Star Trek: Generations - I Just LOVE Scanning for Life Forms!

My next film is Star Trek: Generations.  This is the movie that hands over the mantle of Star Trek from the original cast to the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, who had completed seven seasons on television before making this film.  This movie was released in 1994, and was directed by David Carson, who, other than this film, has only directed in television, including a few Star Trek: TNG and DS9 episodes.  Generations features the talents of William Shatner as Kirk, James Doohan as Scotty, and Walter Koenig as Chekov.  It stars the ensemble cast from Star Trek: TNG - Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker),  Brent Spiner (Data), LeVar Burton (Geordi LaForge), Michael Dorn (Worf), Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher), and Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi).  This film also includes Whoopi Goldberg in her reoccurring role as Guinan, and introduces Malcolm McDowell into the Star Trek universe.

Generations begins with the christening of the Enterprise B.  On board in a merely honorary capacity are Kirk, Scotty, and Chekov.  On it's first run around the galaxy, the ship, swarming with reporters and new officers, gets a distress call and is the only one in range.  Since the ship is missing a great deal of staff, systems, and supplies, Captain Harriman (played by Alan Ruck) relinquishes command to the more experienced Kirk.  Kirk immediately sets a plan in action to rescue the distressed ships from the energy ribbon tearing them apart.  Unfortunately, they are only able to transport 47 of the over 300 people on board the ships.  

In order to attempt to break the Enterprise itself free from the energy ribbon, Kirk goes down to a lower level of the ship to re-program the deflector dish.  Although the successful reprogramming allows the Enterprise to escape, a stray tendril from the ribbon strikes the ship, causing a hull breach in the section where Kirk is.  By the time Scotty, Harriman, and Chekov get down there, Kirk is simply gone.  Only a star field beyond ragged edges of metal remains.

Seventy-eight years later, the Enterprise D receives a distress call from a Federation space station being attacked by Romulans.  By the time they arrive, the Romulans have left, leaving what amounts to a completely dead crew with the notable exception of Dr. Soran (McDowell).  After a short time on the Enterprise, Soran beams back to the station and shoots a photon torpedo into the sun, making it explode.  With the help of a nearby Klingon ship, Soran beams off of the station before the shock wave destroys the station.  The Enterprise barely escapes in time.

Meanwhile, the Enterprise crew discovers that the Romulans were trying to regain their stolen trilithium - a highly explosive experimental energy source.  The trilithium had been stolen not by the Federation, but by Dr. Soran as payment to the Duras sisters - Klingons who helped him to get from the station to his final destination.  They also discover that Dr. Soran had been one of the people rescued from the energy ribbon 78 years before, and that Guinan had been too.  Picard and Guinan have a discussion, and she explains that the ribbon is not just a random phenomenon in space, but rather a different plane of existence.  On that plane - the Nexus - each individual lives any and all of their dreams, since time has no meaning.  "It's like being inside joy," she describes.  Guinan also goes on to inform him that Soran is probably obsessed with getting back to it.

Picard and Data take this information and determine that Soran destroyed the sun near the station in order to change the gravitational pulls in the sector, and move the ribbon.  They also determine that if he were to destroy the sun in the Veridian system, he would move the ribbon to intersect with Veridian 3, so that he could get back into it.  Unfortunately, that would kill several million pre-industrial people on Veridian 4.  Determined to stop such a tragedy, the Enterprise travels to that system.

Picard beams down to Veridian 3 to try to persuade Soran not to destroy the sun.  In the meantime, the Enterprise gets into a fire-fight with the Klingon ship, in which the Enterprise is heavily damaged before destroying the Klingon ship.  They are forced by a warp core breach to separate the sections of the ship, and the saucer crash-lands on Veridian 3.  Picard is unsuccessful with his persuasion, and he and Soran end up in the Nexus while all that surrounds them is destroyed by the exploding sun.

In the Nexus, after encountering his heart's desire, Picard realizes that he must do something to change what has happened.  An echo of Guinan tells him that time has no meaning here, so he can go anywhere and any time he pleases.  He decides that he cannot do it alone, and goes to find Kirk, who is in the Nexus, and not dead after all.  After Kirk comes to the same conclusion as Picard - that this is not real and that there is still some good to do in the universe - he agrees to go back with him.  They leave the Nexus together, and fight Soran for control of the missile he wants to fire into the sun.  They lock the missile in place, killing Soran and stopping his nefarious plan, but killing Kirk as well.  Picard buries Kirk, and then meets up with the rest of the crew as they are evacuated from the wreckage of the Enterprise.  He muses with Riker that he doubts that this will be the last ship to bear the name Enterprise.

