What you did or didn't like about GEN...

[TheKeeper]

Spiner's acting was horrible. Why does he think he is a comedian?? He is NOT FUNNY!! Throughout the whole series I could see that influence. Anytime he had a chance to play someone other than Data, he turned into a guy with comical facial expessions, like a clown.

I haven't seen enough of Brent Spiner's work outside the context of TNG, but whether he's playing an unemotional android imitating human behavior or one coping with new and unfamiliar emotions, some awkwardness in the execution of humor should be expected. Until I see otherwise, I'll continue to think he was doing the right thing for the character he was playing.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

^That's what I thought. Data was acting emotionally appropriate... like a kid who'd found a joke book. Considering he'd only had emotions for a bit, that was natural.

 

[Hober Mallow]

I like this movie overall but it doesn't really have much to say.

I disagree. I think the writers had too much to say. They wanted a grand story about life and death, what it means to be human, what it means to be mortal, and included a laundry list of things they wanted, Kirk, Ent B, Ent D destruction, Klingons, a villain like Khan, etc. They tried to do too much, and ended up with an unfocused mess.

 

[Hober Mallow]

Spiner's acting was horrible. Why does he think he is a comedian??

Probably because before TNG, he was best known for his recurring role on Night Court.

 

[GalaxyX]

Spiner's acting was horrible. Why does he think he is a comedian??

Probably because before TNG, he was best known for his recurring role on Night Court.

Yes it's possible. I've seen the Night Court episodes, and I do see some similarities between the acting styles now.

 

[TheKeeper]

I don't know if I should call GEN the best bad movie or the worst good movie among the Treks, but I can't help liking it.

Likes:
- GEN felt like a feature film, while retaining the essential TNG-ness. I loved the look and feel of the movie, and I think that's why I find GEN so rewatchable despite its problems.
- Revisiting Data's emotion chip.
- Soran was a good villain, in large part from Malcolm McDowell's ability to chew scenery with little more than a facial expression.

Dislikes:
- More than anything this side of Slusho Trek, GEN pegged the needle on my WTF-ometer every few minutes, mostly in the second half. What was the point of capturing and interrogating Geordi? In doing so, Soran and the Kleavage sisters gave away more information than they gained. Soran can't fly a ship at the Nexus because it would be destroyed, but that's how he got to the Nexus in the first place? No one bothered to check Geordi's Visor for tampering before returning him to duty? Echo-Guinan is still in the Nexus, ready to provide convenient exposition (not to mention providing a handy 'remember-my-katra' plot for getting Kirk back in later Treks if needed?) Kirk and Picard can just will themselves to leave the Nexus and arrive at any time or place? Soran's star destroyer needs a little chemical fueled missle launched from a Class M planet, and it reaches the star in seconds?

I guess GEN is a triumph of style over substance. I like it though, so sue me.

 

[Praetor]

I liked that this movie actually felt like TNG. I disliked that it was pretty much a vapid plot and caused none of the subsequent movies to feel like TNG.

 

[GalaxyX]

Kirk dies. That ruined the entire movie for me.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Way back when, I wrote up an alternate ending, where Kirk goes back to the Enterprise-B and gets Soran to do the recalibration of the deflector dish, so HE gets sucked into the Nexus instead. End of crisis before it ever begins. Meanwhile, Picard goes back a few days, warns his brother Robert about the faulty heating unit, and saves his family, and the Enterprise-D in the process.

The only downside being that it effectively undid the Shatner novels, but that's a small price to pay.

I've come up with an Enterprise-B alternate ending as well. It's actually a natural place to take the film, as it brings it full circle.

Mine has Soran go back to the Enterprise-B once he's returned to the Nexus after destroying Veridian III. His reason? To drive the Enterprise-B into the Nexus and reunite the Lakul survivors with their Nexus "echoes." Picard and Kirk have to go back to the Enterprise-B as well to stop him. Soran takes over Engineering, Kirk and Picard are able to get inside, and then Kirk and Soran have a fight at the warp core. Eventually, the only way to save the ship from the Nexus is to eject the warp core entirely. Picard is reluctant, because it could kill Kirk, but they both know it needs to be done, and Kirk sacrifices himself to save the ship as he and Soran are sucked out into space. Picard then dissolves as his past rewrites itself (with Soran dead, there's no Amargosa mission, and hence no Veridian III trip), and he finds himself back aboard the Enterprise-D. He retains the memories, though, and he's able to contact his brother and Rene before the fire.

