Star Trek Generations Retrospective/Review - Star Trek Retrospective, Part 9

star trek the next generation had done the impossible it had become a new definitive incarnation of the star trek franchise and its characters just as beloved the world over as the original crew of the uss enterprise with the next generation having established itself as a smash hit paramount saw potential in this new crew following in their predecessor's footsteps and making the leap to the big screen the development of another star trek feature film following the undiscovered country started all the way back in 1991 immediately following the release of the sixth film paramount executives gave the task to rick berman the executive producer of the next generation he approached a number of writers for the script including ronald d moore and brandon braga curiously enough berman also approached maurice hurley who was the showrunner of the next generation for its second season but hadn't been involved with star trek for years the idea was to develop competing scripts and then select the most promising idea for development early on the creative team decided to include the original series cast in the new movie as a kind of passing of the baton to the next generation hurley's original idea involved picard recreating captain kirk on the holodeck to help solve a conundrum involving interdimensional aliens moore and braga however wanted to include kirk and the others in the flesh their initial idea was for the two crews to actually fight one another moore later said the best possible poster you could ever have for this picture would show you the two enterprises battling against each other we tried our best but we were never able to come up with a scenario that made both crews look heroic no matter how we played around with this thing somebody was always going to come off looking like the bad guy so then we returned a little more solidly to the mystery which spanned generations idea that would allow whoopi goldberg as gainan as the tie that binds the two to anchor the film moore and braga both felt they needed some kind of major event and during discussions it was here they came up with the idea of actually killing off captain kirk to their surprise all of the higher-ups including william shatner himself didn't push back on the idea therefore they added a prologue which would feature captain kirk and the entire original crew during a mission where kirk would die kirk would then later reappear during the film's climax hurley continued to work on his own script but eventually more in braga's script was the one chosen after submitting their initial draft paramount studio executives made some notes requesting a number of additions such as a con-like villain klingons and a humorous subplot revolving around data among other requirements it was more who added in an action set piece which would see the enterprise d destroyed and the saucer section crash landing on the planet this was an idea he originally proposed for a season 6 cliffhanger in the show but the idea was rejected for that episode to meet the studio demands maureen braga came up with the villain of dr maresh later changed to dr sauron they also added in the dura sisters as the requested klingon villains fan favorites from the next generation the following draft of the script featured some ambitious action sequences the opening of the film was to follow two rosen cranston guildenstern-like characters on the amagosa observatory which is then attacked by romulans another action sequence involved duras sisters surviving the destruction of their bird of prey and confronting the enterprise crew in the jungles of the planet viridian 3. at one point another sequence involved captain kirk taking command of the enterprise d and ultimately going down with the ship as it is destroyed by the klingons however budgetary concerns meant most of these sequences had to be altered or removed entirely for the film's overall story morin braga knew they wanted some kind of emotional arc for captain picard and soon settled on the theme of mortality picard would be hit with the devastating news of his brother robert dying of a sudden heart attack it was patrick stewart who suggested picard's entire extended family dying for an even more hard-hitting tragedy picard is then confronted by dr soren who is determined to reach a realm known as the nexus a place where a person's every desire can be met and they will never grow old however in his quest to do so he threatens millions of lives for the returning original cast members paramount demanded the number of cameos be reduced to kirk and two others rather than the entire original crew mostly out of budgetary concerns the logical three were of course kirk spock and mccoy and while william shatner was keen to return deforest kelly and leonard nimoy were more hesitant kelly felt that his character had already been given the perfect send-off during the undiscovered country and nimoy felt much the same way nimoy was even approached to direct the film however he ultimately declined due to his lack of input in the development of the script something he was heavily involved in with the star trek films he had previously directed kelly and nimoy therefore declined instead james dewan would return as montgomery scott and walter koenig would return as chakov to direct the film paramount approached david carson having been impressed with his work directing a number of star trek the next generation episodes including yesterday's enterprise as well as deep space nine's pilot episode emissary as pre-production began stage and screen legend malcolm mcdowell was cast as the film's chief villain dr soren he was enthusiastic about being the man to kill captain kirk as during the draft he read sauron would kill kirk by shooting him apparently when news of this leaked obsessed fans sent mcdowell death threats because of course they did mcdowell said of the rule when rick berman asked me to do this film i said i'd love to do it i want to be the man to kill kirk and when i read the script i thought sauron was an interesting and wonderful character and obviously he would ultimately be given the honor of pulling the trigger that kills the good captain kirk i'd immediately become a trivia question at star trek conventions all over the globe for the production design paramount once again enlisted the services of hermann zimmermann as was essentially a tradition at this point the production reused and redressed many existing sets some dating all the way back to the motion picture the enterprise b set was a reuse of the enterprise a and excelsior bridge sets from star trek vi the klingon bird of prey bridge was also reused from star trek vi the corridors tent forward observation lounge transporter room engineering sickbay and quarters were all reused from the show albeit with a new lighting setup for more depth and contrast the bridge of the enterprise d was redesigned slightly with a chair being added to the tactical station and additional stations