Some plot spoilers here ********************************************
STAR TREK: GENERATIONS serves neither the original TREK series or the 'Next Generation' crew very well, but producer Rick Berman had a nearly impossible task: to satisfy the fans demanding a Kirk/Picard… More
Some plot spoilers here ********************************************
STAR TREK: GENERATIONS serves neither the original TREK series or the 'Next Generation' crew very well, but producer Rick Berman had a nearly impossible task: to satisfy the fans demanding a Kirk/Picard story, and to please the followers of the popular spin-off. Berman and Paramount had no desire to see the original cast in any more features (it would be difficult enough to provide ample screen time for both large casts), but Paramount demanded that he create a 'transition' between crews, so he wrote, with Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga, an opening sequence featuring Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, with a climax that would supposedly have Kirk 'die' alone, in space, thus fulfilling his prophecy from STAR TREK V.
As another link between TREKS, Leonard Nimoy was asked to direct GENERATIONS, a wise decision, as he had worked in both TV series, had directed two successful TREK films, and co-written a third. But after reading the script, he said, bluntly, it was TERRIBLE! He offered suggestions, but Berman, struggling to complete the last episodes of TNG, as well as put the film together, did not want to burn up any more production time on rewrites, politely informing Nimoy to shoot what was written. Nimoy turned down the assignment, showing DeForest Kelley the script. After reading it, Kelley stated that he felt THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY was a far more suitable finale for Dr. McCoy, and passed on it, as well. Shatner, getting a HUGE paycheck to revive Kirk a last time, remained committed, and James Doohan and Walter Koenig were hastily called in for the opening sequence (which was why Scotty called Kirk 'Jim', and Chekov was suddenly gifted with medical skills). Kirk's disappearance still packed a wallop, but the absence of Spock and McCoy blunted much of the scene's dramatic power.
With TNG director David Carson now in charge, a larger-scaled yet mediocre 'Next Generation' film emerged, with Picard and Data getting most of the screen time, and La Forge suffering the kind of physical abuse that Chekov routinely got in the earlier TREK films. Picard experiences a personal tragedy, and, as he had, far more memorably in the TV series, ruminates about the life he 'could' have had, had Starfleet not keeped calling. Meanwhile, evil Dr. Tolian Soran (Malcolm McDowell), having discovered a benevolent entity, the Nexus, that would allow him to 'live' with his dead wife in an eternal state of bliss (a la George Clooney's SOLARIS), decides to destroy a planet to reroute the entity to him (why he didn't just hijack a spaceship and fly into it is not well explained). Utilizing two whacked-out Klingon sisters and their 'Bird of Prey', he soon attacks the Enterprise, and when Picard attempts to stop him on the planet's surface, the captain fails, with the pair sucked into the Nexus.
Picard finds himself in the idyllic family life he'd always dreamed of, but, through willpower and the intervention of a 'ghost' of Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), he comes to his senses, and is told the 'help' he needs to defeat Saran is in the Nexus...in the form of James T. Kirk, sucked into the entity nearly eighty years before...
While the 'Meeting of the Captains' offers the 'strengths' of both actors (Shatner shows his signature physicality and cockiness, Stewart, as always, is quiet and intellectual), the scenes are enjoyable, and both Captains share a horseback ride (something Shatner had wanted to do since STAR TREK V). Of course, Picard convinces Kirk to join him against Saran ("It sounds like fun," Kirk admits).
In yet another continuity glitch, the two captains leave the Nexus BEFORE Picard's initial confrontation with Saran (if the Nexus has any power over time, why didn't they just reappear prior to Saran's arrival...or why did Picard need Kirk, at all, if he could have just returned, alone, and blasted Saran?) Of course, as Berman wanted to finish Kirk off, once and for all, he had to bring him out, as well...
Speaking of Kirk's death scene...In the FIRST cut of the film, after a short but exhausting fight sequence (clearly showing Kirk as too old and out of shape for hand-to-hand combat), Saran pulls out a hidden blaster, and shoots him in the back...while the dying Captain stalls the villain long enough for Picard to save the day, the Enterprise's most famous Captain dies, in a most unheroic manner (perhaps an honest indication of how Berman felt about Kirk!).
Berman had NO idea how popular Captain Kirk was, however, and the preview audience was so outraged by the sequence that Paramount, sensing a potential disaster, demanded the scene be rewritten and re-shot, a costly (as the film had already 'wrapped') but necessary move.
The second version offered far more of the 'Classic' Captain Kirk that fans had come to expect, facing Saran fearlessly, duking it out, and proving himself far more of a match for the alien than Picard had been. He ends up 'saving the day', although there is a sense of irony that a man who'd spent most of his life on a 'bridge' would die when a bridge he's on collapses!
While this ending was FAR superior to the first version, it still seemed an ignoble climax to a legend. Even William Shatner, after viewing it, considered killing Kirk a bad move, and offered a screenplay for a sequel where Kirk would be resurrected...which Berman, wanting NOTHING more to do with him, refused.
So Kirk dies, his body covered with stones by Picard, and the 'Next Generation' crew is evacuated from yet another destroyed Enterprise.
STAR TREK: GENERATIONS could have been a much better film, but in his haste to finish it, and move on, Rick Berman disappointed both series' fans. Fortunately, the best of the 'Next Generation' films, FIRST CONTACT, would soon be made