The OTHER "Star Trek VII"?

[The Borgified Corpse]

As I understand the story, when Rick Berman 1st got the greenlight from Paramount to produce a Next Generation movie, he comissioned 2 scripts by different writers. One script would include a crossover appearance by Captain Kirk, the other would be a pure Next Generation movie. Of course, Paramount ultimately went with the former film, Star Trek: Generations written by Branon Braga & Ronald D. Moore. But do we know anything about this other movie that was never produced? Who were the writers on it? What was the plot?

 

[DWF]

I think Maurice Hurley was the writer of the other script, but I don't think there's too many details out about the script itself.

 

[BillJ]

I believe it revolved around a threat from another dimension and Kirk would have been there offering advice via the Holodeck.

The working title IIRC was Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Motion Picture.

 

[doubleohfive]

^I seem to recall early pre-production documents referring to the picture as "Star Trek The Next Generation: The Movie" --- perhaps even in the TNG Sketchbook?

 

[diankra]

^I seem to recall early pre-production documents referring to the picture as "Star Trek The Next Generation: The Movie" --- perhaps even in the TNG Sketchbook?

It's almost inevitable that Generations would first be referred to as TNG: TMP in paperwork, in the same way that countless Doctor Who stories were initially commissioned as 'Return of the Cybermen/Daleks' before getting a proper title.

Maurice Hurley's script definitely had Kirk appearing as a holodeck advisor for Picard. (though ISTR that the stuido bosses had to be told to get lost over their preferred idea - find someway to have Kirk and Picard's Enterprises fight each other - 'cos it'd look cool on the poster - before teaming up to defeat the real threat).

 

[Cmndr J Crichton]

Wasn't Q originally supposed to be a major player in the Generations sequel? I remember at a convention just before it came out that an 'Ultimate Q story is in the works'. After Generations.

 

[Greg Cox]

I was always surprised that Q never made an appearance in the TNG movies, given how popular he was.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Maurice Hurley's script definitely had Kirk appearing as a holodeck advisor for Picard.

Correct. It was basically "The Tholian Web" meets "Booby Trap."

though ISTR that the studio bosses had to be told to get lost over their preferred idea - find someway to have Kirk and Picard's Enterprises fight each other - 'cos it'd look cool on the poster - before teaming up to defeat the real threat.

That was actually Moore and Braga's first idea, but they couldn't come up with a good way to do it without one of the two crews looking villainous. They then settled on the "mystery that spans two generations" idea that became Generations.

 

[Joker]

Maurice Hurley's script definitely had Kirk appearing as a holodeck advisor for Picard.

Correct. It was basically "The Tholian Web" meets "Booby Trap."

Could you be more specific?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Maurice Hurley's script definitely had Kirk appearing as a holodeck advisor for Picard.

Correct. It was basically "The Tholian Web" meets "Booby Trap."

Could you be more specific?

In short...

Federation outposts are being attacked by an unknown assailant. The Enterprise investigates and discovers that the attackers come from outside normal space, and this gives them an advantage when they're in "our" space. The closest analogue in Starfleet history is the Defiant incident in "The Tholian Web" with Interphase Space. Picard has a holodeck recreation of Kirk made so he can consult with Kirk about Interphase Space.

So, "The Tholian Web" (Interphase Space) meets "Booby Trap" (holodeck recreation as consultant).

The question, of course, is why Picard couldn't simply consult the reports from the Enterprise about Interphase Space, because it's not really Kirk that's advising him, it's a holodeck simulacrum of Kirk based on what the Enterprise computer knows about Kirk and Interphase Space, so there's nothing additional that Picard can gain from the holodeck.

 

[Cmndr J Crichton]

I was always surprised that Q never made an appearance in the TNG movies, given how popular he was.

I can picture him showing up in the alternate time line, freaking out at everything that's changed.

Hey, I just picked up To Reign in Hell! I was excited by the premise, and it should've been the story for Star Trek V. It would've been a great wrap up story for the first 4 movies. I can't wait to read it!

 

[plynch]

I was always surprised that Q never made an appearance in the TNG movies, given how popular he was.

Thank goodness for small favors.

 

[Greg Cox]

I was always surprised that Q never made an appearance in the TNG movies, given how popular he was.

I can picture him showing up in the alternate time line, freaking out at everything that's changed.

Hey, I just picked up To Reign in Hell! I was excited by the premise, and it should've been the story for Star Trek V. It would've been a great wrap up story for the first 4 movies. I can't wait to read it!

Thanks! Hope you like it.

 

[Joker]

Correct. It was basically "The Tholian Web" meets "Booby Trap."

Could you be more specific?

In short...

Federation outposts are being attacked by an unknown assailant. The Enterprise investigates and discovers that the attackers come from outside normal space, and this gives them an advantage when they're in "our" space. The closest analogue in Starfleet history is the Defiant incident in "The Tholian Web" with Interphase Space. Picard has a holodeck recreation of Kirk made so he can consult with Kirk about Interphase Space.

So, "The Tholian Web" (Interphase Space) meets "Booby Trap" (holodeck recreation as consultant).

The question, of course, is why Picard couldn't simply consult the reports from the Enterprise about Interphase Space, because it's not really Kirk that's advising him, it's a holodeck simulacrum of Kirk based on what the Enterprise computer knows about Kirk and Interphase Space, so there's nothing additional that Picard can gain from the holodeck.

Interesting read, thanks.

Same problem, as you mentioned, that affected Enterprise's finalé, namely that the holodeck was apparently creating the real people as opposed to just artificial simulations.

Even then... if they could create the actual person... why Kirk? Why not Spock, Scotty, or anyone else? Kirk wasn't even on the Enterprise throughout the event. Pretty lazy stuff.

 

[Shazam!]

Even then... if they could create the actual person... why Kirk? Why not Spock, Scotty, or anyone else? Kirk wasn't even on the Enterprise throughout the event. Pretty lazy stuff.

Yeah, I wish they'd discarded this idea and used another one instead.

Oh, wait.

 

[fghfghsss]

great

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Yeah, I wish they'd discarded this idea and used another one instead.

Oh, wait.

If only Moore and Braga had come up with the idea of "All Good Things..." sooner; with some tweaks, that could have worked for the crossover/passing-of-the-torch film. I'll have to dig through my archives; I wrote up my thoughts on the changes that would have accomplished that.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Here it is, how I would have redone "All Good Things..." as the first TNG film.

Enjoy.

 

[VOODOOXI]

Nearly anything would have been better than "Generations"

Why was Kirk even in the film? If tptb insisted on a cross over movie it should have been a big fun adventure that involved both crews. Instead they gave us a real downer of a film as well as the worst fictional death of any major character in the history of film and some of the laziest writing (you can think yourself out of the Nexus?) I have ever seen.

Generations was a truly poor way to attempt to establish the TNG film franchise.

 

[bullethead]

Nearly anything would have been better than "Generations"

Why was Kirk even in the film? If tptb insisted on a cross over movie it should have been a big fun adventure that involved both crews. Instead they gave us a real downer of a film as well as the worst fictional death of any major character in the history of film and some of the laziest writing (you can think yourself out of the Nexus?) I have ever seen.

I remember reading somewhere that Berman felt that they should've kept Yesterday's Enterprise's plot for the first TNG movie and I think it would've been the perfect fit for a story that combined the TNG and TOS crews without short changing either of them.