Star Trek Generations - Question about the Nexus

[zero-g]

This has always bugged me about that whole energy ribbon Nexus story.

So this energy ribbon flies through space (the Nexus) and sucks in what ever it touches in this alternate reality. Fair enough.

Now Soran destroys a sun, the Nexus changes direction and envelops him. Since Picard was also on the planet, he also gets sucked in.

Once you are in the Nexus, how can you leave? You can not magically re-appear in the reality you left since the Nexus has no magical powers. Everything that happens from that point on is only supposed to happen within the Nexus right?

We see Picard and Kirk somehow go back in time to fight Soran, how is that possible?

Is this some kind of script error?

Can anybody in the Nexus magically decide where and when in the universe they want to re-appear?

All that happens after you enter the Nexus must occur on a different time line and reality as far as I am concerned.

Everything that occurs once you are in the Nexus is only taking place within the Nexus!

Did I miss something?

 

[Yeoman Randi]

If you missed anything then i missed the same thing. I think it's called a plot hole!

I am one of the (few) here who LOVES Generations. I cannot tell you how many times my husband and i watch the movie and then look at each other and say WTF?

Recently i came up with my little bit of fanwank to try to explain it away. See if this makes any sense to you (or helps you accept the plot hole)...

The Nexxus is not really a physical place, so much as it is in another state of reality or another dimension, that can be controlled by the individual's mind. So, if you want to leave the Nexus you end up wherever it was that the Nexxus passed through you.
This would mean that Picard and Kirk could leave the Nexxus and "go back" to the planet....of course, Kirk would be joining Picard into "his reality"...on the planet.

This is the only thing i have been able to come up with that helps me swallow the huge bunch of plot holes....

 

[Voyagerian]

I happen to like the film, and yep, that's a good explanation to me. Actually, I almost posted my own summation, but I fell off the board before I could finish. I didn't think of the exit though in terms of it as a normal 'function' operating to take you back to precisely where you entered, but that makes sense. And, if you can manipulate the Nexus, why not in the fleeting moments before you leave, use its outside-spacetime nature to be able to 'will yourself' a path...though it doesn't work well in a way as you say.Guinan's echo in the Nexus, there for all those decades outside spacetime told Jean-Luc, did she not, that he could go wherever he chose....?

 

[Yeoman Randi]

Hmmm yes she did say that. ARG! Well thats a monkey wrench...gotta think about that .....

 

[spaceballone]

This has always bugged me about that whole energy ribbon Nexus story.

So this energy ribbon flies through space (the Nexus) and sucks in what ever it touches in this alternate reality. Fair enough.

Now Soran destroys a sun, the Nexus changes direction and envelops him. Since Picard was also on the planet, he also gets sucked in.

Once you are in the Nexus, how can you leave? You can not magically re-appear in the reality you left since the Nexus has no magical powers. Everything that happens from that point on is only supposed to happen within the Nexus right?

We see Picard and Kirk somehow go back in time to fight Soran, how is that possible?

Is this some kind of script error?

Can anybody in the Nexus magically decide where and when in the universe they want to re-appear?

All that happens after you enter the Nexus must occur on a different time line and reality as far as I am concerned.

Everything that occurs once you are in the Nexus is only taking place within the Nexus!

Did I miss something?

The writers of the movie say you can leave the nexus at any time and go anywhere any time so it's not a script error or a plot hole. That's what the nexus does.

Now, I agree what the nexus can do as a plot device stretches logic but it does what they say it can do in the movie. It's kind of like all the amazing things the genesis device does in 2 and 3.

I think the plot hole is why the hell did Kirk and Picard pick that time and place to go back and not some earlier time and place.

That said I still like generations alot.

 

[RyuRoots]

This has always bugged me about that whole energy ribbon Nexus story.

So this energy ribbon flies through space (the Nexus) and sucks in what ever it touches in this alternate reality. Fair enough.

Now Soran destroys a sun, the Nexus changes direction and envelops him. Since Picard was also on the planet, he also gets sucked in.

Once you are in the Nexus, how can you leave? You can not magically re-appear in the reality you left since the Nexus has no magical powers. Everything that happens from that point on is only supposed to happen within the Nexus right?

We see Picard and Kirk somehow go back in time to fight Soran, how is that possible?

Is this some kind of script error?

Can anybody in the Nexus magically decide where and when in the universe they want to re-appear?

All that happens after you enter the Nexus must occur on a different time line and reality as far as I am concerned.

Everything that occurs once you are in the Nexus is only taking place within the Nexus!

Did I miss something?

The writers of the movie say you can leave the nexus at any time and go anywhere any time so it's not a script error or a plot hole. That's what the nexus does.

Now, I agree what the nexus can do as a plot device stretches logic but it does what they say it can do in the movie. It's kind of like all the amazing things the genesis device does in 2 and 3.

I think the plot hole is why the hell did Kirk and Picard pick that time and place to go back and not some earlier time and place.

That said I still like generations alot.

IIRC, someone (RDM I think, but not sure) said that it was because Picard didn't want to mess with the timeline any more than strictly necessary, admitting that it was a flimsy explanation, but at least it was an explanation.

