It has been nearly 30 years since Star Trek: Generations premiered on the silver screen. This first film featured The Next Generation cast and delivered one shock after another. First, we see Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) die—twice. Then, the unthinkable happens when a Klingon Bird-of-Prey defeats the USS Enterprise-D. Seeing the ship’s saucer section crash into Veridian III was a harrowing yet spectacular cinematic event.
Few starships in the Star Trek universe are as iconic as the USS Enterprise-D. From its first view in 1987 to its destruction in 1994, and its shocking return in 2023. The Enterprise took us to where no one had gone before.
Two Captains. One Destiny.
Imagine sitting in the movie theatre on November 18, 1994. It was just under three years since Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country showed audiences the retirement of the original Enterprise crew. After watching it every week for the last seven years, you haven’t seen the new voyages of the Enterprise-D in about six months. Now, you get to see it on the big screen!
The movie is an emotional rollercoaster, beginning the journey with the legendary Captain James T. Kirk sacrificing himself (or so we thought) to save the USS Enterprise-B. As well as El-Aurian refugees including another beloved TNG character, Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg). And let’s not forget the humor, as our favorite android, Data (Brent Spiner) pushes Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) into a holographic ocean.
Sir Patrick Stewart delivers a powerful performance as Picard suffers the devastating loss of his brother and nephew. He struggles to hide his grief, but his crew senses the Captain’s anguish which he reluctantly reveals to Councillor Troi (Marina Sirtis). And Data finally experiences those longed-for emotions, showing us the purest form of humanity, from laughter to fear.
We meet our protagonist, Dr. Tolian Soran (Malcolm McDowell), who will stop at nothing to get back to the Nexus—an energy ribbon soaring through space that transports its victims to an altered state of consciousness. Through his ingenuity, he programs Lt. Commander Geordi LaForge’s visor, upon capturing it, to transmit its visual data back to a Klingon Bird-of-Prey.
In the television series, we learn that his visor transmits a sea of colors and heat signatures, which LaForge is able to decipher. Soran, however, configures the transmission so that the Duras sisters (Barbara March and Gwynyth Walsh) can see in the perfect color. Through his vision, the Duras sisters learn of the USS Enterprise-D’s shield frequency. They program their torpedos and attack.
Starship Down…
No matter how advanced a starship is, it all has one Achilles’ heel: the warp core. With enough damage, matter and anti-matter combine, and boom! Luckily, the USS Enterprise-D has a saucer-separating feature, which allows the crew to escape the blast. When our favorite Android Data swears, you know it’s about to go down (and by “it,” we mean the USS Enterprise-D!).
The ship’s destruction is a cinematic sequence that shocked every viewer. Trek Central asked fans who saw Star Trek: Generations in theaters what their feelings were: “Seeing the destruction of the ship we had come to love for seven years was awful. And then seeing Veridian III explode while they were trapped there was even worse! Of course, Picard waved the magic Star Trek wand, and everything reset, but it was disturbing.” – Mike G.
Credit: Paramount+.
“I was depressed. I started watching TNG when it first aired. The Enterprise D was my first love. When the show ended I felt lost. Then came the movie. Social media didn’t exist so I knew little about the movie. But when the ship exploded/crashed I was devastated. I felt like I lost my best friend. Thankfully the crew came back, but fast forward to Nemesis and Troi is at the helm – I just knew it was bad. Then Picard season 3. So grateful for that season. Although I did start yelling at the TV when Troi took the helm again.” – Shawn W.
“I was 13 at the time the movie came out and TNG was for me what TOS was to older fans. This crew and this Enterprise inspired my imagination more than any before or since. When the Enterprise was under attack at Veridian III, I was wrapped up in the action of the story but my nerd brain was also watching the damage being inflicted and that part of me knew it wouldn’t end well for the ship. The evacuation scenes were heart-pounding for me as a kid. When they separated and the impulse drive exploded (right before the flash), I thought “…that’s not far enough!”. The whole crash sequence saw me gripping the armrests of my seat in the theater and when the saucer came to a stop, it was silent… except for my bewildered “…whoa…” – David O.
Creating an Epic Scene
Despite being initially devasting, the USS Enterprise-D crashing scene is truly a cinematic masterpiece. Before the modern age of CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery), film creators ‘built’ their scenes. They’d find ingenious creative ways to portray landscapes, oceans, explosions, and special effects. Star Trek: Generations is no exception.
