Two Star Trek Legends Rip Their Worst Movie Apart

By Chris Snellgrove
| Updated 27 seconds ago

When Star Trek: The Next Generation came to the big screen, it mostly followed in the footsteps of the movies that came before. The films based on The Original Series established a strange pattern where the odd-numbered films were weaker and the even-numbered films were stronger. The Motion Picture was slow and plodding, for example, while The Wrath of Khan was exciting and action-packed. As for the TNG crew’s movies, Generations was an uneven, nostalgic mess, while First Contact was an unqualified banger. When Insurrection turned out to be nothing more than a prolonged episode of Next Generationfans consoled themselves that the next, even-numbered film would blow us all away.

Sadly, Star Trek: Nemesis was a trainwreck that brought the TNG movies to a crashing halt and very nearly killed the franchise. Now, nearly a quarter of a century later, fans are still debating where that ambitious movie (Picard fights an evil clone played by Tom Hardy!) went wrong. We don’t have to wonder any longer, though. On Jonathan Frakes’ and Brent Spiner’s hit podcast, they recently had Nemesis alumnus Ron Perlman as a guest. They all took turns blaming that movie’s failure on director Stuart Baird, whom Perlman decried in the bluntest possible way: “He was not a director, he was a f***ing editor that the studio owed a favor to.”

A Head-To-Head Podcast

In case you don’t know, Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner have a new-ish podcast, Dropping Names With Brent and Jonny. It’s not designed as a Star Trek podcast, but the two of them keep hosting guests from the franchise that made them both famous. In a recent episode, they hosted Ron Perlman, the Hellboy actor who appeared in Star Trek: Nemesis as a creepy Reman. Once the conversation turned to NemesisPerlman didn’t pull any punches regarding director Stuart Baird, someone he said that the Star Trek: Nemesis cast agreed had “had no people skills whatsoever.”

After this, Perlman kept going, declaring that Baird “was not a director, he was a f***ing editor that the studio owed a favor to.” Elaborating, Perlman claimed that Baird “saved a lot of their turkeys. They would bring him in when they had a turkey, and he would recut it and turn it watchable. So he was a very talented editor, but he was not a director … He’s not a filmmaker.” This is in reference to Baird being an acclaimed editor who had previously worked on fan-favorite movies like Lethal Weapon and the original Superman. Later, he worked on two of the best modern James Bond films: Casino Royale and Heavy rain.

When Hell Met Boy

As for the two Star Trek: The Next Generation actors, Brent Spiner was more moderate in his criticism: he agreed that Bair “was not a director” but gave the man his props as an editor. This is fair, really: Baird might have been the worst possible choice for directing Nemesisbut his killer editing work for some of the coolest franchises in the world earns him a place in the geek hall of fame. Frakes was more direct in his criticism, noting that Baird turned down offers of advice from himself and Patrick Stewart “because we’d done 182 episodes and three movies together.” However, the director “was not interested in talking to us at all about how we rolled.”

Pretty much everyone in the room agreed that Baird was a very gifted editor. However, Ron Perlman was convinced that such an inexperienced director getting the job was an indication that Paramount had no respect for Star Trek: Nemesis or the skills it would take to bring that movie to life. “[It’s] that attitude, like, ‘anybody can do this, you know, let’s just give it to that guy.’”

I’m Sensing A Terrible Director, Captain

Regardless of who you blame, Nemesis was arguably the worst movie in Star Trek history. Its critical and commercial failure spelled the end of the films featuring the Next Generation crew. When the franchise did come back, it was in the form of Star Trek (2009), a complete reboot of The Original Series. Weirdly enough, that movie also featured the Enterprise fighting an advanced Romulan warship led by a bald, charismatic commander. Such a creative rip-off might make you wonder if JJ Abrams (Trek’s filmmaker) was ever a very good director. But at least he’s a good editor, right?

I mean, one who forgot to remove all those lens flares. Oh, and forgot to make The Rise of Skywalker make any sense. But, uh, otherwise gifted, we promise!