--- title: "Star Trek: Nemesis" year: 2002 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/star-trek-nemesis" fi1m_score: 50 critics_score: 54 critics_reviews: 14 published: "2026-09-16T23:40:16.831290+00:00" updated: "2026-09-16T23:40:27.335480+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) Directed by Stuart Baird · 1h 56m · MPA PG-13 · Science Fiction, Action, Adventure, Thriller **Fi1m score: 50** · Critics 54 from 14 reviews *In a sentence:* Picard meets a younger, balder version of himself and the film still cannot find anything for the rest of the crew to do > Tom Hardy makes a hungry, whispering double for Picard and Jerry Goldsmith writes the crew a proper farewell; between them Stuart Baird stages a car chase, some corridor shootouts and a shaking bridge, and a generation’s last voyage ends as an action film nobody needed. ## Synopsis On Romulus, the Senate is wiped out by a weapon that turns the senators to grey dust in their seats, and a young human, Shinzon (Tom Hardy), is installed as Praetor. On Earth, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) gives a speech at the wedding of Commander William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), who are leaving the Enterprise for Riker’s first command. On the way to the honeymoon the crew stop at a desert planet, where Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) finds scattered in the sand the pieces of an android with his own face. Then Shinzon invites Picard to Romulus to talk peace, and the captain sits down to dinner opposite a man who knows a great deal about him. ## Review *Star Trek: Nemesis* is the tenth film in the series and the fourth with the crew of *The Next Generation*, and its tagline calls it a generation’s final journey. John Logan’s script opens on Romulus, where the whole Senate is killed in a minute by a weapon that leaves them grey and crumbling in their chairs. A new Praetor, Shinzon (Tom Hardy), takes power and invites Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) to talk peace. Before he gets there the Enterprise stops on Earth for the wedding of Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Troi (Marina Sirtis), and on a desert planet to dig up an android with Data’s face. Then Picard sits down to dinner with Shinzon and finds out what he is, and the film has its one good idea. Hardy is the reason to watch. Bald, whispering, leaning across the table as if he means to take a bite out of his host, he plays Shinzon as a young man who wants Picard’s approval and Picard’s life in roughly equal measure. Jeffrey L. Kimball lights the dinner low and amber and holds on the two faces, and Stewart plays a man being flattered who knows exactly what flattery is for. For ten minutes the film is a two-hander about a person and the accident of who he is. We would have taken two hours of it. What we get instead is Stuart Baird’s idea of an action film, and it is a poor one. The desert planet becomes a dune buggy chase, shot flat and cut by Dallas Puett into short pieces we could not follow, with Picard at the wheel grinning like a man on a stag weekend. We were bored by it, and then we were annoyed, because we knew this was meant to be goodbye and the film was spending it on a car chase. Later there are corridor shootouts, a bridge that shakes on cue, and a fist fight between Riker and Ron Perlman’s Viceroy Vkruk that gets more screen time than Riker’s departure for his own command. The rest of the crew are onlookers. LeVar Burton’s La Forge reports on things. Michael Dorn’s Worf gets two jokes. Gates McFadden’s Crusher stands behind Picard. Sirtis is given one queasy scene the film plainly thinks is daring, then a console to sit at. Brent Spiner has a story credit and, not by coincidence, the second-biggest part, playing both Data and the simpler android from the sand; the doubling is meant to rhyme with Picard and Shinzon, and Logan’s dialogue says so out loud in case we missed it. At 116 minutes the film feels trimmed, and what was trimmed was these people. Herman F. Zimmerman’s production design gives Shinzon a warship shaped like a black bat and a throne room in green shadow, and Robert Blackman and Bob Ringwood dress his soldiers in ridged leather and cowls. It is handsome and looks a good deal like every other dark ship in the series. The Enterprise sets are the television sets with the lights turned down. Jerry Goldsmith’s score is the other thing that works. The horn theme from the series comes back at the right moments, and the last cue does more grieving than the script has earned. It moved us in the closing minutes more than anything the actors were allowed to do, and we resented the film slightly for making its composer carry it. The model is plainly *The Wrath of Khan* from 1982, the captain and the enemy who is his