Star Trek: Generations

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Star Trek: Generations
Directed by	David Carson
Produced by	Rick Berman
Written by	Rick Berman Ronald D. Moore Brannon Braga
Starring	See table
Music by	Dennis McCarthy
Cinematography	John A. Alonzo
Editing by	Peter E. Berger
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	November 18, 1994
Running time	118 min.
Language	English
Budget	$35,000,000
Preceded by	Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Followed by	Star Trek: First Contact
IMDb profile

Star Trek: Generations (Paramount Pictures, 1994) is the seventh feature film based on the popular Star Trek science fiction television series. It is the first film in the series to star the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Plot summary

Not long after the USS Enterprise-A completed its final mission in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Captain James T. Kirk, Captain Montgomery Scott and Commander Pavel Chekov attend the christening of its successor, the USS Enterprise-B, commanded by Captain John Harriman. The maiden voyage will be a short trip around Pluto and back, a run 'round the block' as John puts it.

However, minutes after they leave dock, the Enterprise receives a distress call from two ships transporting El-Aurian refugees from their homeworld after it was destroyed by the Borg. Captain Harriman says to pass it on to another ship, considering their new vessel's diminished capabilities (many systems, such as tractor beams, had not yet been installed, as this was a test run -- something of a running joke holds that everything will be installed on Tuesday). When told that they are the only ship in the vicinity, he decides to respond to the call and help the ships.

Upon arrival, the crew find that the two ships are slowly being destroyed by a mysterious orange ribbon of energy: intense gravometric forces in the vicinity of the energy are rapidly compromising the ships' hull integrities, which will eventually lead to complete hull collapse, an explosion, and the death of everyone on board. Despite the crew's best efforts, one ship is destroyed before the crew could assess the situation and effect a rescue. The second ship, the Lakul, was very near destruction herself when Mr. Scott managed to activate the Enterprise's transporter and rescue less than half of the refugees; due to an unknown factor, their lifesigns were "fading in and out of the spacetime continuum", making a transporter lock nearly impossible. The movie takes particular interest in two of the survivors: Guinan will appear later on the Enterprise-D as a bartender in Ten-Forward, and Dr. Tolian Soran is the primary antagonist of the movie, though his intent is both not revealed until much later and non-existant until then.

In attempting to rescue the El-Aurians, the Enterprise maneuvers too close to the energy ribbon and is caught in its gravitic pull. Due to the severe lack of hardware on the Enterprise-B, Mr. Scott comes up with a plan: if the Enterprise deflector dish were to be activated in the right way, it would disrupt the gravity field holding the ship and allow it time to escape. Kirk volunteers for the job, and hurries down to Deck 15, where Deflector Control is located. Kirk is successful in activating the dish, but a stray energy beam from the ribbon strikes the lower portion of the ship's stardrive section, destroying a significant portion of the hull and taking Captain Kirk with it. At this point, the crew of the Enterprise sorrowfully accepts his death, and they return to Earth.

78 years later, the crew of the USS Enterprise-D is going about business as usual. Lieutenant Commander Data, in an attempt to further his understanding of human beings, and more precisely, their emotions, has implanted an emotion chip inside his head, resulting in both disturbing and humorous outbreaks alike throughout the movie. Worf receives a promotion to Lieutenant Commander. Captain Picard, meanwhile, has just received word that his nephew, Réné, and his brother, Robért, his closest family, have burned to death in a fire. This leads Picard to feelings of insecurity about his family and his role in carrying on the family line, as he has had no children during his natural life.

The Enterprise later receives a distress call from a research station orbiting the star Amargosa. Upon arrival, the crew finds what appears to be a deserted station, decimated by Romulans, who were apparently looking for some trilithium that had been stolen from them. Lieutenant Commander Worf locates a survivor -- Dr. Soran -- and returns him to the Enterprise. Soran emphatically assures the crew that he is fine, but that he must return to the station to complete an experiment, to which Captain Picard responds that he may return to the station as soon as they are finished checking it over. Picard seems distracted and perturbed, and has been ever since receiving the bad news about Réné, which he has yet to confide to anyone about.

Soran returns to the station in direct defiance of Picard's earlier request. There he finds Commanders Data and Geordi LaForge running tests on some uncovered equipment in search of the trilithium the Romulans sought. Soran attacks Geordi, pulls a firearm on Data, and begins adjusting the equipment.

Meanwhile, Picard and Counselor Troi are going over Picard's photo album, commiserating about Réné and Robért, when there's a strange flash of light.

