Why don't the crew take escape pods before their saucer crashed ?
A question about Generations
- Thread starter Terran Carrot
- Start date
Bad writing? 
Maybe they were too close to the planet after the destruction of the Stardrive section?
If the option presents itself, it's probably better for everyone to escape in the saucer section rather than in individual escape pods during a warp core breach. If nothing else, the saucer may provide better protection and enable a faster getaway. Escape pods may be reserved for last-resort scenarios when the entire ship is compromised or there's simply no time for saucer separation.
"Abandon ship" has been commanded relatively seldom in Trek history. Most scenarios have featured a reason making saucer separation impossible or impracticably slow, meaning the command would allow at least a select few to escape in pods whereas staying put would doom them all. Yet we know of fairly few abandon-ship scenarios that would actually have led to survival: pods apparently tend to be caught in the same big bang that finishes the ship, or shot down by the same enemy, etc.
I doubt pods would have increased anybody's survival odds in the ST:GEN saucer landing. Did anybody even get injured in that fairly soft and controlled landing? Our bridge heroes fly this way and that, with the room around them filling with flying debris to boot, but are none the worse for the wear.
Timo Saloniemi
I doubt pods would have increased anybody's survival odds in the ST:GEN saucer landing. Did anybody even get injured in that fairly soft and controlled landing? Our bridge heroes fly this way and that, with the room around them filling with flying debris to boot, but are none the worse for the wear.
Timo Saloniemi
They wasted too much of the budget on uniforms that were never used, so had to go with just the saucer separation 
I suspect it would be that escape pods might not have been able to get far enough away from the warp core detonation, which would put the unshielded lifeboats at risk, whilst the saucer (though restricted to impulse) did have shields and offered a greater chance of more people surviving.
I suspect it would be that escape pods might not have been able to get far enough away from the warp core detonation, which would put the unshielded lifeboats at risk, whilst the saucer (though restricted to impulse) did have shields and offered a greater chance of more people surviving.
Unused uniforms? Tell me more.They wasted too much of the budget on uniforms that were never used, so had to go with just the saucer separation
Quite a well-known story, they'd designed new uniforms for the movie - sort of a cross between the TNG uniforms and Monster Maroons in TNG colours, decided they didn't like them and ditched them to use a mix of TNG and DS9 uniforms - which were actually borrowed from the DS9 actors. Jonathan Frakes wore Avery Brooks' uniform, though the arms didn't fit which is why he has the sleeves rolled up whenever he wears it.
Famously, Playmates were given these uniform designs for their Generations figures line, and the decision to drop them was made too late to change the figures, so they were released with the unused uniforms:
The only thing I would add is that they started filming with the new uniforms and decided after a few days of filming with the Next Generation cast (the Enterprise-B filming was simultaneous with the filming of "All Good Things...") to ditch them. But for budget and schedule reasons, they didn't refilm anything that used those uniforms and had been rendered unusable by the change, which is why Geordi's torture scene was cut; that was one of the first scenes shot, and it used the new uniforms.
Yes, I was going to mention that they'd filmed some scenes using the uniforms, but I couldn't remember which ones so left it out.
Those uniforms look reasonable enough. Doubt most cinema-goers would've noticed they were different from the TNG show ones. Always bugged me in the film that there were two types of uniform. (Hadn't seen DS9 yet, the BBC didn't get it until 1996.)
I think we had Sky at that point, as I don't recall not recognising the DS9 uniforms. It did irritate me having the two different styles though. Mind you it's not as bad as TMP with its umpteen styles of uniforms.
It always bugged me how close in appearance the DS9 uniforms were to the cadet uniforms as seen in TNG though...
It always bugged me how close in appearance the DS9 uniforms were to the cadet uniforms as seen in TNG though...
I always thought as a kid seeing the TNG crew wearing something different was kind of cool, but these days I always look at the movie, see how perfectly servicable the regular TNG uniforms look in the movie, and wonder why anybody thought "Ok so we don't like these new uniforms so we'll go back to the TV versions, but intermix them with DS9 jumpsuits for variety". It just distracts me and takes me out of the movie. (Maybe I'd have had an easier time with it if they'd phased in the DS9 jumpsuits during the TV show, but it just feels like a sudden leap in the movie.)
It's not unjustifiable in-universe though, TNG the TV show of course used a mixture of uniforms on screen in the third season when transitioning from the S1/2 uniforms. Maybe I'd have liked it better if they'd retained the DS9 jumpsuits for First Contact to maintain continuity, its the leap between three different outfits in what is in-universe only a couple years which bugs me.
It's not unjustifiable in-universe though, TNG the TV show of course used a mixture of uniforms on screen in the third season when transitioning from the S1/2 uniforms. Maybe I'd have liked it better if they'd retained the DS9 jumpsuits for First Contact to maintain continuity, its the leap between three different outfits in what is in-universe only a couple years which bugs me.
I agree, especially when they were using the TOS movie uniforms for a long time, I believe almost 75 years?
I recall not actually noticing the new uniforms in Generations until Data was talking to Geordi and realised it looked like one's uniform was made from the off cuts of the other's.
I believe plot logic is inverse to producer requirements to destroy the ship at all costs in order to get a shiny new one for the next film.
See also Worf not modulating shields, and Riker's awful display of command when 'fighting' back.
See also Worf not modulating shields, and Riker's awful display of command when 'fighting' back.
Random thought about GEN - it's the only TNG cast film that feels like TNG to me. And not just because it uses the sets and uniforms from TNG. The rest tried to be too dark and too 'action' (FC and NEM) or too inconsequential (INS) and didn't feel in step with the feel of the television series.
While I like the vibe of the male uniforms (a subtle 'splicing' of the TNG series uniforms with the more "formal" wear of the TOS movies), I hate the female version. Too much black tone, relegating the colour to a tiny 'boob window' which looks incredibly unflattering on them. If the female variant actually looked more like the male one then I wouldn't have a problem with those.
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