FILM: Star Trek Generations

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Star Trek Generations

Warning review by a Trekkie!

Now it has to be said that from a story and concept perspective, this movie has some severe issues. The previous one The Undiscovered Country already functioned as a farewell movie for the TOS crew. So if they were gonna bring Kirk back for yet another big farewell, it would have to be epic

The main problem is The Nexus. An place were time has no meaning and only eternal bliss exists. The concept of it doesn't really work in this film. Not only is it a do-over of the Wormhole/Celestial Temple from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (a concept that worked far better). The nexus never feels like anything more then a sci-fi trick to get Kirk and Picard together.

But it's not just bad science, it's also bad fiction. For instance it's almost impossible to get into the Nexus, yet you can leave whenever you want to? Would the energy ribbon not be a problem both ways?

Also the mis-en scene inside the Nexus is dodgy. Picard's dream family look like something out a a Dickens novel. Horribly snotty and unappealing children and a novelty Christmas house. It's laughable. Stewart is great in the scene though.

Guinan shows up, and tells us that she actually never left the Nexus. Which makes sense since time is meaningless there. So if you go in once, and leave....you actually stay forever. This does mean that Soran is actually already inside the Nexus he's trying to get back into. We never see Soran in the Nexus. Would he melt with the Soran that's already there? Would the two of them be containing in an eternal struggle like Lazarus in TOS' The Alternative Factor? Soran and anti-Soran locked in combat.... We will never know.

Shatner returns for the last time (in cinema) as James T. Kirk. He's great to watch as ever. With the usual Shatnerian swagger. But it does feel like an extended cameo. He really is kinda tagged on at the end of the picture. And the death scene is unworthy of such an iconic character.

Patrick Stewart makes his first cinema appearance as Jean Luc Picard. It's actually interesting seeing the two contrasting acting styles of the two actors in once film. Stewart has always had a less is more approach to his portrayal. He is strong in a film that doesn't always give him good material. He definitely gets the best line in the film. "This is not your bedroom?"

Brent Spiner has fun with his Data full of emotions. Seeing the android laughing his ass of or crying should not work, but it does.

The legendary Malcolm McDowell plays yet another villian. It's a decent performance in a somewhat underwritten role.

Barbara March and Gwyneth Walsh are devilishly over the top at the Duras Sisters.

Walter Koenig and James Dooham return in cameo's in the opening scene that features the depressed kid from Ferris Bueller as Captain of The Enterprise. It's weird hearing Scotty spouting out TNG style techno babble.

The first Star Trek TOS movie flaunted The Enterprise. Gave it a big 6 minute introduction. Generations fails to make any fuss over the fact that it's iconic ship can be seen in glorious cinema. The first view of The Enterprise D is when it approaches the Armagosa observatory, and it's a bog standard shot that just shows a bit of the saucer section. Many other shots look like they were updated from the TV show. Apart from the scene were it crashes there isn't really a single time that they "show off" The Enterprise. Did the makers really not think we didn't want to see the D in it's full majesty before they destroyed her? (the next film, First Contact shows us the newer, less beautiful ship in full detail).

The special effects are generally outstanding though

The film looks good. Filmed by John A. Alonzo the interior at least looks beautiful. Particularly when lit by the Armagosa star.

The pacing is good, the direction by David Carson is workman-like but solid. And the space battle is well shot. The final crash of the saucer section is spectacular.

This film is Dennis McCarthy's lone Star Trek film outing. I've always been a fan of his style on Star Trek. This score is an extension of that, but with actual themes. His main theme is a solid entry into the world of Star Trek themes. His Nexus music is soothing and beautiful and his action music is positively propulsive. The orchestrations are as ever superb. It's really an underrated score that has had too many people crapping all over it. It's far more a Star Trek score then Gia's effort will ever be.

This film has many good moment, many good scenes. but it's based on a rather silly and misguided notion that they needed to have Kirk in it...and that Kirk needed to die.

