• Home
  • Movies
  • Music
  • TV
  • Video Games
  • Wrestling
  • Topics
  • Latest Comments
Search
Cult of Whatever logo
  • Movies
    Featured
    • The Living Daylights: Timothy Dalton as James Bond

      The Living Daylights is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 28, 2022
      Movie Blogs
    Recent
    • Elvis: Austin Butler

      REVIEW: ELVIS beautifully mythologizes the King of Rock and Roll

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 25, 2022
    • The Black Phone: Ethan Hawke as The Grabber

      REVIEW: THE BLACK PHONE is a flat, dull, rushed non-horror movie

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 25, 2022
    • Jurassic World Dominion Logo

      REVIEW: Jurassic World Dominion – Here we go again…again

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 12, 2022
    • Three Men and a Baby: Tom Selleck and Ted Danson

      Three Men and a Baby is still awesome thirty five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 31, 2022
    • The Bob's Burgers Movie Poster

      REVIEW: Bob’s Burgers The Movie is Bob’s Burgers The Show, which means it’s great

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 28, 2022
    • Top Gun Maverick: Tom Cruise

      REVIEW: Top Gun Maverick is a sequel that soars!

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 27, 2022
  • Music
    Random
    • Bg Elvis 10

      Elvis's 40 Year Reign (1973-1975)

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 29, 2017
      Music Blogs
    Recent
    • The Beatles: Get Back

      What GET BACK reveals about the Beatles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 15, 2021
    • Simon And Garfunkel at Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam1982

      The Boxer is a song about being conned

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 4, 2021
    • Lady Gaga: Chromatica Album Cover

      Lady Gaga’s discography is totally out of order

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 3, 2021
    • Michael Jackson Thriller Album Cover

      Thirty years ago music fans said “Nevermind” to Michael Jackson

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 21, 2021
    • Queen II Album Cover

      On Queen’s The Miracle, and the importance of track ordering

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2021
    • Linda Paul Mccartney 1976

      50 years ago, McCartney dropped “Lennon” and went solo…

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 5, 2020
  • TV
    Featured
    • Nancy Drew S03e01: Kennedy McMann as Nancy

      Nancy Drew S03E01 Review: The Warning of the Frozen Heart - Uh-oh!

      By Salome G
      | October 10, 2021
      TV Blogs
    Recent
    • Evil S03e03: Katja Herbers and Aasif Mandvi as Kristen Bouchard and Ben Shakir

      Evil S03E03 Review: The Demon of Sex – Contrived?

      By Salome G
      | June 29, 2022
    • Dark Winds S01e03: kinaaldá Ceremony

      Dark Winds S01E03 Review: K’e – Swoon!

      By Salome G
      | June 29, 2022
    • Roswell, New Mexico S04e03: Sibongile Mlambo, Lily Cowles and Michael Trevino as Anatsa, Isobel and Kyle

      Roswell, New Mexico S04E03 Review: Subterranean Homesick Alien – Treading water?

      By Salome G
      | June 23, 2022
    • Obi-Wan Kenobi Series: Ewan McGregor and Vivien Lyra Blair as Obi-Wan and Leia

      REVIEW: Obi-Wan Kenobi had a good season and little else

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 22, 2022
    • Evil S03e02: Sohina Sidhu and Aasif Mandvi as Karima and Ben Shakir

      Evil S03E02 Review: The Demon of Memes – Delightfully creepy

      By Salome G
      | June 20, 2022
    • Dark Winds S01e02: Jessica Matten as Bernadette Manuelito

      Dark Winds S01E02 Review: The Male Rain Approaches – Loose threads

      By Salome G
      | June 20, 2022
  • Video Games
    Featured
    • Arkham Knight

      Batman: Arkham Knight - A fitting end to a trilogy

      By Tom Farr
      | July 18, 2015
      Video Game Reviews
    Recent
    • Legend Of Zelda

      Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Super Mario 64

      Which system had the better launch: A battle of four Nintendo consoles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2021
    • Luigi's Mansion

      Happy twentieth to Nintendo’s underrated gem, the Gamecube

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 18, 2021
    • Metroid Dread

      Metroid Dread – Post Game analysis and sequel needs

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 29, 2021
    • Mario Headphones

      The SNES Turns 30: A look at some of the system’s best soundtracks

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 22, 2021
    • Metroid Dread Poster

      REVIEW: Metroid Dread reawakens the old gamer in me

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 11, 2021
  • Wrestling
    Featured
    • Wwe Payback 2017 Poster 2

      Your SO OF COURSE preview of WWE Payback 2017

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 30, 2017
      WWE Blogs
    Recent
    • AEW Double or Nothing 2022: CM Punk vs Adam Page

      REVIEW: AEW Double or Nothing 2022 delivered an up-and-down show

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 30, 2022
    • MJF on AEW Dynamite 17th November 2021

      Getting AEW to the next level…

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 29, 2022
    • Raw 210501: Triple H and Stephanie McMahon

      May 21, 2001 – A (forgotten) date that will live in WWE infamy

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 20, 2022
    • WWE WrestleMania 39 Logo

      Your WAY TOO EARLY predictions for WWE WrestleMania 39!

