The Original Sequel to Star Trek First Contact

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Taking a look at the original version of Star Trek: Insurrection based on Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now.
⏱️TIMESTAMPS⏱️
0:00 Intro
2:06 The Voyage Home
2:54 Michael Piller
3:41 Starfleet Academy Flashback
4:07 Romulan Attack
5:28 Picard Gets His Orders
6:02 The Briar Patch
6:50 Federation and Romulan Conspiracy
7:59 Picard Goes Rogue
8:44 Final Battle
9:00 Ending
9:38 What Went Wrong?
11:55 Blue Screen on the Collector
12:42 Original Ending
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#startrek #picard

[@Bulletsandblockbusters]

Visit buyraycon.com/bandb and use code: BANDB to enjoy a 20% site-wide discount until June 4th, or a 15% discount thereafter. Thanks to Raycon for sponsoring this video!

[@bensneb360]

This sounds like it could of been one of the best Star Trek movies, it had everything: action, moral conundrums, space politics, a fun villain, and Picard speeches

[@Bulletsandblockbusters]

Agreed! Def had potential

[@rolinthor]

Picard dressing down the Federation council would have been epic. Could have even thrown Spock in there as a surprise guest star at a climactic moment.

[@FatCatGarfield]

Could have not could of

[@vintvarner16]

​@@BulletsandblockbustersIt would have had to be a 3 hour movie but I would have been great with that. Heart Of Darkness could have been the best and there could have been a little comedy in parts thrown in, enough for a little chuckle. It literally could have been "the best of both worlds"

[@guitarfan01]

​@@vintvarner16 But Paramount probably wouldn't have wanted to pony up the required cash to get the good version made. I'd be willing to bet that was the main reason Berman rejected the original concept, not "worries that Patrick Stewart might feel old."

[@mind4lease554]

This would have been so much better than what we got.

[@Bulletsandblockbusters]

💯

[@bastianbernschutz6733]

I would have said its pretty hard to do something worse…. If wouldn’t know STD.

[@canisblack]

I'm in the minority in that I liked Insurrection even if, like some, I felt like it was a two part episode of TNG (which is why I liked it honestly), but I do think doing something like Star Trek Heart of Darkness would've been far, far better than any movie that came after Insurrection. I mean I'm still of the opinion that Star Trek Nemesis killed the franchise.

[@johnsledge3942]

@@canisblackSame here. I personally love it because it feels just like a big episode; I think it creates an interesting vibe for the film that works.

[@ChrisRoth1972]

I wish this would have been the Star Trek movie we got

[@bustedsim]

So what I've learned from this video about Insurrection, Star Trek V, and Star Trek: Picard is that main lead Captain's actors should not have creative pull.

[@lovipoekimo176]

did we forget that Spock was also a Captain by STWOK and Nimoy had creative control over many of the TOS films?

[@bustedsim]

@@lovipoekimo176 Fiiiine, I'll edit the comment to be more pedantically accurate. 🙃

[@theessentials450]

Trek 5 is just fine compared to the others.

[@andrewcoulthard-clark]

I agree! I'm a fan of Stewart, however giving him 'Right of Refusal' of the script in his contract meant he could demand a love interest, decide his own wardrobe(hence the leather jacket) and more action scenes involving him. Rather than an ensemble movie, tackling difficult thought provoking topics.

[@zephyr8072]

And while he didn’t request it, fanboy script writers eager to please him were the reason we got that stupid Mad Max at home car scene in Nemesis. Rather than have any care for a proper script or integrity of the world, Stewart just went with it.

[@HyperTensiveFilms]

Michael Piller wrote a really fantastic book called "Fade In" that describes a lot of this. He describes the process of writing the script, getting notes from Rick Berman, Patrick Stewart, and Brent Spiner and said it was a little heartwrenching to get such critical and negative notes from Stewart and Spiner, individuals he idolized. It's a really fascinating book about how these big studio movies are made. This video is a great cliff notes version. Great work!

[@Bulletsandblockbusters]

Thnx and yeah, I definitely recommend that book it’s fascinating

[@Mockthenerd]

Honestly, we home Star Trek to to much of a high standard. 70% of the show is shit to be honest. The rest is top tear. The actors typically are what makes this stuff crap.

[@BTScriviner]

By this point, I'm sure Stewart's and Spiner's egos were huge.

[@Neomac316]

It's better, but the Dominion was Starfleets' most dangerous enemy other than the Borg. This was TNGs chance to join the conflict. I know Berman was not a fan of the Dominion arc, but for the Enterprise to stay out of one of the Federations' biggest conflicts made no sense.

[@derekscanlan4641]

time has proven berman was wrong about that

[@zephyr8072]

And yet Disco went on to do the exact same thing. “Hey where was the Enterprise during a horrific war where the Klingons were literally on Earth’s doorstep and the only thing that stopped them was blackmailing Qonos with a planet-cracking nuke?” “Busy! It was BUSY!”