 

[Praetor]

^I like that ending. I've thought of something similar before, myself.

Ironically, it's the one place in Trek where the reset button would have been appropriate, and it wasn't used. *sigh*

 

[GalaxyX]

Why does Kirk have to die? What the fuck?

 

[Captain Robert April]

[Zombie-like monotone]

BECAUSE IT'S IN THE SCRIPT.

[/Zombie-like monotone]

 

[LitmusDragon]

Why does Kirk have to die? What the fuck?

This was apparently one of the requirements from the suits at Paramount if the movie were to be made, that Kirk had to die in it.

They also came up with crashing the ship into the planet.

 

[Praetor]

Once again, I bow at the expertise of the Paramount suits when it comes to making a good movie.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Why does Kirk have to die? What the fuck?

This was apparently one of the requirements from the suits at Paramount if the movie were to be made, that Kirk had to die in it.

They also came up with crashing the ship into the planet.

Actually, neither one of those is true.

There was no requirement to kill Kirk from on high. There was no real thought to keeping Kirk alive, however. Berman thought that if Kirk were alive at the end of the film, then audiences might expect to see him in future films, which really negated the whole passing-of-the-torch idea.

As for the crashing of the Enterprise, that was planned to happen at the end of the sixth season of TNG, except they realized that they couldn't do it effectively on a television budget. The Enterprise would have been retired and turned into a kind of interstellar Queen Mary, and on an ambassadorial ferry mission, the saucer would have crashed. Since Moore and Braga couldn't use that setpiece on television, they resurrected it when they were spitballing ideas for Berman.

One bizarre rumor about the destruction of the Enterprise-D that I've heard is that it was done because Andy Probert receives royalties for the use of the Galaxy-class design. Destroying the ship and designing a new ship would limit Probert's royalties. I've never been able to verify the rumor, but I've heard it from several unconnected sources over the years.

 

[Captain Robert April]

As far as Kirk goes, that's the beauty of my revised ending. Kirk gets put back in his own time and we don't know any more about his ultimate fate than we did before the movie. No overriding need to ever see him again, no cheesy death scene to try and forget.

 

[General_Phoenix]

What I liked about Generations was seeing the Enterprise B, and how the Enterprise D looked on the big screen. Really hated seeing the D get destroyed, especially by an old antique Bird of Prey. Hated the story line, if that's what you want to call it anyway.

 

[Agenda]

I hated almost everything about it, including the villains, the plot device (i.e. the ribbon), Kirk's death, but most of all, I hate the very end. It's a piss poor end, with piss poor dialogue. Even as a kid watching this film, I thought so.

Riker: I always thought I'd get a shot at this chair one day.
Picard: Perhaps you still will... somehow I doubt this will be the last ship to carry the name 'Enterprise'.
[looks at Riker for a beat, then taps his combadge]
Picard: Picard to Farragut, two to beam up.
[the two men demateralize]

That's it?!?!?

 

[GalaxyX]

Why does Kirk have to die? What the fuck?

This was apparently one of the requirements from the suits at Paramount if the movie were to be made, that Kirk had to die in it.

They also came up with crashing the ship into the planet.

Ridiculous. What were they thinking? And how could Shatner agree to it?

 

[I am not Spock]

Likes:

The Ent D on the big screen
The new lighting on the sets
Malcolm McDowell
Seeing Shatner, Koenig, and Doohan one last time
Tuvok! (well, almost)

Dislikes:
The Ent D being destroyed (although the effects were spectacular)
Kirk. Not Dead
Scotty speaking TNG style technobabble
Data's humour was inappropriate (although I thought it funny when I was 12)