Hypotheticals: what could have been done to improve Nemesis?

[Mytran]

I like the infiltrator theme - perhaps it could be revealed at one point that PICARD is a sleeper agent and has been all these years? That would be cool.

Of course, he could be vindicated at the end at the genuine article, should the plot so choose.

 

[BillJ]

And it would've helped to sell the idea of the series ending by bringing back a lot of the original actors.

I'm warming to the idea of a Denise Crosby cameo. But what I would've done is stuck her in the background of the wedding but very visible. No lines, but in a Starfleet uniform with the TV series haircut.

People's heads would've exploded.

But as Sela? No way. Why magnify what was a terribly executed idea to begin with?

 

[JarodRussell]

* either erase B4 from the story, or at least replace him with Lore. It's Lore who makes the sacrifice, as the climax of his character arc, not Data. But rather remove the double Data completely.
* put the wedding at the end, as payoff, and not as the typical TNG film "the heroes do a totally random thing before they are called on a mission" intro. Let Riker and Troi actually make the decision to marry within the film, and not as a mysterious off-screen decision between two films.
* Patrick Stewart as Shinzon
* change the focus of the story to the Romulan clone infiltration program: have an actual Starfleet official be a clone who needs to be unmasked
* let that clone in Starfleet be the Captain of the USS Titan
* final space battle and weapon deployment in Earth orbit, not some random nebula
* have Worf show some skill. Finally a well choreographed, well thought out close combat with martial arts and weapons would have been something.
* have a personal meeting between Picard and Janeway when he gets his orders
* have some reminder of the events of All Good Things, and that they know of a possible future: Deanna dies, and Worf and Riker will hate each other. And resolve it with Worf saving Deanna in a very dangerous situation, when Riker is prevented from doing so.
* either make the "it's the final mission" theme more definitive, or leave it out completely.
* change the film theme from "everyone's tired and sad and melancholic" so something upbeat and positive

* remove that shitty Shinzon wants to rape Deanna subplot

* give Ron Perlman something better to do

* the movie lacks at least one key moment for every character. Why is Geordi such a great chief engineer? Why is Worf such a great warrior? Why is Riker such a great First Officer and Captain? Etc, etc...

* motivate Jerry Goldsmith to do a better score. Baird told him to make the score sound sad and downbeat. Holy shit, dude. It's Star Trek, possibly the final film of the TNG cast, make it go out in a blaze of glory.

* replace Baird and Logan with other people.

* oh, and I totally forgot about including Spock in all of this. It makes no sense to do a Romulan story this big without including the Unification movement.

 

[R. Star]

Obviously this would require a complete re-write, but I'll take a stab at it.

-Have that Viceroy be the guy in charge of the Remans. Have Shinzon around as a pet he's fond of. A human slave who's mistreated less by the Remans than he was by the Romulans. (Never made one iota of sense that the Remans would follow him anyway)
-The assassination of the Romulans senate would leave a void in power, with a rebelious element to the rest of the people. This makes sense so leave as is. Make it clear that the outer colonies and the outlying fleets are chafing under the Reman rule and plotting against them. This would give Donatra a meaningful role.
-Cut out the Scimitar. It makes ZERO sense that the Remans would be able to build this thing as a race of slaves and conscript soldiers.
-Have the Enterprise lured in by B-4 and called to Romulus as occured.
-Have the Viceroy's reasoning for bringing in Picard specificly to indulge Shinzon almost like tossing a pet dog a bone.
-Secret plan for bringing in the Federation ship is really to use the radiation weapon(which could be deployed by a smaller ship or array or even from Remus) to destroy Romulus, then blame it on the Federation to start a war which would destroy the Romulans.
-Picard gets captured and taken to Remus so his DNA can be harvested, the crew thinking he's in a private conference with the Viceroy.
-While captured, Shinzon and Picard talk and Picard persuades him to embrace his humanity and not help in this plan to murder billions.
-Another three way fight between lots of Reman ships(stolen warbirds with a different color scheme), the Romulans and the Enterprise to fill in the gaps. Data goes to rescue Picard from Remus.
-Shinzon tries to destroy the radiation weapon but fails, the Viceroy kills him.
-Data rescues Picard with the transporter clip, kills Viceroy and blasts the radiation power core sacrificing himself.
-Reman Fleet is defeated, Romulans are grateful for Federation saving them, Data mourned for actually dying meaningfully as opposed to Picard freezing and forcing Data to save him.

 

[Uxi]

But as Sela? No way. Why magnify what was a terribly executed idea to begin with?

Her death in the Senate by Reman thalaron weapon would have been most entertaining.

