After watching Star Trek Generations, there is one undeniable fact: It is good to see the crew of the Enterprise-D back together again. After a hiatus (albeit an extremely brief one), the adventures of Star Trek: The Next Generation continue. And seeing the crew reunited, back on missions, is like seeing old friends after a long time apart. Add in the appearances of Scotty and Chekov, and the pivotal role of Captain James T. Kirk, and it becomes a bit like a family reunion — without the drama. There’s a comfort level and familiarity that helps Generations become an enjoyable experience — even if it isn’t a particularly good film.

Production on Generations began even as Season 7 of TNG was winding down. In fact, the script for Generations was written alongside the script for “All Good Things … ” by Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga. Indeed, Braga and Moore confess that, of the two scripts, Generations was an inferior effort. The unfortunate result is that Generations is a substandard offering for what was hoped to be the successful continuation of Star Trek film franchise. While there is plenty here for the Star Trek fan — of both the Original and Next Generation shows — to enjoy, the film itself is clumsy, awkward, and just not very well thought out. The production issues not only affected the presentation of the story, but the underpinning themes also suffer quite a bit as a result.

The film is built around the idea of emotions. And there are certainly a lot of “feelings” to go around. Kirk is feeling old and useless. Data uses his emotion chip and is quickly overwhelmed. Picard suffers from a family tragedy. And the film’s villain, Dr. Tolian Soran, just wants to feel joy. You’d think this would be a film tailor made for Deanna Troi. But fortunately, her ministrations are kept rather muted (she does get to participate in an action scene and she handles it fairly well). The main focus of the film, however, is something called the “Nexus” — a place out of space and time in which there is nothing but pure joy. This is the place which Soran is trying to reach — at all costs. And so we have the motivation and premise for the film.

Two other themes center around time (as either a predator or a companion) and loss. The Nexus is supposed to represent a kind of path to immortality — and a way to redo the mistakes of the past. As such, it’s supposed to be a “cheat” around the deteriorating effects of aging, and the guilt and remorse that accompany loss. These idea coalesce around the character of Kirk — who has his share of regrets. And the opening prologue, in which Kirk seems to sacrifice his life for the sake of others, establishes the theme of loss.

But the idea of loss isn’t limited to just Kirk. Picard loses his brother Robert and nephew Rene in a tragic fire. Data (for a time) loses Geordi, due to inaction resulting from fear generated by his emotion chip. And there is the biggest loss of all: the Enterprise-D. All of these “tragedies” underscore Picard’s final ruminations on the ideas of time and loss, in which he reminds us to “cherish every moment because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we’ve lived.” Good advice, to be sure. And it’s a very thoughtful, provocative idea to leave the audience with as we come to terms with the fact that the ship which has become “home” to us for almost eight years is no longer with us.

The problem for Generations is that all of these feelings, ideas and themes become rather buried by the overall story, and especially the execution of the story. While the Nexus works, symbolically, as a place in which joy (albeit false joy) is eternal, it is simply too arbitrary and vague a concept to really carry the main plot of the film. There were not-so-subtle (and completely unnecessary) changes to the lighting and design of the Enterprise. The transition from TNG to DS9 uniforms, while understandable, becomes distracting. And while the acting is generally pretty solid, there are clear cracks in the armor — from Data of all people.

But the primary culprit, as referenced above, is the writing. The problems are too many to bother going into detail. But discussing two (in full Trekkie detail) will serve to prove the point.

For starters, take the destruction of the Enterprise-D. While it makes sense, thematically, the whole concept is pure contrivance. It begins with Geordi’s abduction, and subsequent torture, by Soran. His VISOR is then modified to send a video image back to Lursa and B’Etor’s Bird of Prey. They use it to find the Enterprise‘s shield harmonic frequency. They tune their torpedoes and disruptors to that frequency. And then proceed to rake the Enterprise mercilessly.

Eh?

The whole Geordi-as-prisoner-as-instrument of destruction story has been done before. You would have thought they’d have learned their lesson about checking his VISOR for any outgoing transmissions afterwards. And the shield harmonic thingy … didn’t they modulate that during their various Borg encounters? They knew right away how the first salvo got through, so why didn’t they do anything about it? Because the sequence of events was so contrived, it seems as though the decision to destroy the Enterprise-D was done simply because it was a movie (and maybe because the stage needed to be used for another set). The end result is to severe diminishes the emotional and thematic impact of what should have been a signature moment for the franchise. Instead, it’s simply perfunctory.

Secondly, Picard’s trip into the Nexus, where he discovers Kirk, and brings him back to almost present to stop Soran is another pure contrivance. Sure, Picard and Kirk work well together — and are fun to watch interacting — but their scenes lose their effect because they are only together because of sloppy, substandard sci-fi writing. And if Picard could use the Nexus to return back in time to anywhere, why not return to sometime just before Soran arrives on the planet? That way he and Kirk can dismantle the missile before Soran ever arrives?

Yes, I know, but then we wouldn’t have had the occasion of Kirk’s real death, sacrificing himself to save millions of innocent people. But like the destruction of the Enterprise-D, Kirk’s death is perfunctory. Yes, it is certainly heroic. And in that sense, it’s worthy. But the execution of the scene is simply preposterous.

Clearly, Star Trek Generations suffered from a lack of focus and priority from a production standpoint.  That isn’t to say that many of the people on it, as individuals, didn’t give their best efforts.  But rather, because Generations was not the sole focus during  pre-production, its quality was diminished.

For fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and even fans of the original Star Trek, this will be a film worth watching.  Most of the time fans will be able to enjoy seeing their favorite characters — from Chekov to Dr. Crusher — on the big screen.  But they should not expect a transcendent film along the lines of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Topics: Klingons, Time Travel
Filed under: Feature Films, TNG Reviews