Star Trek Generations CE DVD?? (1 Viewer)

[Britton]

Generations was doomed by plot holes so large that you could have flown the Enterprise through any one of them. I'm sure the movie series in general had plenty of plot holes, but the ones in Generations stuck out more for me. The Nexus was just way too problematic a concept. I'll pick this up for the saucer crash alone.

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

I don't care what color the case is, as long as the discs aren't overlapping each other in the case.

 

[John Alderson]

This is the SE I'm looking forward to 2nd most out of all of them. Along with the recent ST6, this means I'll FINALLY have all 10 Trek films in anamorphic widescreen.

Panning across starfields on the current Generations DVD just about gives me a seizure.

 

[Dave Miller]

Yeah, but the great thing about Generations is you get to see this scene twice.

Peace,

DM

 

[Nelson Au]

My feeling as to why this film fails is the underlying "main event" aspect of it. It was promoted as Kirk meets Picard, nothing wrong with that. It was just contrived and it didn't work. The great meeting between them was a let down. Kirk is in his dreamy fantasy world and not quite himself till he realizes where he is and decides to help Picard. That was okay too, but it felt rushed and he was underused. And then he dies. What hard core Star Trek fan wanted to see that?! It was not a proud death like Spock's.

The saucer crash was pretty good, if not overlong. Seeing Data swear was also taking one out of the film, regardless of the emotion chip, you'd think he'd say something else as the saucer enters the atmosphere.

The best part of the film for me was the first 10 minutes or so, classic Star Trek, even if it was only Kirk, Scotty and Chekov and inspite of the unrealisticly incompetent Captain Harriman.

But I will pick this up for completeness and to see the extras.

Nelson

 

[PhilipG]

I really dislike it for being so damned mean-spirited. I was particularly annoyed by the fate given to Picard's family. Trek at its best is about hope and friendship. What we got instead was a) Picard in a stuffy, huffy mood; b) Kirk not acting like Kirk till the final five minutes, only to bow out in a ridiculously anticlimactical and undeserving manner; c) the pointless, drawn-out destruction of the Enterprise-D with none of the emotional impact that its Trek III counterpart enjoyed; d) cough and spit parts for the majority of the TNG regulars; e) oh yes, and lest we forget (if only), the cringe-worthy "humorous" Data moments.

One of my favourite eps of TNG, if not my favourite, was "Family". "Generations" was like the anti-"Family". The tone was completely wrong. Worse: good actors were under-used or badly-used. Such a wasted opportunity. I would rather watch Trek V twice in a row than Generations; at least Trek V had some sort of heart to it.

 

[paul_austin]

YES!!!!-------------any support for STV is good even if its a backhanded compliment......lol

 

[Colin Jacobson]

He went down saving millions of lives! What more can he do?

 

[Frank@N]

Not sure what to make of all the Gen-hating.

I guess I haven't see it in awhile (have the LD, but nothing newer).

Remember thinking it was a good allegory for drug addiction and it's deceptive and destructive results.

I also liked the villain which helps (that salvaged ST5 and *almost* salvaged ST6, my least favorite).

As far as the NextGen crew being underused, I'd say that STTNG Seasons 6-7 were guilty of that as well.

The show went nearly catatonic and sputtered on fumes for years.

From that perspective, Generations was a step in the right direction.

Too bad we now know it all ended with Nemesis.

 

[Dave Miller]

I agree. I really thought Cameron made a turnaround in his life and had gotten some backbone after he wrecked his Dad's Ferrari.

Peace,

DM

 

[Lyle_JP]

He did, but then he suffered severe psychological damage when the bus he was riding tuned out to have a bomb on it.

-Lyle J.P.

 

[Nathan*W]

I always thought Kirk dying to save the "millions" on Veridian III seemed a little false. The audience never sees those doomed people so an affinity for them is never established in the film. The net effect is that Kirk's death seems cheapened.

When the movie came out, I had an idea that would fixed this error, with some rearranging and minimal reshoots.

Picture this:

The Klingon sisters have not yet learned the Enterprise shield code. Meanwhile, on the planet, Kirk and Picard defeat Soran (as filmed). The Nexus flies harmlessly overhead. Picard runs to the collapsed catwalk and find a bruised and bleeding Kirk with several broken bones, but he is alive. At this point, the Klingons discover the shield code and launch their attack (as filmed). Once the Bird-of-Prey is destroyed and the warp core goes critical, Picard signals the Enterprise that there are 2 to beam up. They materialize in the mist of chaos. It is the warp core evacuation. Kirk sits down on the transporter platform, his injuries obvious. Picard calls to the bridge and Riker gives him an update. Picard steals a glance toward Kirk who waves him out the door. "Go," he says, "go save your ship." Picard races to the bridge and Kirk is left sitting on the transporter pad, listening in to the bridge chatter because the intercom channel is still open.

