I'm sorry, but the Next Generation movies were trash--just utter rubbish.
After the 3.5 really good, 1.5 good, and 1 OK TOS movies, the NG ones missed the plot entirely. They tried to be big, dumb, crowd-pleasing sci-fi action movies, which might have been forgivable it they were at least passable to that end.
They weren't.
ANYTHING trying to "bridge the gap" between Kirk and crew triumphant and Kirk dies like a chump for no reason in some weird, pointless "passing the torch, but he accidentally set himself on fire" moment is, by definition, pointless, for chumps, and has no reason to exist.
A respectful continuation of Kirk's story? OK, that's fine.
A bus stop on the route to Generations killing Kirk off because audiences are too stupid to understand Star Trek can exist without Kirk/Spock? No thank you.
I'm surprised you didn't mention Federation in the Retrospective section, which sets its framing story just before Generations. It's widely considered one of the best Trek novels, if not the best.
I'm sorry, but the Next Generation movies were trash--just utter rubbish.
After the 3.5 really good, 1.5 good, and 1 OK TOS movies, the NG ones missed the plot entirely. They tried to be big, dumb, crowd-pleasing sci-fi action movies, which might have been forgivable it they were at least passable to that end.
They weren't.
ANYTHING trying to "bridge the gap" between Kirk and crew triumphant and Kirk dies like a chump for no reason in some weird, pointless "passing the torch, but he accidentally set himself on fire" moment is, by definition, pointless, for chumps, and has no reason to exist.
A respectful continuation of Kirk's story? OK, that's fine.
A bus stop on the route to Generations killing Kirk off because audiences are too stupid to understand Star Trek can exist without Kirk/Spock? No thank you.
I thought First Contact was good--not great, and it set up problems for the Borg that Voyager ran them into the ground with, but good.
Whenever I see Sulu now, I just imagine him licking some dude's butt. Oh my.
Ok that's awfully specific.
I'm surprised you didn't mention Federation in the Retrospective section, which sets its framing story just before Generations. It's widely considered one of the best Trek novels, if not the best.
Best Destiny and Shadows on the Sun are my favorites of those.