reflection, and Logan borrows its shape down to the closing gesture. The earlier film knew its people and let them grieve on camera. *First Contact*, which Frakes directed in 1996, was rougher but gave the whole crew something to do. Baird gives them lines and no scenes. Most critics landed in the middle, as we have, though a few have since argued the film deserves a second look as a send-off that ties things up. It ties them up the way a landlord ends a tenancy. If you have watched these people for years, the last ten minutes will get you, and you may be cross about how little of the preceding hundred earned them. If you have not, start with the television programme, which knew what it had. *Fi1m score 50, published 16 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics settle on the same word for Nemesis: solid. It is judged a competent tenth entry that resolves the Romulan thread and a few crew storylines, and the praise clusters on Patrick Stewart, whose Picard is said to carry the film, and on Tom Hardy as his young clone Shinzon. The long dinner between the two is the scene most often singled out, and several reviews find the action brisker and the effects more efficient than in earlier instalments. The complaints are about familiarity. Shaking bridges, corridor shootouts, shield-by-shield battles and a shock ending that echoes an older film are cited as signs of a series running on habit. The spread is wide, with positive, mixed and negative verdicts in near-equal number. The Independent finds it slow and is unconvinced by Hardy’s resemblance to Stewart, Collider calls it a failed send-off for the crew, while Polygon argues it deserves reappraisal for balancing ensemble and action better than most Trek films. ### Reviews we read (14) - **Screen Daily** (70/100, inferred): The review calls the film a solidly entertaining tenth instalment that blends adventure with crew interplay but notes its disappointing US box office and questions the series' future. It praises muscular action sequences and the intriguing Picard-Shinzon confrontation along with some affecting character moments. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/star-trek-nemesis/4011658.article) - **Sight and Sound**, Kim Newman (70/100, inferred): The review positions the film as a solid but familiar tenth entry that resolves Romulan tensions and some crew storylines while feeling like the franchise is reaching its end. It praises the central Picard-Shinzon dynamic and Tom Hardy's villain but notes it falls short of earlier highlights like The Wrath of Khan. [Read](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/1476) - **Slant Magazine**, Roxanne Blanford (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the film genuinely intriguing with a compelling plot that weaves together subtext on themes like good vs. evil and identity. Special effects, space vehicles, and set pieces are singled out for praise, along with respect for audience intelligence. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/star-trek-nemesis/) - **The Times**, David Eimer (70/100, inferred): It is better paced than many predecessors despite familiar technobabble and idealism; Patrick Stewart dominates as Picard while the effects are efficient and Whoopi Goldberg makes an unbilled cameo. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/article/star-trek-nemesis-bvnn6xsj59h) - **Variety** (65/100, inferred): Trekkers will get their fill but others need not apply; the film is a respectable venture maintaining the even-numbered Trek superiority while lacking broader vision to cross over to mainstream audiences. Director Stuart Baird brings autumnal grandeur to key scenes like the Picard-Shinzon dinner, elevated by Patrick Stewart's regal performance. [Read](https://variety.com/2002/film/awards/star-trek-nemesis-1200544477/) - **The New York Times**, Stephen Holden (60/100, inferred): The film is an amiably klutzy affair that remains comfortingly Earth-centric and addresses cloning with psychotherapeutic earnestness through Picard confronting his evil clone Shinzon. It keeps the franchise chugging along in its nostalgic time warp with a warm fuzzy heart. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/13/movies/film-review-still-conquering-with-makeup-and-optimism.html) - **Empire**, Adam Smith (50/100, inferred): The film is described as a resolutely middling entry that is overly talky and slow in the first half but improves later with a sure if uninspired directorial hand and a familiar shock ending. It singles out the lack of innovation in the plot devices for complaint while noting it will appeal to fans as a bittersweet return. