While discussing something interesting on the main page about the current state of game pricing ( http://goo.gl/q3ZRCi ), we found our way onto a much more interesting topic, that of the integrity of one of the more controversial movies in the Star Trek franchise, Generations.
We open to the newly commissioned USS Enterprise-B, with three former crew members, Chekov, Scotty, and Kirk, aboard as guests to see the ship off on her maiden voyage. All hell breaks loose, and bad things happen. Fast forward eighty years, and the Enterprise is now adrift on the open ocean as a sea faring vessel. No, it's just the crew "relaxing" on the holodeck, and giving Worf an upgrade, and then making fun of him. Then Data shoves Beverly into the ocean, and all hell breaks loose. Then Guinan gets a weird feeling, and the Nexus comes, and all euphoria breaks loose. Picard has kids, Butler is alive, and Guinan is an even bigger mystery than ever before. Kirk is there, too, with Butler. This is a horrible summation of this movie. The end.
Since this forum entry is for those who have seen Generations to discuss Generations, the above paragraph is more or less pointless, but I was feeling saucy :).
Personally, I loved the ideas in this movie, for what it brings to Star Trek, and for science fiction in general. The cinema of the thing resonates with me to this day: The opening credit footage of the champagne bottle flying through space as it christens the Enterprise-B, the struggle of Dr. Soran to get to the Nexus, the subtle presence of Guinan at key moments, Data's struggle with emotion... Not to mention the properties of the Nexus and it's inhabitants, characters displaced in time, and some Klingon shenanigans with Geordi's visor, all add up to big pluses for me. Kirk's treatment was questionable. I didn't mind it as much, and I can explain later, but I can see why it didn't go over well with the fans.
Anyway, thoughts, anyone? What did you love/hate about Generations? What would you have done differently?
We open to the newly commissioned USS Enterprise-B, with three former crew members, Chekov, Scotty, and Kirk, aboard as guests to see the ship off on her maiden voyage. All hell breaks loose, and bad things happen. Fast forward eighty years, and the Enterprise is now adrift on the open ocean as a sea faring vessel. No, it's just the crew "relaxing" on the holodeck, and giving Worf an upgrade, and then making fun of him. Then Data shoves Beverly into the ocean, and all hell breaks loose. Then Guinan gets a weird feeling, and the Nexus comes, and all euphoria breaks loose. Picard has kids, Butler is alive, and Guinan is an even bigger mystery than ever before. Kirk is there, too, with Butler. This is a horrible summation of this movie. The end.
Since this forum entry is for those who have seen Generations to discuss Generations, the above paragraph is more or less pointless, but I was feeling saucy :).
Personally, I loved the ideas in this movie, for what it brings to Star Trek, and for science fiction in general. The cinema of the thing resonates with me to this day: The opening credit footage of the champagne bottle flying through space as it christens the Enterprise-B, the struggle of Dr. Soran to get to the Nexus, the subtle presence of Guinan at key moments, Data's struggle with emotion... Not to mention the properties of the Nexus and it's inhabitants, characters displaced in time, and some Klingon shenanigans with Geordi's visor, all add up to big pluses for me. Kirk's treatment was questionable. I didn't mind it as much, and I can explain later, but I can see why it didn't go over well with the fans.
Anyway, thoughts, anyone? What did you love/hate about Generations? What would you have done differently?
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Thanks for posting this. I watched Generations a few days ago to refresh myself. That said, I'll be back to talk about it BUT I think the Red Letter Media Plinkett review of it is apt to start things off. I don't agree with all of it, but it is hilarious.
http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-trek/star-trek-generations/
I love their Plinkett reviews, and I don't think I had seen this one yet. Hilarious, but very good points. I remember thinking it was stupid that Picard chose that time to go to when leaving the Nexus. I didn't make any sense. With infinity at his disposal, he chose to give himself the smallest window of opportunity to fix his problem.
