Star Trek Generations

This article is about the 1994 film. For the computer game, see Star Trek Generations (video game). For the Game Boy and Game Gear game, see Star Trek Generations: Beyond the Nexus.

Star Trek Generations
Theatrical release poster art
Directed by	David Carson
Produced by	Rick Berman
Screenplay by	Ronald D. Moore Brannon Braga
Story by	Rick Berman Ronald D. Moore Brannon Braga
Based on	Star Trek by Gene Roddenberry
Starring	Patrick Stewart Jonathan Frakes Brent Spiner LeVar Burton Michael Dorn Gates McFadden Marina Sirtis Malcolm McDowell James Doohan Walter Koenig William Shatner
Music by	Dennis McCarthy
Cinematography	John A. Alonzo
Edited by	Peter E. Berger
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	November 18, 1994 (1994-11-18)
Running time	118 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$35 million
Box office	$118 million

Star Trek Generations is a 1994 American science fiction film directed by David Carson and based on the franchise Star Trek. It is the seventh film in the Star Trek film series, and brings together cast members from the 1960s television show Star Trek and the 1987 spin-off show The Next Generation. In the film, Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise-D joins forces with Captain James T. Kirk to stop a villain from destroying a solar system.

Generations was conceived as a handoff from the original television series cast and their movies to The Next Generation. Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga wrote the script concurrently with their work on the final season of The Next Generation; production of the film began while the television series was still being made. Parts of the film were shot at the Valley of Fire State Park, Paramount Studios, and Lone Pine, California. The film uses a mix of traditional optical effects alongside computer-generated imagery. The film was scored by regular Star Trek composer Dennis McCarthy.

Generations opened on November 18 in the United States. Paramount promoted the film with a number of merchandising tie-ins, including toys, books, games, and a website—a first for a major motion picture. Grossing $118 million, it was a box office success despite receiving a mixed critical reception. Generations was followed by 1996's Star Trek: First Contact, exclusively featuring the Next Generation cast.

Plot

In 2293, retired Starfleet officers James T. Kirk, Montgomery Scott, and Pavel Chekov attend the maiden voyage of the USS Enterprise-B. During the shakedown cruise, the Enterprise is pressed into a rescue mission to save two El-Aurian refugee ships that have been snared by a massive, unknown energy ribbon. Enterprise is able to save some of the refugees before their ships are destroyed, but itself becomes trapped by the ribbon. Kirk goes to engineering to help Enterprise escape, and is presumed dead after the trailing end of the ribbon hits the ship's hull where he was working.

In 2371, the crew of the USS Enterprise-D is celebrating the promotion of shipmate Worf to Lieutenant Commander on the holodeck when Captain Jean-Luc Picard learns his brother and nephew were killed in a fire. Picard is distraught that the Picard family line will end with him. Enterprise receives a distress call from an observatory where an El-Aurian, Dr. Tolian Soran, launches a trilithium probe at a star. The probe causes the star to implode, creating a shockwave that destroys its solar system. Soran kidnaps Enterprise engineer Geordi La Forge and is transported off the station by a Klingon Bird of Prey belonging to the Duras sisters.

Enterprise crewman Guinan tells Picard that she and Soran were among the El-Aurians rescued in 2293 and that Soran is obsessed with reentering the ribbon to reach the "Nexus", an extra-dimensional realm that exists outside of normal space-time. Picard and Data determine that Soran, unable to fly a ship directly into the ribbon, is altering the path of the ribbon by removing the gravitational effects from nearby stars. He plans to destroy another star to bring the ribbon to him on the planet Veridian III, killing millions on a nearby inhabited planet in the process.

Upon entering the Veridian system, Picard offers himself to the Duras sisters in exchange for La Forge, but insists that he be transported to Soran directly. La Forge is returned to Enterprise, but unwittingly transmits Enterprise's defense details to the Klingons. The Duras sisters attack, and Enterprise sustains critical damage before destroying the Bird of Prey. Commander William Riker evacuates the crew to the forward saucer section of the ship, which separates from the engineering section and crashes onto the surface of Veridian III.

Picard fails to stop Soran from launching another probe and both men enter the Nexus. Picard finds himself surrounded by an idealized family, but realizes it is an illusion. He is confronted by an "echo" of Guinan, and after being told that he may go "wherever and whenever" he wishes within the Nexus, Guinan sends him to meet Kirk, also safe in the Nexus. Though Kirk is at first entranced by the opportunity to make up for past regrets in the Nexus, he likewise realizes that nothing there is real. Picard convinces Kirk to leave the Nexus and return to Veridian III shortly before Soran launches the probe.

