Plot Holes in Star Trek: Generations

[Mal12345]

Star Trek: Generations (1994) - IMDb
"Captain Picard, with the help of supposedly dead Captain Kirk, must stop a madman willing to murder on a planetary scale in order to enter an energy ribbon."

1. At the beginning of the movie, the Enterprise D is set to take a tour of the Earth's solar system. But then they receive a distress signal 3 light-years away. The Enterprise D is not yet fitted for such a task, and is the only star ship within rescue range. How can this be? You'd think that since they were in their home solar system [AKA Sector 001], there would be plenty of other ships available to mount a rescue.

2. Why send only Picard down to stop Soran? Even if this was part of some hostage exchange to bring back Geordi, they could have beamed Picard right back up again after Geordi was safely on board the Enterprise. Then they could have beamed down every red-shirt on the Enterprise.

3. Worf said it would take 11 seconds for Soran's rocket to reach the planet's sun. Was the sun only about as far away from the planet as a satellite? Or did the rocket have warp drive? If so, how did he manage to fit a warp drive into such a small unit? And even if it does have warp drive capability, why did it have to blast off with some propellant like a normal rocket?

4. The Klingon's had stolen knowledge of the Enterprise's shield frequency so they could shoot photon torpedoes or something through it. Previous episodes of ST:TNG show that the Enterprise can adjust shield frequencies to avoid this problem. However, Riker, who is in command of the Enterprise at this time, fails to rotate shield frequencies, a very well-known and common tactic to use in such situations. So is Riker a terrible captain, or does he have Deanna Troi's cleavage on his mind way too much?

5. Instead of overpowering the Klingon ship's shields using all the weapons available to them, Riker hatched some kind of devious plan involving plasma coils.(???)

6. Riker is arguably the best pilot on the Enterprise. Yet he sends Deanna (the ship's counselor) to pilot the ship, leading to the catastrophe of crash-landing the Enterprise saucer-section on the planet.

Power of the pussy?

7. When Picard enters the Nexus and meets Guinan's echo or whatever, she informs him that he can "go anywhere, any time." He chooses to go back to the mountaintop on Veridian 3 just before Soran destroyed the planet's sun. However, he could have chosen to return to a more propitious time in which to defeat Soran, such as in 10-forward on the Enterprise where they first had their congenial meeting. Soran would have been completely unprepared and would not have known what hit him. Or why.

8. Soran had no reason to kidnap Geordi. Although his plot-purpose was to ask Geordi all he knows about trilithium - a nuclear inhibitor and obviously the manner with which the star was destroyed - Soran had already successfully used his trilithium weapon on another star.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

Star Trek: Generations (1994) - IMDb7. When Picard enters the Nexus and meets Guinan's echo or whatever, she informs him that he can "go anywhere, any time." He chooses to go back to the mountaintop on Veridian 3 just before Soran destroyed the planet's sun. However, he could have chosen to return to a more propitious time in which to defeat Soran, such as in 10-forward on the Enterprise where they first had their congenial meeting. Soran would have been completely unprepared and would not have known what hit him. Or why.

This is my biggest issue with Generations. Shit, Picard could have even gone back to warn his brother and nephew to check the batteries in their smoke detectors and then known well in advance about Soran's and the cleavage twins' plot.

I love how the writers created the Nexus more or less as one giant plot device or maguffin, yet this in turn created countless plot holes throughout the film.

And yeah, the Enterprise D, essentially a Dreadnought, destroyed by an outdated Bird of Prey, which is little more than a scout class, is Ridiculous, even if they knew the shield frequency. The Enterprise could have easily launched everything they had at the Bird of Prey and destroyed it before taking the level of damage they took. I'm shocked Riker wasn't court-martialed, considering Picard was for losing the Stargazer in battle. I can imagine a deleted scene with Picard seeing the enterprise D wreckage and saying to Riker, "I leave you in command and THIS is what happens?!?!"

 

[Mal12345]

This is my biggest issue with Generations. Shit, Picard could have even gone back to warn his brother and nephew to check the batteries in their smoke detectors and then known well in advance about Soran's and the cleavage twins' plot.

I love how the writers created the Nexus more or less as one giant plot device or maguffin, yet this in turn created countless plot holes throughout the film.

Oh, I'm sure they're countable. See the OP.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

Oh, I'm sure they're countable. See the OP.

Unless you look at the film as one giant plothole in the Star Trek canon. I'd say maybe only Star Trek 5 beats it with the ridiculous notion that the Enterprise could reach the center of the galaxy in a matter of hours (or days?) or the notion that Uhura was actually attractive in that stupid costume she wore.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

LOL when Picard just sits down and lets Rambo do everything.

 

[Mal12345]

Unless you look at the film as one giant plothole in the Star Trek canon. I'd say maybe only Star Trek 5 beats it with the ridiculous notion that the Enterprise could reach the center of the galaxy in a matter of hours (or days?) or the notion that Uhura was actually attractive in that stupid costume she wore.

Kirk didn't bother to bring his axe with him. They were both weaponless against a superior and armed opponent.

Picard comes out of conference room door - the director apparently thinks it's a turbo-lift.

 

[Mal12345]

They should not have to wear their sailing ship uniforms outside of the holo-deck, as that computer will provide their outfits as holograms for them.

 

[Mal12345]

Who else was angry at the ending of this stupid movie?

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

Who else was angry at the ending of this stupid movie?

Not me.

Despite all the shit I love to nitpick, at its core, it still feels like a decent, high budget episode of TNG, with themes and messages, albeit in a "Star Trek lite" form common in the films--you know, gotta keep it dumb and actioney enough for the average movie goer who hasn't seen every television episode 10 times.

Not the worst film, better than Nemesis, at least, but it could've been much, much better.

 

[Mal12345]

Not me.

Despite all the shit I love to nitpick, at its core, it still feels like a decent, high budget episode of TNG, with themes and messages, albeit in a "Star Trek lite" form common in the films--you know, gotta keep it dumb and actioney enough for the average movie goer who hasn't seen every television episode 10 times.

Not the worst film, better than Nemesis, at least, but it could've been much, much better.

Perhaps you were overjoyed that that dumb ignoramus Kirk was killed in such an ignoble manner.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

Perhaps you were overjoyed that that dumb ignoramus Kirk was killed in such an ignoble manner.

No, my biggest problem with the film aside from the nexus plot hole I mentioned earlier is how Kirk is given a few minutes at the beginning, then a brief cameo in the end, only to die in the stupidest manner imaginable. Even Scotty got a more meaningful sendoff in "Relics" and Spock in "Unification." I'd hoped for something similar for Kirk. Perhaps he could've shown up earlier in the film and we might get to see more interaction with Picard and then we might see how he handled meeting the rest of the new crew (imagine Riker and Kirk together). Perhaps it should've been Kirk in charge during the battle with Lursa and B'etor