Customer Reviews

Star Trek Generations (Star Trek The Next Generation)

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Star Trek "Generations" represents J.M. Dillard's fourth Star Trek movie novelization. Of course there's a good reason she's done the novelizations for every movie since Star Trek V "The Final Frontier" and the novelization for Star Trek Deep Space Nine's premier episode "Emissary," she's extraordinarily good at it and this one is no exception!

When a reader picks up the novelization for an episode or a movie, they're looking for a couple of things; some personalization to what the characters are thinking during the scenes and some good "between the scenes" scenes and in every novelization of J.M. Dillard's I've read so far, she accomplishes that with ease. Her writing style is very fluid and the pacing is very good, producing a very engaging story that enhances what was seen on the silver screen or the home television screen.

Credit also goes to Rick Berman, Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga for the original story and screenplay for Star Trek "Generations" which, in my opinion, has been a rather unjustly maligned movie over the years. The overall story is a good one, that is well grounded in what Star Trek is all about and I believe Gene Roddenberry would've been very proud of this movie!

Also included in the hardback version are some great color photos taken directly from the film. The paperback version has the same photos but they're black & white. Both versions have the "Behind the Scenes of Star Trek Generations" A Special Report by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens which is a great little read entailing some of what it took to make the movie.

The cover art for "Generations" is, of course, directly from the movie posters and is very nice and much better than what was the standard fare for cover art at the time of this novels release!

The premise:

The novel opens up with an extremely poignant scene between Captain James T. Kirk and Spock, set one year prior to the launch of the third ship named Enterprise. The novel then follows up with an exceptional scene with Kirk plunging towards the Earth during an orbital skydive that was planned to have been in the movie but time constraints eliminated it.

In what many thought to be described as a dignified way of ending future possibilities for screen time for Captain James T. Kirk, the next scene in the novel and first, opening scene of the movie shows him saving the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-B and "dying," while doing so.

Seventy eight years later we're taken to the holodeck of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D and Lieutenant Worf's rather interesting promotion ceremony to Lieutenant Commander.

What follows from there is a novel that is extraordinarily well written that serves beautifully to enhance what was seen on the silver screen. I highly recommend this novel, whether you can pick it up in hardback or paperback! {ssintrepid}

This audio-book is great entertainment and is read wonderfully by John DeLancie. What makes it better than the film is that it has additional scenes that deepen the story. One is at the very beginning and it takes place after the end of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country as the Kirk and crew return to Earth. Kirk, Spock, and Bones have a touching farewell. Another scene takes place a year after Kirk is lost and presumed killed by the Nexus. It includes Bones and Spock at a memorial service for Kirk. Lastly, We get to hear about what Kirk experiences in the Nexus before Picard happens upon him; it includes Carol and David Marcus and is great as well.

I enjoyed the movie, Generations, but there was a lot about it that didn't really impress me. These parts were more then made up for in this book. It has a depth that the movie never achieved, and probably couldn't ever have found!

Star Trek Generations, J.M. Dillard's third novelization of a Star Trek feature film, is a well-written and exciting tale of two legendary Starfleet captains brought together across the time barrier to save a world from the plans of an obsessive scientist.

Dillard (The Lost Years, Mindshadow) adds texture and context to Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore's screenplay for the seventh Star Trek film (and first of four Star Trek: The Next Generation movies) by starting the book right after the events of The Undiscovered Country: Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the Original Series' crew splits up -- some retiring from Starfleet, while others accept other assignments. While this wasn't in the original screenplay or in the final film, this bit of exposition sets up a recurring reverie about time, transitions and even death.

Star Trek Generations really gets going in Chapter 2, when Kirk, Chekov and Scotty are the guests of honor at the launching ceremony of the NCC-1701-B, an Excelsior-class ship which is the third starship to bear the name Enterprise. With an untried captain and with vital equipment not yet installed, a brief publicity cruise to Pluto and back to Earth turns into a perilous rescue mission when a strange energy ribbon ensnares two El-Aurian refugee ships. Kirk, Scotty and Chekov assist Capt. John Harriman on this life-and-death endeavor, and some of the El-Aurians (including future Enterprise-D bartender Guinan and Dr. Tolian Soran) are rescued...but not without cost. The Enterprise-B is damaged by the energy ribbon, and Capt. James T. Kirk is missing and presumed dead.

