Star Trek: Why Were The Next Generation Movies Such A Mixed Bag?

Generations in a nutshshell: Start of movie: captain on the bridge End of movie: bridge on the captain

The problem was Rick Berman. Dude didn't know how to helm films. He was a TV guy and was trapped in the 80s-90s paradigm of TV, which is to say being opposed to serialization and long story arcs. DS9 was successful and seen as a precursor of modern TV precisely because Ira Steven Behr ignored Berman as much as possible. Whereas Berman was the right guy to save TNG after the disaster that was Gene Roddenberry's mismanagement, Berman then tried to apply that TV mentality to the films and it absolutely showed. Regarding Insurrection, and its complete one-off feel, and focus on a TV-type adventure when the Federation was fighting the largest war in quadrant history, again, Berman's TV producer mentality forbade the use of the Dominion War storyline because "Films don't borrow from TV, and cross-overs are TV poison." Reading back-stories on the TNG films, and comments from guys like Ronald D. Moore, Frakes and others, they make many references to 'grander' ideas, and pitches, especially after First Contact, that were inevitably shot down by Berman. For example, for Insurrection, writer Michael Pillar added a couple of lines acknowledging Jadzia Dax's death and its impact it had on Worf. Rick Berman eventually overruled this. In the end, the only times Berman could be moved or convinced are when Patrick Stewart or Brent Spiner used their leverage so that is why we see the TNG films as being Data heavy, as well as painting Picard as the action-hero which is something Stewart really pushed for. So there it is. The TOS cast got Harve Bennett, himself a long-time TV producer, and Nimoy to safeguard the film legacy and they did a good job by combining the best of TV production, with film's grander stage. Conversely, Berman brought the worst of ossified, middling aspects of TV production (which, one points out, were becoming obsolete even back then) to the TNG films that shrank the big-screen into TV style adventures.

‘First Contact’ may be my most rewatchable Star Trek movie. It’s not as smart as ‘Wrath of Khan’ or flashy as ‘2009’, but it’s a gorgeous movie with a fun action plot.

The biggest problem of Insurrections is not how the story was told, nor the execution. The biggest problem is a total war between the federation and the shapeshifters was taking place while this tiny incident is happening, which the story is told in DS9. It's almost ridiculous seeing the cast of DS9 struggling with war, while the flagship of the federation is trying to find it's one missing crewmember.

I never understood Geordi’s visor besides being a long running plot device. They have cured cancer, they can repair gun shot wounds in seconds, the Borg can essentially replicate entire body parts and bring people back from the dead but Geordi is the only person in the galaxy who can’t see.

The problem with the Next Gen films (with the exception of "First Contact") is that they came off as rather average run-of-the-mill two part television episodes that somehow made their way to the big screen. In fact, I'd dare say that a number of the two-part episodes from the TNG television series were better than most of the TNG films themselves. In short, the movies lacked the cinematic WOW factor. The plots were formulaic, the threats not all that gripping and the cast (with the exception of Picard and Data) were frequently underutilized.

There was no theme or overarching story like in the previous films. ST 1-6 were about age, legacy, mortality, and change. TNG films were solo films for Picard with Data as his trusty sidekick.

I love the TNG films despite their problems. First Contact and Generations are the ones I go back to.

