Two legends unite.
Kirk: Captain of the Enterprise, hmm?
Picard: That's right.
Kirk: Close to retirement?
Picard: I'm not planning on it.
Kirk: Well, let me tell you something: Don't. Don't let them promote you. Don't let them transfer you. Don't let them do anything that takes you off the bridge of that ship, because while you're there, you can make a difference.
Picard: That's right.
Kirk: Close to retirement?
Picard: I'm not planning on it.
Kirk: Well, let me tell you something: Don't. Don't let them promote you. Don't let them transfer you. Don't let them do anything that takes you off the bridge of that ship, because while you're there, you can make a difference.
The one where Picard meets Kirk and they ride horses together before fighting a Human Alien trying to get into heaven.
Star Trek Generations is the seventh movie in the Star Trek film series, released in 1994. This is the first movie featuring the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Billed as a Crossover (Cross Through?) with Star Trek: The Original Series, although the main TOS representative, apart from the last adventure, is given The Cameo for this one.
It's shortly after the end of the Next Generation TV series, which ended its run just before this film was released. Our baddie is Dr. Soran (Malcolm McDowell), a Mad Scientist with a malicious agenda reaching back seventy-eight years to when he was "saved" from the Nexus by Kirk, who then disappeared into it himself and was presumed dead. Soran now plans to blow up a couple of suns to get back into the Nexus, but Picard gets Kirk to leave the Nexus and join him for a bridge-dropping climax.
Tropes seen in Generations include:
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Tropes #-H
- The '90s: Most of the film manages to hide its age, but Data's fist pump is pure 90's.
- Abandon Ship
- In the prologue, the Enterprise-B is beaming aboard the passengers of two refugee ships caught in a Negative Space Wedgie. Subverted in that many of them don't want to leave.
- The Enterprise-D in the film's climax. Downplayed in that they simply evacuated everybody into the part of the ship that wasn't about to explode and separated it.
- Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene
- The entire sequence in the Nexus.
- Outside the Nexus, there is also the scene in which Picard is talking to Deanna about the death of Robert and René.
- Actor Allusion: According to Memory Alpha, Harriman’s personnel file from one of the Trek video games says he has "a wife named Sloane and a son named Ferris who both live in Chicago, as well as interests in 20th century Italian sports automobiles."
- A Glitch in the Matrix:
- A variant. Kirk knows that the Nexus isn't real, but he's content to stick with it because it offers a chance for him to live the life he missed out on. However, when he jumps his horse over a ravine and feels nothing for it, he realizes that he can never appreciate the Nexus because it lacks a defining element of fear.
- Played straight with the Christmas tree in Picard's Nexus vision. Everything is beautfiul and perfect, except for that one ornament with the tiny star exploding over and over...
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Two examples:
- The first is Downplayed and non-villainous, and occurs when the Enterprise is trying to rescue two El-Aurian transports from the energy ribbon. After the first one is destroyed and the inexperienced Captain Harriman realizes that he has no idea what to do, he swallows his pride and asks the veteran Captain Kirk for help, which he's practically jumping to provide.Harriman: Captain Kirk...I would appreciate any suggestions you might have.
- The second is played much straighter and scarier. After Soran KO's Geordi, he holds Data at phaserpoint. Data, whose recently-installed emotion chip is malfunctioning, is overcome by fear and begging for his life.Data: Please...do not...do not hurt me. Please, please...
- The first is Downplayed and non-villainous, and occurs when the Enterprise is trying to rescue two El-Aurian transports from the energy ribbon. After the first one is destroyed and the inexperienced Captain Harriman realizes that he has no idea what to do, he swallows his pride and asks the veteran Captain Kirk for help, which he's practically jumping to provide.
- Air Containment Field: When the Nexus breeches the hull of U.S.S. Enterprise-B and Captain Kirk is blown outnote , a force field snaps up to patch the hull when Scotty, Chekov, and Capt. Harriman come to see what became of Kirk.
- Amicable Exes: In the book, Kirk and Carol have finally got to a friendly place. He still tries to get with her one last time though, but she kindly rejects him, as while they love each other, she knows he’s trying to run away from his problems; far too Married to the Job to settle down, Hates Being Alone and feeling his age.
- Anyone Can Die: This was supposed to be the overarching theme of the movie ("Time is the fire in which we burn").
- Apocalypse How: Soran causes Stellar Physical Annihilation (Class X-2) in the Amargosa system and the Veridian system...but the Veridian system gets reversed thanks to Picard and Kirk.
- Appeal to Novelty: Many of the more infamous storytelling decisions were made in an attempt to be more "unexpected" and "unconventional," but frequently forgetting that Tropes Are Tools and Tropes Are Not Bad.
- Arc Number: Scotty manages to save 47 people. 47 is an arc number in all the modern Star Trek series.
- Armor-Piercing Question: El-Aurians are "a race of listeners". Well, Dr. Soran shows what happens when they use their powers of observation for evil, as he expertly manipulates Picard in a quietly malicious manner.
- Art Evolution: The cinematography of the TV show is almost entirely abandoned for this film. The most notable is the Enterprise bridge makes much heavier use of light and shadows and scenes in Ten Forward are bathed in a yellow Color Wash from the nearby sun.
- Artistic License – Physics:
- Soran's plan to divert the Nexus makes sense at first, but promptly falls apart later. In order to actually get inside, he has to destroy the Veridian star so the Nexus hits the planet instead of a near-miss. Problem is, the timing of this is such that there would be no appreciable change in gravity since the sun is still largely intact and thus a massive gravitational body. The Nexus suddenly altering course to hit the planet would never happen. It would have made more sense to destroy the star then have the Nexus hit a planet in another solar system.
- The effects of the destruction of the Veridian star are observed far too quickly on the planet; due to the speed of light, it should take several minutes for the missile's detonation to be visible on the planet, rather than only a few seconds.
- Averted with the crash of the saucer, which takes a full minute and 14 seconds from first contacting the planet, as befitting such an enormous mass.
- But played straight with the saucer crashing at all. Energy is needed to leave any actual orbit (else it's not an orbit) and worse, Deanna is ordered to take the saucer out of orbit. Even IF the saucer had to crash land, it should have taken hours to days.
- Attack Its Weak Point: During the space battle, the Duras sisters are about to finish off the Enterprise-D by firing on the main bridge, which is one of the main weak points on Starfleet vessels.. However, the Enterprise has already figured out the Klingon ship's weak point - a low level ionic pulse that starts the cloaking process and lowers the Klingon ship's shields. Once the Enterprise exploits that weak point, it then takes one well placed photon torpedo fired from the Enterprise to put an end to the Duras sisters and their Bird-of-Prey for good.
- Back for the Dead: Kirk, sort of.
- Barrier Bypass: After capturing Geordi La Forge, Dr. Soran and the Duras Sisters are able to modify his VISOR so they can see what he sees on the Enterprise. Upon discovering the shield frequency, the sisters are able to modify their Bird of Prey's Disruptors to that frequency to pass through it and deal devastating damage to the Enterprise.
- Beauty Is Relative: "Human females are so repulsive!" Said by Lursa and B'Etor, female Klingons, while looking at Dr. Crusher through a bug inserted into Geordi's VISOR.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Soran and the Duras sisters are working together because they have coincident goals: the sisters want the Star Killing weapons he can build so they can renew their bid to overthrow Chancellor Gowron (see "Redemption"), while he needed raw materials to build the weapons in the first place for his Zany Scheme to get back to the Nexus. Soran also bugs Geordi's visor for them so they stand a chance against the Enterprise.
- Big Damn Movie: Captain Kirk dies, entire star systems are in danger of being destroyed, the Enterprise-D is destroyed and crashes, Picard loses his family and Data gets emotions. YMMV over the movie's quality, but events are certainly a step up from the average TNG episode.
- Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In-universe, even. Data scanning for lifeforms. And singing. With the controls providing instrumentation. The crew is visibly thrown by this.