Working together, Kirk and Picard distract Soran long enough for Picard to lock the probe in place, causing it to explode on the launchpad and kill Soran. Kirk is fatally injured in the effort, and Picard buries him in a makeshift grave on the mountain. Three Federation starships arrive to retrieve Enterprise's survivors from Veridian III. With Enterprise declared un-salvageable, Picard muses that given the name's legacy, the ship will not be the last to carry the name Enterprise.

Cast

The starring cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation reprise their roles in Generations. Patrick Stewart plays Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Jonathan Frakes plays Commander William T. Riker, LeVar Burton plays Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge, Brent Spiner plays Lieutenant Commander Data, Gates McFadden plays Chief Medical Officer Commander Beverly Crusher, Michael Dorn plays Lieutenant Commander Worf, and Marina Sirtis plays ship's counselor Commander Deanna Troi. Recurring characters from the series also return, including Barbara March and Gwynyth Walsh as the villainous Klingon sisters Lursa and B'Etor, Patti Yasutake as Enterprise nurse Lieutenant Alyssa Ogawa, and Whoopi Goldberg as Enterprise bartender Guinan.

Malcolm McDowell plays Tolian Soran, the film's antagonist. McDowell had previously worked with Stewart on stage decades earlier, and relished the chance to be the one to kill Shatner's character. He liked his character's spiked hair and black ensemble, and requested that he not play an alien; "If I’m going to play this part, I don't want a scar. I don't want to look like a mutant. I’m not getting up at four in the morning to get in makeup."

Alan Ruck plays Enterprise-B captain John Harriman. When approached for the role, Ruck assumed he would play an alien, saying, "Look, when I shave every day, I don't look in the mirror and say, 'Hey! There's a starship commander.'" Producer Rick Berman informed him that the character was from a wealthy and connected family, and was placed in command as a stepping stone to a political career. Jacqueline Kim plays Enterprise-B helmsman Demora Sulu. Kim consulted with art supervisor Michael Okuda to make sure her hand movements and manipulations of the ships' controls were consistent and accurate. Glenn Morshower played an Enterprise-B navigator; he apologized to director David Carson for a poor first rehearsal of his scenes, because as a Star Trek fan he had to get used to playing alongside his idols.

Initially, the entire principal cast of The Original Series was featured in the film's first script, but only three members appeared in the film: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, James Doohan as Montgomery Scott, and Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov. Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley declined to appear as Spock and Leonard McCoy. Nimoy felt that there were story problems with the script and that Spock's role was extraneous. The Next Generation Rick Berman said that "Both Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley felt they made a proper goodbye in the last movie [Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country]". Nimoy and Kelley's lines were subsequently modified for Doohan and Koenig. The news that not all of the Original Series cast was in the film was not passed to all of The Next Generation actors. When Goldberg arrived on set on her first day, she immediately asked to see Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed Uhura in The Original Series. When told that Nichols was not in the film, she said to Koenig, "The fans have been waiting for years to see Nichelle and me and Uhura and Guinan on screen together." Patrick Stewart said that he had made an effort to ensure that the original cast were involved in the film, saying "I've been passionate about that from the first time that a Next Generation movie had been mentioned; I didn't want us to sail into the future just as The Next Generation cast."

Many of the background players throughout the film appeared in different roles in the television series. Tim Russ, who appears as an Enterprise-B bridge officer, 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. Various background roles were played by the main cast's stunt doubles.

Production

Development

Four months before the official announcement of a followup to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country in late 1992, Paramount Pictures executives approached The Next Generation producer Rick Berman about creating another feature film. Berman informed Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga that Paramount had approved a two-picture deal around midway through The Next Generation's sixth season. Moore and Braga, who were convinced Berman had called them into his office to tell them The Next Generation was cancelled and they were out of a job, instead found Berman asking them to write one of the Star Trek films. Berman also worked with former Next Generation producer Maurice Hurley to develop possible story ideas, intending to develop two film scripts simultaneously and prioritize whichever was most promising for the first film. Executive producer Michael Piller turned down the opportunity to develop ideas, objecting to what he saw as a "competition" for the job. Ultimately Moore and Braga's script was chosen; the writers spent weeks with Berman developing the story before taking a working vacation in May 1993 to write the first-draft screenplay, completed June 1.

