Why TNG’s Enterprise Was Destroyed In Generations

Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s USS Enterprise-D was famously destroyed in the feature film Star Trek Generations – and the rationale for trashing the beloved starship was simply because it was something the producers wanted to see on the big screen. As the first movie starring the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the movie’s big draw for Trekkers was the historic meeting between Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), which ended with the death of the original Captain of the Enterprise. Picard’s Enterprise-D also “died” in the film, and the manner in which it was destroyed was controversial for the last 30 years.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation’s 24th century, the Galaxy Class USS Enterprise-D was the flagship of the United Federation of Planets and was one of the largest and most powerful vessels in Starfleet. Picard’s Enterprise carried over a thousand crew and their families, it had a lounge called Ten Forward and holodecks for recreation, and wherever the mighty starship boldly went, it had enough scientific and research equipment to fulfill the ship’s mission to “explore strange new worlds” and “seek out new life and new civilizations.”The Enterprise-D was also enormously popular with Star Trek fans, arguably even more so than the original Enterprise commanded by Captain Kirk, which made its destruction in Star Trek Generations a traumatic event for audiences.

Why Star Trek Generations Decided To Destroy The USS Enterprise-D

The D’s destruction was the movie’s other “death” besides Captain Kirk’s

The idea for destroying the USS Enterprise-D in Star Trek Generations came from an original intent to destroy the Galaxy Class starship in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 6. Artwork in the Star Trek: The Next Generation Writer’s Technical Manual shows the separated saucer section making an emergency crash landing on a planet, but it was prohibitively expensive on the TV show’s budget. Since the Enterprise-D’s ability to separate its saucer section from its rear stardrive section only happened rarely on TNG, saucer separation was definitely a feature of the Enterprise-D Star Trek Generations‘ producers wanted to spotlight on the big screen thanks to the film’s $35-million budget.

Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga, who co-wrote Star Trek Generations, pitched the idea of the saucer crash landing and destroying the USS Enterprise-D to executive producer Rick Berman, who gave it a green light. Not only would it be a spectacular and memorable action sequence for the first Star Trek: The Next Generation feature film, but the producers also agreed that it created an opportunity to introduce a new Enterprise in the next movie, which is what happened: the Sovereign Class USS Enterprise-E made its debut in Star Trek: First Contact and was the hero ship of the rest of the TNG movies, Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek: Nemesis, as well.

Why The USS Enterprise-D’s Destruction In Star Trek Generations Was Controversial

Counselor Troi was blamed by some fans for crashing the Enterprise-D

The way Star Trek Generations went about destroying the USS Enterprise-D, however, left a lot to be desired. Essentially, this meant that the finest crew in Starfleet was outwitted by a couple of Klingons, whose far smaller and weaker Bird-of-Prey took down the Federation flagship, which was an ignoble way for the Enterprise-D to meet its end. Further, Star Trek Generations actually destroyed the Enterprise-D twice; the crashed saucer was annihilated, and all hands died when Dr. Tolian Soran (Malcolm McDowell) was able to destroy Veridian’s nearby star to re-enter the Nexus.

Thanks to Nexus-induced time travel, Captain Picard emerged from the Nexus with Captain Kirk and stopped Soran. In this final scenario, the Enterprise saucer section survived the crash, but Kirk died from his injuries fighting Soran. A deleted scene between Riker and Picard in the remains of the Enterprise-D’s bridge said that 18 people died in the crash. Of course, the Enterprise-D was destroyed before on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Some examples include “Cause and Effect” and TNG‘s series finale “All Good Things”. However, the demise of the Enterprise-D in Star Trek Generations is canonical and lasted for almost 30 years.

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Brought Back The USS Enterprise-D

“The Fat One” was a sight for sore eyes

Star Trek: Picard season 3’s reunion of the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation was made complete by the unveiling of the restored USS Enterprise-D. As Commodore Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) explained, he painstakingly rebuilt the D after recovering the saucer from Veridian III and assembling the stardrive section from other Galaxy Class ships. Geordi did his work in secret in Hangar Bay 12 of the Fleet Museum on Athan Prime. In Star Trek: Picard season 3’s finale, Admiral Picard and his crew flew the Enterprise-D one last time to save the galaxy from the Borg. Afterward, the D took its rightful place of honor at the Fleet Museum.

Star Trek: Picard season 3’s production designer Dave Blass and art director Liz Kloczkowski rebuilt the USS Enterprise-D’s bridge set. Complete with a carpet, Star Trek: Picard season 3’s Enterprise-D bridge was as close as possible to the set used in Star Trek: The Next Generation. In Star Trek canon and in real life, the destruction of the beloved Galaxy Class starship in Star Trek Generations has been undone. The USS Enterprise-D is back, ready to fly again if the galaxy needs her and proving all good things don’t always need to end.