 

[JarodRussell]

Why the hate against Sela? Her character had an interesting premise. The execution in the show might have lacked a bit, but it was nothing that couldn't have been "fixed" in a motion picture.

 

[BillJ]

Why the hate against Sela?

Terrible character portrayed by a terrible actress who quit on the Trek franchise then spent the rest of her career trying to get back in.

What's not to love?

 

[horatio83]

I don't think that Sela was bad but in my opinion TNG featured better and more memorable Romulans like Jarok and Tomalak.

 

[Shazam!]

I pretty much would have re-made alien and killed half the cast.

 

[BillJ]

I pretty much would have re-made alien and killed half the cast.

I would have puked when Picard waxed philosophical about the alien being sentient and them having no right to destroy it. Right after it has eaten Geordi and Troi.

 

[DarKush]

And it would've helped to sell the idea of the series ending by bringing back a lot of the original actors.

I'm warming to the idea of a Denise Crosby cameo. But what I would've done is stuck her in the background of the wedding but very visible. No lines, but in a Starfleet uniform with the TV series haircut.

People's heads would've exploded.

But as Sela? No way. Why magnify what was a terribly executed idea to begin with?

I wasn't a fan of how the Sela idea was executed on the show, but that being said, it happened, and it would make more sense (to fans) to have Sela be involved in a Romulan-centric plot than a WTF moment with having Crosby in a Starfleet uniform at the wedding. People would've then been furious about the lack of explanation for Tasha Yar's resurrection.

I still think Sela could've worked in the Donatra role. It wasn't like that role was that big to begin with. Or if not Donatra, Tal'aura. However I like the idea of her replacing Donatra more. I think the scene where Donatra comes to aid the Enterprise would've had more emotional resonance if it had been Sela and it would be a very Trekkian thing to do, the whole idea of enemies becoming friends. And it would've helped solidify the idea of closure for TNG.

 

[BillJ]

I still think Sela could've worked in the Donatra role. It wasn't like that role was that big to begin with. Or if not Donatra, Tal'aura. However I like the idea of her replacing Donatra more. I think the scene where Donatra comes to aid the Enterprise would've had more emotional resonance if it had been Sela and it would be a very Trekkian thing to do, the whole idea of enemies becoming friends. And it would've helped solidify the idea of closure for TNG.

I disagree, Dina Meyer could act, something Denise Crosby could never be accused of.

Putting Sela into a prime role would've been nothing more than pandering to the die-hards. Star Trek: Nemesis had enough problems adding another poor performer wouldn't have helped.

 

[R. Star]

I still think Sela could've worked in the Donatra role. It wasn't like that role was that big to begin with. Or if not Donatra, Tal'aura. However I like the idea of her replacing Donatra more. I think the scene where Donatra comes to aid the Enterprise would've had more emotional resonance if it had been Sela and it would be a very Trekkian thing to do, the whole idea of enemies becoming friends. And it would've helped solidify the idea of closure for TNG.

I disagree, Dina Meyer could act, something Denise Crosby could never be accused of.

Putting Sela into a prime role would've been nothing more than pandering to the die-hards. Star Trek: Nemesis had enough problems adding another poor performer wouldn't have helped.

It's not like Donatra contributed anything to the movie... she had what? Two minutes of screen time... putting Sela in would have been a nice bone, but it wouldn't have made the movie any better or worse really.

 

[R. Star]

I pretty much would have re-made alien and killed half the cast.

This has already been done. Here you go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAqj_4B6-V0

 

[FreddyE]

Don´t have the script approval for Stewart and Spiner, have Frakes direct, have the movie written by someone who actually knows how to write a good movie. And have Stewart play Shinzon himself as initally planned (I think).

 

[DarKush]

I still think Sela could've worked in the Donatra role. It wasn't like that role was that big to begin with. Or if not Donatra, Tal'aura. However I like the idea of her replacing Donatra more. I think the scene where Donatra comes to aid the Enterprise would've had more emotional resonance if it had been Sela and it would be a very Trekkian thing to do, the whole idea of enemies becoming friends. And it would've helped solidify the idea of closure for TNG.

I disagree, Dina Meyer could act, something Denise Crosby could never be accused of.

Putting Sela into a prime role would've been nothing more than pandering to the die-hards. Star Trek: Nemesis had enough problems adding another poor performer wouldn't have helped.

It's not like Donatra contributed anything to the movie... she had what? Two minutes of screen time... putting Sela in would have been a nice bone, but it wouldn't have made the movie any better or worse really.

I agree. It wasn't that big of a role that required someone with major acting chops. And as I said before it would've had more of an emotional impact if it had been Sela.