Last year during the summer, I did six posts about the first six Star Trek movies featuring the cast of the original series.
- Star Trek: The Motion Picture
- Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
- Star Trek: The Search For Spock
- Star Trek: The Voyage Home
- Star Trek: The Final Frontier
- Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country
Now here in the winter of this new year of 2022, I'm posting the sequel, posts about the 4 films featuring the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Cinema Sunday will be Non Star Trek starting February 6th.
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To describe Star Trek Generations as a movie is a perhaps a disservice to "movies".
Star Trek Generations is more a series of events designed for the purpose of moving the Next Generation cast from your TV screens to the screens of your local cinema.
Andrea and I went to see Star Trek Generations in the theater as soon as it was released and it was not a completely unenjoyable experience. It was cool to see our beloved Next Gen fam up on the big screen. (Even if it did mean you could see LeVar Burton's eyeballs behind his VISOR.)
Captain Kirk dies...the first time!
The beginning is interesting, the idea of a pop culture/media presence in the 23rd century as reporters and cameras swirl about as the famous legendary James T Kirk is on hand for the debut of the new Enterprise, 1701-B. It's all for show but the show defers to harsh reality when a strange cosmic phenomenon, a massive energy ribbon, strikes endangering two El-Aurian refugee ships.
Of course only the Enterprise is in range to save the day.
And of course the current captain is a feckless newbie so of course only Captain Kirk can save the day. Thankfully Scotty and Chekov are there to lend a hand but ultimately it falls to Kirk to do whatever it takes to save the ship. But the energy ribbon lashes away at the hull of the Enterprise B and Kirk is lost to the infinite blackness of space.
Alas the famous legendary James T Kirk is dead.
We'll get back to him later.
Data's got a funny feeling.
On a holodeck re-creation of an ancient wooden sailing ship to celebrate the promotion of Worf to Lt. Commander, Data makes an error in judgement on the subject of humor by pushing Dr. Crusher off the the ship into the sea. It is not a move well regarded by the rest of the crew.
Me, I thought it was funny as hell and the gang should lighten up.
Data realizes he's gone as far as he can go to be more human without emotions and decided to incorporate Dr. Soong's emotion chip into this programming.
Data getting the emotion chip should be a bigger deal but it's not. And subsequent films will try to undo this step. The 2nd film reveals in Data can turn the chip on and off. The 3rd film reveals it can be taken out. And the 4th films does not address it at all.
Emotions are a mixed bag that include love and joy (he just LOVES scanning for life forms) but also self doubt and fear.
It's Data's fear that drives one of the biggest laughs I ever heard from a collective movie going audience. Just as the Enterprise saucer section dips towards the planet below and Data says "Oh shit!"
The crash of the Enterprise 1701-D.
Credit where credit is due: it is a spectacular set piece as the Enterprise saucer section falls out of space, blazing through the atmosphere and gliding over a forest before crashing into the trees, bouncing and rumbling before finally coming to a stop.
But how we got there...
Some rogue Klingons get in a lucky shot and the warp drive looses anti-matter containment. How many times over 7 seasons did the Enterprise face such peril and this time, Geordi LeForge can't pull of a last minute solution.
The REAL reason for the destruction of the Enterprise 1701-D was that the model for the ship from the TV show did not look good on the big screen and the producers wanted a new ship for the movies.
Which gave everyone an excuse to have a big epic moment with a real status quo change for the Next Gen cast.
"Time is the fire in which we burn!"
Malcolm McDowell as Dr. Soran delivers this line with sinister gusto as only Malcolm McDowell can.
It's clear that the writers imagine Dr. Soran as a Khan level type of threat but despite some serious acting chops from Malcolm McDowell and despite blowing up a star and a planet, Dr. Soran never quite achieves this level of menace.
Maybe it's the lack of a grander motivation like conquest or a more personal vendetta like vengeance. At the end of the day, Dr. Soran just wants to feel some joy, damn it!
The Nexus
The massive energy ribbon that Dr. Soran is chasing is a gateway to another realm where people within feel the ultimate expression of pure joy.
For Captain Picard, his ultimate expression of pure joy is a Victorian Christmas surrounded by overdressed ragmuffins and a generic wife person slaving over a goose in the kitchen.
OK, what the what?
Yes, before entering the Nexus, Picard is still struggling with news of the death of his family on Earth. He is longing for that sense of connection. And yes, Picard is a student of history. But he's also a modern man of the 24th century.
So why the hell is Picard's ultimate expression of pure joy a Victorian Christmas surrounded by overdressed ragmuffins and a generic wife person slaving over a goose in the kitchen?
Why is the wife a generic wife person and not Beverly Crusher?
Well, no way in hell Dr. Crusher would be slaving over a goose in the kitchen, I'll tell you that.
Over on a forested mountainside, James Kirk finds there's wood that needs choppin', eggs that need fryin', a woman in his bedroom that needs sexin' and in the stables, horses that need ridin'!
This feels like Jim Kirk's ultimate expression of pure joy.
Captain Kirk dies...the second time!
Jean Luc Picard pulls himself out of his ultimate expression of pure joy. Maybe it wasn't that hard.
"Wait! My ultimate expression of pure joy is a Victorian Christmas surrounded by overdressed ragmuffins and a generic wife person slaving over a goose in the kitchen? Oh that's just bullshit!"
Kirk and Picard get to ride horses a bit and Kirk realizes this whole ultimate expression of pure joy isn't real. Picard makes an appeal to Kirk to leave the Nexus and stop Soran from destroying a star and a planet.
Kirk: I take it the odds are against us and the situation is grim.
Picard: You could say that.
Kirk: You know, if Spock were here, he'd say that I was an irrational, illogical human being by taking on a mission like that. Sounds like fun!
It's a wonderful exchange that's perfect encapsulation of Kirk's sense of adventure.
What happens next is not fun.
Over the course of his career, Capt. Kirk has fallen from great heights, been shot, punched and big things dropped on him.
Now of all times, Capt, Kirk after being shot, punched, falling and having things drop on him dies. Why? Because it makes for a big moment, the official hand off of the original series to the Next Gen.
Apparently Jim Kirk's capabilities as a former captain of the Enterprise are crucial to serve as a distraction while Picard stops Dr. Soran.
Kirk is the red shirt in Picard's plan.
Kirk's 2nd demise is understated with a bemused "oh my" as he passes away.
I know some fans were disappointed Kirk didn't get more of a death scene speech (and apparently one was written) but I think the simple "oh my" is more effective.
Assuming Kirk has to die.
Well, it's the end of the "movie" and we need a big moment as alas, James T. Kirk....
"Oh my."
Oh and the Entrerprise 1701-D is wrecked so...
Picard tries to put a hopeful note on things as he fishes his precious Shakespeare volume from the wreckage (alas, the fish doesn't make it, I guess) but it's all a bummer of an ending for something this is supposed to be a new beginning for the Star Trek film franchise.
Seeing the movie with an audience of fellow Trekkers made Star Trek Generations a better experience than the actual "movie" may have deserved.
Thankfully, the next big screen adventure would be a much better experience.
Next week, Cinema Sunday looks back to Star Trek: First Contact.
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