Moore described Generations as a project with a number of required elements that the film "had to have". Berman felt that including the original cast of the previous Star Trek films felt like a "good way to pass the baton" to the next series. The studio wanted the original cast to only appear in the first minutes, with Kirk only recurring at the end of the film. Other requests included a Khan Noonien Singh-like antagonist, Klingons, and a humorous Data plot. At one point, the writers toyed with the idea of pitting the two crews against each other. "We were obsessed with the poster image of the two Enterprises locked in combat: Kirk vs. Picard, One Must Die!" said Moore. Ultimately, the writers could not come up with a plausible explanation for such a conflict, and abandoned the idea.

In the initial draft of the screenplay, the original series cast appeared in a prologue, and Guinan served as the bridge between the two generations. The opening shot would have been the entire original series cast crammed into an elevator aboard the Enterprise-B, happy to be back together. The Enterprise-D's end also appeared—the saucer crash had first been proposed as the cliffhanger for Moore's original seventh-season finale "All Good Things...", which eventually became the series finale. Kirk's death was initially developed in Braga, Moore, and Berman's story sessions. Moore recalled that "we wanted to aim high, do something different and big... We knew we had to have a strong Picard story arc, so what are the profound things in a man's life he has to face? Mortality tops the list." After the idea of killing off a Next Generation cast member was vetoed, someone suggested that Kirk die instead. Moore recalled that "we all sorta looked around and said, 'That might be it.' " The studio and Shatner himself had few concerns about the plot point.

Refining the script also meant facing the realities of budget constraints. The initial proposal included location shooting in Hawaii, Idaho and the Midwestern United States and the total budget was over $30 million. After negotiations, the budget was reduced to $25 million. A revised version of the script from March 1994 included feedback from the producers, studio, actors and director; the writers changed a sequence where Harriman trained his predecessors in the Enterprise-B's operation after Shatner felt the scene's joke went too far. Picard's personal tragedy was written as his brother Robert's heart attack, but Stewart suggested the loss of his entire family in a fire to add emotional impact. The draft script's opening sequence took place on the solar observatory with two Rosencrantz and Guildenstern-influenced characters talking shortly before the Romulans' attack; Next Generation writer Jeri Taylor suggested that the opening should be something "fun", leading to the switch to a holodeck promotion-at-sea.

Nimoy turned down the chance to direct the feature as well as reprise the role of Spock. The producers chose David Carson. The British director had no feature film experience, but had directed several episodes of Star Trek, including the popular Next Generation episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" and the Deep Space Nine double-length pilot episode "Emissary".

Design and costumes

Generations's production designer was Star Trek veteran Herman Zimmerman, who had worked on previous Star Trek films, The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Zimmerman collaborated with illustrator John Eaves for many designs. Zimmerman's approach to realizing a vision of the future was to take existing and familiar designs and use them in a different manner to express living in the future. Taking cues from director Nicholas Meyer's approach to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Zimmerman noted that even in the future humanity will still need life support and have the same furniture needs, so a logical approach was to start with what would remain the same and work from there.

Transitioning from a television screen to a movie meant that sets and designs needed to be more detailed, with a higher level of polish to stand up on the big screen. Zimmerman felt obliged to improve on the sets fans had watched for seven seasons, especially the bridge. Zimmerman repainted the set, added computer consoles, raised the captain's chair for a more commanding presence, and reworked the bridge's ceiling struts; Zimmerman had always been unhappy with how the ceiling looked but had never had the time or money to rework it previously.

The script called for an entirely new location on the Enterprise, stellar cartography. According to Zimmerman, the script characterized the location as a small room with maps on one wall. Finding the concept uninteresting, Zimmerman designed a circular set with three stories to give the impression the actors are inside a star map. Zimmerman's previous work designing a crisis management center influenced the design, dominated by video screens. Before the rise of large-format inkjet printers and computer graphics software in the few years before the film was made, the backlit starmaps that covered three-quarters of the wall would have been infeasible to create. These starmaps were removed and replaced with a bluescreen for scenes where the static images would be replaced by computer-animated star maps by Santa Barbara Studios. The set's size made it one of the largest sets ever constructed on a Paramount lot.

