Star Trek: Insurrection

Star Trek: Insurrection (Paramount Pictures, 1998) is the ninth feature film based on the popular Star Trek science fiction television series. From a script by Michael Piller, it features the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. An idyllic planet in the middle of an unstable region within Federation space serves as home to the peaceful Ba'ku - and a veritable fountain of youth. However, when the Son'a and the Federation plan to exploit the planet in order to rejuvenate themselves, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise-E must rebel against their own people in order to save the Ba'ku and expose the atrocities that are about to take place.

Directed by Jonathan Frakes. Written by Rick Berman and Michael Piller.

The battle for paradise has begun taglines

Jean-Luc Picard

• Can anyone remember when we used to be explorers?
• Come out, come out, wherever you are.
• But some of the darkest chapters in the history of my world involved the forced relocation of a small group of people to satisfy the demands of a large one. I'd hoped that we had learned from our mistakes, but it seems some of us haven't.
• How many people does it take before it becomes wrong? A thousand? Fifty thousand? A million? How many people DOES IT TAKE, admiral?
• I am not pleading for my life. I'm pleading for yours.
• Mr. Worf, destroy that thing.
• Ru'afo, we're getting too old for this.
• Sorry. Time's up.
• And you? It's turned you into a coward. A man who denies his own conscience. A coward without the moral courage to prevent an atrocity. You offend me.

William Riker

• [Notices a large pimple on Worf] Klingons never do anything small, do you?
• We're through running from these bastards.

Worf

• Definitely feeling aggressive tendencies, sir!
• Captain, the Son'a crew want to negotiate a cease-fire. It may have something to do with the fact that they have 3 minutes of air left.
• I have an odd craving for the blood of a live kolar beast

Adhar Ru'afo

• The Federation will never know what happened here.
• In six hours, every living thing in this system will be dead or dying.
• Federation support. Federation procedures. Federation rules. Look in the mirror, Admiral. The Federation is old. In the past 24 months, they've been challenged by every major power in the quadrant: the Borg, the Cardassians, the Dominion. They all smell the scent of death on the Federation. That's why you've embraced our offer. Because it will give your dear Federation new life. Well, how badly do you want it, admiral? Because there are hard choices to be made now. If the Enterprise gets the news to the Federation about their brave captain's valiant struggle on behalf of the defenseless Ba'ku, your Federation's politicians will waver. Your Federation opinion polls will open a public debate. Your Federation allies will want their say. You-- need I go on?
• Picard's first officer? You really believe he'll listen? My ships are powerful enough to intercept the Enterprise before it reaches the perimeter. I could send them to... escort it back. But Commander Riker might not want to come.
• If Picard, or any of his crew interfere... eliminate them.
• Admiral Dougherty will not be joining us for dinner. Deploy the collector.
• I'm going to miss these little flesh-stretching sessions of ours, my dear.
• After today, that won't be a problem... for either of us.

Dialogue

Beverly Crusher: You either need a new uniform or a new neck.

Jean-Luc Picard: Euchene Chefaw. My collar size is exactly as it was at the Academy.

Beverly Crusher: Of course it is.

William Riker: Our guests have arrived. They are eating the floral arrangements on the banquet tables.

Beverly Crusher: I guess they don't believe in cocktails before dinner.

Deanna Troi: Oh, my God. Are they vegetarian? That's not in there!

Jean-Luc Picard: Perhaps we should have the chef whip up a light balsamic vinaigrette-- Something that goes well with chrysanthemums.

---

Jean-Luc Picard: Mr. Worf, do you know Gilbert and Sullivan?

Worf: No, sir. I have not had a chance to meet all the new crew members since I have been back.

Jean-Luc Picard: They're composers, Worf. From the 19th century.

---

Jean-Luc Picard: Our people have a strict policy of non-interference in other cultures. It's our Prime Directive.

Anij: Your directive apparently doesn't include spying on other cultures.

Jean-Luc Picard (carefully, still trying to uphold the Directive by not telling them more than they need to know): The artificial lifeform is a member of my crew. Apparently, he was taken ill.

Tournel: There was a phase variance in his positronic matrix which we were unable to repair.

Anij: I think the Captain finds it hard to believe that we'd have any skills for repairing positronic devices.

Sojef: Our technological abilities are not apparent because we have chosen not to employ them in our daily lives. We believe when you create a machine to do the work of a man, you take something away from the man.

Anij: But at one time, we explored the galaxy just as you do.

