'Star Trek: Generations'

Star Trek:  Generations

(viewed Saturday, May 24th)

• The bottle of champagne that's seen floating through space during the opening credits, eventually colliding upon and christening the newly built Enterprise-B, is a 28-year old bottle of Dom Pérignon.
• The Enterprise-B is launched in 2293, the very same year that the Enterprise-A is decommissioned following the events of The Undiscovered Country (I always assumed that a few years had passed, until I looked it up for this blog).
• The Enterprise-B is a variant of the venerable (although still relatively modern at the time of this flashback) Excelsior class.  This variant features flared structures at the fore of the secondary hull, additional impulse engines at the aft of the primary hull and modified cowlings on the warp nacelles.
  
  
  
  
  The production reason for these things is that the effects team didn't want to damage the original Excelsior model when it did the physical effects for ship's dramatic run-in with the Nexus.  However, in canon terms this variant would become known as the "refit" Excelsior class.  Aside from the Enterprise-B, the only other time we see one on screen is the USS Lakota, which makes a brief appearance on DS9.  Most of the other Excelsiors we see are of the standard configuration.
• The Enterprise-B's captain, John Harriman, is played by Alan Ruck.  You probably known him better as Cameron from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
  
  Ruck reprises his role as Captain Harriman in the fan film Star Trek:  Of Gods And Men.
• Kirk?  Captain.
  Scotty?  Captain.
  Chekov?  Commander :(
• "It wouldn't be the Enterprise without a Sulu at the helm."
• "I was never that young."
  
  "No...you were younger."
• Despite the not-so-great dialog, this opening scene--with Captain Kirk clearly uncomfortable with being treated like a "living legend"--is pretty charming.  I had disagreements with aspects of how they handled this Kirk/Picard mash-up, but I will admit that it always does my heart good to see William Shatner back in one of those maroon movie-era uniforms :)
• The Enterprise-B picks up a distress call from the SS Lakul which, along with the SS Robert Fox, is carrying El-Aurian refugees to Earth.  Both ships are Whorfin-class transports.  The Robert Fox is named after the Federation ambassador of the same name who appeared in the TOS episode "A Taste Of Armageddon".
  
  As we learn later on, the El-Aurians are a long-lived species notable members of the species include not only this film's antagonist, but Guinan as well.
  
  We know that the Borg destroyed their homeworld, and that these particular El-Aurians were fleeing that disaster.
• One of the Enterprise-B's bridge officers, an unnamed lieutenant, is played by none other than Tim Russ.  Tim will go on, of course, to play Tuvok on VOY.
• "Captain Kirk, I would appreciate any suggestions you might have."
• Leaving Spacedock without either a tractor beam or a medical staff, even for just a quick jaunt through the Solar System, seems like a serious safety risk.
• Hey kids, it's Guinan!
• "There's just no way to disrupt a gravimetric field of this magnitude.  But...I do have a theory."
  
  "I thought you might."
• During a ceremony on the holodeck, taking place on a recreation of an unspecified 18th-19th Century sailing vessel named Enterprise, Worf is finally promoted from lieutenant to lieutenant commander.
• "Number One, that's 'retract plank' not 'remove plank'."
• "Will, just imagine what it was like.  No engines, no computers.  Just the wind and the sea, and the stars to guide you."
  
  "Bad food and brutal discipline...no women."
• Okay, if the next of kin to the captain of the Federation flagship--who at this point has to be insanely famous, who is known and either honored or feared on countless worlds, who has been tactically and strategically crucial to the survival of the Federation on numerous occasions, and who is an accomplished ambassador who has been the face of that same government in dealings with hundreds of alien species--if they die?  How is it that he gets a written communique in the mail like they're telling him that his French estate finally sold on auction?
  
  You'd think the Federation President or Commander, Starfleet or someone would make that call personally :P
• The Amargosa Observatory is a rather impressive model.  You can tell they spent some of that big-screen money on it :)
• Generations marks the point at which Starfleet apparently started to standardize the jumpsuits once worn specifically by station personnel as the standard uniform.  You see a mix of the late TNG-style uniforms and the early DS9/VOY-style uniforms throughout this movie.
  
  The new comm badges also make an appearance.
  
  
  
  (Lt. Cmdr. Data at the helm of the Enterprise-D, wearing both styles
  of Starfleet uniform seen in the late 2360s and early 2370s)
  
  The next film, First Contact, introduced the new grey jumpsuits that would become the standard Starfleet uniform for the remainder of the TNG/DS9/VOY era (although on board USS Voyager herself, the earlier DS9-style jumpsuits continued to be worn because...well, because they weren't in the right quadrant to get the memo about the new uniforms).
• The "type 3" disruptor (whatever that is) is apparently primarily used by the Klingons, Romulans and Breen.
• Hey kids, it's Malcom McDowell!  Time for a little of the old ultra-violence...
• ROMULANS!
• The good news is that the emotion chip has never really caused any problems.  So this should be fine...
• "I believe this beverage has produced an emotional response."
  
  "Really?  What're you feeling?"
  
  "I am uncertain.  Because I have had little experience with emotion, I am unable to articulate the sensation."
  
  ...
  
  "Well it looks like he hates it."
  
  "Yes, that is it.  I hate this!"
  
  "Data, I think the chip is working."
  
  "Oh, yes I hate this!  It is revolting!"
  
  "More?"
  
  "Please."
• "THEY SAY TIME IS THE FIRE IN WHICH WE BURN."
  
  I think we have a catch-phrase for the film, ladies and gentlemen!
• Anybody who's afraid of Guinan is bad news.
• Trilithium?  Stop all fusion within a star?  Seems fine.
• "The clown can stay, but the Ferengi in the gorilla suit has to go."
• Geordi is not amused.
• Mr. Tricorder is like, the best birthday present a kid could ask for.
  
