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Star Trek Generations

Star Trek Generations is a 1994 science fiction film, and the seventh feature film based on the Star Trek science fiction television series. It is the first film in the series to star the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The film's tagline was "Two Captains, One Destiny". Although most of the Star Trek films contain a colon in their title, the official title of this film is Star Trek Generations (with no colon). It was shot in Overton, Nevada, Paramount Studios, and Lone Pine, California. While the film did reasonably well at the Box Office, it received mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

Retired Captain James T. Kirk reluctantly attends the maiden voyage of the USS Enterprise-B, successor to the USS Enterprise-A, which he commanded. Also present are retired Commander Pavel Chekov and retired Captain Montgomery Scott, who served with him. The unfinished Enterprise-B is commanded by the young and inexperienced Captain John Harriman and only a skeleton crew is aboard. During the voyage, Enterprise is pressed into a rescue mission, requiring the three men to bring their experience to bear. Although Kirk is offered command, he accepts this is Harriman's job and chooses to attend to an engineering problem instead. They ultimately rescue 47 El-Aurian refugees caught in an "energy ribbon." Among those rescued are Tolian Soran and Guinan, who will later serve on the Enterprise-D. Despite their success, Kirk appears to be killed when the section of the ship he is in is destroyed by the ribbon.

Seventy-eight years later, the crew of the USS Enterprise-D, captained by Jean-Luc Picard, are in the middle of a promotion ceremony for Worf. After this, the crew receives and responds to a distress call from the Amargosa solar observatory station. The crew finds that the station has been attacked, apparently by Romulans, and evacuate the survivors, including Dr. Tolian Soran. While investigating the incident, Data and Geordi LaForge discover the Romulans were looking for trilithium, which they subsequently find in a hidden room. Suddenly, they are approached by Soran, who has returned to the station, ostensibly to complete an important experiment. He quickly attacks and knocks out Geordi, then holds Data at gunpoint (who experiences fear for the first time), and launches a trilithium-based projectile into the heart of the Amargosa star, causing it to supernova. He takes Geordi prisoner, and escapes with him aboard a Klingon bird-of-prey belonging to the Duras sisters. Worf and Commander William T. Riker rescue Data, and the Enterprise escapes just before the station is destroyed.

After learning Soran's history, Picard asks Guinan for any help she can offer. She explains to Picard that Soran's goal is to return to the "Nexus", and that the energy ribbon the Enterprise-B encountered is a gateway to this place, where all of one's desires become 'reality'. With Data's help, Picard determines that the ribbon will pass through their sector soon, and Soran's destruction of stars is altering the local gravitational field, and the energy ribbon's course along with it. Picard and Data discover that for Soran to enter the Nexus, he must bring the ribbon to him as he waits on the planet Veridian III. In order to bring the ribbon that close, Soran must cause the Veridian star to supernova at the right moment, which would ultimately destroy all the planets in the system, one of which is heavily inhabited.

When the Enterprise arrives at Veridian III, they are met by the Duras sisters, who offer to trade La Forge for Picard. Picard agrees, on the condition they transport him to the surface to speak with Soran first. After the exchange is made, La Forge returns to his duties, unaware that Soran has implanted a transmitter in his visor. The Duras sisters use the transmitter to determine the frequency modulation of the Enterprises shields, configure their weapons to penetrate them, and shortly thereafter attack. Caught off-guard, the Enterprise suffers critical damage before being able to implement an effective counter-attack. Although the Klingon ship is destroyed, the damage to the Enterprise proves irreparable and progressive. The crew is evacuated to the saucer section just before the warp core explodes, destroying the warp drive section and causing the saucer to crash land on Veridian III. Though it is unsalvageable, the crew survives.

