Star Trek Nemesis doesn’t suck as a Dracula movie

LONDON - DECEMBER 17: (L to R) Actors Brent Spiner and Patrick Stewart attend the UK Premiere of 'Star Trek Nemesis' on December 17, 2002 in London's Leicester Square, England. Patrick plays the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the movie and Brent stars as Data / B-4. (Photo by Dave Hogan/Getty Images)
LONDON - DECEMBER 17: (L to R) Actors Brent Spiner and Patrick Stewart attend the UK Premiere of 'Star Trek Nemesis' on December 17, 2002 in London's Leicester Square, England. Patrick plays the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the movie and Brent stars as Data / B-4. (Photo by Dave Hogan/Getty Images)
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Ron Perlman, wife Opal & son Brandon during “Star Trek: Nemesis” World Premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California, United States. (Photo by Gregg DeGuire/WireImage)
Ron Perlman, wife Opal & son Brandon during “Star Trek: Nemesis” World Premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California, United States. (Photo by Gregg DeGuire/WireImage)

Praetor Shinzon and his Viceroy form a sort of “dual vampire.”

In Stoker’s novel, Dracula can take many forms: a nobleman, a large dog, a vampire bat, or a mist. In Star Trek Nemesis, our “vampire” has two forms: Praetor Shinzon (Tom Hardy) and his Reman Viceroy (Ron Perlman, unrecognizable beneath his prosthetics).

As noted above, the Viceroy and his fellow Remans all look like Count Orlok in Nosferatu. Makeup artist Michael Westmore told Sci-Fi Wire two decades ago that Nemesis director Stuart Baird wanted a villain who looked like Orlok. But the Viceroy also has psychic powers, much the way Count Dracula does.

For his part, Shinzon lives on the blood of others—one other, specifically: Jean-Luc Picard. He is a clone created from Picard’s own DNA and, in the back half of the film, as Shinzon’s physical condition deteriorates, Dr. Crusher explains that only a transfusion of Picard’s blood might save Shinzon. “He needs your blood to live,” she says. It’s hard to get a more overt identification of Shinzon as a vampire.