Tolian Soran

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Tolian Soran
Dr. Tolian Soran
Species:	El Aurian
Gender:	male
Home planet:	El Auria
Affiliation:	Unaffiliated (Civilian)
Portrayed by:	Malcolm McDowell

Tolian Soran is a fictional character in the Star Trek universe, portrayed by Malcolm McDowell in the film Star Trek: Generations.

Soran was an El-Aurian who was rescued by the USS Enterprise-B from The Nexus of Joy. Unlike his companions (including Guinan), he was unable to accept life apart from the fantasy created by the Nexus, in which his wife and children (who in reality were killed by the Borg) were alive and well.

Soran spent the next 80 years trying to find a way to get back into the Nexus. He conducted experiments with Trilithium Resin aboard the Amargosa Observatory for several years, until the outpost was attacked by Romulans. The USS Enterprise-D rescued him, but he later succeeded in his plan to launch a probe into the Amargosa Star, destroying it and altering the gravitation fields in the system. He was working with Lursa and B'Etor, and gave them his research documents in return for his passage to the planet Veridian 3 (Lursa and B'Etor planned to use the research to create a powerful weapon and take over the Klingon Empire).

The Enterprise-D later destroyed the Klingon ship, but Soran was already on the planet, on which he planned to launch another missile into the Veridian Star, the destruction of which would alter the gravitational fields in the system and now make the Nexus intersect with the planet. In fact, his plan worked, but Captain Jean-Luc Picard was taken into the Nexus with him. Later, Picard joined with Captain James T. Kirk and re-entered reality at a point in time before the missile was launched. Kirk sacrificed his life and helped to stop Soran. Seeing Picard at the launch controls, Soran thought he was aborting the launch and ordered Picard to get away. Picard ran away and Soran went up to see what he had done. Instead of aborting the launch, Picard had locked the rocket in place. The rocket backfired and destroyed the entire complex, taking Soran with it.

It has been suggested that an alternate Soran still exists, since the Nexus can transcend time and space, but there has been no evidence of this as yet.