Star Trek: Generations

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Star Trek: Generations Goofs/Mistakes

Movie Goof (factual errors): Even if a collapse of a star could affect its gravity, this effect would propagate no faster than the speed of light, according to the theory of relativity. The same goes for all the other effects that are mentioned in the movie (e.g. increased radiation). And yet, according to Data, the destruction of the Amargosa star affected an entire sector (many light years across) in mere hours, instead of years.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): The uniforms worn by Riker and LaForge don't fit. This is because they're using the same ones worn by cast members of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Data and Geordi look at Data's emotion chip, which is supposedly suspended in a force field, the long close-up shows by the wobbling of the rotating chip that it is hanging from a string. The difference in motion is unmistakable.
Movie Goof (continuity error): On the Enterprise-B, Ensign Sulu says that the starboard ship is collapsing. What we see on the screen is the ship exploding on our left, the port side of the ship.
Movie Goof (plot holes): The gravimetric forces of the Nexus energy ribbon are so powerful they can destroy or severely damage any spacecraft, yet when the ribbon passes over the surface of Veridian III, scooping up Picard and Soran within it, the surrounding terrain somehow remains completely undamaged without so much a scratch.
Movie Goof (audio/visual unsynchronized): When Kirk circles his horse around Picard, his dialogue concerning the empty captain's chair sounds as if it was dubbed in afterwards.
Movie Goof (plot holes): In ep. 6.4 "Relics" of the TNG series, Scotty appears in the 24th century after being suspended in a transporter buffer for decades. When he's restored and learns that he's been saved by the Enterprise crew, he expects to see captain Kirk, which means that he must have been suspended before Kirk's disappearance, so he couldn't have been on the Enterprise B. This contradiction could be due to the fact that originally, Spock should have been on the Enterprise B instead of Scotty.
Movie Goof (continuity error): In "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987) {Brothers (#4.3)}, Dr. Soong inserts the emotion chip into Lore (who is impersonating Data) inside the side of his neck, yet in this movie, George inserts the emotion chip into a slot on top of Data's head. Although it's possible that the chip can be inserted both ways, such a discrepancy should have been addressed.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): As Worf climbs up the side of the 19th century ship, you can see that his pants legs are red in front. (The paint on the ship wasn't dry when they filmed it.)
Movie Goof (continuity error): The Enterprise-B's hull has outcroppings on either side of the main deflector, indicative of a modified Excelsior-class design. However, these outcroppings are not present as it warps past on its way to the Lakul and the Nexus energy ribbon. (This is actually a reused shot from Star Trek VI where the Excelsior was charging to the Enterprise's rescue)
Movie Goof (crew or equipment visible): On the Enterprise-B bridge, when the ship is hit and crewmen go flying, you can see one man go over the bridge railing backward... twice, from different angles. When he lands the second time, the edge of a blue pad to cushion his fall pops up into the bottom of the shot.
Movie Goof (plot holes): After Picard was beamed to Veridian III, the Enterprise crew didn't know his location, and had to scan the entire planet to find him. For this to have happened, Picard must have been beamed down using the Klingon transporter, otherwise his destination would have been in the Enterprise's computer. But when Picard is shown arriving to the planet, he is clearly in a white Federation-type beam, and not a Klingon red one (seen previously on the Amargosa station, for example).
Movie Goof (incorrectly regarded as a mistake): During the saucer separation sequence, there is a brief shot from under the Enterprise showing the saucer leaving the stardrive section. In that shot, what appear to be stars can be seen through the saucer itself, seemingly, due to ineffective or incorrect compositing. However some of these 'stars' appear to move, suggesting they are in fact jetsam being released from the docking area.
Movie Goof (incorrectly regarded as a mistake): The toaster in Kirk's house may look like a Dualit, which doesn't "pop up" when done toasting. When done this model keeps the toast inside to keep it warm. There's a manual lever to raise the toast for removal. But we are several hundred years in the future, even in Kirk's time. How can we know this toaster does not operate the way we see it in the movie?
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): Roads are visible in the background during the climatic fight sequence on Veridia III, even though the planet is uninhabited.
Movie Goof (plot holes): When Captain Kirk and Captain Picard are talking in the Nexus kitchen scene, Kirk is confused that he is standing in the kitchen in his house he had retired to on earth, during which time he had courted Antonia. He explains that he had "sold it years ago." Within the Star Trek universe, the monetary system had been abolished on earth by then, with only Federation credits used with other alien societies.
