Trek at 60: Star Trek: Generations


This year Star Trek turns 60. For decades, it has enthralled and entertained audiences. Part of that legacy is 13 feature films. Over the next few weeks, I'll be looking back on each of the feature films in the franchise, including where I place them in my personal rankings!

Kirk: [to Harriman] Risk is part of the game if you want to sit in that chair.

Star Trek: Generations (1994)
Franchise Ranking: 8
Starring: Patrick Stewart, William Shatner, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, LeVar Burton, Marina Sirtis, Walter Koenig, James Doohan, Malcolm McDowell, and Alan Ruck
Director: David Carson
About: And here begins the run of films from the Next Generation cast. Sort of, anyway. As part of a somewhat clumsy handoff, we get a few of the original cast members--Kirk, Scotty, and Checkov--in an opening sequence that leads into the rest of the film. It's a means of getting Captain Kirk and Captain Picard on the screen together. And while that's an interesting idea, it only sort of works in the way it happens in the Third Act. Much of the film is focused on Picard here, from the loss in his personal life to his connection with Kirk at the end and fighting to save the world. It's another installment where the Enterprise is destroyed, too. Though it's again quickly re-built for a new film. This isn't a bad film, but it isn't an incredible film, either. It's interesting enough, and McDowell makes for a somewhat compelling villain, but it might have been better had the filmmakers not felt the need to make so direct a handoff.

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