The Final Frontier 9/Final Frontier 9 (Disk 2 of 3).adf/LCARS/TextFile/Generations/Generations_What_Next.pp/Generations_What_Next

Text File | 1995-11-09 | 10KB | 169 lines

TF01
3,Generations - What Next?
4,by Simon Plumbe

Star Trek Generations is certainly one of the most controversial Star
Trek movies to-date. The debate  is  still  going strong, over a year
after it's initial release in the States,  as to whether or not it is
a good film, and what  the  future  holds  for  the  crew of The Next
Generation following the events in Generations.

For those of you who don't  know  yet,  the  film is once again being
written by Brannon Braga  and  Ronald  D  Moore.  No matter what your
opinion of them is following  Generations,  they have both managed to
write a vast number  of  successful  episodes  not  only for The Next
Generation, but for Deep Space  Nine  and  Voyager  as well. In fact,
they were also both  responsible  for  the  warmly-received "All Good
Things...", but the announcement  that  they  are  working on another
feature is of concern to more than a few Trekkers, myself included.

It's not that I doubt their ability  as writers. On the contrary, but
I do feel that every writer has  their limit to what they can produce
before losing their creative edge, and I  think that it is about time
that they both step back  and  take  an  objective look at their Star
Trek writing careers. First, I think  they  should make a decision as
to what their priorities are. Both  of them are credited as Producers
on the show, and they  both  write  a significant number of episodes.
But for them to then  write  a  movie  in  between all of their other
commitments you begin to  wonder  if  the  quality  of the work isn't
going to be affected.

However, irrespective of what you  may  think regarding the above, it
is the story that will make or break the next movie. For those of you
who don't yet know, it will  see  the  return  once more of the Borg.
Nothing more has been revealed regarding the Borg storyline, although
it will be interesting to see  whether  they  opt to feature the Borg
under the guidance of Hugh, or the  Borg  who are still a part of the
collective. Either way, there  is  going  to  be  another area in the
movie where explanations may  need  to  be  made  to  tell the casual
viewers and movie-goers just WHO the Borg are.

Although I don't really mind the Borg  story, it is the other element
of the plot that has  been  revealed  that  is of concern. It appears
that the film is  going  to  feature,  yet  again,  time travel as an
aspect of the  story.  This  time,  it  will  see  some  of  the crew
travelling back in time to the 22nd  century to see the formation and
development of the Federation. I believe  that  no doubt this will be
in pursuit of a group of  Borg  or  villains  aligned to the Borg who
decide that the best way to stop  their defeat at Sector 001 would be
to prevent the Federation from ever existing.  Now, is it just me, or
are they really overdoing the idea of time travel in Star Trek at the
moment? In Classic Trek, including  the  movies, time travel was used
very sparingly and only played a part in three or four stories.

However, we have now seen TNG,  DS9  and  Voyager have their own time
travel episodes, and to be  blunt,  the  whole time travel concept is
becoming tiresome. If I wanted to  see people travelling in time, I'd
watch Doctor Who or Quantum  Leap,  not  Star  Trek. Surely there are
other ideas that could feature  in  the  film  that haven't been done
before. More critically, is this another indicator that Ron Moore and
Brannon Braga are overworked? The only positive thing I can say about
the proposed time travel plot is  that  it is intended to reveal more
background information and history on  the Federation, and Starfleet,
which is something I must admit to looking forward to.

Ignoring the storyline and the writing team,  there are going to be a
number of changes ahead, not  only  for  the  next  film, but in many
cases, changes that will affect all  future movies with the TNG cast.
Naturally, there is going to be a  new  Enterprise in Star Trek 8. At
the moment, we can only speculate as to its design, although going by
recent trends in the series, I  think  we'll  be looking at a smaller
vessel, probably  along  the  lines  of  a  ship  no  larger  than an
Ambassador Class. As the  Federation  flagship,  I think the decision
will be  taken  to  remove  children  from  the  ship  apart  from in
exceptional circumstances, returning to the more traditional starship
seen in the other shows. I also  have  a bad feeling that it is going
to be not only more powerful, but more heavily armed.

It's not only the Enterprise where we are likely to see major changes
either. As most  of  you  know  by  now,  the  character  of Worf has
transferred across to Deep Space  Nine. While Michael Dorn stipulated
that his contract for DS9 should give  him the option of appearing in
future TNG movies, it is difficult to see how Worf could transfer off
from DS9, back to the Enterprise, and then  back to DS9 at the end of
the movie and still retain credibility.  The  only way I can possibly
see them bring Worf into the movie  is  to  tie the story in with the
break-up of the Federation/Klingon alliance,  although by the time of
the film this will be a rather old plot device.