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 20, 2022
    • WWE WrestleMania 38 Poster

      Your SO OF COURSE preview of WWE WRESTLEMANIA 38!

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 30, 2022
    • Wrestlemania 31 Paige Aj Lee 2

      BOOK REVIEW: The Women of WrestleMania is a balanced take on an under-valued slice of history

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 16, 2022
  • Topics
    • site logo
    Latest
    • Evil S03E03 Review: The Demon of Sex - Contrived?
    • Dark Winds S01E03 Review: K'e - Swoon!
    • REVIEW: ELVIS beautifully mythologizes the King of Rock and Roll
    • REVIEW: THE BLACK PHONE is a flat, dull, rushed non-horror movie
    • Roswell, New Mexico S04E03 Review: Subterranean Homesick Alien - Treading water?
    • REVIEW: Obi-Wan Kenobi had a good season and little else
    • Latest Comments
    © Paramount Pictures

    Star Trek Generations had too many cooks in the kitchen…

    By Matthew Martin
    | November 14, 2016
    Movie Blogs
    © Paramount Pictures
    © Paramount Pictures

    Star Trek Generations had too many cooks in the kitchen…

    By Matthew Martin
    | November 14, 2016
    Movie Blogs

    As we celebrate 50 years of Star Trek, CultOfWhatever recently completed a look back at the Final Frontier’s many TV iterations, as well as considered the newest entries in the film franchise. We talked about the Original Series and how, when it was great, it embraced the sixties social revolution. On the other hand, when TOS stumbled, it slipped into every silly cliche that doomed all the sci-fi shows from that era.

    The Next Generation took a little while to find its mojo, but when it did it managed to surpass the original show by expanding the franchise’s horizons. Deep Space Nine followed soon after, and though it was the red-headed step-child of the brand, it dared to be different and was rewarded with loyal fans, many of whom still consider it the best of the bunch. Meanwhile Star Trek Voyager tried to be “more TNG” but ended up just being “lesser TNG.”

    Finally there was (Star Trek) Enterprise, which spent three years failing to live up to its premise (nevermind its legacy) before finally finding its footing…and immediate cancellation.

    On the big screen side of things we’ve seen how JJ Abrams modernized Star Trek, but in doing so sacrificed a lot of what made the TV show so special. July saw the release of the third film in the revised series, and though it was a great ride that paid heartfelt homage to the original series, it has been a disappointment at the box office.

    And then there are the original films. Star Trek II-IV offered the most complete cinematic experiences for Trek fans, while the first motion picture brought Trek’s cerebral side to the forefront, with mixed results. Meanwhile, Star Trek V almost killed the series, but thankfully Star Trek VI ended the voyages of the Original Crew in a great way.

    Soon after Star Trek: Deep Space Nine launched in 1992, Paramount and Trek producer Rick Berman began looking ahead to the future of the franchise (since DS9 was always seen as a sidebar, not the heir-apparent). Plans began for what would eventually become Star Trek: Voyager as well as the end of the Next Generation series. With TNG’s high ratings and the brand’s overall popularity, it might seem odd to intentionally walk away after seven years, but at the same time, the Original Series crew was certainly finished and Paramount felt Star Trek needed a presence on the Big Screen as well as on Television. Transitioning the Next Generation crew to cinemas seemed like a logical next step. And, assuming it was done well, could have provided Paramount with a big cash cow.

    So naturally they micromanaged it to death.

    Star Trek Generations 1

    Any discussion on the film has to include the laundry list of oft-discussed problems, unforced errors, and miscalculations on the part of the producers. To summarize them here (and expand on a few later)…

    • The director had never helmed a feature film before.
    • The writers were given a list of “must haves” and “must not haves” that hindered their ability to just tell a good story.
    • The production began immediately after TNG ended (with pre-production occurring simultaneously with the seventh season), and the movie premiered only a few months after the show’s series finale, not giving fans time to “let it breathe.”
    • The TOS cast, particularly Kirk, was forcibly included, and rewrites had to be made when Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelly refused to participate.
    • Budget cuts (and just the low budget in general) hampered a lot of the look of the film, making it—combined with previous errors—have a “special episode” feel, as opposed to a “feature film” feel.