[@TrueLegateDamar]

The Dominion could totally worked, say they suggest a ceasefire and claim the planet as part of a new DMZ, just like they did on DS9 trying to negotiate for a specific planet because it had resources to make Ketracel-White. And given Picard's history, have the main villain be a Cardassian Gul maybe even Madred himself.

[@potsdam28]

Not to mention they invaded Betazed and Troi never once even mentioned it

[@THX1138765]

I think the big problem is that DS9 simply did not have the ratings and casual viewers might have not quite understood what was going on. That would have been their reasoning any way for not pursuing completely ignoring that they successfully pulled that same thing off with the Borg. A Dominion War movie would have been awesome.

[@gc7820]

The trouble is they did the ‘heart of darkness’ type story already as an episode with cardassians in ‘the wounded’ with capt maxwell going rogue and O’Brien bringing him in.

[@SodiumWage]

The TNG films suffered from not having a overarching theme to them, unlike the TOS films which often dealt with aging characters in a universe that was rapidly leaving them behind and culuminated in Star Trek 6 literally putting Kirk on trial. The TNG films should have focused on Picard and crew trying to uphold their idealistic belief in the Prime Directive in spite of the Dominion War which had severly tested the DS9 crew. It would have been intersting setting up the TNG crew as a sort of relic of the idealistic past having to confront the darker, more troubling realities of the the Apha quadrent during the Dominion War.

[@formerlyknownashammerofthegods]

That story sounds very familiar to one of the TNG stories where Picard had to go after a Starfleet captain who went after the Cardassians. Bob Gunton from the Shawshank Redemption was the captain he went after.

[@Bulletsandblockbusters]

💯

[@MrCrazyrob666]

Ha! I just commented that. It's called "The Wounded"

[@xinjango6791]

Indeed, and that was an epic episode. Making a whole movie based on the same premise would have been great.

[@Mazvec]

Plus they could have incorporated the Dominion war and had some rogue captain using “unsound methods” as the villain.

[@commandercaptain4664]

@Mazvec It would’ve worked if the Dominion was behind the treaty, meant to divide faction relations to that point, while slowly acclimating audiences to who they were, then revealing the big surprise at the cliffhanger.

[@gargoylestories]

I'm a hard core Trekkie, but you gave me a lot of new information I hadn't heard before. Thanks for this.

[@Bulletsandblockbusters]

My pleasure. Glad you enjoyed it!

[@nicspits9876]

X2

[@DarthAzabrush]

There was also a script proposed that had the E and its crew assigned to the Battle for Betazed in the Dominion War that would have been awesome. Mostly because Deana and her MOTHER OF DEATH would come out of it as mushroom cloud laying badasses with major PTSD. There was a novelisation of this concept that has a foreword from Marina Satiris basically saying "I wanted to do this shit not shaving Commander Riker"

[@zephyr8072]

The movies did Troi extremely dirty. Generations - Riker has her take the helm right when the ship is going to crash. First Contact - Gets drunk. Insurrection - Shaves Riker’s beard. Nemesis - Gets mind-raped by Tom Hardy before he was cool

[@thewinner7382]

Um where did you read that was ever proposed?

[@DarthAzabrush]

@@thewinner7382 In the foreword to the novel.

[@EpicBeard815]

If Star Trek IV is "The One With The Whales" this one is "The One With The Amish"

[@Bulletsandblockbusters]

LMAO

[@zephyr8072]

The Amish who somehow managed to exile an entire ruthless space armada with the power of their single village and farming tools. … Dear god in heaven this backstory is the prototype for Rebel Moon.

[@GavinScrimgeour]

😂 love it 👌🏻

[@DanielAppleton-lr9eq]

Lost Horizon / Shangri La in Space.

[@hellequinnz]

I liked it and it’s one of my most rewatched TNG movies behind First Contact

[@jokerz7936]

As much as Insurrection ignores the Dominion War this script even makes less sense the Federation, Klingons, and Romulans were in an Alliance fighting the Dominion when these events would have taken place. Also, Picard graduated Starfleet Academy in 2327 and Insurrection takes place in 2375 meaning he'd been out of the Academy a lot longer than 28 years.

[@gups4963]

All they'd have to do is expose the event from in a pale moonlight. It would certainly get the Romulans going

[@Stockslivevan]

That’s because this draft was written in 1997, well before the DS9 writers eventually decided to have the Romulans join the Federation and Klingon Empire.

[@g0nz0theGreat]

well you could get around it by making it the tal'shiar acting independently.

[@benreed9952]

“What went wrong? Rick Berman” Yeah that sums up a lot of things that went wrong with Trek 😂

[@gups4963]

Sounds more like Stewart, with Berman being a close 2nd.