Movie Goof (continuity error): During the crash sequence on the Enterprise-D, Worf is flying all over the place in the background. Immediately following the star drive's destruction, the shock wave sends Worf flying to his left. He crawls back to his station and then falls to his left again. Immediately following, as Riker is screaming to Deana for a report, you can see Worf's hands holding on to the railing right behind Riker. The next instant he is to the right of his station (our left, bringing himself up) and in the very next scene he is seated at his station.
Movie Goof (incorrectly regarded as a mistake): When Geordi returns to the Enterprise after his capture on the Klingon Bird of Prey, he is seen talking to Data in sickbay. Geordi is wearing the older Starfleet uniform (yellow jumper with black shoulders) but in the next scene when he walks into Engineering, he is seen wearing the newer uniform with the colors inverted (black jumper with yellow shoulders). One of the comments made by the Klingons while monitoring his activities is a recount of what he had done since leaving Sickbay. B'Etor first commented that "He bathed," so it's not unexpected that he would have changed uniforms.
Movie Goof (continuity error): Worf bends over twice when he uncovers Soran.
Movie Goof (errors in geography): During the scene with Picard and Soran on Veridian III, talking about the Borg and time ("It's like a predator. It's stalking you."), there's one sequence when Picard and Soran stand face to face. You can clearly see that the sun is shining on the left side of Picard's face, but it's also shining on the left side of Soran's face, so they can't look at each other. Later on, Picard watches the trilithium missile launch and the sun explosion. He seems to be blinded by the sun, but again, it's shining on the left side of his face, so he can't be looking at it.
Movie Goof (factual errors): If you stopped nuclear fusion in a star it would shrink as depicted but it's mass, and thus it's gravity field, would stay the same. Orbits (and passing energy ribbons) would be unaffected. Further as the matter in the star compressed it would grow much hotter and take several million years to cool. The star would get hotter and brighter, not dimmer.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): The Enterprise-B has outcroppings on either side of the deflector dish, however if you look at the ship's schematics in the background and inside the turbolifts, you can see those schematics are of a standard Excelsior-class vessel, and those outcroppings do not appear on them.
Movie Goof (incorrectly regarded as a mistake): When Dr. Soran fires the rocket from the planet to destroy the Veridian star, in reality, even traveling at light-speed, it would take at least several minutes for the rocket to impact the star. For example, it takes light from our star - the Sun - 8 minutes to reach Earth (traveling at light-speed). In the movie it only takes 11 seconds for the rocket to reach the star, as Worf calculated earlier in the movie. Evidently, the rocket had warp drive capability. It makes perfect sense, because a slow moving rocket would be vaporized by the star before it could reach the central core, where the reactions (which have to be inhibited) take place. Of course, it would still take at least several minutes before any effect is seen from the planet, because those effects travel at the speed of light (at most), but for all we know that's exactly what happened. Although only a few seconds of movie time pass between the launch and the implosion, the latter is in the next cut. The rocket's contrail is gone in the second cut, indicating that some time has passed between the cuts. And since Picard could do nothing after launch but standing helplessly, there would be no point in wasting movie time on this period.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): When Geordi and Data are looking at Data's emotion chip you can clearly see LeVar Burton's eyes through Geordi's visor. As he raises his eyebrow while emoting to Data's dialog, the lighting, which is more indirect and from above, filters down between his face and the visor back-lighting the visor and making his right eye visible. As he turns his head slightly you can also see his left eye, but not as clearly.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): When Picard's children arrive when he first enters the nexus, his youngest son, Thomas, can be seen mouthing the lines of his two sisters.
Movie Goof (incorrectly regarded as a mistake): After Soran punches B'tor, her lip bleeds and the blood is red. This is not an error. Except for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, where Klingon blood is bright pink, it's always red, so, at most, this goof belong to that movie, not this one, and even in that movie it's not a goof (see trivia section for "Undiscovered Country").
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): Before Kirk jumps the gap on his horse while in the Nexus, there is a shot from beneath the gap, looking up, and there appears to be a dark colored board or bridge across the gap. When we see Kirk jump the gap, the board is no longer present.
