AHC: Make Star Trek X Good

Darn, another long one of mine. ;)

Nemesis had quite a few bad parts. There is already a pictorial about its flaws.

To make it better, have the Scimitar be expressed as a Dominion toy that Shinzon picked up, he shaves his head to get along better with the Remans, and they have combat visors (take a trip to a sunglasses shop) to avoid enemies using bright lights against them.

Have the Remans take a few classes in basic tactics and military hand signals to show they are a professional threat to the Federation personnel. Have the fleet battle we were promised, but the Scimitar got ahead of the Enterprise, and attacked the fleet right as the Enterprise exits the cloud, just so Picard can watch as the Scimitar picks the fleet apart using its weapons and cloak. The last ship will be left mostly intact, as the Scimitar warps away towards the Enterprise. It will begin picking up life pods and rescuing people. Picard talks with the Captain for a few minutes, and he comes alongside.

Before he gets within transporter range the Scimitar (from a quarter light-second away) fires and destroys the last ship. Shinzon took the ship away, then turned around and came back, to destroy the last ship right before the Enterprise arrived.

Shinzon's real target is Romulus though. Throughout the movie he has either been casually dismissing humans or curious about some of their culture. For Romulans, he has been antagonistic or dismissing them as unimportant. After he tries to get Picard back, and the Romulan ships are destroyed as well, he cloaks, and heads off. He warps in the direction of Earth, but it is a fake. He turns around and heads to Romulus. When the Praetor (his second in command) tells him he will die, Shinzon replies that the ship and the mission come first. The Reman slavery will end.

Enterprise then fights the Scimitar again, and manages to cripple it, but the planet-killer weapon is still on automatic. Have Picard on the Scimitar (a Reman tactical team raids the bridge and kidnaps Picard to interfere with enemy planning), while Riker is commanding the Enterprise from the Battle Bridge (and shows off more tactical maneuvers). Data and a team of personnel go aboard the Scimitar to destroy it and rescue Picard if possible. Data and B-4 are destroyed in the process (so Brent Spiner can actually age on screen) of rescuing Picard and destroying the weapon.

Picard medically retires as Federation ambassador to Romulus (they might not like humans, but Picard just saved their entire planet), and Riker is confirmed as Captain of the Enterprise. Have a few of the people moved up in rank, with a few Romulans taking their places (exchange officers from the Dominion War). Enterprise then starts exploring more territory, this time within the Romulan territory (with a Romulan on the senior staff, to help them avoid the more political areas).

One minor quibble, entirely unrelated to the quality of the film; Star Trek IX refers to Insurrection, not Nemesis. Whether or not that movie can be made any good is obviously a worthy question, but since it's not the one you're asking, I thought I should let you know :)

Insurrection would have worked better if it had been two sides of the crew disagreeing on what should be done.

On one side you have Picard and Troi who are arguing that forcing people off their land (even if it is benign via the cloaked holotransport) is wrong. On the other side you would have Crusher and Worf who can see what the medical benefits are (and Worf has just seen the Dominion War so he knows the value of medicine).

Add in a comment from the old Admiral about not liking to deal with the Son'a but needing to pry them from the Dominion. The planet is merely a token to buy the Son'a loyalty.

But the real plot of the movie is the two sides the Enterprise's crew breaks into, both of whom have ideals and good reasons to support it. No straw arguments, no false logic, and no easy way out.

Picard could talk about the oaths they took as Starfleet officers, Crusher is quoting the Hippocratic oath right back at him.

The end might be a Ferengi trader who was shipping goods back and forth (he's not going to give away a profitable trade route, so he is perfect for secrecy) comes up with the idea of an exclusion zone around the village (only 600 people, so they are not spread over the entire planet). Within that zone the Baku have control. Outside that zone will be medical facilities and research centers.

A solution will have to be found for the Son'a, that pries them away from the Dominion (perhaps making them the guardians for the system?). Perhaps they maintain a technical culture, with members choosing to go down to the village if they want a lower-tech lifestyle for a while. Mention they learned the lessons of Bajor, where a culture that only went towards philosophy and art was conquered by others, and subjugated. They will not let that happen, and will make better treaties with the Federation so it never happens.


I also enjoyed the highway scene in Reloaded, where it is Morpheus and Trinity vs the Twins and Agents. That to me was the best part as well. Neo's fight vs the troops could have been redone where they shoot at him, he holds up his hand and stops the bullets. This time, he twitches his hand, and the bullets fly back at the troops. They regenerate in their own ways (vampire, werewolf, etc) and Neo sighs that he has to do this the hard way.
 
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