[@benreed9952]

@@gups4963 true in this case! Though he also was not shown original versions of the story, so it’s possible he would’ve gone for it. He wanted more serious stories for the paramount+ show

[@gups4963]

@@benreed9952 Generations he splits with Berman, Nemesis he killed (though I liked it, just not the dune buggy bit). the first 2 seasons of Picard were eh pretty bad IMO. , First Contact his changes might have helped, Same with the last seasons of TNG. Berman has one heck of bipolar history with Trek. He is a classic certain type of hole (yt loves censoring), but is also the guy who ran ST through its most successful period. I can see why people have a personal issue with the guy, for example Terry Farrell's firing. But on the success and failure of the movies, that appears to be more on the crew as they were given a lot of power over them and Stewart never appearing to care the more cerebral aspects of his character and wanting to be shown as a man of action or he was having a midlife crisis. Just my opinion, have a good one

[@charlestaylor253]

Stewart is a very, very good actor, but he's also a 'classic certain type of a hole' in real life...😒

[@UndyingNephalim]

It's kind of amazing that in almost every single Star Trek movie starting with Search for Spock, the Romulans were always intended to be the villains and they end up getting sidelined for something else. Even in Nemesis when you think they are finally going to be the villains in a Star Trek movie it ends up not being them. They are literally the earliest recurring villains in Star Trek and never were antagonists in a film until the whole series was rebooted.

[@zephyr8072]

And even then we don’t get actual Romulans being Romulan, we get Nero being a deranged, whiny man-baby with a silly goth spike ship and magic red goo.

[@HyraxusPrimus]

It kind of makes sense, because the Romulans are very "Cold War" in how they do things. They never try to directly do anything themselves, they always manipulate the other factions against each other and make sure they themselves have plausible deniability when their plans inevitably fail. It is interesting to me, though, that First Contact wasn't a movie about the Romulans. In Generations, we saw the Romulans on the observatory who were allegedly competing with the villains of that movie (making us think they're up to something), and then in First Contact the bad guys are a race who can't defeat the Federation 1 on 1, led by a Queen (or an "Empress"), who go back in time so they can stop the humans and Vulcans from meeting and working together. It really sounds like a Romulan plot. If Nemesis was going to culminate in a giant boss ship fighting with a fleet of smaller good guy ships (with a Picard clone and a corrupted brother of Data who should've been Lore), that one should've been the return of the Borg and the grand finale all in one.

[@UndyingNephalim]

@@HyraxusPrimus I agree and I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing that the Romulans never ended up being film antagonists, I just find it very funny that they were constantly being planned to be villains in almost every single movie but were always being sidelined in favor of other villains. Even in Undiscovered Country the Romulan ambassador was supposed to the be main antagonist and he ended up not even getting a name in the movie. Personally I always felt Nemesis should have been a Mirror Universe story, with the Remans being mirror universe Romulans. Even all the marketing for that movie made it seem like it was Mirror Universe.

[@HyraxusPrimus]

@@UndyingNephalim I was thinking of the Undiscovered Country, too. They also didn't have any consequences for when they did openly attack and kill Starfleet personnel when trying to steal the Prometheus, and hilariously when they were set up to be the next main villains of Enterprise, the show got cancelled. I kind of see the Mirror Universe angle. It would've saved having to cast a younger Picard and could've been a better case study of nurture vs. nature if they were the same age, and we had never seen the Mirror TNG crew before. I guess it would be a Terran plot to use the Remans to retake the empire from the Klingon/Cardassian Alliance, and they need something from the Prime Universe? Cool. Alternatively, there's a problem since the Mirror versions are almost always cartoony evil versions of the Prime counterparts. As fun as that would be to see, it might lose the gravitas of the story.

[@commandercaptain4664]

@UndyingNephalim “Captain Kirk, I will… CONSIDER IT.”

[@indianajones4321]

Star Trek Heart of Darkness sounds awesome

[@SomeHarbourBastard]

👍🏻👍🏻 for the profile picture. Love _The Wild Geese_

[@purefoldnz3070]

with Ian McKellen as the Colonel Kurtz

[@BogeyTheBear]

The Heart of Darkness plot was already done in Star Trek cinema. It was called _Star Trek V: The Final Frontier._

[@commandercaptain4664]

@BogeyTheBear _Final Frontier_ was just a somehow worse rehash of _The Way to Eden_ episode.

[@commandercaptain4664]

I’m still waiting for a Trek movie that continues the alien worm infiltration episode from Next Gen. Remember, a signal was sent to the stars at the end of it…

[@gunnarerth]

Actors should act and leave writing to others (of course there are exceptions to the rule, but not too many). Last month I visited Fedcon in Bonn, which had next to Star Trek guests also some Orville guests. During a panel the four Orville actors were asked if they had a story idea. The first three present their ideas, which were not so good. And then the fourth, Penny Johnson Jerald (who also played in DS9), says: "...and that's why we leave the writing to the writers".