added to the sides of the bridge the central command chairs were also placed on an elevated platform in the center of the room new sets such as the armagosa observatory and enterprise b deflector control were coupled together from other spare pieces from star trek productions over the years the only brand new set for the enterprise was stellar cartography originally a three-tiered room inside a giant sphere this was paired back to a two-tiered room inside a cylinder an elevated platform was built surrounded by large backlit graphics and blue screen projection michael okuda once again lent his talents to create the elaborate graphics and displays in the scene for the costumes designer john eaves wanted to design it brand new uniforms for the crew however to save on budget these were scrapped although the design can still be seen on a line of playmates action figures created for the film ultimately a combination of uniforms from the next generation and new uniforms from deep space nine and voyager were used the production borrowed avery brooks and column mini's uniforms from deep space nine for jonathan frakes and levar burton respectively however neither uniform fit the actors very well with frakes having to roll up his sleeves and minnie's costume clearly being far too big for burton patrick stewart had a new uniform tailored for him and so his fit perfectly [Music] filming began on the 4th of march 1994. carson hired cinematographer john a alonso known for shooting chinatown and scarface in order to shoot faster alonso worked with carson to build much of the lighting into the set themselves rather than using more elaborate rigs which would have to be rearranged with each new camera setup carson fought with paramount to shoot on as many locations as possible even sacrificing other shooting days to do so for soren's base on viridian 3 where the climax of the film takes place the production visited the valley of fire national park in nevada the originally shot ending saw kirk being shot in the back by sauron but test audiences reacted negatively to this and so kirk's death was re-shot later for the opening promotion scene on the holodeck the production used the lady washington a replica of the first american ship to visit japan the scene was shot over five days with the ships sailing out a few miles from shore rather than hiring extras the real crew of the ship was used instead filming took on a tv-like pace with carson and alonso working together to shoot as quickly as possible and within budget principal photography wrapped after 51 days for the film's visual effects the work was split between the vendors which had worked on the show and the ever reliable industrial light and magic supervised by john knoll who had worked on many previous star trek productions and fun fact is the co-creator of photoshop rather than depending solely on motion controlled miniatures ilm used a combination of miniatures and digital cg effects the enterprise d model was originally built by ilm for encounter at farpoint and so only needed minor touch-ups for the movie for the enterprise b the team reused the uss excelsior model altering the star drive hull slightly to make it distinct from the standard excelsior class the bird of prey model was reused from star trek vi which itself was also reused from star trek iii and iv for the battle over viridian 3 while the ships were miniatures the battle damage and explosions were all computer generated with these elements being layered over a map painting of the planet a cg version of the enterprise was created for a handful of shots such as its warp away from the armagosa observatory cg was also used to enhance the destruction of iridium-3 the planet itself being a model and everything around it being cg for the opening prologue sequence everything aside from the enterprise b and space port was computer generated even the stranded refugee ships while the enterprise b is inside the energy ribbon it too switches to a cg model for a number of shots for the crash sequence a 12 by 24 meter forest floor set was constructed and an almost four meter wide saucer section model was crashed into it the action was shot using high speed cameras and then slowed down to give the proper sense of scale we're using a mirror on this front angle of the crash primarily because the camera needs to be directly in the path of the ship it's going about uh between 15 and 20 miles an hour through this set and uh we can't crash into the camera so we're to keep the camera safe we're placing a mirror in there to 45 running the camera down from the top to get a virtual viewpoint that's right in the path of the ship there oh that's a nice one so that will be pretty cool the crew seen walking around on the hull afterwards were simply ilm staff members shot walking around the car park and then composited onto the saucer section for the film's score composer dennis mccarthy who had been composing for the next generation since its first season was hired for the film with more resources at his disposal mccarthy sought to create a grand brass heavy score for the film he drew on numerous pieces he had composed for the next generation pulling from his work on the series finale all good things in particular he created an original theme for the movie a blending of his own style and the style of alexander courage whose fanfare from the original series also makes a reappearance for the opening credits and for the nexus itself mccarthy went for an ethereal choir sound mixed in with subtle synthesizers for an otherworldly heavenly atmosphere after yet another budget-conscious fast-paced shoot the seventh star trek film star trek generations was released on the 18th of november 1994 star trek generations is another controversial entry in the franchise frequently appearing at the top and bottom of many ranking lists just like with my undiscovered country review though i won't be around the bush i actually love this movie it has a number of pretty serious flaws and i understand where a great many of the criticisms are coming from but for me there's just something about this film which really speaks to me for a production so reliant on its tv resources this is an absolutely stunning translation of the next generation to the big screen john a alonso cinematography is simply gorgeous the lighting almost resembles a rembrandt painting in a lot of scenes the shadows just sculpt the actors faces in such a beautiful way it really revitalizes these sets which had been lit in such a flat stagey way throughout the show and just like nicholas meyer david carson gets so much dramatic mileage out of relatively small scale action sequences his framing often pushes the camera far closer to these ships than usual making every movement feel utterly massive and every disruptive shot and explosion carries real punch ilm's work on generations is some of the best work they've ever done as a studio in my opinion it's the perfect mix of traditional motion controlled miniatures and computer-generated effects often