Kumiko Nikaido
Vindication...sweet.
Best price for the week (6/5 - 6/11): $12.99 @ Circuit City
The 9th Star Trek film has just beamed down in an upgraded, 2-disc collector's edition DVD set (with Star Trek: Nemesis to follow this September). As with previous CE's of the ST films, this one is packed with lots of bonus materials with insights into the making of Insurrection. Trekweb's review of the DVD is pretty much spot on.....so if you have the bare-bones DVD, then you may want to upgrade as a completist.
The DVD specifications:
Disc 1
* Widescreen, anamorphic presentation for 16:9 TVs
* Dolby Digital
- English 5.1 Surround
- English 2.0 Dolby Surround
- French 2.0 Dolby Surround
* DTS
- English 5.1 ES
* Subtitles
- English
- Spanish
* Text Commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda
Disc 2
Production
* It Takes a Village
* Location, Location, Location
* The Art of "Insurrection"
* Anatomy of a Stunt
* The Story of "Insurrection"
* Making of "Insurrection"
* Director's Notebook
The Star Trek Universe
* Westmore's Aliens
* Star Trek's Beautiful Alien Women
Creating the Illusion (Behind-the-scenes footage of sequences filled with action and visual effects)
* Shuttle Chase
* Drones
* Duck Blind
Deleted Scenes
* Ru'afo's Facelift
* Working Lunch
* Flirting
* The Kiss
* Status: Precarious
* Disabling the Injector
* Alternate Ending
Archives
* Storyboards
* Photo Gallery
Advertising
* Teaser Trailer
* Theatrical Trailer
* Original Promotional Featurette
* Borg Invasion 4-D Trailer
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Trekweb.com's DVD review:
The DVD presentation of STAR TREK: INSURRECTION is much in the same vein as the previous single-disc release, with the film presented in anamorphic widescreen format. This time around, the visuals are better looking than before, with little image artifacting, if any, present. This means a picture that is rich and crisp-looking, right down to its visual effects. The DVD also boasts the same English 5.1 and Dolby 2.0 surround tracks, and a French Dolby 2.0 surround track, as on the previous release, with English and Spanish subtitles and English closed captions included. What's new on this disc is the inclusion of an English DTS surround track, which brings out much more subtlety in some places and immersive action in other places.
Packaging and Menus:
As with the previous eight editions, the new 2-disc set of INSURRECTION is packaged in a dual-disc Amaray case, with image art from the film's theatrical poster on the first disc and images of the different planets visited on the second disc. The only inserts that are included in the packaging are two small flyers for the STAR TREK Experience and for the first four series on DVD.
On the previous single-disc release, the menu selection process was extremely static, with only limited screen access capability. This, of course, was because of the limitations of DVD at the time and because of Paramount's tentativeness to step deeply into the wonders of what DVD could hold. This time, however, they're not holding back at all, and that's a good thing. With this latest TREK offering, the DVD menus are represented with CGI animation of the Son'a bridge viewscreen and its console areas, allowing you to choose from among the many different DVD functions. All of the animated menus are easily navigable, taking you from one section to another with ease.
The Extras:
The previous single-disc version of INSURRECTION was extremely limited in its inclusion of extras, with only a brief five-minute behind-the-scenes featurette and the film's original teaser trailer and theatrical trailer included on the disc. This was, of course, a result of the limitations of DVD at the time of its release, as Paramount had just begun to step into the DVD waters. (By comparison, everything on the previous release could have fit nicely onto a 2-hour videotape with room to spare.) For this new release Paramount has greatly stepped up with a host of extras totalling nearly four hours in all.
The first disc sports a new on-screen text commentary from TREK historians Michael and Denise Okuda, as they offer up their thoughts on little tidbits of information throughout the film. As is the case, the Okudas mention little tidbits of trivia for the TREK enthusiasts and production information on the development of the film.
