# Star Trek: Generations Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 5, 2008, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-generations-question/432399 "2008-01-05T15:28:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2008, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-generations-question/432399/21 "2008-01-06T20:30:01Z")
[QUOTE=Peter Morris] Or maybe it was simply bad writing, the TV episode having been made some time before the movie. [/QUOTE] Maybe I’m misunderstanding you, but are you saying Ronald D. Moore (the writer of the “Relics” episode) was a bad writer because he didn’t know what was going to happen in the future? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2008, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-generations-question/432399/22 "2008-01-06T20:45:09Z")
[QUOTE=Mahaloth] Hey, Insurrection is nothing close to as bad as Generations, Final Frontier, and Nemesis. It’s just a really average episode. [/QUOTE] Actually, I think making a movie that’s really nothing more than a very long regular-series episode is a worse sin than making a bad movie that’s at least an actual movie. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2008, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-generations-question/432399/23 "2008-01-06T20:48:52Z")
[QUOTE=KneadToKnow] Maybe I’m misunderstanding you, but are you saying Ronald D. Moore (the writer of the “Relics” episode) was a bad writer because he didn’t know what was going to happen in the future? [/QUOTE] Actually, given that it was the same Ronald D. Moore who co-wrote _Generations_…yeah. It’s bad enough when a writer ignores plot points that were established by another writer, but even worse when a writer ignores the plot points he, himself, established. Of course, it’s fanwankable (Scotty was so disoriented from being cycled in the buffer for 80-some years that he forgot Kirk got sucked in), so it’s not that great a sin. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2008, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-generations-question/432399/24 "2008-01-06T20:51:46Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay] Actually, I think making a movie that’s really nothing more than a **very long regular-series episode** is a worse sin than **making a bad movie** that’s at least an actual movie. [/QUOTE] Why? (bolding is mine to highlight my confusion) 😕 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2008, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-generations-question/432399/25 "2008-01-06T20:55:39Z")
[QUOTE=Mahaloth] Why? (bolding is mine to highlight my confusion) 😕 [/QUOTE] Because if you’re going to spend umpty-million dollars to make a big-screen release, it should be a little more than just a two-part episode sewn together. Star Trek films are big, spacious adventures. _Insurrection_ was small, very limited in scope and pretty darn boring. There’s a big difference between really trying and missing the target (say, _Final Frontier_) and just not even bothering (_Insurrection_). ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2008, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-generations-question/432399/26 "2008-01-06T22:03:28Z")
[QUOTE=KneadToKnow] Maybe I’m misunderstanding you, but are you saying Ronald D. Moore (the writer of the “Relics” episode) was a bad writer because he didn’t know what was going to happen in the future? [/QUOTE] No, I’m saying that Generations was badly written for ignoring the episode several years previously. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2008, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-generations-question/432399/27 "2008-01-07T02:33:17Z")
[QUOTE=Peter Morris] No, I’m saying that Generations was badly written for ignoring the episode several years previously. [/QUOTE] Except that Scotty wasn’t originally intended to be in Generations - right now, I can’t recall who was - and unfortunately they couldnt go back and re-film the TNG episode for this issue. Found a [cite](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_Generations) : > [@](#): > > Leonard Nimoy declined to appear in their film, and DeForest Kelley was unable to appear since his failing health prevented him from acquiring the necessary health insurance (a requirement for any actor). Their lines, as Spock and McCoy, were modified for James Doohan and Walter Koenig, as Scotty and Chekov. In Scotty’s case, it created a continuity error as Scotty’s dialogue in the TNG episode “Relics” establishes that Kirk was alive when Scotty left on a transport called the Jenolan to live out this retirement on the Norpin colony. After Scotty and the Jenolan are trapped in a “Dyson Sphere” they preserve themselves in a transporter beam to be rescued 75 years later. When one of their rescuers, Commander William Riker, mentions he is from Enterprise, Scotty exclaims “I’ll bet Jim Kirk got her out of mothballs to come looking for me.” ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2008, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-generations-question/432399/28 "2008-01-07T03:23:47Z")
[QUOTE=Mahaloth] Hey, Insurrection is nothing close to as bad as Generations, Final Frontier, and Nemesis. It’s just a really average episode. [/QUOTE] I did a search for some of my earlier comments on this film and this summarized best how I felt about _Insurrection_ and _TNG_ generally: > [@me in 2006](#): > > …if the plot of _The Way to Eden_ had been worked into a _TNG_ episode, the hippies would have succeeded, managing to escape the icky technoworld of the Federation and live idyllic lives in paradise. The classic example is that god-awful _Insurrection_ movie, but any episode that uses the word “spiritual” would qualify. > > The more cynical _DS9_ took a grimmer view, depicting a tech-less agrarian society that resembled a POW camp and was run by a sociopathic zealot. The premise of _Insurrection_ was both moralizing and magical, as if the hero elf had discovered the Pool of Eternal Youth and had to defend it from the wicked trolls. With boob jokes! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-generations-question/432399.md?page=1)