    The result was a movie that, somewhere in there, is a good film, but too many boxes had to be checked and too many suits had to be satisfied that the picture feels like a “movie by committee” and not a true film with a story to tell. In that respect it’s unlike any of the previous Trek films. Gene Roddenberry had been given total creative control over the original 1979 motion picture, Harve Bennett trusted Nicholas Meyer with Star Trek II and after it’s great success never really got involved in the creative process for movies III-V. After V flopped, production was turned over to Steven-Charles Jaffe, who was a close friend and associate of Meyer, meaning the director retained creative control (which he essentially shared with Nimoy). Thus, for all of Star Trek’s cinematic history, between 1979-1991, Paramount was basically hands off when it came to the content of the films.

    But as Trek grew in popularity in the 90’s, the studio saw the potential to take their TV blockbuster and turn it into a cinematic one. Remember that Star Trek never was a franchise as big as, say, Star Wars; the biggest blockbuster in the series (to that point) was the first one and it only pulled in 140mm in the worldwide box-office (good for 5th place for 1979). Paramount wanted it to be big and with their bigger expectations came a bigger involvement in the decision-making process.

    Acclaimed TNG writers Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Bragga, who—both as a team and individually—wrote some of the most beloved episodes on the show, were given the green-light to script the picture, while also being given a laundry list of things the studio needed to be included. In addition to what was previously mentioned, the studio said:

    “We need a big villain like Khan, we need a humorous subplot for Data, and we need Klingons…but the Khan character can’t be a Klingon and he can’t be tied in with Data’s subplot either. Also Kirk…but no time travel. Also also, Shatner wants to ride a horse in one scene.”

    Paramount’s requests meant at least four big ideas had to be worked into one script. Consider that Star Trek II-IV (the high-water mark for the franchise) tells its stories with just one idea apiece, and you can see how the story was almost doomed from the start.

    And then there’s the budget, which was originally 35 million at the time writing began, but was dropped to 30 million by the time the first draft was finished. Plans to shoot on location in Hawaii and the Sierra Nevada Mountains were cut considerably when Paramount decided at the last minute to chop another 5 million from the budget. As a result the shoot looked like a glorified episode of The Next Generation.

    Only at times it looked worse! Director David Carson, who had also directed a few TNG episodes, thought the Enterprise-D bridge needed some sprucing up to make it work on the big screen, so he changed the lighting entirely, giving the bridge a dark and gloomy aesthetic, angering many fans. That, combined with his inexperience as a feature director led to fans complaining that the movie looked and felt “small time.”

    And don’t get me started on Cameron Frye being the Captain of the Enterprise (B).

    Star Trek Generations Patrick Stewart Picard Christmas

    Again, there’s positives to be found, but you have to look for them and make them work in your own mind, because they don’t really work as they were presented. Probably the real standout is Patrick Stewart (whose performances in the TNG films are almost always the standout). Picard’s subplot contains some very good acting. The movie tries to tell the story of a man who chose not to pursue a family life and instead devote all his work to Starfleet. When a fire kills all the family he has left, the Captain begins to wonder if he—the last surviving Picard—made the right choice putting career first. His encounter with the Nexus gives him the chance to experience what kind of life he could have had. The Christmas scene with his “family” is like something out of A Christmas Carol with jolly British children bringing presents for papa Picard to open.

    It’s a moment that, when isolated from all else, is well-made. As part of the larger story, however, it fails to connect. A big problem with the movie is that there is just too much story to tell, so that nothing is given the chance to work. We move from Kirk’s “death” in the prologue, to the very TNG episode-style opening, with the crew going about its business when its called to handle a routine thing that becomes something bigger, etc. It’s all very compartmentalized.

    The villain, Soran (played excellently by Malcolm McDowell) desires to return to the Nexus (a space-faring “ribbon” that, upon entering, whisks you away to a timeless fantasy land where all your dreams come true). Unfortunately you can’t just fly a ship into the thing (the spacial distortions around it would likely destroy the ship before you entered it), so his plan is to strategically blow up stars so that the resulting shockwaves would alter the path of the ribbon so that it would collide on an inhabitable planet that Soran is waiting on…on top of a mountain, with (Shaka) his arms wide.

    Get all that?

    That’s the villain’s plot.