Yeah I don't understand why people disliked this one. Nemesis, yeah. Insurrection, OK. But Generations is good stuff for the most part You're right, Kirk deserved better, but it was a nice movie to officially pass the torch. I just wish we'd seen a Deep Space Nine movie. Not sure how they could have pulled off Voyager, but DS9 had some more stories to tell. Hopefully something to retcon the last few episodes.
The Red Letter Media Plinkett Review was pretty good, but I don't really agree with all of it. They are right that Generations is darkly filmed and in some shots, not great, but that's not a huge deal.
That said, I watched Generations a few days ago and largely it's a great movie. In fact, i'd say I enjoyed it more watching it now than when I did originally. Originally I was pretty let down by it, but I can't say for what reason.
That said, the start of the film is nice, I liked how it started with Kirk, Chekov and Scotty. Like scrypt said, the way they open up with TNG crew was great. Malcom McDowell as the bad guy was great. What made him bad was a bit off. If the Nexus is so powerful to trap people, then why was it so easy for Kirk and Picard to leave it?
All told, I really enjoyed myself and thought it was a fun ride. Kirk at the beginning of the film is really different to the character Picard finds in the Nexus. Kirk was fun, but he wasn't outright silly. It's not that I demand "serious Kirk" or anything, but he was serious enough and funny enough in the original films and the Kirk after the Nexus was written a bit too silly for me. I don't mind the way in which he died, or that he died at all, it was fine. Death or no death, they wanted to pass the torch to TNG crew.
I like Generations, but I think it had a couple things going against it that unfortunately made people judge it a little too harshly. For starters the movie came out not too long after TNG wrapped up, and the series finale was AWESOME. With the show leaving on such a high note I think expectations for the movie were pretty high. It's already been mentioned, but the way they killed of Kirk was pretty lame. If you're going to kill off a beloved character, you need to give them a better death than that. I also think the movie had a problem with not raising the stakes high enough for a movie. I could easily see Generations being a two part episode of the main series and it would probably hold up a lot better if it had been. We see the first star get destroyed in a system that may or may not be populated (do they ever say? I don't remember). Now the second time Soran goes to destroy a star we're at least told that there is a populated planet near by, but that's about it. We don't ever see the alien population, and it's not a previously known species, so we have no real reason to care about what happens to them as an audience.
Hmmm, I was going to type a much longer post but my son is currently hitting me with a light saber, and I think I need to go defend myself. I'll be back later. :P I'll also try to watch that red letter media review and come back with my thoughts on that.
I don't remember the transition from the show to the movie, but you're right, All Good Things was absolutely awesome. I don't think I've ever seen a show wrap up so nicely, with such strong characters, and putting the entire history of the show into a specific perspective. I guess Lost tried to do this, in recent memory, but it didn't work as well.
One thing that keeps bugging me, now that I've seen the RLM review, is the drastic change in Picard's personality and values, in Generation, and in all of the TNG movies. I think I was so caught up in the spectacle to really notice it.
The part comparing the show and the movie in regard to the Kurlan naiskos was hilarious. That seems like another big hole.
Picard's personality and values is a HUGE deal but it doesn't make Generations a bad film. It makes the films really inconsistent and sad, in a way, but it doesn't make it bad perse.
The Kurlan naiskos bit might have been a Generations in-joke, the RLM review assumes it's just a prop, it might have been a Generations set crew joke.
@WhiteboySlim: I really liked the stakes of Generations. In fact I really liked that it seemed like a longer episode. As I watched it recently I was like, "this movie is a film adaptation of a great TNG episode at it's prime." For that, I really liked it. Plus the stakes were about a large as a normal episode, which I appreciate. It seems that every movie wants to make the main characters save the Universe and I am getting a bit tired of that. Most of the time, the stakes aren't that high and I appreciate that Generations took it back some. Soran was a bad-guy, but he wasn't a moustache twirling cliche.
So yeah, those aspects worked for me pretty well.