Movie Goof (incorrectly regarded as a mistake): The Guinan who appears inside the Nexus tells Picard that she is an "echo" or a part of herself the real Guinan left behind when she was beamed away onto the Enterprise-B. Obviously Picard was not yet born by then and Guinan would not have known him 80 years ago, so how would she know Picard once he's inside the Nexus, if she didn't known him when she was in there herself? They did meet before in TNG: Time's Arrow: Part 1 and Part 2. Guinan tell Picard if he does not go on this mission they would never meet. They actually meet in the 1800s. in Ten-Forward, Picard is unnerved by a conversation with Guinan, who insists he break with tradition and accompany the Away Team back to the 19th century. Although she can give him no explanation. Guinan fails to recognize Data, but she is not shocked when he tells her that they serve together on the same starship in the 24th century. She listens with great concern to his story, subtly revealing that she, too, is not from Earth
Movie Goof (incorrectly regarded as a mistake): In the transporter, when Picard is being beamed to the planet surface in exchange for Geordi, you can see his communicator pin. When he is on the surface of the planet, the pin is gone, and when he meets Kirk in the Nexus, the communicator pin is back. However, since Picard appear to be in the same beam as Geordi, he must have been transported to the Klingon ship, where his communicator was taken away to prevent the Enterprise from finding him. But even if he was transported directly to the planet, the Klingon transporter could prevent the communicator from re-materializing (for the same reason as above). We know from the series that transporters can do things like that, and it should be obvious that Picard was traveling through a Klingon beam, otherwise the Enterprise would know his position on the surface, but they didn't. The only problem with these explanations is that the beam does look (and sound) like a Federation beam, not a Klingon beam - but's that's a different goof. As for the Nexus, a sudden reappearance of Picard's communicator is no stranger than appearance of his dead nephew or his non-existing family - anything is possible there.
Movie Goof (plot holes): In the TNG series (ep. 7.1 "Descent: Part 2"), the emotion chip was damaged when Data shot Lore, but in the movie it appears to be intact and ready for use. Although Data might have repaired it, this discontinuity is never addressed. Moreover, the chip in the movie looks nothing like the one in the series. Also, in the series Data didn't want to use the chip because it might have changed his personality to the worse - there was never an indication that it could "overload his neural net", which seems to be his only concern now.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): When Data discovers his cat in the wreckage of the Enterprise, when he begins to cry, it is clearly visible that his makeup is coming off under the tears.
Movie Goof (incorrectly regarded as a mistake): Immediately after Worf's promotion the crew goes to the bridge. Worf, who had just been soaking wet on the holodeck, is now dry, and his knee no longer has red paint on it. However, both water and paint weren't real - they were part of the holographic program, so they vanished the moment Worf exited the holodeck, leaving him clean and dry. Numerous episodes of several series are based on the premise that holographic objects disappear outside of holodecks or out of range of mobile holographic projectors.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): During the second saucer crashdown sequence after the trip through the Nexus, the first shot of the saucer hitting the planet surface is a swapped shot. It's made clear by the ship's very visible registry "NCC-1701-D" facing backwards.
Movie Goof (plot holes): On the Enterprise B a science officer says: "The Lakul is one of two ships transporting El-Aurian refugees to Earth". If people knew about El-Aurian refugees in the 23rd century, they should have also known about what made them refugees, i.e. they shouldn't have learned about the Borg only in the 24th century. No reason is given as to why all El-Aurians would hide this information for a century.
Movie Goof (continuity error): Worf's sash when he is blown over the console.
Movie Goof (plot holes): The plot is based on the premises that the energy ribbon moves in a fixed 39.1 year loop and that its trajectory is completely predictable and affected by gravitational forces. Such combination of requirements is physically and logically impossible. If the ribbon travels at warp speed, no known force could make it move in a closed loop - it will go out of our galaxy in a nearly straight line, never to return. If it moves slowly enough to have its trajectory curved into a closed orbit, it may take millions of years to complete one such orbit, since it must go outside of the Galaxy, or at least well beyond the explored space (otherwise there is no need to wait for it to return). Moreover, in this case its trajectory will be so severely distorted due to passages near various stars that it will be unlikely to return to the same region of the Galaxy next time. The only explanation for all this is that the ribbon does move at high warp but is controlled by something other than the known forces, which keeps it in a stable 39.1 year orbit around the Galaxy. But in such a case, its trajectory changes cannot be predictable through gravity calculations, especially to such a high degree as seen in the movie. In any case, the plot crumbles.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): During Worf's promotion party on the sailing ship, a harbor buoy is clearly seen in the background 20 feet from the ship.
