Well its time to go back to the Star Trek movie franchise and do another review, as I've done up to Star Trek IV (with the exception of the new Star Trek film, but I won't count that one just now) so I'll carry on with Star Trek Generations. Generations was the first of the Star Trek next generation cast films, so it sees Patrick Stewart head the cast as Captain Jean Luc Picard, but let's get on to the usual structure of this blog, i.e. we've done the intro now its time for the plot...
So the film begins in the 23rd century with the now retired Captain Kirk (William Shatner) attending the maiden voyage of the newest model of the Enterprise, along with his former shipmates, Scotty (James Doohan) and Chekov (Walter Koenig). However the ship soon receives a distress call and they are forced to respond to try and save two ships from a large energy ribbon in space which ultimately destroys the ships, but some of the crew are saved. Kirk however in an effort to help save the Enterprise from being caught in the path of the ribbon goes to the lower decks to alter the deflector shields, however the ribbon passes over the hull of the ship and takes a section of it away into the vaccum of space and Krik with it. From here Kirk is presumed dead and is never seen again.
The story then jumps forward to the 24th century where the current crew of the Enterprise, headed by Captain Jean Luc Picard (Stewart) receive a distress call from a solar observatory. On arriving at the observatory they find only one survivor, Doctor Tolian Soran (Malcolm McDowell) who is taken back onboard the Enterprise. Soran however is keen to get to back to the observatory and while the Enterprise crew members, Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) and the android Data (Brent Spiner) search it, Soran surprises them, knocking out Geordi, and Data having recently installed a new emotion chip, finds himself too afraid to retaliate. Soran is transportred with Geordi to a Klingon bird of prey, which is under the command of the renegade Duras sisters. Soran plans to do business with them by giving them a compound called trilithium which the sisters want so they can create a powerful weapon. Picard speaks with the Enterprise's bartender, Guinan (Whoopie Goldberg) who tells him that Soran is trying to re-establish a link with the ribbon, which is called the nexus. Guinan describes the Nexus as being like inside joy, and that is what Soran is trying to do, however in order to do that he will use a nuclear missle to detonate a nearby sun on the planet Veridian III, but the impact while ultimately destroy the planet.
Picard soon tracks Soran to the planet and tries, unsuccessfully, to reason with him, but soon enough Soran fires his missile just as the nexus ribbon arrives he is transported. However while this is happening Geordi has been given back to the Enterprise crew, has unbeknownst to him, had his visor changed to allow the Duras sisters to see his vision, and they launch an attack on the Enterprise, but they are soon destroyed in the attack. The enterprise however suffers a warp core breach, where the ship's saucer section is separated and it crash lands on Veridian III, and shortly after the nexus wave passes over the planet and it is destroyed. Picard meanwhile has been transported to the nexus and he finds he has a wife and children, something he has always wanted beside his duty, but he soon realises it isn't real and speaks to an image of Guinan who explains he is in the nexus and he can go anywhere from here. Guinan also explains that another man has just arrived in the nexus as well, and as Picard goes to find him we see none other than Captain James T. Kirk chopping wood, who is caught up in his own fantasy of being at home, with a chance to reuinte with an old flame. And from here its up to Picard to try and persuade Kirk to help him save the day....
While its not the strongest entry in the Star Trek franchise, Generations still is quite a good effort and it brought in the Next Generation cast very well. Although the Next Generation crew were never in my opinion as interesting or as fun the original crew, its an entertaining affair, and they are introduced amusingly in the scene where the Enterprise crew are all dressed in a navy outfits, where Worf (Michael Dorn) is given promotion, but he has to walk the plank on an old ship to get his "hat of office", but they remove the plank and he falls into the water (however it turns out to be a holodeck!). But the reappearance of Kirk is a very welcome one and his two old crewmen, and when you see them together you see the rapport they have with one another shows just what the new crew are missing. Whereas Picard is always pretty straight laced and a bit too goody goody and lacks the rebelious streak that Kirk had, and that goes pretty much for most of the rest of the crew, but that's not to say that they don't provide moments of entertainment as they do and the TV series also had some good episodes.
So getting onto the next bit of the old blog movie review structure, the performances in Generations are actually fairly good, starting with Patrick Stewart in the role of Captain Picard, who has always played the part with a strong moral compass and seriousness about his duty as a starfleet officer. Stewart however does have one slightly cringeworthy moment when he breaks down crying reflecting on the news of his nephew who was killed in a fire. But what I do quite like about Stewart's potrayal of Picard is his no nonsense attitude and one of his best scenes comes when he makes Data deal with his fear, when the emotion chip is infused into his neural net and he becomes overwhelmed by the emotions, and Data wants to be deactivated. But Picard sternly tells him "I have every sympathy for what you are going through, but I need to do your duty and you will not be deactivated, that is an order, commander!".
