Star Trek Fan Edits Generations Space Battle to Make More Sense

Star Trek Generations is a divisive movie for Star Trek fans. As a passing of the torch between eras of Star Trek, fans wanted to love it, but it remains flawed at best. One of those flaws is the battle between the USS Enterprise-D and the Duras Sisters' Bird of Prey while orbiting the planet Veridian III. Now one fan has taken it upon themselves to recut the scene and improve on it.

To set the stage, this battle takes place after Capt. Jean-Luc Picard has arranged for a hostage swap with the Duras Sisters. Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge is allowed to return to the Enterprise in exchange for Picard, so long as Picard is allowed to beam down to Veridian III to speak with the villain Soran first. La Forge doesn't know that the Klingons tapped into his VISOR. By seeing through it, the Klingons were able to discover which frequency the Enterprise's shields were operating on and launch a sneak attack while Picard was still planetside.

The premise of the battle is flawed and there's little be done about that. No re-edit is going to be able to explain why the Galaxy Class Enterprise has so much trouble fending off a single Bird of Prey, or why no one on the Enterprise thinks to simply change the frequency of the ship's shields.

But YouTuber C. Williams did tries to fix the battle itself. The battle feels off largely because the dialogue tries to convey a sense of urgency, with Cmdr. Will Riker informing Cmdr. Data that they'll only have a two-second window to strike at the Bird of Prey while its shields are down, but the actual action takes place at a much slower pace, allowing for an exponentially longer amount of time to pass.

Williams fixes this by changing the scene so that Riker gives Lt. Cmdr. Worf the command to fire before Data finishing forcing the Klingon ship to drop its shield. It compresses the time frame that the action takes place in while also increasing the tension and revealing Riker's high-level of confidence in his bridge crew. You can watch the original version of the scene, as directed by David Carson, as well as Williams' cut in the video above.

What do you think of this version of the Star Trek Generations space battle? Does it make more sense? Let us know what you think in the comments.