Michael VIII Palaiologos

Michael VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus (Greek: Μιχαὴλ Δούκας Ἄγγελος Κομνηνὸς Παλαιολόγος, romanized: Mikhaēl Doukas Angelos Komnēnos Palaiologos; 1224 – 11 December 1282) reigned as the co-emperor of the Empire of Nicaea from 1259 to 1261, and as Byzantine emperor from 1261 until his death in 1282. Michael VIII was the founder of the Palaiologan dynasty that would rule the Byzantine Empire until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. He recovered Constantinople from the Latin Empire in 1261 and transformed the Empire of Nicaea into a restored Byzantine Empire. His reign saw considerable recovery of Byzantine power, including the enlargement of the Byzantine army and navy. It would also include the reconstruction of the city of Constantinople, and the increase of its population. Additionally, he re-established the University of Constantinople, which led to what is regarded as the Palaiologan Renaissance between the 13th and 15th centuries.

It was also at this time that the focus of the Byzantine military shifted to the Balkans, against the Bulgarians, leaving the Anatolian frontier neglected. His successors could not compensate for this change of focus, and both the Arsenite schism and two civil wars which occurred from 1321–1328 and 1341–1347 undermined further efforts toward territorial consolidation and recovery, draining the empire's strength, economy, and resources. Regular conflict between Byzantine successor states such as Trebizond, Epirus, Bulgaria and Serbia resulted in permanent fragmentation of former Byzantine territory and opportunity for increasingly successful conquests of expansive territories by post-Seljuk Anatolian beyliks, most notably that of Osman, later called the Ottoman Empire.

## Early life

Michael VIII Palaiologos was the son of the megas domestikos Andronikos Palaiologos by Theodora Angelina Palaiologina, the granddaughter of Emperor Alexios III Angelos and Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamaterina. According to Deno John Geanakoplos, Michael's ancestry could be traced back to all three imperial houses that ruled the empire in the centuries before the Sack of Constantinople in 1204 by the Fourth Crusade. His mother does not appear to have played a significant role in his early life; at least for a time, he was brought up by his elder sister Martha, the wife of megas domestikos Nikephoros Tarchaneiotes, although she was only ten years older than him.

## Rise to power

Michael rose to distinction at an early age, serving as the governor of the Thracian towns of Melnik and Serres under the command of his father Andronikos. However, in the autumn of 1253, Michael was accused before the Emperor John III Vatatzes of plotting against the throne. The only way Michael was allowed to prove his innocence was through trial by ordeal, holding a red-hot iron. When the Emperor ordered him to take hold of the red-hot metal, the young Michael answered (to use Geanakoplos' words) "with the astuteness that was to characterize his later career as Emperor": if the Metropolitan Phokas of Philadelphia, who evidently supported this proposal, could take the iron from the altar with his own hands and place it in Michael's, he would gladly receive it in faith that the truth would be revealed.

Although Michael avoided punishment, and afterwards was married to the Emperor's grandniece and appointed megas konostaulos of the Latin mercenaries in the employment of the emperors of Nicaea, he was still mistrusted. Following the death of John Vatatzes, Michael crossed the Sangarios River with a few close friends and took service with the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum. From late 1256 to 1258, he served as commander of the Christian mercenaries fighting for Sultan Kaykaus II; in that later year the Emperor Theodore II Doukas Laskaris recalled Michael, and after both exchanged oaths of loyalty and guarantees of safety, Michael returned to the service of the Emperor.

A few days after the death of Emperor Theodore Laskaris in 1258, Michael Palaiologos instigated a coup against the influential bureaucrat George Mouzalon, seizing from him the guardianship of the eight-year-old Emperor John IV Doukas Laskaris. Michael was invested with the titles of megas doux and, on 13 November 1258, of despotes. On 1 January 1259, Michael was formally proclaimed emperor (basileus), most likely without John IV, in Nymphaion.

## Constantinople

In 1259, Michael VIII defeated the alliance of William of Villehardouin, Prince of Achaea, and Michael II Komnenos Doukas of Epirus at the Battle of Pelagonia. According to Geanakoplos, "In the period immediately preceding the Nicene reconquest of Constantinople in 1261 no event was of greater importance than Michael Palaeologus' victory at Pelagonia." This not only neutralized, for the immediate time, the possibility of an attack from enemies on his Western borders, but also improved Michael's legitimacy by showing him as a competent leader.

Despite this brilliant victory, only one event could remove the stigma of usurper completely from the eyes of his subjects – recovery of Constantinople itself. In 1260 Michael personally led an unsuccessful attempt to capture the city. Rumors of reinforcements for the beleaguered city forced Michael to sign a one-year truce with the Latin Emperor Baldwin II that August. Realizing that he needed a navy to effectively besiege Constantinople, Michael concluded the Treaty of Nymphaeum with Genoa in March of the following year. Genoese help proved to be unneeded when Michael VIII's general Alexios Strategopoulos captured Constantinople from Baldwin II through treachery on 25 July 1261.

News of the captured city first reached Michael's sister Eulogia Palaiologina, who awoke her brother at dawn. He was not convinced until a messenger arrived from Strategopoulos bearing the crown and sword Baldwin had abandoned in his flight from his palace. Michael VIII entered the city on 15 August and had himself crowned emperor. Once in control of Constantinople, Michael abolished all Latin customs and reinstated most Byzantine ceremonies and institutions as they had existed before the Fourth Crusade. He repopulated the capital, building its population from 35,000 when he took power to 70,000 by the end of his reign, and restored damaged churches, monasteries, and public buildings. He was acutely aware of the danger posed by the possibility that the Latin West, particularly his neighbors in Italy, would unite against him and attempt the restoration of Latin rule in Constantinople.

John IV had remained at Nicaea, largely eclipsed by Michael. According to Akropolites, the public had never really viewed John as emperor - his name was virtually stricken from government business after the death of his father Theodore II, and he had not featured in Michael’s coronation ceremony as co-ruler. In December 1261, Michael VIII took the final step of having John blinded and relegated to a monastery, rendering him permanently ineligible for the throne. Michael quickly married off John's sisters to two Italians and a Bulgarian noble, so their descendants could not threaten his own children's claim to the imperial succession. Michael tried to keep the blinding of John a secret, keeping up a pretense that the boy’s formal coronation had merely been postponed. Eventually the news leaked out, and Patriarch Arsenios Autoreianos excommunicated Michael VIII. This ban was not lifted until six years later (1268) on the appointment of patriarch Joseph I.

## Diplomacy and conquest

In the words of Geanaklopos, "With the fall of Constantinople, the papacy suffered not only a loss of political prestige but severe damage to its spiritual authority as well. For the Greeks had now effectively reasserted their right to a church divorced from Rome. Thus it became the task of each of the six successive popes of Michael's reign to accomplish the return of the schismatics to the Roman fold." Michael was aware of the immense influence the Curia had in the West, so he immediately dispatched an embassy to Pope Urban IV consisting of two envoys; upon reaching Italy, the men were seized and one was flayed alive, while the other succeeded in escaping back to friendlier territories.

Michael also approached Manfred of Sicily to achieve some kind of accord. In the summer of 1262, Michael offered to divorce his wife Theodora and marry Manfred's sister Anna. This offer failed spectacularly: not only did Anna reject his proposal, Theodora turned to Patriarch Arsenios for help. The Patriarch confronted the emperor and pressured him to abandon his plans. Michael yielded and sent Anna back to her brother with gifts. This gesture helped to secure the release of his general Alexios Strategopoulos.

It was around this time that Michael was presented with a dangerous distraction: ʿIzz ad-Dīn Kaykāwūs, who had been deposed as Sultan of the Seljuk Turks by a coalition led by the Pervane Mu‘in al-Din Suleyman, arrived seeking help from his old friend. But as Claude Cahen notes, he "was to be cruelly disappointed." Michael favored the Mongols of Iran, who supported ʿIzz ad-Dīn's enemy the Pervane, against those of Russia. Further, he could not risk a war on his Asian frontier while Western Europe, infinitely more dangerous, was opposed to him. Cahen believes that either ʿIzz ad-Dīn became an embarrassment, or perhaps the former Sultan "indulged in too open of criticism"; in either case, ʿIzz ad-Dīn was imprisoned. Mongol troops from Russia eventually freed him, and carried him off to the Crimea where he lived out his life.

