Years after his final voyage as captain, Kirk is dragged out of retirement to sit in a chair and smile politely as a new captain launched with a new Enterprise. Of course, the new captain was typically useless so when the Enterprise was the only ship in range again, and the ship was dragged into an unbelievable emergency everyone saw coming, it was up to Kirk to show off as clearly Starfleet’s recruitment board wasn’t bringing the best candidates to the big chair.
Answering a distress call, the Enterprise-B finds El Aurian refugee’s caught in up in a weird energy ribbon and since the ships barely finished, theres nothing they have on board to help the standard way. With Captain Useless in command, Kirk decides not to be a bored observer and takes over. In doing so, he heroically sacrifices his life to save the ship, the crew and their new passengers.
Nearly 90 years later, Picard’s Enterprise-D answers a distress call of it’s own. A small outpost in the middle of nowhere s been attacked by Romulans. Arriving afterwards, the Enterprise crew have to figure out what happened and why.
The connection between the two? Tolian Soren. The scientist they find in the rubble of his lab was also one of the refugee’s saved b the Enterprise-B. After being saved from the energy ribbon, Soren was obsessed with running back to find it again and made some new troublesome pals on the way….[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”13665″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Generations is an oddity in itself. Unlike the original cast, there was no cool-down between making the Next Generation finale and the jump to cinematic adventures. Generations was written in a rush alongside the 26 other stories that had to be hammered out for the seventh season and shared a writing team who also had to bring the television adventures to a satisfying conclusion with the lauded All Good Things.
It also had a heavy task in transitioning a TV ensemble into a movie cast, replacing the much loved original stars with a younger cast that could carry on a little bit longer. Throw a handover from Kirk to Picard on top, it also had to become a changing of he guard with a decision made to give Kirk his final moments alongside his replacement.
There was a lot to squeeze in and it wasn’t easy. First off, the baggage. TV franchises always have baggage when they decide to move to the big screen. X Files was one of the more notorious for coming in with a substantial history you needed to know the key points off before it began. On the flip side Serenity worked perfectly as a stand-alone film whether you’d seen Firefly or not. Generations kind of sits in the middle.
Picard has his own personal subplot linked to his family. All the information you need there is on screen. Thats fine. The Duras sisters and Data are a bit trickier. The Duras family as rogue Klingons working with Soren doest have much bite as they avoid the history aside from a line of scorn, which doesn’t highlight the kind of threat they are. Then there’s Datas emotion chip. In the film he doesn’t understand humour so decided to plug in some human emotion, but by itself without the background, it all falls a little flat distracting from the plot more than it adds to it.
Soren’s plot also feels a little underwhelming. Especially as we rope in Guinan for some exposition while she explains the energy ribbon, which she’s dubbed the Nexus, lets you ascend into an energy being where you can live out a fantasy for all eternity. Most of the plot just feels like things happening. Or people telling you things are happening. Which, considering the weakness of the mystery, just drags out a substantiation amount until we get to the third act.
Admittedly it’s a bit of a weird complaint coming from someone who thinks The Undiscovered Country was the best of the entire series, but the story itself lacked a certain spark and perhaps thanks to firing straight into the film following seven long seasons, almost felt as everything was going through the motions for the most part.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”13663″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]It was a big moment. Heroes rarely die in Star Trek, at least at this point. When Geordie’s captured 1in the film, we know he’s coming back. Even when Kirk’s declared dead on the Enterprise-B, we know it’s not the end. And not just because the trailers said so. Kirk was Star Trek, which made the moment in itself a huge event in the franchise. Even if it was just one planet he’d saved and not the galaxy, it was a fitting end to have him go happily knowing he’d made a difference.
In the skies above, another icon was about to find it’s end (well, kind of but that’s another story….). Soren needed to manipulate the Nexus to come get him, so he burned stars to force it to change course. In doing so, he was using trilithium fuddled missiles and selling the excess to the Duras sisters, so of course there’s a space fight! Releasing Geordie back to the Enterprise with their own spyware in his visor, they’re able to get their tiny old ship an advantage by gleaning the Enterprise’s defensive systems and start shooting.
The fight doesn’t last long. And the good guys win. But its not about the fight. Its about the aftermath. The good guys win, sure, but the Duras’ get a fatal blow on the ship before they die meaning its warp core breach time. The whole sequence is better than the showdown. It’s not quite on the visceral level of Star Trek Beyond, but the race to evacuate to the saucer and launch it as a lifeboat has more energy than most of the film. When the engineering section blows, there’s no time to dwell on what happened as it knocks the saucer into atmosphere and we get a fairly cool crash scene – all done with some brilliant effects works that’s some of h best miniature model works the franchise had seen.
Where the original Enterprise blew up, and there was a moment of sad regret, the death of the D focused on relief. Theres more tension in the crash than in the entire movie, so when they finally stop sliding across Veridian III and look up at the skies it’s a strangely heartwarming moment that makes you think, sure it’s all rushed together but the era’s at an end.
