Star Trek Generations

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For computer game, see Star Trek Generations (video game). For Game Boy and Game Gear game, see Star Trek Generations: Beyond the Nexus.
Star Trek: Generations
Theatrical release poster art
Directed byDavid Carson
Screenplay byRonald D. Moore
Brannon Braga
Story byRick Berman
Ronald D. Moore
Brannon Braga
Produced byRick Berman
StarringSee Cast
CinematographyJohn A. Alonzo
Edited byPeter E. Berger
Music byDennis McCarthy
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • November 18, 1994 (1994-11-18)
Running time
118 minutes
CountryTemplate:Film US
LanguageEnglish
Budget$35 million
Box office$118,071,125

Star Trek: Generations is a 1994 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. Generations is the seventh feature film based on the Star Trek television series and the first film in the series to star the cast of the spinoff television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Parts of the film were shot at the Valley of Fire State Park near Overton, Nevada; Paramount Studios; and Lone Pine, California.

While the film did reasonably well at the box office, it received mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

In the year 2293, recently retired Captain James T. Kirk attends the maiden voyage of the Starship USS Enterprise-B. During the voyage, Enterprise is pressed into a rescue mission to save two refugee ships from a strange energy ribbon. Enterprise is able to save some of the refugees, including Tolian Soran and Guinan, before their ships are destroyed and Enterprise becomes trapped in the ribbon itself. Kirk descends to the lower decks to alter the deflector shields, allowing Enterprise to escape. The ribbon makes contact with the engineering hull and causes major damage; the section Kirk is in is exposed to space, and he is presumed dead.

In 2371, the crew of the USS Enterprise-D receives a distress call from a solar observatory. They find that everyone, except Doctor Soran, has been killed by Romulans. The android Data, who recently installed a chip that enables emotions, helps engineer Geordi La Forge search the station. The two discover a compound called trilithium in a hidden room. Soran appears, knocks La Forge unconscious, and launches a trilithium missile at a nearby star. The missile causes the sun to go supernova, sending a shock wave towards the observatory. Soran and La Forge are transported away by a Klingon Bird of Prey belonging to the Duras sisters. Data is rescued just before the station is destroyed.

Captain Jean Luc Picard learns more about Soran from Enterprise bartender Guinan. Guinan explains that Soran's goal is to return to the "Nexus", the energy ribbon Enterprise encountered. Picard and Data realize that Soran is altering the path of the ribbon by destroying stars, and determine that Soran will attempt to reenter the Nexus on Veridian III by destroying its star—and, by extension, a heavily-populated planet in the system. On arrival in the Veridian system, the Duras sisters appear who offer to trade La Forge for Picard. Picard is transported to the planet's surface and finds Soran working on another missile, protected by a shield. La Forge is brought back aboard the Enterprise, unaware that his visor is transmitting a signal to the Klingons. When the Duras sisters discover the Enterprise's shield frequency, they launch an all-out attack on the ship. The Enterprise is able to counterattack and destroy the Bird of Prey, but takes critical damage to the warp core. Riker orders an evacuation to the saucer section of the ship to separate from the damaged engineering section. The explosion of the warp core forces the saucer section to crash land on Veridian III.

Picard finds a hole in Soran's shield, but is too late to stop him from launching the missile. The Veridian sun collapses and Soran and Picard are transported to the Nexus before the shock wave destroys the planet. Picard asks for help from an "echo" of Guinan in the Nexus; she sends him to meet Kirk, who is also safe in the Nexus. Picard approaches Kirk as one Starfleet officer to another, and convinces him to return to Picard's present to help stop Soran. The two leave the Nexus, ending up on Veridian III minutes before Soran launches the missile. Together, they are able to distract Soran long enough to lock the missile in place, causing it to explode on the launchpad, killing Soran. However, Kirk is mortally wounded from the encounter, and as he dies, Picard assures him that he helped to make a difference. Picard buries Kirk before being shuttled to the wreckage of the Enterprise saucer section, reuniting with his crew, and leaving the planet.

Cast

Tim Russ cameos as an USS Enterprise-B Tactical Lieutenant. Soon after the film's release, Russ would assume the role of the Vulcan tactical officer Tuvok in Star Trek: Voyager. Majel Barrett voices the USS Enterprise's computer voice.