On the surface, Picard discovers that Soran has a trilithium weapon aimed at the Veridian star, set on a timer. However, Picard can't get to the weapon or Soran as a forcefield has been set up around a large area. After failing to talk him out of his plan, Picard finds a gap in the field and attacks Soran, but is unable to stop the missile in time. Both he and Soran are pulled into the Nexus, just before the shockwave created by the destruction of the star destroys the planet and what is left of the Enterprise. In the Nexus, Picard experiences his greatest dream: to have a family, though he quickly comes to remember it is not real. He then encounters an 'echo' of Guinan, who describes herself as a piece of Guinan forever tied to the Nexus. After Picard accepts he must focus on his mission, he realises he needs help to stop Soran. As 'Guinan' cannot leave, she directs Picard to Kirk, who had been pulled into the Nexus 78 years earlier. Kirk is initially reluctant to believe Picard's story and even more reluctant to leave the Nexus, as he believes he has happiness there. Picard eventually convinces him that his happiness is an illusion and his duty to Starfleet, where he can "make a difference" is a greater calling. They leave the Nexus together, choosing to return to Veridian III, within Soran's forcefield, before the missile is set to launch. After fighting Soran to a stalemate, he activates a cloaking device on the launcher with a remote control, which he subsequently drops on a bridge over a ravine. As Kirk and Picard run to retrieve it, Soran shoots out the bridge, leaving the control hanging precariously on a small piece of bridge on the far side of a large gap. Knowing they are running out of time, Kirk sends Picard to the launcher while he gets the remote, knowing it is a one-way jump. Grabbing the control, he barely de-cloaks the launcher before the bridge breaks loose, sending Kirk plummeting into the ravine. Picard then activates the missile's locking clamps, causing it to explode on the launchpad, killing Soran as he approaches to fix it.

Mortally injured at the base of the ravine, Kirk asks Picard if they have "made a difference", and Picard assures him they have. Kirk expresses true happiness, says the words "Oh my", then dies. Picard buries Kirk before he is rescued by shuttlecraft, then travels to the wreckage of the Enterprise's saucer section. He and Riker retrieve Picard's photo album and mourn the loss of their vessel(notably, before beaming to the ship USS Farragut NCC-60591, Riker says to Picard that he had always thought he'd get a shot at the captains seat, then Picard states, 'You still might. Somehow I doubt this will be the last ship to bear the name Enterprise.' then orders the beam-out) before beaming aboard one of the three Starfleet rescue ships (USS Valiant NCC-20000, USS Farragut and an unnamed Miranda class ship).

Cast

Actor	Role
Patrick Stewart	Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Jonathan Frakes	Commander William T. Riker
Brent Spiner	Lieutenant Commander Data
Levar Burton	Lieutenant Commander Geordi LaForge
Michael Dorn	Lieutenant Commander Worf
Gates McFadden	Commander (Dr.) Beverly Crusher
Marina Sirtis	Commander (Counselor) Deanna Troi
Malcolm McDowell	Dr. Tolian Soran
James Doohan	Captain Montgomery Scott, retired
Walter Koenig	Commander Pavel Chekov, retired
William Shatner	Captain James T. Kirk, retired
Alan Ruck	Captain John Harriman
Whoopi Goldberg	Guinan
Jacqueline Kim	Ensign Demora Sulu
Patti Yasutake	Lieutenant Junior Grade (Nurse) Alyssa Ogawa
Barbara March	Lursa
Gwynyth Walsh	B'Etor
Tim Russ	USS Enterprise-B Tactical Lieutenant
Majel Barrett	Computer voice

Tim Russ makes a brief appearance as an unnamed human officer aboard the Enterprise-B. Soon after the film's release, Russ would assume the role of the Vulcan tactical officer Tuvok in Star Trek: Voyager. An episode of Voyager, "Flashback", established that Tuvok served aboard the USS Excelsior during the events of the previous film, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Themes

As in several earlier films, Generations contrasts a man who will stop at nothing to get what he wants (Soran) with men who are willing to put aside everything they love and cherish to save others. Kirk makes the ultimate sacrifice, as does the Enterprise-D, in one of the most spectacular special effects sequences of the film series. A related theme is the contrast between Soran and Picard in handling personal tragedy. The Enterprise-B rescues Soran as his ship was being destroyed by the Nexus, and he became obsessed with going back into the Nexus. Soran's wife and children had been killed in a Borg attack some time earlier, so he seeks the Nexus as a means to return to them, ignoring the fact that the "reality" that the Nexus presents is illusionary.

Picard, on the other hand, learns early in the film that his brother Robert and nephew René were both killed in a fire on Earth. He had placed all his hopes of continuing the Picard family line with them, and laments to Troi that his life path will most likely not allow him to take on that task. However, when the Nexus presents him with a scenario in which he is married and has many children, he is able to overcome the temptation to stay in that "reality", realizing that it is a falsehood.

Lt. Commander Data also has to grapple with the effects of the emotion chip Dr. Soong had made for him, which he has La Forge install in his positronic net after a very embarrassing failure to understand humor. When it fuses with his positronic net, he is unequipped to handle the rush of unfamiliar emotional input, which threatens to overwhelm him. Recognizing and overcoming his own personal failings is his story arc, which also provides many of the comedic moments in Generations.