The crew is sent to retrieve the crew on the station after discovering the presence of a devastating shockwave. A nearby Klingon Bird-of-Prey decloaks, beaming Soran and Geordi off the station before vanishing. The Enterprise rescues its crew members, including a distraught Data, from the station, and escapes with the shockwave literally a second behind them.

The scene switches to the bridge of the Bird of Prey, where Soran's rescuers are revealed: the vicious renegade Klingon sisters Lursa and B'Etor, who demand payment from Soran in exchange for their services to him. Soran demands that they uphold their end of the agreement by taking him to the planet Veridian III, at which time he will give them the access code to a highly important data chip he has given them. The sisters reluctantly agree, and Soran goes off to torment Geordi -- calling him abnormal and subtly insulting him in other such ways, Soran steals his VISOR and adds a special camera to it, which transmits directly to the Bird of Prey.

Meanwhile, the Enterprise locates the Bird of Prey after figuring out that Soran intends to destroy the Veridian star to return to a kind of paradise he and Guinan apparently encountered in their brush with the energy ribbon before their rescue by the Enterprise-B. Not thinking he can chance approaching it in a ship (which might, if struck by the discharges from the ribbon, depressurize at an inopportune moment) Soran intends to force it to graze the surface of a planet (Veridian III) by altering the forces acting on it, and be there waiting for it to pick him up. Complicating the plot is Data's fear that his emotion chip has rendered him useless to his captain and fellow crew members.

At Veridian III, Picard exchanges himself for the freedom of Geordi. Geordi's VISOR, altered by Soran, now betrays the Enterprise shield's operating frequency, and the sisters begin firing on the ship at will. When it appears that the Klingons have won, Data (his emotion chip causing his voice to elevate with glee) sends a signal which activates the Bird of Prey's cloak -- this lowers its shielding, permitting the Enterprise to fire photon torpedoes at it and destroy it quite spectacularly. (It is revealed this is the exact reason why this particular model was discontinued.)

The Bird of Prey's final shot had destabilized the warp core, causing an overload that would soon lead to an explosive breach. Commander Riker orders the ship's stardrive section to be evacuated, and the saucer section to separate from it and make all possible speed away from it before the blast. Scarcely has the ship disconnected and begun to move away than the warp core detonates brilliantly. The explosion creates a shock wave, which forcefully strikes the saucer, destroying helm controls and the impulse engines and sending it plunging toward the planet. The saucer crashes into the planet, sliding along its surface and rendering the Enterprise-D useless.

In the meantime, Picard has been making conversation with Soran, who confirms that his plan is to return to the Nexus -- a mysterious plane of existence in which time has no meaning, and one may live in pure bliss forever. In order to re-renter this plane, Soran plans to annihilate the Veridian star, altering gravity enough to bring him in contact with the Nexus. Picard tries to talk him out of his insane plan, pointing out that Veridian IV supports a sizeable civilization, but Soran will not listen. To further complicate matters, he has erected an energy field around his worksite strong enough to deter any foreign bodies attempting to enter -- as Picard so aptly demonstrates when he runs headlong into it.

Picard discovers a gap in Soran's shield, slips inside, and begins to battle Soran. However, he is unsuccessful, as the missile launches and detonates, and both Picard and Soran are pulled into the Nexus. The Enterprise, however, is not so lucky: it is destroyed in the shockwave along with the planet. All hands are lost.

Picard "awakes" to find himself celebrating Christmas with the family he never had -- a wife, children, even his nephew René, who had died. He submits happily to the charm of the situation -- until he notices an ornament on the Christmas tree which appears to contain a small, repeating explosion. This triggers a memory of reality in Picard's mind, at which point he walks to an office of sorts -- in which he witnesses the same phenomenon on a decorated tree outside the window. An image of Guinan appears behind him, imprinted upon the fabric of the Nexus from her brief stay before being rescued by the Enterprise-B. She points out that he is indeed caught in the Nexus, and that, should he wish it, he can escape to any point in space and time that he desires. Picard chooses to return to just before Soran launches his deadly rocket, to which Guinan retorts that even if he did really want to leave the Nexus, the situation would turn out the same -- he would need some help to change the timeline. Fortunately, she knows just the person.

It appears that Captain Kirk did not die in 2293, as was believed, but was pulled into the Nexus himself; from the point at which Picard met him, Kirk thought he had just arrived as well. Kirk proves significantly harder to convince of the truth than did Picard, as he had returned to a point in his history at which he had made a choice he had regretted since -- the decision to return to Starfleet, rather than stay on Earth and marry his love. As with Picard, Kirk's dream is shattered by an inconsistency in the scene, and he agrees to help Picard stop Soran.

