STAR TREK: GENERATIONS

STAR TREK: GENERATIONS. David Carson, dir. Rick Berman, prod., co-author (with script writers) of story. Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga, script. USA: Paramount, 1994. Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Levar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis (from Star Trek: The Next Generation), and Malcolm McDowell (villain)—featured cast; with James Doohan and Walter Koenig (of original Star Trek) in small roles, and William Shatner as James T. Kirk.

Captain Kirk killed twice, and the latest Enterprise destroyed, but not by McDowell in any way to allude to his most famous role, as Alex in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (which could have made for a major Battle of the Icons). Of interest here: Mr. Data completes the Pinochio motif when he keeps in his emotion chip in dangerous circumstances and it gets fused into his circuitry. Data has to learn to live with his emotions, which he does and is happy to be a real man. From a multicultural point of view, or the point of view of any robot rights group, Mr. Data proves himself "Spam": metal on the outside (so to speak) but meat within, a yearner after assimilation with the human folk—which says much both positive and negative about the (liberal) politics of the Treker Philosophy.

5. DRAMA, RDE, 22/XI/94