Star Trek: Generations (1994)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

David Carson

Writers (WGA):

Gene Roddenberry (television series Star Trek)
Rick Berman (story) ...

Release Date:

18 November 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Boldly Go

Plot:

Capt. Picard, with the help of supposedly dead Capt. Kirk, must stop a madman willing to murder on a planetary scale in order to enter a space matrix.

Plot Keywords:

Cult Favorite | Bartender | Spaceship | Death | Shuttle Craft

Awards:

2 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Patrick Stewart	...	Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Jonathan Frakes	...	Commander William T. Riker
Brent Spiner	...	Lt. Commander Data
LeVar Burton	...	Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge
Michael Dorn	...	Lt. / Lt. Commander Worf
Gates McFadden	...	Doctor Beverly Crusher
Marina Sirtis	...	Counselor Deanna Troi
Malcolm McDowell	...	Dr. Tolian Soran
James Doohan	...	Capt. Montgomery "Scotty" Scott
Walter Koenig	...	Commander Pavel Chekov
William Shatner	...	Captain James T. Kirk, retired
Alan Ruck	...	Capt. John Harriman
Jacqueline Kim	...	Ensign Demora Sulu
Jenette Goldstein	...	Enterprise-B Science Officer
Thomas Kopache	...	Enterprise-B Communications Officer

Also Known As:

Star Trek 7 (USA) (informal alternative title)
Star Trek VII (USA) (working title)
Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Movie (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG for sci-fi action and some mild language.

Runtime:

118 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Klingon

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Italy:T | Iceland:L (original rating) | Iceland:LH (video rating) | South Korea:12 | Brazil:Livre | USA:PG (certificate #33119) | Australia:PG | France:U | Germany:12 (w) | Norway:15 | Spain:T | UK:PG | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Patrick Stewart was aided in his portrayal of Picard's grief by the script for Jeffrey (1995), which he was reading on the set. It touched him so deeply he cried reading it.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Picard speaks to Troi about his proud family lineage, including the Picard that fought a Trafalgar. While Patrick Stewart is English, his character Jean Luc Picard is French which would make his ancestor on the losing side of that historical battle. Not something to brag about as a Frenchman.

Quotes:

[first lines]
[the journalists are all talking at the same time, trying to get their questions in]
Journalist #3: How does it feel to be back on the Enterprise bridge?
Journalist #1: Captain Chekov, what are the most significant changes...
Journalist #3: Captain Kirk, can I ask you a few questions?
Journalist #1: Did you participate in the redesign?
Journalist #3: We'd like to know how you feel about being...
Kirk: I appreciate the...
Harriman: Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. There will be plenty of time for questions later. I'm Captain John Harriman and I'd like to welcome you all aboard.
Kirk: It's our pleasure.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Star Trek Visual Effects Magic: A Roundtable Discussion (2007) (V)

A plot device flying through space

In this "passing of the torch" film, the cinematic Star Trek franchise transfers from the crew of the original Star Trek to the "Next Generation" crew. Enormous effort has already been devoted to bringing characters from the original series into the Next Generation series; Scotty, Spock, and Sarek are among the "crossovers." Although a pleasure for trekkers, this rarely results in compelling screenwriting, and Generations is no exception.

The problem here, as elsewhere, is the dreaded "plot device," a fantastic happening or object that allows a character to skip over decades unchanged. In Generations, the device is an "energy ribbon," which zooms through space, destroying some things, but also snatching some people into a fantasy land where dreams become reality. In the first sequence, Kirk is one of those snatched (although others assume he is destroyed). This allows him to meet Picard, who is snatched 80 years later by the same ribbon.

So far, we're running at about the usual level of belief-suspension for a Star Trek plot, but the unlikely Kirk-Picard summit precludes even more outrageous reasoning. First, the ribbon's fantasy land is so utterly attractive that a scientist named Soran (who had a close encounter with the ribbon years ago) willingly dispatches millions of innocent lives to arrange another, more permanent rendezvous. Despite this, Picard and Kirk have no difficulty seeing through the facade. "It's not real, is it?" Kirk asks, though if it's real enough to include all the other trappings of normal life, it should be able to replicate the feeling of realness, shouldn't it?

Picard (with the help of Guinan) has no problem moving from his fantasy (a sort of Dickensian Christmas with a large family) to Kirk's (a woodsy spot where he chops wood and cooks breakfast for a slumbering lover). Why not pop over to Soran's fantasy and talk some sense into him while he's at it? Nevermind. Instead, they jointly emerge from the ribbon, back into the real world, though not at the point they left it -- in fact, they're nowhere near the ribbon when they come out. How did they manage that? And if they're not constrained by time or space, why not pop out at some point where they can nab Soran without a struggle? The answer, of course, is that it wouldn't make for an exciting movie, though movies with such shaky conceptual frameworks rarely excite on any but the most basic levels.

Generations isn't devoid of merit. Malcolm McDowell does a pleasantly evil turn as Soran, and Brent Spiner portrays an appropriately jangled Data, who has just installed an emotion chip. It's fun to watch the Next Generation working with a Hollywood budget, but director Berman often falls short of the task. More than once, he does sharp zooms on characters' faces as they are about to die violently, a technique I thought had perished in the 70s. Still, if you're in a tight spot for a Star Trek fix, this will probably do it for you, plot device and all.