Rewatching the Star Trek movies! Generations (1994) gives us Captain Kirk and Captain Picard in the same movie. That’s fun, but what does it have to say about each character?

Here’s what happens: Seventy-some years after the death (or not?) of Captain Kirk, the crew of the Enterprise-D confronts a mad scientist who plans to return to the Nexus, a place outside of space and time where anything is possible. This plan will put innocent lives in danger, forcing Captain Picard to seek out some unlikely help…

Captains Courageous: Kirk dies saving the Enterprise-B, and then comes back to life to save the captain of the Enterprise-D. There’s this sense of inevitability, in that he knows that the Enterprise (a.k.a. the Trek franchise) is moving on without him. But he has this one chance to make things right, so he’s going to go for it.

Captain’s holiday: Picard begins TNG uncomfortable about children living aboard his ship, only to end the series by accepting the crew as his family. This movie puts that to the test, first by killing off Picard’s brother’s family in France. Then, once inside the Nexus, he has a vision of the family he never had. He’s quick to see through the illusion, and uses that to help Kirk, who has more trouble saying goodbye to the Nexus. That’s the inevitability mentioned above.

Ol’ Yellow Eyes: After not understanding a not-very-funny joke, Data decides it’s time to install the emotion chip introduced on TNG years earlier. But, this isn’t the “Data becomes human” story of fans’ dreams. Instead, Data is still Data, and the emotions just give him another aspect of humans for him to puzzle over.

Welcome aboard: When in the Nexus, Picard has a vision of a family he never had, including a wife named Elise. A lot of fans say Elise is played by the same woman who played TNG’s infamous holodeck babe Minuet. A quick look at the credits reveals this to be false. Elise was played by Kim Braden, who previously appeared as Ensign Brooks in the episode “The Loss,” and who is married to this movie’s director, David Carson. (Minuet was played by Carolyn McCormick.)

Trivia time: Kirk’s not dead! The 1996 novel Star Trek: The Return, co-written by William Shatner, Judith Reeves-Stevens, and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, details how and why Kirk is revived from the dead. He goes on to appear in many more novels, having adventures in the TNG era (era), and in Trek’s notorious Mirror Universe as well. Some fans, however, claim these books are not canon, separating them off into their own “Shatner-verse,” because of course they do.

What you leave behind: This movie is often criticized for being too much like a TV episode, but that was intentional. It was cranked out quick, to get it into theaters mere months after the TNG series ended. Beyond that, Kirk and Picard are both faced with the path not taken, but they choose not to give in to the fantasy. It’s true that Kirk’s death scene is a little disappointing, but would there be any way for that to be satisfying? It just is what it is.

Next: Should’ve gone contactless.

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