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Recommended Edits for Star Trek movies DVDs, pt. 3

Star Trek Generations (1994)

The DVD (first series) of Star Trek Generations contains the theatrical version of the movie and the trailers, nothing more, no special features, interviews or commentary whatsoever. This is the first Star Trek movie to feature the TNG crew, and I guess you more or less know the story by now. However, the movie did not do well at the box office. Most of the fans' complaint about the movie is its weak story structure. First of all, fans had expected that the TOS crew had retired for good, and were expecting a great TNG show. Instead, in ST:G, Kirk, Scotty and Chekov all reappeared in rather weak supportive roles, not to mention the almost needless appearance of Demora, Sulu's daughter, as the helmsman of the Enterprise-B. Capt. John Harriman of the Enterprise-B appeared as incompetent as his ship. Throughout the movie, Picard appeared to be brooding over the lost of his brother and nephew, both of whom died in a fire at the beginning of the TNG sequence. Data being able to feel emotions made him look more or less like a clown, while the deletion of several scenes caused the movie to appear at times discontinuous.

Another edition of the DVD of ST:G is said to be in the works but it is still unknown whether it would be of Director's Edition or Special Collector's Edition. I only hope that the deleted scenes could be restored into the movie, as they may sometimes explain other scenes that remained in the movie. Restoring the scenes would provide some continuity in the movie. Even if the deleted scenes could not be incorporated into the movie, they could still be included in the DVD as special features.

- The original beginning of ST:G shows Kirk orbital skydiving and landing in a field, where he is greeted by Scotty and Chekov. This scene supposedly demostrates Kirk's predilection for dangerous activities. Kirk then expresses his disinterest in attending the christening ceremony of the Enterprise-B. The entire sequence was occasionally overlapped by shots of the champagne bottle hurtling towards the hull of the Enterprise-B. I believe that this sequence could be incorporated into the movie for a future DVD. - Following Enterprise-B's escape from the Nexus, there is an extended scene on the bridge, where Demora says that her scans were unable to locate Kirk. Scotty and Chekov then lament over the loss of Kirk, ending with Capt. Harriman announcing that they were returning to Earth.

Kirk touches down on Earth.

- Dr. Crusher and La Forge have an additional dialog during the holodeck scene while Worf was walking the plank. Crusher asks La Forge if he knew whether Klingons could swim, and La Forge says he's not sure. - There is an alternate take of Data pushing Dr. Crusher into the sea. After La Forge tells Data that it was not funny, Crusher and Worf climb back onboard the ship. Worf stares at Riker, while Crusher declines Data's help in climbing onto the deck. - In the sequence in Ten-Forward, there is an extended scene after Data asks for another glass of Guinan's drink. Data takes another drink and expresses further disgust.

- The scene in the Armagosa Observatory where Data loses control of his emotions was originally longer, with Data laughing, screaming and panting hysterically before collapsing on the floor. - After Soran arrives on the Klingon Bird of Prey, the scene ends when he asks for the captured La Forge to be taken to his lab for interrogation. - Riker and Worf walks down a corridor towards the sickbay, with Worf informing Riker that the Bird of Prey belong to the Duras Sisters. In sickbay, Riker talks to Data, who expresses concern for La Forge. - La Forge's interrogation scene was supposed to be longer, with Soran torturing La Forge by injecting a nanoprobe to stop La Forge's heart, in order to draw information from him. - The Duras Sisters had a scene in which they saw what La Forge was seeing using transmissions from his VISOR. They were angry that La Forge has not made his way to engineering, but was instead taking a bath.

Soran tortures La Forge for information.

- Numerous shots of the Enterprise-D crew during the crash of the saucer section have been removed. These include reaction shots on the bridge, sickbay, the corridors, and crewmen quarters. In one of these shots, La Forge takes shelter with some children by covering themselves in a double-deck bed. - Picard's fantasy sequence in the Nexus is longer than presented in the theatrical version of the movie, with Picard talking to his children and at one point explaining a sextant to one of his sons. - An alternate take of Kirk talking to Picard while on horseback shows that Kirk compares his presence in the Nexus to be as meaningless as orbital skydiving, after he finds out that whatever he did in the Nexus was not real. This dialog was replaced when the original beginning of the movie showing Kirk skydiving was removed. I recommend that this deleted scene be included in the DVD as an special feature.

