I would have given the producers enough time to crank out a quality flick. They could have gotten Nimoy and possibly De Kelley with Nimoy directing if they had just allowed a little more time for a rewrite.
What would you change about 'Star Trek: Generations' if you could?
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I would create a story that had nothing to do with the flaccid, desperate "leeching from the popularity of TOS / passing the torch" disaster that was the existing film. If TNG could not stand on its own to launch a film series, then it did not deserve to exist.
In the new version, two elements would be "must haves": Riker takes his rightful place as captain, and by the end of the film, Picard retires.
Well the beginning showed that Kirk was uneasy, dissatisfied about both being older and retired period and also now not having a family to spend the retirement with, both that his career was over and that it had cost him a lot.
I loved the transition of going from the future to further in the future acting like the past.
Some people did like the show and its characters and would not have wanted the characters' roles to suddenly end. Really don't see how a film series could exist and work with the lead retired at the end of the first film.
Given the constraints, I would have kept the movie more or less intact with what they had, E-B christening, E-D upgrades and destruction, Worf promotion scene, Data’s chip, etc… Pretty much all the changes I would have made would be to Kirk’s story.
I would have added a scene of Spock and Bones getting the news of Kirk’s death. If not on the bridge of the Enterprise, Kirk’s Nexus fantasy should have been back the 1930’s/40’s with Edith Keeler or doing something with Carol and David. And ultimately I wouldn’t have killed him off. Have him survive and maybe be reunited with Spock on Romulus, go full Enterprise Incident and Unification with Kirk and Picard in Romulan makeup.
I would have added a scene of Spock and Bones getting the news of Kirk’s death. If not on the bridge of the Enterprise, Kirk’s Nexus fantasy should have been back the 1930’s/40’s with Edith Keeler or doing something with Carol and David. And ultimately I wouldn’t have killed him off. Have him survive and maybe be reunited with Spock on Romulus, go full Enterprise Incident and Unification with Kirk and Picard in Romulan makeup.
I'd agree but for a different reason. If the Enterprise B was launching from a random starbase them being the only ship available for rescue operations is much more believable than if they're right by Earth.
I as well would've wanted a stand alone 1st movie with no ties of TOS characters in it. Instead of a holodeck promotion with the crew wearing lame outfits, I would've set the scene with the senior staff on the bridge in an action sequence where we're introduced to the characters displaying who they are and what they do. Picard is the Captain, leading each dept., Riker coordinating operations, Worf being Worf, Troi using her empath powers, Data problem solving and being a little different because he installed the emotion chip (OFF camera), Geordi working the engines and Crusher mobilizing the injured in Sickbay. I would try to display the best from those characters which would be a good intro to start a TNG movie.
I hated the two Kirk death scenes because he didn't even die loving what he had a passion to do which was command a Starship. Have him evacuate the bridge on the Enterprise and made a brave attempt to break the nexus bond, as he set the ship on auto pilot the energy ribbon strikes the bridge. After death, nothing was more disrespectful for the character of James Kirk being buried by Picard and never informing the rescue ships where he was and be taken to back home.
I hated the two Kirk death scenes because he didn't even die loving what he had a passion to do which was command a Starship. Have him evacuate the bridge on the Enterprise and made a brave attempt to break the nexus bond, as he set the ship on auto pilot the energy ribbon strikes the bridge. After death, nothing was more disrespectful for the character of James Kirk being buried by Picard and never informing the rescue ships where he was and be taken to back home.
Exactly. Seven years in, TNG already stood on is own. The only reason this movie exists is because Paramount wanted a 'meeting of two captains' scenario, but had no real idea of how to realistically do that other than some sort of time travel. And the Nexus idea was so full of plot holes and made such little sense, that pretty much any other way they could have gotten Picard and Kirk together would have worked better than what they came up with.
But Kirk quickly saw through all that and realized it was just an illusion, which was not how the Nexus was supposed to work, per what we learn from Guinan.
Admittedly it was interesting, but not worth 1/3 of the movie's entire budget to show it, especially since it had nothing to do with the plot of the film.
That wasn't really necessary, because most of the movie's audience were already Star Trek and TNG fans who already knew who the characters were. But the real problem, which carried over to the rest of the films and now Star Trek: Picard, was that the rest of the cast were overshadowed (and in some cases basically ignored) by Stewart and Spiner.
Agreed, but at least he didn't die by getting shot in the back by Soran like what was originally filmed.
