How Would You Fix Star Trek: Nemesis?

No doubt you know this based on your years of close experience with androids that are attempt to acclimatise to human life.

So if a character comes out of nowhere on TOS it's ok? Khan came out of nowhere in Space Seed. Klingons came out of nowhere in Errand of Mercy. The Romulans came out of nowhere in Errand of Mercy. Kirk's brother and nephew came out of nowhere in Operation Annihilate. Should I go on?

Yes.

It is just fine in the original series because nothing had been established about the characters or the universe they are in.

It is absolutely wrong 30 years later.

I'm quite familiar with foreign nationals who come to the United States unable to even speak to language and their understanding of language and customs decades later.

I am about 100 times more familiar with the integration of people into society then yourself, not only for reasons I have mentioned in the Blue Room, but also because I don't live in the middle of nowhere. It is entirely possible, and indeed happens on quite a few occasions, that some find it harder then others who integration. Some because they don't want to, others because they are ghettoised, some because they simply find themselves unable to.

The real question is though, what the bloody hell have immigrants got to do with 24th Century androids? If your comparator for an apple is an orange, it's no wonder you're always finding things to hate about Star Trek.

Dayton made a funny.

Well, they shouldn't feel like they have to introduce something new and exciting/plot-relevant every time, but if it works, why knock it?

Kirk's son was integrated pretty well into the plot and theme of the movie. Sybok's relation to Spock was pretty unnecessary. Shinzon being a clone and the existence of Remans could both have been used well but weren't.

Data should, practically speaking, have memorized entire unabridged dictionaries of words and figures of speech long before the Enterprise even sets course for Farpoint. Dramatically, of course, it's more "interesting" and thematic to watch him fumble for explanations every time anyone says anything the least bit slangy. Just as it's more dramatically convenient for the Enterprise to be the only ship in the quadrant.

Another thing about Nemesis is that, had it been written & made right & good, perhaps Spock could've been in the story, and not just a cameo. Before all that Hobus Star Supernova business began, Spock was on Romulus hiding out, helping those seeking peace with the UFP and reunification with Vulcan, so his presence would've been nice.

I do not know how familiar you are with the United States, but I assume you do not know that states in the middle of the U.S. for various reasons can and do have quite a number of foreign nationals who live here for extended periods.

For example, doctors from Pakistan, India and other countries from south Asia have become pretty common in largely rural areas of the U.S.

I'm out. Fixing the story is the obvious first step.

Top to bottom, front to back, side to side, and wall to wall the concept is jacked from the get go.

Funny thing is that number 3 is the most believable and least annoying. At least there's roots in Spock/Uhura in TOS with Christine Chapel's crushing on him. Building on that tangent using the strongest (only) female lead is more logical than fleshing out a character who'd otherwise only exist as "Spock's GF".

The others you list are bad moves because so much, if not the entirety, of the story revolves around their invention. Sp/U adds to their new character development and the dynamics of the bridge crew, but were it not included, nothing would have been lost. I'm even reasonably pleased with how they've shown that relationship on screen. There's little romance, but a lot of intimacy between them.

You just got showed El Chup. Obviously you forgot that Dayton attends his local Klan meetings.

What the hell could a white male arsehole lawyer possibly know (other than a bunch of legal bullshit) about the integration of new immigrants into society?

I'd say neither party in this debate can claim superior knowledge.

He was gonna marry an immigrant WAB. probably for a British green card.

I thought he did immigration law for a while?

He still does. He also does extensive work to help immigrants. He actually knows a lot about the subject, as he says.

I know he does immigration law. I guess y'all missed the "(other than a bunch of legal bullshit)" part of my post.

Let's remember that we're in Media Central, kids.

This, I think, is what the Trip/T'Pol dynamic wanted to be when it grew up

But snark aside, this is a good point. It's a nice element that the whole of the film doesn't rest upon and rely to carry the story in any way that detracts from the main story (although I kind of cringed a little when Uhura goes off on him in the shuttlepod ).

I don't think that there's anything unbelievable about Kirk having a son, or their relationship not being all that close. Really, the unbelievable things about TWoK are:
1. Khan being a world leader in 1996
2. Suspended animation being possible in 1996
3. The Reliant not noticing that Ceti Alpha VI had exploded
4. The Genesis project "just happens" to pick a solar system that should be off-limits to everyone to study for their experiment
5. The Genesis Device creating a sun and a planet

Troi/Beverly lesbian sex scene.

You can't fix NEM cheaply.

They needed to improve Shinzon's backstory, have them leave Romulus on a low and yet finish on a high. They latter two they tried and failed to do with Data's death and B4.

The high could've been done at Data's funeral, no need for another android, let alone Rain Data.

With Shinzon, give him a reason to truly detest Picard and the Romulans - have it that it was decided to clone Picard due to information from the future (implicit nod to Yesterday's Enterprise), and that there were several clones - with the best being groomed to be inserted into Federation society, the rest killed. Shinzon would be Romulan for 'Six' - both a number and a hat tip to The Prisoner - and the one who came through and given a life of luxury and training ready to replace Picard.

Then the Stargazer incident saw the project curtailed, and Shinzon sent to the Reman mines. Being made of stern stuff he not only survives, but thrives, forming bonds and a family.

Then the Romulans find a crashed Borg vessel. There is one being in the Alpha Quadrant whose assimilation has been recorded and disseminated to the powers. Jean Luc Picard. And they've a clone... Shinzon finds himself torn from his family, butchered and made into a cyborg puppet, and controlled to torture, abuse and murder his own wife and children.

Eventually able to gain control of his implants he begins to exact his revenge, a high damaged, driven, insane and powerful individual who blames both the Romulans and Picard for his pain.

TNG era Romulans are dull as dirt villains.

You can't fucking fix that.

It should have been....ANYTHING else!

Klingons, Cardassians, the aliens from "conspiracy", Q, Dr. Moriarty, Armus, ANYTHING!

As for Data's funeral, I posted an idea a while back.

Have Picard do a speech back at Earth, this would be a good opportunity for anyone wanting a cameo to sit on set for a bit. Q is there, and as Picard is speaking about Data having a soul, Q looks around puzzled, holds out his palm and a bit of CGI condenses above it. He delightedly mouths 'Data?' and gently blows on it.

The CGI floats towards the window, pauses near Picard, who realizes, then it leaves. At this point we start with an updated version of the TNG opening credits, as Data's soul passes through the solar system, accelerating, leaving it and Spiner doing a modified version of the "these are the voyages speech" to include "the crew of the Starship Enterprise - past, present and future", the soul rapidly speeds onwards, past DS9, through the wormhole, and then out of the galaxy, paced to we get "to boldly go" as the camera pans across a vista of galaxies, and then focuses on a galaxy most definitely not the Milky Way and accelerates towards it as the speech hits "where no one has gone before". Fade out, and boom out the TNG theme.

Data has moved on, if the film does well then it's open to a sequel, if not then the TNG movies end on a positive note.

Also bin the Janeway bit for another admiral. Maybe Shelby as a cameo?

And after defeating Shinzon, have the thalaron radiation be a cloud threatening both Romulus and Remus - even after everything Picard wants to help, but both sides are more interested in winning a battle and warn Picard the Enterprise will be destroyed if if doesn't leave. Picard can spit out a "plague on both your houses" line then.

Which is why they decided to have Romulans without, well, Romulans.

An army of Nosferatu and the discovery that if you clone Picard you get Space Lex Luthor are, apparently, preferable to people who look sick and constipated all the time.