Star Trek: Generations (David Carson), 1994
In many ways, it's the landmark film of the series: Kirk dies (repeatedly), and the baton is passed to the new crew under Captain Picard. Their mission is to stop a deranged scientist named Soran, who is intent on returning to an idyllic energy ribbon called the Nexus (where else but Trek do you get idyllic energy ribbons?). The problem is, he doesn't care how many people he kills while doing so.
A lot of Trek fans don't like this film, and I can see why. It's a pretty awful, anticlimactic death for Kirk, which is much less effective than the pseudodeath of Spock in II. And there's a serious Dagobah during the Nexus scenes, as Picard settles in to a horrifically dull fantasy life. But I never liked Kirk anyway, and the Nexus scenes do admittedly work a little better for fans of the TV show who've seen the episode that they play on ("Family").
I actually rather like the film, despite its many flaws, although the things I like are really quite minor touches. For we geeks who watched the crew on TV for years, it's fun to see the Enterprise D on the big screen for its one-and-only movie appearance. And Brent Spiner has a ball as Data, who has been implanted with an "emotion chip" but has yet to learn how to control its effects. This subplot leads to two great little moments: first, Data declaring how much he loves scanning for life forms; and secondly, his reaction as the Enterprise descends towards a planet.
This mightn't be much to like in a film... but these are times of lowered expectations for movie-goers everywhere.
* (Dagobah: The boring part
of an otherwise enjoyable movie. The etymology should be obvious.)
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© 2005 by Stephen Rowley