Pun Salad

Please note that, since I bought the first 8 "Special Collector's Editions" of Star Trek movies, I was more or less going to get this one too, no matter how bad. And the next one.

But in fact, Insurrection is a pretty good movie, taken on its own terms; I don't need major drama in a Star Trek movie, or an apocalyptic plot. Jean-Luc and his gang aren't saving the world, or even a world here, just trying to get the bad guys to leave a few hundred nice people alone, to live in their idyllic hippie commune. Unfortunately, the Federation has decided to be on the side of the bad guys, because the hippies happen to be sitting, nearly literally, on a fountain of youth.

The Enterprise crew muddles through, however, and the outcome is never really in doubt. The script has some genuinely funny and touching moments, mainly relating to the crew feeling frisky.

At times it sounds as if they're trying to Make A Tiresome Point About Today's Problems, like the old series used to do, but it's not fortunately not heavy-handed. What, the Ba'ku are supposed to be Palestinians? Or maybe Israelites, since the Son'a are planning to (more or less) "push them into the sea." American Indians? Or … hey, maybe this was a pre-emptive comment about the Supreme Court's eminent domain decision in Kelo; the hippie planet is being taken for "public use." My head hurts.