Jornada nas Estrelas: Generations

I always loved this movie. From the very first time I saw it, at the age of 10, I absolutely adored it. It took a big risk, admittedly, in bringing the Original Series and TNG together, but I believe it did it extremely well and with a lot of ingenuity.

The first part of the movie seems to pick up where "The Undiscovered Country" left off; and it does so on a somewhat sour note. Retirement does not sit at all well with Captain Kirk, and he hates the idea of being a "legend" and having the namesake of his beloved ship run by a bunch of inexperienced kids and a skeleton crew (the running "tuesday" gag is hilarious). I think Walter Koenig and James Doohan were marvellous in the first part of this movie, and the scene where they arrive on deck 15 and find themselves staring into the void of space is chilling.

After this, it picks up with the Next Generation Crew, and boy, does the camera love the Enterprise D. It's emotional to see the crew going through the changes this movie throws at them, and by the time Geordi's kidnapped and Data's emotions are uncontrollable, my heart was in my throat.

It's also a pleasure to see Whoopi Goldberg reprise her role as Guinan, and as far as humor goes, Data's newfound sense of humor had me on the floor.

I LOVED Picard and Kirk's interactions and the segment in Kirk's cabin is an absolute hoot. (Picard: "This is not your bedroom.") Soran is a great villain, truly ruthless and threatening. Out of all the Next Gen films, this is probably my favorite. It has an atmosphere about it that's very appealing to me, and the only other TNG film that had the same feeling was Nemesis, which I still maintain was a DAMN good movie.

The crew of the Starship Enterprise have a major dilemma on their hands when a scientist named Soran (Malcolm McDowell), whom they'd once saved from his doomed home planet, reveals himself to be a very bad guy. He's hellbent on returning to something called the Nexus, a domain where, once a person has been there, they apparently don't want to leave. It's just pure joy. To stop Soran, Captain Picard (the great Sir Patrick Stewart) must team with the legendary Captain Kirk (the almighty William Shatner), who supposedly perished saving the "Enterprise-B" during its maiden voyage.

"Generations" initially comes off as a great gimmick, of uniting two generations of Enterprise crews, but this never really pays off, as the only two who meet are Picard and Kirk. "Generations" is NOT one of the stronger entries in this film series, with an engaging but uninspired story. The main attraction for veteran fans is likely to be the prospect of Picard and Kirk teaming up for the final half hour, engaging in fisticuffs with the maniacal Soran and hurrying to prevent him from destroying a star.

This viewer can't speak as one who has necessarily been a big Trek fan from the start, so he basically views this as pretty fun, all things considered. Certainly all the series regulars are in very fine form, with the android Data (Brent Spiner) getting the lions' share of the comedy relief, as he has inserted a special computer chip that allows him to experience emotions. This presents a problem at times, because either *everything* is amusing to him, or he gets scared easily.

It's nice to see old hands James Doohan and Walter Koenig, however briefly; Shatner brings the final part of the film to life. Not such an easy task, given the talents of Stewart (Picard has some key emotional moments) and the delicious, hammy villainy of McDowell. In addition to the regulars from the 'Next Generation' series, other familiar faces like Alan Ruck, Jacqueline Kim, Jenette Goldstein, Glenn Morshower, Tim Russ, and Brian Thompson turn up. An unbilled Whoopi Goldberg reprises her role of Guinan.

Wonderful music by Dennis McCarthy and some impressive visual effects by ILM help to make this a reasonably entertaining series entry.

Seven out of 10.

The one problem we have with the Next Generation films (all four of them) is that someone high up in the film-making process seems to forget that the Next Generation began as a television series about equals, as opposed to the Original Series having 3 stars and a lot of supporting characters. I understand that Picard and Data are seen as the most popular characters in the Next Generation that appeal to the general public, but the story lines that get played out for the two of them in the movies (family and finding humanity) have already been done in the series.

Those two themes - Picard's family and Data's quest for humanity - are central parts of this film, and take up a lot of the time, but the other characters do get their moments, and being the gracious professionals that they are, Frakes, Sirtis, McFadden, Burton and Dorn all give fabulous performances. Whoopi Goldberg appears unbilled as Guinan, and Patti Yasutaki also appears as Nurse Ogawa.

"Generations" also features three members of the Original Trekers, Captain Kirk, Scotty and Chekov, the latter two in small roles, while Kirk has a much larger role, yet his scenes, alongside Picard, are the slowest and most boring part of the film, even if they are confronting the enemy together.

One of the enemies in "Generations" is a mad man, well played by Malcolm McDowell, the others are the two Klingon sisters who appeared towards the end of the Next Generation series, and make welcome appearances once more. Also watch for Jacqueline Kim as the daughter of Sulu from the Original Series.

This is a decent film, but like all Next Generation films, can be quite repetitive and leaves some of the cast (particularly the lovely McFadden) with little to do.

