Star Trek: Generations (1994) | Sci-Fi Saturdays

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I’m just talkin’ ’bout my Star Trek Generations.

Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise return in one final adventure that concludes their story and passes the torch to a new generation of explorers. Star Trek: Generations looks at common Star Trek themes about life, loss, and legacy while continuing the stories of Picard, Data and the crew of The Next Generation, and showing that Star Trek was more than just stories about characters like Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.

First Impressions

The trailer for this seventh Star Trek film begins with a scientist being saved from an energy band called The Nexus. Unfortunately, he really really wants to go into this place, which is why he is shooting at Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise. Whoopi Goldberg has some advice for Jean-Luc and obviously tells him how to find Captain James T. Kirk, who is not as dead as history believes. Together will they be strong enough to stop this madman? Star Trek: Generations brings the past and the present together in one cataclysmic adventure.

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

The Fiction of The Film

The seventh Star Trek film opens in 2293 as Captain Harrison (Alan Ruck) prepares to take the starship USS Enterprise-B out on a quick media cruise, celebrating its commissioning. On board are guests of honor Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig), Montgomery Scott (James Doohan), and the most recent Captain of the Enterprise, James Kirk (William Shatner). While on the tour “around the block” the Enterprise receives a distress call from a pair of refugee ships caught in an energy ribbon. They manage to transport a small handful of El-Aurian passengers, including Soran (Malcolm McDowell) and Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), off the vessels before they are destroyed. Unfortunately the Enterprise gets too close and is damaged, losing Captain Kirk in the process.

Seventy-eight years later, in 2371, the officers of the USS Enterprise-D are giving Worf (Michael Dorn) his promotion to Lt. Commander on board a holographic representation of an old sailing vessel, also called Enterprise. Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is interrupted with a distressing personal message, while Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) takes the ship to investigate an attack on the nearby Amargosa Observatory. Inside, Lt. Cmdr. Geordi LaForge (LeVar Burton) and the android Commander Data (Brent Spiner) encounter a slightly older version of Dr. Soran, who initiates the destruction of the Amargosa star, kidnaps Geordi, and flees with him aboard a Klingon Bird-of-Prey vessel, commanded by the Duras sisters, Lursa (Barbara March) and B’Etor (Gwynyth Walsh).

Picard reveals to Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) that he recently found out that his brother and nephew were killed tragically, and he is now the sole Picard left to carry on the family name. Without a family of his own, this means that the Picard-line ends with him. Subsequently he talks with Guinan, who he discovers was on the ship with Soran 78 years ago. She tells the Captain that Soran will do anything to get back to the Nexus, a place of overwhelming joy that they were ripped away from when they were rescued. Taking this information, Picard and Data look for places that might allow Soran access back into the Nexus Ribbon traveling through the galaxy. They realize that due to the destruction of the Amargosa star, the gravimetric shift will pass the Nexus directly over Veridian III.

The Enterprise arrives in the Veridian system where they are confronted by a cloaked Bird-of-Prey. The Klingons agree to exchange LaForge for another prisoner, and Picard volunteers himself. But first he asks to be beamed to the location they sent Soran, so he can talk some sense into him. They realize that his plan involves blowing up the Veridian star, which will kill 230 million inhabitants of Veridian IV. Meanwhile, the Klingons have implanted a small camera in Geordi’s VISOR prosthesis which allows them to find out the Enterprise’s shield frequency and fire torpedoes through it, damaging the ship.

Crippled, the Enterprise tricks the Klingon Bird-of-Prey into cloaking which drops its shields, allowing it to be destroyed. But the damage on the Federation ship is too great to be reversed and they evacuate all people into the saucer section and separate the ship, allowing the engineering section to explode, while the saucer crashes on Veridian III. Picard tries to reason with Soran, but his mind is made up and he fires a rocket into the star, causing it to explode. The Nexus shifts, swallowing Picard and Soran, as the planet, with all the Enterprise survivors, is obliterated.