Time suddenly reverses, and various shots from the Enterprise's bridge are shown as the ship crashes all over again. The scene in which Picard confronts Soran begins to play again -- but when Soran originally turns to find Picard, Kirk is standing in his place. Kirk seems to have a much easier time holding Soran at bay while Picard attempts to reach the missile and deactivate it. Soran cloaks the missile, but is pushed off the edge of a small cliff; he manages to grab a rope to save himself, but drops the remote which controls the missile's cloak in the process.

Picard and Kirk attempt to retrieve the remote from the precarious bridge it has landed no, but Soran intereres. While Picard fights off Soran, Kirk retrieves the remote and de-cloaks the missile - and the bridge collapses beneath his feet. Picard heads to the missile to deactivate it, but Soran corners him at gunpoint. When Soran goes to launch the missile, it explodes on its station, killing Soran in a fiery blast - Picard had activated the locking clamps.

Captain Kirk is not quite so lucky as his counterpart, however. By the time Picard reaches him and clears away enough of the rubble that covered him, Kirk is nearly dead. He asks if they have succeeded, and when Picard assures him they have, he smiles. His last words are "It was...fun -- Oh my..." Picard retrieves his body and buries him in a cairn of stones on top of the mountain, placing his Starfleet insignia respectfully atop the grave. A short time later, an Enterprise runabout comes to take him back to the crashed saucer section. After gathering as much as they can take from the Enterprise (including a scene of a happy reunion between Data and his cat Spot -- "I am happy to see Spot..." Data says, confused, "And I am crying. Perhaps the chip is malfunctioning," to which Counselor Troi replies "I think it's working perfectly..."; Data is coming to terms with the emotions he now has), the crew is beamed aboard Federation rescue vessels and leaves the system. The closing lines of the movie are as follows:

Cmdr. Riker: "I'm gonna miss this ship. She went before her time." (The two begin to move from Picard's ready room to the demolished bridge.)

Capt. Picard: "Someone once told me that: 'time is a predator that stalks us all our lives' (referring to something Soran said on Veridian III). But I'd rather believe that time is a companion, who goes with us on the journey, and reminds us to cherish every moment. Because they'll never come again. (Examining the Picard family crest on the front of his recently-recovered photo album.) What we leave behind is not as important as how we've lived. After all, Number One, we're only mortal."

Cmdr. Riker: "Speak for yourself, Sir -- I plan to live forever. (Moves toward the damaged captain's chair.) I always thought I'd get a shot at this chair one day..."

Capt. Picard: (moving to stand next to him) "Perhaps you still will. Somehow, I doubt that this will be the last ship to carry the name Enterprise. (Pauses for a moment to look around one last time, then taps his comm unit.) Picard to Farragut: two to beam up." (The two are transported to the Farragut, and the rescue ships warp out of sight.)

[edit] 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. His wife had been killed in a Borg attack some time earlier and Soran seeks the Nexus as a means to return to his relationship with her while 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 and nephew were killed in a fire. 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.

[edit] Notes

Second run promotional poster.

• Leonard Nimoy was originally slated to direct the film, but he pulled out before signing his contract. It is thought that he did not like the screenplay and wanted it altered, but producer Rick Berman refused any further changes. Berman said that he would have made the changes but there was not enough time to because the special effects and other production companies had already been booked. All of Spock's lines in the film were subsequently given to Scotty (explaining Kirk and Scotty's rather odd friendly banter and teasing). DeForest Kelley was also slated to appear, but was eventually replaced by Walter Koenig and all of McCoy's lines were given to Chekov (explaining Chekov's presence in sickbay).

• The film's production team included a great number of people who had worked on The Next Generation television show, many 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. The director David Carson had directed a handful of episodes of Star Trek including The Next Generation episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" and the Deep Space Nine two-part pilot episode "Emissary." The script was written by The Next Generation staff writers Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore who had written a number of popular episodes and the finale, All Good Things....

• William Shatner has said that the line "Who am I to argue with the captain of the Enterprise?" was the hardest line he ever had to deliver.