After another chapter of original material in which Dillard shows the reaction of Kirk's senior staff to his death, the rest of the novel takes place 78 years later. The Enterprise-D crew is celebrating Worf's promotion to lieutenant commander in the holodeck, but the festivities are cut short when Capt. Jean Luc Picard receives devastating news from home. And to make matters worse, someone has savagely attacked the Amargosa Observatory, leaving only one survivor, Dr. Tolian Soran....the same man rescued from the energy ribbon nearly 80 years before by the Enterprise-B.

Soon, Picard has to overcome his grief to stop Soran from destroying a star (and its orbiting inhabited planets) to cause the mysterious energy ribbon -- known as the Nexus -- to change course. Picard must discover why Soran wants to sacrifice billions of innocent lives in order to "go into the Nexus" -- and he'll need the help of a legendary Starfleet captain from the past to stop the obsessed madman.....

To her credit, Dillard explains Soran's motivations far better than the movie did, and her depictions of the movie's characters are vivid and well-done. Of course, some of her additional material was needed to make up for the non-appearance of Spock and McCoy in the final drafts of Braga and Moore's screenplay (and the final film), and one scene with Kirk -- which was filmed -- was later changed, but those minor detours are to be expected in novelizations such as this.

A novelization of a movie usually expands the readers perspective of the original film. This novel also adds a behind the scenes look at the making of the movie.

Much more compact and readable than some of the other Star Trek hardcover novels, Generations is worth the purchase price.

This was a pretty enjoyable book. Judged against other Star Trek novels it is not the best but is far from the worst. It won't really give you more than the movie does. I enjoyed it about as much as the movie but in different ways. Instead of being impressed by visual effects i was intrigued by the thoughts of the crew. Two blunders: on page 97 Data is described as "near breathless"--well Data doesn't breathe. And on page 157 describing B'Etor's attraction to Soran the author writes "...despite the fact that he was a puny human..." but he isn't he is El Aurian. But I can live with those mistakes.

OK I know I'm a fanboy, but when Kirk is killed in the book they mention the time he was on the ghost ship "Reliant". Reliant was the ship Chekov served on that was commandeered by Khan. The ghost ship was USS Defiant. You would think someone would have caught this. Kinda ruins the atmosphere for me.

Star Trek Generations, the movie, was a nifty story of the death of Captain James T. Kirk, followed by his "reunion" over 70 years later with Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Picard needs Kirk's help in saving the lives of 200 million inhabitants, destined to be killed when their sun is extinguished to change the gravitation patterns of the "nexus," an energy ribbon with surprising properties.

It is Star Trek material, through and through.

Star Trek Generations, the book, was based on the movie. Thus, it is true to the movie's plot, but it misses the opportunity to bring in more information about the nexus, the origin of the energy ribbon, El-Aurians, and all those other "missing links" that you get when you check out a movie based on an existing book. It is the movie in print, nothing more. That's not necessarily bad... it is just what you get here.

I enjoyed both the movie and the book. The interaction of Kirk and Picard is music to the Star Trek fan. Now this doesn't rise to the entertainment level of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's "Trials and Tribble-ations" episode, with Captain Sisko watching Kirk deal with the troubling Tribbles (remember the line from Worf concerning the change in Klingon appearance? "We do not discuss it with outsiders."). And in this book, we learn more about those mysterious El-Aurians (remember Enterprise-D bartender Guinan?)

This book was a easy to read reminder of a fun Star Trek movie.

I like this book because it points out things they should have done with the dvd. There's expanded scene's, added scene's and at least in the hardcover version, there is a picture at the beginning that is not in the movie. Probably from Kirk's refusal to join them on the Enterprise-B. They could have some deleted scene's coming in a future DVD.

Oh, PUH-leeze. What a way for a publisher to get money. Make an abridged audio adaptation of a written novilization of a movie? 3 products, same thing (more or less). Don't spend your money on this. Go buy the book novilization. It's written well, and if it's the collector's edition, it has pictures from the movie.