In the kitchen, cooking with the captains! Those words sound like a Food Network pitch, but inStar Trek: GenerationsCaptain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) spend a little time in the latter’s Nexus-generated kitchen. The first film to feature theStar Trek: The Next Generationcast brings backStar Trek: The Original Series’famous commander to team up with Picard. And Stewart remembers Shatner being a “pleasure” to work with. Stewart writes in his memoirMaking It So:
Bill was a pleasure to work with, open and generous.
James Doohan and Walter Koenig also return inStar Trek: Generations, but they only appear in the film’s opening sequence. After Kirk is apparently killed when the Nexus severely damages the U.S.S. Enterprise-B, Scotty (Doohan) and Chekov (Koenig) are left to mourn their friend and former commander. The overall idea ofGenerationswas to effectively pass the baton from one crew of the starship Enterprise to the other, but Stewart wasn’t crazy about sharing the screen with Shatner initially. Stewart wrote:
“But [Star Trek Generations] does highlight the notable pairing of Jean-Luc Picard and Captain James T. Kirk, who, by some writerly trick of extradimensional logic, is allowed to coexist with his successor in his full brown-haired, middle-aged virility. Up to this point, Bill Shatner had been relatively cold to TNG, professing to the press that he’d barely watched any of it, and I was a little disappointed that the producers and writers had decided to insert Kirk into our first movie - it made me feel that they didn’t trust the TNG cast to carry a film by ourselves. Yet I ended up eating my words.”
Star Trek: Captain Kirk’s 15 Best Quotes, Ranked
William Shatner’s James T. Kirk was the first captain to take Star Trek fans into the final frontier, and he shared a lot of wisdom along the way.
Patrick Stewart Loved Working with William Shatner
Despite his initial reservations, Sir Patrick Stewart thoroughly enjoyed working with co-star William Shatner inStar Trek: Generations. The end of the film featured the two Enterprise captains joining forces against Dr. Soran (Malcolm McDowell). And Kirk sacrificed himself to thwart Soran’s drastic attempt to re-enter the Nexus. Stewart wrote in his memoir:
“His death scene is moving. In the film, Picard and Kirk team up to foil a plan by the movie’s villain, Tolian Soran, who was played by Malcolm McDowell, a long way from his days as a Royal Shakespeare Company walk-on background actor. Kirk and Picard succeed in locking down Soran’s deadly space probe, but not before Kirk makes the ultimate sacrifice to do so, incurring fatal wounds.
With me standing over him, Bill gave Kirk a perfect send-off, mustering one last trademark smirk before saying, ‘It was… fun.’ Then his facial features subtly rearranged themselves into a wary middle-distance stare, and he said Kirk’s last words, ‘Oh my.’ Our fans loved that Kirk died virtually in Picard’s arms, even as they grieved for their original captain.”
The controversial decision to kill ofStar Trek’sbeloved Captain Kirk was penned by screenwriters Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore. The response from Trekkies was not exactly what the creatives hoped for, andKirk’s resurrectionis something that is debated to this day. The film’s 57% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes conveys the disappointment in the subpar story Braga and Moore presented, and the critics were equally cruel.Generationsonly managed a 48% Tomatometer rating. However, Kirk and Picard’s on-screen partnership remains a high point for the franchise.