The film marked the first appearance of the Enterprise-B. The ship model was a modification of the Excelsior vessel, designed and built by Bill George and effects house Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock a decade earlier. Coproducer Peter Lauritson, illustrator John Eaves, and Zimmerman designed the Enterprise-B with additions to its hull, some of which were added so that they could depict damage to the ship without harming the underlying model's surface, and to improve the look of the ship when it was filmed from angles called for in the script. The ship's bridge was based on previous designs for the Enterprise-A and Excelsior sets he had created for The Undiscovered Country, using pieces from each. The surrounding spacedock for Enterprise's maiden voyage was a modification of the model created for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), refurbished and modified by removing a row of lights to fit better into the anamorphic screen frame.

Like Zimmerman, George also took the opportunity for the Enterprise-D's screen debut to touch up its exterior. Because Generations featured the Enterprise-D separating into its saucer and engineering sections, the original 6-foot (1.8 m) model built by ILM for the television series was hauled out of storage. The ship was stripped, rewired, and its surface detailed to stand up to scrutiny of the silver screen. George changed the paint job, as he recalled they had been in a rush to prep the model for television and its green-and-blue color scheme did not properly read on film. The paint scheme was shifted towards a "battleship grey", with glossy tiled areas reminiscent of the original feature film Enterprise.

While the feature film made use of new sets and props, set decorator John M. Dwyer reused previous Star Trek props or made new ones out of premade materials where possible rather than spend more money on entirely new items: a chair used to torture LaForge was created using a birthing chair, nosehair clippers and flashlights for accents; packing materials formed the shapes of set walls for the Bird of Prey bridge; and Soran's missile used a bird feeder and other garden store supplies for its interior elements. The Amargosa stellar observatory set was filled with reused props from The Next Generation, with others added in deliberate nods to past episodes. In addition to sets used on The Next Generation, other reused sets included the Klingon bridge built for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and ribbed plastic walls in the Jefferies tubes were repurposed from the sets of The Hunt for Red October. Other set pieces and props were original; these included paintings of Picard's ancestors and a cowboy for the locations in the Nexus.

Robert Blackman, The Next Generation's long serving costume designer re-designed the Starfleet uniforms which the Enterprise-D crew would wear in the film. Blackman designed militaristic-looking uniforms with rank sleeves inspired by The Original Series, high collars, and jackets reminiscent of the uniforms developed for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Ultimately the redesign was abandoned, and the cast wore combinations of uniforms seen on the later episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the uniforms from the early episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and throughout Star Trek: Voyager; the only new addition was an Eaves-designed angular com badge that replaced the previous oval shape. Time was so short that Jonathan Frakes and Levar Burton had to borrow Avery Brooks and Colm Meaney's costumes respectively for filming. Playmates Toys released a number of action figures depicting the Next Generation crew wearing the abandoned uniforms prior to the film's release. Also created by Blackman was a skydiving outfit worn by Shatner; though the scene was cut from the film, the costume was eventually reused in the Voyager episode "Extreme Risk".

Filming

Lady Washington stood in as a holodeck recreation of a sailing ship Enterprise.

High cliffs and areas like this in Valley of Fire State Park served as the alien planet Veridian III.

Berman backed Carson's choice to hire John A. Alonzo, the director of photography for Chinatown and Scarface. Alonzo was not a Star Trek fan, and was given more than a dozen television episodes to familiarize himself with the franchise. Alonzo favored lighting scenes as much as possible from within rather than staging lights and flags for each shot, which Carson credited with saving time and allowing more freedom with shooting. He wrote that the production moved at a "TV-like" pace, and principal photography wrapped after 51 days.

Filming commenced Monday, March 28, 1994; Generations and The Next Generation were filmed simultaneously on different soundstages on Paramount Studio's lot. After the end of The Next Generation, there was only six months before the film was scheduled to be released in theaters. Scenes that did not feature the television series regulars were filmed first, starting with those in the Enterprise-B deflector room. The scenes of Harriman, Chekov and Scott reacting to Kirk's apparent death were filmed a week later, to allow time for the deflector room to be suitably distressed to visualize the damage.

Stage 7 was where the Enterprise-B's bridge, deflector room and corridors were built and filmed. The jolts and shocks of the ship in the hold of the energy ribbon were created by camera bumps and motors to shake the set. Filming of the scenes took place in April 1994, while residents were still skittish from the recent 1994 Northridge earthquake; the effects staff deliberately hid the set shakers until cameras were rolling to elicit more genuine reactions. The Amargosa observatory set was an elaborate redress of the Enterprise-B bridge, with an added back room, second level, and swapped walls changing the layout. Control panels styled after those in the original Star Trek series helped suggest the age of the station.