- Bittersweet Ending: With Captain Kirk's help, Picard is able to prevent Soran from destroying the Veridian system and killing its millions of inhabitants including the crew of the Enterprise-D, at the cost of Kirk's life, and the destruction of the Enterprise-D.
- Bond One-Liner: An intended one. Soran remarking that Geordi's "heart wasn't in" telling him the information they needed was a reference to a torture technique used in a deleted scene. Since the scene wasn't in the movie, the remark sounds out of place.
- Breakfast in Bed: Kirk's Nexus fantasy has him bringing a breakfast of Ktarian eggs to Antonia in bed.
- Break Them by Talking: If you ever wondered what would happen if an El-Aurian used their keen insight against someone instead of counseling them - look out.Soran: They say time is the fire in which we burn. Right now, Captain, my time is running out. We leave so many things unfinished in our lives... I know you understand.note
- Soran gets off a nasty one when with Geordi. When he asks why Geordi doesn't get prosthetic eyes instead of a VISOR to look "more normal": note Geordi: (dismissively) What's normal?
Soran: (venomously) "What's normal?" That's a good question... normal is what everyone else is, and you are not.
- Soran gets off a nasty one when with Geordi. When he asks why Geordi doesn't get prosthetic eyes instead of a VISOR to look "more normal": note
- Call-Back
- While exploring the Amargosa Observatory, Data reminds Geordi of a joke Geordi told Riker at Farpoint Station. As noted in Late to the Punchline, Farpoint Station was the setting for the pilot episode of TNG.
- Shortly after the D12 is destroyed, the movie cuts to Geordi in engineering examining an open panel and in the middle of a conversation about the damage the ship's taken. He turns around and communicates with the bridge, only to be cut off as the panel he's just walked away from explodes and engineering rapidly degenerates from being a mess to being an outright hazardous environment. As he's ushering everyone out, Geordi tells the bridge that they're a few minutes away from a warp-core breach he can't stop. This scene mirrors one from the episode "Yesterday's Enterprise", where the ship was fatally damaged fighting Klingons in an alternate timeline. It helped that David Carson directed both "Yesterday's Enterprise" and Generations. It's even the same panel which blows out. The only difference is the time to breach is increased from two minutes to five (to make the subsequent evacuation more believable).
- Furthermore, he escapes from Engineering by doing the Epic Geordi Maneuver, previously seen in "The Best of Both Worlds" - this time it's a lot more justified as the door was actually at waist-height when he started his roll.
- Back in "Descent", Data reasons against trying to install the emotion chip because in part he hates having placed his friend Geordi in danger while under its influence. In this movie, he elects to install the chip, only for it to malfunction and for him to find himself paralyzed by fear while Geordi gets beaten up and kidnapped by Soran on the observatory, proving his initial fears correct and leaving him feeling guilty.
- As Harriman is worrying about helping the El-Aurians, asking Kirk "What about the gravimetric distortions? They'll tear us apart.", Kirk answers "Risk is part of the game if you want to sit in that chair.", echoing his "Risk is our business" speech from TOS' "Return To Tomorrow".
- One of the El-Aurian ships is the SS Robert Fox, named after the Federation ambassador in the TOS episode "A Taste of Armageddon".
- Call to Agriculture: In the Nexus, Kirk was found chopping wood and frying eggs at his old house in the mountains.
- Central Theme: Acceptance of death and the passage of time. Kirk is not handling retirement well and is itching for any opportunity to be useful. Picard lost his brother and nephew in an accident and is faced with being the end of his family line. Soran's entire mission centers on returning to the Nexus as an escape from reality because once he had a taste of it he couldn't let go. Both Kirk and Picard realize the meaningless of the Nexus where no choices matter and the motivation to make a difference is gone.
- Changing Clothes Is a Free Action: One of the most subtle examples on record. At the beginning of the film, the main cast is wearing their ST:TNG-era uniforms, with the black shoulders and colored torso. Then a few Red Shirts in the background are seen with the updated ST:DS9 color scheme with the black torso and colored shoulders. Then Data starts wearing it. And then Riker, and Geordi, and finally Picard (though he changes back into his TNG uniform in the end). In at least one case with Riker his uniform literally changes between two scenes where he couldn't possibly have had time to do so in real life. See the entry under
Show Accuracy/Toy Accuracy in trivia for a possible explanation for all this uniform madness.- Troi, Worf, and Crusher meanwhile wear the TNG TV uniforms for the entire film.
- *Click* Hello: Soran does this to Admiral Kirk during the battle on Veridian III.
- Closest Thing We Got: "You and you, you've just become nurses. Let's go."
- Comedic Sociopathy: Lampshaded then deconstructed. While Worf was getting dropped into the ocean (in the holodeck...) as "reward" for promotion to Lieutenant Commander...Data: I am uncertain as to why someone falling into freezing water is amusing.
Beverly: It's all in good fun, Data. You've got to live in the moment, get into the spirit of things. Get it?
Data: Got it.(Cue Data pushing Beverly overboard, then wondering why no one is laughing) - Comic-Book Adaptation: By DC Comics.
- Coming in Hot: The saucer section of the Enterprise after the stardrive section explodes.
- Compliment Backfire: After calling Kirk, Scotty, and Chekov "living legends", Captain Harriman adds "I remember reading about your missions when I was in grade school.", leaving Kirk less than amused.
- Consulting Mister Puppet: Data talking to "Mr. Tricorder".Geordi: Data, come take a look at this. Have you ever seen a solar probe with this kind of configuration?
"Mr. Tricorder": No, Geordi, I have not. (to Data) Have you?
Data: No, I have not. It is most unusual. - Continuity Nod:
- He’s much more cynical about it this time, but Kirk feels A Million Is a Statistic initially much in the same way he did when Edith vs millions of death was the Sadistic Choice.
- Kirk remarked in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier that he knew he would die alone. Specifically, after taking a near-fatal fall off a mountain in Yosemite during a camping trip with McCoy and Spock, he tells McCoy that he felt confident he would survive because both of them were with him. He adds, darkly, "I've always known... I'll die alone." When he "dies" on the Enterprise-B, he's the only guy in the room. His actual death could be argued the same, since Picard was the only other person around and he was too late to actually prevent it. The novelization of the movie actually mentions the callback at Yosemite. This could even be argued to bookend a "Kirk trilogy" of V, VI, and Generations, in which Kirk plays Peter Pan at the end of VI, receives unending exploration within the Nexus, but finally accepts his fate as a man.
- While aboard the observatory, Data mentions the Farpoint mission - which was the subject of the TNG series premiere.
- A vital clue comes about because of the offscreen actions of the ubiquitous Starship Bozeman, frequently mentioned in the series.
- The empty house, and the empty chair; the feeling that Kirk is alone with only his job making him worth anything, comes back from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
- In the book, Kirk goes through multiple Nexus fantasies, moving from each one when it’s too happy for him to tolerate, in a reference to “The Paradise Syndrome” where he under amnesia admitted he feels like he doesn’t deserve to be happy.
- Continuity Overlap: This one's an interesting case. The film was released during the third season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and while there are no mentions of the station, characters are wearing the jumpsuit uniforms created for DS9. However, as detailed under Show Accuracy/Toy Accuracy, the usage of the jumpsuits was a last-minute decision, making this an unintentional overlap.
- Continuity Snarl:
- This film establishes that Kirk died (at least presumably) in 2293 during the launch of the Enterprise-B. However, in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Relics," in which Scotty is rescued from being trapped inside a transporter buffer for 75 years, Scotty believes Kirk to still be alive even though from his point of view, he witnessed Kirk's death only one year earlier.note
- After being given an emotion chip, Data says he now gets a joke Geordi told him off screen during their very first mission together. We never hear the whole joke, but it apparently involved a Ferengi in a gorilla suit. This is strange, since the Federation didn't really know anything about the Ferengi until some time after that mission. They had met them at least twice before, but never learned who they were in those encounters. (They do know the Ferengi are very short, so that might have been the basis for the joke, and it wouldn't offend any other races.)