A series of military setbacks followed. In 1263 Michael sent 15,000 men, including 5,000 Seljuk mercenaries, to Morea with the goal of conquering the Principality of Achaea, but this expedition failed in a surprise rout at Prinitza. Later that year a mixed fleet of 48 imperial and Genoese ships was defeated by a smaller Venetian force at the Battle of Settepozzi. The following year, the imperial forces in Morea were again defeated at Makryplagi after the Seljuk mercenaries, who had not been paid, changed sides. The nadir of Michael's disasters came in the Spring of 1265, when an army of Tatars and Bulgars under Nogai Khan ravaging Thrace ambushed Michael Palaeologos when he was returning to Constantinople accompanied by only a few troops. Deserted by even his own officers, who fled to save their own lives, Michael was able to escape by crossing the Ganos Mountains and reaching the Marmora coast, where he happened upon two Latin ships. He quickly boarded the vessels, and two days later safely arrived at Constantinople. "Thus did Michael survive one of the narrowest escapes of his career," notes Geanakoplos.

The military advantages Michael enjoyed after capturing Constantinople had evaporated, but he would demonstrate his diplomatic skills to successfully recover from these drawbacks. After Settepozzi, Michael VIII dismissed the 60 Genoese galleys that he had hired earlier and began a rapprochement with Venice. Michael secretly negotiated a treaty with the Venetians to grant terms similar to those in the case of Nymphaeum, but Doge Raniero Zeno failed to ratify the agreement. He also signed a treaty in 1263 with the Egyptian Mamluk sultan Baibars and Berke, the Mongol Khan of Kipchak Khanate.

## Michael and Charles of Anjou

The Battle of Benevento on 26 February 1266 brought forth a new challenger to Michael, one with whom he would struggle for the rest of his life: Charles of Anjou. Michael, as Geanaklopos emphasizes, "from 1266 until shortly before his death in 1282 ... was constrained to devote almost complete attention to the defeat of Charles, the fulfillment of whose ambition would have brought about the destruction of the Byzantine Empire and reimposition of Latin rule in Constantinople." Charles strengthened his hold on the kingdom of Sicily by defeating Conradin at the Battle of Tagliacozzo on 23 August 1268. And looking for help to restore the Latin Empire, on May 1267, Charles concluded the Treaty of Viterbo with the exiled Emperor Baldwin II and William II Villehardouin under the guidance of Pope Clement IV.

In many ways Michael and Charles were alike. Geanakoplos quotes Nicephorus Gregoras's comparison of the two men at length:

> Charles, motivated not by small but great ambitions, implanted in his mind like a seed the resolution of taking Constantinople. He dreamed that if he could become the master of it, he would restore the entire monarchy, so to speak, of Julius Caesar and Augustus. He was very able not only in planning what he wished to do but in easily translating his thoughts into action. Clearly he surpassed all his predecessors in the strength of his nature and intelligence... Nevertheless, neither his actions against the Greeks nor those of Michael Palaeologus against the Latins could be brought to a successful conclusion. For the strength of both was for a long time so evenly matched that it was well said (this was the opinion of discerning people) that if at that time such an Emperor had not been directing Greek affairs, the Empire would easily have succumbed to Charles, the King of Italy [sic]; and, conversely, if such a King had not then been at the helm of Italian affairs, the hegemony of Italy would with little difficulty have passed to Michael Palaeologus.

Michael was also faced with a challenge on his Asian frontier. Although the peace treaty with the Seljuk Turks continued to be honored by both parties, nomadic Turkmen had begun to infiltrate the Byzantine territories, and because of Michael's preoccupation with his Western foes, there was no organized response to this threat. Speros Vryonis also points out that due to his treatment of John IV Laskaris, "there resulted an outright alienation from Constantinople of large segments of Greek society in Bithynia and elsewhere." In 1269 Michael sent his brother the despotes John Palaiologos into the southern part of Byzantine Anatolia to clear the Maeander and Cayster valleys of Turkmen; their response was to fall back before the Byzantine army, and when John was eventually recalled to face foes in Europe, the Turkmen pushed back and resumed their conquests and settlement. Thus by 1269, the cities of Trachia Studia and Strobilos on the Carian coast were firmly Turkish possessions.

Michael's response to the Treaty of Viterbo was to attempt to weaken papal support for it; if the Pope was convinced Charles of Anjou's invasion was a just and holy war, then the forces Michael could call on could not prevent its success. Michael returned to negotiating a union of the churches with Pope Clement IV, which he had agreed to, but the latter's death in November 1268 put an end to this approach. According to Geanakoplos, only a lack of resources prevented Charles from immediately launching an attack against Michael. Looking for some restraint on Charles, Michael made a shrewd appeal to King Louis IX of France, the leading ruler of the West and the elder brother of Charles. Louis was more interested in a crusade against Muslims controlling the Holy Land than attacking a schismatic Christian. So he had Charles join his Tunisian crusade in 1270. When Louis died in Tunisia, Charles took command, negotiated a truce, and sailed to Sicily, planning to attack Byzantium. At this point a miracle saved Michael: a violent storm destroyed Charles' fleet. "To the Greeks of Byzantium," writes Geanakoplos, "it must have seemed as if the Virgin, their protector, had saved them from disaster."

After a three year interregnum, during which Charles of Anjou attempted to sway the election, a new pope was elected, Gregory X. When Michael restarted talks of union, Gregory proved to be less accommodating and negotiated from a position of strength. Michael attempted to reason with Patriarch Joseph and the synod of the importance of agreeing to this union, and that the principle of oikonomia (which Geanakoplos suggests is best translated here as "considerations of self-interest") required them to accede to papal demands. But despite a propaganda campaign over the winter of 1274–1275, Michael was forced to depose Patriarch Joseph and replace him with his own supporter John Bekkos in order to obtain a grudging consent to the union.

## Council of Lyons and after

Byzantine envoys presented themselves at the Second Council of Lyons 24 June 1274, where they presented a letter from the Emperor, sealed with the imperial golden bull, and two others from his son Andronikos and the Byzantine clergy. On the fourth session of the Council the formal act of union was performed. The letters were read, and for the first time in two centuries representatives of the major Eastern and Western branches of Christianity were again in communion.

Michael VIII achieved an important advantage by this union, for now he gained legitimacy both for possessing Constantinople and for his claims to the lands occupied by Western invaders. Further, his antagonist Charles could not rely on the power of the pope calling for a crusade against his realm. Lastly, Pope Gregory was very favorable to Michael's proposal for a crusade against the Turks to restore the ancient Christian cities of Anatolia; however with Gregory's death (January 1276), these plans remained nothing more than talk.

More disappointments followed as news of the Council filtered through the former Byzantine territories. While the union was opposed at all levels of society, it was especially opposed by the greater populace, led by the monks and the adherents of the deposed Patriarch Arsenios, known as the Arsenites. One of the chief anti-unionist leaders was Michael's own sister Eulogia, who fled to the court of her daughter Maria Palaiologina Kantakouzene, Tsarina of the Bulgars, from where she intrigued unsuccessfully against Michael. More serious was the opposition of the sons of Michael of Epirus, Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas and his half-brother John the Bastard: they posed as the defenders of Orthodoxy and gave support to the anti-unionists fleeing Constantinople. Michael at first responded with comparative leniency, hoping to win the anti-unionists through persuasion, but eventually the virulence of the protests led him to resort to force. Many anti-unionists were blinded or exiled. Two prominent monks, Meletios and Ignatios, were punished: the first had his tongue cut out, the second was blinded. Even imperial officials were harshly treated, and the death penalty was decreed even for simply reading or possessing pamphlets directed against the Emperor. "From the intensity of these disorders, tantamount almost to civil wars," concludes Geanakoplos, "it might appear that too great a price had been paid for the sake of union."

The religious situation only worsened for Michael. The Arsenite party found widespread support amongst the discontented in the Anatolian provinces, and Michael responded there with similar viciousness: according to Vryonis, "These elements were either removed from the armies or else, alienated, they deserted to the Turks". Another attempt to clear the encroaching Turkmen from the Meaender valley in 1278 found limited success, but Antioch on the Maeander was irretrievably lost as were Tralles and Nyssa four years later.

On 1 May 1277, John the Bastard convoked a synod at Neopatras that anathematized the Emperor, Patriarch, and Pope as heretics. In response, a synod was convoked at the Hagia Sophia on 16 July where both Nikephoros and John were anathematized in return. John called a final synod at Neopatras in December 1277, where an anti-unionist council of eight bishops, a few abbots, and one hundred monks, again anathematized the Emperor, Patriarch, and Pope.

Michael's achievements on the battlefield were more positive, although still mixed. He tried to take advantage of a civil war in Bulgaria in the late 1270s, but the Byzantine armies suffered several major defeats at the hands of the peasant Emperor Ivaylo. The Emperor managed to temporarily impose his son-in-law Ivan Asen III on the Bulgarian throne, but after the Byzantine defeat at Devina he had to flee. However, Michael VIII later managed to conquer the Bulgarian portion of Thrace, while the internal situation of the Bulgarian Empire remained unstable. In 1275, Michael VIII sent an army against Thessaly and fleet of 73 ships to harass the Latin states in Greece. The army was crushingly defeated at the Battle of Neopatras, but the fleet won a similarly comprehensive victory at the Battle of Demetrias.

