Star Trek Generations is the seventh Star Trek movie, the first film in the series of Star Trek: The Next Generation movies, released on 6 December 1994. Generations was adapted as Pocket Books novelization by author J.M. Dillard, with a young readers version by John Vornholt. The movie was adapted as a comic special by DC Comics, written by Michael Jan Friedman and illustrated by Gordon Purcell, Jerome Moore & Terry Pallot.
Description
- The story begins with the launching of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B) and the mysterious disappearance of Captain James T. Kirk. Then, seventy-eight years later, Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) receives a distress call from a remote scientific observatory.
- Picard learns that a newly developed superweapon has been stolen by a desperate scientist with an insane plot. Facing the most difficult task of his career, Captain Picard must seek out the one person with the power to help him, a person long thought dead, Captain James T. Kirk.
- Together, the two captains will be tested as they've never been before. And both men will be forced to make the greatest sacrifices of their careers to save countless millions from a madman with a plan of mass destruction.
Summary
This summary is based on the paperback novelisation and may differ from other versions.
A year after his retirement from Starfleet, Kirk is a guest of honour at the launch of the Enterprise-B. They are forced to answer a distress call from two transport ships carrying El-Aurian refugees and manage to beam aboard a small number of survivors as the two ships are destroyed by a mysterious energy ribbon. Kirk is able to prevent the Enterprise being sucked into the ribbon but is believed killed in the process.
78 years later, Picard receives news his brother and nephew have been killed in a fire, just as the Enterprise-D answers a distress call from the Amargosa Observatory. Among the survivors is Tolian Soran, one of the refugees rescued by the Enterprise-B. Soran launches a missile that destroys the Amargosa star, destroying the system. Soran is retrieved by a Klingon ship, with Geordi as a prisoner. Data, who has implanted himself with the emotion chip, feels fear for the first time during the incident.
Guinan, who was also among those rescued by the Enterprise-E, explains the ribbon transported them to a place called the Nexus, which is made of pure joy. In Soran's case, he found himself back with his wife and children. He has offered the Duras sisters a trilithium weapon in return for aid getting back into it. Picard and Data work out he intends to destroy the star in the Veridian system, which will cause the Nexus to pass through Veridian III.
The Enterprise encounters the Duras ship and Geordi is released in return for Picard being beamed to the surface to see Soran. The Klingons attack the Enterprise using information from a bug on La Forge, badly damaging it before the Enterprise manages to destroy them. The Enterprise stardrive explodes and the saucer crashes on Veridian III. Picard fails to stop Soran launching the rocket and they are both swept into the Nexus before an inhabited planet and the Enterprise survivors are wiped out.
Picard finds himself in a fantasy of having a family. An echo of Guinan leads him to Kirk, who has spent eighty years in the Nexus correcting past mistakes. They both choose to go back and stop Soran. Kirk is killed after jumping onto an unstable bridge to deactivate the missile's cloak and Picard is able to fix the launcher's locking clamps, with Soran being killed as it explodes trying to launch. Picard rejoins his crew before they are all evacuated.
