Patrick Stewart’s name is prominent in the sci-fi genre having played a significant part in the Star Trek and X-Men universes. Talking about Star Trek, the franchise has built itself a name over the years and is known as one of the best entries into the sci-fi world. Patrick Stewart plays the role of Jean-Luc Picard, the captain of the Federation starship USS Enterprise (NVV-1701-D).
Needless to say, Patrick Stewart has a huge hand in making Star Trek what it is today. Therefore, when he vetoed the involvement of a certain group of villains in his third film, screenplay writer Michael Piller had no choice but to adhere to his harsh criticism.
How Patrick Stewart Stopped the Romulans from Entering Star Trek: Insurrection
The primary villains in Star Trek: Insurrection were the Son’a, a technologically advanced alien race. However, before the Son’a could make it to the Star Trek universe, Michael Piller had another idea in his mind for the film’s villains – the Romulans.
Patrick Stewart had a string of criticisms for the second treatment of Insurrection, especially when it came to the Romulans. The Romulans first appeared in Star Trek: The Original Series followed by Star Trek: The Next Generation (via ScreenRant). According to Stewart, the villainous alien race was already tiring and “unexciting” in TNG.
Piller reveals Stewart’s disinterest in the Romulans in his book, Fade In: From Idea to Final Draft,
It has little fun. It is dull. I think what dismays me most about the story is the dredging up of the Romulans – a race already unexciting in TNG – as the bad guys. It is revisionist and backward looking in a most disappointing way. After the Borg – the Romulans? Oh, my. […] I am very sorry my reactions are so negative but they are so because my hopes to make this a superb film are so high.
Clearly, Stewart was just looking out for his film and wanted it to be the best of the best. However, this didn’t mean that Piller was not at least a little disappointed upon hearing the star’s comments on the Romulans. He wrote back to Stewart stating,
The Romulans. We have, from the start, intended to re-invent the Romulans because we agree with you. We’ve been talking about a complete overhaul of their look as well as their character. If it means a great deal to you, I’d personally be willing to change it to another race. Do you have any suggestions?
To no one’s surprise, Stewart sure had some suggestions for replacing the Romulans with something a bit more exciting, in his opinion.
Patrick Stewart Successfully Changed the Villains
While Piller suggested that they could do a complete overhaul of the Romulans, giving them a whole new look in the process, Stewart was not convinced.
In his response, the actor told Piller that the overhaul was a “deadly idea” especially after making Alice Krige’s Borg Queen the villain in Star Trek: The First Contact.
Stewart was worried that fans would criticize the franchise for its inability to come up with new and fresh villains. He suggested that the film’s bad guys should be the ones at the heart of the Federation Executive Council.
Yes, the Romulan question does mean a lot to me. I think it is a deadly idea to have even an ‘overhauled’ Romulan villain. After the Borg Queen it will look as if we just couldn’t come up with any new bad guys. But we must. Could they be the Federation Executive Council? (Gene, stop spinning.) Or a cadre inside the Council? The bad guys are right there in the heart of the Federation. That is certainly contemporary and, God knows, depressingly relevant.
The corrupt aspect of the Federation sure made it to the final cut of the $117 million but so did the Son’a who went on to replace the Romulans. While Stewart only wanted what was best for the film, somehow the removal of the Romulans ended up not working in Insurrection’s favor.
Stream Star Trek: Insurrection on Paramount+.
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