Movies - Star Trek: Generations

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	Movies - Star Trek: Generations

Star Trek: Generations (Paramount Pictures, 1994) is the seventh feature film based on the popular Star Trek science fiction television series. It is often referred to as just Generations. It is the first film in the series to star the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and is a symbolic passing of the torch of the film series from the original series cast to the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast.

There was also a game based on the film.

Cast

Plot summary

Not long after the USS Enterprise-A completed its final mission in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
, Captain James T. Kirk, Captain Montgomery Scott and Commander Pavel Chekov attend the christening of its successor, the USS Enterprise-B, commanded by Captain John Harriman. On its shakedown cruise, however, it goes to the rescue of a vessel being destroyed by an energy ribbon called The Nexus. During the efforts, the Enterprise-B hull is breached, Kirk disappears, and is presumed dead.

78 years later, the crew of the USS Enterprise-D find themselves fighting the insane scientist Dr. Tolian Soran, who with the help of the renegade Klingon sisters Lursa and B'Etor, is attempting to reach the same energy ribbon so he can enter it and live in its simulated bliss forever. Soran's plan involves launching special projectiles into stars which destroy the stars, creating immense gravitational surges that steer the Nexus off its normal course through space toward the planet Veridian III, where Soran intends to meet the Nexus in person. In an initial attempt to stop Soran, Geordi is captured by the Klingons, who place a transmitter in Geordi's visor which allows them to use the visor like a video camera. When he eventually goes to Engineering, they learn the Enterprise 's shield frequency. They then alter their weapons accordingly and attack, causing severe damage. The Enterprise finally destroys the Klingon ship, but the accumulated damage leads to a massive warp core failure. The saucer section separates and attempts to escape, but the explosion caused by the warp core failure destroys the stardrive section and damages the saucer, causing it to crash-land on Veridian III. Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who earlier had gone down to Veridian III to try to stop Soran, is engulfed by the Nexus along with Soran. The gravitational surge caused by the destruction of Veridian III's star annihilates the planet, along with the wreckage of the saucer and the survivors.

After realizing that he is in the Nexus, Picard is able to move from one dimension of the Nexus into another in order to find Captain Kirk (who, by Kirk's point of view, had just entered the Nexus from when the Enterprise-B was attacked). Picard enlists Kirk's help in stopping Soran on Veridian III. They use the Nexus to go back in time to the point before Soran launches the star-killing projectile at Veridian III's sun. Picard and Kirk successfully stop Soran, although Kirk is mortally wounded. Picard buries Kirk on a mountain, then is taken by shuttle to help rescue the surviving Enterprise-D crew.

Themes

As in several earlier films, Generations contrasts a man who will stop at nothing to get what he wants (Soran) with men who are willing to put aside everything they love and cherish to save others. Kirk makes the ultimate sacrifice, as does the Enterprise-D, in one of the most spectacular special effects sequences of the film series. A related theme is the contrast between Soran and Picard in handling personal tragedy. The Enterprise-B rescues Soran as his ship was being destroyed by the Nexus, and he became obsessed with going back into the Nexus. His wife had been killed in a Borg attack some time earlier and Soran seeks the Nexus as a means to return to his relationship with her while ignoring the fact that the "reality" that the Nexus presents is illusionary. Picard, on the other hand, learns early in the film that his brother and nephew were killed in a fire. He had placed all his hopes of continuing the Picard family line with them and laments to Troi that his life path will most likely not allow him to take on that task. However, when the Nexus presents him with a scenario in which he is married and has many children, he is able to overcome the temptation to stay in that "reality", realizing that it is a falsehood.

Lt. Commander Data also has to grapple with the effects of the emotion chip Dr. Soong had made for him, which he has La Forge install in his positronic net after a very embarrassing failure to understand humour. When it fuses with his positronic net, he is unequipped to handle the rush of unfamiliar emotional input, which threatens to overwhelm him. Recognizing and overcoming his own personal failings is his story arc, which also provides much of the comedic moments in Generations.

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