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/star-trek-x-nemesis-review/) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (2/4): The critic finds the Star Trek franchise out of gas after a lifetime of viewing, with repetitive shield battles and uninspired dialogue that even Patrick Stewart cannot elevate. The plot involving a Romulan peace feeler and a Data clone feels redundant and scaled back to a TV episode level. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/star-trek-nemesis-2002) - **Time Out**, TJ (40/100, inferred): The critic singles out a ludicrous moment of crew being sucked into space through shattered bridge windows as emblematic of the film's tired, old-fashioned laziness. While acknowledging professional craftsmanship from the writer and director, it criticizes the material as rote and overly familiar with echoes of prior entries. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/star-trek-nemesis-2) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (30/100, inferred): The film tests fan loyalty with familiar Trek tropes like shaky bridge scenes and corridor shootouts, and it could mark the end of the series or allow it to limp on with limited support. Patrick Stewart gives his usual conviction as Picard facing a bio-engineered replica villain. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2003/jan/03/artsfeatures5) - **The Independent** (20/100, inferred): The critic finds the film uninteresting and slow-moving, dismissing it as liberal-humanist sci-fi slop that fails to engage even with its clone twist and climactic battle. The review singles out the lack of conviction in Tom Hardy's resemblance to Patrick Stewart as a key flaw. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/star-trek-nemesis-12a-wild-strawberries-pg-sobibor-14-october-1953-4pm-124367.html) - **Polygon**, Josh Bell (70/100, inferred): Nemesis deserves reappraisal as it balances ensemble moments and action better than many Trek films and provides a satisfying ending for several characters while feeding into later stories like Picard. [Read](https://www.polygon.com/2020/3/3/21163277/star-trek-nemesis-critical-reappraisal-data-death-patrick-stewart-brent-spiner/) - **Den of Geek**, Alex Carter (65/100, inferred): The critic finds the film an entertaining but compromised action movie that succeeds at modest aims despite production troubles and heavy editing. Data's storyline and the focus on action over deeper character or world-building are singled out as major flaws that prevent it from being more. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/does-star-trek-nemesis-deserve-its-reputation/) - **Collider**, Collier Jennings (25/100, inferred): The film is a glaring failure as a send-off for the Next Generation crew, hampered by a director unfamiliar with the franchise and poor handling of character arcs and lore. [Read](https://collider.com/star-trek-nemesis-failed-next-generation/) ## Details - **Director:** Stuart Baird - **Director:** Stuart Baird - **Screenplay:** John Logan - **Story:** John Logan, Brent Spiner, Rick Berman - **Cinematography:** Jeffrey L. Kimball - **Editor:** Dallas Puett - **Music:** Jerry Goldsmith - **Production design:** Herman F. Zimmerman - **Costume design:** Bob Ringwood, Robert Blackman - **Producer:** Peter Lauritson, Rick Berman - **Cast:** Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard; Jonathan Frakes as Commander William T. Riker; Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data; LeVar Burton as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge; Michael Dorn as Lt. Commander Worf; Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher; Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi; Tom Hardy as Praetor Shinzon - **Runtime:** 1h 56m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13 - **Release (the US):** 13 December 2002 - **Genres:** Science Fiction, Action, Adventure, Thriller - **Budget:** $60 million - **Box office:** $67 million ## Where to watch in the US - Paramount+: streaming - Amazon Prime Video: add-on, uhd - Apple TV: add-on, uhd - Hulu: add-on, hd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $7.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-16.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IL, IN, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan* (1982): The captain and his mirror, done with the grief this film only gestures at - *Moon* (2009), Fi1m 83: Sam Rockwell meets himself on a lunar base; the clone idea taken seriously and quietly — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/moon.md) - *Galaxy Quest* (1999): The affectionate joke about this crew, and warmer about them than their own send-off - *Solaris* (1972): Tarkovsky’s space station, where the visitor with a familiar face is the whole film - *Serenity* (2005): A television crew’s farewell voyage that remembers to give every one of them a scene --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/star-trek-nemesis