- This comes off as a Broad Strokes Call-Back to an X-rated joke told by Geordi later in Season 1 (“Conspiracy”) for which we do hear the punchline—it has to do with the Zero-G Spot—which was probably too racy for this movie; Data did actually simulate laughter to that joke to boot, but it came off as the audio version of The Un-Smile.
- The Constant: Guinan and Soran.
- *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": In the book, a Continuity Nod to “The Deadly Years” has Kirk trying valiantly to ignore that his back hurts, because he doesn’t want to deal with the fact that he’s getting on in years.
- Crazy-Prepared: Averted with the launch of the Enterprise-B. The Enterprise is short staffed with no medical personnel assigned to the ship yet, nor does she have critical equipment like tractor beams or photon torpedos, leading to Kirk's disappearance within the Nexus. note
- Critical Staffing Shortage: The Enterprise-B is launched with a skeleton crew for a press run, so when the call comes in for them to yank some ships out of a Negative Space Wedgie, they wind up with no medical personnel and so few engineering personnel that Kirk has to make a Heroic Sacrifice to save them from certain doom.
- Damage Control: During the battle, Geordi LaForge is seen ordering his repair teams around, although it ultimately turns out to be futile.Geordi: Let's get a stabilizer on that conduit! (steam explosion) Reinforce that starboard interlock! We need to reroute main power through the secondary coupling!
- Dare to Be Badass:
- Kirk advises this of Harriman:Kirk: Risk is a part of the job if you want to sit in that chair.
- When Kirk is feeling empty in the Nexus because he hasn't made a difference since he left Starfleet.Picard: Come back with me. Help me stop Soran. Make a difference again.
- Kirk advises this of Harriman:
- The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: Soran. "Nice try."
- Deader than Dead: The effects of the Amargosa and Veridian stars imploding is to atomize everything in their respective systems, including Veridian III. This is also the result of a warp core breach - the entire stardrive section of the Enterprise-D is completely obliterated.
- Deadpan Snarker: Scotty and Chekov good-naturedly rag on Kirk after Harriman insisted that Kirk give the order to take the ship out, amid patronizing applause.Chekov: Wery good, sir.
Scotty: Brought a tear to me eye.
Kirk: (mildly annoyed) Oh, be quiet. - Defector from Paradise: We have the case of Jean-Luc Picard and Captain Kirk attempting to escape the Nexus. Kirk is reluctant to leave the Nexus at first, but soon realized that the ability to make a difference in the real world was more important to him than anything the Nexus could offer. The tipping point is when he jumps a ravine with his horse, one he jumped numerous times in the real world, only to realize here that the element of danger which made it feel exciting when it was real is absent since he knows he's in the Nexus.
- Delayed Leadership Ascendance: Discussed and averted: Kirk gives this advice to Picard when the two meet, as Kirk had chafed under the administrative and desk work of being an admiral saying that Picard being a captain of the flagship is where he can best make a difference in the galaxy.
- Demoted to Extra: Beverly Crusher.
- Despair Event Horizon: The book has Kirk finally cross it when he has to retire, having exhausted all his ploys and tricks to keep his command, but feeling just too old to carry on (and even then Kirk’s bio adds on that he wants another ship not in Starfleet, right before he dies). It’s also there in the movie, telling Picard he’s had enough of the universe fucking him over, and wants to stay in his fantasies where he can make up for the mistakes he feels he’s made.
- Did I Mention It's Christmas?: The first place Captain Picard enters into in the Nexus is his family house celebrating Christmas with his family, until he realizes with Guinan's presence in the room that he is in the Nexus, and she helps him find Captain Kirk, who is also in the Nexus in whatever fantasy life he's living.
- Distress Call
- The Enterprise B receives a distress call from two starships caught in an "energy ribbon". When it responds, it is caught too, and a famous Star Trek figure Captain James T. Kirk performs a Heroic Sacrifice to save the ship.
- 78 years later, the Enterprise-D responds to a distress signal from the Amargosa Observatory after the space station is attacked by Romulans.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: The Trope Namer itself.
- Ironically, Kirk's death was a reshoot from one that was poorly received by test groups, where he just takes a disruptor blast to the back and dies.
- In fact, it doesn't just literally apply to James T. Kirk; in the way we've defined this trope, the deaths of Robert and Rene Picard in a sudden fire at their home are examples too.
- Also, the Enterprise-D herself, being taken out by a ship that by all rights shouldn't have posed a threat to the flagship of the Federation. It's justified, given that the enemy ship is able to fire through the Enterprise's shields, inflicting far more damage than normal, but it's still a weak-ass opponent that takes her down.
- Dude, Not Funny!:
- In-universe. At the beginning of the film, the officers are having a promotion party for Worf on the holodeck, where they're on an 18th-century naval ship. They make Worf walk to the end of the plank and jump for his new rank insignia, then Riker orders the computer to "remove the plank." The plank disappears, dropping Worf into the sea, and Riker jokes that he meant to say, "retract". After Crusher attempts to explain the humor to Data, he pushes her overboard.LaForge: Data!
Data: (smirking) That was...
LaForge: ...not funny! - This serves as the catalyst for Data to have Geordi install his emotion chip, as if he cannot grasp a concept like humor, he will never be human. Though ironically, a good deal of viewers find it very funny, so that Geordi comes off as a humorless priss.
- In-universe. At the beginning of the film, the officers are having a promotion party for Worf on the holodeck, where they're on an 18th-century naval ship. They make Worf walk to the end of the plank and jump for his new rank insignia, then Riker orders the computer to "remove the plank." The plank disappears, dropping Worf into the sea, and Riker jokes that he meant to say, "retract". After Crusher attempts to explain the humor to Data, he pushes her overboard.
- Enhance Button: While looking through Geordi's visor, the Klingon sisters use one to see the Enterprise's shield frequency.
- Epic Launch Sequence: Of the Enterprise-B, which Kirk, Scotty, and Chekov attend as honored guests.
- "Eureka!" Moment:
- It's subtle, but when Data mentions the Bozeman making a "minor course correction" after the destruction of Amargosa (because the star's implosion altered gravity throughout the sector), Picard starts to figure out what Soran's plan is.
- Shatner shows some subtle acting in the film, when he wears an astonished look on his face after leaping over a stream with his horse.note
- Evil Brit: Soran (although technically not British, as he was an alien), played by Malcolm McDowell.
- Exact Time to Failure
- While the Enterprise-B is inside the energy ribbon, a bridge officer says, "45 seconds to structural collapse."
- After the Enterprise-D is damaged by the Klingon attack, Geordi tells the bridge that "We're five minutes from a warp core breach." A few minutes later, Commander Data says that there's one minute to warp core breach — albeit it's subverted in the latter instance, as the core actually explodes in less than half that amount of time.
- Exact Words: The holodeck computer parses Riker's "Computer, remove the plank" order as "remove plank from simulation". Picard calls him out on that. The novelization makes it clear that this is a very intentional exploitation of this trope by Riker.
- Executive Meddling: Happens in-universe to the Enterprise-B: the ship is deployed incomplete, missing key systems and crew for its shakedown cruise, and without other ships around to assist, so that Starfleet can show it off to the press. Meddling confirmed in an comic that takes place after the movie.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!:
- Demora provides a damage report on a hull breach on the Enterprise-B after they escape the ribbon — and realizes that Kirk was in one of the damaged sections. (Specifically, deck 15, section 21-A.)Demora: Sections 20 through 28 on decks 13, 14...and 15.
Scotty: Bridge to Captain Kirk! (no answer) Captain Kirk, please respond! (still no answer) - Picard and Data figure out that Soran is going to destroy the Veridian star to change the energy ribbon's course to the third planet...and then Data reports that the fourth planet hosts a preindustrial civilization that will also be destroyed.Picard: Picard to bridge.
Worf: Worf here, sir.
Picard: Set a course for the Veridian System, maximum warp!
- Demora provides a damage report on a hull breach on the Enterprise-B after they escape the ribbon — and realizes that Kirk was in one of the damaged sections. (Specifically, deck 15, section 21-A.)
- Explosive Instrumentation: Several bridge consoles explode during the attack on the Enterprise. One Red Shirt gets blown halfway across the bridge, and several more are taken to Sickbay.