Picard celebrates Christmas in his fantasy.

- The original ending of the movie features an extended fighting sequence between Kirk and Soran, ending when Soran fatally shoots Kirk in the back. This ending was changed when the test audience expressed dissatisfaction with the way Kirk was killed. Since it would not be advisable to incorporate this ending back into the movie, I suggest that this sequence be included in the DVD as another special feature, showing the alternate ending of the movie. - Following Soran's defeat, Worf and La Forge arrive in a shuttlecraft to pick Picard up. - A deleted scene near the end of the movie shows Dr. Crusher and Nurse Ogawa evacuating the sickbay, with Crusher commenting that she was so tired she could use a ride in one of the stretchers.

There are some questions as to how exactly did Picard lose his communicator when he arrived on Veridian III. The Duras Sisters were unwilling to give away Soran's location since the Enterprise-D could send an armed away team after him. Picard then offered to beam himself over to the Klingon Bird of Prey in exchange for La Forge, so that the Sisters could beam Picard to Soran without revealing Soran's location to the Enterprise-D. The Duras Sisters agreed to this plan. So, Picard departs from the Enterprise-D just as La Forge arrives. However, the next shot shows Picard arriving on Veridian III without his communicator. Presumably, the Klingons had removed his communicator while Picard was in transport, and they had at the same time redirected his transporter signal to the planet. Therefore Picard arrived in the blue Starfleet transportation beam. If Picard was actually beamed to the planet from the Bird of Prey, he should have arrived on the Bird of Prey first, be removed of his communicator, and then got beamed down to the planet in a red Klingon transportation beam. So, there is no inconsistency here, just some apparent discontinuity since the entire sequence took place without any explanation. Many fans have pointed out that Picard apparently left an ancient artifact, the Kurlan naiskos which was displayed in his ready room, behind on the planet. This is no doubt an oversight on the part of the producers, who have probably forgotten about the Kurlan naiskos. The Star Trek Encyclopedia suggests that Picard might have came back for it later or asked someone to retrieve it for him. Nevertheless, the shot of Picard first holding up the artifact, and then promptly leaving it behind as something insignificant, probably surprised those who knew about that artifact.

Picard arrives without his communicator.

Picard leaves the Kurlan naiskos on the planet.

Star Trek First Contact (1996)

Star Trek First Contact is considered the best Star Trek movie in recent times. Again, the first DVD of ST:FC produced by Paramount contains only the theatrical version of the movie, trailers, and language selection. No deleted scenes or commentaries. This is strange, because by the time of the ST:FC DVD release, the DVDs of many other movies already come with such extras. Even though ST:FC seems not only great but perfect, certain scenes were known or suspected to have been removed. Here are some highlights. - After Worf was beamed aboard the Enterprise-E, he arrives at the bridge and Picard asks him to help out at tactical. Riker asks Worf whether if he remembered how to fire the phasers. Worf was supposed to have replied, "It is the green button, right?" Instead, in the movie, after Riker asks the question, Michael Dorn (Worf) gave such a growling expression that the director (Jonathan Frakes) decided to keep the shot.

- In a deleted shot during the Dixon Hill holodeck sequence, a drunkard accost Lily, prompting Picard to explain that it's all a computer simulation. - In another deleted scene, the paranoid Zefram Cochrane threatens to jump off a cliff. At first, Riker and Troi try to stop him, but then La Forge winks at Troi, prompting Troi to encourage Cochrane to jump! In fact, she even helps by pushing him over! Cochrane then falls onto a forcefield La Forge had put there. This scene was cut when the director (Frakes) felt that they already had enough "Cochrane being a reluctant hero" scenes.

