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The film's first error was cutting out several minutes of establishing footage from the 23rd century sequence. With so few of the "Classic" characters in the film to begin with, it's disappointing to see their contribution so reduced. The Enterprise-B section of the story had some well played, nicely wistful moments, but overall, it strains credulity. A distress call comes in while the handsome new ship is within a few minutes of Earth. Home base, the operational hub of the Federation. We are supposed to believe that, as Trek writers love to say, the Enterprise is "the only ship within range". As if this isn't enough, the new Captain of the Enterprise, the Federation's flagship, is so inept that he can't handle a rescue mission hardly as dangerous as the ones played in the academy. There are better ways to build dramatic tension.
The "New Generation" sequence begins mock-whimsically and then plunges straight into tired morbidity. Worf (Michael Dorn) gains a shipboard promotion, which is marred by an infantile and needless pair of gags that surround people falling, in slow motion, into water. Then the film moves onto a wasted sequence built around Data (Brent Spiner) finally using his pesky emotion chip. An obvious complaint concerns how Geordi (LeVar Burton) installed the damn thing with the Enterprise as dark as it was throughout the whole movie. In contrast, Star Trek: The New Generation was always brightly-lit, so that we could see Herman Zimmerman's beautiful sets. It was a small, but thoughtful, touch.
Anyway, all the emotion chip does is succeed in turning Data into an jerk. Perhaps the point is that emotions, good and bad, must be dealt with in order to be a complete human, though there's little that's worthwhile in the way this is handled. As it stands, it contributes nothing substantial to the plot. Particularly confusing is a scene in which Data confides to Picard (Patrick Stewart) that part of his brain isn't working and asks to be taken off duty until it can be fixed. Sounds like a good reason, but no. Not only is Data denied this perfectly rational request but is made to endure a sanctimonious speech about learning to deal with emotions.
Then, there's the action, which we have to wait for but is plentiful when it arrives. However, as is the case in the nevertheless good-natured True Lies, it's strange how a movie can have so much action and still be so relentlessly bland. Wasting a myriad of opportunities, the Enterprise is destroyed for no particularly good reason (that some other plot device couldn't have easily solved). Great miniature work, wrong plot, wrong theme. Finally, Kirk is fitted in to the film's last half-hour. In order to reverse time and save the Universe, Picard must find Kirk and get him to help out. Why? If Picard can move from the Nexus to any point in time, why doesn't he go back to when he first encountered Soran (Malcolm McDowell) and slap him in irons? Don't bother for looking for logic.
So, Kirk bites the big one. Beyond any philosophical objections to this, it's a dislikable turn of events because it is so... uninteresting. In Star Trek III, Spock's death was not only wholly necessary to the story but it also fit into the theme and character perfectly. Here, Kirk's removal in an unnecessary non-sequitur. Like the destruction of the Enterprise-D, there was no overriding thematic or plot-dictated reason for it to happen. As with the whole movie, low stakes (the destruction, not of Earth, but of some lesser planets) bring out little action. When Picard eventually gets back to the wrecked Enterprise, does he excitedly tell everyone about the legend he just met, who died to save them? Of course not, it doesn't even occur to him!
It's impossible to ignore the wasted opportunities that this film possessed. Kirk interacting with the new crew. Kirk siding with Riker against Picard on a command decision. Kirk and Data swapping Spock stories. Kirk reunited with Scotty. Kirk having to take command of the Enterprise-D. Obvious, neat stuff. However, for whatever reasons, these possibilities weren't obvious enough. Finally, above all of the other problems, the biggest drawback with Star Trek:Generations is the time factor. Despite its many flaws, the first movie is still watchable (just barely, mind you) because of the class reunion factor. Star Trek: Generations doesn't have that quality or the iconographic right to be elevated into a good movie, yet. It looked and felt like an exceptionally expensive TV episode. More than that, it was pretentious. The artistic shame of Star Trek: Generations trumps the philosophical shame of killing Kirk. He deserved better, as both we and the The New Generation cast do, for that matter.
Patrick McCray.
VNDP20D@prodigy.com
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