Credit: Paramount Pictures.
“I don’t know how else to say it except our dictum from the studio was to have fun. So we did. We had fun destroying things. I don’t know what that says about us. But then, that Enterprise has been on the screen for seven years. I’m ready for a new one. I think that will make the second movie all the more fun!” –
Brannon Braga, in “Behind the Scenes of Star Trek Generations – A special report,” by Judith and Garfield Reeves -Stevens, in Star Trek: Generations – The Novel by J.M. Dillard.
Trek Central spoke to visual effects producer Mark Austin who worked for Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) from 1994-1995. He has had a long and impressive career, working on Star Wars: Episode IV (1977), Marvel’s The Avengers (2012), and Star Trek: Beyond (2016) among many other films.
“I was working on another film nearby at the time, and they allowed us to watch the shoot. They had this long dolly track with the saucer mounted onto it, and the idea was that they were just going to let it go, gravity would take it down this ramp and it would crash into this gorgeous valley that was constructed. And it was only one take because crashing the model – it could only take so much of a beating,” he explained.
Credit: Star Trek Prop Authority.
When the saucer hit the constructed landscape, Austin recounts: “There was this eruption of oregano! Entire blooms of oregano went up into the air – you went outside and it smelt like a restaurant. This wave of oregano just rolled over you and it was surreal. It kept floating over you for a long long time afterward.”
In “Behind the Scenes of Star Trek Generations—A Special Report,” by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Brannon Braga explains that crashing the saucer wasn’t exactly an original idea. Apparently, there was an idea to crash the ship as a cliffhanger at the end of Season 6. The idea was ultimately tabled because the budget was insufficient to accomplish something of this magnitude on television.
The Roddenberry Archives teamed up with OTOY to release a beautifully created short video showing the salvaging of the Enterprise-D from Veridian III:
Resurrection
“Let history never forget the name…Enterprise!”
– Captain Jean Luc Picard.
By Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s next movie, First Contact, fans were thrilled to see the new and powerful Enterprise-E. Since Generations, no one expected to see the Enterprise-D on screen ever again. As the years went on, it became increasingly unlikely.
Sixteen years later, Paramount announced that Sir Patrick Stewart would return as Captain Jean Luc Picard. Fans rejoiced, and the speculation began. Many fan theories emerged, hoping for a return of the Enterprise-D – though most remained skeptical since it was destroyed after all.
Credit: Paramount+.
In the third season, Star Trek: Picard then did what fans thought to be impossible – the Enterprise-D was resurrected! As we see in the video released by the Roddenberry Archives, the saucer was indeed recovered from Veridian III. The drive section was salvaged from the U.S.S. Syracuse – another Galaxy-class starship that is largely believed to be a casualty of the Dominion war.
The emotions felt by fans seeing the Enterprise-D once again were just as strong as witnessing its initial destruction: “I imagined that this was how it felt for the Original Series fans who see the Enterprise for the first time in Star Trek The Motion Picture after 10 years. I nearly shed a tear for sheer nostalgia. MY Enterprise was back for one last mission to save the day and I was on the edge of my seat!” – David O.
“I cried tears of joy in Picard at the end, because it’s just like when I saw the Enterprise destroyed in Generations for the first time. I grew up to know and love the crew of the Enterprise D. It was the first trek I ever watched. So I cried happy tears.” – Christy J.
Launching into the Future
“You treat her like a lady. And she’ll always bring you home.”
– Admiral Leonard H. “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley)
In many ways, Star Trek: Picard brought a closure that fans craved after the open-ended events of Star Trek: Nemesis. The same way Star Trek: Generations brought closure to the Original series timeline. The Enterprise-D’s legacy is one that will last forever in the hearts and minds of fans young and old. But as Q (John de Lancie) reminds us… all good things, must come to an end!
Credit: Paramount+.
The Enterprise-D, and its crew led by Captain Picard is truly responsible for launching Star Trek since its initial cancellation in 1969. Just as with anything new, it brought much initial skepticism – ranging from the ship’s awkward design (compared to Kirk’s Enterprise), the crew composition, and the odd-looking phasers. All of this put together, and more ended up leaving one of the biggest legacies – not just in the Star Trek universe, but throughout science fiction itself.
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