- Face Death with Dignity:
- Having been obsessed with death, and with escaping it for so long, when Soran is finally confronted with it he elects to close his eyes and stand his ground rather than do any more futile running or protesting.
- In his final moments, Kirk doesn't lament his fate. He's glad to have been given the chance to help, and his last words are of wonder, not trepidation."It was...fun. Oh my..."
- Failed a Spot Check: Soran accuses the Duras Sisters of this when they stole the Trilithium from the Romulan Outpost. Lursa and B’Etor insist they left no survivors, but clearly they did something careless (be it missing a survivor or not covering their tracks well enough) to leave enough of a trail for the Romulans to follow all the way back to Armagosa.
- Fake-Out Opening: Not exactly the opening, but the scene following the 23rd-century prologue shows an 18th-century sailing ship with the caption "78 years later". It turns out to be a holodeck simulation.
- Fake Shemp: Shots of Picard standing over Kirk's grave did not actually feature Patrick Stewart, but rather Dennis Tracy. Tracy acted as Stewart's stand-in and appeared earlier in the film as an unnamed Bolian waiter in Ten Forward.
- Family of Choice: The film managed to get thumbs up from Siskel & Ebert on the basis of the familial relationship of the characters alone.
- A Father to His Men: For the prisoner exchange, Picard offers up himself both to get Geordi back and to prevent a guilt-ridden Data from going. He also gives Data a pat on the shoulder to assure him this is all right.
- The Final Temptation: Both Kirk and Picard are given their fondest desires being fulfilled in the Nexus, only to not work when Picard realizes that millions were sacrificed in the process of his being in the Nexus, and Kirk realizes that it doesn't give him the same thrill of danger that he normally gets in the real world.
- First Time Feeling: When Data's emotion chip is first installed, he experiences emotions more strongly than the humans around him. Eventually the chip overloads and his emotions become so intense that he collapses, switching rapidly from one to the next, wide-eyed the entire time.
- Fist Pump:
- After the Klingon Bird-of-Prey is destroyed, Data (who is under the influence of the emotion chip) does this gesture and gives a Big "YES!".
- There's an extra in the background who also does a fist pump
just before Data does it, then (out of universe) tries to hide the fact that he did it in order to not ruin Data's moment.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: When Dr. Soran checks on his sun-killer missile after Picard messes with it, the viewscreen says that the missile's locking clamps are still engaged. Soran gets an Oh, Crap! look on his face as he and the audience realize that something bad is going to happen when the missile tries to launch. He has just enough time to close his eyes and Face Death with Dignity before the whole thing explodes, killing him.
- Foil: Doctor Soran and Captain Picard: Both characters have been scarred by the Borg, and have lost loved ones to certain circumstances (Soran to the Borg, and Picard to a fire), and both were also devastated by the deaths. The difference is that while Soran is perfectly willing to destroy entire worlds so he'd at least be reunited with his family in some fashion (by the Nexus), Picard isn't.
- Foul First Drink: Data drinks his first bit of alcohol. With his new emotion chip installed, he gags on every sip and hates it, describing the drink as revolting. He still asks for more.
- Force Field Cage: Inverted. Instead of restraining Picard, Soran has actually sequestered himself inside a giant forcefield dome. Picard beats it by slipping under a rock arch that the forcefield was resting on.
- For the Funnyz: Data spontaneously decides to shove Doctor Crusher into the holodeck ocean when she unintentionally implies to him that it would be funny. None of the Enterprise crew are amused.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Take a closer look at Kirk's house in the Nexus, and you'll find a Klingon bat'leth hanging decoratively on a wall. Exactly how he got that (assuming that this is a faithful recreation of his past) is worth pondering over. Did he salvage Kruge's from the HMS Bounty as a war trophy? Did Azetbur give it to him as a gift after the peace talks? Viewers will never know.
- The Future Is Noir: Very noticeably so, compared to the way the exact same USS Enterprise sets appeared on the TNG television series. The set designer on this movie knew that the sets had been built for the considerably lower resolution of television, and that they'd never stand up to the scrutiny of a cinema screen. The solution? Turn off all the lights, so the audience can't see the joins. This is a rather common technique, and is one big reason why a lot of Sci-Fi shows have dark sets. And in this case, they only had to do it for a single movie, since the sequel traded up to the 1701-E with movie quality sets.
- Gangsta Style: Soran's gun tilts its shooty-part on the side, and he likes to twist his hand to the side to compensate? note
- Genre Deconstruction: The series never dwelt on it much, but this movie shows just how terrifying the life-and-death misadventures of the Enterprise would actually be to the children aboard.
- Gilligan Cut: A deleted opening scene had Kirk skydiving, echoing his mid-life crisis in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Chekov reminds him that they're scheduled to look over the new Enterprise. Kirk states emphatically, "I'm not going," and of course this would have led to the bottle smashing on the ship and Kirk arriving.
- Going Down with the Ship: Downplayed when they evacuate the stardrive section of the Enterprise. With Picard planetside and Riker, Data, Troi, and Worf on the Bridge, Geordi is the highest-ranking officer belowdecks. He's the last one to escape Engineering and the last one to evacuate the stardrive.
- Got Volunteered: With the medical staff not arriving until Tuesday, Chekov tell two reporters "You've just become nurses. Let's go."
- Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: Worf has a Gravitational Cognizance moment after Riker says, "Computer, remove the plank."
- Hand Signals: Lursa signals her Klingon crew not to attack Soran when he starts shoving them around.
- Hand Wave: When Kirk was in love with Antonia. According to the film, he temporarily retired from Starfleet at some point between Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and returned to Starfleet once they split up.
- Happy Ending Override:
- The film acts as this for both Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and TNG's finale, "All Good Things...". The former ends with Kirk and his crew metaphorically Riding into the Sunset and what appears to be a well-earned retirement, while the latter has an And the Adventure Continues feel, with an implication that the crew's adventures may continue for decades into the future. By the end of this film, Kirk is dead and the Enterprise-D is destroyed, both within a few months to a year of the last time we saw them.
- It also does this for another TNG episode, "Family", which ended with Picard making peace with his brother, and his nephew, Rene seemingly thinking of a possible future in Starfleet. They both end up dying off-screen just prior to the start of the 24th century segment of the film.
- Heaven: The Nexus. It's not explicitly Heaven... but it is functionally. It's essentially a Happy Place in physical space that can give you your heart's deepest desire, free of any Aesoptinum fees.
- Heroic BSoD: Done as only Patrick Stewart can deliver.
- Hero of Another Story: Captain Harriman, though this doesn't begin to become apparent until he overcomes his nervousness at having Captain Kirk aboard and steps up as The Captain. note .
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Tragically implied with the deaths of Robert and René Picard. "Family" had previously established that Jean-Luc's brother had inherited a disdain towards modern technology from their father. Chateau Picard under Robert’s stewardship therefore deliberately eschewed conveniences like a replicator. Without any basic fire prevention systems, father and son die end up tragically in an ordinary house fire.
- Horse Jump: One that, according to Kirk, "scared the hell out of [him] each time". The fact that it doesn't this time forces Kirk to accept that it's not real, and he can't really be happy in the Nexus.
- Humans Are Ugly: Lursa and B'Etor cringe when the first thing they see upon activating their bugging of LaForge's VISOR is Dr. Crusher.B'Etor: Human females are so repulsive!
- Hyperspeed Escape: The Enterprise-D combines this with Outrun the Fireball for a particularly dramatic jump to warp to escape the shockwave of an exploding star.
Tropes I-Z
- I Like Those Odds: Discussed by Kirk.Kirk: I take it the odds are against us and the situation is grim.
Picard: You could say that.
Kirk: You know, if Spock were here, he would say that I was an irrational, illogical human being for taking on a mission like that... Sounds like fun. - Ignored Epiphany:
- Soran makes a discreet exit from Ten Forward the second he sees Guinan there. She then notices something was off and looks around the room, but seeing nothing unusual, she resumes her work.