The second disc holds the lion's share of extras, with six major sections included: Production, The STAR TREK Universe, Creating the Illusion, Archives, Advertising, and, perhaps the best of them all, Deleted Scenes. This time around, the featurettes have more substantial meat to them as they take you behind the scenes of the making of the film. This is because Donald Beck and Stephen Wolcott, who directed and produced the behind-the-scenes features on the GENERATIONS, FIRST CONTACT, VOYAGER, and Original Series DVDs, produced these new segments, so this time around they're a little on the meatier side. As with the recent TREK DVD offerings, the new segments are presented in letterboxed fullscreen format as opposed to the more appropriate anamorphic widescreen format. (Why anything would want to be presented in letterboxed fullscreen format is beyond me "" go figure.)
PRODUCTION is divided into seven featurettes and starts off with IT TAKES A VILLAGE, which covers the philosophy behind the creation and development of the Ba'ku village, from its simplistic farming and housing communities to the development of the 'duck blind" overlooking the village. Running time: 19:55.
Next up, we have LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION, which showcases the beautiful backdrop of the California mountains for many of INSURRECTION's breathtaking scenery. Here we get to see how the real-life scenery played an important role in the look of the film. Most interestingly, we get to see Brent Spiner doing his own stunt work of walking into a freezing lake, footage that for some unusual reason got cut from the final film. Running time: 19:55.
This is followed by THE ART OF INSURRECTION, as concept illustrator John Eaves presents a number of the different and interesting art designs used for the film, including the Enterprise shuttle, the Son'a warships, the Ba'ku community, and more. Running time: 14:52.
ANATOMY OF A STUNT takes a look at a rarely seen production aspect of not just STAR TREK but also any film or television project, the stuntmen's work. In this featurette we see how stuntmen blocked and carried out one of the action scenes for the film, another segment that was cut from the final film. Fortunately, we get to see a rough edit of that blocked scene toward the end of the feature. Running time: 6:30.
THE STORY OF INSURRECTION delves deeper into the themes and issues that Rick Berman, Michael Piller, and Patrick Stewart brought to the film's story and script, including the problematic issues of the story's weaknesses. Piller is mainly represented in this discussion, as he offers up his thoughts on the script's development and the political statements he was attempting to convey in this latest chapter. Running time: 17:15.
MAKING OF INSURRECTION is just that, the actual look behind the scenes at the film's production. Among the scenes shown are the construction of the Ba'ku village, the special effects for the duck blind mission and shuttle chase, interviews with the cast and crew, and plenty of location footage. All in all, everyone states how much fun they had in preparing this film. Running time: 25:05.
The final section, DIRECTOR'S NOTEBOOK, offers up a look at how Jonathan Frakes prepared the film for production. Frakes shares his thoughts on attempting to balance the needs of the long-time TREK audience with those of the newcomers by directing this latest segment and infusing more humor and character by-play. Frakes points out that the cast still works well together after 15 years, and although Piller's script for INSURRECTION wasn't as strong as the FIRST CONTACT script, he felt it was more strongly directed. After viewing this segment, you can understand why an audio commentary wasn't needed for this DVD. Running time: 18:53.
Moving on, THE STAR TREK UNIVERSE presents two featurettes. WESTMORE'S ALIENS gives a look at the different alien races created by long-time TREK makeup artist Michael Westmore for the film. Westmore discusses the challenges in creating the Son'a and other alien makeups, citing Terry Gilliam's film BRAZIL as an inspiration for the makeup in this film. Running time: 17:41.
The other featurette in this section, STAR TREK'S BEAUTIFUL ALIEN WOMEN, gives us a look at the many attractive female aliens that have graced the series and films over the last 40 years. This one is quite hilarious, as it spotlights many of the male crew members acting like hormone-crazed teenagers lusting over TREK lovelies from the Orion slave girl in 'The Cage" to Seven of Nine in VOYAGER and T'Pol in ENTERPRISE. Perfectly sums up what the least common denominator in STAR TREK has succumbed to in the last few years. Running time: 12:35.
CREATING THE ILLUSION presents three separate sections on the development of the film's spectacular visual effects. Three sequences - the shuttle chase (9:31), the drones (4:42), and the duck blind (4:36) - are presented here. In each section we get a layer-by-layer approach of how each sequence was filmed, including blue- and green-screen effects, CGI compositing, and the final versions as appears in the film.
