Star Trek: Generations (1994)

The picture is a crossover between the classic Star Trek with New Generations , they are incarnated by the usual sagas , as Captain James T. Kirk (Shatner) , Scotty (recently deceased James Doohan) , Chekov (Walter Koenig) and even a Sulu's daughter(Kim), they are reunited with the new crew from USS-17o1 , as captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) , Data (Brent Spiner), Worf (Michael Dorn) , Laforge (LeVar Burton) , Troi (Marina Sirtis) and Dr Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) , plus an uncredited Woopi Goldberg in a brief apparition . The film focuses captain Picard who must confront a villain megalomaniac scientific (Malcom McDowell) who has an only objective to get a bizarre , weird entity : ¨Nexus¨ which heads a relentless rout , besides he is taking on nasty Klingons (Brian Thompson) . He travels time and manages to hook up with Captain Kirk , both of whom team up and battle against the nefarious enemy . As always , the comic relief results to be the commander android Data , this time , he attains an emotional chip experimenting human feeling .

Idealism , humor , humanity , several agreeable characters and trademark effects abound and will please the enthusiasts and the neophytes . The writing is concentrated upon characters as well as the action and magnificent special effects by ILM (courtesy George Lucas) and a spectacular production design . Atmospheric and sensational music by Dennis McCarthy , habitual of TV episodes . Colorful cinematography by the classic cameraman John A. Alonzo . The motion picture was well directed by David Carson . The movie was made in the typical professional manner of the franchise and in the nostalgic mode of its predecessors . Yarn will appeal to hardcore trekkers as well as the initiated.

Fmovies: In my opinion, "Generations" is the best of the Star Trek movie series for a number of reasons. Although "The Undiscovered Country" represented a fitting ending for the original crew, this movie was a good way of blending original Trek with Next Generation Trek. Given almost 80 years difference in the generations, I though the solution for doing this was quite ingenious. 78 years apart, both Kirk (William Shatner) and Picard (Patrick Stewart) find themselves sucked into the "Nexus" - a huge energy "ribbon" in which time has no meaning - where they meet each other and join forces to defeat this instalment's villain - Dr. Soren (Malcolm McDowell, in what I thought was an excellent performance; he's one of the better villains to appear in the Star Trek movies.)

James Doohan (Scotty) and Walter Koenig (Chekhov) both make appearances at the beginning of the movie (which opens in the era of the original cast) and - given the premise in which they appear (kind of an honorary visit to the Enterprise "B" as it prepares to launch for the first time) - their ages really don't matter that much. This was always a bit of a problem for me with the movies starring the original cast. They always seemed to be getting just too old to keep being sent on these emergency missions. Here, their presence on the Enterprise "B" makes sense. I thought that Alan Ruck (playing Captain Harriman of the Enterprise "B") did quite a good job of playing a nervous young captain, a bit overwhelmed at the presence of the heroic and famous Kirk on his bridge. The Next Generation cast, having only recently ended the TV series, slipped into their roles without effort. Brent Spiner I thought was extremely good playing Data, who has recently added an "emotion chip" to his positronic brain, and is having to adjust to his new feelings while trying to do his duty.

The movie revolved, though, around Stewart and Shatner. Interestingly enough, I thought this may have been Shatner's best outing as Kirk in the movies, perhaps because although he was still playing Kirk as the hero, he wasn't burdened with being the only star. Stewart was clearly playing that role (and Kirk was appropriately deferential to Picard - as he was to Harriman for that matter.) Shatner and Stewart seemed to work well together, giving Kirk and Picard a real chemistry.

Flaws? Well, a few minor things. It bugged me that the transporter technician (speaking only on radio) referred to "Commander LaForge and Mr. Data." Why not "Commander Data?" After all, Data outranks LaForge. Why honour LaForge with his rank, but not Data? No respect for android officers? That's a minor point, of course. I also thought that the connection between the two generations might have been even stronger if Leonard Nimoy had somehow been written into the story as Spock. Spock spanned both series, and a reunion of Kirk and Spock 80 years later might have been quite touching. But overall, minor weaknesses aside, this was an excellent movie with a good story and flow and interesting all the way through.

8/10

I always loved this movie. From the very first time I saw it, at the age of 10, I absolutely adored it. It took a big risk, admittedly, in bringing the Original Series and TNG together, but I believe it did it extremely well and with a lot of ingenuity.

The first part of the movie seems to pick up where "The Undiscovered Country" left off; and it does so on a somewhat sour note. Retirement does not sit at all well with Captain Kirk, and he hates the idea of being a "legend" and having the namesake of his beloved ship run by a bunch of inexperienced kids and a skeleton crew (the running "tuesday" gag is hilarious). I think Walter Koenig and James Doohan were marvellous in the first part of this movie, and the scene where they arrive on deck 15 and find themselves staring into the void of space is chilling.

After this, it picks up with the Next Generation Crew, and boy, does the camera love the Enterprise D. It's emotional to see the crew going through the changes this movie throws at them, and by the time Geordi's kidnapped and Data's emotions are uncontrollable, my heart was in my throat.

It's also a pleasure to see Whoopi Goldberg reprise her role as Guinan, and as far as humor goes, Data's newfound sense of humor had me on the floor.