- Picard appeals to Soran by likening his actions to what the Borg did to his world. Soran hesitates for a moment and appears to be thinking this over, but he then just brushes the comment off.
- Initiation Ceremony: Worf has been promoted to Lieutenant Commander, so the crew holds a ceremony on the holodeck. He is made to walk the plank on an old sailing vessel (Enterprize) and leap up to snag a period hat. After he is successful, Riker ensures he gets dunked by ordering the computer "Remove plank." Picard admonishes him, "It's retract plank." In mock apology, Riker leans over the side and shouts, "Sorry!"
- Indy Hat Roll: When there's a coolant leak in the warp core reactor, the Enterprise engineering crew evacuates the area. Geordi La Forge is the last person out, rolling under the descending door just before it closes.
- Improbable Infant Survival: Spot. Can't have the cat die after all.
- Irony:
- Soran, a Long-Lived El-Aurian, rambling about aging and the passage of time to Picard, a human that Soran could easily expect to outlive by centuries under normal circumstances.
- Earlier, Scotty refers to the Enterprise-B as "a damn fine ship". That's hilarious, considering he spent the previous 8 years (movies 3 through 6) insulting the Excelsior, which is the same ship class. It's due to the fact that Scotty at the time was not pleased with the Excelsior being touted as a better ship than the Enterprise. An Excelsior-class ship named Enterprise, however...
- Kicked Upstairs: Kirk is perturbed at having to order the Enterprise-B to move. Everyone on the bridge applauds patronizingly. He later warns Picard not to accept any promotions.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: According to Bill Shatner, the "Oh my..." is the sound of Kirk glimpsing the ultimate unknown. But he dies before he can describe what he's seeing.
- Killed Off for Real: Lursa and B'Etor finally get what's coming to them.
- After seven seasons of close calls, the Enterprise-D meets her end in spectacular fashion. And it sticks until 30 years later.
- Kirk Summation: Picard allows himself to be exchanged for Geordi as a hostage in an effort to talk Soran down from blowing up another star. Soran sees right through this attempt and confidently tells Picard it won't work, though he does momentarily take pause when Picard brings up his dead wife and child.
- Late to the Punchline: Thanks to his new emotion chip, Data finally gets a joke from the Farpoint mission, which was in the Pilot, seven years ago. This particular joke is never heard in the actual pilot, incidentally.
- Laughing Mad: When Data's emotion chip overloads. It's unsettling.Data: (teary-eyed laughing) I cannot help myself. I think something is wrong!
- Legacy Character: The Enterprise.
- Like Father Like Daughter: Demora Sulu is helmsman on the Enterprise-B.Kirk: It wouldn't be the Enterprise without a Sulu at the helm.
-
Like You Would Really Do It: Subverted with the destruction of the Enterprise-D. With Picard being able to rewind time, it seems to the viewer like he might be able to save the ship the second time around, but the ship is still destroyed, most likely due to Picard not knowing about its destruction until afterwards, when he gets picked up from Kirk's grave. - Living Memory: The echo of Guinan in the Nexus.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Downplayed in the climax with Picard, who doesn't know the Enterprise-D had been attacked by the Klingons, and was crashlanding on Veridian III at the exact same time he was trying to stop Soran’s original launch. So when he exits the Nexus and goes back to stop Soran again, Picard unknowingly exits at a point in time where the Enterprise-D has already been taken off the board. By the time he stops Soran and learns what happened to his ship, there’s now no way to go back again and prevent that from happening as well.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: The Nexus.
- Mad Scientist: Soran.
- Made of Explodium: This film has the biggest exploding console plague in Star Trek history:
- Firstly, the Enterprise-B navigation officer gets nailed early on in the film as the Nexus buffets the ship, so Scotty takes over for him.
- Then in the film's big battle scene, the Enterprise-D's helm officer is injured by an explosion, necessitating Troi taking her place for the rest of the fight and the subsequent crash-landing.
- Shortly thereafter, a solid hit from the Duras sisters' bird-of-prey leads to the entire rear row of consoles (behind Worf) on the Enterprise's bridge blowing up, injuring or killing at least half a dozen officers.note
- Magic Countdown: For once, inverted; just before the saucer separation Data announces that they're a minute away from the warp core breach. However, it actually explodes just 25 seconds later, meaning the saucer doesn't have time to get clear of the blast and is severely damaged, leading to it crashing on the planet below.
- Manipulative Bastard: Doctor Soran, who plays everyone for his own ends.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": When their Bird of Prey suddenly cloaks and their shields drop, the Klingons are all openly alarmed. When the Enterprise fires at their now-defenseless ship, they can only stare in silent horror.
- Mood Whiplash:
- Worf's lighthearted promotional ceremony is broken up by Picard being visibly devastated by receiving news that his nephew and brother were killed in a fire..
- Data acting up and telling jokes (much to Geordi's increasing irritation), until he suffers the android equivalent of a seizure and keels over.
- Picard having a sorrowful conversation with Deanna about the deaths of Robert and René comes to a sudden end when the Amargosa star goes boom.
- More Expendable Than You: Scotty comes up with a plan to break the Enterprise free from the energy ribbon, but it will require someone to manually reconfigure the deflector. Harriman initially volunteers and places Kirk in command. For a moment, Kirk sits in the chair, commanding the Enterprise once more. Then that moment passes, and he realizes this isn't his chair, recalling Harriman before he can reach the turbolift and going in his place, because Harriman belongs on the bridge of his ship.
- Motive Misidentification: After the Amargosa Observatory is destroyed, Picard assumes that Soran is intending to use his new weapon to amass power for himself. While that is Lursa and B'Etor's motivation for this, Guinan tells Picard that Soran is driven solely by getting back to the Nexus. It takes working with Data in stellar cartography for Picard to figure out why that involves destroying stars.
- The Movie: Of Star Trek: The Next Generation, in that its main storyline picks up shortly after the series finale and brings back several plot threads that had been Put on a Bus. Except that Executive Meddling demanded a crossover with TOS because they didn't want to risk giving TNG its own entire movie right away.
- Multiple Endings:
- The videogame adaptation provides two endings: one which follows that which is seen in the film, and another where you track down Soran before he gets to Veridian III and defeat his starship in battle, circumventing both the destruction of the Enterprise D and also the death of Captain Kirk, who under this scenario does not appear in the plot at all and presumably remains entirely at peace within the Nexus. Needless to say, if you complete the game and get the second ending, then you've created an Alternate Continuity.
- And even if you don't defeat Soran in orbit, after Kirk manages to interfere with the probe, Picard chases Soran back up to the orbiting Enterprise's battle section, where he attempts to launch one last probe before the ship explodes. Meaning the game will end in a way that differs from the movie, no matter how it progresses.
- Mundane Made Awesome: The TNG crew make quite the ceremony of Worf's rank promotion.
- Mutual Kill: Thanks to a technobabble solution, the Enterprise-D is able to exploit a weakness that forces the Klingon Bird-of-Prey to de-cloak mid-battle and be easy pickings for a photon torpedo. However, due to being able to penetrate the shields, the Klingons inflicted so much damage on the Enterprise that a warp core breach is inevitable. The stardrive section blows up, while the saucer crashes on the planet and is deemed unsalvageable (although the crew themselves largely survive the experience).
- Mythology Gag:
- The Next Gen portion of the movie takes place 78 years after the launching of the Enterprise B — there were 78 original aired episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series (counting its sole two part story as one episode). The Next Generation is said in the series bible to start 78 years after the original series era (Star Trek IV, the latest film at the time is set in 2286. Next Gen begins in 2364).
- Picard throwing a lavish party on a holographic 19th century naval ship. As you'll remember, Roddenberry pitched the original as Horatio Hornblower in space (way back in 1965).
- When Kirk dies, a prominent part of his torso uniform is red.
- Negative Space Wedgie: The "ribbon" of "temporal energy" that takes its victims to "the Nexus".