The evacuation is completed and they seperate the ship.

But there is a problem. The saucer section's engines were damaged in the fight. There's no way to put enough distance between the saucer section and the about-to-explode engineering section. Data suddenly reports transporter use and a materialization on the Battle Bridge on the secondary hull. Picard opens a comm. It's Kirk. There's some dialog from Picard about getting out of there. Kirk responds that Picard "saved" him from the Nexus and now it his turn to return the favor. The bridge crew is stunned that Picard is talking to JAMES T. KIRK. Kirk admonishes Picard to "Remember what I told you." (ie about being a Captain and making a difference) and cuts transmission. Data reports that the secondary hull has engaged engines and is moving away from the saucer section. Cut to the battle bridge with Kirk standing at the helm. Then, knowing what's about to happen, Kirk sits down in the center seat one last time with an expression on that that's where he was meant to be.

The engineering section eplodes. The Enterprise bridge crew are struck by the fact that JAMES T. KIRK just saved all their lives. But, they're not out of the woods yet. [INSERT SAUCER CRASH SCENE].

The cleanup and closing play out as filmed.

Whadd'ya think?

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Nathan - I must admit your scenario has quite a bit of appeal to it.

It certainly would be more dramatic and emotional than what currently exists.

 

[Nathan*W]

I thought so, too.

[NOTE TO PARAMOUNT] You are authorized to use the above idea free of charge. (but I want a "special thanks" credit!)

 

[Sam Favate]

If only this ending had surfaced 10 years ago!

Still, I hate that Generations killed so many characters for easy dramatic moments -- Picard's brother and nephew (off camera), the Duras sisters, and of course, Kirk. Too many Trek episodes and movies have tried to replicate the death of Spock - a dramatic high point - only to make their stories seem cheap and manipulative. (Nemesis was perhaps the worst example.)

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I didn't see any "easy dramatic moments" attached to the deaths you mentioned outside of Kirk, perhaps. The brother/nephew deaths acted more as a catalyst for the rest of the story - they packed little emotional punch in and of themselves. The sisters' demise possessed no dramatic impact at all - it's not like we rooted for them and were sad to see them kick the bucket...

 

[Neil Joseph]

Nathan, with that ending, Generations would be at the top of a great many Star Trek lists. Personally, I loved Generations but admit that the ending was cheap and an easy way out for the writers... alternate reality, it didn't really happen, it was a dream, etc

Is that Bobby Ewing coming out of the shower? Thought he got shot?

 

[michael deakin]

Hi all.
Don't forget that "kirk" said in " Final frontier", That he would die alone. So what happend?.
mike.

 

[Bill Williams]

Where's our good buddy at Paramount, Martin Blythe, where we need him so he can confirm what will be on the DVD? Mr. Blythe, if you're reading this, pleeeeeeeeeeeeease chime in! We'd love to hear from you!

 

[DanHaya]

I think that Generation's fatal flaw is that it was rushed into production...and it shows. That script should've gone through another rewrite or two, but my guess is that there wasn't enough time. If I remember correctly, Ron Moore and Brannon Braga wrote the story and the script in between their duties on TNG and DS9. I realize that the powers that be wanted filming to start because they didn't want to have to break down the TNG sets and then put them back up later, but then they should've given Moore and Braga more time to refine the storyline or shifted some of their duties onto other people so they could focus on the movie.

I didn't like the fact that they killed off Robert and Rene Picard. It didn't serve a lot of point to the storyline. I always thought it would've been cool to have had Picard mentoring his nephew as an young ensign on board the Enterprise in the subsequent films like he did with Wesley Crusher.

The other meaningless death IMO was of the Enterprise itself. It didn't have enough dramatic impact for me. There wasn't a huge battle in space (hell, they used stock footage from Star Trek VI, for goodness sake!), it wasn't a big sacrifice or anything like that. The only purpose it served was to allow for a new Enterprise to be designed for the next film. Totally pointless!

I'll still buy the DVD when it comes out, but I consider it one of the weakest films of the franchise.