I LOVED Picard and Kirk's interactions and the segment in Kirk's cabin is an absolute hoot. (Picard: "This is not your bedroom.") Soran is a great villain, truly ruthless and threatening. Out of all the Next Gen films, this is probably my favorite. It has an atmosphere about it that's very appealing to me, and the only other TNG film that had the same feeling was Nemesis, which I still maintain was a DAMN good movie.

Star Trek: Generations fmovies. Above average Sci-fi action drama movie that has a modest production in comparison to the average high qualily fare STAR TREK film.This 7th Star Trek movie played more like a special TV episode which although still good,kind of let down a lot of high expectations due to a great potential storyline and incredible trailers.The movie was rushed and the screenplay/script really took the steam out of the storyline.Also,the special effects were very trimmed down.Still,if one is a big Star Trek fan,you will never forget the emotional scenes of Captain Kirk(what a guy!) and the great acting of Shatner (not to be outdone by Stewart!) here.Yes,this one could have been so much better but I would take a Star Trek movie over the majority of Scifi movies out there!For Star Trek fans only......

Despite some other people's reviews on this site, I thought this was an EXCELLENT Star Trek film. In fact, this is probably one of my favorites of the films. I thought everything about this film was above average, the story, the special effects, the acting, the directing...EVERYTHING!

I thought the story was absolutely brilliant and quite inventive. I really loved seeing the two captains fighting and working together. Also, I love the idea of this place, "The Nexus", a place where time has no meaning, you can relive all of your favorite memories and your dreams become a reality. I thought the story was excellent.

The special effects in this film were definitely above par! There are several scenes that just made my jaw hit the floor because they looked so good and were done so well. I've noticed a few people have complained that they used the exact same footage of the Klingon bird-of-prey exploding that was used in "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country", but I say "if they're going to use some archive footage to save some money and put that money into the other special effects that they need for the movie, more power to them" ! Besides, the scene is such a tiny scene in the movie and it wasn't the climax of the film anyway, so where's the problem?

The acting and directing are top notch in this film. I thought all of the actors did a fantastic job. William Shatner pulls off a great performance in his final Star Trek film, as well as James Doohan and Walter Koenig. The Next Generation cast does a great job as well, Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Michael Dorn, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden and Whoopi Goldberg all pulled off great performances! Malcolm McDowell did a fantastic job as the antagonist in this film! I also really enjoyed seeing Alan Ruck and Jenette Goldstein in the film, although they both had very small roles.

All in all, I thought this was a great addition to the Star Trek series and a great transition from the original Star Trek crew to the new Star Trek crew. Also, I love this film because you need to know very little about the original Star Trek films to enjoy this film. The only thing you need to know is that James T. Kirk (William Shatner) is the star of the original films and that Scotty (James Doohan) and Chekov (Walter Koenig) co-starred. Also...it may be useful to know that Commander Sulu was another one of the original crew members (but not terribly important). Anyhow, I would definitely recommend this film to any sci-fi fan and to anyone that likes the Star Trek films. I hope you enjoy the film. Thanks for reading,

-Chris

When I originally saw this film in 1994 when I was 13 years old, I was distinctly underwhelmed but having re-watched this for the first time in over 20 years, I appreciate this film a lot more. Even though Star Trek will always work better as a TV Series, this is actually a very good film and I'll explain why below.

Originally I wasn't too fussed on the film because I was an avid Trekkie who had loved 'The Undiscovered Country', had been a huge fan of the TNG series and remembered that Scotty said in Relics that "I'll bet Jim Kirk himself hauled the old gal outta mothballs" and thus the film had what I considered a major plot hole as a result of Kirk dying. Now that I'm considerably wiser and no longer a virgin/13 years old, this minor plot inconsistency really doesn't matter to me. ;-)

Whilst the special effects are a bit rushed/cheap in places (re- using 'The Undiscovered Country' and TV Series effects), it stands up fairly well for a 20+ year old film on a limited budget (particularly compared to the new films). Anyway, special effects can sometimes get in the way of a good script or even negatively affect a film...as they did with 'Into Darkness'.

Generations has some stand out moments. I was quite touched by how lonely Picard and Kirk were despite the fact that they had extraordinary lives with excitement and variety that most of us could only dream about. And yet, Picard mourning the death of his family and the family he never had, really touched me...in a way that it didn't 21 years ago. Behind that extremely intelligent and reserved character, was a real, nuanced human being with regrets, dreams and hopes that were never quite realised. When people say this is out of character for Picard, it's obvious that the events in TNG Episode 'The Inner Light' really touched him on a personal level and made him reconsider how important family was. Kirk too, seemed to have heartache in his life and how his decisions/Starfleet ruined any chance of a normal existence. It was sad and compelling to watch and something I never really noticed when I was 13.

In fact, the writing by Braga and Moore is very good in the Nexus part whilst the acting by Patrick Stewart and William Shatner made this even more believable/tangible.

Moreover, there are humorous elements to the film - Data and the tiny life forms speech made my girlfriend laugh out loud several times - in fact, we watched it 4 times! Thus, it's not all sad. :-) And to me, that's the mark of a good film.

Soran, played by Malcolm McDowell, hams it up but is a good character. It was also nice to see Chekov and Scotty one last time. Seeing Kirk, Chekov & Scotty on the bridge and how out of place they were was a nice touch and well-acted.

Obviously the rest of the cast probably weren't utilised as much as they should have been but that's only a small negative.

Try to watch this with an open mind and maybe you'll appreciate Generations a lot more than you did previously. I know I did. :-)