Star Trek: Generations

Details

It is the 23rd century and retired Starfleet officers James T. Kirk, Montgomery Scott and Pavel Chekov are guests of honour aboard the newly commissioned Enterprise-B. What should have been little more than a ceremonial trip around the solar system rapidly becomes a rescue mission when the Enterprise encounters two transport ships trapped inside a mysterious energy ribbon known as the Nexus.

With the Enterprise-B not yet fully equipped, Kirk is forced to assist the inexperienced crew as they attempt to rescue the trapped passengers. Although some of the refugees are successfully transported aboard, the Enterprise itself becomes caught in the Nexus and Kirk is apparently killed while helping the ship escape.

Seventy-eight years later, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D respond to a distress call from the Amargosa Observatory, where they rescue El-Aurian scientist Dr. Tolian Soran. Soran is one of the survivors rescued by the Enterprise-B and has spent decades attempting to find a way back into the Nexus, a place where time has no meaning and its occupants can experience whatever life they desire.

Unfortunately, the Nexus travels through space along a fixed path and Soran intends to alter that path by destroying entire star systems. With millions of lives standing between him and his return to paradise, Soran has little interest in the consequences of his actions and enlists the help of the Klingon Duras sisters to obtain the technology he requires.

As Picard attempts to stop Soran, Data decides the time has finally come to install the emotion chip originally intended for his brother Lore. What initially appears to be another step towards Data's lifelong ambition to become more human rapidly proves overwhelming, leaving him struggling with fear, humour and guilt at precisely the moment the Enterprise needs him most.

With Soran's plan threatening an inhabited planet and even the Enterprise itself facing destruction, Picard eventually discovers that defeating his opponent may require help from a legendary Starfleet captain whose story supposedly ended nearly eight decades earlier.

Picture & Sound

The picture on this disc is, quite frankly, appalling. Some of the colouring may be attributable to the deliberately darker photographic style used by director David Carson and cinematographer John A. Alonzo, but that doesn't excuse a transfer which frequently suffers from excessive contrast and a disappointing lack of clarity.

Although the bitrate remains above average for much of the film, there are still occasions where compression artifacting is clearly visible. This is particularly noticeable during the Nexus sequence where Kirk and Picard are horse riding and Kirk spots his wife on the brow of a hill. Considering the relatively recent age of the film, I expected considerably better.

The darker Enterprise interiors don't exactly help matters either. The move from television to cinema gave the filmmakers an opportunity to dramatically relight the familiar Enterprise-D sets, but the limitations of this transfer can leave shadow detail looking rather murky. Brighter exterior scenes fare somewhat better, although the image never achieves the sort of crisp, film-like appearance you'd hope to see from DVD.

The sound is better than the picture, but only just. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack occasionally brings the surround channels into play for explosions, phaser fire and the various space sequences, but for a science-fiction film there's surprisingly little here that makes particularly adventurous use of a surround-sound system.

Dialogue remains clear and firmly anchored to the centre channel, whilst Dennis McCarthy's score spreads nicely across the front soundstage. However, I failed to detect any particularly memorable low-frequency effects and the rear channels are used more sparingly than I'd have liked. You still can't beat First Contact in the Star Trek sound department.

Menu & Extras

Unfortunately, there's virtually nothing to discuss here because Paramount have supplied absolutely no supplementary material whatsoever. No documentary, no interviews, no commentary, no deleted scenes and not even a trailer. For the film that was specifically designed to pass the cinematic baton from the original crew to the cast of The Next Generation, that's extremely disappointing.

You'd have thought there would be a substantial amount of material available covering the production, particularly with Kirk, Scotty and Chekov appearing alongside the first cinematic outing for the Enterprise-D crew. Was none of it recorded? Did Paramount simply lose it? Or, more cynically, are they keeping everything back for a more expensive special edition somewhere down the line?