The cast of The Next Generation started filming their scenes for Generations four days after wrapping on the show. The Enterprise-D crash scenes were filmed mid-May 1994, and were among the last remaining shots before the existing Next Generation sets were demolished to make way for Voyager. As a result, the crew distressed and damaged the sets for the end result of the crash more than would have been normal during the series' run.

Despite the budget cuts, Generations shot many scenes on location. The rushed pace of filming meant that not all locations had been selected before the start of principal photography, and the production was still scouting locations until two weeks before the final scenes. The production exhausted possible options within Los Angeles' studio zone and looked up to 150 miles away for suitable locations. The Enterprise-D promotion ceremony on the holodeck was filmed on Lady Washington, a full-scale replica of the first American sailing ship to visit Japan. Carson had fought hard to keep the shoot during budget trims, deciding to sacrifice other days in the schedule to keep the holodeck scene. Lady Washington was anchored at Marina del Rey and sailed out a few miles from shore over five days of shooting. Some of Lady Washington's crew appeared amongst Enterprise crew members.

Picard's house in the Nexus was a private home in Pasadena, California; almost all the furnishings were custom props or outside items. Portions of the scene were shot in May 1994, followed by new shoots five months later. The revisions included adding Picard's nephew René to his imagined Christmas celebration with his family. The house of Kirk's Nexus recollections was located in Lone Pine, California, with the cabin filled with props to represent Kirk's career, from a Klingon bat'leth to a painting of Enterprise.

Carson wanted a suitably remote and alien mountain location for the film's climax at Soran's compound. The scenes were filmed over eight days on an elevated plateau in the "Valley of Fire", north of Las Vegas, Nevada. The rise's height and sloped sides required cast and crew to climb 160 feet (49 m) using safety ropes and carry all provisions and equipment with them. The 110 °F (43 °C) heat was difficult for all involved, especially Shatner, whose character wore an all-wool uniform. Safety harnesses and wires were used to keep performers safe from tumbling off a precipice, and were removed digitally in postproduction.

As originally filmed, Kirk was shot in the back and killed by Soran. Test audiences reacted negatively to the death, so the scene was rewritten and reshot over two weeks so that instead, Kirk sacrifices himself by leaping across a broken walkway to retrieve Soran's control pad and de-cloak the trilithium warhead. Paramount allowed the film to go over budget to $35 million. As the production crew had already spent weeks removing traces of their shoot from the Valley of Fire, the set had to be rebuilt under a very tight schedule, followed by effects work to remove wires and rigging in time for the footage to be included in the final cut.

Effects

Generations' special effects tasks were split between the television series' effects vendors and ILM. ILM CG Supervisor John Schlag recalled that it was easy to recruit staff who wanted to work on Star Trek; working on the film "gave me a chance to be a part of the whole Trek thing [...] ILM is practically an entire company filled with Trek geeks." Effects supervisor John Knoll recalled that Generations' screenwriters filled the initial drafts with exciting—and expensive—effects. Knolls's team then storyboarded the effects sequences, figuring out how to best service the script as cheaply as possible. When even those estimates proved too costly, ILM continued cutting shots. "[We had] nothing left to cut, and we still had to cut stuff out," Knoll recalled.

The previous Star Trek films had used conventional motion control techniques to record multiple passes of the starship models and miniatures. For Generations, the effects artists began using computer-generated imagery (CGI) and models for certain shots. No physical shooting models were ever built for the refugee ships, although George recalled that he found it easier to create a quick physical miniature for CG modeler Rob Coleman to iterate from, rather than try to articulate his feedback without it. Other CGI elements included the solar collapses, and the Veridian III planet. Knoll also used a digital version of the Enterprise-D for the warp effect; the limitations of the motion-control programming and slitscan effect for the original meant that the effect "barely holds up", Knoll said, whereas the CG recreation could keep consistent lighting throughout. While digital techniques were used for many sequences and ships, a few new models were physically built, including the observatory, built by model shop foreman John Goodson.

