Star Trek: Insurrection: Special Collector's Edition DVD Review

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Title: Star Trek: Insurrection: Special Collector’s Edition

Region: One

Genre: Sci-Fi

Stars: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Levar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, F. Murray Abraham, Donna Murphy, and Anthony Zerbe

Writer: Michael Piller

Based On A Story By: Rick Berman and Michael Piller

Director: Jonathan Frakes

Feature length: 103 minutes

Extras: Text Commentary By Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda, Production Documentaries, Special Effects Comparisons, Star Trek Universe Featurettes, Storyboard and Photo Gallery, Deleted Scenes Trailers

Languages: English DTS Digital 5.1 Theatrical Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, Dolby Surround Sound, and French Language Dubbed Dolby Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Closed Captions and Spanish Language Subtitles (French Language Subtitles Available As An Option On Disc Two Only)

Packaging: Two-Disc Alpha Keep Case

Chapter Stops: 24

Sound: DTS Digital 5.1 Theatrical Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, and Dolby Surround Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 1998/VCD Release: 2005

Theatrical Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Home Video Distributor: Paramount Home Entertainment

MPAA Rating: PG

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

After the huge success of “Star Trek: First Contact” the producers of the franchise chose not to attempt another story with a villain as dangerous as The Borg because quite honestly they had already gone down that road and wanted instead to aim for something lighter, but still in tone with the events that were occurring in the “Star Trek” universe at the time, which was the war against The Dominion as dramatized on the TV series “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.” After a mysterious malfunction in Data causes him to behave aggressively on the beautiful world known as Ba’ku, the Enterprise-E investigates what caused Data’s reaction and discovers a virtual Garden of Eden inhabited by humans from another world who forsook technology to lead a peaceful life inspired by art and harmony. The planet is shrouded in particles from a ring around it that has regenerative powers and effectively can sustain a person for centuries. When it is discovered that a Starfleet Admiral in cahoots with an alien race with their own secret agenda known as the Son’a is going to forcibly remove the inhabitants of this world in order to harvest the regenerative particles for personal use, Picard and key members of his crew go renegade to expose this blatant disregard for the Prime Directive.

F. Murray Abraham’s villainous role is made all the more humorous if not campy by his character’s almost infantile temper and Anthony Zerbe lends some nice presence as the mislead “Admiral Doherty.” This Special Collector’s Edition DVD presents “Star Trek: Insurrection” in an anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) aspect ratio with a rich and colorful picture quality. Along with many never-before-available on home video bonus features, the DVD sports a superb and quite aggressive English DTS Digital 5.1 Theatrical Surround Soundtrack mix in addition to the previously available English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack and English Dolby Surround Soundtrack. A French Language Dubbed Dolby Surround Soundtrack is also included along with English Closed Captions for the hearing impaired and English and Spanish Language Subtitles on disc one. The second disc containing the majority of the extra value materials includes English, Spanish, and French Language Subtitles encoded as options. As they have with each “Special Collector’s Edition/Director’s Edition” DVD release in the “Star Trek” franchise, Michael and Denise Okuda provide an fact and anecdote filled text commentary track for the film, but curiously this is the first “Star Trek” DVD in the series of two-disc sets not to feature a Director’s audio commentary track.

What is sadly lacking among the extra value features is a “Play All” feature for all of the various documentaries and featurettes because going through them individually can be tedious. Under the heading “Production” are the on-location production design featurette “It Takes A Village” (16:40), a featurette that focuses on how location shooting effects the performances of the actors in “Location, Location, Location” (19:55), a look at the development of the screenplay with Writer Michael Piller in “The Story” (17:18), a very nice overview of the pre-production artwork design for the film with John Eaves entitled “The Art Of Insurrection” (14:33), and the self explanatory “Making Star Trek: Insurrection” (25:06), “Anatomy Of A Stunt” for a scene that ended up being cut from the film (6:34), and Jonathan Frakes’ “Director’s Notebook” (18:55).

Under the heading “The Star Trek Universe” is another interesting installment in “Westmore’s Aliens” (17:42) and “Star Trek’s Beautiful Alien Women” (12:40). Within the “Creating The Illusion” section are three special effects examinations for the “Shuttle Chase” (9:36) sequence, the “Drones” (4:43), and the invisible “Duck Blind” or cloaked suits seen in the beginning of the film (12:53). Co-Producer Peter Lauritson provides an introduction for seven deleted scenes that can be viewed individually or with the “Play All” option (12:53) and features an alternate fate for F. Murray Abraham’s character that I actually like better than what was used in the film. It just seemed more poetic. I wish it were restored. All of the deleted scenes are presented in a letterboxed aspect ratio with English Stereo Sound. Curiously, the notorious “Quark” cameo cut from the film is not included on the DVD, but in the accompanying photo gallery, a shot from that scene is included. There is also a gallery of storyboards too. Both the theatrical teaser (1:44) and trailer (2:23) are presented Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. The original promotional featurette (5:02) and a trailer for the Las Vegas “Borg Invasion” (: 32) attraction wraps up the bonus materials on disc two.

The interactive menus are nicely animated and easy to navigate to place the user aboard the bridge of a Son’a ship. “Star Trek: Insurrection: Special Collector’s Edition” is an exceptional value for “Star Trek” collectors and worth an upgrade from the original movie-only DVD release. “Star Trek: Insurrection: Special Collector’s Edition” is available on DVD-Video now at retailers on and offline courtesy of Paramount Home Entertainment.

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