The plot of this film is very rich.  It took me a while to write the summary, as I realized I had to leave out several B-plots that were not part of the main story: (1) the interactions with the Duras sisters - well known to many of us from their existence in the television series, (2) Data installing his emotion chip and what follows, and (3) Picard losing his only remaining family - his brother and young nephew - in a fire at their winery.  Each subtext is so rich that it could be an episode in and of itself.  I think that this is an advantage that this film has over its predecessors.  A great deal of the scenes with the most joy and the most sorrow come from these subplots.  I will forever love Data's reaction to a disgusting new drink he is served by Guinan.  Delighted by the fact that it produces an emotional response - hate - when he drinks it, when Guinan asks, "More?", Data replies with great relish, "Please!"  The scene where Picard talks to Troi about the death of his family rips at my heart.  I can never stand to see him hurting in any way.

This leads me to my next point.  This crew and their sorrows and joys affect me so much more.  I discovered the original crew as an adult.  This crew was like family from my childhood, since I started watching TNG at a very young age.  I can't honestly say whether this batch of actors is more skilled, or if I'm just horribly biased.

I have always found it amusing that Alan Ruck plays Captain Harriman.  For those of you who don't recognize his name, he played Cameron in Ferris Beuller's Day Off - another staple of my adolescence.  I like to pretend that Cameron, after getting the worst of everything in high school, grew up and became a starship captain.  I know, it doesn't even make sense in the timeline, but I like the idea of him getting his own.

On a sour note, they used way too much slow-motion in this film.  They seemed to feel the need to slo-mo almost every action moment.  Maybe it was a hallmark of the time the movie was made.  I'm not sure.  I haven't focused much interest on films made in the 90s.  

Finally, a great joy for me in this film was Spot, Data's cat.  When Data finds Spot trapped in a barrel in the wreckage of the Enterprise at the end, it is very moving.  Troi says, appropriately, "Another family reunited."

I think this film may be tempered with nostalgia for me, but it's a very good movie, and a fun ride.

Logic is the Beginning of Wisdom - Star Trek VI

I've seen the new Star Trek film.  A review will be up after we finish the rest of the Star Trek movies.  The short version?  Go see it.  I loved it.

So let's get going on Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.  It was released in 1991, and I actually saw it in theaters when it was released and had seen no other Star Trek movie besides Star Trek IV.  I was quite confused.  For the last time as a complete ensemble, it starred the same cast, with Kim Cattrall and the masterful addition of Christopher Plummer.

The story opens with an explosion, as most interesting action movies do.  A very important Klingon moon with their most important energy production facility is destroyed due to factors unknown, and the previously reclusive and violent people reach out to the Federation for assistance.  The Enterprise crew - three months from retirement - is given the simple-on-the-surface task of escorting the Klingon chancellor (played by David Warner) and his party to the peace conference.  Kirk expresses great dismay, anger, and prejudice at this - he has still not forgiven them for the death of his son (in Star Trek III).  He has no choice in the matter, however, and so carries on with the mission.  On this, their potentially last mission, Spock brings his protege - Lt. Valeris (Cattral).

During the trip, after a spectacularly failed diplomatic dinner between the Klingon and Federation officers, strange things happen.  Without the knowledge of the crew, the Enterprise shoots two photon torpedoes at the Klingon Bird of Prey, crippling it, and disabling the artificial gravity on board.  Then, two people in Federation space suits with magnetic boots beam over to the Klingon ship, and massacre much of the helpless crew, including the visionary chancellor.

Wracked with guilt for hating the Klingons so and with fear about what this would do to the peace talks, Kirk and McCoy beam over after gravity is restored to see if they can give medical assistance.  The chancellor dies, despite McCoy's efforts, because of a lack of knowledge of Klingon anatomy.  The chancellor's right-hand man, General Chang (Plummer) arrests Kirk and McCoy for the murder of the chancellor and the others, given that the Enterprise disabled the Klingon ship.  They are taken away to stand trial in a Klingon court.

Meanwhile, Spock, as acting captain, order an investigation.  Star Fleet command orders them back home, but they have "malfunctions" that stop them from following that particular order.  After an exhausting search, Chekov and Valeris turn up the environmental suits that went to the Klingon ship, but are unable to determine who wore them.  Scotty personally counts all of the torpedoes in the bay, and discovers that all of them are present, despite that the computer log has been altered to show that two are missing.  Spock deduces that the saboteur is on board, but that there might have been a cloaked ship beneath them that could shoot while cloaked - a previously unheard of concept.  Spock observes, "When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

After a clearly fixed trial, Kirk and Spock are declared guilty and sentenced to prison for life on the very harsh prison and mining colony on Rura Penthe.  There, they meet a shapeshifter (Iman) who helps them get to the surface of the planet and outside the magnetic filed that prevents transport only to turn them in to the Klingon guards.  She would get a full pardon for helping to kill them.  Once Kirk realizes this, he gets into a scuffle with her, and she morphs to look like him, to confuse McCoy and keep him from interfering.  When the guards arrive, they, too, get confused and shoot the shapeshifter, vaporizing her instead of Kirk.  Immediately before they shoot Kirk and McCoy, Spock locks onto the signal he had placed on Kirk and transports them back to the ship.

