Star Trek : Generations (1994)

It is the 23rd Century and retired Starfleet officers James T. Kirk, Montgomery Scott and Pavel Chekov are guests of honour aboard the newly christened Enterprise-B. However, during a quick test run around the galaxy the star ship encounters two vessels caught in a mysterious energy ribbon called the Nexus. The sparsely equipped Enterprise mounts a rescue mission with the unfortunate loss of a crew member.

Several decades later Picard and the crew of the Enterprise rescue a physicist named Soran from a recently attacked space-station. Unknown to Picard, Soran has a deadly plan that includes the destruction of a number of stars, along with millions of lives, with a lethal new weapon in his desperate attempt to be reunited with the Nexus.

The picture on this disc is just appalling. Some of the colouring may be down to the film's director, but certain scenes were just awful with far too much contrast and lack of clarity. Although the bit-rate was above average throughout the film there were times when artifacting was clearly visible. This was most noticeable during the Kirk and Picard horse riding scene when Kirk spots his wife on the brow of a hill.

The sound is better than the picture, but only just. There are the occasional use of the surrounds channels with explosions and laser fire, but I failed to detect any LFE's of note. The dialogue is clear enough and it doesn't bleed to the other channels. You still can't beat First Contact in the Star Trek sound department.

With this film being such leap from the old to the new crew of the Enterprise I would have thought there'd be a huge amount of film stock available in the guise of interviews and a making of. Did Paramount simply loose them or are they just being cheap? I'm still very suspicious of film companies simply profiteering by bringing out any old rubbish and cashing in. Perhaps they have plans for a fully loaded "special edition" in the near future. Shame on you Paramount.

This disc is simply awful, and the film isn't much better with the adage of the odd numbered movies being the worst. The picture quality is dreadful and along with the complete and utter lack of extras makes this disc hard to recommend to anyone except those trekies wanting to complete their DVD collection.