After two relatively darkish outings, Trek producers wanted a more light-hearted adventure for the ninth Star Trek film, the third featuring the Next Generation crew. First Contact director and TNG co-star Jonathan Frakes was recruited to direct, and Michael Piller, author of the seminal TNG two-parter “The Best of Both Worlds” and co-creator of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, was hired to write the screenplay for a story whose source material borrowed from the Joseph Conrad classic Heart of Darkness. But the mish-mash of tone and intention led to some embarrassing highlights, like Klingon zits, plastic surgery addicted villains and a bizarre musical interlude where Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner duet a Gilbert and Sullivan tune. The ingredients were there, but the franchise seemed to be answering to too many masters, and there was also the question, just three movies in, how much longer the TNG crew would want to continue making these films.
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