After determining which crew members own the two space suits that had gone onto the Klingon ships, Chekov finds those crewmen dead.  Spock puts out the information that the crewmen are, indeed, alive and recovering in sickbay, hoping to lure the true saboteur.  Sure enough, the culprit springs their trap: Valeris enters sickbay with a phaser only to discover Kirk and Spock waiting for her.  After a brutal interrogation/mind-meld, Spock determines that she had worked with General Chang and various members of Star Fleet to destroy both the chancellor and the infant peace between the two governing bodies.  He also learned that the torpedoes had indeed come from a cloaked Bird of Prey beneath them, as he had surmised.

After getting the coordinates of the peace conference from Captain Sulu of the Excelsior, the two ships rush to the scene, have a fire fight with the prototype Bird of Prey, and stop an assassin from killing the Federation president.  The Klingons and Federation vow anew to work for peace.  Basing in the success of one final glorious mission, the Enterprise crew takes a turn around the galaxy.  Indeed, our heroes fly off into the sunset.

This plot is very involving, probably because of its strong ties to real life.  Although I was quite unaware at the time of the political climate, I have since discovered (because of the behind the scenes) that this was a direct commentary on what was going on between Russia and the US at the time - the end of the Cold War, and rebuilding of Russia.  

The racism (species-ism?) in the movie also gives it a very "real" feeling.  Gene Roddenberry - who this film was dedicated to, it was released shortly after he died - had a real problem with the script.  He took issue with that Kirk and other members of the Federation would be saying such racist things against the Klingons.  He had hoped we would have been past all that by now.  I think, however, that he had forgotten some of his own work in terms of racism in the original series (the white/black and black/white race or the Vulcans and Romulans and the crewman's bigotry towards Spock upon seeing the Romulans, for example).  It is my sad thought that racism will never be destroyed on an individual level.  Instead, I see us taking away the power of prejudice - not allowing it to help us make decisions or run governments.  Prejudice, I hope, will become an individual failing, and not that by which we exist as a society.  I think this film speaks highly to that - that peace triumphs over prejudice.  Even Brock Peters, a fantastic African-American actor who played Admiral Cartwright - a man who could not stand the alliance with the Klingons - had difficulty speaking the lines that he did.  It seemed so vile to him, such a parallel to the racism that he had personally encountered in his life, that he had to do the speech in several takes - never all in one go.  But he thought that that perspective was important to have in the film.  And I do, too.

Notably, Gene Roddenberry saw a screening of Star Trek VI three days before he died and enjoyed it.

An interesting note - the penal colony feels very much like Star Wars.  It could be the more creative alien makeup, the dirt, or the fact that the Universal Translator is broken.

The mind meld between Spock and Valeris feels like a massive invasion - something wildly out of character for Spock.  It is so uncomfortable, it almost feels like watching a rape of the mind.  I am clearly not alone on this, as everyone in the crew, even Spock, seemed very disturbed by what was happening on that bridge.

Overall, this is an excellent ending for the original series.  It ends up very warm and hopeful.  In the behind-the-scenes, all of the crew were interviewed and said that the series had "ended" so many times that they didn't actually believe it.  As Nimoy said, "And I'll say goodbye again, and then we'll see if the phone rings," and then laughed in his big, booming laugh.  And, indeed, the phone did ring for him one more time in Star Trek - almost 20 years later.  I am pleased to say goodbye again to Star Trek's original cast in Star Trek VI - a totally worth-while movie.

What Does God Need With a Starship?

Our next film is Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Released in 1989, this was the feature film directorial debut of William Shatner. He also helped to write the story. The film stars the same cast as the previous movies, with the addition of Laurence Luckinbill. 

The crew of the Enterprise begins this film on shore leave - a well-deserved rest after saving the Earth! While on leave, all are recalled to the Enterprise, which is having technical problems, to go and investigate a hostage situation on Nimbus III. Nimbus III had been a diplomatic attempt to bring together Romulans, Klingons, and the Federation into one central colony. The colonists who had moved there were not, shall we say, the cream of the crop, and the planet and it's capital - Paradise City - had quickly fallen into disrepair and corruption. The hostage situation arose when a gifted rogue Vulcan, Sybok (Luckinbill), took the three representatives (one from Romulus, one from Klingon, and one from the Federation) hostage in an effort to get attention for himself and his vision.