The climactic battle between Enterprise and the Klingons over Veridian III was accomplished using traditional motion control, but without the budget for practical explosions and special breakaway models, the impacts and battle damage were simulated with practical compositing tricks and computer-generated effects, while the final destruction of the Bird of Prey was a reuse of footage from The Undiscovered Country. The weapons fire and energy bolts were hand-animated, but Knoll had a different idea for the photon torpedoes. A fan of the impressive, arcing look of the torpedoes from The Motion Picture, Knoll scanned in footage from the film and turned to computer-generated effects. A simulator program created a similar look that could be animated from any point the effects artists wanted, without the expense and tedium required to replicate the original effect, produced by shining lasers through a crystal in a smoky environment.

The USS Enterprise-B enters the Nexus energy ribbon. The ribbon and Enterprise in this scene are computer-generated; because the camera is following Enterprise so closely, the effects artists had to do substantial work making sure the modeling held up to the scrutiny of the big screen.

Carson described the Nexus energy ribbon as the true villain of the film; ILM was responsible for conceiving what the ribbon would look like with no natural analog. "When creating something from scratch, it's always important to rough out the whole thing [...] because there are so many paths you can explore, it's easy to get bogged down," recalled effects co-supervisor Alex Seiden, who had worked as a technical director on the planetary explosion of Praxis from The Undiscovered Country. Knoll decided the ribbon was a rip through universes, filled with chaotic energy, taking inspiration from images he had seen of magnetic fields around Uranus from a Jet Propulsion Laboratory simulation. The airfoil-shaped core of the undulating ribbon was enhanced with electrical tendrils. To sell the ribbon's vastness in space shots where no sense of scale would be available, Seiden and George created a debris field of embers that trailed the ribbon. The inside of the ribbon was conceptualized as similar to a dense electrical storm, with tendrils of electricity fogging the screen. Because of the complex interplay of the ribbon elements with the ships that would be trapped within it, ILM decided the refugee ships and Enterprise-B should be CG models. To make the switch between computer-generated and motion-control passes of the physical model appear seamless, ILM created a wireframe of the physical model, with the computer-generated model's textures taken from photos of the physical model, shot in flat light with a long lens. The tendril strike that sends Kirk into the Nexus was simulated with the layering of multiple pieces of animation, including CG explosions Knoll rendered on his personal computer and a recycled explosion effect from The Empire Strikes Back.

The Enterprise-D crash sequence was filmed in a 40-by-80-foot (12 by 24 m) forest floor set extended by matte paintings, built outside so ILM could use natural light. A 12-foot (3.7 m) model Enterprise saucer was constructed specifically for the shots; the model's size gave it the right sense of scale for flying dirt and debris, an illusion enhanced by shooting with a high-speed camera to give the saucer the expected slow movement of a massive object. ILM shot its crew members walking about their parking lot and matted the footage onto the top of the saucer to represent the Starfleet personnel evacuating the saucer section.

Music

Dennis McCarthy, the principal composer for The Next Generation, was given the task of writing Generations' score. Critic Jeff Bond wrote that while McCarthy's score was "tasked with straddling the styles of both series", it also offered the opportunity for the composer to produce stronger dramatic writing. The film's opening music is a choral piece that plays while a floating champagne bottle tumbles through space. For the action scenes with the Enterprise-B, McCarthy used low brass chords. Kirk was given a brass motif accented by snare drums (a sound not used on The Next Generation), while the scene ends with dissonant notes as Scott and Chekov discover Kirk has been blown into space.

McCarthy expanded his brassy style for the film's action sequences, such as the battle over Veridian III and the crash-landing of the Enterprise. For Picard's trip to the Nexus, more choral music and synthesizers accompany Picard's discovery of his family. A broad fanfare—the film's only distinct theme—first plays when Picard and Kirk meet. This theme blends McCarthy's theme for Picard from The Next Generation's first season, notes from the theme for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Alexander Courage's Star Trek theme. For the final battle of Kirk and Picard against Soran, McCarthy used staccato music to accentuate the fistfight. For Kirk's death, McCarthy mated lyrical strings with another statement of the Courage theme, while a shot of Picard standing over Kirk's grave is scored with more pomp. The Courage theme plays again at the film's close.

The soundtrack was released in 1994 in a two-disc format on GNP Crescendo Records. In 2013, the soundtrack was rereleased in a two-disc, expanded collector's edition on GNP [GNPD 8080] to include previously unheard tracks.

Release

Marketing

The marketing of Generations included a website, the first on the internet to officially publicize a motion picture. The site was a success, being viewed millions of times worldwide in the weeks leading to the film's release at a time when fewer than a million Americans had internet access. Paramount also promoted the film on the Prodigy online service.

