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Star Trek: Nemesis is the tenth film in the franchise and the final film for the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The movie begins on the Romulan homeworld during a meeting of the Romulan Senate.

Back Story: The Romulans are an off shoot of the Vulcan race. They are similar in appearance, but choose to embrace their emotions rather than pure logic like their Vulcan cousins. The Romulan empire is very closed off and prefer espionage to armed conflict. They tend to take down rival empires with ruthless cunning rather than open warfare. There has been an uneasy truce between the Federation and the Romulans are they were allies in the Dominion War.

Two military commanders are meeting with the Romulan senate to discuss the unification of forces with the planet Remus, a sister world to Romulus. When the Reman leader Shinzon’s proposal is rejected, the captains leave the chamber along with one of the Senators. The Senator leaves behind a personal item on her desk.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jwHJOU0J0s]

On the Enterprise, Picard and his crew are celebrating the wedding of Commander Riker and Counselor Troi. They are also celebrating Riker’s promotion to Captain and his new command of the USS Titan. Trek faithful will recognize not only Guinan as a guest, but also Dr. Crusher’s son Wesley Crusher as wedding guests as well.

After the ceremony, the ship sets course for Counselor Troi’s home planet of Betazed, where they will have a second, traditional Betazoid ceremony. After the embark, they receive strange positronic energy readings coming from a nearby system. The only being to emit a positronic energy signature is Data, so the ship diverts course to investigate. Picard, Worf and Data land on the planet and find the pieces of a Soong-type android that looks exactly like Data. When they put him back together and activate him, he states that his name is B-4.

As the ship continues its journey to Betazed, Picard receives a communique from Admiral Kathryn Janeway.

Back Story: Kathryn Janeway was the Captain of the USS Voyager, which was lost in the Delta Quadrant on the series Star Trek: Voyager.

Janeway informs Picard that there has been a military coup on Romulus and that the new leader of the Romulan empire Shinzon wishes to meet with the Federation to discuss peace and to free the Reman people. The Remans were considered a slave class in Romulan society and confined to mining on their home planet in an area that never receives sunlight, which is why they are sensitive to light, have pale greenish skin and tend to resemble bats. They are also known as fierce warriors and were used as cannon fodder during the Dominion War to fight the Jem’Hadar, who they easily defeated.

The Enterprise arrives at Romulus and are greeted by Shinzon, who reveals that he is a clone of Jean Luc Picard.

He was created to take Picard’s place so that the Romulans could have a spy in the Federation. When the project was abandoned, he was sent to Remus to die. He not only survived, but took over the Reman people by being not only a fierce warrior, but an unrivaled tactician. Shinzon reveals his new flagship the Scimitar.

Picard and Shinzon seem to find common ground on many issues and Picard departs. He is warned to watch for Shinzon by a member of the Romulan military Commander Donatra.

The Enterprise crew discovers that the Scimitar is producing low levels of thalaron radiation. The radiation is hard to produce and destroys all life. It is the same radiation used to kill the Romulan senate. The Romulans attempt to hack into the ship’s computer and Shinzon uses the telepathic powers of his Viceroy to mentally violate Counselor Troi, enraging Riker.

Shinzon also kidnaps Picard because Crusher has determined that the clone is degrading and only a transfusion of Picard’s blood can save him. B-4 is beamed aboard the Scimitar as well because he was created as a spy to attract the Enterprise to Romulus.

Data has switched places with B-4 and frees Picard using a shuttle to return to the Enterprise. After finding out that Shinzon plans to invade the Federation and use the Scimitar’s thalaron weapons to kill all life on Earth. The Enterprise departs from Romulus in order to warn the Federation fleet. The Scimitar pursues and due to the size and advanced technology of the ship, they are overtaken and forced into a nearby gas cloud that cuts off their communications. The Enterprise is helped by Donatra and two Romulan warships. Shinzon destroys one of the Romulan ships and disables Donatra’s. He returns his attention to the Enterprise.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTPdWYo9zhQ]

Picard knows that he can’t stop Shinzon with the weapons on the ship and he needs to stop the Scimitar. He orders the Enterprise to ram the Scimitar head on.

The collision heavily damages both ships, disabling the Scimitars weapons. Shinzon decides to destroy both ships and Picard goes over to the Scimitar to confront him. They battle and Picard gets the upper hand, impaling Shinzon. Data comes up with a plan to retrieve Picard. He leaps from ship to ship and places a personal transporter on Picard, sending him back to the ship. Data fires his phaser into the thalaron device, destroying the Scimitar and himself in the process.

Picard and the Enterprise return to Earth for repairs. Riker says goodbye as he departs for the Titan. The Titan has been tasked with negotiations with the Romulan leadership. Picard meets with B-4 in his ready room and discovers that Data transferred his memories and personality engrams onto B-4’s Neural Net, thus recreating Data.

While not commercially successful, Nemesis is probably one of the more action oriented Next Generation movies. While it tends to be short on plot, it does deliver the action. The film is currently available to rent.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDN78lIePBs]

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