  
  
• Burned to death in a fire?  How does that happen in the 24th Century?
• "But now they'll be no more Picards."
• I'm sometimes critical of the Galaxy class design, particularly of how it was frequently shot from an awkward ventral angle that made its large primary hull look gangly and very...un-sleek.  But from the right angle, it's an attractive design.
  
  I told you that so I could tell you this:  I watched most of TNG via Netflix, which means the original SDTV-quality (i.e. no "TNG Remastered").  Generations is the first Trek that I'm watching in "hi-def", and the ol' girl looks pretty good on the "big screen" :)
• All of the models so far are looking really good at 1080p:  the Enterprise-B, the Enterprise-D, the Amargosa Observatory and the Duras Sisters' Bird-of-Prey.  These are all existing models from previous films/series, but the visual effects team did a really good job presenting them in movie format.
• "It was like being inside joy."
  
  So, like being on fentanyl?
• The new, enhanced, planetarium-like stellar cartography lab is pretty impressive, too.  I believe we see a facility like this again on board Voyager.
• Yeah, we can't just turn you off because you're scared dude.
• ♫♪ Life forms ♪♫
  
  ♫♪ You tiny little life forms ♪♫
  
  ♫♪ You precious little life forms ♪♫
  
  ♫♪ Where are you? ♪♫
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Apparently matching the frequency of your own weapons to match the shield frequency of your opponent's vessel will allow you to penetrate those shields.  Who knew?
• Worf tells Riker that the Duras Sisters' ship is an older, "D-12 class" Bird-of-Prey, and that it was retired from service due to defective plasma coils in their cloaking device.  We can assume that "D-12" is a designation for a particular model of the classic Bird-of-Prey (sometimes called the "B'rel" or "K'Vort" class), or perhaps "D-12" is Starfleet's designation for the entire class (a la the D-7 class battlecruiser).
• The scene of the Enterprise-D's torpedo coming toward the Bird-of-Prey and its occupants being stunned at their impending death is very reminiscent of the final moments of General Chang's own Bird-of-Prey from The Undiscovered Country.  In fact, the same effects sequence is use for the destruction of the Duras Sisters' ship.
• Emotional Data does give us some of our best animated GIFs...
  
  
  
• Imminent warp core breach and emergency saucer separation?  Yet another reason why having kids and families on a starship is absolutely pants-on-head.
  
  
  
• The effects sequence of the Enterprise-D's saucer section crashing on Veridian III gives you a pretty good idea of how friggin' huge that ship was.
  
  
  
• "Well, we survived the crash everybody!  As long as nothing else super-destructive comes along, like a shock wave from an imploding star or something?  Yeah, we should be fine."
• Picard's family in the Nexus?  A complete bummer.  A total, complete bummer.  I'm so happy that they're not real.
• "I don't need to be lectured by you.  I was out saving the galaxy when your grandfather was in diapers.  Besides which, I think the galaxy owes me one."
• "So what do you think, guys?  Captain Picard has to chase Captain Kirk on horseback?"
  
  "Yeah, Shatner will love that.  Let's do it."
• I don't know that I've noticed before how lovely the soundtrack for this movie is.  It was done by Dennis McCarthy, who of course wrote for a lot of Star Trek shows and films as well as being the composer of the main theme for DS9.
• "Captain of the Enterprise, huh?"
  
  "That's right."
  
  "Close to retirement?"
  
  "I'm not planning on it."
  
  "Well let me tell you something...don't.  Don't let them promote you.  Don't let them transfer you.  Don't let them do anything that takes you off the bridge of that ship.  Because while you're there, you can make a difference."
• "Who am I to argue with the captain of the Enterprise?"
• "I take it the odds are against us and the situation is grim?"
  
  "You could say that."
  
  "You know, if Spock was here he would say that I was an irrational, illogical human being for taking on a mission like that...sounds like fun."
• "Oh, by the way.  I'm not only the captain of the ship that bears the name of your old ship, but I also mind-melded with your former first officer and best friend."
  
  I'm never sure why he doesn't mention that to Kirk.
• "Just who the hell are you?"
  
  "He's James T. Kirk.  Don't you read history?"
• You know what?  Even old and flabby and technically dead, I don't think I'd want to fight Kirk.  Dude's stomped more alien butt than you can shake a stick at.
• "It was...fun."
  
  Goodbye, Captain James Tiberius Kirk.  We'll miss you.  I'm sorry they gave you such a crappy send-off in this movie.
  
  
  
  
  And therein lies one of my nits that I love to pick with this particular movie.  I know that we all like to pretend that Star Trek V didn't happen...but it did happen.  And there's certainly no reason to believe that Kirk's fairly silly "gut feeling" that he would die alone needs to be fulfilled.  But for such a legendary character, it feels like it should have been.
  
  Ultimately, what I don't like about Kirk's death is what I don't like about this movie.  While I enjoy see Kirk "back in action, one last time" as much as anyone else, the movie completely did not need him.  The parts of this movie that are the TNG crew doing their TNG thing are actually pretty good.  Not ground-breaking, but it's a pretty solid Trek film.
  
  When you throw Kirk into the mix--and I get why they wanted to do it--it just becomes a movie that's mostly remembered for killing Kirk off badly, not once but twice.
• The starships sent to rescue the survivors of the Enterprise-D crew from the crash site on Veridian III include one Neblua-class ship, a Miranda and an Oberth.
  
  The other two are unnamed, but we know that the Nebula-class starship is the USS Farragut, which will be lost two years later during the brief Federation-Klingon War depicted on DS9.
• "Somehow I doubt that this will be the last ship to carry the name 'Enterprise'."