Stewart found teaming up with William Shatner’s Captain T. Kirk to be “a pleasure” in the first TNG movie, Star Trek Generations, although he felt the film itself “plays like an extended, expensive episode rather than a feature film.”
In his autobiography, “Making It So: A Memoir,” Sir Patrick Stewart echoed Star Trek fans’ general opinion that Star Trek: First Contact was the high point of the Star Trek: The Next Generation movies. Stewart writes about his disappointment in the two sequels that followed First Contact in “Making It So.” Read the excerpt below:
When Star Trek: First Contact came out, I was convinced that we were on the threshold of establishing a potent movie franchise. Unfortunately, the two films that followed it, Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek: Nemesis, were both a letdown. And Nemesis, which came out in 2002, was particularly weak. I didn’t have a single exciting scene to play… But Nemesis was a dud, as far as I was concerned. By the time it had come and gone, I wanted no further part of sci-fi, uniforms, or anything to do with outer space. I was convinced that my time as Jean-Luc Picard was consigned forever to the past.
Star Trek Has Made Sure Nemesis No Longer Matters
Star Trek: Nemesis wasn’t intended to be the end of the Star Trek: The Next Generation movies, but its critical and box office failure marked the end of Captain Picard and the USS Enterprise-E’s big screen adventures. Nemesis certainly soured Patrick Stewart on continuing as Captain Picard, as he writes in “Making It So.” However, Star Trek has taken strides to undo the damage Nemesis did to the TNG franchise 20 years ago. Data (Brent Spiner) was killed off and given a proper farewell in Star Trek: Picard season 1’s finale, and he was resurrected in Star Trek: Picard season 3.
Indeed, the desire to give the iconic Star Trek: The Next Generation cast the proper ending Star Trek: Nemesis couldn’t deliver was part of what led showrunner Terry Matalas to reassemble the USS Enterprise-D’s crew in Star Trek: Picard season 3. The final season of Picard moved the TNG legends far beyond the folly of Star Trek: Nemesis, and it was essentially a 10-hour Star Trek: The Next Generation movie epic. While there was an offhand joke about Star Trek: Insurrection, Star Trek: Picard season 3 mainly ignored Star Trek: Nemesis as it restored the heroes of Star Trek: The Next Generation to their full glory and sent them off with joyous grace and aplomb.