**1/2 out of ****

[Trent B 337]

For the most part I enjoyed Generations, however, as you said the sequence with The Nexus is where it shot itself in the foot. Similar to the whole portion towards the end of Star Trek V with God and the great barrier. Both films are good to a point then both shoot themselves in their own feet and loses the momentum it had.

Also another thing that bugged me was the whole deal with the Duras being able to link up to Geordi's visor. Now I grant that Soran made the tweaks for the Duras to link up to Geordi's VISOR but that's not what bugged me. What bugged me was in the TNG series whenever we saw from Geordi's point of view from in the visor you could barely see anything as it was all spectral view, yet in Generations you could see everything clear as day.

There were some good parts to the film as well as bad ones. Over all there were things like you mentioned regarding the Nexus and other stuff that was just poor writing. I also guess the writers of Generations forgot that the Enterprise-D's warp core had the compound "trilithium" in it. IE TNG episode: Starship Mine. So it's a compound that the Enterprise crew would have been familiar with.

I also agree that the crash sequence was awesome. I wished they had showed more of the Enterprise firing at the Duras' Bird Of Prey except for that one phaser blast and photon torpedo. They also used a cheap deal to beat the Duras' Bird Of Prey very similar to how Kirk defeated Chang's Bird Of Prey in Star Trek VI.

Regarding the score by Dennis McCarthy it is simply awesome and it's very underrated similar to Leonard Rosenman's score for Star Trek IV. I do think when ever we get a complete release for Generations people will change their minds about the score. I know I've read a lot of posts where people changed their minds for Star Trek IV's score after Intrada released the complete version. Now they like the complete score more than the OST. For Generations, there is A LOT of great stuff that was left off the OST as it is with most of the Star Trek film scores.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

I really dug it. First Star Trek movie I saw in the theater. It was a huge deal obviously. First TNG movie, Kirk and Picard, height of Trek mania, etc. The crash scene is the most memorable part.

In retrospect, it could have been loads better. Most of the characters aside from Picard and Data get the shaft (shocker), the storyline doesn't exactly seem worthy of a motion picture, the cast get very few moments to deliver something other than technobabble and stilted dialogue. Also, while it's somewhat admirable that the writers didn't seem to give a shit about moviegoers who weren't intensely familiar with the series, many elements of the film seem poorly written in regards to Trekkies.

[Wojo 2,453]

Now I grant that Soran made the tweaks for the Duras to link up to Geordi's VISOR but that's not what bugged me. What bugged me was in the TNG series whenever we saw from Geordi's point of view from in the visor you could barely see anything as it was all spectral view, yet in Generations you could see everything clear as day.

No, it does make sense. Geordi's VISOR was sensitive to the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from 1 Hz to 100,000 THz. He had neural implants that allowed him to interpret all that visual information, and he became used managing all that data to his advantage. When the TV show allowed the viewer to see what he sees, we saw a color adjusted view to represent the sensory overload because we can't "see" all the extra radiation anyways. Like when Picard asked why Data looked strange, and Geordi thought everyone saw him like that.

Visible light is only 400-800 THz, representing a very narrow band of the total information that Geordi receives. Soran would have installed a band-pass filter into the software that intercepted Geordi's VISOR feed, that suppressed the low and high frequencies. This made it look like a standard video camera which naturally just shows visible light. This was to not overwhelm the Klingons (*cough cough Joe "non-Trekkie" Blow in the audience) with extra information they don't need. It makes the die-hard Trekkie ask why it couldn't have been like that all throughout the show, and the answer is, it looks much cooler to have the Predator effect than just look "normal."

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Which means what?

[Wojo 2,453]

The electromagnetic (EM) band consists of all radiation from high frequency to low frequency. The image below shows this band in order of decreasing frequency, from high to low, which are gamma (ν) waves, X-rays, ultraviolet, visible light, infrared, microwave, and finally radio waves.

