Facing his inner BORG wasn't enough.
Capt Picard who was temporarly transformed into a borg drone in a 1990 episode of STTNG had a chance for revenge last fall when the mechanized villians reappeared in the Next Gen's second foray onto big screen. But former TNG executive producer Michael Piller, who will be writing the script for the next years's follow-up to First Contact believes Picard's true mettle has yet to be tested.
"I don't believe that in the first two movies, Picard's role as a hero has been defined for a big screen audience," says Piller, who wrote many of TNG's signature episodes and also co-created DS9 and Voyager. "One of the things that I want to do is take him on a true hero's journey so that the audience can understand what makes him a hero. I believe he became a television icon as a man of principle. I want to test those principles."
The "hero's journey" awaiting picard has been likened by some insiders to The Heart of Darkness, the grim Joseph Conrad novel that also inspired Apocalypse Now. Piller isn't saying if the Trek-ification of the story will involve the Borg, the Romulans, Q or some entirely new adversary, but he will say that it'll put more emphasis on Picard's relationship to the enterprise crew -- something he feels was missing the Next Generation gang's previous big-screen outings.
"It's my feeling that the first two movies, Generations and First Contact, did not show the audience how strong an emotional connection there is between Picard and his crew." Piller says.
"When I went back to see the original shows that I had done in the third, fourth and fifth seasons, I was suprised at how much power Picard gained from being the center of this large family in space and how safe both the crew and the viewers felt as long as he was there and in charge. One of the reasons the 'Best of Both Worlds' episode works so well is because he was like the head of the family being taken away. I felt in the first two TNG features it wasn't clear how important the crew was to Picard or how important Picard was to them. That's something I want to explore as a theme."
But even with a crew camaraderie as a touchstone for the next film, piller admits that ... well, some crew members are more important than others.
"There's nothing wrong with having Picard as the star of the movie or Picard and Data as co-stars." he says, acknowledging that both Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner will be reprising there roles.
Stewart agreed to do the film as part of a $12-million deal with paramount that him an associate producer of the movie. Industry reports pegged Spiner's take as equal to Stewart's salary for First Contact -- a cool $5 million.
Although Cmdr. Riker hasn't officially signed on, actor/director Jonathan Frakes and Paramount have cozied up in a way that suggests he might be behind the camera for the next voyage. Frakes has begun work on a non0trek movie for the studio, and his production company just finalized a two year first look deal for the development of more projects.
Obviously, Paramount was pleased with the job Frakes did on the action packed First Contact, which grossed $91 million domestically, But that doesn't mean the next film will be as adrenaline-charged as the battle against the borg was.
"If it's simply running and jumping action, you might feel the sting of violence or the rise of satisfaction when a villian goes down, but you don't have the empathy that comes from truely identifying with the characters." Piller says.
But Piller doesn't want to give the impression that Picard and his crew are going to be sitting in a circle holding hands and sharing there feelings. "It's time to get the franchise back to the original idea of exploring space," he says. "of going out and finding new life forms and dealing with issues wit new aliens that make them strange and interesting and different. Those are the things that I genuily care about."
Piller's return to the Star Trek franchise caught many industry observers by surprise, considering his public show of annoyance at being passed over when the first TNG film script was assigned four years ago.
"My unhappiness about the procedure that led to that descision was spoken about and I didn't feel any need to go into it," he says of his return to the fold. "It's water under the bridge. Relationship survive, It has been a great of fun to work with Rick Berman again and rediscover the value of relationship and to appreciate his creative instincts."
But what about Piller's insistence a few years ago that he was "burned out" on Star Trek ? He Shrugs. "When Rick came to me and asked me to script this movie, it seemed like a good time to go back in and do something with the Next Generation cast again, We'll see how it turns out."
This was taken from the September/October 1997 Issue of Cinescape magazine Pages 10 & 11