- Never Found the Body: When Harriman, Scotty, and Chekov reach the area where Kirk was last working, they find a massive hull breach contained by a force field and no sign of Kirk. Given that the area was just blasted by an energy tendril, it's reasonable that they would assume that Kirk was either vaporized or blown out into space, and that No One Could Survive That!. They couldn't have figured on Kirk ending up in another dimensional realm.
- Never Live It Down: It's clear that the maiden voyage of the Enterprise-B has this reputation. As when Riker is told of it while researching Soran, he immediately knows that this was when Kirk (supposedly) died.
- Never Trust a Trailer: Kirk and Picard do not save the universe, nor anything close.
- Nightmare Face: When Data's emotion chip overloads, they went so far as to stretch his eyeballs.
- Nietzsche Wannabe: Soran explains to Picard: "You know, there was a time when I wouldn't hurt a fly. Then the Borg came, and they showed me that if there is one constant in this whole universe, it's death. Afterwards, I began to realize that it didn't really matter. We're all going to die sometime. It's just a question of how and when." Soran saw the Nexus as the way to escape death forever, regardless of his species having lifespans on the order of centuries.
- No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: While in the Nexus, Kirk jumps a horse across a chasm in a reconstruction of his old homestead. Then he turns around and does it again. When Picard catches up with him, he admits that every time he did that before, he was terrified of falling in. But here in the Nexus, there's no risk, no fear...
- Noodle Incident:
- Data finally understands the joke he heard during the "Farpoint mission" seven years ago, but it was told off-screen, and the joke is never explained to the viewer.
- When explaining the backstory to Picard, Guinan admits she fully understands Soran's obsession to return to the Nexus. She says letting that go was a very difficult experience and not something she wants to relive.
- No OSHA Compliance: Played with. In the deflector room of the Enterprise-B when Kirk is climbing down the ladder we can see what appears to be some kind of deep shaft. It hasn't got any guard rails around it to stop people from falling in... but what it does have is a hilariously small "Caution" sticker on the wall right next to it.
- No Time For Love: Upon learning of the death of his brother and beloved nephew in a fire, Captain Jean Luc Picard laments the fact that at least part of the reason he never really settled down or got into a relationship was because the knowledge that his nephew would continue the Picard bloodline allowed him to dedicate himself almost completely to his duties to the Federation.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Picard tries to appeal to Soran by telling him that what he's attempting to do is no different than what the Borg did to his home world. It almost causes Soran to reconsider his actions.Picard: What you're about to do, Soran, is no different from when the Borg destroyed your world. They killed millions too, including your wife and children.
Soran: (pauses, then chuckles) Nice try. - Oh, Crap!:
- Harriman, when the Enterprise-B's shakedown is interrupted by a Distress Call.
- Worf, when Riker "removes" the plank from under him.
- Data, when he realizes that the Enterprise saucer section is out of control and headed toward the surface of a nearby planet. Actually, more precisely, it's "Ohhh, shit!"
- Klingon equivalent: "WE ARE CLOAKING! OUR SHIELDS ARE DOWN!". Cue the Enterprise firing a photon torpedo...
- Soran, when he realizes what Picard's done with the missile controls.
- Geordi, when it's clear that the Enterprise is screwed.Geordi: It must've been that last torpedo. (taps communicator) LaForge to bridge. I've got a problem down here. The magnetic interlocks have been ruptured. I need— (explosion, accompanied by lots of steam) Coolant leak! We have a coolant leak, everybody! Let's go! Let's get outta here! Everybody out! Let's move! Let's move! Let's go! (as everybody runs while the isolation door lowers) Bridge, we have a new problem! We're five minutes from a warp core breach and there's nothing I can do! (rolls under the door just before it closes)
- Omnicidal Maniac: Soran doesn't care if he has to kill all life in the Veridian system, so long as he can return to the Nexus and be reunited with his family.
- One-Hit Kill: Once the Klingon ship's shields are down, the Enterprise destroys it in one shot.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Harriman gushes over the TOS crew, remarking how he read about them in grade school. Kirk is unamused.
- Original Position Fallacy: During Worf's promotion ceremony on a old-timey ship on the holodeck, Riker pranks Worf by removing the plank and dropping him into the ocean. Data asks Dr. Crusher why dumping someone into freezing water is funny; she tries to explain and encourages him to "get into the spirit". She is then very upset when Data does so by pushing her into the ocean.
- Orphaned Punchline: We don't hear the rest of the joke that Data finally "got". A Ferengi in a gorilla suit would be quite a sight, though. (Most likely, it's a variation of Henny Youngman's "That's my wife!" joke.)
- OOC Is Serious Business:
- Data, while on the Amargosa Observatory. He slowly acts more and more strange before having a Laughing Mad breakdown and crashing. He woke back up, but continued in a Heroic BSoD until he was beamed back to the Enterprise-D.
- A somewhat more subtle example; When Picard orders Riker to investigate the observatory, Riker starts asking a question. Picard cuts him off with a curt, "Make it so!" and then a very harsh, "Just do it!" Deanna in particular gets a troubled look as he storms off the bridge.
- Outliving One's Offspring: A major part of the reason that Soran wanted to return to the Nexus was that there he could be reunited with his children who were killed by the Borg.
- Outrun the Fireball: An unusual instance, in that it's the Enterprise-D's saucer that's trying to outrun the stardrive section before the warp core goes critical. Also subverted in that the saucer doesn't outrun the fireball — the explosion's shockwave destroys the saucer's impulse engines and knocks it sharply out of orbit, causing it to crash onto the planet below. Played straight earlier with the supernova, though it wasn't the case of outrunning it safely, it was outrunning it safely and making sure the Away Team was on board before it destroyed the space station it was at.
- Personality Chip: The B plot of the movie is Data having an emotion chip implanted in his computer brain.
- Pragmatic Villainy: To get Geordi back and have a chance to try to talk Soran down, Picard offers to exchange himself as a prisoner. Lursa and B'Etor agree on the grounds the Captain of the Federation flagship would be a much more valuable hostage than the Chief Engineer. Of course, thanks to Soran's tampering with the VISOR, they have another reason to let Geordi return to the ship.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Soran, to Kirk.Soran: Actually, I am familiar with history, captain. And if I'm not too much mistaken... you're dead!
- Precision F-Strike: "Oh, shit!" If any character other than Data (previously the Emotionless Guy) had delivered this line, it wouldn't have been as profound.
- Prisoner Exchange: Picard offers himself to the Duras sisters as a hostage in exchange for Geordi. They accept.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: Picard has the mother of all Reset Buttons, and uses it to go right back where he was albeit with Kirk. He could have gone a few days back, and apprehended Soran when he was still on the ship. Or gone even further back and prevented the death of his brother's family.
- Real Award, Fictional Character: Apparently one of Picard's ancestors (also named Picard) won a Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Nobody by that name has won it yet.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: The Enterprise-D is destroyed and the bridge is thoroughly trashed because the models and sets were built for television and didn't have the necessary amount of detail to look good on movie screens — the sets that didn't end up getting completely destroyed were refitted into the sets for Star Trek: Voyager after production had wrapped — as well as the fact that that six-foot model of the ship was an unwieldy monstrosity. The producers wanted to be able to start from scratch should they get another movie.
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old: As members of the extremely long-lived El-Aurian race, both Guinan and Soran qualify for this trope.
- Rebuilt Set: The Enterprise-D bridge now has noticeably more workstations than it (usually) did on television. And by the end of the movie, most of them have blown up.
- Refuge in Audacity: After Soran is beamed up by his Klingon allies, he punches one of the Duras sisters in the face on her own bridge. For the Klingons this could amount to a challenge to a Duel to the Death, but the fact that they need him for their own plan allows him to get away with it. She just snarks that he better have intended that as part of a mating ritual.
- Refusing Paradise: Picard and Kirk decide to leave the Nexus together in order to stop Soran. Although Kirk is reluctant at first, he soon realizes the ability to make a difference is more important to him than anything the Nexus could offer. He also finds the Nexus lacks one critical element: for all its realism, there's no risk.