Don't worry about what frequency and wavelength mean, for this discussion they don't matter. All you need to know are that high frequency (high energy) waves can damage your body over time -- that's why they cover your junk with lead when the nurses gives you an X-ray -- we can see visible light, and low frequency waves either cook our food (microwaves) or are turned to sound by devices we call "radios." Ok, enough of that.

Ok, at any given moment, Geordi's VISOR receives all the information above, the entire gray bar above, into his eyes. His brain has to figure out what he needs to see and what he doesn't. Like, infrared would show heat and ultraviolet would show energy signatures in the ship.

He can understand that information overload because he's been used to it all his life. It would, however, make the Klingons nauseous, and as we all know, Klingon vomit is rather rank. So the Klingons just want to see visible light -- all the colors of the rainbow. Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet (ROYGBIV).

Soran's program filters out all the information that's not needed, and what you saw onscreen in Generations looked like a normal camera, not the high-tech VISOR views we came to expect on the TV show.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Uhhhhh...

[Wojo 2,453]

<sigh>

Do you remember Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, when the German fighter plane flies through the tunnel and gets its wings sheared off?

At any given moment, the Messerschmidt flies through the air just fine. Its wings don't touch anything but the air. This represents how wide Geordi's eyes are -- he can see everything.

Klingon eyes are much narrower, like a tunnel. They cut the wings off and only let the fuselage -- that means body of the airplane -- through. The airplane body is visible light, and the wings are everything else the Klingons don't want to see.

Get it now?

--

You do realize that this is an apologist attitude towards the poor writing of Generations, don't you?

[stewdog1 50]

Wojo, you lost me man. I appreciate the effort though.

[Ren 75]

Yes, I love to read geek! (trolling back up to read)

Wow Wojo, great way to explain this!

[Trent B 337]

Trek Techy makes your head spin...I try to avoid it.

[Ren 75]

Oh I like my head spinning! Keep up the geek please!

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

How do we explain the windows on the Enterprise breaking during the crash?

[Trent B 337]

How do we explain the windows on the Enterprise breaking during the crash?

The bottom ones I can see breaking the the saucer was sliding over trees and such. As far as the top ones go...remember a lot of rocks from mountains, dirt and debris flew up over the saucer so I can see quite a few of those breaking to.

[Wojo 2,453]

You're welcome, Ren. Glad to know my geek efforts were appreciated by somebody. I had an analogy ready to go about 100 people walking with shoulders linked across a field, when 90 people stand up and block their progress, allowing the other ten to proceed, in order to explain a band-pass filter, but I think some people here would get confused on what a "field" or "shoulders" are...

~*~

Trees. Trees?! The Enterprise-D was built to survive the harsh environment of space. The inside is pressurized to a comfortable one atmosphere while the outside is a vacuum, which is trying all the time to break the windows and create an effect in which the internal atmosphere vents itself into space. This never happens, not even when the ship is pounded by phaser blasts, photon torpoedoes, and impacts with objects. Ok, it may happen localized in the area of the attack, but it never happens across the ship just because of the concussion-like symptoms that rock the casbah.

So when the ship hits the ground of Veridian III and slides for miles and miles until it comes to a stop, you're telling me that some trees and rocks break the windows, but the normal wear and tear of space doesn't?

No Starfleet vessel sounds really safe right about now.

[Ren 75]

I love this! But could it be that once out of space those things don't function properly?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Why aren't the Enterprise's windows made from transparent aluminium?

[Wojo 2,453]

Why aren't the Enterprise's windows made from transparent aluminium?

Oh, they are.

The viewports of the USS Enterprise-D are made of transparent aluminum. In 2367 when an anomaly caused atmospheric decompression in the observation lounge, Data scanned the transparent aluminum in the windows, and found a pattern of transient electrical currents characteristic of subspace distortion. (TNG: "In Theory")

The geniuses that wrote Star Trek: Generations just said that they're breakable when they smash a planet and hit rocks and trees.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

It's aluminium.... Not aluminum.