Jean-Luc Picard (startled as he realises how badly the Federation has underestimated the Ba'ku): You have warp capability?!

Anij: Capability, yes. But where can warp drive take us, except away from here?

Jean-Luc Picard: I ...apologise for our intrusion.

---

William Riker: Counselor, do you think it's possible for two people to go back in time, fix a mistake they've made?

Deanna Troi: On this ship, anything's possible. [Riker kisses her, and she pushes him away] Yuck!

William Riker: "Yuck"?

Deanna Troi: I never kissed you with a beard before.

William Riker: I kiss you, and you say "yuck"?

---

Data: I seem to be missing several memory engrams. [Geordi shows several microchips he is holding] There they are.

Jean-Luc Picard: Data, what's the last thing that you remember?

Data: [singing] His nose should pant, and his lip should curl--

Jean-Luc Picard: Uh, from the mission.

Data: I was in an isolation suit gathering physiometric data on the Ba'Ku. My last memory is going into the hills following some children.

---

Anij: Help! I can't swim!

Jean-Luc Picard: Don't panic!

Anij: I've been shot at, thrown into a lake out of a ship that's come to abduct us - what's there to panic about?

Data: In the event of a water landing, I have been designed to serve as a flotation device.

---

Jean-Luc Picard: Mr. Worf, did the hostages mentioned anything about a cloaked ship during their debriefing?

Worf: No, sir.

Jean-Luc Picard: Debrief them again. [Notices a huge blemish on Worf's face] Have you been in a fight, Mr. Worf?

Worf: [sighs] No, sir. It is a gorch.

Jean-Luc Picard: Gorch?

Data: [whispers] Pimple, sir.

Jean-Luc Picard: Oh, well, it's, uh-- it's hardly noticeable.

William Riker: [Referring to his own clean-shaven face] Smooth as an android's bottom, eh, Data?

Data: I beg your pardon, sir?

(they exit the turbolift)

Data: May I? raises his hand to Riker's face

Riker offers his face for inspection

Data touches Riker's clean-shaven face, smiles and shakes his head

Riker grins

---

Anij: We've always known that to survive, we had to remain apart. Hasn't been easy. Many of the young people want to know more about the offland. They're attracted to stories of a faster pace of life.

Jean-Luc Picard: Most of my people who live that fast a life, would sell their souls to slow it down.

Anij: But not you?

Jean-Luc Picard (wryly): There are days!

Anij: You don't live up to your reputation as an offlander, Picard.

Jean-Luc Picard: Well, in defense of offlanders, there are many more like me.

Anij: Who wouldn't be tempted by the promise of perpetual youth? I don't think so.

Jean-Luc Picard: You give me more credit than I deserve. Well, of course I'm tempted, who wouldn't be? But some of the darkest chapters in the history of my world involve the forced relocation of a small group of people, to satisfy the demands of a large one. I'd hoped that we'd learned from our mistakes, but... it seems that some of us haven't. (Picard turns to a beautifully made blanket) This is extraordinary craftsmanship.

Anij: It's the work of students. They're almost ready to become apprentices. In 30 or 40 years, some of them will take their place among the artisans.

Jean-Luc Picard: Apprenticing for 30 years. Did your people's mental discipline develop here?

Anij: More questions. Always the explorer. If you stay long enough, that will change.

Jean-Luc Picard: Will it?

Anij: You stop reviewing what happened yesterday. Stop planning for tomorrow. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever experienced a perfect moment in time?

Jean-Luc Picard: A perfect moment?

Anij: When time seemed to stop, and you could almost live in that moment.

Jean-Luc Picard (understanding her meaning): Seeing my home planet from space for the first time.

Anij: Yes, exactly. Nothing more complicated than perception. You explore the universe. We've discovered that a single moment in time can be a universe in itself. Full of powerful forces. Most people aren't aware enough of the now to even notice.

Jean-Luc Picard: I wish I could spare a few centuries to learn.

Anij: It took us centuries to learn that it doesn't have to take centuries to learn.

Jean-Luc Picard: There's one thing I don't understand. In 300 years, you never learned to swim?

Anij: Ha ha ha! I just haven't got around to it yet. I wonder if you're aware of the trust you engender, Jean-Luc Picard. In my experience, it's unusual for -

Jean-Luc Picard: For an offlander?

Anij: For someone so young.

---

Jean-Luc Picard: Geordi.