[@claudiadarling9441]

That exception has a name, and it's Leonard Nimoy. Maybe the difference is Nimoy pursued artistic ambitions outside of acting, such as photography and directing non Star Trek movies. So he wasn't thinking of everything from the point of view of what will make Spock look good. And when it came to writing "Voyage Home" he had the good sense to work with Nicholas Meyer.

[@chipstercamarillo9373]

I remember taking a friend to see this movie, who knew next to nothing of Star Trek, let alone TNG. He was a visual arts majoring in Visual Arts and both liked the story and loved the visuals

[@Solarnova]

Insurrection should have been a Dominion War film, where the Enterprise-E joins the fight. A few throwaway lines regarding how the war was raging across both the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, and then finally a mission for the -E to enter the Gamma Quadrant, engage, and destroy a Dominion threat there (new superweapon) that would have otherwise resulted in the Federation, Romulans, and Klingons losing the war. Tie-ins to DS9 would have also increased viewership of that series, instead of waiting for streaming to do that 20 years later.

[@archelonprime]

An excellent alternative suggestion! Your last sentence reminds me of a friend that finally understood why I liked DS9 so much back when it was new/current after he started watching it... in 2020!

[@commandercaptain4664]

I think the Stardust plot could’ve worked at introducing audiences to the Dominion, rather than relying on throwaway exposition, and then Stardust 2 would serve as the big showdown. And yes, DS9 being in it would’ve done that show and the movie a whole lot of favors!

[@stevencramsie9172]

We were already getting a lot of Dominion War storylines on Deep Space Nine, Star Trek IX with the TNG crew had to be something different.

[@MP197742]

X-Files: Fight the Future came out the same year, so there wasn’t a template for how to really do that with an active TV show. And this would be a lot harder than that, since they aren’t the same show. I mean, it might have been beneficial for DS9 to have the TNG crew explore their topics, but you’d have to explain a lot from DS9 in that movie, and then DS9 would have to explain what happened in the movie. Also, you’d need something better than sending one ship to stop a super weapon. That’s way too Star Wars, and we’d already seen the Dominion muster huge fleets, almost right from the start. Can’t really throw one ship at that.

[@darthkurland]

@@archelonprimebut who would have written such an action-packed script like that?

[@cinemaarts8795]

Marina Sirtis (Troi) admitted that she fell asleep at the premiere of Insurrection!

[@Bulletsandblockbusters]

Haha

[@zacharyjochumsen9677]

​​@@Bulletsandblockbusterswow imgin bring th stsrvifvth mov snd wafthing it mdke you fell asleep wow what bad drink or whst

[@EmarStudios]

well that's a bad sign if i've ever heard of one

[@commandercaptain4664]

I wonder if Frakes saw her do that and went full Jigglypuff.

[@MGD313]

The star of Beyond Belief: Jonathan FRAKES

[@thebaron9059]

Absolutely, lets be Frank about it!

[@markstirton]

The point where you realise the person speaking doesn't have a clue.

[@MasterSanders]

Not a chance.

[@zephyr8072]

Was this tale of a Klingon who actually took a bath believable? Not this time, we fooled you.

[@purefoldnz3070]

@@MasterSanders no, not this time.

[@PulpDogg]

Yeah, this Heart of Darkness concept sounds alot better. Then again, anything sounds better then what we ended up getting. Funnily enough, I am re-reading "The Ashes of Eden" by William Shatner (and the Reeves-Stevenses as co-writers) - which is basically the same plot. Fountain of Youth story line, captain Kirk gets younger, gets a love interest and has his old crew coming after him. It came out in 1995.

[@darthkurland]

Technically, Shatner could have sued them for essentially stealing his story.

[@mattparsons433]

They should have done a balls-out 18 certificate sci-fi horror where they go back to the episode with the alien bug creatures that took over Starfleet Command. Duffy would ultimately get infected and Picard would be forced to phaser him in the head. Get Paul Verhoeven to direct.

[@Bulletsandblockbusters]

Haha I love that idea

[@commandercaptain4664]

I’ve always wanted a cinematic return of that species. They’re so powerful at infiltration, even the Borg and the Dominion wouldn’t stand a chance. I nominate John Carpenter to direct!

[@mattparsons433]

@@commandercaptain4664 ooh yeah even better, turn it into a Star Trek / The Thing horror. Someone’s head could melt off and sprout spider legs and scuttle off into a Jeffries tube.

[@charlestaylor253]

VERY interesting idea, but knowing Picard, he'd probably order poor Data to attempt to communicate with the Thing rather than try to destroy it. 🙄

[@DavidPysnik]

After hearing that alternate version, I still prefer the version we got. Insurrection was the closest in spirit to the television series, and after First Contact I don’t think another dark action movie was necessary. It’s true Insurrection was more like a rehashed two-part episode than a movie, but for me that is actually part of its charm.