times you can't even tell when a practical model has been swapped out for a cg one it's completely seamless the battle with the klingon bird of prey and crash onto viridian 3 are absolute showstoppers even watched today there simply isn't a single weak effect in either sequence it's spectacular dennis mccarthy's score sits alongside leonard rosenthal's voyage home or cliff idleman's undiscovered country as one of those one-off star trek scores no continuity whatsoever with any previous music beyond the alexander courage fanfare that doesn't mean it's a bad score though in fact quite the opposite mccarthy's original theme for generations is so memorable even singable i think it would make for a great theme for a future star trek tv show it's hardly surprising considering deep space nine's great main theme was composed by mccarthy the heavy brass throughout the film lends every action scene so much weight and power it carries the action sequences in terrific fashion and even succeeds in complementing the more emotional scenes which is surprising for brass heavy pieces it makes the rare turns into synthesizers strings and choirs all the more memorable and succeeds in creating that heavenly atmosphere for the nexus i know a big problem a lot of people have with this film surrounds the long-anticipated crossover between kirk and picard much of the marketing around the film was centered on this meeting and even the trailers make out that kirk is in the movie much more than he actually is so i could understand those who were disappointed by how little the two actually interact that being said i was never really privy to that sense of hype as this movie came out the year before i was born so divorced from that context although they don't share the screen for very long their dialogue in chemistry is fantastic and this is clearly more picard's story anyway i've always felt like the undiscovered country was the last big heroic send-off for kirk and his appearance in generations is more of an epilogue i also know a lot of people were disappointed in how kirk ultimately dies preferring the last stand concept described in earlier drafts of the script but the emotion of the scene really works for me partly because of just how understated it is i feel like there's some sense of poetry in james t kirk coming back to save worlds one last time without anyone actually knowing about it and kirk's last moment is some of the best acting william shatner has ever done in the role the moment where kirk's typical jovial cowboy swagger fades and he realizes this truly is the end is heartbreaking stuff and mccarthy's music really hammers it home [Music] oh my there is a lot about the film which doesn't work super well though data's subplot for example where he installs his emotionship and ends up going a bit nuts feels so at odds with the rest of the film it doesn't really have anything to do with the themes of the story and actually ends up being more disturbing than humorous that being said his emotional outbursts on the bridge during the battle with the jurass sisters do get a laugh out of me for example this is easily the best oh which has ever been said in a movie oh there are also some strange plot contrivances throughout the film such as when picard is given the chance to go back in time to save the day and he chooses a really bad point to return to when there were so many better options however i do feel like there has been some typically pedantic nitpicking when discussing this movie for example some people make a big deal out of picard supposedly smashing the carlineskos from the episode the chase which by the way no he doesn't he sets it gently down on the ground and it's also only the lid not the whole thing but it's also not the point of the scene i've talked about this before being obsessed with cannon and continuity to the point of entirely missing the story being told and the story being told here is really brilliant patrick stewart gives a heartwarming tragic and understated performance probably the most emotional we've ever seen picard following the sudden death of his family picard realizes he at some point wanted to be a father but has let that opportunity pass him by while being so concerned with the past and his mortality dr sauron is the perfect foil for picard in this story someone who so fears mortality and death he's willing to sacrifice millions to return to the nexus and while picard is initially tempted by the nexus with a vision of the family he never had ultimately he overcomes his fears and embraces the future what we leave behind is not as important as how we've lived it's a wonderfully conveyed message and embodies that quintessentially humanist star trek philosophy this is the part of the review where words kind of fail me a little when i start saying things like there's just something about generations and praising the inherent feel of the movie i think a friend of mine said it best when he described generations as the only star trek movie to feel like a christmas movie its life-affirming message the sentimental nature of the story and sincerity of the emotion to me enter similar territory to the themes explored in the wrath of khan when kirk was also feeling his age and in my opinion at least generation pulls it off just as well despite the script not being as tight overall star trek generations is a movie with a lot of flaws and i understand where the disappointment comes from but viewed today without that hype surrounding the crossover between kirk and picard this is a tremendous emotional journey beautifully presented and performed it's far from perfect and i certainly don't expect everyone to agree with me but as i said earlier despite its flaws i love star trek generations upon release generations received a very mixed reception from fans and critics the much hyped meeting between kirk and picard didn't live up to the lofty expectations of many fans critics felt like the film was merely an overlong episode of the tv show despite the often praised visual effects and direction the film went on to gross 118 million dollars worldwide on a budget of 35 million while the seven star trek movies still didn't match the titanic grosses of other big brand franchises this was a healthy gross in line with the reliable money makers the previous star trek movies had been when paramount originally approached the berman to produce the film all parties had agreed to a two-picture deal and so the next star trek feature film was already in development following the release of generations although the next generation crews jumped to the big screen met a mixed reception overall meanwhile on the small screen the third star trek spin-off show was about to make some big waves [Music] thank you for watching if you like these videos 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Channel: Rowan J Coleman

Views: 206,110

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Id: De0dljWX6Qs

Length: 21min 7sec (1267 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 06 2021