Within the Nexus, Picard has a family and is presented with his heart’s desire. Realizing this place is fiction, and talking with an echo of Guinan, he finds Captain Kirk, who also “just arrived” at his perfect moment. Picard makes Kirk see that they must return. Since the Nexus exists outside of time and space, they can access any moment they want and the two return moments before Soran launches the rocket. Together, Kirk and Picard defeat Soran, and stop the rocket, which explodes killing the scientist. Kirk is injured and succumbs to his wounds, dying as a hero. Picard is reunited with the rest of the crew who are performing a salvage of the decimated saucer section, and realizes that what they leave behind is not as important as how they lived.

“Time is the fire in which we burn.” – Dr. Tolian Soran

History in the Making

While Star Trek: Generations is the seventh film in the 15 year-long franchise it was the first film to feature the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Released just under six months after the May series finale, the film served as an introduction to the new cast for many, as well as a passing of the torch between the classic series cast and the Next Generation cast. The film also features a surprising number of cameos, with actors actively wanting to be a part of this popular franchise.  As with the majority of episodes or films about the crews of the USS Enterprise, the film speaks to questions about life, the world, and humanity’s place within it, even if it does come off as looking a bit like a television episode instead of a feature film.

Besides being the first film for the newest Enterprise crew, it was also the first film for director David Carson. Carson was a veteran television director, having done four episodes each of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, but he had never helmed a motion picture prior to this one. He was reportedly chosen due to his familiarity with the series, and possibly due to the fact that Paramount wanted someone that they could demand certain things from without a lot of pushback. He did an admirable job however, because reportedly the test screenings disliked the original death of James Kirk, and so the production needed to rebuild and reshoot the ending of the film. Even so, Carson managed to bring the film in on budget and under schedule.

This was also the final voyage for the original crew. Their voyages lasted from 1966 through 1969, with 79 episodes of the Original Series. Then they had a brief stint over two years with 22 animated episodes (minus Walter Koenig), before launching the film series in 1979 with Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The success of these films, which include fan favorites Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home paved the way for Star Trek: The Next Generation to debut in 1987 in syndication. These films continued to show the aging officers of the Enterprise, particularly Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, saving the galaxy. But by the final two installments in 1989 and 1991, it was becoming evident that they would not be able to continue on as the leads in new films, for various reasons. DeForest Kelly had made an appearance in the pilot for Next Generation, as a 137-year old version of Dr. McCoy, while James Doohan had appeared as Scotty again in the TNG episode “Relics.” Leonard Nimoy made several appearances in the future timeline, being that Vulcans had longer lifespans than humans. Along with the appearances in Generations, only Nichelle Nichols and George Takei had no connections to the future Star Trek series, having both made their final franchise appearances in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. But most importantly, Generations provided a canonical ending to the legacy of James T. Kirk.

Genre-fication

As a Star Trek film, Generations extends the world of the television series even further. For those that had been watching the seven seasons of The Next Generation, the characters pick up in pretty much the same place that they had ended that show. In fact, one of the main aspects of the film is Data and his emotions chip, which had been around in the series since the  middle of season 4. It featured the return of fan favorite characters like Guinan, and the Duras sisters (who unfortunately would be killed off here, never to be used again). Unfortunately for audience members that were not current on the events of the Enterprise-D don’t get the chance to experience much character information on the majority of the crew. Riker, Troi, and Dr. Crusher (Gates Mc Fadden) are relegated to little screen time (with Troi helping move Picard’s story along), and Worf, while having an important milestone in the film with his promotion, also gets little else to do. The film ends up primarily being the end of Captain Kirk’s story, and focusing on Picard (as is expected), with Data getting the next most screen time, and Geordi following that.

From a science-fiction premise, Data’s story may be the most interesting. While it’s a relatively common story for Star Trek and similar television shows, his plot revolves around a robot (technically an android, in this case) yearning to be more human. This was, and has always been, Data’s movement through the Star Trek world. An artificial boy that wants to become a real boy someday. Many of the best episodes of The Next Generation, like “Measure of a Man,” dealt with his sentience. Here, most likely due to the fact that this was a feature film, Data was finally allowed to take advantage of his emotion chip. What starts as a curiosity for him, and a series of comedic moments for the audience, ends up overwhelming him. Unfortunately the chip becomes fused into him and he no longer has the choice to remove it. This leads to an interesting scene with Picard, in stellar cartography, where Data admits that he cannot do his job and wishes to be deactivated. He is so overwhelmed with feelings of guilt from Geordi’s kidnapping that he cannot continue to focus on his job. Picard tells him what all people already know. That part of having feelings is learning how to live with them and integrate them into your life. A good message to remember.