It’s an oddly satisfying conclusion. Kirk died saving the day, giving due to the new generation of Captain. The Enterprise is no more. But it all feels like the closing of a chapter. As if the Next Generations grown up and beyond the constraints of their show, ready to properly lead the franchise out of the shadow of their predecessors once and for all.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”13662″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]That’s not to say it’s all bad. Far from it. There was a lot to enjoy as both a stand alone film and as a fan. For a start, the Enterprise looked more functional than it ever had. Throwing some money at a busier bridge and working with the model to upgrade it for cinema gave everything a different vibe. Even the overpowering yellow lighting in Ten Forward showed more reality than just another space background ignoring the star they were parked at. Even the planer DS9 uniforms, their inclusion happy accident, helped in a slam way to refresh the look a fair bit.
Some of the smaller parts to the film also made for some fun moments. From Worf finally getting a promotion to Data crumbling under the pressure of guilt when Soren kidnaps Geordie during his escape from the Enterprise.
Splitting Picard from the action was also a great choice towards the final act. Soren as a villain wasn’t great, but Malcolm McDowell gave an intriguing performance despite being just a catalyst to the end.. Early in TNG the idea was that Riker was the action hero leading away teams, Picard the talker. Flipping the destinations, with Picard confronting Soren to talk it out while Riker took the Enterprise into battle, was a nice choice that highlighted their strengths.
Though the whole reason Picard went solo was just to fail; Soren had been directing the Nexus so he could re-enter on its terms. And he won, of course, letting Picard get sucked inside to find that Kirk never really died, he was there all along waiting for the third act! And with that, two generations come together with Picard getting some sage advice before he convinces Kirk to leave paradise and come rewrite history.
At this point in time, TNG was a huge show. Everyone knew Captain Kirk. So seeing the two come together to pass the baton was quite a bit of fun. An idealistic Picard bonding with a Kirk who just wanted to stop, having done more than enough world saving in his time. The sequence wast spectacular, but Shatner’s charm made it all work. With a slow acceptance that he couldn’t sit out a dangerous mission, or letting himself live in an illusion, there’s an odd weight to his accepting line. “Who am I to argue with the captain of the Enterprise?”
Using the Nexus to re-enter the timeline is where things go weird. Why not go back to the beginning, put Soren in prison and hunt down the Duras sisters? Well that’s no fun. Going back just a few minutes, just before Soren launches a missile that brings the Nexus to him, means a race against the clock and that’s far more interesting narratively even if Spock would frown at the logic behind it. The two on one fight itself is a bit of a classic choreographed fight scene despite the stunning location shoot, but all that really matters is that Kirk clings on despite all the odds and saves the day, working with Picard to stop Soren and losing his life in the process. For real, this time.[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”12350″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Our latest issue of Comms takes a look at the last year of Star Trek, sci fi, superheropes and more!! With the usual features including What If, Fistful Of Data and more, the “All Good Things” issue of Comms is available as part of SFCQ2’s free membership! To find out more visit our Comms preview or Enlist Today![/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_row_inner css=”.vc_custom_1618165085813{background-image: url(https://sfcq2.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/backing-2.png?id=11299) !important;}”][vc_column_inner][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”cs-hub-notices”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”gp-standard-sidebar”][news widget_title=”On Screen” post_association=”disabled” size=”blog-small-size” per_page=”3″ image_width=”80″ image_height=”60″ excerpt_length=”0″ cats=”402″][vc_column_text]▷ MORE[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”15px”][news widget_title=”Fleet Alert!” post_association=”disabled” size=”blog-small-size” per_page=”3″ image_width=”80″ image_height=”60″ excerpt_length=”0″ cats=”1″][vc_column_text]▷ MORE[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”15px”][news widget_title=”Features” post_association=”disabled” size=”blog-small-size” per_page=”3″ image_width=”80″ image_height=”60″ excerpt_length=”0″ cats=”444″][vc_column_text]▷ MORE[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
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Comms/Comms Relay Revisions from Beta Quarter 2025 Onwards
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[Retro Review] Latent Image; Voyager S5E11
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Being a key element in the Sstar Trek lore from the very beginning, Vulcan mythology can often seem distorted by simplicity. Seen as a stoney emotionless species, their society is built on logic and science in helping them understand and navigate through the complexities of the universe. Though when it comes to them being emotionless, nothing could be farther from the truth. Once a volatile and primitive species, the Vulcan culture came from the teaching of Surak who learned to repress his violent urges and find peace within logical thought. Surak's teachings would become the basis for Vulcan core values for centuries. When it came to the original series, Vulcans were introduced through Spock – a half Vulcan with a human mother who often wrestled with the cultural norm of repressing emotions alongside the human half's more emotional state. Over […]
[Retro Review] Year Of Hell: Voyager Season 4
Embracing all aspects of science fiction has been Star Trek's thing since it's inception and time travel was no exception. Ever since the first time travel adventure with Kirk's Enterprise ending up in the 1960's, we've seen the various crews out of time and desperately trying not to change their own history. In one adventure, history would constantly change around the USS Voyager. One of the most memorable and loved two parters, Year of Hell remains a symbol of how desperate the situation could have been for the Voyager crew. As Janeway negotiations with an alien species for free travel through their region, a small annoyance of a ship interrupts them. Then suddenly, the timeline changed. The aliens, the Zahl, were gone. Erased from history. And the unsophisticated Krenim ship that was no match for Voyager one second was now […]
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