Star Trek Generations is a film with plenty of problems, but perhaps its most egregious error involves its use of the time-displaced Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) in his final adventure. After enjoying six largely successful feature films, the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series ended their legendary run with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Generations was the first film to primarily feature the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which had just ended a wildly successful seven-season run. The movie's producers were in agreement that Generations should be something of a passing of the torch between the TOS and TNG crews.
Feeling that The Undiscovered Country was a fitting finale for their characters, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley declined to return as Spock and Dr. McCoy, respectively. Shatner, however, was happy to sign on for one more ride as Captain Kirk. After seemingly dying during the maiden voyage of the USS Enterprise-B, Kirk was pulled into a temporal ribbon called the Nexus, a timeless dimension that offered its inhabitants their personal version of heaven. Kirk left the Nexus with Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) to stop Dr. Tolian Soran (Malcolm McDowell) from destroying a star to re-enter the Nexus. Kirk died heroically, but it ultimately felt like a missed opportunity.