Generations also makes use of what some might consider time travel. It’s a little paradoxical, but let’s walk through what happens. The mysterious Nexus wave, which makes its way through the galaxy every 39.1 years like a strange Haley’s Comet, is made up of temporal energy. As it passes by, organic lifeforms that are swept into it experience extreme joy and euphoria as they are able to experience the best moments from their life, or perhaps even the moments they wish they could have. As several characters point out, time does not exist within the Nexus which is disorienting and dangerous to the characters trapped within. Especially if they’re trying to save the universe. But the “echo” of Guinan, who counsels Picard within the Nexus and answers his most pressing questions, lets him know if he leaves he can go anywhere, any time. This is of course fictional, but the only way to enter the Nexus is through its ribbon effect, but in leaving, a character can go to any location at any time. It seems paradoxical, and convenient to the plot, that this phenomenon works in this way. There’s no real explanation of this, which is probably for the best. As Picard realizes that he needs help from Kirk, he displays a sense of urgency to get back “in time” to save the planet and his crew. Again, this urgency is solely for the plot of the film, to keep things moving forward. Because if the Nexus has no sense of time, and in leaving one can go anywhere, what is the rush? Perhaps his urgency is to combat the euphoria of the experiences inside the Nexus. Like a rush of adrenaline in order to combat the haze of sleepiness that one experiences. Either way, in terms of time travel and Star Trek, it’s one of the weirder, and less logical, attempts at the phenomenon.

Societal Commentary

As with a number of the Star Trek feature films, but primarily The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek: Generations deals with the themes of mortality. In the opening sequence of the film, Kirk is no longer in command of a ship called Enterprise, and it chaffs him. Yet he is torn between the desire for the swashbuckling life he has led (evidenced by him putting himself in harm’s way to channel a resonance burst from the deflector dish), and the regret at not finding the time for a family (shown with his meeting of Hikaru Sulu’s daughter, Demora). Scotty reminds him that if something’s important, you find time for it, meaning that family was not really the most important thing in Kirk’s life. In this respect, Kirk’s legacy is not the progeny he leaves behind, but the missions he has undertaken and the lives he has saved (and changed), through his travels. His final moments in the film are unabashed heroism as he sacrifices himself to save others, being that he is already thought to be dead. Of course, the film was also trying to tell a final Kirk story that would satisfy William Shatner’s portrayal of this character over the previous 28 years, reconciling that with the history of the character.

Jean-Luc Picard has a similar problem, but comes at it from an entirely different perspective. Created as a different Captain from Kirk, Picard does not lead away missions or constantly put himself in harm’s way week after week. He’s not considered a womanizer or action hero, yet he still commands the flagship of the Federation. Picard’s leadership comes from a different place, but has also consumed his life in much the same way that Kirk’s has. When Picard discovers that his brother and nephew have died, the part of him that rationalized his choice of career over family now feels regret. He knows that his decisions have now sealed the fate for his familial line. After his death, whenever that may be, the robust Picard line will cease to exist. However, Picard seems to express his acceptance of his mortality with more grace than Kirk. While Kirk fought the effects of getting older, as evidenced in a quote from Star Trek II where Kirk admits that “galloping around the cosmos is a game for the young,” (yet continued to do it anyway) Picard ends the film by realizing that our legacy is not necessarily in what we leave behind, but in how we lived. As with the Percy Bysshe Shelley poem “Ozymandias,” the great works of the King of Kings were ravaged by the sands of time, leaving nothing for the modern man to see except ruins. Both Picard and Kirk leave behind not only their adventures and, but the inspirational moments and strong character that will endure for many more generations.

