Better Use for the Nexus

[Lost_Astronaut]

...or another good idea killed by being in Star Trek Generations.

This movie had so much going for it, yet winds up a disappointment on so many levels. Things I like about it include cinematography, effects, score, the basic outlines of the story (such as it is), and the fact that it was an ambitious attempt at a Star Trek movie. They really tried to do something different, but as Ron Moore has said, they may have been too young and inexperienced to really pull it all off.

For me, after a few relatively minor blunders, the film really goes off the rails when Picard enters the Nexus. I can take the saccharin nature of Picard's fantasy but not the ease with which he subverts it. The shiny Christmas ornament seems to be all he needs to remember his real life, along with a little encouragement from Guinan's shadow. His quest then simply becomes to find Kirk and get him to join him in his fight against Soran, which is also easily accomplished. They leave and have an ultimately standard fight scene to defeat their foe.

What if Picard needed convincing to get out of the Nexus? What if, instead of losing Soran in the Nexus, Guianan brings Picard to him there, racked with guilt over everything he's done?

He is in the Nexus but his bliss is unexpectedly destroyed by the fact that he has a conscience after all. He tells Picard everything he'd need to know to defeat his mortal self, but it's clear Picard will need help. Kirk is then recruited in basically the same way - realizing he can make a difference out there again, rather than safely playing out a fantasy for all eternity.

 

[TheGoodStuff]

Generations suffered from all the same problems every TNG movie [bar FC] had, which was awful plots with more holes than Swiss cheese.

The Nexus was not executed properly. Guinan has an entire scene warning Picard that he shouldn't take the Nexus lightly. Once he is in, it's so blissful he will never want to leave. Apparently the mighty Kirk has been trapped in it for years.

As for Picard? His Nexus is a christmas with a family [his]...uhh...I thought the Nexus was supposed to be so pleasurable and wonderful you would never want to leave? Hence why Soran is happy to murder countless individuals to get back in. From what we see, the Nexus has the same power as the holodeck. I struggle to see the attraction.

Anyway it doesn't matter because Picard just...decides he wants to leave. He even has to convince Kirk to stop...living in a fake countryside, riding horses and making eggs for a fake wife. The whole thing is just executed so, so poorly.

I haven't even touched on the intelligent Picard deciding to step out of the Nexus 5 seconds before Soran hits 'launch' either. Yeesh that was some awful writing.

I think it would have been far more interesting if the Nexus was a cocoon. A blissful, addictive, orgasmic cocoon. Like a drug. That took significant willpower to leave and even stronger willpower to not be drawn back to it...like the moth to the flame. Why not have Picard be sucked into it...only discover there are thousands of people [if not more] willingly trapped within it? There is some interesting plot right there: to liberate them against their will or not?

So yes, I agree, much more could have been done with the Nexus.

 

[Lost_Astronaut]

Thanks for your thoughts! I totally agree on what a trivial obstacle the Nexus was. The idea of liberating the people inside is also pretty appealing. There's a lot more scope to these ideas than the movie is able to play with.

Also I prematurely posted before finishing up. Not a lot more to add but some clarification...



In order for Picard and Kirk to leave the Nexus this time, however Soran must sacrifice himself - in this version of the Nexus, you would be permanently trapped inside and could not simply wish your way out once you see through the trick. This would also explain why the enlightened Soran could not go back out and simply change his mind before the launch.

They exit, and honestly the rest of the film could probably play out more or less the way it did. Kirk can die, the ship can blow up and crash, it's that stakeless middle of the movie that really undercuts everything else. There's simply no peril or tension or mystery going on, and we don't feel for the characters as they overcome the dilemma.

Maybe Soran is defeated rather than killed on the launcher, as we've seen he's capable of redemption, but I could go either way on this. I also think reconciliation with the villain in the Nexus is in keeping with the writers' attempts at doing something different with the film. I don't think it's ever really been done in a Star Trek film. As it is the Nexus is little more than a holodeck in the sky with some dubious time travel abilities and a thinly veiled excuse for Shatner to get his horsey ride on.

 

[Tenacity]

A better use for the nexus would have been to imprison General Zod in it.

