NEXT `TREK'; STEWART, FRAKES, SPINER AND CREW KEEP IT FRESH FOR `INSURRECTION' MOVIE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Writer

In ``Star Trek: Insurrection,'' the ninth movie about a Starship Enterprise that goes to increasingly familiar-looking places no one has gone before, things aren't going well. The fabled Federation of Planets is in decline, facing challenges from opportunistic alien forces on all sides.

Is this art following life, or what?

Much has been made in the past year about steep ratings drops for ``Deep Space Nine'' and ``Voyager,'' the two ``Trek'' television series still running new episodes. The 7-year-old ``DS9'' is in its final season, and Rick Berman - who oversees all aspects of the late Gene Roddenberry's sci-fi creation for Paramount Pictures - confirms that there are no plans for a new spinoff series in the foreseeable future.

This has led to concern that the ``Next Generation'' crew will be able to match the success of their last film, the dark, intense, critically acclaimed ``First Contact,'' with the lighter, funnier, more romantic ``Insurrection.'' Adding fuel to the pessimism, the new film even sounds like one of those embarrassing, hippie-dippy episodes from the original '60s TV show. It's set on and around an isolated planet where atmospheric forces have kept a small population of peace-loving agrarians, the Ba'ku, youthful for hundreds of years.

Of course, that could also be another artistic reflection of life, or at least of Berman's hope to revitalize the 32-year-old ``Trek'' franchise.

``It's been suggested that this is all a metaphor for the franchise, that this was a subliminal element in our development of the story,'' says Berman, a harried-looking man who produced ``Insurrection'' and co-wrote its story with Michael Piller. ``I say, if it was subliminal, I wouldn't be aware of it!

``But the franchise is a very wide area,'' he notes. ``Certainly, the two television shows that are on the air now in the United States, their ratings are not what they were five or 10 years ago. But remember, when `Next Generation' went on the air in 1987, it was the only science-fiction show on television. There are dozens of them now. `Star Trek' is now in competition with all those shows, and it's also in competition with other `Star Trek' shows.''

Indeed, the television dial is still loaded with reruns of the original, William Shatner/Leonard Nimoy ``Star Treks,'' and with ``The Next Generation'' episodes, which feature the current movie crew of Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden and Marina Sirtis.

According to Stewart, the English Shakespearean who plays ``Next Generation's'' hard-nosed Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, the pervasive familiarity of all things ``Trek'' made it imperative that ``Insurrection'' warp in a different creative direction from ``First Contact.''

``We've struggled to remain fresh through 178 episodes and, now, three movies,'' Stewart, who is also an associate producer of ``Insurrection,'' says. `` `First Contact' was a film we were all, I think justly, proud of, and we could have done another one like that. But I think that would have been uninteresting.

``And so we looked to create a different world, a different atmosphere, a different mood, a different tone for this one. `First Contact' was so intense, so unrelentingly dramatic from the get-go. My spiel 18 months ago was this: `Relax.' I know what fun this cast can be, so why not tell an exciting story, but try to do it with a little more humor and a little more ease - and with a romantic tone.''

So, in ``Insurrection,'' Picard falls in love with babelike Ba'ku earth mother Anij (Tony Award winner Donna Murphy), even though she's old enough to be his great-great-great-grandma. Meanwhile, the planet's rejuvenating powers rekindle the long-dormant attraction between Cmdr. Riker (Frakes, who also directed the film) and Counselor Troi (Sirtis).

On a more comic note, the Klingon Worf (Dorn) regresses to an embarrassing pubescent stage and android Lt. Cmdr. Data (Spiner) gets in touch with his inner Furby. And for a touching touch, blind engineer Geordi (Burton) gains the gift of sight.

All of this Fountain of Youth wonderment is about to be taken away, however, by the Son'a, a technologically advanced race so obsessed with the concept of eternal life that their skin is splitting from too many face lifts. They're in cahoots with some Starfleet officials - remember, the Federation's hold is slipping - and in order to save the Ba'ku, Picard and company turn against their own superiors.