References
Characters
Movie characters
- Armstrong • B'Etor • Butler • Pavel Chekov • Beverly Crusher • Data • Dokar • Farrell • Garvey • Guinan • John Harriman • Hayes • Jae • Kellogg • James T. Kirk • Geordi La Forge • Lursa • Marruu • Alyssa Ogawa • Elise Picard • Jean-Luc Picard • Madison Picard • Matthew Picard • Mimi Picard • Olivia Picard • René Picard • Thomas Picard • William T. Riker • Antonia Salvatori • Montgomery Scott • Tolian Soran • Spot • Demora Sulu • Mark Tobiaston • Deanna Troi • Voight • Darien Wallace • Worf
- Referenced only
- Leonard McCoy • Marie Picard • Robert Picard • Spock • Hikaru Sulu
Novelization characters
- B'Etor • Pavel Chekov • Beverly Crusher • Data • Djugashvili • Shandra Docksey • Farrell • Guinan • John Harriman • Hayes • Jake • Jeffie • James T. Kirk • Geordi La Forge • Leandra • Lojur • Lursa • Carol Marcus • Leonard McCoy • Mendez • Paskall • Elise Picard • Jean-Luc Picard • Madison Picard • Matthew Picard • Mimi Picard • Olivia Picard • Thomas Picard • Qorak • Janice Rand • William T. Riker • Antonia Salvatori • Sarah • Montgomery Scott • Tolian Soran • Spock • Spot • Demora Sulu • Hikaru Sulu • Deanna Troi • Nyota Uhura • Masoud Valtane • Worf
- Referenced only
- Will Decker • Emo • Irina Galliulin • Gorkon • Edith Keeler • Aurelan Kirk • George Samuel Kirk, Jr. • Peter Kirk • Mara • David Marcus • Joanna McCoy • Gary Mitchell • Heihachiro Nogura • Marie Picard • René Picard • Robert Picard • Sarek • Noonien Soong
Young readers novelization characters
- B'Etor • Pavel Chekov • Beverly Crusher • Data • Guinan • John Harriman • Jake • James T. Kirk • Geordi La Forge • Lursa • Mendez • Paskall • Elise Picard • Jean-Luc Picard • Madison Picard • Matthew Picard • Mimi Picard • Olivia Picard • Thomas Picard • William T. Riker • Antonia Salvatori • Montgomery Scott • Tolian Soran • Spot • Demora Sulu • Deanna Troi • Worf
- Referenced only
- Leonard McCoy • René Picard • Robert Picard • Spock • Hikaru Sulu
Comic adaptation characters
- B'Etor • Ben • Pavel Chekov • Beverly Crusher • Data • Farrell • Guinan • Jake • John Harriman • James T. Kirk • Geordi La Forge • Lursa • Marruu • Mendez • Paskall • Isabel Picard • Jean-Luc Picard • William T. Riker • Antonia Salvatori • Montgomery Scott • Tolian Soran • Spot • Demora Sulu • Deanna Troi • Worf
- Referenced only
- Leandra • Marie Picard • René Picard • Robert Picard • Spock • Hikaru Sulu
Locations
- Amargosa • Amargosa observatory • Amargosa system • Earth • Earth spacedock • Nexus • San Francisco • Veridian III • Veridian system
- Referenced only
- Arabian Peninsula • B'renga • Chalna • China • Clarus • El-Auria • El Capitan • Farpoint • Forcas III • Gorik IV • Iowa • Khitomer • Lorenze Cluster • Mars • Moscow • Mount Seleya • Ogus II • Pluto • Rura Penthe • Sadorah City • Scotland • Seiji Major • Sherman's Planet • Starbase 23 • Talaal • Thanatos sector • Themis • Turkana IV • Veridian IV • Vulcan • Yosemite National Park • Zeon Minor
Starships and vehicles
- Cha'Joh (D12-class bird-of-prey) • HMS Enterprise • USS Enterprise-A (Constitution-class) • USS Enterprise-B (Excelsior-class) • USS Enterprise-D (Galaxy-class) • USS Excelsior (Excelsior-class) • USS Farragut (Nebula-class) • SS Lakul (Whorfin-class) • SS Robert Fox (Whorfin class) • sailing vessel • USS Trosper (Oberth-class)
- Referenced only
- USS Bozeman • USS Enterprise • USS Reliant
Races and cultures
States and organizations
- House of Duras • Klingon Empire • Marcuslabs • Starfleet • United Federation of Planets
- Referenced only
- Klingon High Council • Starfleet Academy • Starfleet Command • Vulcan Science Academy
Science and classification
- antimatter • clock • deflector dish • emotion chip • flagship • holo • holodeck • inertial damper • lifeboat • magnetic interlock • nanoprobe • neutrino • palm beacon • photon torpedo • plasma coolant • sextant • shield frequency • subspace field • tractor beam • tricorder • trilithium • turbolift • VISOR • warp nacelle
Ranks and titles
Other references
- Battle of Trafalgar • cat • Christmas • Christmas tree • dog • Don Juan • Earl Grey • firewatch • Horatio Hornblower • katra • Ktarian egg • logic • orbital skydiving • saucer separation • Saurian brandy • stellar cartography • technical journal • Thirellian mint tea • Vulcan mandala
Appendices
Related media
- Generations (PC game) - Video game adaptation
- The Voyages of the USS Enterprise-B continue in:
Background
- The novelization features a forty page behind-the-scenes section on the making of Star Trek Generations written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens.
