Over the course of its seven-year run, Star Trek: The Next Generation grew into a highly respected mainstream hit. Picard and Data became iconic figures, much as Kirk and Spock had been, and in many circles TNG was actually viewed as superior to TOS. Which made it inevitable that when TNG finally left the airwaves, its crew would boldly go where their predecessor had gone before: to the bigscreen.
The result, unfortunately, was a lot more uneven than the films featuring the original crew...
POTENTIAL UNFILLED: GENERATIONS
"Two Captains, One Destiny!"
So proclaimed the tag-line for Generations, making one thing very clear: The marketing department had a much better idea what movie audiences wanted to see than the filmmakers did. Watch any contemporary trailer for the movie, and you'll get the strong impression that the film puts Captains Picard and Kirk on roughly equal footing.
But that's not what we got. Instead, we have the big-screen equivalent of a two-part TNG episode, featuring a special guest appearance by William Shatner. Judged on that basis, it's not bad; I've watched it multiple times, and I've enjoyed every viewing. But it's not the movie it could have been, and it's bluntly not the movie it should have been.
My biggest complaint is how the climax handles the two captains: Kirk's death isn't nearly as big a moment as it should be, and Picard is diminished by being unable to deal with Villain of the Week Soran (Malcolm McDowell), despite having regularly handled more formidable adversaries on television. Better if the climax had split them up, with Picard confronting Soran on the planet while Kirk takes the lead in the spacebound action. Kirk could have given his life saving the ship and its crew, while Picard could have proved himself a worthy hero to TOS fans who came only to see Kirk's last hurrah.
I'll emphasize that the movie is enjoyable on its own terms. The regulars feel fully in-character, and the script does a good job juggling the overly-large ensemble. This would continue to be a strength of the TNG films. Sadly, however, the script's failure to reach its full potential would continue to be a weakness plaguing all of the remaining movies, with only one exception...
A HINT OF WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN: FIRST CONTACT
The Next Generation enjoyed one unqualified bigscreen success: Star Trek: First Contact. The Best of Both Worlds had made the Borg an iconic Trek villain, so making a Borg movie was likely a no-brainer for the production team. The choice to incorporate time travel into the plot could have overcomplicated things - but writers Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore use the concept well, going not into our past but instead exploring the "future history" of the franchise. The Borg conflict is set against the backdrop of humanity's first contact with the Vulcans, with the Borg's goal to stop that from happening. An "A" plot/"B" plot structure is smartly employed, with the two strands complementing each other while allowing most of the ensemble at least one spotlight moment.
Jonathan Frakes had previously distinguished himself as a strong Trek director on television, and he helms this picture with confidence and enormous visual style. This is one movie that never feels like anything less than a major motion picture. The film has plenty of action and suspense, as well as a strong core of emotion thanks to Picard's history with the Borg. Patrick Stewart is particularly good here, and the scene in which he rages against the seeming inevitability of losing his ship to the Borg is startling in its intensity.
Critics and audiences responded. Of the ten original Trek films, this was the highest grossing (though Star Trek: The Motion Picture would actually outgross it if adjusted for inflation), and reviews were extremely positive. Many critics spotlighted the performances of the cast, Stewart in particular, and there was a general sense that the TNG films had the potential to outshine their TOS predecessors. For a shining moment, the franchise appeared to be at its absolute height.
A moment that didn't last, as the series - and the franchise in general - stumbled with the very next film...
"JUST ANOTHER EPISODE": INSURRECTION
Star Trek: Insurrection isn't a bad film; it's just not a particularly good film. It's well-intentioned, attempting to explore questions of morality vs. pragmatism in a story that draws parallels with the historical treatment of Native Americans (a pet topic of writer Michael Piller's, as can be seen in many of his episodes).
For half the film, it just about works. There's enough action to maintain viewer interest, and each set piece provides new revelations about what's happening on the planet. But once the crew knows the full story and Picard confronts stuffy Admiral Dougherty (Anthony Zerbe), it crumbles. Dougherty isn't allowed to lay out the pragmatic argument for his actions with a force to match Picard's moral arguments. Instead, every statement he makes is a weak straw man to make Picard's position appear unassailable. The story also wimps out on the premise of its title - TheEnterprise crew are never in direct conflict with Starfleet, but only with the blandly villainous So'na, the latex-covered alien baddies of the week.
The second half descends into a plodding chase, and the film feels more and more like an overextended television episode as it goes. There's even a prolonged sequence in the venerable Star Trek cave set, and a subplot with Data befriending a local moppet. With its one-sided treatment of a potentially interesting moral debate, an action movie format ineffectively superimposed on a story that should have been treated as a drama, and all conflict with Starfleet resolved in a single conversation that occurs offscreen (!), this ends up being the least effective of the TNG films, and my second least-favorite Trek movie overall.
END OF AN ERA: NEMESIS
It was four years before another Trek film hit the bigscreen. I think that was a mistake. Sure, Insurrection had misfired, but it was far from a flop; and any long-running film series is going to have a few unsuccessful entries. The studio and production staff should have simply learned their lessons and gotten to work developing the next one.
Instead, all the reliable old hands were removed from the writing and production, with fresh blood brought in. In contrast to many, I actually think writer John Logan was a good choice to pen Star Trek: Nemesis; while some lapses in character continuity make clear that he needed a bit more direction, his basic story is sound and generally well-structured. Unfortunately, director Stuart Baird was a poor fit for Star Trek. Baird's direction in character and dialogue-driven scenes is particularly flat, and he imposes a nonsensical early action scene: The now-infamous "dune buggy chase," a set piece that doesn't fit with the film and only serves to slow down the story before it has a chance to kick into gear.
For all of its faults, however, I have to admit that I enjoy Nemesis. After the horrible opening, the film finally comes together with the introduction of Tom Hardy's Shinzon. Hardy may not evoke Patrick Stewart but he still gives a good performance, and the scenes between him and Stewart are the best of the movie. I do wish more had been made of the Picard/Shinzon parallels, and I actively fault the direction for not underlining that aspect of the script more effectively. But the actors are good, and Baird's direction does come to life in the action-heavy second half, with the sense of the Enterprise being outmatched and desperate very well-evoked.
With a stronger director and better script supervision, this might have ended the TNG movies on a strong note. I still think it provides a better ending than its reputation suggests, and find it significantly more enjoyable than Insurrection.
It was an utter box office disaster, however, and a significant contributor to Trek's freefall in the early 2000s.
LIKE A TV REUNION MOVIE: FINAL CONCLUSIONS
The TNG films were an uneven batch at best. There's only one outright success in the bunch, and the final two films were both severely flawed and unsuccessful at the box office. If Star Trek: The Next Generation brought the franchise to its highest mainstream visibility in years, then the movies (and the declining performance of the later Trek television series) saw it move from mainstream success back into being a niche product. Instead of a graceful exit, such as the TOS cast received by literally signing off at the end of The Undiscovered Country, the TNG cast more or less limped off the screen in a poorly-received final outing.
The TOS films had greatly expanded on the characterization of the original regulars, making the movies essential to the franchise lore. By contrast, the TNG films just felt like "extra innings" with a crew that had already been thoroughly explored on the small screen. Much like a TV reunion movie, it was fun to spend a little more time with well-loved characters, and the films were never less than watchable... But with one notable exception, the movies felt entirely expendable.
The era of Trek that had begun in 1987 had come to a fairly ignominious end. Once Enterprise limped off television screens in 2004, the franchise would only return in a very different form.
But that is another story...
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