[Wojo 2,453]

Of course.

[Trent B 337]

Trees. Trees?! The Enterprise-D was built to survive the harsh environment of space.

Space, yes but not a crash onto a planet surface. If you have the Star Trek TNG technical manual by Rick Sternbach then you'd know the answer to that. Basically if the saucer section of any starship (that has separation capability) were to crash land onto a planets surface, while it could save most of the crew the ship itself would be damaged beyond use and repair. That is one thing I remember reading about many years ago when I did read the manual.

"Our causalities were light, however, the Enterprise herself cannot be salvaged." - Picard

[Wojo 2,453]

Space, yes but not a crash onto a planet surface. If you have the Star Trek TNG technical manual by Rick Sternbach then you'd know the answer to that. Basically if the saucer section of any starship (that has separation capability) were to crash land onto a planets surface, while it could save the crew the ship itself would be damaged beyond use and repair. That is one thing I remember about reading the manual many years ago.

I own it, the CD-ROM, and the blueprints, but they are not with me. It has also been many years since I read any of them. Unfortunately nothing in your response addresses the "windows" of the saucer, just the saucer itself. I know the saucer would be too damaged to reuse.

It is conceivable that the force of the impact of the saucer with the planet contorts the structure so greatly that the windows break from the stress.

Basically, you would have a window so strong that it can withstand a direct hit with a hammer, but if you bend the window frame so it is no longer a rectangle, the window itself will shatter. It's just surprising that while cars of the 20th and 21st centuries have a shatter-proof coating that contain the shards of glass to keep them from falling onto and impaling the passengers, starships of the 24th century don't.

Shattered windows, I guess, just look cool in a crash sequence because they related to what we, as simple 20th century people, expect in "crashes.". Unfortunately they make zero logical sense in the in-universe sense.

[Ren 75]

Stefan I literally stared at your post for 39 seconds trying to figure out the difference

[Wojo 2,453]

Exactly. When we revolted against the Crown, it was to stop taxation without representation and do away with unnecessary vowels.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

But why did the glass break??

[Wojo 2,453]

You tell me. Obviously my conjecture isn't good enough anymore.

[stewdog1 50]

Exactly. When we revolted against the Crown, it was to stop taxation without representation and do away with unnecessary vowels.

Indeed

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Stefan I literally stared at your post for 39 seconds trying to figure out the difference

Blonde!

[Wojo 2,453]

But why did the glass break??

Well?? I'm still waiting for the punchline.

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

Wojo your EM explanation was awesome. I wish I had gold stars to give.

[Ren 75]

Me too

[Wojo 2,453]

Wojo your EM explanation was awesome. I wish I had gold stars to give.

No gold stars are required, my friend. Those words are more than enough. You are an engineer, correct? I know that you can equally appreciate and provide the high doses of substantially technical posts.

Truthfully, if I had taken the more math-heavy signal processing classes, my career path may have been different. The course that I took in analog communication -- basically the study of the entire EM band and how to send and receive signals -- was the most enjoyable technical class of my entire engineering curriculum.

[Jay 37,287]

Wojo your EM explanation was awesome. I wish I had gold stars to give.

I agree, and I believe I almost did give a gold star... but then forgot

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

GOOD JOB JASON! WAY TO LET THE POOR MAN STARVE.

[Admiral Holdo 16]

Good thing Generations isn't a piece of crap, or all this conversation would seem awfully silly.

[Wojo 2,453]

Man cannot live on gold stars alone, Blume.

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

No but he can cash them in for sex at virtually any street corner. So that's a moot point!

[Wojo 2,453]

When I tell my children how I met their mother, I'd rather not admit to having done that.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Two questions about the demise of the Enterprise D.

Why weren't they able to eject the warp core?

