As TV episodes I really don't see Data getting emotions being done in same episode with a plot as different and also big as decades-spanning Nexus (although maybe Data learning to deal with fear would have been a follow-up to initial introduction included in Nexus plot). The ship maybe could have been blown up but there would be some way to prevent it from happening in next version so it wouldn't be permanently destroyed, the whole stopping Soran involving more of the main crew rather than just being Picard or Picard and Kirk in fight with Soran (feels like the plotting would feel more like "Time's Arrow" again). I do kind of like that the film doesn't feel like something you would see, expect for a season finale or even really premiere, more like pretty regular situation that gets a lot bigger and more consequential (like TV episodes you would more expect to see airing in November, January).
Generations as a regular episode
- Thread starter FreddyE
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I had to watch it again to see what you were talking about, lol.
I always class way of the warrior as a movie in my own re-watch selection
Which is for the best. While there are two available endings - the released version then the intended one that audiences somehow hated more - we'd also miss out on that epic scene where Kirk is talking about
Add in the Duras sisters, and it does feel more like an above-average season 7 story trying to end a chapter (the Duras feud in this case). Yet this movie was aimed at fans, honestly why not as the show was plenty popular at the time and didn't need to lure in people unfamiliar with a property so esoteric it had a spinoff airing as well as another in development.
I recall too reading that the big-D would be destroyed. For the end of season 6? But unlike the ship, the idea was scrapped.
Speaking of season 6, trilithium was talked about in a script so for everyone to go "durrrh, what is trilithium?" in the movie made no sense. Then again, neither did Data's emotion chip arc between the films.
On the plus side, saving the big crash was a good idea as it was well-realized in the big screen (where it should be). Yep, Blake's 7 did it first, but the 1701-D's is so much better (if you overlook how the windows are now made from glass and not transparent aluminum (also mentioned in the TNG TV show).
The music was definitely top-tier. None of the music has been this good since... season... four... except for "The Next Phase" or "The Pegasus", but "Generations"'s music is still better...
But why destroy the big-D when it looked so good on the big screen?
I think there's enough stuff in the movie to keep it movie-worthy, but chucking in loose ends with the Duras sisters then shoving in Kirk and forcing him into a future where he just wants to keep cracking eggs all day with
Plus, not since TWOK has Trek really dived into aging and the ephemeral nature of humans and, yep, it does it really well. It may be a cynical take, but the line "time is the fire" is incredibly poignant and strong. The cruel thing is that Dr Soran, much like most El Aurians, see the universe timelines slightly differently and have some high level empathic/esper-type ability with people they know. Soran easily could have picked up on Picard's mind and what he had just found out and used the fire metaphor deliberately. It's a damn good scene and it's dabbles into the philosophical bent that do rescue this movie. Would the TV show have done this level of justice to it? Not in season 7, which was too busy conjuring up new relatives for the crew faster than
But all said, I like Mr Tricorder as well, even if they didn't ADO dub Patrick Stewart's voice in as a missed opportunity. Two opportunities as think of the Mr Tricorder Playset form Playskool! Talk about "make it so"!
Here's what I don't get.....
Yes, both Generations and Insurrection (Insurrection even more so) felt like they would feature length episodes...... And people complain about that! I thought that was a great thing. I could see what I loved about that show, on the big screen.
I love First Contact, which is arguable the best TNG movie in terms of production. But the entire thing felt like a generic action movie with some Star Trek sprinkled on top. Generations and Insurrection feel much more TNG to me than FC ever did.
Yes, both Generations and Insurrection (Insurrection even more so) felt like they would feature length episodes...... And people complain about that! I thought that was a great thing. I could see what I loved about that show, on the big screen.
I love First Contact, which is arguable the best TNG movie in terms of production. But the entire thing felt like a generic action movie with some Star Trek sprinkled on top. Generations and Insurrection feel much more TNG to me than FC ever did.
Another positive is GEN feels original, or rather I can't immediately think of any TV episodes used as inspiration springboards, save for a redo of "Yesterday's Enterprise" with the ship about to explode but at least for GEN they were pressed for time given everything else they were juggling, plus the take on mortality and time may or may not have been inspired by one scene in TWOK but the take on that feels refreshingly original. Then we turn to INS where, right off the bat, "Homeward" is an obvious influence. "Journey's End" is another. So many robust examples from stale season seven, possibly in an attempt to improve on those very plot tropes* even though the end result didn't work... Oh, "Who Watches the Watchers" is another influence, since using only boring retread storylines from season 7 can't be the only ones. Never mind INS has Picard doing an impressively big double standard for disobeying the prime directive (even Wesley Crusher also says "Howdy!"), never mind that FC treated the idea of disobeying orders as a ha-ha joke (in a scene so oddly schizoid that it makes that gem from season 1, "Justice", where, in the same scene, and add another comma here for no reason, how the crew bobblehead between "There's nothing wrong down there it's paradise, let's bring down Wes and other kids as they'll enjoy it, and they all make love at the drop of a hat - any hat." (and if that line doesn't redefine "topless" then nothing could...) seem utterly rock-solid robust by comparison... never thought I'd get to write that aside, including the parentheses-laden aside from within the aside's aside but I make an aside... again...
* Just like how TMP had and some influence is inevitable, that in of itself isn't a problem, but ideally if one is influencing or remaking, wouldn't the goal be to make it feel like its own thing or, if nothing else, done conclusively and objectively better? INS doesn't quite do it, plus Picard gets to become Tarzen in a scene, missing only that yell - something that even James Bond of all characters got to do!
There's more regarding INS here:
(The original idea and layout sound far, far, FAR more compelling)
and
(I forgot how plasticky the "E" looked too... the CGI looked best in NEM (though a model was used for the ramming scene)...)
and
(because, why not and, nope, I'm really not related to them)
It's the most polished, but the script doesn't begin to hold up for being the most superficial of the four TNG films, and doubly disappointing as established fans saw how great the Kirk movies were so how would TNG beat those? (It didn't even try, the films felt more like whimsical reunion parties but in all fairness, a lot of 90s flicks feel like less than their potential too, but I'm not Plinkett's mother's cousin's nephew's brother's former roommate either...). Clunky or not, missed opportunity or not, discarded original ideas or not, INS is far more watchable than FC. Then again, IMHO, so is NEM and it's a pile of missed half-baked overstuffed ideas where surprisingly few (and small!) changes would tie it all together and would have been a genuine hit (IMHO).
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