Star Trek: Generations

Fandom
Name:	Star Trek: Generations
Abbreviation(s):
Creator:	Gene Roddenberry
Date(s):	1994
Medium:	film
Country of Origin:	United States
External Links:	at Wikipedia
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Star Trek: Generations is a 1994 Star Trek: TOS/Star Trek: TNG movie.

In this film, James T. Kirk meets his demise.

Fan Comments

Star Trek: Generations would best be called "Star Trek VII: The Death of Kirk" since that is all this picture has to offer. I find it almost impossible to believe that this was Paramount's best. Poorly directed, this would have been better as a four, half hour television shows than on the big screen. The only part of ST:G that made the movie worth the $7, was the magnificent performance by William Shatner. He stole every scene he was in, which were far to few. Patrick Stewart, an excellent actor in his own right, is pitifully out classed.. Bill Shatner not only steals the scenes, he makes you forget who else is on the screen. His charm and charisma light up an otherwise drab movie.

Insulting to the point of embarrassment to the fine actors from The Next Gen is the obvious attempt to give each one his moment on the big screen despite the fact that the parts were of no significance to the story. Brent Spiner's wonderful character of Data is particularly badly worked. His desire to be Human is turned into a cheap slapstick. attempt at failed humor.

The entire story never connects. The transition from the first death of Kirk to the sailing ship comedy skit was pitiful at best. The only funny scene was Data throwing Beverly overboard but the crew's reaction ruined it. Denny ' Martin Flynn just came out with a new book "How Not To Write A Screen Play". He could easily use "Generations" as an example. The lines recited by Chekov and Scotty were so obviously written for Spock and McCoy that it was embarrassing.

The huge plot failures were almost to numerous to keep track of but the real failure was in the death of Kirk. When Spock died in The Wrath of Kahn we all wept with Kirk at the loss of his friend. Kirk's pain was our pain. We cried with and for him. When they killed Kirk we had no one to empathize with. We cried alone. No one on screen cared. How dare they! Here we have the galaxy's greatest hero who just saved Picard's life and the galaxy, again, and not one person looks back. They just put Kirk under a bunch of rocks, leave him on some God forsaken planet and go about their business. Ouch!

But then, no one cared that they had just lost their ship. I couldn't help but compare it to Star Trek III and the look on Kirk's face as the Enterprise blazed across the sky and he moaned "My God, Bones, what have I done?" And Bones' eloquent answer, "What you had to do, Jim. Turned death into life." Generations cared more for the special effects and the crash of the Enterprise than the ship. It cared more for the way Kirk died than the loss of life. There simply were no feelings. With one exception: When Data found Spot. At least he cared about the cat.

The pity is it could have been such a powerful story. if Kirk were in the Nexus you know there is only one place he would be - on the bridge of the Enterprise. Can you just see Picard beaming in and trying to convince Kirk, Spock and McCoy that this was all make believe and he was from the future? Oh, well.

Nevertheless, I shall still buy the tape when it comes out. I will simply edit it by cutting everything out except the scenes with Bill. It will be extremely short for a major movie but at least it will be tasty.

[...]

No one can deny the financial success of Generations. It is also a known fact that the success was due largely to Shatner's incredible performance. Virtually every review, even those that were less than kind, gave him plaudits for his performance and acknowledged that he stole the picture from the opening to the closing. Even poor old Patrick, whom I agree is an excellent actor, simply disappeared on screen when Bill was present. Bill just plain walked away with the film. Why are we not surprised.

I think we are all making a mistake in time! Because we have known him now for 30 years it always looks like there is a past, but there isn't Everything that we have seen is in the future.

What makes Star Trek work for me is that it shows a future which is worth living for. A future with people like Captain Kirk. We all dream of such a time, where people have learned to live together, where space travel is a totally peaceful mission, where they have such cool technology like warpspeed, beaming and injections without needles...The adventure is out there in space and Captain Kirk takes us out there with him.

And it is William Shatner who has made this dream so real. Over the past 30 years we have seen a part of his life. Shatner gave Kirk a face and a life to relate to. We know how he looks as a young man and how he looks and changes as he becomes older. Is it only because of the TV and movies that Kirk lives? I don't think so. The books are also where he lives - perhaps even more than on film.

I have no problem in accepting Kirk's death. We all will die. Because of Generations we know that he will die with his boots on. Okay. But there is so much more room for more stories out of his life. Stories like "Ashes of Eden". When you read the books you don't feel that he is dead. Why would you. These are stories of his LIFE.

I can't say good-bye to Kirk because if I did I couldn't enjoy the books. I couldn't wait for the next story. We can always say we love Kirk but we should never say good-bye.