Last was his victory over Charles of Anjou in western Greece. Charles' general Hugh of Sully with 8,000 men (including 2,000 cavalry) captured Butrinto in 1280 and besieged Berat. A Byzantine army of relief under Michael Tarchaneiotes arrived in March 1281: Hugh of Sully was ambushed and captured, and his army put to flight. Geanaklopos considers that most scholars do not appreciate fully the importance of this victory: "this victory marked the complete failure of the attempt to launch a land expedition against the capital. Thus ... Charles had to shift his strategy to a sea attack against Constantinople".

## Sicilian Vespers

On 22 February 1281 a new Pope was selected, Pope Martin IV, a Frenchman Geanaklopos describes as "blindly subservient" to Charles of Anjou. Once again, Charles had no clear brake on his ambitions to conquer Constantinople, and he moved swiftly to prepare for this new offensive. One early move was taken by Pope Martin, who on 18 October 1281 excommunicated Michael without any warning or provocation, thus disrupting the union of Lyons.

Charles had prepared a military force far larger than Michael could muster. According to Marino Sanudo, Charles had 100 ships in Sicily, and 300 more in Naples, Provence, and his Greek territories, which were to carry no fewer than 8,000 cavalrymen. Geanakoplos cites surviving documents that attest to the supplies Charles had accumulated. One Angevin rescript, dated 28 October 1281, lists a collection of tools to be gathered for the expedition, which includes "two thousand iron mattocks, three thousand iron stakes, sledges for smashing rocks, ropes, iron shovels, axes, and kettles for boiling pitch." Another orders the delivery of "four thousand iron stakes that are under construction in Venice." A third consists of instructions to a Pisan merchant for 2,500 shields of various sizes, all to be emblazoned with his royal emblem of lilies. Allied with Charles were a long list of powers. Besides having ties of kinship with the Kings of France and Hungary, the rulers of the Serbs and Bulgars were his allies, as well as the rulers of Epirus and dissidents of the Byzantine Empire, and the leading naval power of Europe, Venice.

Obviously Michael sought allies against Charles of Anjou, but they were few. Donald Nicol lists the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, who would "loan him ships", and the Tatars of the Golden Horde in South Russia who "could keep an eye on the Bulgarians". His ambassadors visited the court of Roman-German King Rudolph of Habsburg, but he was aloof. King Peter III of Aragon proved more welcoming, for he had his own reasons to hate Charles. According to Geanakoplos, Peter's wife Constance was the daughter of Manfred, and for this reason Peter considered Charles a usurper and Sicily the rightful property of Constance. Peter welcomed refugees from Sicily, most notably John of Procida, whom he made secretary of the royal chancery. Yet Aragon was at the other end of the Mediterranean, far from Michael.

Before Charles of Anjou could start for Constantinople, however, the Sicilian Vespers rebellion struck, on 30 March 1282. Charles sent four ships to handle the revolt, but when the rebels took control of Messina, he ordered the men and materiel assembled for use against Michael to besiege that city; meanwhile seventy Angevin ships at the arsenal of Messina were destroyed. Eventually Charles lifted the siege, and Peter of Aragon landed in Sicily to reclaim the island for his wife. Beginning with Pope Martin's bull dated 18 November 1282, wherein he again excommunicated Michael—as well as Peter of Aragon, John of Procida, and Michael's emissary Benedetto Zaccaria—as the author of the conspiracy that led to the Sicilian Vespers, Michael has been seen as the instigator. Geanakoplos, while admitting that Michael was in contact with the leaders of the revolt beforehand, asserts "that Michael Palaeologus, on his part, had nothing to do with the incident at the church of Santo Spirito is beyond question."

Furthermore, Michael VIII was instrumental in instigating revolts in Crete against the Venetians, the most famous of which was led by the Hortatzoi brothers Georgios and Theodore of Mesi in Rethymnon, with a duration of six years, causing most significant harm to the Venetian occupants and economic interests of Venice. Michael VIII had aimed to eventually bring Venice, an ally of Charles of Anjou, to the table of negotiations, as he did, at his court in Constantinople.

## Death and legacy

Michael VIII died in Pachomios village, Thrace on 11 December 1282. He was denied burial in Constantinople due to his persecution of the Church in support of union with Rome, so was instead laid to rest in a monastery called Nea Mone in the region of Rhaidestos (modern Tekirdağ). Three years later, in 1285, his remains were moved to the monastery of Christ in Selymbria, where in 1260 he had reburied the body of Basil II.

In reconstituting the Byzantine Empire Michael VIII restored the old administration without endeavouring to correct its failures. In recovering Constantinople and investing in the defence of his European provinces, Michael VIII began to denude the Anatolian frontier of its troops and was forced to lower their pay or cancel their tax exemptions. This policy led to the gradual collapse of the frontier, which was infiltrated by Turkish bands even before his death. The Palaiologan dynasty he established ruled the Byzantine Empire for almost two centuries, longer than any other in Roman history. Also, during his reign there was a temporary naval revival in which the Byzantine navy consisted of 80 ships.

## Family

In 1253, Michael VIII Palaiologos married Theodora Palaiologina, a grandniece of John III Doukas Vatatzes, Emperor of Nicaea. Orphaned in childhood, she was raised by her great-uncle John III, who was said to have "loved her like a daughter", and who arranged for her marriage to Michael. Their children were:

- Manuel Palaiologos (c. 1255–before 1259)
- Irene Palaiologina (c. 1256–before 1328), who married emperor Ivan Asen III of Bulgaria
- Andronikos II Palaiologos (1259–1332), Byzantine emperor
- Anna Palaiologina (c. 1260–1299/1300), who married Demetrios/Michael Komnenos Doukas, third son of Michael II of Epirus
- Constantine Palaiologos (1261–1306), who married Eirene Raoulaina his second cousin
- Theodora Palaiologina, who married King David VI of Georgia
- Eudokia Palaiologina, who married Emperor John II of Trebizond
- Theodore Palaiologos (c. 1263 – after 1310)

By a mistress, a Diplovatatzina, Michael VIII also had two illegitimate daughters:

- Euphrosyne Palaiologina, who married Nogai Khan of the Golden Horde
- Maria Palaiologina, who married Abaqa Khan of Ilkhanid Persia

## See also

- List of Byzantine emperors

Byzantine emperor from 1261 to 1282

Byzantine people of the Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars

Converts to Roman Catholicism from Eastern Orthodoxy

People excommunicated by the Catholic Church

People excommunicated by the Greek Orthodox Church

People of the War of the Sicilian Vespers


Star Trek: Insurrection

Star Trek: Insurrection is a 1998 American science fiction film directed by Jonathan Frakes. It is the ninth film in the Star Trek film series, as well as the third to star the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, with F. Murray Abraham, Donna Murphy, and Anthony Zerbe appearing in main roles. In the film, the crew of the USS Enterprise-E rebels against Starfleet after they discover a conspiracy with a species known as the Son'a to steal the peaceful Ba'ku's planet for its rejuvenating properties.

Paramount Pictures sought a change of pace after Star Trek: First Contact (1996). Michael Piller was asked to write the script of the next installment, which was created from story ideas by Piller and producer Rick Berman. The story's first drafts featured the Romulans, and the Son'a and Ba'ku were introduced in its third draft. After Ira Steven Behr reviewed the script, Piller revised it and added a subplot involving a romantic interest for Jean-Luc Picard. The film's ending was further revised after test screenings. The special effects depicting outer space were completely computer generated, a first for a Star Trek film. The Ba'ku village was fully built on location at Lake Sherwood, California, but suffered weather damage. Sets from the television series Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine were reused and redressed. Michael Westmore created the make-up for the new alien races, and Robert Blackman revised the Starfleet dress uniform designs. Sanja Milkovic Hayes created costumes for the Ba'ku from cellulose fibers, which were baked and glued together. Jerry Goldsmith produced the film's score, his fourth for the franchise.

Insurrection was the highest-grossing film on its opening weekend, making \$22.1 million in the United States and Canada. The film went on to gross \$70.2 million in the United States and Canada, and an additional \$42.4 million in other territories, for a theatrical run of \$117.8 million worldwide. Critical responses to the film were mixed; the performance of Patrick Stewart and the directing of Jonathan Frakes were praised, while other critics compared it to an extended episode of the television series. Insurrection was nominated for both a Saturn Award and a Hugo Award, but the only award it received was a Youth in Film Award for Michael Welch. It was followed by Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002.

