Star Trek: Generations (1994)

Movie Info

I just wanted to say that the rest of the Enterprise crew couldn’t be here because they hate me…

Scotty (James Doohan), Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig), and James T. Kirk (William Shatner) visit the launch of a new Enterprise.  When the Enterprise receives a distress call from a ship being torn apart by a temporal rift, Kirk is lost saving the Enterprise and the people of the ship.  Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is also suffering from the loss of his only living relatives when he learns of a distress call from a research base.  There, the Enterprise finds a scientist named Tolian Soran (Malcolm McDowell) who seems desperate to finish his experiment.  Soran is trying to enter the temporal rift where time stands still and anything is possible…no matter the cost.  Teamed with rebel Klingons, Soran destroys a sun and a planet, and Jean-Luc Picard finds himself sucked into the Nexus…team with the legendary James T. Kirk to stop Soran and save the lives of thousands.

Seriously man…I don’t need toast!!!

Directed by David Carson, Star Trek:  Generations (or Star Trek VII:  Generations) followed 1991’s popular Star Trek VI:  The Undiscovered Country.  The movie was met with mixed reviews and earned a Supporting Actor Razzie nomination for William Shatner’s final portrayal of James T. Kirk (he lost to O.J. Simpson in Naked Gun 33 1/3:  The Final Insult).

Star Trek:  Generations is meant to serve as a bridge between the “old” Star Trek and the “new” Star Trek of Star Trek:  The Next Generation which had just ended that summer.  The movie is essentially a Star Trek:  The Next Generation film since only Scotty, Chekov, and Kirk appear from the old Star Trek series and their screen time is limited to the very beginning and very ending.  The rest of the film deals with Picard sense of loss, and a rather annoying emotions chip implanted in Data (Brent Spiner).

Wait, I thought this was Free Willy!!!

By focusing really on only two of The Next Generation crew, the other supporting cast from that show don’t get much screen time.  Worf (Michael Dorn) is barely in the film, Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) has a few lines, and William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) have slightly larger roles, and Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan has an expanded role…It is a bit of a disservice to the Star Trek:  The Next Generation cast and original Star Trek cast…Plus, you add “I’ll take any role” Malcolm McDowell as a less than threatening bad guy, you lose more ground.

Seriously…must…die…better…than…this…

The real thrust (and promotable part) of the movie is the team-up between Kirk and Picard.  It doesn’t occur until late in the movie and is rather sad.  Kirk who has been a hero for all the years looks quite old and then goes out like a chump.  The hero of countless hours of TV and six films rolls down a hill and dies in a pile of rubble.  Couldn’t Kirk’s death have been cooler?

I will say that the special effects in the Star Trek movies continue to get better.  The visuals in this movie are quite good at points, but the decision to have the last scenes take place on the desert planet (shot in the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada), didn’t help the already struggling plot.

Star Trek:  Generations is another misstep in the Star Trek film franchise.  This helped cement the every-other-film-sucks mythos that many fans hold up and was a very rocky start for the next generation of Star Trek films.  Despite this poor beginning, Star Trek:  Generations was followed by one of the better Star Trek films in Star Trek:  First Contact in 1996.

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Preceded By:

Star Trek VI:  The Undiscovered Country (1991)

Followed By:

Star Trek:  First Contact (1996)