Of course, the elements with the Starship captains is all counterpoint to Soran’s desire to return to the Nexus and his story of single-mindedness. He has spent almost 80 years trying to reach back for that thing in his past that provided him so much enjoyment. Here, Star Trek is trying to warn of the perils of nostalgia. None of us are immune to its lure. Neither Picard nor Kirk immediately turned down the ability to live in a past, whether fictional or based on previous experience, that made them happy. One can only imagine what world Soran was shown. But as with our real lives, it’s often easier–and romantic–to recall the past as a better place. To think that it was somehow more perfect, simpler, or easier than the here-and-now. That is a trick of memory; to filter out the pain and discomfort and float the better feelings to the top. No doubt Soran believed that his happiness was important, but at what cost? He had no qualms about killing any number of people to get what he felt he was owed. What was ripped away from him. This makes him a very fallible, yet intriguing villain, since his character makes the audience ask themselves, what would they do in a similar situation.

The Science in The Fiction

Soran’s plan to re-enter the Nexus was quite elegant. Knowing that he was unable to use a ship to enter the temporal ribbon, he devised a way to bring the ribbon to him. It would appear that he spent a majority of his time studying and learning how to change the makeup of the galaxy in order to support his plan. He learned about, and experimented with trilithium (which is presumably an advanced version of dilithium, the power source for the warp engines) which was able to halt the fusion within a star. Using a rocket filled with the substance, he destroys the Amargosa star and was planning to do the same thing to the Veridian star as well. As Picard and Data discover, the destruction of these celestial objects changes the balance of the galaxy, subtly shifting the forces of gravity between the remaining planets. Thus, shifting the path of the ribbon to his desired location. For science-fiction films, this is a pretty sophisticated and complex idea to present to an audience. Science tells us that all objects in the universe exert forces on one another. Generations makes clever use of special effects and on screen depictions to illustrate the shifting path of the Nexus ribbon. It simplifies a lot of celestial mechanics into an easy to digest moment showing what Soran’s plan is. This moment of scientific accuracy even works with the thematic character elements in the film. By altering the events in the universe to suit his plan, not only did Soran bring the Nexus closer to himself, but he also–unknowingly–put himself on a collision course with Picard (and Kirk) which would be his undoing.

The Final Frontier

As the hybrid of the last classic Trek film, and the first Next Generation film, Generations seems to have more than the standard number of cameos. Of course, the casting of Malcolm McDowell as the villain was a great choice. Being a friend of Patrick Stewart as well as famous for his roles in A Clockwork Orange and Time After Time, helped him fit right in. Besides the appearance of Kirk, Chekov, and Scotty, there were plans to invite other classic cast back, but they eventually declined for one reason or another. A number of actors from The Next Generation reprise their roles as well including Whoopi Goldberg, and the two Klingon sisters. It was probably convenient to get these characters into the film, given their past history with the crew, rather than create an entirely new antagonist to assist Soran. One of the other Klingon’s was played by character actor Brian Thompson, who also appeared in one episode of TNG as well as minor roles in The Terminator and Alien Nation.  The captain on the Enterprise-B is played by Alan Ruck, best known for his role as Cameron Frye in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Two other cameos for bridge crew on the new Enterprise include Jenette Goldstein, known for her role of Vasquez in Aliens, and John Conner’s foster mother in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Tim Russ who would begin playing Vulcan lieutenant Tuvok the following year on Star Trek: Voyager.

With the conclusion of The Next Generation the adventures of the Star Trek universe were far from over. In January of the previous year Deep Space Nine became the third live action show to bear the Star Trek name. This was followed in 1995 by Voyager and in 2001 by Enterprise. The crew of the Next Generation continued their adventure in feature films which consisted of three more films lasting until 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis, which was the last film until the 2009 reboot of the series. Though painful at points during this time, the growth of the Star Trek universe was necessary to ensure its survival. The late 2010’s have signified another moment of growth for the franchise as new characters and situations are being explored. Generations was a defining moment for the franchise that showed audiences were willing to follow the adventures of characters other than Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.

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