[@ahmad55]

I always thought a good idea for a Star Trek show would be about a Romulan who immigrated to Earth as a child and entered Stargleet and rise up to be the captain of his very own crew with his first mission to be to apprehend a Romulan criminal whose the leader of his own crime syndicate and a childhood best friend of the Captain’s who had a harder time adjusting to life on Earth and decided to walk a different much darker path. The Captain’s crew would be composed of officers from other races of the federation and one Ferengi as a nod to Nog with only one human officer just as a change of pace. The show would be called Star Trek Odyssey with the ship named The Ulysses.

[@zacharyjochumsen9677]

@ahmad55 th eoug godcidecforvstar trekbshonthink star trek mixed with firefly bit

[@GackFinder]

@@zacharyjochumsen9677 Dude did you just have a stroke or something?

[@SansoHumar]

And I would’ve seen it. Sounds interesting

[@charlestaylor253]

I'm all for Romulans entering Stargleet...😏

[@darthkurland]

@@SansoHumaror, to use Spock’s word, fascinating.

[@destinycaptain247]

Yep… this was another Patric Stewart intervention. Some of us tracked it in real time on the old Interwebs.

[@ZachAttackIsBack]

Insurrection gets a bad rap. It's the only one of the TNG movies that feels like an episode of the show and where Picard really stays true to the character we came to love over the 7 seasons.

[@Bulletsandblockbusters]

All true.

[@genx-tv]

True. It is the only one to stay true to the TV series. But maybe it feels too much like a TNG two parter. Michael Piller was the showrunner for TNG SEASON 3-7. He set the tone for the success of TNG and subsequent series together with Rick Berman. While I liked First Contact in the cinema, the logic of the story irks me. Why does the Borg need to travel to earth before travelling through time?

[@RachelWeick-iq4fr]

And that's why it's my favourite movie

[@zephyr8072]

In the series, Picard decided multiple times that removing colonists from a planet for the good of the Federation is a good idea. And no, the Baku are colonists. They say so. They’re just really obnoxious and smug on top of that. It’s entirely out of character for Picard to help those selfish luddites hoard a resource that could help billions. Especially after it’s revealed that they (somehow, inexplicably) exiled the Sona in the first place.

[@k2sworld]

The revelation of an unaged Duffy hallway thru the story is TOTALLY a classic Trek-type of reveal, tho. It has an "Omega Glory" vibe to it, where Kirk and Co. beam down and find Captain Tracy alive on the planet, immune to the disease that killed the Exeter crew, leading a war btw the Yangs and the Kohms. It's a travesty that this version didn't happen. Seems to be the norm rather than the exception with Paramount.

[@shainewhite2781]

STAR TREK: HEART OF DARKNESS would have been am awesome title.

[@beuller7]

Agreed. And a 1000 times better than what was the working title Star Trek: Stardust. I mean, seriously??? At that point just call it Star Trek: Pixie Dust for God’s sake.

[@commandercaptain4664]

Or maybe that’s what _Star Trek Into Darkness_ should’ve been.

[@artemvsprime]

First Contact is still my favourite Trek film. They’ve nailed every aspect of what a Star Trek movie should be. It’s like what Goldeneye is to Bond. Perfection.

[@alfredshort3]

Star Trek Heart of Darkness: Picard has to go to Dominion Space to confront Edward Jellico. Sitting on that one!

[@Ma55ey]

Wow.. i wish stewert still felt that he didnt want picard to go through emotional agony on screen. He seems to have done a complete 180 for the picard show..

[@animationfanatic2133]

*mention of Rick Berman Me: *grabs pitchfork

[@user-og4fk6os1r]

"What went wrong?" "Simply put, Rick Berman..." You could've ended the sentence there.

[@CatsClaw44]

I always felt like Insurrection was a mishmash of diffferent stories so this makes a TON of sense.

[@b3ans4eva]

Insurrection was the first Trek movie I followed online during its development. I saw it twice in theatres and bought it on the iTunes Store.

[@positivanollan6353]

Star Trek Insurrection is one of my favorite Star Trek movies. Together with First Contact, it forms a perfect duo to watch. I don't understand why everyone thinks everything should be dark and serious. It seems that everything gets that treatment nowadays, from James Bond to Batman. For me, Star Trek has never had that in its DNA and I am so happy that Insurrection exists just the way it is. Too bad Star Trek Nemesis came and destroyed everything.

[@michaeldemarco9950]

Insurrection should have been an all-out war action movie, given it took place during the Dominion War. It was the perfect excuse to make the action movie Hollywood loves.

[@commandercaptain4664]

Paramount was still stuck in cheap mode regarding Trek, which would be admirable if they always knew how to spend their budget, instead of sporadically knowing.

[@stevencramsie9172]

We were already getting enough of the Dominion War on Deep Space Nine, Star Trek IX had to be something different.

[@darthkurland]

But who would have had the courage to write something that action-packed?

