Star Trek: Nemesis is an awful movie and a horrible sendoff to The Next Generation‘s characters. It squanders a young Tom Hardy, has a nonsensical plot and generally feels like something that was tossed together with little care and attention. In fact, the cast has since gone on to fiercely criticize Nemesis’ director, Stuart Baird, who proudly claimed on set that he’d never watched an episode of The Next Generation and had no idea who the majority of the actors were (he repeatedly got LeVar Burton’s name wrong, calling him Laverne).
After receiving poor reviews, the film suffered at the box office, though being released in competition with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers couldn’t have helped matters. But perhaps it would’ve been different if Jonathan Frakes (aka Commander Riker) had taken the directorial reins. After helming the successful First Contact and Insurrection, he was certainly the logical choice for the job, so why didn’t he take it?
Well, in an interview with Vulture, he finally answered that question, saying:
I would have loved to have done Nemesis, but it seemed like, “Really? That’s all you’re going to do, is Star Trek movies?” It’s glib to say now. I wish I had done Nemesis.
Frakes instead went on to direct a little-known film called Clockstoppers, which is about teenagers with the power to slow down and stop time (apparently, it’s quite good, but I haven’t seen it). But he really came a cropper with 2004’s Thunderbirds, which was hugely hyped but turned out to be an enormous flop that put him in “movie jail.” Fortunately, he’s now rehabilitated, having recently directed episodes of Star Trek: Discovery and The Orville.
But it’s annoying to know that he very easily could have helmed Nemesis. Who knows, if that film had been good we might’ve gotten another two or three Next Generation movies? Oh well, at least when the Picard series releases it’ll finally be usurped as the swansong of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (the best Trek captain, incidentally).