Star Trek: 10 Times Picard Proved The Future Was Worth Fighting For

Star Trek Insurrection is often criticised for being like a long episode of The Next Generation. While there is merit in that argument, the idea behind Insurrection was to show that the search for youth and power often comes with a cost that is too great a price to pay. To be described as a long episode is something of a barbed compliment.

Some of the greatest episodes of The Next Generation are some of its quietest. Who Watches The Watchers?, The Inner Light and Family are all low-key episodes in the history of the franchise. They each show that past, present or future, life is simply meant to be lived. Here, the Ba'ku people have settled on a planet that happens to reverse the ageing process. The rings around the planet contain energy similar to the fountain of youth and there are those both within the Federation and without who would go to very great lengths to acquire that power.

Picard rebels, following his moral code. He is, like everyone else in the region, offered the chance at youth. However, he sees that going back is not an option. Nor, he believes, have they the right to strip another people of their homes for that power.

The idea of forcibly moving a people with decisions made from foreign powers is even more relevant today. This film shows us that as long as there are good men and women willing to fight for what is right, there is a chance of the utopian future that Gene Roddenberry always hoped for.