I'm becoming increasingly suspicious of film companies releasing bare-bones discs simply to get the title onto DVD, safe in the knowledge that fans will buy it again when a fully loaded "Special Edition" inevitably appears. For such an important entry in the Star Trek series, this is an extraordinarily lazy package. Shame on you Paramount.

Overall

Star Trek: Generations had a difficult job from the outset. Not only did it have to give the crew of The Next Generation their first big-screen adventure, it also had to provide a bridge between two generations of Star Trek and somehow bring Captain Kirk and Captain Picard together without making the whole thing feel like an extended television crossover.

Unfortunately, whilst there are plenty of good ideas scattered throughout the film, I'm not convinced they ever quite come together. The opening aboard the Enterprise-B is enjoyable and it's great to see Kirk, Scotty and Chekov together again, even if Kirk's apparent death is obviously rather suspicious when you've got William Shatner's name prominently displayed on the box.

Once the action moves into the 24th century, things begin to feel more like an extended episode of The Next Generation than a major cinematic event. That's not necessarily a disaster - I'm a big fan of the television series - but after seven seasons and all the anticipation surrounding the crew's first feature film, I expected something with a little more scale and ambition.

There are certainly some good character moments. Data finally installing his emotion chip provides Brent Spiner with plenty to work with and produces some genuinely funny scenes, particularly as he attempts to understand humour for the first time. His sudden experience of fear also gives the character a vulnerability we haven't really seen before, even if some of the comedy occasionally feels slightly overdone.

Patrick Stewart also gets some strong material when Picard receives devastating news about his family. It's a surprisingly sombre storyline and gives the film some emotional weight beyond the usual business of saving planets and blowing up spaceships. His conversations with Troi are amongst the quieter moments in the film, but they're also some of the most effective.

Malcolm McDowell makes an interesting villain as Soran, largely because he isn't particularly interested in power, money or conquering the galaxy. He simply wants to return to the Nexus and is prepared to kill millions of people to get there. It's a wonderfully selfish motivation, although I can't help feeling that a character played by Malcolm McDowell deserved rather more opportunity to make his presence felt.

Then, of course, there's the destruction of the Enterprise-D. After watching the ship survive seven years of adventures on television, seeing the saucer section crash spectacularly into the surface of Veridian III should have been a genuinely shocking moment. It's certainly one of the film's visual highlights and provides some impressive effects work, even if the circumstances leading up to the destruction make you wonder how the Federation flagship managed to get itself beaten up by an ageing Klingon Bird-of-Prey.

The biggest selling point, however, is obviously the meeting between Kirk and Picard. Seeing William Shatner and Patrick Stewart together is something fans had been waiting for, but the eventual encounter feels surprisingly small considering its significance. Rather than some enormous battle involving two legendary Enterprise captains, much of their time together consists of chopping wood, riding horses and eventually having a fist fight with Soran on top of a rocky mountain.

And then there's Kirk's death. After everything the character has survived over the years, having Captain James T. Kirk killed by a collapsing bridge feels disappointingly mundane. Perhaps that's deliberately the point - heroes don't necessarily receive glorious deaths - but I can't help feeling that one of science fiction's most iconic characters deserved something a little more memorable for his final bow.

There's also the old odd-numbered Star Trek movie curse to consider. Whether you actually believe in it or not, Generations doesn't do much to disprove the theory. It's certainly watchable and there are moments I enjoy, but it never feels like the spectacular passing of the torch that it should have been. Fortunately, the Enterprise-E and First Contact would subsequently demonstrate just how well the Next Generation crew could work on the big screen.

As for this DVD, things are considerably easier to judge. The poor picture quality, merely adequate soundtrack and complete absence of supplementary material make it very difficult to recommend. Die-hard Trekkies will undoubtedly want it on the shelf to complete their collection, but everybody else would be better advised to wait and see whether Paramount eventually gives the film the special-edition treatment it deserves.

Film? Disappointing. DVD? Dreadful. Bring on First Contact.

Special features

• None