Star Trek: Generations

The film takes on the job of joining two Star Trek generations. It opens with the retired Captain Kirk, then the story moves to Picard and the Enterprise-D. Facing them is Dr Tolian Soran, willing to destroy star systems to get back into an extra-dimensional realm called the Nexus. Kirk eventually returns to help Picard. It is David Carson's feature debut. Principal photography took fifty-one days. Patrick Stewart and William Shatner lead, Malcolm McDowell plays Soran, and the full Next Generation ensemble appears. Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley declined to take part. Its most cited detail is Kirk's death. In the version shot first he was shot in the back; test audiences rejected it and the ending was reshot so that he dies in a sacrificial leap to reach a control pad. It opened at number one on 18 November 1994 with 23.1 million dollars and took 118 million worldwide against a 35 million budget. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 48 percent. Critics described it as a mediocre changing of the guard. Who it is for: Star Trek viewers who want both captains in one frame. Who it is not for: anyone approaching the series from outside. The film does not look after a viewer without the backstory.