Drawing on many similarities with "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," the supposed final adventure of the Next Generation crew still has a few surprises left up it's sleeve. Beginning at the wedding ceremony of Will Riker and Deanna Troi, the comradeship between the cast is quite apparent. Brief appearances by Wil Wheaton and Whoopi Goldberg highlight the ceremony.

However, while everyone is enjoying Data's musical toast, in another part of the galaxy the members of the federation senate have been murdered by a representative of the Romulans. Thanks to his skills with dealing with every life form in the universe, Captain Picard (Stewart) and the crew are soon dispatched to investigate. What they discover will change their lives, individually and collectively, forever.

The tenth film in the series, "Nemesis" finds the cast in great form and obviously comfortable in their roles. Spiner, who also has a story credit, does well in a dual role as Data and B-4, an apparent early prototype who considers Data his brother. As the two main antagonists, both Hardy and Perleman elevate themselves to the highest level of Trek villains. Not just your ordinary cookie-cutter bad guys, they add a mixture of compassion and emotions not normally seen in most sci fi bad guys.

If this is the final film for Picard and crew, they are surely going out on top. Fans and non-fans alike should enjoy this adventure.

On a scale of zero to four stars, I give "Star Trek: Nemesis"  

It starts encouragingly, almost satisfyingly, really, with the wedding reception of ship's counseller Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) and Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes). After all, this is what fans have been pining for for years, right? But then, rather frustratingly, we realize we didn't see the actual wedding (we weren't "invited"--haha), nor any pre-nuptuals, just BANG, there they all are in some social hall as a slightly inebriated Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) toasts the honeymoon couple. Kind of rushed in to establish the fact and then rush off to start the movie.

Thus begins a worthy, if somewhat smaller, and more personal, Star Trek movie. En route to the honeymoon destination, The Starship Enterprise receives a distress signal. (HA ha, we've been here PLENTY of times before haven't we?) Federation folks have been murdered by a Romulan (wouldn't be the Klingons, they've been our reluctant allies for about 5 movies now). Picard and crew are dispatched to investigate.

An unaccounted-for facsimile of the android Commander Data (Brent Spiner) shows up on the planet, in pieces. Revealed to be a primitive model of Data named B-4 (BEFORE---get it? Ha ha, they slay me), he displays that wide-eyed naiveté our Data did in season one. Data determines, however that this model is too primitive to amount to much more than he is now. Nobody even acknowledges the memory of Lore, the "other" brother, the evil twin from the TV series and the movies! OK, sure he might be dismembered somewhere, but does anyone even entertain the possibility this might be him? Nope. Not even mentioned.

Later, Picard discovers his own "evil" twin, a clone of Picard, a human raised in slave captivity by Romulans. The experience left this young man cold, bitter and hell-bent on revenge. He holds Picard in some contempt for not understanding his murderous rage--after all, are they not the same?

Admirably, the film revolves around familiar Trek themes: loyalty and duty, sure, but also the more compelling stuff of life and death: immortality, resurrection, what makes a man a man, what comprises an individual, and realizing one's potential.

As Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner's inflated salaries would suggest, it's no surprise this movie revolves almost solely around Picard and Data and their other selves, with other cast members getting barely 5 minutes of total screen time, most of the bridge personal getting no lines at all.

The special effects are terrific, which I've come to expect of any sci-fi release of this magnitude, especially a Trek movie. Some battle scenes are quite breath-taking.

This installment is billed as the "last mission of this generation" and it's probably just as well. Even I get a little tired of the play-by-numbers "SHIELDS ARE DOWN TO 20%" and "DECKS 8 THRU 16 ARE COMPROMISED!" and EARTH WILL BE DESTROYED!" and stuff like that.

If you've never seen a Trek movie before, this is quite a romp. For older fans, I think you'll think there have been better installments. But on the strength of Patrick Stewart's performance (every "Make it so" and "Engage" is still magical to me), Brent Spiner's double-casting (he really does that well), that wonderful 9 or 10-note musical motif held over from the original TV show that usually accompanies ship launchings and thoughtful revelations (that lone echoed bassoon), and a story in which there is a critical mortality in the finale (a major character), I will squeeze out