Lost in the Fire

In Star Trek: Generations we get to see some of the following:



*Spot's movie debut

*Kirk enjoying a slab of cheesecake

*Data, in sheer terror, using profanity

*Scotty brushing his teeth

*An answer to the question of what becomes of the press in the future

*Data singing a little ditty about his love of searching for "little creatures"

*Dr. Crusher playing like Mrs. Robinson and seducing a younger man

*Picard having an Acid like dream/ hallucination

*Kirk dying, not once, but twice



You would think with some of the above occurring, the movie would be a more enjoyable experience than it actually is. There was the hope that since the last year of the series was so weak, the jump to the big screen would provide needed rejuvenation and energy. Unfortunately that isn't the case. The overriding question after viewing Generations, is why was this made into a movie? What would have made an average weekly episode doesn't translate very well into the much anticipated motion picture.



Yes, the special effects are impressive, but what Trekker goes to the movie wanting to be dazzled by special effects (wasn't that the lesson learned way back from the first Star Trek movie?)? If you want that, you might as well go to Stargate. And yes, the meeting between Kirk and Picard is fun. But the very problem of the movie is that Kirk is the only one that seems to be having any fun at all. Star Trek always has the tendency to take itself way too seriously, and this movie suffers big time from that affliction.



Movies are bigger than TV. They claim to hold more of a connection to artistry. Maybe the creative forces behind Star Trek, would be wise to keep that in mind. On a weekly television series, the characters (always the show's strongest point) are allowed to develop and grow. In the movies they have to pretty much stay the way the audience (many dressed in Starfleet uniforms) expect them to be. Ultimately a movie has to strive to accomplish or say something.



With the large ensemble cast, the movies overlook much of the interaction because they are forced to focus on the "stars" above all else. This was a problem for the cast from the first show, but not as much so since many of those characters never were fleshed out much on the original series. With the Next Generation's crew, one has to wonder if the movies will ever be allowed to focus on anyone other than Picard and Data.



"Time is a fire in which we burn," the evil Dr. Soren tells Picard. This series increasingly suffers from its history and having to live up to the standards set before. What used to be a series steeped in imagination and creativity now seems bent on repeating itself, only on a bigger scale than it's ever gone before.



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In 1982, one of the first used records I bought at Cheapo Records was a fair condition copy of Frank Sinatra's ambitious, 1970 effort Watertown. The record is comprised of ten songs, thematically linked to create an achingly sad but beautiful story of a man whose wife leaves him and their two boys.



Last week I went to my friendly neighborhood Applause store to buy Sinatra's latest recording, Duets II. I also happened to pick up the recently released CD version of Watertown finally put out nearly twenty five years after its initial release.



Sinatra's last three studio albums have been disappointing not only because his voice isn't nearly the interpretive instrument it used to be, but because he seems to have finally lost his creative ambition. In contrast, the voice on Watertown isn't the Voice of the Columbia or Capitol years, yet there isn't a singer alive who could have gotten or said more out of the song cycle that paints such a sparse, bleak, yet ultimately moving landscape.



While it's nice to hear Frank still putting out music, one wishes he would maintain the risk taking on which he built his entire career. To hear him re-record his classic songs into "contemporary" duets only goes to show how much time has passed. At the same time, listening to a sadly overlooked 1970's effort and the reading of a quintessential Sinatra song like Goodbye, sung in a way so perfectly Frank "There is no great big ending, no sunset in the sky. There is no string ensemble and she doesn't even cry. Just as I begin to say that we should make another try, she reaches out across the table, looks at me and says 'goodbye'" makes one realize that it isn't so much the physical skills that have gotten old, it's the emotional ones.