Movie Goof (incorrectly regarded as a mistake): Riker orders Worf to launch a spread of torpedoes at Lursa's & B'Etor's Bird of Prey, yet the exterior shot shows the Enterprise firing only one. Evidently Worf was confident that a single torpedo would do the job (and he was right). Being the tactical officer, that's his right to make such a call (perhaps one torpedo is easier to target than a spread). And since Riker actually said to prepare a spread, not to fire one, then technically Worf didn't even disobey an order.
Movie Goof (plot holes): The apparent or implied speed of the ribbon changes tremendously throughout the movie. Judging by the way it's passing over Veridian III, it's obviously moving at a very small fraction of a speed of light. An object moving at near light speed (not to mention warp) would be well clear of the planet in less than a second (much less than a second for warp speed). The fact that the ribbon's trajectory was so significantly altered while already inside the Veridian system also indicates a small velocity. On the other hand, the ribbon traveled from Amargosa to Veridian system in just a few days, if not hours, which requires warp speed. Not a high warp, though, because the Enterprise could easily beat it to Veridian, but still, many times the speed of light. However, Data says that the ribbon "passes through our galaxy every 39.1 years", which suggests that it moves outside of the Galaxy in that time frame, and that requires ultra high warp - beyond Enterprise's capabilities.
Movie Goof (incorrectly regarded as a mistake): Picard chooses to leave the Nexus with Kirk and go back to Veridian III only minutes before the launch, when he could have picked any time and place he wanted to return and stop Soran. For example, he could go back further in time and simply not allow Soran to go back to the Amargosa observatory. However, this and any other plan would only postpone the problem - nothing would prevent Soran from trying again, perhaps thinking of something even worse next time. Even if he was convicted for making illegal weapons, he'd be out of prison by the time the ribbon comes back again. Obviously, Picard wanted to get rid of Soran for good, and the only moral (not to mention legal) way for it was to catch him in the act and kill him in a fair fight, so it won't be a murder. It might seem silly at first, but we do know that Starfleet officers take morality and honor (not to mention law) very seriously. Indeed, every time Picard chose to face Soran directly and not ambush him or shoot him in the back, and even then he couldn't kill him, but he did find a clever way around it after all, and that was the only time and place he could've done it.
Movie Goof (plot holes): Picard does point out that Soran could simply fly into the ribbon in a ship. Data tries to explain this away by noting that all ships that approach the ribbon are either destroyed or severely damaged. But this doesn't explain anything, because as far as we know the destruction of a ship doesn't prevent its occupants from going into the Nexus, as happened to Kirk and, according to Guinan, everyone on Lakul. Anyway, Soran certainly believed that to be the case, because he wanted to go back after being beamed away from Lakul. So why opting for a ridiculously complicated plan the next time? One potential explanation is that the ribbon only provides an opening to the Nexus under some very specific circumstances, but the plot never addresses this crucial issue.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): SPOILER: After Pichard retrieves Captain Kirk's body from the chasm, he then entombs it in layer of rocks while awaiting the rescue shuttle. As we see Captain Picard standing next to the grave in the long shot, we can see a considerable difference between his standing height and the length of the tomb of Captain Kirk, even though, while alive, they were very close in relative stature.
Movie Goof (errors made by characters, possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): SPOILER: When Kirk first arrives on the Enterprise B, a reporter makes a statement to the effect that this is the "first Enterprise in 30 years without Captain Kirk in command". This is incorrect. In "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", Captain Willard Decker (who became Captain of the Enterprise after Kirk left to become a Starfleet Admiral) was in command of the Enterprise, and had been for some time, until Admiral Kirk arrived unexpectedly & took over. In addition, in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn", Captain Spock was in command of the Enterprise (and had been for some time) until Admiral Kirk again assumed emergency command unexpectedly (during a training cruise on which he was initially just an observer). It's possible, though, that the reporter meant to say that the previous ships have been commanded by Kirk (not necessarily all the time), while this will be the first Enterprise, which will never be commanded by Kirk.