All Things Star Trek — Page 23

Obviously there are folks who are not exactly fans of Generations.  It's not my favorite of the bunch, but I do enjoy it.  I admit, my enjoyment has deteriorated over time.  I probably would have rather watched a movie following the Enterprise-B.  Ah well, it's still fun, but still I want to gripe about it since I watched it recently.

Why didn't the Enterprise change their shield frequency?  It seems pretty obvious that such was the Duras sisters' trick, as all weapons went right through.  You'd think that would have been their first action.

If shields are so easy to penetrate once the frequency is known, why didn't the Borg try that trick when they first encountered the Enterprise in Q Who and hacked their computers?

Why did Picard have to pick up Kirk and fight Soren on Viridian III?  It seems it would have been far easier to interrupt his plans by returning to when he first met him in Ten Forward and Soren stated he needed to get back to the station to complete his work.  If he had delayed him for even a few minutes, it would have stopped Soren's plans right there.  He then could have helped deduce Soren's involvement in blowing up stars and stealing trilithium research and could have locked him up for a long time.

Usually Star Trek has some sort of technobabble to explain the unexplainable, so why is there some "nexus" that escapes the meaning of time and gives everyone lasting happiness?  Unless this is like a little crack in space that leads to heaven, it's just too contrived for me.

So there's my rant.  And yet I still like it :)

Glad we're all in agreement. :)

What is a bit of a bummer is that the movie had lots of potential.  There was resolution for the Duras conflict, resolution for the Lore conflict (in Data finally using the emotion chip), Kirk and Picard getting together like everyone wanted, the Enterprise-B, the death of the Enterprise-D, nice special effects, and in my opinion some good humor.  But sadly, the nexus gimmick and the otherwise rather thin plot failed to carry the story sufficiently.

Oh, and something that has always bugged me: what on earth happened during Geordi's interrogation?  I mean, why is it that really the only bit we see shows Soren questioning Geordi about trilithium, when clearly he knows little about it and Soren himself is the most knowledgeable fellow on the subject around?  What was he trying to gain?  My understanding is that there was some lovely torture to go along with this, but since most of it was cut, the whole scene serves literally absolutely no purpose in the end.

'Tis a good point.  Might have been too much for his younger audience members.

BTW, I've been wanting to say this for a while now, but never had the chance.  I've really come to enjoy his character above almost any other in TNG.  He is good-hearted and good-natured, he befriends Data and almost any other "different" character, and yet he can be flawed and impatient.  I enjoy his humanity but his unconditional acceptance of others.  Plus I was a childhood fan of Reading Rainbow, so he probably appeals to a warm spot in my heart there too.

Oops, didn't even think of Roots.  And I remember that episode of Reading Rainbow.  I loved it for sure!

darth_ender said:

Obviously there are folks who are not exactly fans of Generations.  It's not my favorite of the bunch, but I do enjoy it.  I admit, my enjoyment has deteriorated over time.  I probably would have rather watched a movie following the Enterprise-B.  Ah well, it's still fun, but still I want to gripe about it since I watched it recently.

Why didn't the Enterprise change their shield frequency?  It seems pretty obvious that such was the Duras sisters' trick, as all weapons went right through.  You'd think that would have been their first action.

If shields are so easy to penetrate once the frequency is known, why didn't the Borg try that trick when they first encountered the Enterprise in Q Who and hacked their computers?

Why did Picard have to pick up Kirk and fight Soren on Viridian III?  It seems it would have been far easier to interrupt his plans by returning to when he first met him in Ten Forward and Soren stated he needed to get back to the station to complete his work.  If he had delayed him for even a few minutes, it would have stopped Soren's plans right there.  He then could have helped deduce Soren's involvement in blowing up stars and stealing trilithium research and could have locked him up for a long time.

Usually Star Trek has some sort of technobabble to explain the unexplainable, so why is there some "nexus" that escapes the meaning of time and gives everyone lasting happiness?  Unless this is like a little crack in space that leads to heaven, it's just too contrived for me.