• The three starships which evacuate the Enterprise-D survivors at the end of the film are:

- USS Farragut, NCC-60597, Nebula-class

- USS Valiant, NCC-20000, Oberth-class

- An unidentified Miranda-class starship

• Because of the time-travel elements involved, some Trek fans believe that all events following Picard's return from the Nexus — including Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and the later The Next Generation-based films — take place in an alternate universe from the one seen at the start of Generations. This can only be considered conjecture as no later film or television series ever confirmed this. In addition, the time-loop demonstrated here appears to have been self-contained, in a similar fashion to The Next Generation episode "Cause and Effect" which did not per se create an alternate universe.

• Major plot elements were inspired by writings of Delmore Schwartz, who was given screen credit.

• Kirk's original death scene (in which he is shot by Soran) went over poorly in test screenings, and was re-filmed to be more heroic for the theatrical release. Another deletion was an orbital skydive sequence, in which Kirk skydived from orbit while Chekov and Scotty waited below. These scenes can be seen on the DVD special edition. Captain Kirk's love of orbital skydiving is mentioned in many of the novels written by William Shatner, most prominently in Captain's Peril when Picard and Kirk skydive from Bajor's orbit. (A similar scene was originally planned for, but never made it into, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and appears in its novelization.) The death of Kirk was naturally wildly controversial among Star Trek fans, with many refusing to accept the events of this film as canon. Malcolm McDowell even received death threats from some Star Trek fans.

• The Next Generation episode "Relics" (filmed just two years before Generations and coincidentally written by Generations co-writer Ronald D. Moore) did not anticipate Scotty's appearance at the christening of the Enterprise-B, so Kirk's disappearance here is a retcon. In that episode, Scotty, upon hearing the name Enterprise from Riker, naturally assumes that "...it was Jim Kirk himself who hauled the old girl out of mothballs to come looking for me". Scotty's voyage on the USS Jenolen and later disappearance would have had to occur after witnessing the loss of Kirk. It's assumed by fans that Scotty was probably in a state of extreme disorientation after having been suspended in a transporter buffer for 75 years. Or, he may simply have assumed that Kirk would somehow have survived, as Kirk was known to do.

• The release of the Collector's Edition DVD of Star Trek: Generations was delayed 3 weeks in September 2004 because of a misprint on the packaging. The back cover stated that the movie trailers were among the bonus features included; however, Paramount was not able to obtain the clearance to include them. Although the discs were recalled to fix the error, many copies with the misprint found their way onto store shelves.

• Generations marks a number of final appearances. The film marks the final Star Trek appearances of William Shatner (James T. Kirk), James Doohan (Montgomery Scott) and Walter Koenig (Pavel Chekov), the final appearances of the original Enterprise-D sets, and Geordi's VISOR.

• Picard's scene with Guinan is the first time her quarters are shown and the first time she is seen without a hat.

• Paramount's Generations website was the first site on the internet to officially publicize a major motion picture. [1] (Not only did the first Star Trek movie featuring the Next Gen characters pioneer a new means of promoting a movie, so did the first Star Trek movie featuring the original series characters: Star Trek: The Motion Picture was the first film promoted by a McDonald's Happy Meal.)

• Tim Russ, the actor who played Tuvok, a main character of the subsequent Star Trek: Voyager series, makes an appearance in the film as Enterprise-B's Tactical Lieutenant, delivering a number of lines in scenes on the bridge.

• A deleted scene involved LaForge being tortured by Soran, using nanites to start and stop his heart. This explains Soran's cryptic response to Lursa's asking about LaForge's interrogation: "His heart just wasn't in it." The scene was rumored to be pulled because of how disturbing it was, but further review of the deleted scene shows that LaForge is wearing the original Generations uniform variant which never made it on screen (replaced by the DS9 then TNG uniforms because of cost and look which was a cross between the Star Trek II - VI uniforms and the TNG Uniform). It is likely the scene was pulled more because his uniform was inconsistant with the later shot footage.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Errors and inconsistencies in the film

• Montgomery Scott has also appeared in "Relics" where he is seen rescued from a transporter by Enterprise-D. There, he seems like he is not aware of Kirk's death. See the article of that character for more discussion.

• The crew of the Enterprise alternate randomly between the TNG and DS9 Starfleet uniforms. This is because early filming was done with the newer uniforms, but the producers decided the uniforms looked bad on a large screen, so the rest of the film was shot with older uniforms. For the sake of continuity, many scenes were shot with actors in both stages of uniform, suggesting that crew compliance with the new uniform regulations was optional, at least for a time being. Because of this error, new uniforms designed to look better on a large screen were designed for Star Trek: First Contact, and shortly thereafter were adopted for use on DS9 and would serve as the Starfleet uniform in some episodes of VOY and in future motion pictures. On an additional note, it has been said that the wardrobe department were afraid of the older uniform's rear zippers being more easily noticed on the big screen compared to on television.

