Why did production on GENERATIONS start so soon after TNG?
- Thread starter MakeshiftPython
- Start date
Well, let's not forget "Unification."
In retrospect, perhaps TNG should only have had 5 seasons. After "The Inner Light" (Season 5 episode 25), there were maybe three or four good episodes in the next two seasons, but really, AGT could have been used here to end the series, and it would have worked out fine (at least, better than the next two seasons' cliffhanger episodes, which were awful). DS9 had already started, and there was really no reason why the two series needed to overlap. Perhaps if TNG ended two years before it did, we would have had a better movie than Generations.
I disagree with the sentiment that the TNG cast would never work for a Trek film. GENERATIONS, unfortunately, underused its cast but that could be related to the issue of bringing in the TOS characters and even TNG recurring characters like the Duras sisters. It got way too crowded there, so as a result someone Riker never really had a moment. Sure, we got to see him commanding the Enterprise during battle and in the crashing sequence, but we never see him as a character, only as a generic commander. Despite that, I don't see this as proof that what was originally an ensemble cast on a TV series can't work on film. There's countless films out there with great ensembles, and then there's FIRST CONTACT.
Contrasting GENERATIONS, FIRST CONTACT, in my opinion, used the TNG characters best. I think Frakes being the director, wanted to give each of the characters their own moment much like how Nimoy was able to give the supporting TOS characters their own moments "don't call me tiny". There was never going to be a film focused on Geordi, but at least he gets a moment where he geeks out about the monument dedicated to his her Dr. Cochrane, and many other examples. Picard and Data, much like Kirk, Spock and McCoy, are the stars, but that doesn't meant the rest of the cast can't have their moments.
Frakes does the same with INSURRECTION, giving every character their moment. The film has problems, but I think that's one of the things he got right. Bringing up Geordi again, I like that him seeing his first sunset is what motivates him to join in on Picard's movement (also helps that the Goldsmith music just sweetens it up.
So, hell no to the idea that everyone except Picard and Data should have been replaced by a "hot and young" cast, especially "movie actors". There's no such thing as "movie actors" or "TV actors". They're all actors. It's insulting to suggest that an actor who puts in a lot of work on TV is inherently not as good as an actor working on film. Maybe that used to be how people saw things back in the 1950s when film divisions saw TV as inferior and competition (on the latter they still do, business wise). I've seen a lot of TV where it had actors who could turn in more compelling performances than the average leading film actor. Especially today in this new golden age of TV. I'm not arguing that guys like Frakes were great actors that could rival the best film stars, but that doesn't mean they could never turn in great performances (Frakes was fantastic in "Frame of Mind").
However, I do like Bill's suggestion of bringing in new characters that you might be able to kill off to increase suspense. Not a whole new cast, but definitely what I call "guest star" characters. The TOS films had the right idea of introducing new and younger characters like Saavik, David, Valeris and at the same time the regular characters still had their moments to shine. It definitely would have helped give the TNG crew more of a sense of history (having the same exact cast to the end just didn't seem believable). If one character had to leave, it probably should have been Riker. Have him as the first officer for GENERATIONS, and for FIRST CONTACT he'd make a cameo as one of the captains fighting the Borg. No idea how he'd fit in INSURRECTION. NEMESIS had him and Troi get married, so perhaps he'd be on the Enterprise merely as a guest on leave, prepping for the Betazoid wedding.
Anyway, that's my thoughts on how the cast should have been handled.
Contrasting GENERATIONS, FIRST CONTACT, in my opinion, used the TNG characters best. I think Frakes being the director, wanted to give each of the characters their own moment much like how Nimoy was able to give the supporting TOS characters their own moments "don't call me tiny". There was never going to be a film focused on Geordi, but at least he gets a moment where he geeks out about the monument dedicated to his her Dr. Cochrane, and many other examples. Picard and Data, much like Kirk, Spock and McCoy, are the stars, but that doesn't meant the rest of the cast can't have their moments.
Frakes does the same with INSURRECTION, giving every character their moment. The film has problems, but I think that's one of the things he got right. Bringing up Geordi again, I like that him seeing his first sunset is what motivates him to join in on Picard's movement (also helps that the Goldsmith music just sweetens it up.
So, hell no to the idea that everyone except Picard and Data should have been replaced by a "hot and young" cast, especially "movie actors". There's no such thing as "movie actors" or "TV actors". They're all actors. It's insulting to suggest that an actor who puts in a lot of work on TV is inherently not as good as an actor working on film. Maybe that used to be how people saw things back in the 1950s when film divisions saw TV as inferior and competition (on the latter they still do, business wise). I've seen a lot of TV where it had actors who could turn in more compelling performances than the average leading film actor. Especially today in this new golden age of TV. I'm not arguing that guys like Frakes were great actors that could rival the best film stars, but that doesn't mean they could never turn in great performances (Frakes was fantastic in "Frame of Mind").
However, I do like Bill's suggestion of bringing in new characters that you might be able to kill off to increase suspense. Not a whole new cast, but definitely what I call "guest star" characters. The TOS films had the right idea of introducing new and younger characters like Saavik, David, Valeris and at the same time the regular characters still had their moments to shine. It definitely would have helped give the TNG crew more of a sense of history (having the same exact cast to the end just didn't seem believable). If one character had to leave, it probably should have been Riker. Have him as the first officer for GENERATIONS, and for FIRST CONTACT he'd make a cameo as one of the captains fighting the Borg. No idea how he'd fit in INSURRECTION. NEMESIS had him and Troi get married, so perhaps he'd be on the Enterprise merely as a guest on leave, prepping for the Betazoid wedding.
Anyway, that's my thoughts on how the cast should have been handled.
Similar threads
- Poll
