When Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Enterprise gets word that Lt. Commander Data has run amok and taken a cultural survey team hostage, his first concern is to save Data — who will have to be destroyed if he cannot be repaired. But when Picard investigates, he finds something strange about the Ba'ku, the race the Federation and Son'a survey team was observing. The Enterprise command team also discovers that there is more to the supposed cultural survey than they had been told. Soon, Captain Picard is forced to choose between disobeying a direct order and violating the Prime Directive of the Federation, and defending the Ba'ku people.

Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard)
Jonathan Frakes (Commander William T. Riker)
Brent Spiner (Lieutenant Commander Data)
LeVar Burton (Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge)
Michael Dorn (Lieutenant Commander Worf)
Marina Sirtis (Commander Deanna Troi)
Gates McFadden (Commander Beverly Crusher, M.D.)
F. Murray Abraham (Ru'afo)
Donna Murphy (Anij)
Anthony Zerbe (Admiral Matthew Dougherty)

Gregg Henry (Gallatin)
Daniel Hugh Kelly (Sojef)
Michael Welch (Artim)
Mark Deakins (Tournel)
Stephanie Niznik (Ensign Perim)
Michael Horton (Lieutenant Daniels)
Bruce French (Son'a Officer #1)
Breon Gorman (Lieutenant Curtis)
John Hostetter (Bolian Officer)
Rick Worthy (Elloran Officer #1)
Larry Anderson (Tarlac Officer)
D. Elliot Woods (Starfleet Officer)
Jennifer Tung (Female Ensign)
Raye Birk (Son'a Doctor)
Peggy Miley (Regent Cuzar)
Claudette Nevins (Son'a Officer #2)
Max Grodénchik (Alien Ensign)
Greg Poland (Elloran Officer #2)
Kenneth Lane Edwards (Ensign)
Joseph Ruskin (Son'a Officer #3)
Zachary Williams (Ba'ku Child)
McKenzie Westmore (Ba'ku Woman)

• Riker and Troi rekindle their romance in this film.
  
• Mark Deakins (Tournel) later played Borg drone Axum in the Star Trek: Voyager episodes "Unimatrix Zero" and "Unimatrix Zero, Part II".
  
• The Enterprise security chief played by Michael Horton is given a name: Lt. Daniels.