Jonathan Frakes as Picard's second in command, William Riker was always actually a more colouful character and he was more akin to Kirk than Picard, and Frakes gives a good performance here although his role is little bit underwritten. Frakes does however get one of the film's best lines when Picard says to him at the end "we are only mortal" and Riker replies "speak for yourself, sir. I plan to live forever!". The standout of the next generation cast however is of course Brent Spiner as Data who provides a wonderfully funny and at times even poignant performance, as the android who uses the emotion chip and he experiences a different range of emotions. Of his various amusing moments, a few that standout include when Guinan gives him a drink but he can't articulate the emotion as he grimaces as he swallows it, and Guinan says "well he looks like he hates it" and Data says "yes I hate this! This is revolting!" Guinan "more?" Data "Please!". Also the moment where he resumes duties after a short break he goes onboard the Enteprise bridge and Riker orders him to search for lifeforms to which Data replies "I would be happy to, sir. I just love scanning for lifeforms!" and then sings that famous line "lifeforms, you tiny little lifeforms!" as he scans for them. Also in the moment where the Enterprise hurtles towards Veridian III's planet surface Data looks alarmed as the planet's view comes ever closer on the monitor screen and he says "oohhhhhhhhhhhh shit!".
The other next-gen members are all ok, but they aren't given a great deal to work with however Marina Sirtis as the ship's counsellor has a couple of nice moments, one with Picard where she consoles him over the deah of his family, and at the end where Data cries with joy having found his cat. Gates McFadden as Beverly Crusher (hubba hubba!) also provides a moment of amusement when Geordi is being examined by Dr Crusher with his visor having been hacked by Soran, the Duras sisters can see through his visor on their screens and they groan in disgust when they see Beverly and say "human females are so repulsive!".
As of the other cast members well getting to the old generation, we can't forget William Shatner's contribution as James Kirk, and he is perfect once again in the role as the retired captain. Shatner get's quite few good lines here as well as he meets with Picard who insists he help him, Kirk says "I don't need to be lectured by you, I was out saving the galaxy while your grandad was still in diapers!". Also when he asks if Picard is thinking of retiring from his post as Captain and he tells him "don't! Don't let them promote you, don't let them transfer you! Don't let them do anything that takes you off that bridge, because while you are there, you can make a difference!". James Doohan also get's a brief amusing cameo as Scotty as does Walter Koenig as Chekov, and Doohan has a funny moment where at the start of the film he wants to help the young Enterprise captain rescue the ships, but he resists the urge to stand up and Scotty says "Captain, is there something wrong with your chair???".
Getting onto the flaws of the film however well there were a few niggles, first off the controversial decision (PLOT SPOILER!) to kill off Kirk was in itself a bit of a flaw and it didn't go down well with the Star Trek fans. And the nature of Kirk's death in the end is a bit lame as he lies in the wreckage of the broken bridge that Soran shot down, and he says quitely "oh my...." as his last line before he passes on, which is pretty feeble to say the least, and it seems just not right that they should kill off such a great character under any circumstance. Malcolm McDowell's performance while it is far from bad is also problematic, mainly because he talks in cliches and some of his dialogue is pretty cringeworthy especially in the scene where he turns to Picard and says "now do excuse me, Captain, because I have an appointment with eternity and I don't want to be late!" and "don't you feel time gaining on you, Captain. Its like a predator, stalking you!". One of the amusing things about Soran though is that he is the man to have killed off Kirk and also the only man to have head butted Picard, now there's a double whammy! You could also say it doesn't always necessarily feel like a Star Trek film but more like a glorified extended TV episode than anything else. And this brings me onto Dennis McCarthy's score which is by no means bad but it does feel like it belongs to the TV show and not on the big screen, and it pales in comparison to the scores written by James Horner and Jerry Goldsmith. Another thing that bothered me was when Picard arrived in the nexus and met with his wife and children, why the hell where they all in Victorian clothes???? I mean they lived in the 24th century and not the 19th! It just seemed to be a very peculiar choice, or perhaps in Picard's subconscious perhaps he wants everyone to dress like that and get back to Victorian values! ;-)
Anyway all that aside Star Trek Generations is still a worthy and entertaining addition to the Star Trek franchise and while its not one of the best, it is worth a watch and it is for me easily the best out of the Next Generation films that followed. First Contact was up next which was not bad although a bit dull, and Insurrection and Nemesis were both crap, so basically I won't be reviewing them.
So I will leave it there for now and beam myself up!
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