Production

Rick Berman was asked to develop a Star Trek: The Next Generation movie in early 1993. Two different scripts were written, one by Maurice Hurley, script editor for the second season of TNG, and the other by Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga, who had co-written several popular episodes. The latter was chosen.[1]

Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley declined to appear. Their lines, as Spock and McCoy, were modified for James Doohan and Walter Koenig, as Scotty and Chekov. In Scotty's case, it created a seeming continuity error, given Scotty's dialogue in the TNG episode "Relics". In that episode, Scotty implied that he believed Kirk to still be alive, despite the fact that the scene's setting was after Scotty had witnessed Kirk's apparent death in Star Trek: Generations. The official Star Trek explanation for the inconsistency is that Scotty was disoriented when he uttered the offending line in the "Relics" episode, as he'd just been re-materialized after a 75-year stint in transporter stasis.[2]

Director David Carson had no feature film experience, but had directed several episodes of Star Trek, including the popular Next Generation episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" and the Deep Space Nine double-length pilot episode "Emissary".[3]

Effects

The previous Star Trek films used motion control techniques to record multiple passes of the starship models. For Generations, they began using computer-generated models.[4]

Music

Dennis McCarthy, a composer who had worked on The Next Generation, was given the task of composing for the feature. Critic Jeff Bond wrote that while McCarthy's score was "tasked with straddling the styles of both series", it also offered the opportunity for the composer to produce stronger dramatic writing. His opening music was an ethereal choral piece that plays while a floating champagne bottle tumbles through space. For the action scenes with the Enterprise-B, McCarthy used low brass chords and touches. Kirk was given a brass motif accented by snare drums (a touch forbidden during The Next Generation), while the scene ends with a dissonant notes as Scott and Chekov discover Kirk has been blown into space.[5]

McCarthy expanded his brassy style for the film's action sequences, such as the battle over Veridian III and the crash-landing of the Enterprise. For Picard's trip to the Nexus, more choral music and synthesizers accompany Picard's discovery of his family. The film's only distinct theme, a broad fanfare, first plays when Picard and Kirk meet. The theme blends McCarthy's theme for Picard from The Next Generation's first season, notes from the theme for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Alexander Courage's classic Star Trek fanfare.[5]

For the final battle of Kirk and Picard against Soran, McCarthy used staccato music to accentuate the fistfight. For Kirk's death, McCarthy mated lyrical strings with another statement of the Courage theme, while a shot of Picard standing over Kirk's grave is scored with more pomp.[5] As the film closes, the Courage theme plays once more.[6]

Reception

Release

Marketing for the film included a web site, the first on the internet to officially publicize a motion picture. The site was a success, being viewed millions of times worldwide in the weeks leading to the film's release at a time when fewer than a million Americans had internet access.[7]

A novelization of the film written by J.M. Dillard spent three weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list.

Generations grossed $75,671,125 in the U.S. and $118,100,000 worldwide against a $35,000,000 budget.[8] In Japan, the film grossed $1.2 million its opening weekend, a large amount considering the franchise's usual poor performance in that market.[9]

Critical reaction

James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave Generations two and a half stars out of four, saying: "Despite a reasonably original story line, familiar characters, first rate special effects, and the hallmark meeting between Captains Kirk and Picard, there's something fundamentally dissatisfying about [the movie]. The problem is that [...] too often it seems like little more than an overbudgeted, double-length episode of the Next Generation television series."[10]

Janet Maslin of The New York Times said: "Generations is predictably flabby and impenetrable in places, but it has enough pomp, spectacle and high-tech small talk to keep the franchise afloat."[11] Jeremy Conrad of IGN gave the film a score of 7 out of 10, saying that it "feels a little rushed and manufactured," but called it "one of the better of the odd-numbered Trek films,"[12] referencing a belief that even-numbered Star Trek films are traditionally of higher quality.

Notes

  1. ^ Marc Shapiro (January 1995). "Rick Berman: Executive Producer". Star Trek Generations: Official Movie Souvenir Magazine. Titan Magazines.
  2. ^ "Character Biography of Montgomery Scott". StarTrek.com. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
  3. ^ Marc Shapiro (January 1995). "David Carson: Director". Star Trek Generations: Official Movie Souvenir Magazine. Titan Magazines.
  4. ^ Magid, 78.
  5. ^ a b c Bond, 152.
  6. ^ Bond, 153.
  7. ^ "The First Movie Web Site: 'Star Trek Generations'". StarTrek.com. Paramount Pictures. Archived from the original on 2009-02-27. Retrieved 2005-07-02.
  8. ^ "Star Trek Generations". Box Office Mojo. 2007-05-26. Retrieved 2011-03-18.
  9. ^ Variety January 1, 1996 - January 7, 1996 Bond, 'Babe' light up o'seas B.O. BYLINE: DON GROVES SECTION: FILM; Pg. 16
  10. ^ James Berardinelli (1994). "Star Trek Generations Review". ReelViews. Retrieved 2009-02-02.
  11. ^ Janet Maslin (1994-11-18). "Star Trek Generations Review". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-02-02.
  12. ^ Jeremy Conrad (2001-11-01). "Star Trek Generations DVD Review". IGN. Retrieved 2009-02-02.

References

External links

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