- Remember the New Guy?: Kirk's ultimate fantasy world in the Nexus involves the one true love of his life... who we've naturally never heard of before despite Yeoman Rand, Carol Marcus, or even Edith Keeler now being quite viable options for that role. The novelization justifies this with the detail that Kirk has actually used the Nexus to relive all of his old relationships, including various weddings to Carol and at least once saving Edith Keller without compromising history, and what Picard walked in on was just his latest fantasy rather than his most defining one.
- Reset Button: The Nexus can act as one, which allows the film to show the failure of Picard to save the day.
- Subverted in the case of the Enterprise, whose destruction is not undone at the end of the movie.
- Reverse Polarity: When Data needs to open a magnetically sealed door, he reverses its polarity by attenuating his axial servo.
- Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony: The bottle-breaking version is used with the Enterprise-B, except the bottle is thrown at the ship instead of just smashed against it. This leads to the hilarious mental image of a dude in a spacesuit trying to pitch the bottle at the ship without missing.
- The Roast: It wouldn't be TNG without a scene where Worf gets emasculated again. His 'promotion' ceremony is carried out in the style of a condemned sailor being forced to walk the plank, with Riker reading off a scroll of charges.
- Rocketless Reentry: The film would have originally opened with Kirk, Scotty, and Chekov orbital skydiving just because they're bored.
- Running Gag: Quite a bit of the Enterprise-B's equipment and essential crew will not be available until next Tuesday, much to Captain Kirk's compounding frustration and Captain Harriman's embarrassment when a crisis breaks out.Kirk: Tractor beam.
Harriman: We don't have a tractor beam.
Kirk: You left Spacedock without a tractor beam?
Harriman: It won't be installed until Tuesday.
[...]
Chekov: How big is your medical staff?
Harriman: The medical staff...doesn't arrive until Tuesday.
Chekov: (throws his hands up in the air) Удивительно!* (Surprising!)
[...]
Kirk: Load torpedo bays. Prepare to fire on my command.
Demora: Captain, we don't have any torpedoes.
Kirk: (to Harriman) Don't tell me - Tuesday. - Rushed Into Service: Near the beginning the Enterprise-B is forced to undertake a rescue mission despite being on a shakedown cruise and not having most of her main systems installed, which was supposed to happen on Tuesday.
- Schrödinger's Butterfly: Captain Picard and Dr. Soran, the villain, enter the Nexus, a dimension of eternal pleasure that shapes itself to your desires. Picard is told by a mental projection of Guinan that he can use it to travel anywhere in time, and so he goes back right before Soran blew up the sun that destroyed the planet they were on and the Enterprise. It's entirely plausible that Picard never did leave the Nexus, and that he still exists there to continue his voyages in his own perfect reality. And if he did really travel through time and stopped Soran, whether the Soran that entered the Nexus in the alternate timeline is actually still there. In fact, see the Star Trek Wild Mass Guessing page for more interpretation of this.
- Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale:
- Worf states that Soran's rocket will take eleven seconds to hit the sun. Considering that he shoots it from an Earth-like planet, it would have to be traveling faster than light to make that kind of time. However, it's been established well before this film that there are probes the size of Soran's missile with warp drives, which he could have acquired. On the subject of distance, the probe might have traveled faster than light, but it still would have taken eight or however many light minutes away the planet was before you could actually see the change in light. This is made more infuriating by the fact that once the rocket launches, it's visible in the sky for most of that time.
- The Nexus moves through space at the speed of plot. It clearly moves slower than light, given the Enterprise-B's ability to keep pace with it while using their transporters. Yet it somehow gets from one solar system to another in a matter of hours (it would have to pass near the Amargosa system to be affected by the missing star, then reaches the Veridian system shortly after the Enterprise-D does), instead of taking longer than the lifespans of everyone save Soran and Guinan.
- The Enterprise-B is (once again) the only ship in range to rescue the ships trapped in the Nexus, despite being inside the Sol system, one of the most densely populated and traveled systems of the Federation and the headquarters of Starfleet. This is particularly ridiculous because this is her shakedown cruise, which means Earth is at the moment defended by a ship which isn't even carrying torpedoes.
- Spectacularly averted with the crash of the Enterprise D saucer section. As befitting the crash landing of such a massive object, the saucer crashes and crashes and crashes...
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here!:
- Lursa and B'Etor stole the trilithium from the Romulans and gave it to Soran, but they were sloppy enough to leave a trail all the way to the Amargosa Observatory. The Romulans attacked the station in an attempt to reclaim their property, but they fled after detecting the Enterprise-D responding to the Distress Call.
- After convincing Picard to allow him to return to the Amargosa Observatory, Soran notices Guinan is tending the bar at Ten Forward. He quickly makes himself scarce before she sees him.
- Sentimental Photo Album: Left to brood in his quarters after learning that his family has been killed in a fire, Captain Picard looks through his family album — a reminder that he's getting older and the family line will die with him. It also sets up a few themes for later in the movie.
- Series Continuity Error:
- Scotty witnesses Kirk's death, despite the TNG episode "Relics" showing him as a Human Popsicle who immediately assumes Kirk is the one who found him. Moore and Braga said that they were well aware of the continuity issue, but just couldn't resist seeing Scotty in action one last time. Becomes Fridge Brilliance if you figure that Scotty made that assumption in "Relics" because he doesn't believe Kirk died that day. (This is, for the record, the interpretation that William Shatner went with in his expanded universe series.)
- Trilithium resin was introduced back in "Starship Mine", as an unstable byproduct of the warp core which could be used as explosive material. Here, the substance is trilithium, and the crew treat it as a new discovery and its purpose is completely different.
- Scotty witnesses Kirk's death, despite the TNG episode "Relics" showing him as a Human Popsicle who immediately assumes Kirk is the one who found him. Moore and Braga said that they were well aware of the continuity issue, but just couldn't resist seeing Scotty in action one last time. Becomes
- Shout-Out:
- The "present day" is 78 years after the start of the film with Kirk, Scotty and Chekhov — the same number as TOS episodes (counting the two-part "The Menagerie" as one episode).
- Data at one point mentions "reversing the polarity" amongst a sea of Techno Babble.
- Shut Up, Kirk!: When Picard tries to convince Soran not to destroy Veridian 3, on the grounds that he'd be doing what was done to his family by the Borg, Soran replies "Nice try."
- Simple Solution Won't Work:
- Using a tractor beam to rescue the transport ships from the ribbon might have been simple enough had the tractor beam not been on hold until Tuesday. In addition, detonating a few photon torpedoes to weaken the ribbon's hold on the Enterprise could have worked if the Enterprise had any torpedoes.
- When Picard pieces together Soran's plan, he wonders why Soran doesn't simply fly into the Nexus, to which Data tells him "Our records show that every ship which has approached the ribbon has either been destroyed or severely damaged."Picard: He's changing the course of the ribbon. But why? Why would he try to change its path? Why doesn't he just fly into it with a ship?
Data: Our records show that every ship which has approached the ribbon has either been destroyed or severely damaged.
Picard: He can't get to the ribbon, so he's trying to make the ribbon come to him.
- Spared by the Adaptation: The poor teddy bear survives in the novelization, but they make up for it by having the girl carrying an armful of stuffed animals and only letting her bring one.
- Spinoff Sendoff: The movie can be thought of as one for the TNG movies.
- Spoiler Title: The soundtrack release was delayed a month, because one of the tracks was called "Kirk's Death".
- Star Killing: Soran's trilithium-armed probes.
- Stealth Pun: During the battle, B'Etor gives the order to "Fire at will." There is an immediate cut to the bridge of the Enterprise, currently commanded by Commander Will Riker.
- Stepford Smiler: Kirk in the Nexus is still deeply depressed, but is trying so hard to put everything right again. The book only adds to it by changing his fantasy every time he gets too happy, because he knows then it can’t be real.
- Stock Footage
- Some shots of the Klingon Bird-Of-Prey are recycled from Star Trek VI, including the one where it explodes.
- The Enterprise-B at warp is actually the Excelsior coming to save the ''Enterprise''-A.
- Many of the shots of the Enterprise-D are taken from the TV series, some much longer takes than normal given the feature length format and others with added CGI damage marks to reflect the recent battle.