Among the tie-in merchandise released to promote the film included collectible cups and calendars from Jack in the Box, promotional kiosks at Kmarts, and action figures by Playmates Toys. Due to production timelines, these figures wore the Blackman-designed Starfleet uniforms that were ultimately unused in the film itself. Other collectibles included a 600,000-run special issue of Entertainment Weekly dedicated to the film, and stamps and souvenir sheets produced by Guyana. A novelization of the film written by J. M. Dillard spent three weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list. Paramount's licensing group estimated promotional partners could add up to $15 million in the film's support.

Several tie-in video games were released to coincide with the film's release. These included a PC game by developers MicroProse called Star Trek Generations (albeit three years after the film's release), which featured the film's cast as voice actors. The game roughly followed the plot of the film with the majority of the game played in a first-person perspective. Absolute Entertainment published Star Trek: Generations – Beyond the Nexus for the Game Boy and the Game Gear handheld devices.

Versions of the film's script leaked out in advance of the film. A bootleg script revealed the energy ribbon and Kirk's death; James Doohan confirmed the script's authenticity at a fan convention in March 1994, but his agent denied he had seen the finished script. In September, another copy of the film's script leaked onto the internet. As a result, news of Captain Kirk's death was widespread.

Box office

Star Trek Generations went on general release in North America on November 18, 1994 and grossed $23.1 million during the opening weekend, averaging $8,694 across 2,659 theatres. It was the highest-grossing film during the first week of its release in the United States, and stayed in the top ten for a further four weeks. The film went on to gross $75,671,125 in the United States and $42,400,000 internationally, making $118 million worldwide against a $35 million budget. In Britain, Generations opened on February 10, 1995 at no.1 and went on to earn £7,340,239. In Japan, the film grossed $1.2 million its opening weekend, a large amount considering the franchise's usual poor performance in that market.

Critical response

Star Trek Generations earned mixed reviews from critics and fans. As of March 2020, the film holds a 50% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 56 reviews. On Metacritic the film has score of 55 out 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B+.

Kenneth Turan, James Berardinelli, and Roger Ebert called the film safe. Turan wrote that Generations relied heavily on viewers' appreciation for the Star Trek television series, and Berardinelli and People's Ralph Novak felt that the film felt like a longer version of the television series. Jay Carr of The Boston Globe described the film as "reassuringly predictable", saying that it featured elements that would be recognizable by the fans of both series, but said that the "lack of surprises" was a benefit in this instance.

Opinions were divided on whether or not the film was accessible to non-Star Trek fans. The New York Times's Janet Maslin suggested that despite being "predictably flabby and impenetrable in places", there was enough action and spectacle to engage others. Berardinelli and Turan felt it was inaccessible, and Roger Ebert wrote that the film was too preoccupied with fan-focused elements that it detracted from the overall story.

The meeting of Kirk and Picard prompted comparisons between the two respective actors, Stewart's performance often winning the day. Berardinelli and Ebert wrote that Kirk's lack of presence through much of the film was still keenly felt. McDowell's turn as Soran received differing opinions, with Berardinelli calling Soran Star Trek's weakest villain and too restrained. Novak called Soran a "standard-issue Trek villain, while Maslin, Newsweek's Michel Marriott, and Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum enjoyed the performance. Novak wrote that Data's subplot of learning about emotions was a highlight and probably the most enjoyable part of the film for non-fans, while Ebert said that the premise "could have led to some funny scenes, but doesn't."

Home media

Generations was given a bare-bones DVD release in 1998, with a non-anamorphic transfer and no special features. A new anamorphic transfer formed the basis of a Special Edition release in 2004, with audio and text commentaries and special featurettes. The film was released on Blu-ray disc in 2009 as part of a box set of The Next Generation films, complete with additional material.

See also

• Star Trek film series
• List of films featuring extraterrestrials

Further reading

• Hughes, David (2008). The Greatest Science Fiction Movies Never Made. Titan Books. ISBN 9781845767556.
• Reeves-Stevens, Judith & Garfield (1995). The Art of Star Trek. Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-89804-3.
• Reeves-Stevens, Judith & Garfield (1998). Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Continuing Mission (2nd ed.). New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 978-0671025595.

External links

• Official website
• Star Trek: Generations on IMDb
• Star Trek Generations at Rotten Tomatoes
• Star Trek Generations at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)