Having just read this article about "Yesterday's Enterprise" and Moore noting in it that if they hadn't made it, the story would have been perfect for GEN, with the Enterprise-A going back to their deaths instead of the Enterprise-C, I find myself thinking about an alternate TNG Movie Era. Movie 1 "Yesterday's Enterprise" (Featuring the entire TOS cast.) Movie 2 "The Chase" (Maybe bringing in the heads of state of all the major powers?) Movie 3 First Contact (Massive Borg invasion thwarted by combined Alpha/Beta powers prepped by UFP, so Borg go back in time as it plays out.) Movie 4 "All Good Things..."
1: Yesterdays Enterprise - adapted from the episode. maybe the reverse. the Ent D ending up in the 23rd century after a huge catastrophe involving McDowells villain. Set immediately after end credits of VI (directed by Nimoy) 2: FC - as was 3: Mirror Universe - Geordies temporal wormhole at end of FC landed them in the mirrorverse 4: Nemesis - but with 7of9 part of cast (written & directed by Nicolas Meyer)
Killing off the entire TOS crew in the first TNG film would have been absolutely the worst thing they could have done. Just having Kirk die thanks to the most totally contrived meeting ever between himself and Picard was bad enough.
They have to go sometime. Did you like Kirk’s passing? Now that Nimoy has passed away, think they’ll kill Old Spock off offscreen in another JJ movie? Young Chekov? I don’t know that I’d prefer that. If the E-A went out fundamentally changing the landscape of the quadrant, succeeding at bringing peace to a century of perpetual war (hot and cold), that’d be a hell of a legacy. Especially if it’s the ship to do it. Only Nixon could go to China; only the Kirk and the Federation flagship could go out defending Klingons against Romulan aggression to change everything. Plus, given that Scotty, Spock, and McCoy made it to the 24th C, the ship would include Kirk, Uhura, Chekov, and maybe a McCoy who somehow survived in an escape pod to return in “Encounter at Farpoint.” Maybe a visiting Sulu too, if he’s not off on the Excelsior. Might be interesting to see Spock’s, Sulu’s, and Scotty’s replacements on the ship...Xon? Arex? ?? @Khan 2.0 i kind of like your Mirror Universe idea — reminiscent of the crew’s side adventure in a BoP in TVH...part of a smooth continuation from one thing to the next. But another doppelgänger in Shinzon in NEM immediately after that would be too much. Make that reunification with the Romulans and Spock could play a major part...actually, that’d bookend the TNG films with TOS characters lol
I would have the Enterprise-D crew bravely and selflessly volunteer to take the Enterprise-A's place in history, taking the Ent-D back in time to meet their destiny so that the Ent-A could go on and have many more adventures. Spoilers for Star Trek Beyond ahead... Spoiler: STB This has already happened. Kor
Are you a Boomer? (ducks) But no, it was another generation’s turn at bat. And, heck, if TOS were that popular, they could have alternated film release years like SW with episode installments and standalones. Or they could have done another film before the end of TNG. But they signed of with TUC, and we’re lucky to (ahem, TFF, ahem). I liked the idea of having it be Kirk in TNG’s “Too Short a Season,” having to deal with the repercussions of some of his more questionable actions in TOS. In another world, we got a lot more TOS during TNG. Spock and Reunification, Scotty like Gulliver in an entirely new world with new players, intrigue at McCoy’s funeral, whatever happened to the Excelsior, etc. But even there, is have liked for each subsequent series to have gotten at least one feature. Make that Sisko’s return to Jake, Voyager’s arrival in the Alpha Quadrant, etc.
If they hadn't done "Yesterday's Enterprise" as an episode there is still no way I'd want that as a film with the Enterprise-A in place of the Enterprise-C. If they had brought the E-A crew and ship into "Generations" then in my fanboyish dreams it would be them teaming up with E-D crew and ship to go fight someone, to have Kirk and Picard arguing over what to do and how to do it, to have Kirk meet Worf and initially be unsure of him, Spock and Riker (as we already had Spock/Data), Geordi and Sulu on a shuttle mission, Chekov and Worf talking about weapons and something about both being russian. You do The Avengers-style fight/discussion/team-up and in the end E-A goes back to her own time except Kirk is stuck in the present and sacrifices himself to save the day (and he has to take the command of the E-D for one scene). Now this is just some fanboyish stuff that I just came up with that I'm not at all married to but more my point is, if you're going to put the two most iconic Trek teams in a film together wouldn't you want the real deals, not some alternate timeline version of one of them. Whatever I think of the execution of "Generations" I think the idea of using real Kirk and Picard teaming up was sound.
You could still have them team up in the present. Include everything you mentioned (Chekov and Worf one-upping each other on the Russian stuff would be great) and have them achieve a major victory but ultimately see that the good done back then would outweigh anything they might hope to now. I actually think it would be profoundly heroic and epic for them to go out like that and leave the audience feeling like they watched something special, totally curious to see what they come up with next.
I definitely wouldn't have wanted to see all of the TOS crew killed off in the first TNG movie. I think one of the things that makes "All Good Things" such a great finale is that it ends with the heroes flying off into the sunset with the promise of countless more adventures to come. It was much better than the usual "and everyone died. The end!" that many shows go with. It is somewhat ironic of course- they couldn't go blowing the ship up or killing off characters in AGT as they needed everything intact so they could go straight into filming Generations!
ah yeh, another doppleganger thing wouldnt do after a Mirrorverse film (and no B4 either).. in that case maybe bring back the Borg for Nemesis (they were Picards after all) and delve into their Giger like origins (not another invasion earth movie). plus the borg would be even more reason to have 7of9 there (and all prominent on the poster like http://scifanatic.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/idw-sthive-t.jpg) or instead of the borg maybe just brought back Khan (via cloning) lol
So it doesn't matter how well a story may be done, some stories, or even just scenes/ideas, are inherently bad and should not be done?
The movies are already afflicted with having too many characters and too many of them underused, combining two whole casts would really have that problem and even worse in that it would be hard to not make one set, or at least one of the captains, seem lesser, making one cooler or more right at the expense of another. Having one crew deciding to and be willing to sacrifice themselves, the other crew struggling to permit that to happen, also contributing, is a decent, creative way of balancing the crews and have both come off well but also a little too grim and bleak after The Undiscovered Country seemed to already end the original crew's story. My wish for an alternate film would mostly be the tenth, just let Michael Piller write it, probably with some thematic or direct follow-up to Insurrection if he wanted, regardless let him write his finale to TNG and if he wanted the whole 24th century era.
iirc. worf was from the ukraine. a story idea that pulls one (or both) crews out of their own time, and they have to combine forces to solve a problem is a good idea. but without any requirement that either crew gets wiped out in the end.
Worf and Nikolai grew up on the colony world of Gault. I don't think it was ever explicitly stated which Earth country Sergey and Helena Rozhenko came from, but the choice of the Ural Mountains as a frequent camping destination points to Russia. Kor
He liked Minsk but that’s in Belarus. What’s the local language in Belarus or Gault? Of what heritage is the Rozhenko name? If it’s Russian, the comedy act still goes on. If not, maybe Worf could be the straight man to Chekov’s Russian thing — with a twist Klingon ending for comedic effect?
^ fun was had by all. But actually I think different segments of Klingon society would admire or condemn that action. The good ol' boys might think it back-slappin' too right while others might find no honor in such a phony show of non-strength. Klingons are ill-tempered but they're not chaotic, like the Chalnoth. It takes more than force to build an empire – that lasts.