From 1979, Star Trek formed a solid and dependable source of income for Paramount Pictures. So successful were these films – particularly 1986’s The Voyage Home – that they led to the introduction of a sequel television series. Jump to 1993 and the studio was faced with an interesting challenge. Producing another season of Star Trek: The Next Generation would mean re-negotiating contracts with its cast. At the same time, after six features, the original Star Trek were being perceived as too old to continue headlining their own films. The solution was clear: to hand the film franchise over to the Next Generation cast, retire the originals, and leave television to new spin-off series Deep Space Nine and Voyager (which was already in development).

It was a plan with potential, but suffered a very mixed execution. I do not hate Star Trek: Generations, but at the same time it is a difficult film to entirely like. Let us break down what works and what doesn’t.

First and foremost: the transition from television series to film franchise was one that was agreed upon remarkably late in the day and with little time for preparation. It meant abandoning an in-development Season 7 finale for The Next Generation and writing a replacement series finale at the last minute, and then stitching several abandoned story elements from the series and fleshing them out to a full-length feature. Sets and costumes from the series, which were produced to satisfy the resolution of standard-definition television, were utilised inappropriately on the feature film. The decision led to some remarkably dark and moody lighting by director David Carson, since the standard USS Enterprise rooms and corridors struggled to maintain authenticity. The finished film was the result of hasty development, a hasty shoot, and a breakneck post-production phase to meet its November 1994 release. The speed and panic is visible throughout the film. It feels tonally like a better-funded episode of the television series, and it feels that way because for all intents and purposes it is.

An intention to bridge the continuity between the original Star Trek cast and The Next Generation led to a relatively unsatisfying pseudo-time-travel plot in which William Shatner’s James Kirk could team up with Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard for the climax. The film loses too much time and momentum in making the characters’ meeting a reality, and that ultimate meeting lacks impact since the television series had already brought back Leonard Nimoy (Spock) and James Doohan (Scotty) in its fifth and sixth years.

There are potentially decent elements in Generations, but they are not given the opportunity to be fully fleshed out. Malcolm McDowell is an excellent villain as tormented scientist Tolian Soran, but he lacks sufficient screen time. The screenplay toys with the idea of Commander Data (Brent Spiner) experiencing human emotion for the first time, but does so superficially. Picard is given a personal tragedy to endure, which aids in developing the plot but not particularly the character. In all honesty all other featured characters – Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Troi (Marina Sirtis), Crusher (Gates McFadden), La Forge (LeVar Burton), and Worf (Michael Dorn) – do not get much to do at all.

What a difference an extra year might have made, to give space for its writers to develop the best possible plot, or for the production to abandon its unnecessary links to the past, or for just a little extra money allocated to refreshed sets and costumes. This is not the worst of the many Star Trek feature films, but it certainly feels like the most ordinary.