When the Enterprise arrives on scene, Kirk quickly makes a plan to surreptitiously rescue the representatives while Chekov - who styles himself Captain for this plot - seems to acquiesce to Sybok's demands. Kirk's plan seems to go well until he encounters the three representatives, who promptly hand him and his team over to Sybok. Sybok then tells them of his vision - he knows where God is. He believes that he knows where to find the central location of mythologies from around the cosmos - Sha Ka Ree (Vulcan), Eden, Qui'tu (Klingon), Vorta Vor (Romulan), etc. With this vision, and a talent for exposing people to their innermost pain and sadness and helping them to accept it and move on, Sybok had turned the whole of Paradise City to his way of thinking.

With his superior numbers over Kirk's away team, Sybok quickly takes over their runabout, and then hijacks the ship after tossing Kirk, Spock, and McCoy into the brig. There, Spock reveals that Sybok is his older half-brother - another son of Sarek. Meanwhile, on the bridge, Sybok converts all of the remaining crew members (with the exception of Scotty, who was working on the transporters and managed to get away after seeing the away team escorted from the runabout) to believe in him and his vision. They set course for Sha Ka Ree - in the center of the galaxy, a completely unreachable place because of a celestial body surrounding it called the Great Barrier.

En route to Sha Ka Ree, Scotty helps Kirk, Spock, and McCoy to escape from the brig. When they are finally caught by Sybok, he attempts to have Kirk, Spock, and McCoy share their pain with him as well. McCoy succumbs quickly, but not so much that he forgets his friends. Spock views his pain, and then tells Sybok he had dealt with it long before. Kirk refuses to go through with it at all, saying "I need my pain!" The three men stick together, deciding to be wary of Sybok's message and approach the Great Barrier carefully.

They successfully navigate through the Great Barrier and find a planet inside, mystical, blue, and shrouded in electrical clouds. The three men, along with Sybok, beam down to the planet's surface, as Kirk wanted to do the away mission by the book. After a long trek across mountains, the four men find a flat piece of land, where spires of rock shoot up from the ground, surrounding them. A floating blue entity greets them, showing them faces of several different gods from around the cosmos, finally settling on a generic human, Christian traditional God face, complete with white beard.

The men are in awe, until the "God" starts asking them to take him to their starship. Kirk questions his motives, and the "God" attacks him, striking him to the ground with blue lighting. Spock repeats Kirk's question - "What does God need with a starship?" and also gets struck down. McCoy expresses indignant doubt, and finally Sybok sees the truth of the matter - this "God" has been imprisoned here for millennia, and only wanted them to get out of his prison. Sybok approaches the entity, and asks him to share his pain, then enters into a suicidal wrestling match, so that the other three can get away, along with the Enterprise. The Enterprise escapes after destroying the entity.

While this movie has the worst reputation (debatably - some say Star Trek: Nemesis was the worst), I think it is largely undeserved.  Yes, it's true that this film glorifies Kirk a little bit more than usual, and Spock is generally more annoying than usual, but I don't think that Shatner directing this film makes it an automatic fail of a movie.  It may be that I came into the film not remembering the plot and thinking that it would be awful, and then was pleasantly surprised that it was not as bad as I expected.  A low expectations makes for better viewing sort of situation.  But I truly think this film has its merits.

The dialogue, for example, is quite crisp.  I love the camping trip scenes at the beginning and end, and the interactions between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy in them.  Particularly, I like McCoy's side comments ("God, I liked him better before he died!").  I also like the brief exchange between Spock and the Klingon representative.  The representative says, "I'm a foolish old man," - suggesting that he is incapable of having a commanding presence - and Spock replies, "Damn you, sir, you will try."  I think that is the most polite insult ever.

The best part of this movie for me, though, was the scenes dealing with the "God."  I found it fascinating that the four men were so captivated by the entity, and found myself wondering how I would have reacted in the same situation.  I found myself writing down in my notes, "If they don't look for a scientific explanation soon, I will be irritated."  This is Star Trek.  I expect them to look for the scientific first and then concede the possibility of the supernatural in a vague sort of way, if at all, as is their usual modus operandi.  I therefore could not have been more pleased with the dialogue that followed the title question.  The "God" asks, "You doubt me?" and Kirk replies innocently, "I seek proof!"  After the "God" attacks Spock and Kirk, McCoy bursts out with, "I doubt any god who inflicts pain for his own pleasure!"  It's just fascinating.  It made me question what I would believe in that situation, which I believe was the intent of the scene in the first place.

So, while the plot does wander a bit in the beginning, and this is the weird one with Uhura dancing naked, it's really not so bad of a film.  Give it another watch and let me know what you think.  Or just let me know what you think if you have a better memory than I.