## Plot

Lieutenant Commander Data is temporarily transferred to an undercover mission observing the peaceful Ba'ku people. He suddenly malfunctions and reveals the presence of the joint Federation–Son'a task force observing the Ba'ku. Admiral Matthew Dougherty contacts the USS Enterprise-E to obtain Data's schematics for recovery purposes, but adamantly states the Enterprise's presence is unneeded. Captain Jean-Luc Picard ignores orders and takes the Enterprise to recover Data. Captain Picard becomes suspicious when Dougherty insists that the Enterprise is no longer needed and orders Data's malfunction to be investigated.

The crew discovers that the Ba'ku are technologically advanced with warp capabilities, but have rejected its use for simpler lives. Due to unique "metaphasic particles" emanating from the planet's rings, the inhabitants are effectively immortal. By contrast, the Federation's allies, the Son'a, are a decrepit race who rely on medical technology to delay death; excessive cosmetic surgery gives them a mummified appearance. The Enterprise crew experience the rejuvenation effects of the planet: Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge can now see without occular implants, Worf experiences puberty symptoms, Commander William Riker and Counselor Deanna Troi rekindle their long-abandoned relationship, and Picard develops a romantic relationship with Anij, a Ba'ku woman.

Data and Picard discover a submerged and cloaked Federation ship containing a gigantic holodeck that recreates the Ba'ku village. Data's malfunction stemmed from a Son'a attack, the result of his accidentally discovering their vessel. Picard confronts Dougherty and learns that top Federation officers colluded with the Son'a to deceptively relocate the Ba'ku to another planet, allowing for the particles to be collected on a mass scale (poisoning the planet in the process). Dougherty then orders the Enterprise to leave. Picard defiantly retorts that the particle's medical benefits does not justify Dougherty's plans for the Ba'ku and it violates Star Fleet's Prime Directive.

Picard and some crew help the Ba'ku escape abduction while Riker moves the Enterprise to transmission range to communicate the violation to Starfleet. The Son'a launch robotic probes to locate and capture the fleeing Ba'ku. The Son'a leader, Ahdar Ru'afo (F. Murray Abraham), convinces Dougherty to allow two Son'a ships to attack the Enterprise, but Enterprise escapes. Their plan exposed, Ru'afo insists upon harvesting the radiation source immediately. Picard, Anij, and several Ba'ku are transported as prisoners onto the Son'a ship. Dr Crusher discovers that the Son'a and the Ba'ku are the same race. Picard then informs Dougherty that the Son'a are a splinter faction of Ba'ku who abandoned their bucolic existence a century earlier and embraced technology. Their attempt to seize power failed, and the Ba'ku elders exiled them from the planet, denying them the ring's rejuvenating effects. The Son'a developed an artificially imperfect means to extend their lives at the cost of disfigurement and now seek revenge. Ru'afo kills Dougherty after he reneges on their plan and moves to complete the collection.

While Picard is prepared for execution, he convinces the disillusioned Son'a Gallatin to help him stop Ru'afo. Picard masterminds a ruse to transport Ru'afo and his bridge crew to the holoship and disable the harvester. Ru'afo discovers the deception and transports to the harvester ship to manually restart the process. Picard follows and sets the harvester to self-destruct, killing Ru'afo just as the Enterprise rescues Picard. The remaining Son'a are forgiven and welcomed back by the Ba'ku. Picard arranges a meeting between Gallatin and his Ba'ku mother to thank him for his help. The crew takes a moment to enjoy their rejuvenated selves before returning to their previous mission.

## Cast

- Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard
- Jonathan Frakes as Commander William T. Riker
- Brent Spiner as Lieutenant Commander Data
- LeVar Burton as Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge
- Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Commander Worf
- Gates McFadden as Doctor Beverly Crusher
- Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi
- F. Murray Abraham as Ru'afo, the commander of the Son'a.
- Donna Murphy as Anij, a Ba'ku woman.
- Anthony Zerbe as Vice Admiral Dougherty.
- Gregg Henry as Gallatin, a member of the Son'a crew and Ru'afo's second in command.
- Daniel Hugh Kelly as Sojef, a Ba'ku man.
- Michael Welch as Artim, Sojef's son.
- Mark Deakins as Tournel, a young Ba'ku man.
- Stephanie Niznik as Ensign Perim.

Patrick Stewart thought that the first Next Generation film, Star Trek Generations, was too much like a television episode but thought that his character, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, was redefined as a "movie hero" in Star Trek: First Contact. He was concerned that in the new film, the character would return to that seen in the television series. Michael Piller said that in order to be a hero, Picard "should be acting out of a moral and ethical mindset, and stand for principles that are important to [humanity]". Stewart was later pleased with the film's romantic sub-plot, calling it "charming" and saying that he was "feeling very good about it." He thought that the film had a lighter tone than previous films, saying, "It shows our crew having a little more fun than we normally see them doing". Stewart was disappointed that a scene in which Picard and Anij kiss was cut from the final version of the film, saying that "It was a studio decision, but still somewhat inexplicable to me as I feel the audience were waiting for some kind of romantic culmination to the relationship, which did happen and was extremely pleasant." Stewart received a producer's credit on the film.

Jonathan Frakes appeared as Commander William Riker, and as with First Contact he directed the project. Brent Spiner starred as Lieutenant Commander Data, asking for the character to be killed in Insurrection out of concern for aging out of the role. His copy of the script came with a note from the production team saying, "Sorry, kill you later". The underwater scene required Spiner to wear extra makeup to make it waterproof. LeVar Burton reprised his role of Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge; a month before the release of Insurrection he appeared in the role in a guest appearance in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Timeless".

Michael Dorn returned as Lieutenant Commander Worf, having portrayed him in Deep Space Nine since 1995. Reprising her role as Doctor Beverly Crusher, Gates McFadden said that "Shooting Star Trek and getting paid to do it is great. But what's actually changed my life the most is traveling around and ... being a tiny little part of this huge mythology that has changed people's lives, in many ways for the better." Marina Sirtis appeared once more as Counselor Deanna Troi. She was positive about the film, saying "we've been involved with this for eleven years, we've done 179 episodes, three movies, and there are still surprises. There are more layers in this movie, it's not as black and white. It goes back to a lot of what Gene Roddenberry felt about Star Trek — I think he's going to be very happy up there when he sees this movie."

Before the casting process, no actors had been considered for the roles of the Son'a leader, the Ba'ku woman, and the Starfleet admiral. The Son'a leader, Ahdar Ru'afo, was portrayed by F. Murray Abraham, who won an Academy Award for his performance in Amadeus. Abraham was given the role without an audition. Abraham said of the franchise, "I was around when the series was first introduced to television and it was a hoot". He praised his make-up and prosthetics, saying "The idea that you can be somebody else behind the mask is an extraordinary feeling — it's very primitive and mysterious. A gap opens somewhere in the brain and it encourages wildness. It had me chewing at the scenery". He was particularly pleased to be working with Patrick Stewart.

Donna Murphy played the Ba'ku woman Anij, who is Picard's love interest. Eighty actresses auditioned for the role, which was awarded to Murphy who had previously won two Tony Awards for her roles in the Broadway musicals Passion and The King and I. Murphy was such a favorite of Frakes and the producers that after auditioning, only a small number of other actresses were seen. She said of the role, "I feel a great honor and responsibility to be a part of this film, because I know that the Star Trek audience has such a devotion to and affection for these richly drawn characters."

Anthony Zerbe originally auditioned for the role of Ru'afo, and was considered to be the best choice for it. However, the production team decided instead to cast him in the role of Admiral Matthew Dougherty. During Zerbe's audition, instead of reading the lines provided, he recited Dante's Inferno before seamlessly moving into the script. Frakes and the producers unanimously decided to award him the part of Dougherty. In the film's smaller roles, Stephanie Niznik played Ensign Kell Perim and Daniel Hugh Kelly appeared as Sojef. Gregg Henry appeared as Gallatin, and 10-year-old Michael Welch played the Ba'ku child Artim. Michael Horton returned as the tactical officer he portrayed in First Contact; his character was called Lieutenant Daniels in this film. Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello played a Son'a warrior. Morello's make-up regime began at 5 am, at which time he said he would normally "be crawling back into my coffin".

Several of the film's actors had previously appeared in the Star Trek franchise. Bruce French, who portrayed Son'a Officer Number 1, appeared as Sabin Genestra in The Next Generation episode "The Drumhead" and as the Ocampa doctor in the Voyager pilot episode. Son'a Officer Number 3 was played by Joseph Ruskin, who appeared in four episodes across the Star Trek franchise: The Original Series episode "The Gamesters of Triskelion", and the Deep Space Nine episodes "Improbable Cause" and "Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places" and the Voyager episode "Gravity". McKenzie Westmore, daughter of make-up supervisor Michael Westmore, played a Ba'ku woman. She previously appeared as a child in The Next Generation season one episode "When the Bough Breaks" and as Ensign Jenkins in the Voyager episode "Warhead". Scenes cut from the film would have featured two of the actors who played Ferengi on Deep Space Nine: Max Grodénchik, more familiar as Rom, was to have appeared as a Trill in the library scene. Armin Shimerman filmed a scene in his role as Quark, in which he tries to set up timeshares on the Ba'ku planet at the end of the film.