I feel the problem with the TNG movies compared to the Original Cast movies boils down to that the Original Cast films had an important story to tell. The story of what happened to Kirk and Spock after their TV show was ended so prematurely. Furthermore there was a long wilderness period to really think through what the continuation of their story might look like and how to translate it to the big screen and the 1980s era. The first four films had to carry the torch of the Star Trek story. They took risks and left imponderables that turned into a multi-film arc. The fifth film perhaps stumbled because there was a question of potential redundancy to the TOS movies now that a new Star Trek series was on TV. The films no longer felt so vital. The sixth film discovered a certain purpose in being the final closer to the story of Kirk's time. By contrast, when The Next Generation ended as a TV show it had clocked up seven seasons, and arguably had wrapped nicely on All Good Things. So what was left for the films to be about? Generations I guess did the kind of bridge between old and new that made it feel it was offering something new and different to the TV show and different to any film before. To be honest they could've ended the film series there and had it be a one-off final ride for Picard & crew , and it'd feel oddly fitting. Though by my reckoning it made a mistake in destroying the Enterprise D so early into the film run (infact that's part of the reason First Contact wasn't as effective as it could've been. It would've meant far more to see the Enterprise being infiltrated and corrupted by the Borg, if it was a ship we knew well by that point, but we'd barely been introduced to it - likewise it would've meant more when Picard is being asked to sacrifice the ship). First Contact I guess had some purpose to it in that the Borg threat were one of the few loose ends left hanging after TNG ended, and we'd never seen them on the big screen before so it was worth doing for that. But still there wasn't the same sense of careful deliberation. These films were coming out pretty fast when the other TV shows were still in production. Which is kind of the other problem. Suddenly all the exciting stuff was happening in the TV shows. Voyager was travelling through Borg space now, whilst DS9 was deep (no pun intended) into the Dominion war. The odd thing is that the last two TNG movies allude to the Dominion war business but seem unable to be involved directly with it. There seems the feeling it'd be too deep into the TV show's arc to translate to a mass audience, but it means that the films weren't really able to offer anything big that the TV shows couldn't deliver. Another thing that nags me a bit is the way the makers seemed to become immediately ashamed of Generations even though it was the truest film to the spirit of the TNG series, and so they just seemed to overcompensate by making the films big action comedy films, which just doesn't really suit the thoughtful Picard or his crew, and came off as a bit desperate. (I'm not saying I'm one of those fans who objects that much to Picard's more ruthless streak in First Contact. It makes sense concerning the Borg that Picard would understand that the Borg are beyond reason. But the problem is, First Contact became the formula they kept going back to) The shape of the TOS films shows a journey and growth, and a real structure to it. Even the weaker entries are kind of inseparable from the whole and play their part. Whereas it feels easy to take or leave near all of the TNG films.

The main issue I had with 'Generations' was the plot was stupid and weak. Soran wants to get back into the Nexus, but instead of just flying a ship into it (which we know would work because thats how he originally tasted it the first time when we see his ship get engulfed by the Nexus at the start of the movie) he instead decides to go through the much more convoluted plan of forcing the Nexus to change direction.

We watched all the Star Trek movies a couple weeks ago. When Insurrection came on I said to my husband, This is Insurrection? I thought this was a season 7 episode. 😅

21:15 "In early versions of the script, Data met his maker..." Data met his maker, Noonien Soong, several times during NextGen. 29:02 "Before he died, Data transferred all of his memories into B4." "Remember"

My main problem with Generations is the way they treated the Enterprise D. A very poor way to get rid of my favourite Enterprise. First Contact easily the best TNG movie, if not one of the best Trek movies full stop.

They didn't build on possibilities from the series. The first two are ok. They should have had a Romulan War, with great ship fights. Political intrigue, alliances, etc. The world building and factions are set up great in TNG. Instead we get Insurrection (dumb) and the half-baked Romulan/Reman story in Nemesis. There's a reason episodes like Yesterday's Enterprise are good. Its about stakes and sacrifice.

My problem with Generations was that it was littered with bad decisions, such as Picard not choosing to leave the Nexus before his brother and nephew died, thus having the opportunity to save them. Why wouldn't the Picard family home have a decent fire suppression/emergency beam out system ? Also the poor Enterprise D being taken out by an outdated Bird of Prey was heartbreaking. The Enterprise D has 360° defensive phasers and a rear torpedo launcher, even without shields the D should have been able to crush that Klingon ship. She deserved a better exit.

I always loved First Contact. And I never disliked any of the others… and they all have really grown on me over the years.

All of the Star Trek films have been a mixed bag. I honestly believe Nemesis gets too much hate. Its dark storyline was very intriguing, and it is actually my second favorite of the Next Generation films after First Contract. Insurrection is by far the worst, feeling like a bad episode with too large of a budget. Of course, even the worst Star Trek film is still better than most modern Star Trek.

Ultimately it was the series that killed the movies. TNG basically had done the equivalent of 90 movies during their 7 year run and explored the characters a ton. What was left for the movies? I like it but even First Contact wasn't really a great premise as Picard had dealt with his borg issues in the series. There just wasn't a ton of things left to do with them. I think they held back too much as well thinking they would have a run like the original crew did. They could have done some big epic story, killed off a character like with Spock but then you don't have them for the next film. They were in a weird situation.

Because besides the weak stories, it all for some reason, became focused more on Data than any other character. Even though the show has always been an ensemble cast.

They had a very good opportunity to include or tie in parts of the Dominion war in the TNG movies but they didn't.