``The subject of this film is not eternal youth,'' Stewart explains, ``but rather the question of finding a way to emotionally, psychologically and spiritually slow down. That's one of the things that Picard learns in this film and, in good old `Star Trek' fashion, we're gently, quietly saying some things about a present-day condition.''

And saying them in a newfangled, high-tech way, as far as the ``Trek'' universe is concerned, anyway. For the first time, all the spaceships you'll see on screen are computer-generated images; only the Son'a's orbiting atmosphere-sucking device is a more traditional, miniature model.

``I thought that the ships looked great,'' says Frakes, who also directed the more spectacle-oriented ``First Contact.'' ``Part of it was that we were in this remote section of space that was so dark, it allowed the ships to look cooler. I think it worked.''

What Frakes enjoyed even more, though, was being able to shoot a good half of ``Insurrection'' in some wide-open California locales: Lake Sherwood near Thousand Oaks and the mountains around Lake Sabrina in the Sierra Nevada.

``I enjoyed this more as a result,'' Frakes says of directing his second feature. ``We were outside for weeks, and it was glorious. The stuff at the top of the mountain was so beautiful to work with. It was outside of Mammoth, accessible only by helicopter and mule.''

Of course, all paradises are, to some degree, illusory.

``We loved it when we went there,'' Frakes recalls. ``We should have known, though. When we scouted the location, we got back into the van and all of us passed out on the way to lunch, to a man. The high altitude screwed everybody up; people needed oxygen all the time. I think that was the most challenging thing about directing this film.

``That and, of course, wrangling Patrick and Brent.''

Spiner had to perform ``Insurrection's'' most chilling stunt, literally, when android Data has to check out an anomaly at the bottom of a pristine mountain lake.

A lake that was fed by El Nino-driven snowmelt.

``I wish they had put a crawl on that piece of film that said `This lake is 40 degrees,' which it was,'' Spiner recalls with a shiver. ``It was freezing. If I hadn't had to think about being my character, I probably would have panicked. Thankfully, it worked on the first take, and I didn't need to do it again.''

OK, so maybe it doesn't sound as exciting as interstellar armada battles or saving whole solar systems. That acknowledged, the cast of ``Star Trek: Insurrection'' is confident that their movie proves there's still resilience in Roddenberry's rosy vision of mankind's future.

``I think that on television, in general, that everybody's numbers have gone down,'' Frakes observes. `` `Friends' ' numbers have gone down. So I don't think those reports of `Star Trek' fading are very well-founded; it seemed to be a bandwagon that Entertainment Weekly was on. In fact, I think `Deep Space' is probably having their best season ever.

``And this movie, I get the feeling, is going to wipe a lot of that negative feeling away,'' Frakes concludes with typically Trekkie optimism.

Others are more cautious, though.

``I think we, meaning Paramount and myself to some degree, have to be very vigilant and careful not to overexploit it, and I think it can be overexploited,'' ``Trek'' supervisor Berman says. ``One can take too many trips to the well, and I think it is important not to force too many eggs out of the golden goose.''

Displaying wisdom worthy of a starship captain, Stewart suggests steering a steady, middle course.

``I think the overall franchise is quite healthy,'' he says. ``I see no reason why - with the proper regeneration, with the introduction of fresh vision and insight and energy - it should not have a long life, way beyond my involvement in it.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) LOAD & LOCK

`Star Trek' crew ready for action as it heads towards a new frontier in `Insurrection'

Bradford Mar/Daily News (Photo illustration)

(2) Brent Spiner, left, Donna Murphy and Patrick Stewart paddle across a lake in ``Star Trek: Insurrection,'' the ninth feature film in the long-running franchise.

(3) Patrick Stewart, left, discusses a scene with director-actor Jonathan Frakes during filming of ``Insurrection,'' which features the cast of ``Star Trek: The Next Generation.''