## Production

### Development and writing

Following the success of First Contact, Paramount Pictures wanted a change in pace to give the follow-up film a lighter tone. Because Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is light in tone, yet was the most successful of all the Star Trek films at the box office as of then, Paramount reasoned that this success could be repeated with the new film. Michael Piller was asked to write the script, and accepted the position. Piller wished to escape the development hell of another project he was in. He wanted to give the crew a feeling of family, with a story featuring overtones of the Joseph Conrad novel Heart of Darkness. Rick Berman wanted to see Picard undertake a rescue mission in a similar manner to the 1937 film, The Prisoner of Zenda. Berman also originated an idea to have Picard kidnapped, and replaced with a surgically modified imposter. Piller was doubtful about Berman's idea, reasoning that the audience would not want to see an entire film in which Picard is not the lead star — the character would look like Patrick Stewart, but would be different. A further idea from Berman would have seen the return of Lore, last seen in the episode "Descent", in a film which was described as similar in tone to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Piller initially thought to write a Fountain of Youth-type story, later saying: "Everybody's consumed with images of youth. There's commercials, plastic surgery — our culture seems obsessed with youth." He called the initial treatment "Heart of Lightness". Eric A. Stillwell was Piller's executive assistant and script coordinator. When Piller agreed to write a book about the making of Insurrection, Pocket Books hired Stillwell as Piller's typist and research assistant. The book went unpublished, and it was alleged that Paramount Pictures suppressed it. Following Piller's death in 2005, the book was published on the internet.

Piller's first draft treatment for the film was titled Star Trek: Stardust, taken from the 1927 song "Stardust" by Hoagy Carmichael after hearing Nat King Cole's version on the radio. The treatment featured Picard resigning from Starfleet after he is sent to retrieve a population and their youth-giving power, and bring them to an alien government, and included a betrayal by Picard's rogue colleague. The draft went through several versions with only the crew's mission and the Briar Patch — named after the area from the Br'er Rabbit stories — remaining. Berman suggested that Data become the renegade crew-member that Picard must deal with. The plot was similar to The Next Generation episode "Homeward" in that a people were being relocated through use of a holodeck. The use of a duck blind to observe cultures was previously used in the episode "Who Watches the Watchers".

In one draft, Picard kills Data early in the film, and the android is later resurrected to help the Captain in the finale. The first two drafts featured the Romulans as the protagonists, since they had never prominently appeared in a Star Trek film. The second draft was seen by Jonathan Dolgen at the studio; Dolgen was not pleased and Patrick Stewart thought that it would have been only suitable for a television episode. In the third draft, the Son'a were introduced as the children of the Ba'ku and the alien race that wanted to plunder the planet. That version also included the crew sub-plots, such as the Troi-Riker romance and the regeneration of La Forge's eyes. Stewart, who was concerned that the film was a step back in scope from First Contact, was consulted on the treatments.

Piller drafted the first version of the script and asked Ira Steven Behr, executive producer of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, to review it. Behr was critical of the script, describing the Son'a as "paper tigers". Piller said that "I knew he was right. There's no question that first draft was trying to tell two stories, and that's one too many for a movie." Piller re-drafted the script, adding a romantic subplot for Picard in the shape of Anij, a Ba'ku woman. He added gravitas to the Son'a to make them more menacing, and the ending was changed to include a massive Son'a collector ship and a confrontation between Picard and Ru'afo aboard the ship. A version of the script was subsequently leaked onto the internet. At the same time, Piller and Berman were exploring titles for the film, including Prime Directive, The Directive, The Resignation, The Enemy Within, Breach of Promise, Dereliction of Duty and Apostasy, because, they reasoned, that they could not submit it to the studio under the title of Stardust. They could not settle on a title, so they submitted it as Star Trek IX.

The studio was pleased with the post-Behr version of the script, which was the first version of the script they saw, having previously only seen pre-script treatments. In a memo to Piller, it was described as "easily the funniest and sexiest Star Trek story to date". They gave Piller a series of directions, including a request for a resolution to the Troi and Riker romance and for the character of Reginald Barclay to be replaced with expanded roles either for Beverley Crusher, Worf, or a new character.

Patrick Stewart sought a change to the script to have the crew defend the Ba'ku village in the manner of the Battle of the Alamo instead of fleeing into the mountains. Piller could not find a feasible way to include this in the script, and the budget ruled out the creation of Alamo-like structures in the mountains. Several titles were considered for the film as shooting approached. Star Trek: Where Time Stands Still, Star Trek: Forever and Star Trek: Beyond Paradise were all considered but were rejected. Piller's favorite was Star Trek: Sacred Honor, but the studio rejected this, because they were concerned that it sounded too religious. When shooting began, the film was still called Star Trek IX.

The final version of the script was distributed to the cast, but Patrick Stewart did not receive a copy. Berman was concerned that if anyone had a problem with it, they would call Stewart to complain and it would appear as though Stewart was being left out because he had criticized the story. LeVar Burton called Stewart to praise the script. Stewart was sent a copy and requested a meeting to discuss changes. Piller feared the worst, but after a twenty-minute meeting with Stewart, who requested several dialogue changes, the script was finalized. During pre-production, the marketing department wanted to decide a title, preferring Star Trek: Revolution. Alan Spencer, a friend of Piller, suggested Insurrection, which was selected from a choice of Insurrection, Rebellion, High Treason and Act of Treason.

After filming was complete, test screenings were held, and the production team became aware of a problem with the ending. In the original ending, Ru'afo is ejected into space from the Son'a collector ship and de-ages rapidly as he floats amongst the rings of the planet Ba'ku. The revised ending saw the Enterprise swoop in at the last minute to save Picard and destroy the collector ship with Ru'afo aboard. The studio liked the new ending but wanted a bigger space battle. The production team agreed providing they could postpone the release to allow enough time for this. Because the studio wanted Insurrection to be released in time for Christmas, no further revisions were made to the ending.

### Visual effects

Insurrection was the first Star Trek film with space-based effects produced entirely using computer-generated imagery (CGI). While CGI had been used for specific effects since Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan; Insurrection was the first Star Trek film to be made without using physical models of spacecraft. Santa Barbara Studios produced the effects, which included CGI starship models. The texture on the model of the Enterprise-E was created from a series of close-up photographs of the model Enterprise which had been used in First Contact. The planet-based effects, such as phaser fire, transporter effects and the Son'a drones were created by Blue Sky Studios. Peter Lauritson was the co-producer for post-production.

Herman Zimmerman was the production designer, and had three months to design and construct 55 full sets for the film, eighteen more than used in the previous film in the series. Zimmerman said that it was "probably the most scenery we've built for a Star Trek motion picture since the first one, when everything was brand new". The Ba'ku village was built in full scale on location at Lake Sherwood, California, with architectural designs combining Thai, Balinese and Polynesian styles. The village included a bakery, a farm with a full irrigation system, a city hall, and a city square which was referred to as the "rotunda". The location shoot lasted for six weeks. The buildings included sections built with styrofoam, which were cut out using computer aided design and computer-aided manufacturing techniques. These were covered in hardcoat to make them look as though they were made from stone, but they were not made waterproof. The set suffered water damage following record-levels of rainfall during the spring of 1998. The foam warped as it dried out in the sun, causing delays in shooting while repairs were made.

Sets built for use in Star Trek: Voyager were redressed to appear as the Enterprise-E in Insurrection; Captain Janeway's quarters became Picard's, the Voyager briefing room became Riker's quarters, and part of the Voyager engineering set became the Enterprise library. The interior of the scoutship flown by Data was originally the cockpit of the Voyager's shuttlecraft, while the interior of the Enterprise shuttlecraft used the interior set from a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Runabout. Filming began on March 31, 1998, and concluded on July 2. According to Frakes, half of the time shooting was spent on location. The scenes in which the Enterprise crew and the Ba'ku take refuge in the mountains were shot on location above Lake Sabrina in the Sierra Nevada in locations which could only be reached by helicopter. The location was around 10,000 feet (3,000 m) above sea level, and a medic was on standby with oxygen if the cast or crew required it.

