10 Reasons To Stop Hating Star Trek: Nemesis
1. B-4 L8TR Data
Nemesis has had a bit of a renaissance lately. With the return of Jean-Luc to the small screen, it became pretty much required (re)viewing if you wanted to fully understand what Star Trek: Picard season one, set 20 years after the events of the film, was really all about: (The death of) Data, other androids (synths), and the Romulans.
Even two-decades later, what happened back then clearly still haunts Picard, in particular the manner of Data's death. That "tyrannical martinet," who was all set to become the stickler-for-the-rules first officer of the Enterprise-E before his death, is not only crux of the plot of Star Trek: Picard season one but returns to get a proper send-off, sorta, via the B-4 download and 'fractal neuronic cloning' (obviously). Interestingly enough, Seven of Nine, also key to Picard, was set for a significant role in Nemesis, but Jeri Ryan turned down the offer as she felt the character had been shoehorned in.
Nemesis is also key to the world of Star Trek: Lower Decks, the timeline for which begins in 2380, only a year after Shinzon's defeat. Star Trek: Prodigy picks up the mantle from Nemesis, the present of which is set in 2383-2384 and (briefly) features the ongoing negotiations with the Romulans and the neutral zone.
Nemesis also deserves a bit of a re-appraisal in the context of the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard. The main cast of The Next Generation are making their big return – the first time we will have seen them all together since 2002. A certain other Soong-type android also appears to be quite central to the intrigue. In theory, we will finally get a degree of closure for the characters that Nemesis was unable to provide. Nemesis was never meant to be the end for The Next Generation, hence the lack of finality. It wasn't TNG's Undiscovered Country.
If the cast's return is done well in the final season of Picard, this should allow Nemesis to be placed within the context it deserves – not as a failed ending to a waning franchise, but as part of the long and diverse history of one of the most beloved of Star Trek crews.