Star Trek Generations: a movie I hated instantly upon first viewing, took years and multiple viewings to begin to appreciate at least parts of it, and to this day, I simultaneously love AND hate it! I remember seeing it when it was released. I was so stoked about the idea of a TOS/TNG crossover film, with so many possibilities. I was spoiler free, so I walked into the film cold, not knowing what to expect. I remember months before seeing it, trying to imagine how they would pull off the film.
Was it going to be a time travel movie, somewhat like Yesterday's Enterprise? At that point, Trek hadn't beaten us over the head with the time travel trope to a blood pulp, so I was really open to that. How I hoped to finally see the Enterprise-A on screen with the Enterprise-D, side by side!
Or was it going to be something along the lines where an extremely aged Kirk visits the Enterprise-D for the first time, and gets rejuvenated and de-aged, somehow, for one last adventure? After all, there was precedents for that: you had Commodore April de-aged in the Counterclock Incident, and then you had Admiral Jameson from Too Short a Season. That episode, I always thought of as an episode the writers had Kirk in mind for the Jameson role, in fact Jameson could have been a stand in for Kirk, finally facing the consequences of his actions for arming a society like he did in A Private Little War.
So, when I did see it in theaters, after the movie, I was just left stupefied. I left with thinking "what the fuck was that?!" Visually, for its time, it was a beautiful film. And it was nice to see the cast and the E-D on the big screen. But I want to talk about the stuff that did, and still does bother me about Generations.
The death of Robert and Rene Picard. OK, I know WHY this is done, as in later on in the movie, we have to have a reason for Picard not wanting to leave the Nexus. But burning alive in a barn in the 24th century? Not to mention after seeing both characters after such a touching episode as family? What a horrible way to kill off these characters, not to mention the buzz kill of seeing Picard just weep. Sure, men can weep like that, but they should have saved a scene like that for an episode of TNG, not the very first TNG feature film!
Destroying Data's character with the emotion chip: Now, we TNG fans knew there would be a day where Data would finally get emotions. That was the natural progression of the character, IMHO. But the way it was done in this film, and the cheesiness of the scenes is almost unconscionable. Fortunately, this was rectified with FC, where its revealed Data can simply turn off the emotion chip.
Lursa and B'etor:
TNG had some memorable recurring characters, and for me two of the best were Lursa and B'etor. But this film really just relegates them to comic relief, and then kills them off. I think given how hum drum a film Insurection was, particularly how much I just couldn't stand the Son'a as villains, I think saving Lursa and B'etor for a later film, would have been a lot better.
The Destruction of the Enterprise-D:
Again, I know WHY it was done: so that we would get an Enterprise-E in the next film. And sure, the movie trailer really telegraphs its destruction, but then again, I think there was half a dozen times where TNG had an episode where the Enterprise is destroyed, and then restored by the reset button. SO, when they actually did destroy it, it was certainly a WTF moment for me. And it was done so unceremoniously, too. I think others here have compared\contrasted the E-D's destruction to the TSFS destruction of the 1701 at length, but in that film, if 1701 was going to go out, it went out with style, IMHO. Turning defeat and death into a fighting chance to live. None of that happened with Generations. In fact, Picard wasn't even on the bridge at the time. While I can't really fault Riker or Geordi for that matter, there was just this smug air about the crew that screams "We are in a Galaxy class ship. We are unbeatable," that makes them all look like amateurs when E-D is destroyed.
The Death of Kirk:
For me, this is the most egregious, and offensive thing about Generations! Indeed, this is one of the worst events of Star Trek history. Why Shatner even agreed to this is beyond me. Now, it's not necessarily that Kirk died in of itself, because if it had been done in a way that wasn't so irreverently and sloppy, I MIGHT have been on board. In fact, Star Trek 5 sort of sets up Kirk's death by the scene where Kirk mentions he knows he'll die alone. But its the way Kirk was handled throughout the entire film of Generations, topped off with falling off a mountain in a steel bridge. I mean really? All I could think of was Wile E. Coyote! It was just flat out LAME! And I still haven't accepted Kirk's death. I want to throw something at the screen to this day whenever I rewatch that scene. And what is up with Picard burying Kirk on some no-name planet, under a bunch of rocks on some lone hill top, with only Picard in attendance? Doesn't one of starfleet's most celebrated heroes deserve a large funeral to honor him? At that point, we knew Spock, Scotty, and McCoy were still alive, and possibly the rest of the crew. Wouldn't they have wanted to finally have a funeral for their old friend? Sure, they probably had one after the Enterprise-B disaster, but there was no body. Also, Kirk supposedly died saving billions, as well as the entire crew of the Enterprise-D. He deserved a better funeral than that.
Not too many people seemed to like the original ending where Soran shoots Kirk in the back and he dies in Picard's arms, and I have to agree. While the crushed-under-a-metal-bridge death scene wasn't the death most of us had envisioned for Captain Kirk over the years and decades and it wasn't exactly the best idea they could have come up with, I think it still works better than the original ending.
Getting shot in the back by the villain right after boasting that "the 24th century's not so tough" just didn't look or feel right, although it led to the common misconception that Soran himself directly killed James T. Kirk instead of - as in the altered ending that's in the final movie - creating the situation in which Kirk bravely sacrifices himself to help save the day. Neither death is what most fans wanted, but if I had to pick one it'd be the bridge, no hesistation or question about it.
Really, something akin to Kirk's first "death," when he was lost in the Nexus aboard the Enterprise-B, and assumed dead with no body and his death left ambiguous, would have worked far, far better.