- The hardcover version features an ending based on the originally-filmed (yet ultimately deleted) ending of the film. The paperback version features a rewritten ending based on that which ultimately appeared in the finished feature film.
- The PC video game expands on the 2371 portion of the story.
- New uniforms were designed for Star Trek Generations, a hybrid of the Wrath of Khan uniform and the TNG uniform, including a double-breast flap, colored collar and gold rank stripes on the sleeve-cuffs. They were all scrapped at the last minute and a combination of the TNG and DS9 uniforms were used in the final film instead. Because filming was on a short schedule, Jonathan Frakes and LeVar Burton had to use Avery Brooks and Colm MeaneyMA's costumes for DS9, respectively, rather than having new costumes tailored.
- None of the women in the main TNG cast wear the DS9 uniform in the film, although recurring character Alyssa Ogawa did. Ogawa was the only female character to wear the DS9 uniform in the film.
- Picard, Riker, Data and LaForge are the only four characters in the main TNG cast to wear the DS9 uniform in the film. Worf was the only male character in the TNG main cast to not wear the DS9 uniform in the film, although he would later wear the variant after he joined the DS9 crew in the final four seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
- This marks the only time where the Enterprise battle bridge is not using during the emergency saucer separation sequence, due to the warp core breach in the stardrive section.
- The comic included a five-page article by Margaret Clark on adapting the movie, using the 19th century holodeck sequence as an example.
Images
Novelization images
Comic images
Other adaptation images
Film images
Connections
Timeline
| published order | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous novel: Federation |
TNG novels | Next novel: Balance of Power |
| Previous novelization: All Good Things... |
TNG novelizations | Next novelization: Star Trek: First Contact |
| chronological order | ||
| Previous Adventure: The Soldiers of Fear |
Next Adventure: The Best and the Brightest "Summer", Chapter 10 | |
| Previous Adventure: Tooth and Claw |
Voyages of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) |
Next Adventure: Final voyage of the Enterprise-D |
| Previous Adventure: First voyage of the Enterprise-B |
Voyages of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B) |
Next Adventure: The Captain's Daughter |
| The above chronology placements are based on the primary placement in 2371. The Pocket Books Timeline places events from this story in two other timeframes: | ||
| Previous Adventure: Shadows on the Sun Books 1, 3 |
2293 Chapter 1 |
Next Adventure: The Last Roundup |
| Previous Adventure: The Lights in the Sky |
2293 Stardate 9715.5 Chapters 2-5 |
Next Adventure: One of Forty-seven |
Production history
- 6 December 1994
- Film debuts.
- December 1994
- Novelization by J.M. Dillard released in hardcover. (ISBN 0671517422)
- 128-page young reader novelization by John Vornholt released. (Minstrel Books, ISBN 978-0671519018)
- Comic adaptation by Michael Jan Friedman released. (DC Comics)
- 3-hour audiobook read by John de Lancie released. (Simon & Schuster Audioworks: cassette ISBN 9780743546348, CD ISBN 9780671856687)
- December 1995
- Novelization released in paperback. (ISBN 0671537539)
- 12 December 2008
- Audiobook reissued.
Translations
- 1995
- German : Star Trek: Generationen by J. M. Dillard, translated by Andreas Brandhorst. (Heyne, ISBN 978-3453090491)
- 1995
- German : Generationen young reader novelization by John Vornholt, translated by Andreas Brandhorst. (Heyne)
- 1995
- French : Générations. (Fleuve Noir, ISBN 2-265-05556-5)
- 1995
- Italian : Generazioni, translated by Alberto Liserio and Gabriella Cordone. (Fanucci Editore, ISBN 88-3470-451-7)
- 1995
- Portuguese : A Nova Geração. (Editora Aleph, ISBN 978-85-85887-17-9)
- 1995
- Japanese : スター·トレック7 ジェネレーションズ, translated by Hiroshi Saito. (Hayakawa Bunko, ISBN 9784150111021)
- 1996
- Russian: Поколения, translated by D. G. Pastuhov and I. M. Radchenko. (Rusich)
- 25 February 2014
- German reissue. (Heyne)
External links
- Star Trek Generations (novel) article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- Generations article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- Star Trek Generations article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.