My take is that Picard left Kirk's body, and the story of his involvement on Veridian III, on the planet because Kirk's legacy was fine as it was. He had already died a hero saving the Enterprise B. Putting into the record that he had really been alive and having fun in a make believe reality all the duration, would have been demeaning to the legacy and entirely un necessary. Which in a meta sort of way, also points to why many fans thought this coda to the Kirk story was demeaning to the legacy and entirely un necessary in the sense of its inclusion in a TNG film.

So I like to think Picard kept it to himself.

Kirk's second death in this movie btw mirrors elements of his intended death in the second pilot for TOS, Where No Man Has Gone Before. Nice piece of writing imo.

No, he hadn't been lounging about in The Nexus. Remember, Guinan said that Kirk had also just arrived, by his own memory at least.

That would be from Picard's perspective inside the nexus. For everyone else it would have looked like he had been away for decades (including Kirk). When Picard visits Kirk inside the nexus, he for whatever reason, goes back to meet him on Kirk's first day.

To have Picard relating the later events to the other characters would have been an anti climax, as it would have been for the audience.

This entire movie was an anti-climax the line "You can go anywhere anytime "made the whole Nexus and Kirk plot stupid as fuck

Look at that, Nexus arguing against his own existence.

But yes, it would have been much better if they had come up with some other... maguffin...

I like the idea of the nexus, it was an interesting concept. And it cleverly tied in with some TOS episodes where Kirk or his crew are offered (usually forced) a life in paradise, only for Kirk to reject this as not being properly human or even alive.

But in Generations they fluffed it. Kirk lectures Picard about not letting go of the Enterprise but his own choice of paradise is a ranch in Idaho. Does the nexus know something that Kirk doesn't? It's inherently contradictory. How does the 'shadow' of Guinan know what is going on outside the nexus? It' s not enough to say the nature of the nexus is paradoxical. It really did need better writing.

I don't think it's a MacGuffin btw. It's a plot device to allow the necessary time travel for Kirk and Picard to be in the same place and time. If it were a mere MacGuffin none of the plot problems would matter, and not only do they matter, they are essential to the story.

There could have been some other way for Kirk and Picard to join up, it didn't have to be The Nexus. Just some "force ribbon" could have done that, it didn't have to make people think they were in paradise while "inside" it. What purpose would THAT serve for the Nexus?

I think the purpose of it being a sort of timeless paradise is to give Kirk a choice, and in so doing, the movie's theme revolves around issues of agency: specifically by presenting Soren's choice of self as a contrast to Kirk's selflessness. It is more complex than just that, and the writers made mistakes with it, but it isn't just a plot conceit.

The writers could have just had Kirk sucked into the nexus as tho it were a wormhole and popped out of the other side on Veridian III, but that would have raised the question of how and why he knew to pop out at that point in space and time. Also, the idea of a paradise is the entire reason Soran is blowing up suns and destroying worlds. Without it you just have Soran and the Duras sisters being dicks.

But the Duras sisters weren't interested in the Nexus, they just wanted the weapon. Soran could have been involved with something if not similar, at least less "supernatural."

And having Kirk help fight Soran on Veridian III was developed through other plot contrivances, it's not like the script somehow had to involve Veridian III, or Kirk "magically" appearing there at just the right time, it could have been written differently so that totally other things happen that don't require odd time-travel "coincidences" etc.

Whatever device you use, it has to give a way for Kirk to travel whatever it was, 70 or 90 years into the future. And it has to give a reason for Kirk to want to leave wherever he started from. Then there has to be a reason why Picard particularly chooses Kirk. That's a lot of variables to account for. And there are probably more that I haven't thought of. None of the usual SF tropes would have served the purpose. The nexus was a rare beast in the genre: a novel concept.

I'm not saying the execution of the nexus thing was good. It has a lot of problems. (Why for example had Soran kept track of where the nexus was, but the Federation had never bothered even tho it nearly destroyed their flagship?) But I don't have a problem with the basic idea of the thing. Star Trek is awash with God like entities going right back to TOS. What are you calling 'supernatural' is meat and potatoes for the franchise.

The whole trilithium super weapon and what the Duras sisters were trying to achieve was never properly explained and didn't make a lick of sense anyway.

Most of these problems arise out of the need to shoehorn Kirk into a story that he doesn't belong.

Before I forget, Veridian III had to be cleaned up before the inhabitants of the other planet of that system were able to reach it, because if they got there and found the wreckage of the Enterprise D and Kirk's skeleton etc, that would be interfering with their culture in violation of the Prime Directive.

In terms of why Picard would want Kirk, Picard was well aware of Kirk's "Cowboy Diplomacy" and would know that that's what he needed to deal with Soran.

The weapon sought by the Duras sisters was the same thing Soran was using, the trilithium explosive that could extinguish a star, which was also attempted by the Dominion in Deep Space Nine.

As for the rest, Soran's species was very long-lived, and he could have been trying to get back to his wife who had been assimilated by the Borg or something, and he had a time-travel plan involving the trilithium stuff, which had previously "killed" Kirk when they intervened with a previous attempt by Soran, and they could say that Kirk was "drawn to" wherever Soran tried it again by some consequence of his method... which could also eliminate the need for Picard to "choose" Kirk, he just happened to show up again since he had saved Enterprise-B from Soran's plan in the past...

In this movie Picard doesn't choose Kirk. The shadow Guinan tells Picard that there is someone 'here' who might be able to help. How shadow Guinan knows to find Kirk or Picard, (when Guinan entered the nexus she knew neither of them), can't be explained. It is a Deus ex machina of outrageous proportions.

Time travelling to get a 'redo' of events that had previously turned out badly is a plot device that is all too convenient. Generations does it twice. Kirk moves forward in time to help Picard. And Picard moves backward in his own timeline to get another shot at Soran. There are paradoxes piled on paradoxes here. Where is the Picard before he entered the nexus? Why can't nexus Soran leave the nexus like Kirk and Picard did and have his own redo? If you can't fly into the nexus, how did Kirk and Soron end up there in the first place? I'm pretty sure they were both on spaceships at the time.

The problem isn't the nexus being a 'place' outside of space and time where you can live an alternate reality. The problem is that the writers turned it into a time travel device. And the only reason this was necessary was to get Kirk into the story.

The Duras subplot has no origin and no explanation. They only have the one supply of trilithium that was stolen from the Romulans (how?) and plans to weaponise it that they trust is left behind by Soran. What can they achieve with a single weapon? All of the Alpha Quadrant powers already have weapons that can destroy planets and suns. Again, it's not really a proper thought out story. It is just a device to explain how Soran came by such a weapon. In some sense, the Duras sisters are the 'red shirts' of this movie. Their demise is so predictable and easy.

And they "remodulated the shields" all the time for the Borg, why not for the Duras sisters?

@Knixon said:

And they "remodulated the shields" all the time for the Borg, why not for the Duras sisters?

Someone really wanted that Enterprise crash scene.

@Jacinto Cupboard said:

@Knixon said:

And they "remodulated the shields" all the time for the Borg, why not for the Duras sisters?

Someone really wanted that Enterprise crash scene.

Or maybe they REALLY wanted a reason for Data to say "Oh Shit!"