Geordi LaForge: Captain. As it turns out, there wasn't anything wrong with my implants at all. There was something right... with my eyes. When Dr Crusher removed the ocular connections, she found that the cells around my optic nerve had...

Jean-Luc Picard: Started to regenerate.

Geordi LaForge: It may not last. And if it doesn't, I just - I just wanted, before we go... You know, I've never seen a sunrise. At least not the way you see them.

---

Jean-Luc Picard: Come.

(Ru'afo and Dougherty enter)

Adhar Ru'afo: Am I to understand that you are not releasing my men, captain?

Jean-Luc Picard: We found the holoship.

Admiral Matthew Dougherty: Ru'afo, why don't you let the captain and me -

Adhar Ru'afo: NO!!!

(The skin on Ru'afo's forehead breaks and begins to bleed)

Adhar Ru'afo: This entire mission has been one Federation blunder after another. You will return my men... or this alliance will end with the destruction of your ship.

(Ru'afo turns and leaves)

Admiral Matthew Dougherty: You're looking well, Jean-Luc. Rested.

Jean-Luc Picard: I won't let you move them, Admiral. I will take this to the Federation Council.

Admiral Matthew Dougherty: I'm acting on orders from the Federation Council.

Jean-Luc Picard: How can there be an order to abandon the Prime Directive?

Admiral Matthew Dougherty: The Prime Directive doesn't apply. These people are not indigenous to this planet. They were never meant to be immortal. We'll simply be restoring them to their natural evolution.

Jean-Luc Picard: Who the hell are we to determine the next course of evolution for these people?

Admiral Matthew Dougherty: Jean-Luc, there are 600 people down there. We'll be able to use the regenerative properties of this radiation to help billions. The Son'a have developed a procedure to collect the metaphasic particles from the planets rings.

Jean-Luc Picard: A planet in Federation space.

Admiral Matthew Dougherty: That's right. We have the planet. They have the technology. A technology we can't duplicate. You know what that makes us? Partners.

Jean-Luc Picard: Our 'partners' are nothing more than petty thugs.

Admiral Matthew Dougherty: On Earth, petroleum once turned petty thugs into world leaders. Warp drive once transformed a bunch of Romulan thugs into an empire. We can handle the Son'a. I'm not worried about that.

Jean-Luc Picard: Someone probably said the same thing about the Romulans a century ago.

Admiral Matthew Dougherty: With metaphasics, life spans will be doubled. An entire new medical science will evolve. I understand your chief engineer has the use of his eyes for the first time in his life. Would you take that away from him?

Jean-Luc Picard: There are metaphasic particles all over the Briar Patch. Why does it have to be this one planet?

Admiral Matthew Dougherty: It's the concentration in the rings that makes the whole damn thing work. Don't ask me to explain it. I only know they inject something into the rings that starts a thermolytic reaction. When it's over, the planet will be uninhabitable for generations.

Jean-Luc Picard: Admiral, delay the procedure. Let my people look at the technology.

Admiral Matthew Dougherty: Our best scientific minds already have. We can't find any other way to do this.

Jean-Luc Picard: Then the Son'a can establish a separate colony on the planet until we do.

Admiral Matthew Dougherty: It would take ten years of normal exposure to begin to reverse their condition. Some of them won't survive that long. Besides, they don't want to live in the middle of the Briar Patch. Who would?

Jean-Luc Picard: The Ba'ku. We are betraying the principles upon which the Federation was founded. It's an attack upon its very soul. And it will destroy the Ba'ku... just as cultures have been destroyed in every other forced relocation throughout history.

Admiral Matthew Dougherty: Jean-Luc, we're only moving 600 people.

Jean-Luc Picard: How many people does it take, Admiral, before it becomes wrong? A thousand? Fifty thousand? A million? How many people does it take, Admiral?

Admiral Matthew Dougherty: I'm ordering you to the Goran system. I'm also ordering the release of the Son'a officers. File whatever protest you wish to, Captain. By the time you do, this will all be done.

---

Data: I feel obliged to point out that the environmental anomalies may have stimulated certain rebellious instincts common to youth, which could affect everyone's judgement...except mine, of course.

Beverly Crusher: Okay, Data, what do you think we should do?

Data: Saddle up. Lock and load!

---

Anij: It's been 300 years since I've seen a bald man.

Jean-Luc Picard: How is it that you never married? And don't tell me it's just because you haven't got around to it yet.

Anij: What's the rush?

Jean-Luc Picard: I should warn you, I've always been attracted to older women.