- Stopped Numbering Sequels: This is the first movie in the series since Star Trek: The Motion Picture that doesn't feature a number in the titlenote . Justified because this is the first Next Generation movie (even though there was some crossover with TOS) and none of the rest that followed had numbers either. New DVDs, however, now list the Next Generation films by number, ie. Star Trek VII: Generations.
- Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Kirk.
- Tap on the Head: During the crash on Veridian 3, Deanna is knocked out when she is thrown from her seat. Played fairly realistically, as she is only unconscious for a few seconds and seems disoriented when she first awakens, having to be pinned to her seat by Data to keep her safe for the rest of the sequence.
- Tears of Awe: Scotty sarcastically pretends to have done this when Captain Kirk gives the order to take the new Enterprise out of space dock.Captain Harriman: Captain Kirk, I'd be honoured if you'd give the order to get underway.
Kirk: Thank you very much, I...
Captain Harriman: Please, sir ... Please, I insist.
Kirk: (stands up) Take us out.
(applause)
Chekov: Wery good, sir.
Scotty: Brought a tear to me eye.
Kirk: Oh, be quiet. - Techno Babble: Seeing as their usual arsenal has been Nerfed due to otherwise being a Story-Breaker Power, the Enterprise resorts to the exact same technobabble as in The Undiscovered Country (firing a plasma-detecting torpedo) to destroy the Klingon ship.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Riker roaring out "ALL HANDS, BRACE FOR IMPACT!" as the Enterprise-D's saucer section prepares to hit land. This was going to be a bumpy ride., followed by Data’s “Ohhhhhhh shit!” as he sees what they’re in for.
- Trailers Always Spoil:
- The 2nd theatrical trailer shows the destruction of the Enterprise-D.
- The first trailer featured Data laughing, thus showing that he would gain emotions in this movie. However, it's downplayed because of the context. The particular moment comes not from routine goofing around, but from the intense Laughing Mad scene.
- Time Skip: The 2293 prologue picks up at least several months after the conclusion of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. As that film had set up, the Enterprise-A has now been decommissioned and its successor ship is ready to launch. Kirk has also formally retired and he's struggling to adjust to a post-Starfleet life. The 2371 narrative in turn picks up at least several months after the TNG series finale "All Good Things" (as at least enough time has passed for the Enterprise-D to undergo a minor refit).
- Trash the Set: The Enterprise being destroyed. A lot of the sequences showing the ship breaking up as it crash lands were given added realism by production crew actually taking a sledgehammer to the sets which had served the television show so well for seven years. In the final scene the bridge set is only barely recognizable.
- Before you get too angry about this, bear in mind that the sets would have been trashed regardless, in order to make way for the sets of Star Trek: Voyager. At least this way we got to see the sets destroyed in action, rather than them just being dumped in some Los Angeles scrapyard.
- Aside from the need for space for the sets of Voyager, the TNG television sets were not built for the higher definition found on film. This was why the film was shot with darkened lighting over its television episodes because the set's flaws would be too apparent in the movie.
- Turn Off the Camera: Kirk to a reporter on the Enterprise-B.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: When Guinan's echo in the Nexus guides Picard to Kirk, Kirk doesn't seem too shocked to see a stranger in a vaguely Starfleet-style uniform approach his cabin.Kirk: Beautiful day... (resumes chopping wood)
- Unwanted Rescue: Soran's rescue from the Nexus. The others are like this, too, but Soran is the most vocal."No, I have to go... I have to get back. You don't understand! Let me go!"
- Villainous Breakdown:Soran: PICAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARD! Step away from that launcher!
- Visual Pun: Perhaps as a Take That! to all the fans on the wrong side of the "who's the better captain" debate, Kirk literally rides a circle around Picard, who has been established as no slouch of a rider himself.
- Was It Really Worth It?: In the Nexus, Kirk laments that his years of service to Starfleet only seemed to earn him an empty house, noting the relationships he missed because he was too busy being captain. He changes his tune when he sees the Nexus for what it really is.
- Waxing Lyrical: Soren's "Time is the fire in which we burn" is a repeated phrase in Delmore Schwartz's poem "Calmy We Walk Through This April's Day", which Picard undoubtedly is familiar with.
- A Way Out of a Cave-In: Trapped on one side of a huge Force Field while Soran is working on his sun-killer weapon, Picard notices at the bottom of the field there is a small gap between an archway and the ground. He tosses a couple rocks at the field which bounce off, then tosses one at the archway. It passes through, so Picard sets to work widening the space so he can crawl through.
- Wham Line:
- "Robert and Rene were... burned to death in a fire."
- "Their shields are operating on a modulation of 257.4!"
- "We're five minutes from a warp core breach! There is nothing I can do!"
- Wham Shot: Seeing the massive gouge through mountains and a forest that the Enterprise caused during its crash in wide shot.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: As far as we can tell, Geordi still has that camera in his VISOR and no one even knows about it. Luckily, this doesn't cause many problems given his switch to prosthetic eyes in the next film (The Expanded Universe explains the switch as being the result of said bugging, with Starfleet deeming the VISOR a security risk). And, of course, the only ones who knew about it in the first place are all dead by the end of the movie, anyway.
- Lursa's child—first mentioned in Firstborn— is not mentioned at all. It's unknown if he was even born.
- While You Were in Diapers: Kirk to Picard, although not quite about him. note Kirk: I was out saving the galaxy when your grandfather was in diapers.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?:
- The Enterprise has significantly more firepower than the Bird of Prey, but only fires a single phaser burst before launching the torpedo that destroys their attacker. Somewhat justified, as their evasive action turns their tail to the Bird of Prey, while most of their weapons are mounted on the ship's bow.
- A variation with Picard once he enters the Nexus. On the DVD Commentary, Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga acknowledge this is the big plot hole of the entire sequence (one they ultimately didn’t have the time to solve due the production crunch). If Picard can exit the Nexus at any point in time and space, then why does he have to go back to Veridian III to stop Soran at all? Why doesn’t he just go back to an earlier point, like when the Enterprise-D arrives at the Armagosa Observatory? He could just order Riker's Away Team to take Soran into custody (or alternately just shoot him) and prevent this entire sequence of events from happening at all.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Soran. His all-consuming desire is to return to the Nexus, where the family he lost will exist (and so will he) for all eternity. To get there, he'll kill entire solar systems, inhabited or not, to shift the Nexus' course in such a way that entering it is nothing less than a sure thing.
- Worf Had the Flu:
- The Enterprise-B would likely have had a much easier time rescuing the two refugee ships caught in the Nexus ribbon if not for the fact that it was missing its tractor beams, torpedoes, most of its crew, and who knows what else. All to arrive or be installed on Tuesday, apparently.
- The Enterprise-D outclasses the Klingon Bird-of-Prey several fold, and it's even commented that Lursa and B'Etor are frozen in place knowing a scout ship has little chance against the Starfleet Flagship. But they planted a recording device on Geordi and once he returned to engineering they reviewed real-time schematics and could calibrate their weapons to bypass the Enterprise's Deflector Shield. One sneak attack later, the Enterprise is taking direct hull damage and hobbling away with no idea why (the novelization indicates they immediately saw what was happening and started changing shield frequencies, but since that was Geordi's department they could always match it).
- Worth It: Kirk's opinion of his last adventure with Picard."It was... fun."
- Ye Goode Olde Days: Picard, in his stuffy naval uniform, gets wistfully sentimental about life on the bounding main. Riker begs to differ: "Bad food, brutal discipline, no women." (And you know which one is the deal-breaker for Number One.)
- Year Outside, Hour Inside: The Nexus is a nexus for all points in time, thus time is meaningless. So, no matter how much "time" is spent within the Nexus, no time actually passes, so anyone exiting the Nexus hasn't aged at all.
- You Owe Me: A variation when Kirk initially refuses to leave the Nexus to help Picard stop Soran. Kirk invokes this as part of his reason, feeling that after saving the galaxy countless times throughout TOS, he is not unreasonable in feeling the galaxy owes him one.