 

[zero-g]

Hmm, pretty lame explanation by the writers there.

You get sucked into an energy ribbon where you get live out all your fantasies. But if you want to leave, you materialize back into reality at a place and time of your choosing...

Somebody got lazy during the writing of this script

 

[zero-g]

.Guinan's echo in the Nexus, there for all those decades outside spacetime told Jean-Luc, did she not, that he could go wherever he chose....?

Yes, wherever he chose within the nexus. At least that is how I understood it.

The Nexus was supposed to be a one way trip, not some time machine!

 

[RyanKCR]

No the real BIG plot hole is the fact that later in the movie it is said that Soran cannot fly a ship into it because it will be destroyed but then how did he get there in the first place? On a ship. Plus why didn't he don a suit and jump out an airlock?

 

[Broccoli]

No the real BIG plot hole is the fact that later in the movie it is said that Soran cannot fly a ship into it because it will be destroyed but then how did he get there in the first place? On a ship. Plus why didn't he don a suit and jump out an airlock?

My guess is that flying into it with a ship is trouble shoot at best.

But, yeah, give him a spacesuit with a little thruster pack and send him on his way.

 

[T'Girl]

When Picard returned with Kirk, what happen to the Picard, or the Picard consciousness that existed at that point in time originally? Did the Nexus kill that man, overwrite his consciousness with the memories/existance of the Picard exiting the nexus?

 

[zero-g]

When Picard returned with Kirk, what happen to the Picard, or the Picard consciousness that existed at that point in time originally? Did the Nexus kill that man, overwrite his consciousness with the memories/existance of the Picard exiting the nexus?

Exactly, if he went back to the same linear time line, there would be two Picards. The one that had not left yet, and the one that came back.

You know what this means?

Everything that ever happened in TNG from that point onward, occurred within a separate reality!

 

[The]

Soooo....Trek XI is an alternate-alternate reality?

 

[zero-g]

Soooo....Trek XI is an alternate-alternate reality?

Exactly!

 

[Jon1701]

Hmm, pretty lame explanation by the writers there.

You get sucked into an energy ribbon where you get live out all your fantasies. But if you want to leave, you materialize back into reality at a place and time of your choosing...

Somebody got lazy during the writing of this script

I don't think they got lazy.

There were a number of things that the studio demanded that they write into this movie. Its amazing the thing hangs together at all (it does...just, if you squint a little )

They wanted

Kirk in the 23rd Century
Kirk in the 24th Century
A plot for Picard
A comedy plot for Data
Klingons
Guinan
A big villian
A passing of the torch
Time travel
Themes of life and death
A big old universe life and death type story

There's a lot of stuff in there. The movie is good but not great, and given the pressures they were under - I don't think its all that bad.

 

[JustKate]

I love Generations - it is one of my favorites, too, YeomanRandi - but I can't help anybody with the plot holes. I just tell myself that the Nexus travels through both time and space, which means weird stuff can happen, and then I sit back and enjoy the ride.

 

[Joker]

Hmm, pretty lame explanation by the writers there.

You get sucked into an energy ribbon where you get live out all your fantasies. But if you want to leave, you materialize back into reality at a place and time of your choosing...

Somebody got lazy during the writing of this script

I don't think they got lazy.

There were a number of things that the studio demanded that they write into this movie. Its amazing the thing hangs together at all (it does...just, if you squint a little )

They wanted

Kirk in the 23rd Century
Kirk in the 24th Century
A plot for Picard
A comedy plot for Data
Klingons
Guinan
A big villian
A passing of the torch
Time travel
Themes of life and death
A big old universe life and death type story

There's a lot of stuff in there. The movie is good but not great, and given the pressures they were under - I don't think its all that bad.

What's your source on that list?

 

[tharpdevenport]

Scotty did say the refugees transporter patterns were phasing in & out of our reality, to which Kirk asked, "To where?".

We already know based on TNG that a large amount of engery can rupture the space-time continum. Maybe the Nexus is like a constant flowing river of disrupted time & space, which goes either way time-wise. And perhaps you are connected to it in such a way that just simply thinking about going back, triggers the flow in reverse. MAkes sense based on what we know.



But then one has to also consider the ultimate mind fuck: they never got out. Everything from that point on was in Picard's mind.

 

[Jon1701]

Hmm, pretty lame explanation by the writers there.

You get sucked into an energy ribbon where you get live out all your fantasies. But if you want to leave, you materialize back into reality at a place and time of your choosing...

Somebody got lazy during the writing of this script

I don't think they got lazy.

There were a number of things that the studio demanded that they write into this movie. Its amazing the thing hangs together at all (it does...just, if you squint a little )

They wanted

Kirk in the 23rd Century
Kirk in the 24th Century
A plot for Picard
A comedy plot for Data
Klingons
Guinan
A big villian
A passing of the torch
Time travel
Themes of life and death
A big old universe life and death type story

There's a lot of stuff in there. The movie is good but not great, and given the pressures they were under - I don't think its all that bad.

What's your source on that list?

Ron Moore talks about it in the Generations commentary. He also talks about it in this interview.

 

[Joker]

He mentions every single thing in that list?

A big old universe life and death type story?

Time travel?