What Should Star Trek Generations Actually Have Been?

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▶Chapters:
Introduction - 0:00
Generations Summary - 04:20
If Generations Was a Proper TOS/TNG Crossover - 16:26
If Generations Was Just a TNG Movie - 34:14
Conclusion - 42:17
Shoutouts, Plugs, and Announcements - 45:09

#startrek #videoessay #startrekgenerations

[TobyDeshane]

A group of us skipped school to go see Generations. We got caught. But when we told the principal what we went to go see, he kinda smirked and let us go. I was incredibly surprised. :)

[allpnk]

I always wanted kirk to meet worf. To know that the events of the previous movie had been worth it, to see that there is a klingon working FOR starfleet on the enterprise. I think it was a huge missed opportunity

[metatron]

Leonard Nimoy was offered to direct, but insisted on rewriting parts to fix the problems with some of the script that you highlighted. Rick Berman, apparently satisfied with the finished product told the writer of The Voyage Home and The Undiscovered Country to go kick rocks.

Thanks Rick. Bang up job as always.

[eddieZDI]

"Never half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing" - Ron Swanson

[AllanPichardo]

My wife's uncle was part of the crew of that historic sailing ship. They were docked in San Francisco so they all ended up in the movie. I laugh every time I see him in the background in the Worf walks the plank scene.

[atticbear]

I like the idea of Soren dying in any version.

Having the villain be destroyed by his grief while the hero overcomes the same grief to survive feels poetic.

It may be a bit of a trope, but using the hero/villain clash to explore two paths of the same struggle is (usually) a good story.

[patrickdodds]

THANK YOU Steve for pointing out DS9's excellent second season. It usually is overlooked because outside of "Blood Oath" and "Crossover" has no real gimmick episodes to speak of and is almost all strictly substance. TNG's fifth season and and DS9's second season need to be case studies for the people running Trek now, IMHO.

[Rubberman]

1994 was also the year The Lion King came out, and it was the year in which Duckman, Gargoyles, the Aladdin series, and Aaahh!! Real Monsters aired, The Return of Jafar released directly to home video, and Dreamworks and Cartoon Network were both founded.

...Animation is kind of my thing.

[tijm]

Ten year-old me was deeply impacted by this movie. Fresh off the pages of "Sophie's World", I was blown away by the idea of the Nexus. Trying to form a world view and a personal philosophy, I came to realize that what is real matters more than what is pleasurable. Hedonism was not a good philosophy to live by. Sure, this might be a lousy Star Trek movie to some adults, but it helped shape my world view and will forever hold a special place in my heart.

[richard]

I feel like it's pretty easy to resolve the plot hole regarding entering the Nexus in a ship. The Nexus as depicted looks pretty violent, twisting and sending out forks of itself. It would be pretty easy to technobabble that to be a shell or corona around the core of the Nexus and only getting into the core itself gets you the paradise, the corona just kills you before you can reach it.

You can then establish that when Soren and Guinan were briefly in the Nexus before being rescued that there was some property about subspace in that region which stripped that corona away allowing the ships to reach the core. Then when a star goes supernova in that way it causes a similar effect in subspace before the shockwave reaches there in real space allowing a window to reach the core (faster than light in subspace eh).

This could give options for a scene where Soren explains how because the Nexus' course can be predicted, he tried to find a window when the same thing would happen naturally, but it wouldn't happen until after his natural lifespan would be long up, and that is what pushed him to desperation knowing that it was possible but he would be dead before he got another chance. That could tie into your idea of Picard talking him down.

[TomVCunningham]

As the people behind TNG have realized, Generations should've utilized the plot of Yesterday's Enterprise. But they only figured out after the episode had aired, that it would have been the perfect plot for a TOS & TNG crossover/handing of the baton.

But we also wouldn't have gotten Yesterday's Enterprise, so 🤷.

[jasonaich]

Fellow YouTuber Junkball Media pointed out in his review of Generations that all the emotional bonds and stuff that we (the audience) are supposed to care about are not shown on screen, and are instead mentioned in a line or two of dialog. Picard’s family, Soren’s family, Kirk’s love, etc. A lot of movies do this — you don’t have to depict every motivating factor for a character on screen — but at least depict SOME of them.

Picard’s love of family could have been shown in a 15 second video call scene — “It was lovely seeing you, Robert and Renee. I’ll visit again during my next shore leave.”

And the fact the Picards were not depicted in the Nexus is just ridiculous… That’s always bugged the shit outta me. Thank you for pointing that out, Steve!

[benjiskyler]

Most unforgivable retcon--Picard throwing aside the gift from his archeology professor because he's more concerned with finding the family album.

[vijay-c]

There's a great crossover novel published around the same time as Generations called 'Federation' - it was a great book, I often wish it had been adapted instead of making Generations

[accidentallyderivative]

I always thought a very simple change they coulda made to Generations that woulda made it sit better with me was somehow gettin' Kirk on the battle bridge of the stardrive section during the imminent breach and having him take out the Bird of Prey. Kirk on the bridge of the Enterprise goin' out fightin' Klingons? That, I'll buy.

[st.anselmsfire]

I love how they had Picard ask why they can't just have Soren fly a ship into the Nexus, only to have Data dismiss it out of hand while ignoring the obvious fact that we've seen a bunch of people enter the Nexus on starships.
The only thing I can think of is if the Nexus was heading away from the Alpha Quadrant at such a speed that Soren was afraid he'd lose it, so he needed to change the gravitational signature of the Milky Way to redirect the Nexus towards neutral space just outside of the Federation so he could get to it on a star ship. It doesn't really "have to" make sense if he's zealous enough and the internal logic works, and Malcolm McDowell is talented enough to sell that.

[podemosurss]

32:00 I would also add an emotional scene with Sulu joining up with the Excelsior crew (that were still on the station as the ship is destroyed before they could do anything) checking on them and showing that he cares about his crew.

[Zurpanik]

The whole thing with Kirk and the old crew actually not being able to lose or fail because of that epiphany is rad! I love it! A kind of retro-meta subtle reinforcement of Kirk's mantra -- I like it! I actually think Steve's version would be pretty spicy

[Ken-fhjc]

Hey Shives not sure if you meant this on purpose but I like the idea of Soren trying to kill Kirk while on the Excelsior. Like having it be because he knew the ship was empty except he Kirk and Sulu and wanted to keep the loss of life as minimal as possible. Makes him a more nuanced character and not a complete monster.

[RoSohryu]

A few tweaks here or there that I think might make both versions a bit more interesting
For Plot A:
- Have the Excelsior be heavily damaged and not destroyed, say it was disabled or crashed into the space dock and can't be made operational in time. That way with the ending, the Excelsior's repairs is an uplifting moment.
- Have the Excelsior BECOME the Enterprise-B. Since both ships use the exact same ship design, it saves on having a whole new ship be made. And having Sulu become not just the Captain of the Excelsior, but Captain of the Enterprise would be a nice touch.
Also, have his daughter be the helmsmen, just like her father.
- Having Soran's family be killed by the Borg feels very... Sisko. Lean into that. Have it be Wolf-359 and lean into that aspect of Picard. Have it be "You killed my family... Locutus"
- Still keep the destruction of the Enterprise-D, but have the Saucer section remain to go back through the Nexus, just to crash land. That way you keep the recovery scenes.

For Plot A and B:
Since both Picard and Soran are in the Nexus. It would only be fair to have the finale IN THE NEXUS. That way, you can experience the events that lead Picard and Soran to this point and have that TALK

For Plot B:
- Have the death of Picard's family be because of Soran. Have him be the murderer of them and Picard doesn't know it until they meet at the finale.