| ![]() When Star Trek: Generations was released in theaters in November of 1994, it had been three years since the U.S.S. Enterprise had flown across the big screen. The series’ most recent film, Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country (1991), was the last outing of the original cast from the late 1960s television series and six feature films beginning with Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). Meanwhile, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry had launched a new television series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, in 1987, which ran for 178 episodes, ending in May 1994, with production of the final season overlapping with the production of Generations. Conceived and designed as a way to pass the cinematic torch from William Shatner’s James T. Kirk and the original crew to Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard and the Next Generation crew, Star Trek: Generations held a great deal of promise, but it falls flat much more often than it soars. For every good moment there are two or three awkward ones, and while there is an undeniable thrill of seeing the two “generations” of Enterprise captains working together (through the convenience of a time-bending, extra-dimensional canard known as a “nexus”), it is hard not to wish that the film had more grandeur and more guts. The film begins in the 23rd century with a brand-new Enterprise heading out for a maiden test voyager under the command of Captain Harriman (Alan Ruck), who, let’s just say, is no James T. Kirk, who happens to be on board along with Scotty (James Doohan), Chekov (Walter Koenig), and throngs of journalists as ceremonial accoutrement. Of course, they are immediately called in to rescue two ships in distress that have gotten caught in a bizarre energy field, and while they are able to beam aboard a few dozen survivors, including Malcolm McDowell’s seemingly deranged Dr. Soran, things mostly go bad as the new Enterprise is damaged and Kirk is apparently killed in action. We then leap forward 78 years to the early 24th century where Captain Picard and his crew get tangled in a mystery that they soon learn is an extension of what happened almost eight decades earlier. Once again, Dr. Soran is in the middle of it, as we learn that he is hatching a plan to use the nexus to reunite himself with his family, who was killed when his homeworld was destroyed. Soran is bad science run amok, as he is willing to kill anyone and do anything (including partnering with Klingons) to achieve his goals, which are entirely personal and selfish. Picard is struggling with his own emotional demons, as he learns that his brother and nephew have been killed in a fire, making him the last of his family line, which sets up a wish-fulfillment sequence inside the nexus where he has the chance to live the life of a traditional family man, with a houseful of Christmas decorations, a wife, and children who look like they stepped out of the better parts of a Charles Dickens novel. Alas, such is not to be, as Picard must team up with Kirk, who is also inside the nexus, to stop Dr. Soran from doing something he has already done: blow up a star, which causes a shockwave that destroys an entire planetary system and all the main characters along with it. That sounds like heavy stuff, but the way director David Carson, a veteran television director who helmed several episodes of The Next Generation, manages things makes it feel light. It doesn’t help that the budget appears to have been tight and there are a couple of awkwardly managed subplots, including one in which Data (Brent Spiner), the crew’s artificial human member, is implanted with a chip that allows him to experience the gamut of human emotions. There are moments where Spiner is allowed to convey some degree of depth regarding what it would be like to be suddenly awash in emotions and having no sense of how to deal with and manage them, but much of it is given over to him laughing maniacally and acting goofy. Engineer Geordi (LeVar Burton) plays second fiddle to Data’s new emotions, and he also gets kidnapped by a pair of leering Klingon sisters who hack his visor to spy on the inner workings of the Enterprise-D. Written by Next Generation veteran scribes Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga from a story they concocted with series co-creator Rick Berman, Star Trek: Generations has a few poignant moments and some memorable lines, particularly Soran’s grim admonishment that “Time is the fire in which we burn,” but too much of it feels lazy and recycled and not up to the task of offering a proper send-off to the original crew while launching the big-screen adventures of the next generation. Shatner hams it up as much as possible, even in his big death scene, but Malcolm McDowell is clearly determined to be the biggest of scenery chewers. He glares and he glowers and his silver hair stands on end menacingly, but it is all in the service of a story that has some good ideas, but can’t hold them together in a meaningful way.
Copyright © 2023 James Kendrick Thoughts? E-mail James Kendrick All images copyright © Paramount Home Entertainment |
Overall Rating: (2)
James Kendrick offers, exclusively on Qnetwork, over 2,500 reviews on a wide range of films. All films have a star rating and you can search in a variety of ways for the type of movie you want. If you're just looking for a good movie, then feel free to browse our library of Movie Reviews.
© 1998 - 2023 Qnetwork.com - All logos and trademarks in this site are the property of their respective owner.