Star Trek Generations not only ed the big screen torch from the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series to the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, it also featured the controversial death of franchise icon Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner). After a largely successful six-movie run that lasted from 1979 to 1991, the cast of TOS finally hung up their spacesuits for good after Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, making way for the younger - and increasingly popular - crew of TNG, which was wrapping up a wildly successful seven-season run in syndication.
After a prologue set in the late 23rd century that features Captain Kirk seemingly perishing aboard the USS Enterprise-B while rescuing El-Aurian refugees, Star Trek Generations shifts to the 24th century era of Star Trek: The Next Generation, where Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the USS Enterprise-D are forced into a conflict with one of the El-Aurian refugees, Dr. Tolian Soran (Malcolm McDowell), who has become obsessed with re-entering the interdimensional ribbon known as the Nexus. After a calamitous battle with the Klingon Duras sisters that results in the destruction of the Enterprise-D over Veridian III, Picard and Soran are pulled into the Nexus, where Picard finds Captain Kirk alive and well.
Star Trek Generations' Ending & Soran's Nexus Plan Explained
Dr. Tolian Soran spent nearly a century planning his return to the Nexus. He attempted to divert the Nexus to the planet Veridian III by destroying a star that would have resulted in the deaths of millions. Soran was confronted by Picard, but he was ultimately successful, re-entering the Nexus, though with Picard along for the ride. The Nexus sweeping into Veridian III destroyed the planet and the crashed USS Enterprise-D saucer section. After shaking off his personal paradise inside the Nexus, Picard finds that Kirk is in fact still alive inside his own customized heaven and enlists his help to go back in time and stop Soran's plan.
While Picard battled Soran on the surface of Veridian III, the USS Enterprise-D found itself in a pitched battle with the Klingon Duras sisters, who were working with Soran. Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) was kidnapped by Soran early in the film, and the Duras sisters were able to hack into his VISOR which allowed them to view the Enterprise-D's shield frequencies when they returned Geordi to the ship. The Klingon torpedoes broke through the Enterprise's shields, critically damaging the Federation flagship. The Duras sisters were ultimately defeated, but the Enterprise-D suffered a warp core breach and the destruction of the drive section. The saucer section made an emergency crash landing on Veridian III with thankfully few casualties.
Once Picard and Kirk exited the Nexus, they returned to thwart Soran on Veridian III minutes before his missile launched and destroyed the Veridian star. Just before falling to his death, Kirk was able to lock the missile to its launcher, neutralizing the threat to the star and killing Soran in the process. Kirk died with Picard by his side, satisfied that he'd made a difference one last time. Picard eventually made his way back to the wrecked USS Enterprise-D hull, where he and Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) bid the beloved ship a fond farewell.
Star Trek Generations is ultimately a movie about time, mortality, and fate. Picard finds himself dealing with the fallout from the tragic deaths of his brother and nephew, at that point believing himself to be the final member of his much-celebrated family line. The retired Kirk finds himself grappling with a lack of purpose, which he ultimately finds one last time by teaming up with his fellow Captain of the Enterprise. The tragic figure of the story is really Soran, a formerly peaceful man driven mad and violent by the loss of his family at the hands of the Borg. Not everything about Generations works, but it's a thematically resonant story.
Why Star Trek Killed Off Captain Kirk
Paramount Pictures mandated that Star Trek: The Next Generation's inaugural film should feature some sort of meeting between Captain Kirk and Captain Jean-Luc Picard. A more robust TOS reunion including Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley) was originally planned, but ultimately only Shatner returned in a major way, with TOS ing characters Montgomery Scott (James Doohan) and Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig) enjoying small roles in the movie's opening scene. While meant to honor what had come before, Star Trek Generations' treatment of Kirk was immediately controversial and remains so decades later.
Screenwriters Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga eventually hit on the idea of killing off Kirk as the film's biggest emotional climax. To their surprise, they experienced essentially no pushback from Paramount or William Shatner when the idea was suggested. With the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast moving to the big screen and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager on television, Paramount realized it was likely time to retire the Star Trek: The Original Series era and Shatner himself was largely ready to move on after playing Kirk for over 25 years.
Why Generations' Original Kirk Death Plan Was Changed
In the original version of Star Trek Generations, Captain Kirk met his end while fighting Soran alongside Captain Picard on the surface of Veridian III. Kirk died when Soran shot him in the back with a phaser. Test audiences had a strongly negative reaction to this initial version of Kirk's death, feeling it was abrupt and not particularly heroic. It is a bit baffling that Moore and Braga thought getting shot in the back was a fitting end for such a legendary character.
Kirk's death was later revised and reshot, with Kirk being fatally injured after he fell from a broken railing. He died with Picard by his side, allowing Shatner a pretty moving final moment as Kirk, as well as a solid version of the torch-ing moment everyone involved in the film's production wanted. For his part, Malcolm McDowell was deeply disappointed that Kirk's death was changed, as one of the reasons he signed on to Star Trek Generations in the first place was that he wanted to be known as the man who killed Captain Kirk.
Star Trek: Picard Updated Kirk’s Generations Death
In Star Trek: Picard season 3 - set decades after the events of Star Trek Generations - Picard's crew Captain William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Captain Worf (Micheal Dorn), and Commander Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) break into the mysterious Section 31 installation called Daystrom Station to retrieve vital information about a Changeling plot against the Federation. While they traverse through the station Riker, Worf, and Raffi glimpse some of the classified projects Section 31 has been hiding away. However, the most intriguing item on Daystrom Station is Captain Kirk's body, retrieved by Section 31 from the Veridian III rocky mountaintop where Picard buried his remains.
Kirk's corpse is held in Daystrom Station under a Section 31 program ominously dubbed 'Project Phoenix.' It's not a huge surprise that Kirk's body was retrieved from Veridian III; like the similarly retrieved hull of the USS Enterprise-D, Starfleet made sure not to leave any trace of their presence on the planet to stay in line with the Prime Directive. It's a much bigger surprise that Section 31 would still have his body in some sort of stasis so many years later. There's no guarantee anything will come of Kirk's body being preserved - it could very well just be a fun little Easter egg for fans. However, it could potentially mean that Kirk's story didn't necessarily end with Star Trek Generations.