 

[Lost_Astronaut]

A better use for the nexus would have been to imprison General Zod in it.

Would have been more fun and interesting than what we got.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Star Trek:Intervention, followed by Star Trek:Rehab?

 

[Tenacity]

General Zod could have hung out with nuKhan, Captain Tracy, Admiral Cartwright, Gul Ducat.

Actually, that sounds like a interesting movie!

 

[wayne66]

I think Captain Picard should have entered the Nexus to rescue his brother and nephew instead of bringing Kirk back. The Picard family could have stopped Soran, just as well as Kirk did. I mean that is what the movie should have been about. Do not shoehorn the original series actors into this film. Kirk would still be alive roaming through the cosmos and Picard would have his family back.

 

[WB2]

The nexus should have been the home of the Q continuum.. A lot of mistakes could have been easily explained or waved away, not to mention it would have been fun to see their home.

 

[Richard Baker]

When Picard and Kirk exited the Nexus to stop Soran they overlapped the time Picard was there alone trying to stop Soran- what happened the original?
On the other hand, if returning caused an overlap resulting in tow Picards, both could have teamed up to stop Soran. If they failed they could return and all four could try. Soran, even with his cute tramsformer gun would have a problem with a sea of Picards all swarming his launch tower.

Generations was a poorly thought out mess which had to exist just to pass the torch to the new crew for the movies.

 

[Dukhat]

The Nexus was not executed properly. Guinan has an entire scene warning Picard that he shouldn't take the Nexus lightly. Once he is in, it's so blissful he will never want to leave. Apparently the mighty Kirk has been trapped in it for years.

As for Picard? His Nexus is a christmas with a family [his]...uhh...I thought the Nexus was supposed to be so pleasurable and wonderful you would never want to leave? Hence why Soran is happy to murder countless individuals to get back in. From what we see, the Nexus has the same power as the holodeck. I struggle to see the attraction.

Anyway it doesn't matter because Picard just...decides he wants to leave. He even has to convince Kirk to stop...living in a fake countryside, riding horses and making eggs for a fake wife. The whole thing is just executed so, so poorly.

Actually, you're wrong. Guinan was correct when she said that Picard would never want to leave. It turns out that he's still in the Nexus. He only thought he was meeting Kirk, leaving the Nexus to stop Soran, getting a new ship, fighting the Borg, finding a planet with a fountain of youth, and meeting his clone. That was all a Nexus-induced fantasy.

 

[Paradise City]

I see the Nexus as TNG's answer to The Guardian of Forever. A device that really doesn't make any sense but one that is crowbarred in there as the missing catalyst to tie the film together, all decorated in FX baubles and shimmering music so we're disarmed and don't scrutinse it too much. Not that I'm necessarily having a pop at that - The City on the Edge of Forever episode works for many people and may have worked for Generations. I know the Nexus grants everyone their wish but I kind of presumed it had some mystical awareness of its own that steered Picard and Kirk together. Picard, at root wants reality not fiction, Kirk wants one last crack of the whip. These are strongwilled, unique men not the average joe who would normally succumb to temptation, so the Nexus grants them their release.

I'm personally not unhappy with Generations. But I think the big problem here is these are the TNG people making this film, they're comfortable and at ease writing for the TNG ensemble but when it comes to a legendary figure such as Captain Kirk they become hesitant and unsure of themselves and the stuff they write for him isn't that great. That's the vibe I get from this film.

 

[publiusr]

I would have had both the old cre and the new crew face off--as one pre-Generations idea had it--but for the Enterprise-A to have been destroyed by the Nexus, with the crew preserved.

 

[Richard Baker]

They could have dealt with the 'passing the torch' from one crew to the next so much better.

It was like the film was an obligation to deal with and get past before they could do what they really wanted. They wanted to clean slate everything but instead of having the Enterprise-D go out in a blaze of glory they just came up with an excuse for it to blow up. They had to include one last battle for Kirk but instead we got a badly choreographed fist fight.

They could have really made a great movie but instead we got a plot any six year old could see the holes in and a nexus which didn't make any sense.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Why haven't the Nexus, the Q continuum and the Guardian gotten together in a winner take all brawl?