After filming, parts of the interior sets of the So'na ships were added using CGI. Stage 15 on the Paramount lot was used for the climactic scene between Picard and Ru'afo. Because of the dangers of the four-story scaffolding-like set, the actors were attached by safety cables at all times. Paramount's B tank, which was used to represent San Francisco Bay in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, was used to shoot footage of Picard, Data and Anij at the Ba'ku lake. For a scene in which Data walks along a lake bed, the actor's tricorder prop was covered with plastic to make it watertight.

### Costumes and make-up

Make-up supervisor Michael Westmore aimed to create a look for the Son'a that was not exaggerated. He consulted several sculptors; Dean Jones, who was on the production staff for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, created the look. The prosthetics for Ru'afo consisted of overlapping layers that were stretched over Abraham's head. Westmore said Abraham's prosthetics was "like a rubber band, F. Murray Abraham could turn his head and the skin would look translucent. It was so thin, and the layers were pulling on each other." The two other aliens on the Son'a vessels also had specific prosthetic make-up designs created. The Tarlac's look was based on reptilian skin, while the Ellora required only nose and forehead prosthetics.

The film also gave costume designer Robert Blackman an opportunity to address issues with the Starfleet dress uniforms, which Blackman had changed on several occasions during The Next Generation. The uniforms appeared for the first time in the episode "Lonely Among Us", and were based on the 18th century designs for the Royal Navy. For Insurrection, Blackman initially thought of creating a uniform with short jackets in blue, red and gold, which he later said was "not a good idea". His eventual design removed the color palettes for specific divisions. Blackman said, "No matter what, white over black has a formal look to it." Sanja Milkovic Hayes created the remaining new costumes for the film. She avoided making the Ba'ku look too cute, and used material made from cellulose fiber specifically created for Insurrection. She said it was organic, and was simply cooked and then glued together. The Son'a costumes were made from layers of crushed velvet and metal strips. The female bodysuits were made of latex; Hayes wanted them to appear "sexy, but not vulgar" and described the outfits as "very conservative".

### Music

The score for Insurrection was composed by Jerry Goldsmith; his fourth score for the franchise. Goldsmith continued using the march and Klingon themes written for Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979, adding new themes and variations. Insurrection opens with Alexander Courage's Star Trek: The Original Series fanfare, introducing a six-note motif used in many of the film's action sequences. The Ba'ku are scored with a pastoral theme with repeating harps, string sections and a woodwind solo. The Ba'ku's ability to slow time was accompanied with a variation of this music.

Goldsmith used quick bursts of brass music to accompany the starship sequences. For scenes in which observers are watching the Ba'ku unseen, Goldsmith used a "spying theme" that resembles his conspiracy theme from Capricorn One. Composed of a piano, timpani percussion, and brass, the theme builds until it is interrupted by the action theme as Data opens fire. Goldsmith did not write a motif for the Son'a, but scored the action sequence without designating the Son'a as an antagonist, suggesting the film's revelation that the Son'a and Ba'ku are related. The film's climax is scored with the action theme, which is balanced with "sense of wonder" music similar to cues from The Motion Picture.

One scene in the film shows Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner conducting a duet of A British Tar from the Gilbert and Sullivan comic-opera H.M.S. Pinafore. This replaced the original idea of Picard and Data reciting scenes from Shakespeare's play King Lear. Stewart had suggested that they sing Three Little Maids from School are we from The Mikado instead, but the producers described this as "too vulgar". Stewart and Spiner had previously sung together on Spiner's 1991 album Ol' Yellow Eyes Is Back.

In 2013, GNP Crescendo Records re-released the soundtrack for the film as an expanded collector's edition [GNPD 8082], featuring previously unreleased tracks by Goldsmith plus four bonus tracks.

## Reception

### Release

The world premiere of Insurrection launched the 1998 CineVegas film festival. It went on general release in the U.S. and Canada on December 11, 1998. The film grossed \$22.4 million over the opening weekend; the most of any film during that period. It averaged a total of \$8,417 per location across 2,620 theaters, but fell short of the opening weekend takings of both First Contact and Generations, which were \$30.7 million and \$23.1 million respectively.

Insurrection was the highest-grossing film during the first week of its release in the United States, beating A Bug's Life, and stayed in the top ten for a further three weeks. During its first week of release in the UK, it was the highest-grossing film, exceeding the takings of the Will Smith film Enemy of the State. Insurrection enjoyed a two-week spell at the top of the UK box office and eventually earned £7,429,398, roughly the same as Generations. It went on to gross \$70,187,658 in the US and \$47,612,342 in other countries for a total of \$117,800,000 worldwide against a \$70 million budget. It was the first Star Trek film to be promoted through the official website, which was called the "Star Trek Continuum" at the time. Following the success of the film, Rick Berman said that he wanted to release the next film in the series three years after Insurrection. Referencing Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, he said: "The notion of releasing a science fiction film in the year 2001 is very seductive."

### Critical response

The critical response to Insurrection was mixed. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 55% based on 67 reviews, with critic consensus being that, "Although not terrible, the sluggishly paced Insurrection plays like an extended episode of the TV series." On Metacritic the film has a score of 64 out of 100, based on reviews from 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B+.

The Los Angeles Daily News said that the film had the "bare bones of one of those pseudo-philosophical political allegories Trek has always done so entertainingly. But the movie blows it." It praised the directing of Jonathan Frakes and the computer generated special effects and gave the film two and a half stars overall. The Daily Herald also gave the film two and a half stars, describing it as a "slickly made" movie with a plot "scaled down to its TV roots", and criticized the "frivolous" romance between Riker and Troi. The Washington Times gave the film one and a half stars, saying that it was "consistently flat-footed and slow on the uptake", and that there was "ramshackle confusion during the climactic scenes".

The Scottish Daily Record praised F. Murray Abraham and described Anthony Zerbe as "ever-dependable". It said the plot was good, but that it was simply an extended episode of The Next Generation, and gave it a score of six out of ten. The British newspaper The People also said it was an extended television episode.

The Independent said that Insurrection "never stops being familiarly jolly and antiquated", and called the entire Star Trek film franchise "old-fashioned". The Washington Post also called the film old-fashioned, but "in the best sense of the word", and said that the film did what the "doctor – make that Dr. 'Bones' McCoy – ordered". British journalist Simon Rose, writing for The Daily Mirror was more critical of the film, saying that it failed to break the odd-numbered Star Trek film curse, and that it was "feeble", "moribund" and "tedious". However, Josh Spiegel writing for The Buffalo News said that Insurrection broke the odd-numbered film rule. Further criticism came from the Birmingham Evening Mail, which said that it was "an adult form of entertainment equivalent to Teletubbies for babies", and that there were "lots of repetition, rubbery faces, gibberish dialogue, characters leaping up and down in funny suits and some very basic effects". The reviewer gave the film two stars for fans, and none for non-fans. In Folklore/Cinema: Popular Film as Vernacular Culture, the actions of Data and the Ba'ku child Artim in Insurrection are seen as "a metamorphosis motif where a child becomes computerlike and a computer/android becomes more childlike". Data specifically "is a metaphor for a child who seeks to understand what being human means and then, like the velveteen rabbit, wishes to become. From confronting his father and evil brother to finding his mother, Data also represents the potential within all of us to quest for a fuller humanity".

### Accolades

The film was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film at the 25th Saturn Awards; the prize was shared by Armageddon and Dark City. In 1999, it was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, which went to The Truman Show. It was nominated for Best Family Feature Film: Drama at the 20th Youth in Film Awards and won the individual award for Best Performance in a Feature Film: Supporting Young Actor for Michael Welch.

## Home media

The first home media release of the film was made simultaneously on VHS, Laserdisc and DVD on May 11, 1999, in the United States, and outside the US on VHS later that year. The film was released on June 5, 2000, in the United Kingdom, and was one of the first titles to be released on DVD by Paramount Home Entertainment International in Europe and Japan.

A video game which followed up on the events of Insurrection was released in 2000. Entitled Star Trek: Hidden Evil, it was set nine months after the events depicted in the film. In its narrative, a Son'a colony has been created on Ba'ku, and an archaeological discovery which shares similarities with The Next Generation episode "The Chase" is made. The game was developed by Presto Studios and published by Activision.

An Insurrection "Special Collector's Edition" two-disc set was released in 2005 at the same time as three other Next Generation films and Star Trek: Enterprise's fourth season, marking the first time that every film and episode of the franchise was available on home video. The film was presented with the same technical specifications as the previous release and a new DTS soundtrack, but it shipped without an audio commentary. The DVD includes a text track by Michael and Denise Okuda that provides production trivia and relevant facts about the Star Trek universe. The second disc contains six "making-of" videos, including one about the construction of the Ba'ku village and one about Michael Westmore's make-up designs for the film.