Much of Soran's motivations are meditations on time he has spent attempting to return to the Nexus. Soran's line, "They say time is the fire in which we burn...", is based on a line from a poem by Delmore Schwartz called Calmly We Walk Through This April's Day. Permission was sought to use this line in the film and Schwartz' name appears at the end of the credit. Malcolm McDowell was so taken with this line that he had it engraved on the watch he wears (as Soran) in the film.

Production

Rick Berman was asked to develop a Star Trek: The Next Generation movie in early 1993. Two different scripts were written, one by Maurice Hurley, script editor for season 2 of TNG, and the other by Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga, who had co-written several popular episodes. The latter was chosen.

Leonard Nimoy declined to appear in their film, and DeForest Kelley was unable to appear since his failing health prevented him from acquiring the necessary health insurance (a requirement for any actor). Their lines, as Spock and McCoy, were modified for James Doohan and Walter Koenig, as Scotty and Chekov. In Scotty's case, it created a seeming continuity error as Scotty's dialogue in the TNG episode "Relics" implies that Kirk was alive when Scotty left on a transport called the Jenolen to live out this retirement on the Norpin colony. After Scotty and the Jenolen are trapped in a "Dyson Sphere" he preserves himself in the ship's transporter system for 75 years before finally being rescued by the Enterprise-D. When one of his rescuers, Commander William Riker, mentions he is from the Enterprise, Scotty exclaims "The Enterprise... I shoulda known. And I'll bet it was Jim Kirk himself who hauled the old girl out of mothballs to come looking for me." It should be noted however, that the Official Star Trek Web Site, startrek.com, attributes this line of dialogue to the character having been momentarily disoriented after having been stuck in the Jenolen's transporter system for so long a period of time. Another minor continuity error occurs when Data belatedly bursts out laughing at a joke Geordi told seven years ago which had the punchline "You can stay, but the Ferengi in the gorilla suit has to go!" Data reminds a confused Geordi that he told this joke during the Farpoint Mission (the Enterprise's maiden voyage). However, that mission predated the Federation's first official contact with the Ferengi in the fifth episode of season one, "The Last Outpost".

Production work on the film started immediately after Next Generation finished, with many staff members starting work on the film while still working on the television show or transferring immediately to the film production team as soon as their work on the television show finished.

During the film the newer Starfleet uniform design from Deep Space Nine is seen being worn by starship crew members for the first time, with some characters shown wearing the older Next Generation' versions of their uniforms early in the film, and later switching to the newer design. This echoes the early episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series (specifically The Corbomite Maneuver and Mudd's Women) in which characters are shown wearing an older uniform design dating back to the pilot film, Where No Man Has Gone Before.

It should also be noted that one of the film's major villains, B'Etor, one of the two Klingon sisters, is not actually identified by name until the closing credits.

The director, David Carson, had no feature film experience, but had directed several episodes of Star Trek, including the popular Next Generation episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" and the Deep Space Nine double-length pilot episode "Emissary.

Generations grossed $75,671,125 in the U.S. and $118,100,000 worldwide against a $35,000,000 budget. Although the film did relatively well internationally compared to previous "Star Trek" films, its final U.S. gross was seen by some as disappointing, considering the media blitz that accompanied the film and its impressive $23,116,394 opening weekend.

Paramount's Generations website was the first site on the Internet to officially publicize a major motion picture.

Reception

Critical reaction to Star Trek Generations was mixed. The film holds a rating of 51% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 39 reviews. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a score of two stars out of four, saying that it's "undone by its narcissism. Here is a movie so concerned with in-jokes and updates for Trekkers that it can barely tear itself away long enough to tell a story. [...] In Star Trek Generations, the starship can go boldly where no one has gone before, but the screenwriters can only do vice versa.

James Berardinelli of ReelViews Generations two and a half stars out of four, saying: "Despite a reasonably original story line, familiar characters, first rate special effects, and the hallmark meeting between Captains Kirk and Picard, there's something fundamentally dissatisfying about [the movie]. The problem is that [...] too often it seems like little more than an overbudgeted, double-length episode of the Next Generation television series.

Janet Maslin of The New York Times said: "Generations is predictably flabby and impenetrable in places, but it has enough pomp, spectacle and high-tech small talk to keep the franchise afloat. And in an age when much fancier futuristic effects can be found elsewhere, even its tackiness is a comfort. Jeremy Conrad of IGN gave the film a score of 7 out of 10, saying that it "feels a little rushed and manufactured," but called it "one of the better of the odd-numbered Trek films.

Broadcast TV

The first broadcast United States TV airing of Generations was in 1997, when Fox aired the film. It was also aired notably on Friday December 31 1999 on Fox.