STAR TREK GENERATIONS
While not what you would call a Trekkie, I have been a big Star Trek fan since I was a little boy. I have watched the series and franchise grow into one huge monstrosity over the last 30 years and with the current direction the films are taking, I think it will last a lot longer. This is a series dedicated to the lovable space pioneers and the movies for which they starred. A lot of these caches are on a fairly busy road. I tried to place them where parking was good. Please watch children along this stretch and use good judgement. I hope you enjoy my latest entries.
Star Trek Generations is a 1994 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. Generations is the seventh feature film in the Star Trek franchise. Depicting the death of Captain Kirk, it is the first film in the series to star the cast of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Parts of the film were shot at the Valley of Fire State Park near Overton, Nevada; Paramount Studios; and Lone Pine, California.
While the film received mixed reviews from critics, it performed well at the box office.
PLOT:
In the year 2293, retired Captain James T. Kirk, Montgomery Scott, and Pavel Chekov attend the maiden voyage of the Federation starship USS Enterprise-B. During the voyage, Enterprise is pressed into a rescue mission to save two refugee ships from a strange energy ribbon. Enterprise is able to save some of the refugees before their ships are destroyed and Enterprise becomes trapped in the ribbon itself. Kirk descends to Deck 15 Section 21-A to alter the deflector dish, allowing the Enterprise to escape. The trailing end of the ribbon makes contact with the ship's hull, exposing the section Kirk is in to the vacuum of space. He is presumed to have been killed.
In 2371, the crew of the USS Enterprise-D receives a distress call from a solar observatory. They find that everyone, except Doctor Tolian Soran, has been killed by Romulans. The android Data, who recently installed a chip that enables him to experience emotions, helps engineer Geordi La Forge search the station. The two discover a compound called trilithium in a hidden room. Soran appears, knocks La Forge unconscious, and launches a trilithium solar probe at the nearby star. The probe causes the sun to go supernova, sending a shock wave towards the observatory. Soran and La Forge are transported away by a Klingon Bird of Prey belonging to the treacherous Duras sisters. Data is rescued just before the station is destroyed.
Enterprise Captain Jean-Luc Picard learns more about Soran from Enterprise bartender Guinan; Soran and Guinan were among those rescued by the Enterprise-B in 2293. Guinan explains that Soran's goal is to return to the "Nexus", the energy ribbon the Enterprise-B encountered, which allows those who enter to experience whatever they desire as long as they desire. Picard and Data determine Soran is altering the path of the ribbon by collapsing stars, and that he will attempt to reenter the Nexus on Veridian III by destroying its sun—and, by extension, a heavily-populated planet in the system. On arrival in the Veridian system, the Duras sisters appear and offer to trade La Forge for Picard. Picard is transported to the planet's surface and finds Soran working on a missile, protected by a shield. La Forge is brought back aboard the Enterprise, unaware that his visor is transmitting a signal to the Klingons. When the Duras sisters discover the Enterprise's shield frequency, they attack. Enterprise destroys the Bird of Prey, but sustains critical damage. Riker orders an evacuation to the saucer section of the ship to separate from the damaged engineering section. The explosion of the engineering section causes the saucer to crash on Veridian III.
Picard finds a hole in Soran's shield, but is too late to stop him from launching the missile. The Veridian sun collapses and Soran and Picard are transported to the Nexus before the shock wave annihilates the planet. Picard asks for help from an "echo" of Guinan in the Nexus; she sends him to meet Kirk, who is also safe in the Nexus. Picard convinces the initially-hesitant Kirk to return to Picard's present and stop Soran. The two leave the Nexus, arriving on Veridian III minutes before Soran launches the missile. They distract Soran long enough to lock the missile in place, causing it to explode on the launchpad, killing Soran. Kirk is mortally wounded by a fall during the encounter; as he dies, Picard assures him that he helped to make a difference. Picard buries Kirk before being shuttled to the wreckage of the Enterprise saucer section, reuniting with his crew, and leaving the planet aboard the USS Farragut.
CAST:
The entire main cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation appears in Generations. Many of the cast members, no longer working a steady job on a television series, were wary of the so-called "Star Trek curse" preventing them from finding non-Trek roles in the future.
Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard commander of Enterprise-D
Jonathan Frakes as Commander William T. Riker
Brent Spiner as Lieutenant Commander Data
LeVar Burton as Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge
Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Commander Worf
Gates McFadden as Chief Medical Officer Commander Beverly Crusher
Marina Sirtis as ship's counselor Commander Deanna Troi
William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk
James Doohan as Montgomery Scott
Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov
Alan Ruck as Enterprise-B captain John Harriman
Malcolm McDowell as Tolian Soran
Jacqueline Kim as Ensign Demora Sulu
Barbara March and Gwynyth Walsh as the villainous Klingon sisters Lursa and B'Etor
Patti Yasutake as Enterprise nurse Lieutenant Alyssa Ogawa
Whoopi Goldberg as Enterprise bartender Guinan
Tim Russ as an Enterprise-B officer
Many of the background players appeared in different roles throughout the series' run. Russ played a terrorist in "Starship Mine" and a Klingon in "Invasive Procedures", and later joined the cast of Star Trek: Voyager as the Vulcan Tuvok.
Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley declined to appear. Their lines, as Spock and McCoy, were modified for Doohan and Koenig. In Scotty's case, it created a seeming continuity discrepancy, given Scotty's dialogue in the TNG episode "Relics". In that episode, Scotty implied that he believed Kirk to be still alive, despite the fact that the scene's setting was after Scotty had witnessed Kirk's apparent death in Star Trek: Generations. The official explanation for the inconsistency is that Scotty was disoriented in "Relics", as he had just re-materialized after 75 years transporter stasis.
Unlike his TNG co-stars, this was Michael Dorn's second Star Trek film, having appeared on Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, portraying his TNG character's grandfather, Colonel Worf, who defended Kirk and McCoy on their trial.