    There’s just too much to it, while at the same time there’s not enough done with it. A good plot feels very organic: There’s a clear goal for the villain and a simple way to achieve the goal. The drama comes when the hero gets involved and the villain is forced to improvise new ways to achieve his goal because the hero keeps cutting him off at the pass. With Generations, there really is no moment until the actual climax at the end of the movie that Soran’s plan is in jeopardy. For most of the movie the crew is just chasing him around, then they find him, they go in the nexus, meet Kirk, go back and stop him. The plot itself is overly complex but the drama around it is terribly simplistic, with the action moving in a straight line.

    It’s confusing and boring; that’s a bad combination.

    You can’t blame Moore and Braga, either: The studio forced them into a box and made them write a movie that had too many obligations to meet. With that kind of executive oversight, it’s almost impossible to make a good movie. The biggest hurdle they had, and the one which sparked so many of the films errors, is the fact that “Picard and Kirk must meet…but without traditional time travel” hung an albatross over the whole affair. The moment when Picard and Spock met in Unification was magical, because it felt natural. The Kirk/Picard meeting in this movie has an initial spark when they are first face-to-face, but the magic quickly leaves as the reverse-engineered way the meeting was orchestrated is rolled out. The two most popular captains in the franchise were unfortunately given a lackluster encounter, culminating in a very disappointing end for Kirk himself.

    Moore and Braga would get another chance to craft a Star Trek feature, and they would redeem themselves, mostly because the studio only gave them one mandate: “Make a hit.”

    And they would.

    Share this article:

    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit

    Tags

    Star TrekStar Trek Generations

    COMMENTS

    Please read our Commenting Policy before you join in with the discussion.

    Note: If you have email notifications enabled, please check your email spam folders to ensure emails are not missed.

    Subscribe
    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    Notify of
    guest
    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    guest
    2 Comments
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments
    Chip
    Chip
    5 years ago

    I think you’ve given too little credit to Bennett here; he was very involved in the creative process throughout the films he helmed. As much as Nicholas Meyer’s stamp is all over II, his (uncredited) script revisions were of Bennett’s script; much of the credited Jack B. Sowards’ original script had been substantially rewritten by Bennett before Meyer came on board. Bennett also, over Roddenberry’s fervent objections, added “Amazing Grace” to Spock’s funeral (that was too religious for Roddenberry), and both wrote the “remember” scene and came up with the final scene/resurrection imagery of Spock’s casket on the Genesis planet… Read more »

    0
    Reply
    matthew martin
    matthew martin
    5 years ago
    Reply to  Chip

    Can’t disagree with any of this.

    Thanks!

    0
    Reply

    You might also like

    • Star Trek VI ended the voyages of Kirk and crew properly

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 5, 2016
    • At its best, Star Trek embraced the 60’s social revolution.

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 27, 2015
    • At its worst, Star Trek deserved all the ridicule it ever got.

      By Matthew Martin
      | January 31, 2016
    • He lived long, and prospered

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 16, 2015
    • Star Trek II-IV is one of the 80’s best trilogies and Star Trek’s best cinematic realization.

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 18, 2016
    • After finding its footing, Star Trek TNG was the best thing going

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 28, 2016
    • By the time (Star Trek) Enterprise found its footing, the carpet was yanked…

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 29, 2016
    • From the beginning, Deep Space Nine boldly went in a new direction

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2016

    FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

    Movie Topics

    Recommended for you

    • REVIEW: ELVIS beautifully mythologizes the King of Rock and Roll

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 25, 2022
    • REVIEW: THE BLACK PHONE is a flat, dull, rushed non-horror movie

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 25, 2022
    • REVIEW: Jurassic World Dominion – Here we go again…again

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 12, 2022
    • Three Men and a Baby is still awesome thirty five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 31, 2022
    • REVIEW: Bob’s Burgers The Movie is Bob’s Burgers The Show, which means it’s great

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 28, 2022
    • REVIEW: Top Gun Maverick is a sequel that soars!

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 27, 2022
    • Star Wars: 45 Years Later and the four people who made it happen

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 23, 2022
    • Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Read the Book Instead: The most disappointing book-to-film adaptations

      By Oliver Johnston
      | September 20, 2021
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Affiliate Disclosure
    • Cookie Policy and Settings
    • Terms of Use
    • Photo Credits
    • RSS
    All Cult of Whatever articles, logos, illustrations and graphics are copyright CultOfWhatever.com. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2021 CultOfWhatever. All Rights Reserved.
    • facebook
    • twitter
    wpDiscuz