Interesting ideas….definitely agree on not having Robert and Rene Picard get incinerated, cruelly unnecessary. Data’s emotion chip got carried a bit too far, though the bar scene was worth keeping. The Nexus was an intriguing concept, beautiful to watch, just needed more explanation –i.e., it has to come to you; if you fly into it, it destroys you....especially since that was the whole reason for Soren trying to blow up an entire planet. If Guinan had such a wrenching experience leaving the Nexus, we should hear why – Kirk and Picard left it with no regrets. Picard’s Victorian Christmas should have had a wife who was recognizable from his past. Also agree about Kirk’s death being too anticlimactic, wrong burial site.
For all its plot holes though, the film had many striking and memorable scenes, one of my favorites.
For all its plot holes though, the film had many striking and memorable scenes, one of my favorites.
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One other thing I'd change is Kirk's "paradise"
So apparently his heart's desire is eternally chopping wood while his lady waits upstairs for him to finish rattling around down there while cooking breakfast. Back to 1, for 70 years?
Given his reaction to Picard's urging, and his dying words, somehow acting to save the Galaxy on repeat would seem better suited than what they chose for him.
So apparently his heart's desire is eternally chopping wood while his lady waits upstairs for him to finish rattling around down there while cooking breakfast. Back to 1, for 70 years?
Given his reaction to Picard's urging, and his dying words, somehow acting to save the Galaxy on repeat would seem better suited than what they chose for him.
I guess, but isn't the point of making this movie was to branch viewership by attracting a general audience other than Star Trek fans? You're not doing anyone any favors by having the audience do homework in order to know who the characters are, best to establish them with a teaser and tell the tale. This method is done for most movies where an audience doesn't know the characters, a sequence with some action and also representing the characters is a lot better than Worf and Crusher being humiliated getting dropped into sea water.
At least these writers own up to their work than the common bullsh*t excuse it was "Studio Interference" why things went wrong... as if "Studio Interference" doesn't happen when everything on film/video goes right and the movie becomes a huge success.
Presumably because they left voluntarily while she was wrenched out by a transporter beam while halfway phased in...
how do we know Picard never informed Starfleet about Kirk. I always assumed he did and Kirk’s body was returned to Earth by one of the rescue ships (I mean one of them was the Farragut) or by one of the salvage ships sent to clean up the E-D saucer section.
I know Picard didn't because he performed a private ceremonial burial of Kirk, and then had a Captain's log which never included the remains of his body. Seem simple enough, the movie at least displayed those series of moments well.
I just go with the Shatnerverse novels.
just because he did that doesn’t mean he didn’t tell Starfleet about Kirk. I’m sure he recorded more than one Captains Log.
Yes, his fantasy definitely could have and should have also been more appealing, tempting and harder to break from. Maybe still being Captain and having Carol & David or Ruth or (fellow officer) Areel loving him and his career.
yeah but even in those Picard tells Starfleet. I seem to remember Spock even rushed there from Romulus to visit the site and escort the body home.
The one thing that strikes me about the TNG movies when you watch them now is the lack of ambition. It's probably a function of the bean counters at Paramount, and whatever formula they were using to gauge what box office gross was possible for the franchise, but almost all of the TNG movies, with the possible exception of First Contact, feel like something that would have been two-part episodes on the series padded out a little.
And maybe that was a reasonable way to look at it. People loved TNG. Just give the audience 2 hours of the same dynamic with a few extra visual effects.
But really at no point do you get the feeling of people in a creative place where they want to try to do things they could never do before. It never feels like anyone either on the creative end or production end said: "Hey, we got an opportunity to stretch with a film." All of the TNG movies fit within the four corners of a Rick Berman produced Star Trek episode, and don't aspire to be anything more than that.
And maybe that was a reasonable way to look at it. People loved TNG. Just give the audience 2 hours of the same dynamic with a few extra visual effects.
But really at no point do you get the feeling of people in a creative place where they want to try to do things they could never do before. It never feels like anyone either on the creative end or production end said: "Hey, we got an opportunity to stretch with a film." All of the TNG movies fit within the four corners of a Rick Berman produced Star Trek episode, and don't aspire to be anything more than that.
Another thing I would've changed was having Picard and Data have their emotion chip deactivation moment from stellar cartography to the holodeck. The function of this deck are to recreate backgrounds, people, and settings, not sure if it would've save cost from set which would never be used again but I thought beats could be replicated with similar results.
Well, the Stellar Cartography scene or something equivalent is also needed to explain what Soran's doing and set up the rest of the film. They could have used a more conventional and less expensive set for it (though frankly I love how SC looked), but if they need to have that scene anyway, breaking up the exposition a bit with Data's emotional crisis seems reasonable enough?
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