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Posted: 00:27:47 on October 10 2002
By: Steve Krutzler
Dept: Star Trek: Nemesis

Speaking in the November issue of Starlog Magazine, ST:TNG and STAR TREK NEMESIS actor Brent Spiner says the brass at Paramount weren't too enthusiastic about sending the TNG crew out for a fourth big screen adventure. In fact, he reveals that the studio may have been open to an oft-suggested alternative for future STAR TREK movies--an entirely new cast--in lieu of NEMESIS.

"I had had a conversation with Rick [Berman]. The studio, I think, wasn't really crazy about doing another movie with the Next Generation crew," the actor admits. "What I think they wanted to do was a movie with a new Star Trek cast. Rick said he didn't think that that was a good idea, and he didn't think that it would work. He told them, believe it or not, that the audience still enjoys seeing us. He wasn't really interested in doing another one unless we were in it."

Spiner says the TNG crew's return was anything but locked, even with Berman's endorsement.

"Through some negotiations here and there - about the budget and things like that - it came down to, 'Yes, they're interested in doing another one. And Yes, they're interested in having us do it'," he frankly told the magazine.

The actor says initial discussions to get the tenth feature off the ground were hampered and when story meetings with Patrick Stewart, Spiner and Berman failed to get anywhere, it was long-time friend and hot Hollywood screenwriter John Logan who finally got NEMESIS out of dry dock.

"Rick, Patrick and I got together and tried to come up with something. We stumbled around for a while, looking for a storyline, and then Patrick got really busy," Spiner says. "That was more than two years ago. John's a friend of mine, and I was talking to him in Chicago, where he lives. I said, 'You know, they want to do another one. We are not sure if we're going to be able to come up with it.' He said, 'Well, let me be a part of it. I want to write a Star Trek movie.'"

Logan's involvement proved fortuitous.

"Who were we to turn down an A-list writer who had just written an Academy Award winning movie, knows Star Trek very well and wanted to be a part of it? So he and I started to fiddle around. We went to see Rick, and he said, 'Great, we'll work together.' And the three of us sat in Rick's office and wrote the story."

Now that the film is in the can and just two months from release, the actor who's played 'Lieutenant Commander Data' for fifteen years credits other TREK outsiders and his fellow actors for producing a film that even the usually low-key Spiner is happy to tout.

"I think NEMESIS is going to be really good, and I hardly ever say that kind of thing," he says. "We have a director who really knows how to shoot action. We have a wonderful director of photography (Jeff Kimball, who worked on Mission Impossible II) who also really knows how to shoot action. And all of us in the cast, I think, are at the top of our game. From the scenes I've watched, my fellow actors are turning in wonderful performances. So what's not to like?"

Fifteen years may be nothing for his character, but Spiner has no difficulty explaining why Data seems to have aged along with the rest of the crew.

"The aging chip was only mentioned in one episode, and almost nobody remembers it," he recalls strategically. "But in that episode we did mention that there is a chip in me that will keep me aging at the same rate as my fellow crew members - so that they won't be intimidated by me staying the same age while they grow older. And once they die, I can take out the chip and go back to my original, beautiful self. But, nah, I don't know. It's Star Trek."

But will NEMESIS truly be the final bow for NEXT GEN? It's been the hot topic ever since the marketing department unveiled its slogan for the film. Spiner will never say never.

"This film could close out the series. It really could. It's a perfect period to our entire experience," he offers. "If this film is the last one we do, I don't think any of us will be sorry that we ended it with NEMESIS. But then again, as Sean Connery once said, 'Never say never.' If John Logan stays in the game and there's another great story and everyone wants to come back and the studio wants to make another one, who knows?"

In the end, the actor thinks NEMESIS will resonate with audiences.

"This movie is about something. I think it's kind of interesting to have an action picture that's actually about something."

Check out the November issue of Starlog on newsstands now.

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