Sunday 05 February 2012

Behind the scenes on Star Trek: Generations

A look back on the development of the seventh Star Trek film is less a study in creativity than an example of a film made by a committee—especially a committee of businesspeople. Only the strong team assembled by Rick Berman, with their years of experience on the production of The Next Generation, enabled the movie to rise above the constraints of its creation and become as good as it turned out to be.

There were just some of the factors that had to be considered at the beginning of the project: Paramount wished that the film be accessible to the general movie audience and not just devoted Star Trek fans. That meant that the studio wanted the characters and situations in the film to be fully understandable to someone who had never seen an episode of the series. Also, Rick Berman was determined that the film in some way involve the "tossing of the torch" from the original crew to The Next Generation. Patrick Stewart was equally convinced that the original crew had to share the spotlight with their successors.

These two requirements alone raised the specter of a film script with fourteen main characters, each of whom would have to be introduced to an audience, along with a story suitable for a feature. Considering that none of the previous six films had ever been able to highlight more than just the three main characters of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, it seemed an impossible set of demands had been made before the project had even begun.

Understanding the pressures that awaited him and the production facilities, Berman commissioned the writing of two different scripts with two different approaches to a transgenerational story. One was written by Maurice Hurley, a seasoned producer from the series' first two seasons; the other by first-time feature writers Ron Moore and Brannon Braga, producers on the final season of the series, and two of the most influential writers of The Next Generation episodes. Their story was ultimately preferred by both the studio and Berman, and as it underwent further revision it became apparent that both sets of crews could not be handled in the same script. A draft with only Kirk, Spock, and McCoy was prepared, and drawing on a lesson from the past, Berman approached Leonard Nimoy to direct the film. However, Nimoy's role as Spock was little more than a walk-on—a brief appearance in the first few minutes of the film. As an actor, Nimoy felt that since any of Spock's lines could be said by any of the other characters without changing the nature of the scenes Spock was in, there was no dramatic reason for the character to be there. As a director, Nimoy also wanted to have some input into certain areas of the script.

Nimoy declined the offer to direct, and about the same time DeForest Kelly also declined his cameo role as McCoy, feeling that he had made a much more effective farewell to the character in Star Trek VI. James Doohan and Walter Koenig did agree to reprise their roles as Scotty and Chekov, providing the sense that the torch was being passed from one crew to another as Berman had desired. William Shatner's involvement as Captain Kirk was never in contention. Shatner had been approached about being involved in the film from the initial story sessions, and had given the project his blessing, a blessing which was, in turn, Kirk's death warrant.

Herman Zimmerman returned to the corridors of the starship whose design he had directed seven years earlier, brought new details to it to make it look even more impressive on the movie screen, and prepared to see it all destroyed in the film's explosive finale. As production designer, Zimmerman wanted to retrofit the television series bridge in order to bring it up to the most luxurious standards befitting a feature film; for another, the film's producers were still always thinking of their audience, constantly improving existing designs and offering up new surprises. Zimmerman and Art Director Sandy Veneziano darkened the set's colours and added more tones to its palette; in addition, they chose richer textures.

According to John Eaves, who was asked by Zimmerman to work on the art staff of Star Trek: Generations, the appearance of the bridge was to become more functional. "To accomplish that, we raised the captain's chair slightly (symbolically putting his authourity higher than those sitting in the two chairs flanking him). For functionality, we also split the ramps on either side of the command center. We still had a ramp going down, but added two elevated stations, one against either wall, where crew members could work. We also replaced an alcove filled with lockers and storage panels with a new graphics station. [...] At one point, we had added some new standup stations behind the captain's chair, where Worf works. It was a nice design, but it wounded up being simply too much of a modification, so we dropped it."

The most ambitious set for Generations was that of Stellar Cartography, a room where members of the intrepid Enterprise-D crew would go and consult star maps—in a three-dimensional way, by immersing oneself in space. Originally the idea was to do the room spherically, but construction would have been too difficult and costly, as would the special effects. So a simpler, more cost-effective solution was found: The room became a cylinder, a three-story structure with a platform suspended in the center. At first, the room was segmented into four pieces, with structural beams extending floor to ceiling, and the map appearing in between. But as time went on, it became clear that four beams obstructed too much of the map; the final version of the set had three beams, giving a tripod effect, and allowing for more of the starmap to be displayed. Rick Sternbach contributed a painting of the stars displayed on the major map; the painting was blown up, hung on the set, and backlit.

 

N. Ottens
19 June 2006

Sources for this article include:
• Eaves, J. & J.M. Dillard, Star Trek: The Next Generation Sketchbook, The Movies (1998)
• Reeves-Stevens, J. & G., Star Trek: The Next Generation–The Continuing Mission (1998)