Amongst Trek nerds, there's a hotly debated but generally true rule that the odd-numbered Treks suck (I: The Motion Picture, III: The Search for Spock, and V: Kirk Kills God) while the even-numbered ones kick ass (II: The Wrath of Khaaaaaaan, IV: Spock Hugs a Whale, VI: The Undiscovered Country). I myself disagree strongly with regard to #1 and #5 which are two of my favorites, but alas even I must concede that they were generally not well received.

You see, dating all the way back to the 60s, the Trek stories have always been very personal, meaning certain stories will resonate with certain people but fail on the general audience. Call me crazy but I frickin LOVED "The Empath". Yeah, me and one other person, right? Long preamble aside, my point is that with Trek you'll get so many conflicting, subjective opinions that it's hardly any use to read reviews, aside from sheer entertainment factor which I will do my best to provide here.

Welcome to STAR TREK 7, aka "Why Did William Shatner Do This? Wasn't Priceline Earning Him Enough Money in the 90s?" This was Paramount Studio's attempt to reconcile Trekkies (fans of the original crew) and Trekkers (fans of The Next Generation), although I'd say this is squarely a Trekker next generation film with little more than a passing nod to the Trekkies and a somewhat forced "handoff" from Kirk to Picard. I won't get into that since the only amicable resolution of any Trekkie/Trekker debate is when both sides agree that the Federation would kick Darth Vader's butt.

As for this film, my biggest criticism with Star Trek Generations is that we don't feel any real peril. So it's hard to take the story as seriously as other Treks where, oh, the fate of the entire galaxy, universe or your momma rest in the balance. Danger seems contrived and random. The bad guy (admirably handled by Malcolm McDowell sporting an 80s Sting haircut) just isn't menacing or psychotic enough to get our attention like, for instance, Khan, who sets the tone right in the beginning by sticking a brain-eating worm in Chekov's ear. With Khan we know right away that we better set our inertial dampers on full because it'is going to be a wild ride. In contrast here in Generations, there's no real threat to the Enterprise or her crew, so we the audience are reduced to merely watching a series of events happen. Sure, these are events of importance, but emotionally we don't necessarily feel the emotional weight.

Of course this leads me right to the subject of the... well, the event that happens at the end. Just in case you've been living in the Genesis cave for the last 20 years and you don't know what that event is, I won't ruin it. But it feels like it comes totally out of left field and was unnecessary. Sort of like the Star Wars Christmas Special in 1978, I'd just as soon believe it never happened.

I'm going to do an about face now and tell you what's good about the movie. Data's subplot about trying to deal with emotions for the first time was awesome. It was both interesting as well as amusing, and it was a throwback to the Trek we all know & love which was driven by strong personalities and character development rather than plot points.

Similarly, there is a brief but powerful subplot about Picard and his personal tragedy. That was another great, profound moment which reminds us that Trek is more than phasers and special effects.

But alas, then we are thrown back into a plain old plot, which could've easily been the story of any other scifi and didn't require the Star Trek franchise behind it. Picard's (Patrick Stewart's) acting is first class as always, and it is mainly that plus the aforementioned Data story which keeps this movie rolling. But beyond that, all other characters are peripheral, wooden and somewhat forgettable.

The special effects are, well, 90s. That means they are neither nostalgic (like the 80s) nor technically impressive (like the 10s). They're just sorta... 90s. Apologies to anyone out there who grew up in the 90s. Your decade sorta sucked dude. Scifi wouldn't become cool again until the remake of Battlestar Galactica in 2003.

And on that note, YES, the same Ronald D Moore who masterminded Battlestar in 2003 is the guy who wrote the story and screenplay for Generations, so I can't imagine how it came up as short as a Ferengi's knee socks. But it did. The story was the worst part of this production because it didn't really give the actors a chance to shine.

We'll let Ronald off the hook just because Battlestar kicked ass.

I'm not sure if the Even-Odd rule holds true beyond 7 because I haven't seen 8 through (what are we on now?)13. And like I said, Trek tastes are entirely subjective and you may end up loving Generations more than any other. If so, I believe the Generations fan club is even smaller than my Empath fan club, so kudos for enduring the public shame. Hey it could be worse. You could be a fan of "Arena".

A new Enterprise generation takes over from the old one in this Star Trek franchise movie. Remembering back when this first came out I recall that Paramount signed William Shatner and Patrick Stewart for a movie and then wrote the script to contain both captains who roamed the galaxies a century apart.

This opens with William Shatner along with Walter Koenig and James Doohan out of retirement to take a short spin on the inaugural voyage of a new Enterprise. The ship gets called on a rescue mission but James T. Kirk is lost and presumed dead.

A century later Patrick Stewart and his Next Generation crew are involved with chasing a renegade scientist Malcolm McDowell whom you can usually find playing disturbed people. He's got some kind of mad scientist scheme to get to a place called the Nexus where time and space have no meaning. To do that he has to launch a missile into a star and have it explode. That it will kill all life in its solar system has little concern. As mad a scientist as you will ever find.

So there's Jean-Luc Picard in pursuit and he gets help from an unlikely source.

That's as far as I go. McDowell is a great villain, always is. It's not the greatest of science fiction plots I've seen. But Trekkies around the globe will love this summit film from the Star Trek franchise.