---

Deanna Troi: Have you noticed how your boobs have started to firm up?

Beverly Crusher: Not that we care about such things in this day and age.

Deanna Troi (in a distinct 'yeah, right' tone): Uh-huh.

[notices Data]

Beverly Crusher: Thank you, Data.

[Data walks up to Worf]

Worf: I have an odd craving for the blood of a live Kolar beast. This environment must be affecting me again.

Data: And have you noticed how your boobs have started to firm up? Not that we care about--

---

Admiral Matthew Dougherty: Order them to surrender, and I promise, you won't be court-martialed.

Jean-Luc Picard: If a court-martial is the only way to let the people of the Federation know what is happening here, I welcome it.

---

Jean-Luc Picard: You've brought the Federation in the middle of a blood feud, Admiral. The children have returned to expel their elders, just as they were once expelled, except that Ru'afo's need for revenge has now escalated into parricide!

Admiral Matthew Dougherty: It... was for the Federation. It was all for the Federation.

---

Admiral Matthew Dougherty: We're taking this ship out of here. This mission is over.

Adhar Ru'afo: It is not over.

Admiral Matthew Dougherty: It is over!

[Ru'afo punches Dougherty and throws him onto a chair.]

Adhar Ru'afo: I do not take orders from you!

[Ru'afo jumps down and grabs Dougherty then forces him head-first into a cabinet, then onto a bed]

Admiral Matthew Dougherty: If you launch the injector while the planet's still populated, the Federation will pursue you until--

Adhar Ru'afo: The Federation... [forces two curved bars together and they bend down next to Dougherty's head] will never know what happened here.

[Ru'afo activates the device, causing the skin on Dougherty's face to stretch over his head. Ru'afo watches the admiral die and heads for the bridge]

Ru'afo: [To bridge officers] The admiral will not be joining us for dinner.

---

Subadhar Gallatin: Is this how a Federation officer pleads for his life?

Jean-Luc Picard: I am not pleading for my life. I am pleading for yours.

---

Adhar Ru'afo: Ru'afo, Authorization Delta 2-1. Override all interlink commands to injector assembly one.

Son'a Computer: Unable to comply. Injector assembly one has been deactivated.

[Ru'afo screams in anger]

---

Jean-Luc Picard: Ru'afo, we're getting too old for this.

Adhar Ru'afo: After today, that won't be a problem for either of us.

Jean-Luc Picard: You're really going to risk igniting the exhaust? [Ru'afo lowers his weapon] All right. I will!

Adhar Ru'afo: NO!!!

---

Lieutenant Daniels: Sir, Ru'afo's ship is hailing us.

Jean-Luc Picard, William Riker: On screen. [they exchange looks]

Worf: Captain, the Son'a crew would like to negotiate a cease-fire. It may have something to do with the fact that they have three minutes of air left.

Jean-Luc Picard: We have plenty over here, Mr. Worf. Prepare to beam aboard.

---

William Riker: Do you think when we get away from this metaphasic radiation, it'll change the way we feel?

Worf: Your feelings about her have not changed since the day I met you, Commander. This place just let them out for a little fresh air.

---

[The Enterprise E is on a collision course with Ru'afo's ship.]

Son'a officer: He wouldn't.

Worf: (in a matter-of-fact way) Yes, he would.

Taglines

• The battle for paradise has begun
• Eternity awaits beyond the final frontier
• Eternity is closer than you think
• Six hundred lives... one directive
• Meet the new face of evil
• The future of the galaxy, and the survival of a race, depend on an act of rebellion
• Join the rebellion
• Get warped
• On December 11th, Stand in defiance, Hold your ground, and Join the rebellion.

Main cast

Cast of Star Trek: Insurrection

Actor	Role
Patrick Stewart	Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Jonathan Frakes	Commander William T. Riker
Brent Spiner	Lieutenant Commander Data
LeVar Burton	Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge
Michael Dorn	Lieutenant Commander Worf
Gates McFadden	Dr. Beverly Crusher
Marina Sirtis	Counselor Deanna Troi
F. Murray Abraham	Adhar Ru'afo
Donna Murphy	Anij
Anthony Zerbe	Admiral Matthew Dougherty
Stephanie Niznik	Ensign Kell Perim
Daniel Hugh Kelly	Sojef
Gregg Henry	Gallatin
Michael Welch	Artim

External links

• Star Trek: Insurrection quotes at the Internet Movie Database
• Official Star Trek: Insurrection web page