So there's my rant.  And yet I still like it :)

The reason is very simple. The SAME people were at the SAME time working on All The Good Things, Generations and Voyager. Only ATGT turned out to be great

darth_ender said:

Glad we're all in agreement. :)

What is a bit of a bummer is that the movie had lots of potential.  There was resolution for the Duras conflict, resolution for the Lore conflict (in Data finally using the emotion chip), Kirk and Picard getting together like everyone wanted, the Enterprise-B, the death of the Enterprise-D, nice special effects, and in my opinion some good humor.  But sadly, the nexus gimmick and the otherwise rather thin plot failed to carry the story sufficiently.

Oh, and something that has always bugged me: what on earth happened during Geordi's interrogation?  I mean, why is it that really the only bit we see shows Soren questioning Geordi about trilithium, when clearly he knows little about it and Soren himself is the most knowledgeable fellow on the subject around?  What was he trying to gain?  My understanding is that there was some lovely torture to go along with this, but since most of it was cut, the whole scene serves literally absolutely no purpose in the end.

Plus don't forget that according to the series trilithium was very common, even the D's engines created it as a side product, but suddenly it's rare and unknown in the movie. Geordi's interrogation was originally much longer (and better), check the workprint.

I've been wondering about different things. E.g. why did the Duras sisters beam Picard down to Soran? Why does suddenly Picard have a problem that he has no family after saying he's not a family man for 7 years? Why can't Guinan come back with Picard? Why did Picard and Kirk return in time to the duel and not one day earlier? One week earlier? One year earlier? 78 years earlier? The whole story makes no sense at all if you start thinking about it

SilverWook said:

Fans naturally wondered about a crossover with the original crew from the beginning. McCoy was in the pilot after all. But after encountering Sarek, Spock, and Scotty in later seasons, the big Kirk/Picard meetup felt a little forced.

And why does Scotty ask in the series if Jim Kirk came to save him, when according to this movie he was there when Kirk died?

SilverWook said:

 

IIRC, Reading Rainbow gave us the first behind the scenes peek at TNG, thanks to it's host. :)

I remember watching that and feeling really annoyed that Levar kept asking the guys questions about the show. Grrrr, you're on the show! You know all this stuff, dummy!

Guess my young mind didn't have a grasp on the idea of the interview process.

SilverWook said:

And shouldn't there have been a "echo" of Soran running around in there somewhere?

Good point, that.

The movie has some good moments and has a lot of boxes to check but the logic of the nexus falls apart if you try to make sence of it.

I don't hate the movie but it definitely falls short of it's potential. It quite likely had to do with the crew spreading themselves thin over mutiple projects.

I can appreciate it for laying the groundwork for First Contact - a movie that really floats my boat.

I was looking at Shatner's book Memories today, and it makes me sad.  His interactions with other members of the cast caused a lot of damage, and I genuinely believe it was largely unintentional.  The other actors were so professional, you'd actually believe Doohan and Takei loved Shatner as much as Scotty and Sulu loved Kirk.  But sadly such is not so.  It's interesting that I hadn't realized till my later years how annoying it can be that Kirk really does hog the spotlight in the episodes and movies.  Perhaps in the 60s that was what audiences wanted: a captain who could do just about everything from quoting Milton to beating off 4 armed soldiers with his bare hands and shirtless rolls, while still having the wits to defeat enemy ships.  But this clearly caused a lot of hurt feelings.  It's one thing I really enjoy better about TNG, as the various cast members all get their time in the limelight, all get to be heroes, all get to specialize in one thing or another at such a level that their expertise is indispensable.  But still, it really makes me so sad to see what efforts Shatner has made to patch things up, and to see that he still has been unable to do so, particularly with George Takei.

This was a disturbing article I read, where it seems that Bill and Jimmy made things up, and supposedly Bill later said something pretty nasty according to Chris Doohan, James' son, and confirmed by George Takei.

http://trekmovie.com/2010/12/09/george-takei-william-shatner-refused-to-appear-on-stage-with-james-doohan-at-farewell-con/

I find it hard to believe, considering what lengths William Shatner had gone to repair his relationships.  I suspect, if anything, the statement is untrue or was misunderstood, and the reasons for not going to that particular convention were more complex than portrayed.