[@bobjordan69]

They could have called it ‘Star Trek: Into Darkness’

[@Bulletsandblockbusters]

💯

[@zacharyjochumsen9677]

Ss​@@Bulletsandblockbustersspling of stsr trek into darknes you shou dinvideo about jj abrhana plane had h drected star trek bryond b his lldnf star trek beyond wrd dfrent fromwehtvwevgit

[@KidVolcano]

😆

[@EpicBeard815]

Into Darkness would've worked so much better if it followed the Heart of Darkness structure, instead of throwing ANOTHER evil admiral at us

[@UltimateNut]

The Original Plans of the incredible hulk (2008) would be perfect if you could release on the anniversary of its release

[@machofreak123]

I thought Edward Norton was a good Bruce Banner better than Mark Ruffalo who just came off cringey and whiney

[@commandercaptain4664]

It would serve Marvel to revert Banner back to madness as a return of the tragic figure that signifies the Hulk. Otherwise, it looks like they’ve given up on him even as a side character.

[@OzBaxter]

Worf gets punked-out to make the bad guy look tough? Yep. It's a TNG script.

[@caribbeanpharoah9269]

Serves Worf right being a dead beat dad and all

[@stevencramsie9172]

There’s an entire draft for a book about this that was released after Michael Piller‘s death that was never officially published. It goes into great detail about all the different iterations of the movie script, starting with the Heart of Darkness idea and how it evolved into Insurrection. About the only part of the actual film that remotely resembles the original idea, is Data going berserk at the beginning. Either way, a total missed opportunity

[@BradenENelson]

Whereas DS9's Homefront and Paradise Lost storyline succeeds, Insurrection fails. In DS9, there's an blatant urgency to discover and foil the plot of a power-hungry dictator of an Admiral, with a proverbial clock ticking down to settle the fate of the freedom of BILLIONS. And man, these two DS9 episodes would have made for a BLOCKBUSTER standalone film, as written AND as casted. With Insurrection, we're down to one tiny village of 600 we've never seen before ... and suddenly, only ~5 years after "Journey's End", Picard decides (hypocritically) THIS village is worth fighting the Federation for. "You have made an already TENSE situation WORSE!!!" becomes "lock and load". Uhh why? Meh who cares - let's blow stuff up!!! ... NTM, the displacement of defenseless people is ALWAYS a grim matter. ... But let's make it a lighthearted comedy?! What?! 🤨☹

[@BuckyKronk]

Nothing about this film works. I would add the uniforms should have ditched the grey, and gone back to the red, blue and yellow as primary colors, particularly if the intent was to make a light-hearted film. The greys worked to set the dark tone of First Contact. They matched up tonally with the Dominion War. But they have otherwise felt just too brooding and lifeless for Starfleet.

[@r.morris5589]

I have a problem with Riker vs Picard hunt. For Me Insurrection has become more watchable over the years. It suffered from being a much smaller story after First Contact. This original story would have needed some rewrites.

[@shankthebat8654]

This was a just masterful use of clips to tell the story. Just brilliant editing work and scene selection. This could not have been easy.

[@Bulletsandblockbusters]

Wow, thank you!

[@tuchehstone]

The storyline of what you described was infinitely more intriguing than what we got in Insurrection. That was flat and the plot was trite, like we'd seen this play out before. And we had. Insurrection could've been so much better with this original plot. Rick Berman outsmarted himself yet again.

[@andrewcoulthard-clark]

I like the first act, its classic Trek, everything up to Romulans coming to dinner. Feels like it goes off the rails after that.

[@commandercaptain4664]

I like how most of that story sounds, but yeah, the dinner and the hybrid commander character sound really bad.

[@lynngreen7978]

At one point Quark was to be vacationing on the planet, and other DS9 and VOY guest stars were planned.

[@darthkurland]

There are three things that I think could have been kept from the film that was shot: 1. Donna Murphy (doesn’t matter what role she plays) 2. The Enterprise-E (the heavy hitter of all vessels to carry the name) 3. Jerry Goldsmith (he was the default composer for the “Star Trek” movies and his themes are absolutely brilliant)

[@luisrizo8813]

10:59; 'Frakes', not 'Franks'.

[@commandercaptain4664]

Frakely, my dear, I don’t give a damn!

[@charlestaylor253]

Franks a lot...

[@eyeofthescar6890]

First Contact worked because everyone knew about the Borg. They tried the much darker tone in Nemesis. It didn't do so well.

[@commandercaptain4664]

They tried to do Wrath of Picard and ended up with a crapload of plot stalling followed by a bunch of potshots, a problematic mindrape, and a lifeless sacrifice.

[@smallcode9981]

I like this movie. Why mission must be something larger than life? Why it must be saving galaxy or even universe? I think mission is suitable for crew of one ship, even it is the Enterprise. And Picard gives the best speech - And how many takes Admiral, to become wrong? A 1000, a 50.000, a MILION. HOW MANY ADMIRAL!

