10 PERFECT Scenes In Hated Star Trek Episodes
3. Picard In The Romulan Senate - Star Trek: Nemesis
Star Trek: Nemesis has few defenders, for better or worse. The final film of The Next Generation era, it served as a poor finale for what, at that time, had been a largely fantastic fifteen-year run. Many factors contributed to its poor reception, not least of which being a director who didn't truly understand the source material, though franchise fatigue had also set in. Nemesis would be swiftly followed by the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise. All things considered, it was a rough time for Star Trek.
However, within this film, there exists a scene that is Star Trek to its very core, offering a light in the dark, and building on some of the franchise's earliest storylines. After receiving the summons to Romulus, the Enterprise-E is greeted (after a lengthy wait) first by the Reman Viceroy, and then Praetor Shinzon himself. For the briefest of moments, we the audience see hope.
Though a clone of Picard, Shinzon represents the Reman people - a subjugated and brutalised warrior species. Having overthrown the Romulan Senate, Shinzon now stands in victory - seemingly holding out the olive branch to Starfleet. As Picard notes, the idea of a Starfleet officer standing in the Romulan Senate is one that he could scarcely have dreamed of. It is Star Trek to its core - despite the subterfuge. It has aged well as, though Romulus itself would not survive the Hobus Supernova, the Romulan people did, with Picard becoming something of a hero to them.
It is hope. It is Star Trek.