To be pedantic, bebecause this IS TrekBBS, in TMP the shields worked fine and did an excellent job at defending against V'Ger.
"The new screens held!!" - Sulu
DATA: Captain? Sir, your attention is wandering.
PICARD: Data, I can barely see.
DATA: But sir, I am supposed to be attempting a Neo-Platonic magical rite. The darkness is appropriate for such a ritual.
PICARD: Yes, but Data, this is a play. The audience has to see you.
DATA: Perhaps I have been too literal with respect to my set design. Computer, modify holodeck programme Data seven three. Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act Five, scene one. Increase torchlight by twenty percent.
PICARD: There, that's much better.
Just saying...
PICARD: Data, I can barely see.
DATA: But sir, I am supposed to be attempting a Neo-Platonic magical rite. The darkness is appropriate for such a ritual.
PICARD: Yes, but Data, this is a play. The audience has to see you.
DATA: Perhaps I have been too literal with respect to my set design. Computer, modify holodeck programme Data seven three. Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act Five, scene one. Increase torchlight by twenty percent.
PICARD: There, that's much better.
Just saying...
I was reminded of this thread the other day while watching the Doctor Who 2017 Christmas special. The 1st Doctor asked the 12th Doctor why the interior of his TARDIS was so dark. The 12th Doctor said it was “atmospheric” (a very meta reply). The 1st Doctor protested that it was supposed to be the flight deck of the most sophisticated craft in the universe, not a French restaurant. Exactly.
IMHO, the biggest problem with the TNG movies wasn't the fact that they were written by television writers. It was the fact that the writers weren't allowed to just write.
For Generations, Moore and Braga were given a laundry list of requirements from the studio and then had to construct a story that met them. For the remaining films, Stewart and Spiner kept mucking about with the story. Stewart, in particular, seemed hellbent on re-imagining the character of Picard as something entirely different. It comes back to my basic premise that you should never, ever, under any circumstances, for any reason what-so-ever, let actors who are acting in a project also be involved in the writing in any way.
For Generations, Moore and Braga were given a laundry list of requirements from the studio and then had to construct a story that met them. For the remaining films, Stewart and Spiner kept mucking about with the story. Stewart, in particular, seemed hellbent on re-imagining the character of Picard as something entirely different. It comes back to my basic premise that you should never, ever, under any circumstances, for any reason what-so-ever, let actors who are acting in a project also be involved in the writing in any way.
I mean, that sort of thing is pretty much the reality of every movie that even exists, that is there's always a laundry list from the studio of things that have to be in the movie which the writers have to construct a story around, and there's always someone "mucking with the script" changing it from its original intent. Hell, this sort of thing goes on on TV as well, and even happened on TNG. Like the episode Justice, which was originally conceived as a dark tale about authoritarian extremes, which Roddenberry complained "didn't have enough gay orgies" ultimately turning it into the episode that aired.
Those things do go on but, no, that is not the reality of every movie. Most of the Trek movies have been written and produced without a large amount of studio interference. Of course the studio gives notes, but that is quite different from saying, "we want a new Trek movie and it has to contain a, b, c, and d." Most of them do not begin that way. Most of the time, based on reports from the people involved, the marching orders from Paramount were pretty much "we want another Trek movie; write one."
Stewart seems to have not liked the television characterization of Picard. His comments on Generations is his memoir are largely negative, though he writes that he enjoyed working with Shatner after initially dreading it.
Some of Stewart's quotes from Making It So:
It does. You can "feel" where the commercial breaks go.
Which was also the point of the whole exercise, to "pass the torch." I agree with Stewart here somewhat. I'm not sure it was necessary to "pass the torch." However, the two generations meeting is a solid conceptual hook for a film.
He really didn't have the leverage on Generations to get what he wanted with Picard's characterization, but when he was seen as the necessary and indispensible lead on First Contact he did. Remember, the early draft had Riker fighting the Borg and Picard having the Zefram Cochrane adventure.
Honestly, it's better they switched that anyway, as Picard's Locutus experience makes having him the more logical choice to have in the Borg storyline. The confrontation with the Queen in the climax just doesn't have the same weight to it if it were Riker instead.
100% agree! Whenever “actors” get too much influence the end product suffers (Daniel Craig, I’m looking at you also!)
I do think Patrick went out of line behind the scenes of FC and heard he even tried to get the writers fired, but in this particular instance was he wrong about having Picard instead of Riker fight the Borg? The movie's strengths was because Picard was coming to terms with his trauma, which wouldn't be nearly as effective if Picard is just hearing over the comms from Riker screaming "Help we're getting assimilated up here!" and Picard is all like, "That's too bad, but man even being down here on post-apocalyptic Earth doesn't seem so bad now compared to reliving that Borg nightmare going on up there all over again".
To be clear, I don't think swapping the protagonists of the two plots -- fighting the Borg on the Enterprise, comedy plot with Zefram Cochrane on the planet -- was a wrong creative choice. I can almost see in my head how Picard and Cochrane together would have worked, it's the rest of the film around that I have trouble with.
I don't know if Stewart tried to get Moore and Braga fired; in his memoir, he calls their script for First Contact "first-rate." But he writes a few pages earlier about his issues with Generations, which he felt was a retread of the series and the presence of Kirk demonstrated a lack of studio support in his cast, and perhaps he said, "After Generations, are these really the guys you want writing this movie?"
Stewart never tried to get anyone fired on FC or any of the TNG movies. Not even when he had the necessary influence to do so on Insurrection and Nemesis.
Also, "action Picard" wasn't exactly new for the movies, he was already doing action hero stuff as early as "Captain's Holiday".
Let's not also forget that TNG had become the "Picard-Data-Worf" show. Combine that with the studio likely wanting more action-oriented big screen adventures, so the highest paid member of that triumvirate was going to do a majority of that action - therefore, i'd be willing to bet that things wouldn't have been all that different even if Stewart wasn't supposedly making behind-the-scenes demands.
Let's not also forget that TNG had become the "Picard-Data-Worf" show. Combine that with the studio likely wanting more action-oriented big screen adventures, so the highest paid member of that triumvirate was going to do a majority of that action - therefore, i'd be willing to bet that things wouldn't have been all that different even if Stewart wasn't supposedly making behind-the-scenes demands.
The funny thing about "the 'Picard-Data-Worf' show," when translated to the movies, is how unnecessary Worf was after Generations. I liked seeing Worf -- I have always liked the character -- but if Worf hadn't been in, for example, Insurrection, I wouldn't have minded or felt his absence, and Deep Space Nine would do more with Worf in one episode than a TNG film possibly could.
Stewart did have the contractual right to bring in a script doctor on FC, Ross LaManna. IIRC, most of his contributions were for the Dixon Hill sequence, which didn't stick.
There's always something new to learn. I didn't know about the uncredited script doctor.
NEM could have used a couple more uncredited script doctors. 
Pull a reverse Skyfall and bring in Purvis and Wade.NEM could have used a couple more uncredited script doctors.
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