[@MagnanimousEntropy]

I wish we could have had more TNG movies, including one for DS9 and Voyager. I miss the golden age of Trek.

[@dxvdvss3252]

Im not even very familiar with Star Trek but that sounds like a great film. I'll never understand why films go into production with unfinished scripts or ones that people arent happy with - it rarely ends well!

[@BuckyKronk]

See The Justice League. Everyone knows in real time what they have is a disaster. But failing to release any film at all will cause too many people to lose too much money to be acceptable.

[@glennac]

I’ve had a crush on Donna Murphy (Anij) for several decades, ever since seeing her on the short lived series “Murder One” (1995)❣️

[@Scottlp2]

Now that would have been a ST for Tarantino to direct. Personally I kinda liked Data walking across the bottom of the lake ;-)

[@Forge17]

The Voyage Home worked for the TOS cast, but the First Contact was where the TNG movies were at home, the darker appeal fit perfectly with the cast. Insurrection was a bit weird because the same tactic doesn’t work for two very different casts of characters. Insurrection’s plot was also panned for being morally questionable, even illogical by Spock standards.

[@Maulbert]

Into Darkness would have actually been a great subtitle for the proposed version of this film.

[@rsoulinternet]

as long as there was a :

[@BuckyKronk]

And it made zero sense for JJ's Wrath of Khan.

[@calvinblackrosejr4890]

i lost it when he said "while spraying rogaine on his bald spot while he got ready for work one morning" LOL 🤣 great video!!!

[@CinemaGulp]

This makes me sad. What a wayyyyyy better movie

[@ramyal-rufaie738]

Another brilliant video - thank you 🙏🏻! I’ve always wondered how successful a TNG film tying into the (then) ongoing Dominion War would’ve been? In terms of Star Trek ‘what could have been’ videos, how about one on the original idea for Star Trek 11 (before it was made a soft reboot) - Star Trek: The Beginning, set after Enterprise, and focussing on a new crew and the Earth/Romulan war?

[@matthewgaudet4064]

I still want to see the deleted Quark scene.

[@darthkurland]

Don’t we all.

[@voltinator]

It sounded okay. The Briar Patch should have been a dimensional rift that transfers life energy from people into Duffy, making him like a cosmic vampire. This would also explain why he wanted to get the Romulan empire to where he was... for more bodies he could drain. The fountain of youth aspect doesn't work since the entire galaxy would be after it and also our main actors would have no excuse to keep looking older every movie!

[@STINGREDDOG]

This plot seems very close to the TNG episdode “The Wounded”

[@darthkurland]

Similar, but not identical.

[@darthkurland]

Imagine if Ambassador Spock was called back to active duty for this mission.

[@somarriba333]

My friends and I LOVED "First Contact". When we watched "Insurrection", we were like, "Eh?". It really did feel like just a regular episode of the series. "Nemesis" too.

[@tteros5998]

All I remember is it blew my mind that the Dominion War wasn't linked in to the movies. As a teenager I didn't understand the network politics at all, and felt like it always felt off that nothing of substance was ever linked up beyond a brief mention of how they needed all the allies possible after the war.

[@adcraziness1501]

I have been instructed to travel back and excise that "I have been programmed to function as a life preserver" moment from continuity.

[@CYCO1631]

At least that's a story worth watching, and a much better follow-up to Frist Contact. There is a little bit a of a congruency problem, as Insurrection takes place during the Dominion War. Whether it was supposed to take place before 'In the Pale Moonlight,' in which case the Romulan's would be tentative allies of the Federation at that time, is another question.

[@jhmed9]

Did you really call him Jonathan FRANKS?

[@Bulletsandblockbusters]

Nope

[@glennac]

@@Bulletsandblockbusters Yeah, yeah yu did. Twice in quick succession. 😅 10:55, 11:05❣️

[@Bulletsandblockbusters]

Just how I pronounce it I guess but I was saying “frakes”

[@jimmyday3984]

@@Bulletsandblockbusters lolwut you clearly say fraNks

[@Zombiesnyder13]

Can you do the original plans for Richard Stanley's ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU?

[@sonofsarek]

Never ask actors to write or for their opinion on a script. They are actors for a reason.

[@AwesomeEricNow]

One problem modern Trek has is that television production value has gone up so much (even in the 90's) that movies don't provide nearly the increase in quality over TV that they did in the TOS era. The movie screen is huge, but the visuals don't have that WOW factor, they're just bigger. A lot of people used to see Trek in theaters specifically for the effects which were incomparable to home. Now they can just wait for streaming and see it on their crystal clear 75" OLED on their couch. Another issue is that TNG era show creators didn't work in film and they were simply pushing (and sometimes exceeding) their production abilities. A few of the effects and costumes which were fine for TV simply were not film quality and it doesn't take very many minor missteps like that to take you out of the experience.

