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.