As part of a collection of Star Trek: The Next Generation films, Insurrection was released on Blu-ray and DVD on September 22, 2009. The Blu-ray transfer is presented in 1080p high definition enhanced for widescreen television and features 5.1 Dolby TrueHD audio in English, French and Spanish. The release also contains "Creating the Illusion" featurettes and new commentary by Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis. The four Next Generation feature films were released on Ultra HD Blu-ray on April 4, 2023, in standalone and collected formats.

## See also

- Star Trek film series
- List of films featuring extraterrestrials

Films based on Star Trek: The Next Generation

Films with screenplays by Michael Piller


L'Arianna

L'Arianna (SV 291, Ariadne) is the lost second opera by Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi. One of the earliest operas in general, it was composed in 1607–1608 and first performed on 28 May 1608, as part of the musical festivities for a royal wedding at the court of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga in Mantua. All the music is lost apart from the extended recitative known as "Lamento d'Arianna" ("Ariadne's Lament"). The libretto, which survives complete, was written in eight scenes by Ottavio Rinuccini, who used Ovid's Heroides and other classical sources to relate the story of Ariadne's abandonment by Theseus on the island of Naxos and her subsequent elevation as bride to the god Bacchus.

The opera was composed under severe pressure of time; the composer later said that the effort of creating it almost killed him. The initial performance, produced with lavish and innovative special effects, was highly praised, and the work was equally well received in Venice when it was revived under the composer's direction in 1640 as the inaugural work for the Teatro San Moisè.

Rinuccini's libretto is available in a number of editions. The music of the "Lamento" survives because it was published by Monteverdi, in several different versions, independently from the opera. This fragment became a highly influential musical work and was widely imitated; the "expressive lament" became an integral feature of Italian opera for much of the 17th century. In recent years the "Lamento" has become popular as a concert and recital piece and has been frequently recorded.

## Historical context

In about 1590 Claudio Monteverdi, born in Cremona in 1567, secured a position as a viol player at the Mantuan court of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga. Over the following ten years he advanced to become the duke's maestro della musica. During that time, significant developments were taking place in the world of musical theatre; in 1598 the work generally recognised as the first in the new genre of "opera"—Jacopo Peri's Dafne—was performed in Florence. The duke was quick to recognise the potential of this new musical form, and its potential for bringing prestige to those willing to sponsor it.

As part of his duties to the Gonzaga court, Monteverdi was often required to compose or arrange music for staged performances. These works included a fully-fledged opera, L'Orfeo, written to a libretto by Alessandro Striggio the Younger and presented before the court on 24 February 1607. This performance pleased the duke, who ordered a repeat showing for 1 March. A contemporary account records that the piece "could not have been done better ... The music, observing due propriety, serves the poetry so well that nothing more beautiful is to be heard anywhere". Monteverdi was then required to write several pieces for performance at the wedding of the duke's son and heir Francesco to Margaret of Savoy, planned for early May 1608. These included a musical prologue for Battista Guarini's play L'idropica and a setting of the dramatic ballet Il ballo delle ingrate ("Dance of the Ungrateful Ladies"), with a text by Ottavio Rinuccini. There was also to be an opera, though it was not initially certain that Monteverdi would provide this. Other works under consideration were Peri's Le nozze di Peleo e Tetide ("The marriage of Peleus and Thetis") with a libretto by Francesco Cini, and a new setting of Dafne by Marco da Gagliano. In the event, the former was rejected and the latter designated for performance at the 1607–08 Carnival. The duke decreed that the wedding opera should be based on the myth of Arianna (Ariadne), and that Rinuccini should write the text. Monteverdi was instructed to provide the music.

## Creation

### Libretto

At the time of his commission for L'Arianna, Rinuccini was probably the most experienced and distinguished of all librettists. His writing career stretched back to 1579, when he had written verses for the Florentine court entertainment Maschere d'Amazzoni. He had become widely known through his verse contributions to the celebrated intermedi for Girolamo Bargagli's play La Pellegrina (The Pilgrim Woman), performed in May 1589 at the wedding of Ferdinando I de' Medici and Christina of Lorraine. According to Gagliano, Rinuccini was a primary influence in the emergence of opera as a genre; he adapted the conventions of his contemporary lyric poets to produce the librettos for two of the earliest operas, Dafne and Euridice—the latter set to music by both Peri and Giulio Caccini.

For his Arianna libretto Rinuccini drew on a variety of classical sources, notably the tenth book of Ovid's Heroides, parts of the Carmina of Catullus, and the section in Virgil's epic Aeneid dealing with Dido's abandonment by Aeneas. He also used aspects of more recent literary works—Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata, and Giovanni Andrea dell' Anguillara's 1561 translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses. The libretto was extended during the rehearsals when Carlo de' Rossi, a member of the duke's court, reported the Duchess Eleonora's complaint that the piece was "very dry" and needed to be enriched with further action. The libretto published in Venice in 1622 takes the form of a prologue and eight scenes, although other arrangements of the text have been suggested. For example, the musicologist Bojan Bujić has posited an alternative of a prologue and five scenes.

### Composition

Monteverdi probably began composing in late October or early November 1607, since Rinuccini's arrival in Mantua can be dated to 23 October. With rehearsals due to begin in the new year, Monteverdi composed the work in a hurry and under considerable pressure; nearly 20 years later he was still complaining, in a letter to Striggio, of the hardships he had been made to suffer: "It was the shortness of time that brought me almost to death's door in writing L'Arianna".

Monteverdi had apparently completed the score by early January, and rehearsals began. However, his work was not over as he was required to write further music when the work was extended after Rossi's intervention. Among the material added or lengthened were the early scene between Venus and Cupid, and Jupiter's blessing from heaven at the end of the opera. In March 1608, well into the rehearsal period, the opera's scheduled performance was jeopardised by the death, from smallpox, of the leading soprano Caterina Martinelli. Fortunately a replacement was to hand, a renowned actress and singer, Virginia Ramponi-Andreini, known professionally as "La Florinda", who was performing in Mantua. A courtier, Antonio Costantini, later reported that she learned the part of Arianna in six days. The musicologist Tim Carter suggests that Arianna's lament may have been added to the opera at this late stage, to exploit La Florinda's well-known vocal capabilities.

## Roles

The casting for the opera's premiere is uncertain. While the participation of singers such as La Florinda and Francesco Rasi can be established, sources have speculated on the involvement of other singers. There are several versions of the published libretto; the list of roles is taken from the publication by Gherardo & Iseppo Imberti, Venice 1622.

## Synopsis

The action is preceded by a brief prologue, delivered by Apollo. Venus and Cupid are then discovered, in conversation, on a desolate seashore. Venus informs Cupid that Duke Theseus of Athens, together with Ariadne, will soon be arriving on the island of Naxos on their way to Athens. They are fleeing from Crete, where the pair have been complicit in the slaying of Ariadne's monster half-brother, the Minotaur, in the labyrinth below the palace of her father, King Minos. Venus is aware that Theseus intends to abandon Ariadne on Naxos, and to proceed to Athens alone. Cupid offers to rekindle Theseus's passion for Ariadne, but Venus has decided to unite her with the god Bacchus, and asks Cupid to arrange this.

Cupid conceals himself, as Theseus and Ariadne arrive on the island a short distance away. Ariadne muses over her disloyalty to her father, but declares her love for Theseus. She departs to find shelter for the night, after which a fishermen's chorus compares her eyes with the stars of heaven. Theseus, alone with his counsellor, discusses his abandonment of Ariadne, and is advised that this decision is justified, as she will not be acceptable to the people of Athens as their ruler's consort.

A chorus greets the dawn as Ariadne, after a troubled night's sleep, returns to the shore with her companion, Dorilla, to find that Theseus has departed. Dorilla offers her comfort. In despair at the thought that Theseus will not return, Ariadne nevertheless decides to go to the landing area to wait for him. In a pastoral interlude a chorus sings of the joys of rural life, and expresses the hope that Theseus will not forget Ariadne. Primed by an envoy with the news that Ariadne is alone and sorrowing, the chorus again sings in sympathy with her. On the beach, Ariadne sings her lament for her lost love and prepares to kill herself. At this point fanfares are heard heralding an arrival, causing Ariadne to hope that it is Theseus returning. In another interlude the chorus empathises, but a second envoy announces that it is Bacchus who has arrived, having taken pity on Ariadne. A sung ballo celebrates the anticipated betrothal of Bacchus and Ariadne. In the final scene Cupid reappears, and Venus rises from the sea before Jupiter speaks his blessing from the heavens. The union is sealed as Bacchus promises Ariadne immortality in heaven, and a crown of stars.