There is an inconsistency in the movie. An officer reports to Worf that the Borg had control from decks 26 to 11. Moments later, Picard explains to Lily that there are 24 decks on his ship. It is inconceivable that Picard do not know his own ship, since he has been in command for nearly a year already. Either that or Picard was deliberately giving Lily false information. Personally, I believe that there had been an oversight in the scripts, resulting in this mistake. This inconsistency can easily be removed in a future DVD by changing the officer's words to say that the Borg controlled decks 24 to 11. The Star Trek Encyclopedia assumes that Picard is correct since the entry for Sovereign-class starships (to which the Enterprise-E belongs) states that they have 24 decks.

Exactly how many deck does the Enterprise-E has?

Star Trek Insurrection (1998)

Star Trek Insurrection is the last of the first series of Star Trek movies DVD released by Paramount. Again, being of the first series, no extras apart from the trailers are included in the DVD. Unlike ST:FC, ST:I is definitely known to have many deleted scenes. Apparently, Paramount began to restrict the running times of Star Trek movies, resulting in the creation of many deleted scenes. Here are some known deleted scenes from ST:I. - The library scene is supposed to be longer, with Riker and Troi throwing small paperballs at each other, and the appearances of a Trill ensign (Max Grodenchik, who protrays Rom on DS9) and a stern-looking librarian (Lee Arone-Briggs). Even though the scene was cut, the Trill ensign and the librarian are still listed in the credits. This scene was cut because it negatively stereotyped librarians.

- I suspect that there is a scene following the conversation between Picard and Adm. Dougherty. Picard takes one last look around the bridge before he goes to his quarters and removes his captain pips. - The scene where Anij slowed down time in front of Picard is extended, featuring a kiss between Picard and Anij. - During the fighting between the Son'a and the crew on the planet, Data apparently punches some Son'a off a cliff, he then catches a Son'a drone and shoots the isolinear tags on the falling Son'a so that they were transported away. - It is unknown whether the shot for the ejection of Enterprise-E's warp core was ever filmed.. - While Picard and Worf were on the bridge of the Son'a ship, a conversation was apparently cut, which includes Picard saying "There'll be no cover-up of this!"

Enterprise-E librarian

Picard and Anij were supposed to share a kiss.

- The original version of the fight between Picard and Ru'afo contained an additional scene. After Picard was beamed away, Ru'afo fell into the planet's rings and was regressed into young child. This scene was cut from the movie, but a 'Young Ru'afo' is still listed in the credits, protrayed by Phillip Glasser. - There was supposed to be a cameo appearance by Quark from DS9 after the Son'a were defeated, who tells Worf that he was thinking of opening a spa on the Ba'ku planet. But his scenes were cut when the director (Jonathan Frakes) thought his appearance didn't work well for the entire movie. As a result of this, both the cameos of DS9 stars (Armin Shimerman and Max Grodenchik) were cut from ST:I, whereas the cameos of two VOY stars (Robert Picardo and Ethan Phillips) remained in ST:FC! Kate Mulgrew would later cameo in ST:N. I can only say that this is quite unfair for DS9, which did not get the respect it deserved when the series was running, and still doesn't after the series had ended. - Near the end of the movie, Worf informs Picard that the starship Ticonderoga has arrived into orbit. This line was apparently cut. However, The Star Trek Encyclopedia has an entry on the Ticonderoga, even though no reference to the ship was made in the movie. There is a possible inconsistency during the scene where Picard, Data and Anij enter into the holoship in the lake. As the three arrive at the holoship, when Data opens the door with his tricorder, Picard was on Anij's left and Data was on Anij's right. After the door opens, the very next shot shows Picard getting up on Anij's right, and Data is on Anij's left. Picard and Data had apparently switched places (!). However, it is still possible that when the three climbed onto the platform in front of the door, Picard simply went to the right of Anij, and Data went to the left. There is also another possible inconsistency during the scene when Picard and Data confront the Son'a soldier in the holoship. After the soldier had been subdued, Picard ends the holodeck program, and the entire village becomes a hologrid, but the Son'a soldier has disappeared too! Perhaps even that Son'a soldier was a hologram programmed to guard the holoship, but this was not explicitly stated in the movie.

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