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STAR TREK

Star Trek Generations

NOMADIC PICK · WORTH WATCHINGA bumpy but historic handover between crews.
US RELEASE
18 November 1994
UK RELEASE
10 February 1995
RUNTIME
118 minutes
UK CERTIFICATE
PG
DIRECTED BY
David Carson
MUSIC
Dennis McCarthy
BUDGET
$35 million
BOX OFFICE (WORLDWIDE)
$118 million
FIRST STARDATE
48632.4

WRITTEN BYScreenplay by Ronald D. Moore & Brannon Braga; story by Rick Berman & Ronald D. Moore & Brannon Braga

PRODUCED BYRick Berman

IN BRIEF

SPOILER-FREE

Kirk vanishes on the Enterprise-B's first voyage. Seventy-eight years later, Picard faces a scientist willing to destroy whole star systems to reach a mysterious realm, and the two captains' fates become entwined.

SYNOPSIS

SPOILERS
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSISHIDE SYNOPSIS

In 2293, the retired James T. Kirk joins Scotty and Chekov as guests at the launch of the Enterprise-B under the untested Captain Harriman. The unfinished ship answers a distress call from two El-Aurian refugee ships caught in a vast energy ribbon. Some refugees are saved, but the Enterprise is trapped. Kirk goes below to help the ship break free, and it escapes just as the ribbon tears open the section where he was working. He is presumed dead.

In 2371, Picard's crew celebrate Worf's promotion on the holodeck, while Picard quietly grieves for his brother and nephew, killed in a fire. Data, newly fitted with an emotion chip, struggles with feelings he cannot control. Answering a distress call from an observatory, the Enterprise-D finds Dr Tolian Soran, who launches a probe that destroys a star. He kidnaps Geordi La Forge and escapes with the Klingon Duras sisters. Guinan, rescued alongside Soran in 2293, explains that the ribbon leads to the Nexus, a realm of perfect happiness, and that Soran will do anything to return. He is redirecting the ribbon by destroying stars, and his next target will kill millions on an inhabited world.

Picard trades himself for La Forge, but the Duras sisters spy on the ship through La Forge's VISOR and cripple it. The Klingon ship is destroyed, but a warp core breach forces Riker to separate the saucer, which crash lands on Veridian III. On the surface Soran launches his probe, and he and Picard are swept into the Nexus. There Picard finds an idealised family life, and then Kirk, living out his own happiest memories. Picard persuades him to leave. Together they return to the moment before launch and stop Soran, who dies when the probe explodes, but Kirk is fatally injured when a walkway collapses beneath him. Picard buries him on the hillside, then reflects that this will not be the last ship called Enterprise.

BEHIND THE CAMERA

Generations was conceived as a handover from the original cast to The Next Generation. Rick Berman developed the story with series writers Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga, who were asked to feature the original crew briefly at the start, with Kirk returning at the end. Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley declined to appear, leaving William Shatner, James Doohan and Walter Koenig. Filming began on 28 March 1994 while the final television season was still in production, and the Next Generation cast started work four days after the series wrapped. David Carson, who had directed episodes of the show, made his feature debut. Test audiences disliked Kirk's original death, so it was rewritten and reshot in Nevada's Valley of Fire. It opened at number one in America to mixed reviews.

DID YOU KNOW?

  1. 01In the original cut, Soran shot Kirk in the back. Test audiences reacted badly, so the scene was rewritten and reshot, with Kirk dying as he helps stop the probe.
  2. 02The film's promotional website is described as the first official site created to publicise a feature film.
  3. 03Generations was a finalist for the 1995 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, but lost to The Next Generation's own finale, “All Good Things...”.
  4. 04Alan Ruck, Cameron in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, plays Captain John Harriman of the new Enterprise-B.

CONNECTIONS

  • The Duras sisters, Lursa and B'Etor, were recurring Next Generation villains, notably in the two-part “Redemption” (1991).
  • Data's emotion chip was first seen in “Brothers” (1990) and recovered from his brother Lore in “Descent, Part II” (1993).
  • Scotty had already met Picard's crew in The Next Generation episode “Relics” (1992).

AWARDS

Hugo Award nomination; Saturn Award nominations for Best Science Fiction Film and Best Supporting Actress (Whoopi Goldberg)

SOURCES WE CHECKED