[@lynngreen7978]

Would have been awkward starting a war with the Romulans weeks before Sisko was going to get them to break their non-aggression pact with the Dominion.

[@hannibalb8276]

Wow I had no idea. Amazing video as always. I love how much work and effort you put into these, and finding all that rare footage is fantastic.

[@MrTrekfan]

Wouldn't this have made more sense if it had been The Dominion instead of the Romulans

[@leov3569]

I don’t even watch Star Trek and this movie sounds like it would’ve been incredible.

[@hayesc0]

Not doing a Dominion war movie is nothing short of silly.

[@CarlnutzYT]

What would have been if Jonathan Hensleigh's Cancelled "Hulk" Movie from 1998 was made.

[@MrCrazyrob666]

This has vibes of TNG episode "The Wounded"

[@darthkurland]

It is similar, but not identical to that episode.

[@kuribo1]

That story line sounded absolutely fantastic, a true TNG film. I would pay good money to see that.

[@antoniofernandez7075]

The movie is awesome as it is.

[@miccal99]

"What happened was Rick Berman..." is all that needs to be said.

[@joew4295]

Actually now that you bring up the 'heart of darkness' plot to get the renegade Brando character, that is precisely a major plot point for the finished movie, with Admiral Dougherty who has 'gone rogue'. Indeed it's a better movie because with Picard along with the audience to learn and discover Dougherty's misdeeds (and not just get handed an order from Starfleet to get Dougherty like what Capt Willard gets in Apocalypse Now), thus compels Picard to make the serious decision to step down from his official captain's rank and take on Dougherty personally. This is a good entertaining movie.

[@DarthSaggezza]

I’d love this ideal. You could’ve turned it into a trilogy like Star Trek 2,3, & 4 did. Having the first two movies end in big cliffhangers with the final movie being a huge masterpiece. You could’ve even shown parts of the Dominion war. Or at least hide it into the Dominion war. You could’ve saw the conflict with the huge morality of Picard. Which would’ve led him into the events of the Picard series .

[@ianlister7333]

certainly some interesting ideas in that first take on the movie, however it would have draw comparisons to Undiscovered Country

[@henrykujawa4427]

Somehow, I never really had a problem with "Insurrection" -- but what's described here would DEFINITELY have been WAY better! This is clearly one more example of "too many re-writes". (THUNDERBALL, BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES, HALLOWEEN 6, etc.)

[@litpics]

I feel like they had already explored this concept in the TNG ep 'The Wounded' where O'Brien assists in tracking down his old captain, who is destroying outposts because he believes the Cardassians are fortifying their positions. Would've still been cool as a film but maybe that's oe reason they didn't do it?

[@JAGtheTrekkieGEMINI1701]

Sounds WAY better than what "we got".... Thanks Rick and Patrick 😑

[@jeremythurman5261]

Apocalypse Now is a legendary movie. I don’t think leadership in Star Trek could have pulled that off.

[@look4lec]

How did you find the perfect clips to storyboard the movie?! So GOOD.

[@Bulletsandblockbusters]

Thnx!

[@Vulcan_Commando]

This "Stardust" script was phenomenal, what a shame. Instead Insurrection was a nail in the coffin for the TNG franchise.

[@giodhuha6771]

Now we need the original plans for Apocalypse Now.

[@Bulletsandblockbusters]

Already made that video :)

[@MrMann0123]

Loved this film so much

[@actioncom2748]

6:25 - Wait...Worf lost the fight? Well, that makes sense.

[@Bulletsandblockbusters]

Haha

[@aquamarine2044]

Actually I never liked Siskel and Ebert. They were never Star Trek fans. Anytime a new Star Trek movie was being released. They would always would give a thumbs down. Any movie they didn't like must have been good!

[@TyroneBruinsmaFilms]

I'm curious if there's anything on Gareth Edwards original ideas for the Godzilla trilogy he had planned before leaving the project

[@BigAL68xyz]

It looks to me like Berman (or someone near the top) was beginning to regret giving Data an emotion chip at all about this time this film was made. It was reduced to a single mention ("He didn't take it with him." Even though it had been established in Generations that it was fused into his neural net and couldn't be removed) And in Nemesis, they were acting like it had never existed at all (except in a deleted scene where Geordi found it in Data's room.)

[@commandercaptain4664]

It’s just as well. It should’ve been called the “comic relief chip”.

[@galacticfilmmakers]

I can't even tell you how much I wanted this movie to be made, It sounds like it could have been the best trek movie :(

[@mikeshadow1556]

Did you ever watch the TNG Season 6 Episode 141 Tapestry? Picard's friend Duffy died not long after he got his assignment from the star base him and Picard were stationed at.

[@jime6688]

I DO remember reading in some mag like Starlog just BEFORE or WHEN this released that the producers decided they were missing women viewers and they wanted to create a date movie. As soon as I read that, I knew this wouldn’t be very good.