Why, before separating the saucer section didn't they put some distance between the Enterprise and the planet? Or at least make sure it didn't point in that direction when the star drive section blew?

[Wojo 2,453]

a) "the magnetic interlocks have been ruptured, plasma coolant is leaking and a warp core breach is imminent. Riker orders Troi to evacuate the engineering section at once and Data to prepare the ship for an emergency saucer separation."

Whatever the "magnetic interlocks" really do, Memory Alpha doesn't say. It's possible that they prevent the core from being ejected, or the core itself became stuck and could not be ejected quickly enough. Or once the plasma coolant begins to leak, the controls to eject it are in the vicinity of the leak, and nowhere else, making it impossible to quickly eject the core without being overcome with coolant exposure. Either way, ejecting the core was never presented as an option. It was "we have a problem / evacuate / separate / get away / ka-boom / crash."

b) Time. LaForge believed he had five minutes before the warp core would breach. He did not. There was very little time for all personnel to evacuate from the secondary hull into the saucer. At that point, separating the saucer became the highest priority, and until separation was complete, it wouldn't matter if the ship was stationary or trying to get away from Veridian III as fast as possible; the star drive was coming with the saucer. Right after saucer separation was complete, the warp core blew earlier than was expected. The shock wave expands outward in all directions spherically regardless of direction, but even more critical, helm control was disabled, which prevented the bridge from steering the saucer into orbit. Had they known that helm control would be knocked out, they may have tried to get into a higher orbit to begin with. Instead, they became a falling brick, and all Data could do was reroute auxiliary to level their descent.

Why?

Because Paramount wanted a new Enterprise. That's why. If ejecting the core could have saved the ship, it was off the table.

[Wojo 2,453]

a) "the magnetic interlocks have been ruptured, plasma coolant is leaking and a warp core breach is imminent. Riker orders Troi to evacuate the engineering section at once and Data to prepare the ship for an emergency saucer separation."

Whatever the "magnetic interlocks" really do, Memory Alpha doesn't say. It's possible that they prevent the core from being ejected, or the core itself became stuck and could not be ejected quickly enough. Or once the plasma coolant begins to leak, the controls to eject it are in the vicinity of the leak, and nowhere else, making it impossible to quickly eject the core without being overcome with coolant exposure. Either way, ejecting the core was never presented as an option. It was "we have a problem / evacuate / separate / get away / ka-boom / crash."

b) Time. LaForge believed he had five minutes before the warp core would breach. He did not. There was very little time for all personnel to evacuate from the secondary hull into the saucer. At that point, separating the saucer became the highest priority, and until separation was complete, it wouldn't matter if the ship was stationary or trying to get away from Veridian III as fast as possible; the star drive was coming with the saucer. Right after saucer separation was complete, the warp core blew earlier than was expected. The shock wave expands outward in all directions spherically regardless of direction, but even more critical, helm control was disabled, which prevented the bridge from steering the saucer into orbit. Had they known that helm control would be knocked out, they may have tried to get into a higher orbit to begin with. Instead, they became a falling brick, and all Data could do was reroute auxiliary to level their descent.

Why?

Because Paramount wanted a new Enterprise. That's why. If ejecting the core could have saved the ship, it was off the table.

Wow, Wojo, what an insightful and well-thought-out response! Thank you so much for gracing the message board with your wisdom!

Aww, thanks, Wojo, you're too kind. It was the least I could do.

[Ren 75]

Wait, did you get to like your own post?

[Wojo 2,453]

No, but Jay liked it. That's all I need.

[Admiral Holdo 16]

Wow, Wojo, what an insightful and well-thought-out response! Thank you so much for gracing the message board with your wisdom!

Aww, thanks, Wojo, you're too kind. It was the least I could do.

I bet you're awfully flexible.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Wojo, if you self-like...you'll go blind!

[Wojo 2,453]

I am blind. My seeing eye dog posts for me.