Star Trek: Insurrection almost had more compelling villains than the Son’a, but they were turned down by Patrick Stewart. Released in 1998, Insurrection was conceived by Rick Berman and Michael Piller as a lighter movie, following the dark tone of Star Trek: First Contact. However, the development of the third Star Trek: The Next Generation movie was a somewhat tortured process.

Michael Piller’s posthumously published book Fade In: From Idea to Final Draft details the various treatments he wrote for Star Trek: Insurrection, many of which sound better than the finished film. Piller’s original idea was to do a Star Trek version of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, which would see Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) sent to the wilderness. Picard’s mission was to track down an old Starfleet Academy colleague who had gone rogue to defend a planet from the Romulans. Unfortunately for Michael Piller, Patrick Stewart had other ideas for his third Star Trek movie.

Patrick Stewart Didn’t Want The Romulans In Star Trek: Insurrection

“After the Borg – the Romulans? Oh, my”

After receiving a copy of the second treatment, Patrick Stewart wrote back with some harsh words about this early version of Star Trek: Insurrection, delivering particularly negative criticism of the Romulans. Michael Piller’s book Fade In: From Idea to Final Draft reprints Stewart’s letters, which include his dismay about Romulan involvement in Insurrection:

“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.”

Disappointed by Patrick Stewart’s response, Michael Piller wrote to the Star Trek: The Next Generation star to address his concerns. While Piller passionately defends many of the elements of the film – many of which would feature in the finished version – he does concede that the Romulans could be a problem. Towards the end of his letter to Patrick Stewart, Piller offers to swap out the Romulans:

“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?”

Patrick Stewart did have suggestions, some of which would eventually make it into the finished version of Star Trek: Insurrection. However, he was very insistent that the villains not be Romulans, especially not radically redesigned ones. Discussing this idea in his response to Michael Piller, Stewart says:

“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.”

Of course, Patrick Stewart’s concept of corruption at the heart of the Federation made it into the final version of Star Trek: Insurrection. His anti-Romulan feeling also led to the creation of the Son’a as new bad guys. However, it’s fair to say that Insurrection‘s villainous aliens didn’t make anywhere near the kind of impression that the Romulans would have.

Would Insurrection Have Been Better With The Romulans In It?

It’s hard not to feel that Patrick Stewart’s Romulan veto made Star Trek: Insurrection a less interesting movie. One of Stewart’s criticisms of Michael Piller’s treatment was that it “lacks peril“, but what could have been more perilous than the breakdown of the fragile diplomatic relations between the Romulans and the Federation during the war against the Dominion? Insurrection‘s story would have been more compelling if Captain Picard’s morality jeopardized the Federation Alliance at a key stage in the Dominion War.

Although the TNG movies couldn’t tread on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s toes, there were ways to reference the Dominion War. Michael Piller’s script could have sketched in some evocative dialog that tied Star Trek: Insurrection into the larger story of the Dominion War, and added genuine stakes to the plight of the Ba’ku. Instead, there was a reference to the Son’a’s role in ketracel white production and that was about it. By taking out the Romulans as villains and not reckoning with what Picard’s insurrection meant for the wider galaxy, the third TNG movie ended up as disposable fluff.

Patrick Stewart’s Hated Romulans Became A Major Part Of Picard’s Story

It’s ironic, given Patrick Stewart’s steadfast refusal to face the Romulans in Star Trek: Insurrection, that they became such a major part of Jean-Luc Picard’s story. The very next movie, Star Trek: Nemesis, was all about political intrigue involving the Romulans, the very thing that Patrick Stewart opposed in Insurrection. Whether Stewart looked more favorably on Nemesis because it was co-written by his friend Brent Spiner is hard to say.

When Patrick Stewart returned to the role of Jean-Luc for Star Trek: Picard in 2020, the character had led the efforts to evacuate Romulus and was living out his retirement in his château, staffed by two Romulans. All of that was before he was thrown back into action to expose a Romulan conspiracy at the heart of Starfleet, the exact same story that Stewart had opposed in Star Trek: Insurrection. Perhaps Patrick Stewart had learned his lesson with the Son’a, and was more willing to entertain a Romulan return in Star Trek: Picard season 1.