• It is entirely possible that Soran is not aware of the full properties of the Nexus, and furthermore, that many ships are destroyed before they even reach the entrance to the Nexus. He likely did not want to risk getting killed in the attempt of entering the Nexus. Lastly, someone even as resourceful as Soran would have difficulty gaining a ship and crew necessary to perform such a feat, given that any claims he would make about it would be questionable. It appears as though the only people he can manipulate into following his plan are the Klingons, by bribing them with a weapon, and they seem very apathetic to the concept of the Nexus itself as an aim.

• After firing the weapon from Veridian III's surface at the star, Picard instantly sees the change in the star's reaction. Because of the speed of light, he should not see anything for a few minutes (assuming the star is a similar distance away from the planet as our Sun and Earth). Plus, the missile itself would take several minutes just to reach the star (even at the speed of light), which means that after it breaks orbit with its chemical propellant, it would have to engage a warp-propulsion unit.

Review of the scene on DVD shows that after Picard watches the missile launch toward the sun, the following shot where the sun begins to collapse does not contain the rocket propellant contrail seen in the sky in the previous rocket launch shot, possibly indicating that some time has passed between the launching of the rocket, and impact with the Veridian star — an amount of time that may have been prohibitive to depict on screen.

• Early on in the film, Picard informs us that the overload of the emotion chip installed in Data fused the device into his neural net, preventing him from de-activating it or removing it. At the end of the film however, Deanna Troi questions Data on why he chose not to remove the chip. While this may indicate that she was unaware of his condition regarding the chip, Data's response seems to suggest that the chip is actually in fact still able to be removed, contradicting previously established information.

However, in Stellar Cartography, Data asks to be deactivated until Dr. Crusher (presumably with the assistance of Geordi LaForge, who was in the custody of the Klingons and Soran at the time) can remove the emotion chip. Therefore, it seems possible that the emotion chip may simply be more difficult to remove, and require extraordinary means, unlike its previous installation. By the time of Star Trek: First Contact Data can deactive his emotion chip at will and by Star Trek: Insurrection he has the option of removing his emotion chip entirely (Picard asks if Data's malfunctioning could be the result of his emotion chip, but Geordi claims, "He didn't take it with him.")

• In the scene prior to Picard beaming down to Veridian III, he agrees to a prisoner exchange with Lursa and B'Etor in which he will take the place of the kidnapped Geordi LaForge. He requests that he be beamed aboard the Klingon vessel and then transported to the surface "so that [he] may speak with Soran." When he beams to the surface, he materializes in a Federation-type transporter beam - not Klingon. This is inconsistent with the Klingon transporter beam seen earlier in the movie. The argument could be made that Picard was directly transported from the Enterprise to the surface. If that was the case he would have still been wearing his comm badge. When he materializes on Veridian III, he is not. One possible explanation is that he was transported into the Klingon pattern buffer, the comm badge was dematerilized, than forwarded down to the planet, as transporters have been shown to have the ability to remove weapons in the past. (However, note that this would still have resulted in Picard's arrival in a Klingon beam, not the Federation beam.)

• The shot of the Klingon Bird of Prey exploding following its battle with the Enterprise-D is the same shot used in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country when the Enterprise-A destroys General Chang's Bird of Prey in the film's final battle. Also, earlier in the film, the sequence of the Enterprise-B warping by is a reuse of the Excelsior from the previous film. This is easily seen by freezing the film and noting the lack of detail changes made to the Excelsior filming model made for this film.

• Even though the scenes with Soran torturing LaForge have been removed, the torture device and method are still referred to by Doctor Crusher after LaForge's return. Her mentioning the probe's removal is particularly confusing because there is another probe hidden in the VISOR by the Klingons, and the audience will naturally assume the VISOR probe has been removed, not the heart probe.

• There is a significant overlap with the TV episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" (the bridge designs with the additional consoles, the darker set lighting, the Klingon attack that destroys the Enterprise, the warp core breach that deals the killing blow, even LaForge walking away from a 'fusebox' that explodes behind his back.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Star Trek: Generations

• Star Trek: Generations at the Internet Movie Database
• Star Trek: Generations at Rotten Tomatoes
• Star Trek: Generations at Box Office Mojo
• Official Star Trek: Generations web site
• TrekCore's Star Trek: Generations information archive
• Star Trek: Generations article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki.
• Star Trek: Generations DVD Screencaps at TrekCore.com