Worf isn't the only character to  be  changing though. It is strongly
rumoured that we are going to  see  a  promotion  for a couple of the
characters. Firstly, it  is  believed  that  Picard  is  going  to be
promoted either to the rank of  Commodore  or  even  as far as to the
Admiralty itself. How this  will  affect  the character is uncertain,
but we've seen Picard turn down  the opportunity to become an Admiral
before so there would have to  be  a significant reason to change his
mind now. Also, whether we would see the newly-promoted Picard remain
on the Enterprise  is  uncertain.  However,  it  is  likely  that the
producers will "borrow" an idea from  both The Motion Picture and The
Wrath Of Khan and have  the  Admiral  on board someone else's ship...
just for the one mission, of course!!

This will naturally see a knock-on effect to the rest of the crew. If
Picard is promoted, them Riker  would  be  the logical choice to take
over the captaincy of the NCC 1701-E (and we all know that the reason
Riker has refused promotions in the past  is because of the fact that
there is only ONE ship he wants!), and if Riker is promoted, it makes
sense to assume that he will have a  First Officer in the form of the
re-assigned Commander Data.

Talking of  Data,  his  character  is  going  to  continue  with  the
development and exploration  of  his  emotions  into  the next movie,
something  I  think  could  link   in   quite  well  with  the  added
responsibility he will be assigned  on-board ship. However, Data fans
had better make the most  of  his  appearances,  as Brent himself has
stated that he will only do another  couple of movies as Data because
he feels that he is getting  too  old  for  the part. In fact, if you
compare the make-up in Generations, to  that of past seasons, Data is
definitely looking older and I really  can't see Brent continuing AND
being believable at the same time and I applaud Brent for making what
is understandably a difficult decision. He has stated that he doesn't
want to leave Trek, so maybe  we'll  see him as a different character
in future movies... or maybe even on DS9 or Voyager!

Another possible character change  is  Geordi.  It  has  been said by
LeVar on numerous occasions, that  he  doesn't like wearing the VISOR
and that he would like to  do  the  next film without the VISOR. Now,
although this is understandable and  we  have  been shown in the past
that, in Trek terms at least,  it is technologically feasible, and we
did see a VISOR-less Geordi in "All  Good Things...", it could do the
character more harm than good.

Why, you may ask? Well, to be quite blunt, the character of Geordi is
an excellent role model in  Star  Trek  for people with disabilities.
For the first time in the  show,  we  were presented with a character
who was seen and treated as an  equal  by  not only all of his fellow
crewmembers, but by other people they  encountered. While in the 24th
Century,  Geordi's  disability  may   be   reversible   or  at  least
correctable, disabled people today do  not  have that luxury, and too
see a character they can  identify  is  very important. Similarly, in
the DS9 episode "Melora", had  the  producers  altered Melora so that
she could function in  our  environment,  it  would have weakened the
character as a role model. In  Star  Trek  we shouldn't be shown that
the only way to deal with a disability is to have surgery - we should
be shown  people  who  have  accepted  their  disabilities  and  then
proceeded to get  on  with  their  lives,  and  that  they  should be
accepted for who they are.

Finally, the next movie MUST  see  more  of  both Deanna and Beverly.
Generally, it was a  waste  of  both  Marina's  and Gates' talents in
Generations and to see  them  so  underused  was  appalling.  If a 45
minute episode of TNG can give  each  of the characters enough to do,
why couldn't they manage in a  2  hour movie? If something isn't done
about this, we could see one or both of them leave the show in favour
of something that will give them more to do.

Overall, I have very mixed feelings towards the next movie. As a Star
Trek fan, of course I want the film to be successful, but at the same
time I'd like the film to at  least  try and stick to the values that
we Star Trek fans hold dear.  Whether  this film will be a commercial
success is to be seen, although  I  have  a feeling that it will take
around $30 -  $40  million  more  than  Generations,  if nothing else
because fans are already starting to miss the TNG crew - an advantage
that Generations didn't have.

It's a film that I am  awaiting  with  baited breath, although I only
hope that the script doesn't end  up being circulated again... unless
we are going to be in for one hell of a movie!!