## Performance history

### Premiere: Mantua, 1608

The date of the Gonzaga wedding was repeatedly postponed, because of diplomatic problems which delayed the bride's arrival in Mantua until 24 May. The wedding festivities began four days later; L'Arianna was performed on 28 May 1608, the first of the several spectacular entertainments. A large temporary theatre had been built for the occasion; according to the court's chronicler Federico Follino this held 6,000 people—a figure which Carter deems unlikely. Whatever its size, the arena could not hold everyone who wished to be present. Follino's account records that although the duke had strictly limited the numbers from his household entitled to be there, many distinguished foreign visitors could not be seated and were obliged to crowd around the doors.

Although contained within a single stage set, the production was lavish, with 300 men employed to manipulate the stage machinery. Follino's report described the set as "a wild rocky place in the midst of the waves, which in the furthest part of the prospect could be seen always in motion". As the action began, Apollo was revealed "sitting on a very beautiful cloud ... which, moving down little by little ... reached in a short space of time the stage and ... disappeared in a moment". Thereafter, all the performers proved excellent in the art of singing; "every part succeeded more than wondrously". Follino's enthusiasm was echoed in other reports made by dignitaries to their own courts. The ambassador for the House of Este, who referred to the work as "a comedy in music", mentioned in particular Andreini's performance which, in her lament, "made many weep", and that of Francesco Rasi, who as Bacchus "sang divinely". Monteverdi's fellow composer Marco da Gagliano wrote that Monteverdi's music had "moved the entire audience to tears". In all, the opera lasted for two and a half hours.

### Revival: Venice, 1639–40

Despite the positive reception accorded to L'Arianna at its premiere, the duke did not request a second showing, as he had with L'Orfeo the previous year". The next hint of a performance of L'Arianna is in 1614, when the Medici court in Florence requested a copy of the score, presumably with the intention of staging it. There is, however, no record of any such performance there. Early in 1620 Striggio asked Monteverdi to send him the music for a projected performance in Mantua as part of the celebration for the Duchess Caterina's birthday. Monteverdi went to the trouble and expense of preparing a new manuscript with revisions; had he had more time, he informed Striggio, he would have revised the work more thoroughly. Hearing nothing further from the Mantuan court, Monteverdi wrote to Striggio on 18 April 1620, offering to help with the staging. A month or so later, however, he learned that the duchess's celebrations had been scaled back, and that there had been no performance of L'Arianna.

There is some evidence to suggest a possible performance in Dubrovnik, in or some time after 1620; a Croatian translation of the libretto was published in Ancona in 1633. However, the only known revival of the work came in Venice, in 1640. Public theatre opera had come to the city in March 1637, when the new Teatro San Cassiano opened with a performance of L'Andromeda by Francesco Manelli. The popularity of this and other works led to more theatres converting their facilities for opera; L'Arianna was chosen to inaugurate the Teatro San Moisè as an opera house during the 1639–40 Carnival (the precise date of this performance is not recorded). A revised version of the libretto had been published in 1639, with substantial cuts and revisions from the 1608 version to remove passages too specifically linked to the Mantuan wedding. The composer, who was by then 73 years old, had acquired considerable prestige in Venice, having been director of music at St Mark's Basilica since 1613. The dedication in the revised and republished libretto describes him as "[the] most celebrated Apollo of the century and the highest intelligence of the heavens of humanity". The opera was received with great enthusiasm by a Venetian audience already familiar with the lament, which had been published in the city in 1623. Within a few weeks the theatre replaced L'Arianna with Monteverdi's new opera Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, which proved an even greater success.

## Loss

After the Venice revival of 1639–40 there are no further records of performances of L'Arianna. Rinuccini's libretto, which was published on several occasions during Monteverdi's lifetime, has survived intact, but the opera's music disappeared some time after 1640, with the exception of Ariadne's scene 6 lament, known as "Lamento d'Arianna". In the loss of its music the opera shares the fate of most of Monteverdi's theatrical works, including six of his other nine operas. Carter's explanation for the high rate of attrition is that "memories were short and large-scale musical works often had limited currency beyond their immediate circumstances"; such music was rarely published and quickly discarded.

## "Lamento d'Arianna"

The lament was saved from oblivion by Monteverdi's decision to publish it independently from the opera: first in 1614 as a five-voice madrigal, then in 1623 as a monody, and finally in 1641 as a sacred hymn, "Lamento della Madonna". The five-voice adaptation was included in the composer's Sixth Book of Madrigals; there is evidence that this arrangement was made at the suggestion of an unnamed Venetian gentleman who thought that the melody would benefit from counterpoint. In 1868, François-Auguste Gevaert published the lament in Paris, and in 1910 the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi issued an edited, orchestral transcription, P [it] 088.

In her analysis of the lament, the musicologist Suzanne Cusick asserts that "[T]o a large extent Monteverdi's fame and historical status rested for centuries on the universal appreciation of his achievement in the celebrated lament [which] was among the most emulated, and therefore influential, works of the early 17th century". In Cusick's view Monteverdi "creat[ed] the lament as a recognizable genre of vocal chamber music and as a standard scene in opera ... that would become crucial, almost genre-defining, to the full-scale public operas of 17th-century Venice" and she concludes by noting that the women of Mantua would have recognised the transformations enacted in the lament as representative of their own life stories. Monteverdi, she believes, sought to represent in music the eventual triumph of female piety over promiscuity: "Arianna's gradual loss of her passionate self in the lament constitutes a public musical chastening of this incautious woman who dared to choose her own mate". In her study The Recitative Soliloquy, Margaret Murata records that laments of this kind became a staple feature of operas until about 1650, "thereafter more rarely until the total triumph of the aria around 1670". Mark Ringer, in his analysis of Monteverdi's musical drama, suggests that the lament defines Monteverdi's innovative creativity in a manner similar to that in which, two-and-a-half centuries later, the "Prelude" and the "Liebestod" in Tristan und Isolde announced Wagner's discovery of new expressive frontiers.

In its operatic context the lament takes the form of an extended recitative of more than 70 vocal lines, delivered in five sections divided by choral comments. Some of the wording is prefigured in the immediately preceding scene in which the First Envoy describes Arianna's plight to a sympathetic chorus of fishermen. The lament depicts Arianna's various emotional reactions to her abandonment: sorrow, anger, fear, self-pity, desolation and a sense of futility. Cusick draws attention to the manner in which Monteverdi is able to match in music the "rhetorical and syntactical gestures" in Rinuccini's text. The opening repeated words "Lasciatemi morire" (Let me die) are accompanied by a dominant seventh chord which Ringer describes as "an unforgettable chromatic stab of pain"; Monteverdi was one of the first users of this musical device. What follows, says Ringer, has a range and depth "comparable to Shakespeare's most searching soliloquies". The words "Lasciatemi morire" are followed by "O Teseo, O Teseo mio" (O Theseus, my Theseus"); the two phrases represent Arianna's contrasting emotions of despair and longing. Throughout the lament indignation and anger are punctuated by tenderness, until the final iteration of "O Teseo", after which a descending line brings the lament to a quiet conclusion.

Among other composers who adopted the format and style of Arianna's lament were Francesco Cavalli, whose opera Le nozze di Teti e di Peleo contains three such pieces; Francesco Costa, who included a setting of Rinuccini's text in his madrigal collection Pianta d'Arianna; and Sigismondo d'India, who wrote several laments in the 1620s after the monodic version of Arianna's lament was published in 1623. Monteverdi himself used the expressive lament format in each of his two late operas, Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria and L'incoronazione di Poppea, for the respective characters of Penelope and Ottavia. In 1641 Monteverdi adapted Arianna's lament into a sacred song with a Latin text "Pianto della Madonna" (incipit: "Iam moriar, mi fili"), which he included in Selva morale e spirituale, the last of his works published during his lifetime.

## Recordings, "Lamento d'Arianna"

Many recordings are available of both the five-voice madrigal and the solo voice version of the "Lamento". The solo recordings include several versions which use a tenor or baritone voice. Among leading singers who have issued recordings are the sopranos Emma Kirkby and Véronique Gens, and the mezzo-sopranos Janet Baker and Anne Sofie von Otter.

## Editions

At least eight versions of the libretto were published between 1608 and 1640. The following is a list of the known editions:

- Aurelio et Ludovico Osanna, Mantua, 1608. Publication of the text included in Federico Follini's report of the 1608 performance;
- Heredi di Francesco Osanna, Mantua, 1608. Possibly the text circulated to the audience at the 1608 performance;
- I. Giunti, Florence, 1608;
- Bernardo Giunti, Giovan Battista Ciotti & Co., Venice, 1608;
- Ghirardo et Iseppo Imberti, Venice, 1622;
- G. F. Gundulić, Ancona, 1633. Croatian translation, prepared for possible performance in Dubrovnik c. 1620. (5 scenes version);
- Angelo Salvadori, Venice, 1639. Revised version prepared for the 1640 revival;
- Antonio Bariletti, Venice, 1640.

Opera by Claudio Monteverdi