The next section, ARCHIVES, offers a look at storyboards that were prepared in the film's pre-production. The only other section is a photo gallery of behind-the-scenes and on-set photos taken during the film's production. While some of these photographs have never been released, it nonetheless remains a superfluous feature and could have easily been kept off the disc.
Next, we move to the ADVERTISING section. The film's original teaser trailer and full theatrical trailer have been ported over from the previous single-disc release, as has the original five-minute promotional featurette, so these features are not new. The only other feature in the ADVERTISING section is a trailer for the BORG INVASION 4-D adventure, and this is one that has been previously included on the VOYAGER DVD sets.
What's perhaps most appealing about this new DVD of INSURRECTION is the inclusion of seven deleted scenes from the film. While the outer packaging neglects to mention the deleted scenes on the disc, they are in fact present, and that's a good thing for the fans. All of the deleted scenes are culled from an early workprint of the film and are presented in non-anamorphic widescreen format in Dolby 2.0 surround sound, so the visual quality is on par with the deleted scenes included on the GENERATIONS and NEMESIS DVDs. Production sound is present, with some scenes not containing finished visual effects, though we do get an idea of how they would have played out in the final film. Among the scenes included are an extended comical discussion with Riker, Troi, and the ship's librarian (unfortunately, some stereotypes continue even into the 24th century), further romantic moments between Picard and Anij (Murphy), and the film's original final confrontation between Picard and Ru'afo. While having the deleted scenes on DVD is a bonus, it leads me to wonder why these scenes were never finished with visual effects. The STAR WARS prequels and THE ABYSS have additional deleted scenes completed and presented on their DVDs, so given the time and ability it takes to present these additional scenes on a TREK DVD, whether film or television, the visual effects could certainly be completed. For that matter, the scenes could be presented in a similar pristine quality to that of the feature film. It's certainly deserving of such treatment, in my opinion.
However, content-wise, it becomes apparent that all of these added moments would have bogged the film down needlessly for time constraints and for story purposes. It's evident that these scenes were wisely trimmed from the film, and had the original ending been utilized for the final film, it's pretty apparent that INSURRECTION would have had a weaker box-office performance.
As with the FIRST CONTACT DVD, Paramount has included some additional Easter egg features on this new disc. The first one (2:02) features Marina Sirtis talking about the catering on the film set. The second one (2:18) features musician Tom Morello of the band Rage Against the Machine, as he discusses his cameo as a Son'a. The third and final one (1:58) features Marina Sirtis and Michael Dorn in full make-up ad-libbing about the plot of the film. All of these Easter eggs can be found on the DVD's second disc.
I'm somewhat disappointed with some of the presentation of the supplemental material for this latest TREK DVD offering. For one thing, there's no audio commentary included on the set, and that's a first, not counting the previous single-disc releases of many of the other TREK films. Even the single-disc version of NEMESIS had an audio commentary on it. I guess people were really disappointed with how this film fared at the box office and decided, "Why should we listen for an hour and 40 minutes to hear Jonathan Frakes gloat about the film? Where's the real meat behind this story?" Which explains why we have the DIRECTOR'S NOTEBOOK feature. At the least we should have heard from Michael Piller about the problems with INSURRECTION; his comments and candor by this time would have certainly been welcomed.
Another concern is the fact that only seven deleted scenes were included for this DVD. There's a bit more out there that remains to be seen, among them an extended version of the final coda that featured DS9's Armin Shimerman in a cameo as Quark. Still photographs from the sequence were released proving that the cameo had been filmed, so why was it not included on the DVD for completion's sake? At least it would have been interesting to see, as Shimerman is a great comic actor.
And as with previous TREK films on DVD, the film's television spots and behind-the-scenes interstitials have been omitted from the DVD, and there are at least nine or ten different spots that were created for the film that I can account for. This could have easily been included on the disc for completists' sake.
Final Thoughts:
It's not surprising that STAR TREK: INSURRECTION fared like it did at the box office, and given the film's very weak storyline, one can see why. With this new 2-disc release, you can once again easily discard the previous release and upgrade for the added new features, if you wish. However, deleted scenes alone can't drive the demand for an upgraded DVD. There's got to be lots more meat to it, and really substantial meat. The bonus featurettes are a step up this time around in terms of content, which is also nice. Overall, this one's really for the completists out there.
