Snap/ShutterstockEveryone’s favorite Star Trek movie is different. And everyone’s least favorite Star Trek movie is different, too. What gets more interesting is the cinematic Treks that are neither bad nor outright classics. The 1994 film Star Trek Generations hits this note for most serious fans; while flawed, the film accomplished the goal of passing the torch from the classic films to The Next Generation gang, and also gave Captain Kirk (William Shatner) a massive death scene, in which he didn’t, as predicted, die alone, but passed away in the presence of his future-tense successor, Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). Now, 32 years after its release, a new detail has emerged about how the exact moment of Kirk’s death was rewritten on the fly. It comes thanks to the docuseries The Center Seat II, and it happened with more than a little input from Shatner himself.What is The Center Seat II: 60 Years of Star Trek?Quietly dropping on YouTube and other streamers on September 7, during Star Trek’s birthday week, Brian Volk-Weiss’ Nacelle Company released its second Star Trek docuseries, The Center Seat II. While the initial 2021 docuseries charted most of the franchise’s history up to 2005 and the end of the series Enterprise, The Center Seat II is focused on the Trek film franchise from 1994 to 2016. This means the five episodes of The Center Seat II chronicle the making of the four TNG films — Generations, First Contact, Insurrection, and Nemesis — as well as the trio of reboot films that began in 2009 with J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek.Like all the documentaries produced by Volk-Weiss (The Toys that Made Us, Icons Unearthed, et al.), The Center Seat II is a breezy, watchable series that dives deep without getting too caught up in minutiae. That said, when it comes to geeky docs, the devil is in the details. And with The Center Seat II’s first episode, “It Was Fun,” the details of Kirk’s death in Generations are exhumed with new revelations.How Kirk’s death in Generations was changed William Shatner and Patrick Stewart on the set of Generations. | Snap/ShutterstockEven in 1994, most serious Trekkies were probably aware that there was an alternate ending for Generations that wasn’t released in theaters. “We were gonna do this kind of moment where Kirk’s shot in the back,” co-writer Brannon Braga says in the new documentary. His Generations writing partner, Ronald D. Moore, added that the idea was: “He [Kirk] dies in an unexpected way, and there’s a tragedy and irony to that.”Both before and during filming, Generations was a complicated project. Moore and Braga’s script had input from various folks — producer Rick Berman, higher-ups at Paramount, the cast — and infinite permutations of what Generations could have been were seemingly in play. “Ron and Brannon’s early scripts were much stronger than what got minimized and minimized and minimized,” longtime Star Trek writer and producer Bryan Fuller says in the documentary.Director David Carson was never comfortable with the original ending, saying in the doc, “You couldn’t just shoot him in the back.” Carson tried to push for a different ending, but Paramount initially didn’t approve a second ending, and it was only after poor reactions in audience test screenings that a new version of Kirk’s death was shot.The original 1994 poster for Star Trek Generations. | Snap/ShutterstockBut the most interesting detail, and in terms of Trek lore, the most illuminating, is what Shatner brought to his final performance. Captain Kirk’s final words weren’t written by Moore, Braga, Berman, or anyone else. As narrator Gates McFadden put it, Kirk’s final words “didn’t come from any writer... it was pure Shatner.”As Carson confirms in the documentary, Captain Kirk’s final line, as scripted, was to say to Picard, It's the least I could do for the Captain of the Enterprise... it was ...fun.” But what Shatner added, with a faraway twinkle in his eye, was the line: “Oh, my.” What did this suggest? That Kirk was seeing his own death? The 2024 short film, 765874 - Unification, suggests that Kirk’s spirit crossed through different dimensions. But back in 1994, this was an ad-lib moment for Shatner, which allowed Kirk to die with a certain amount of wonder and humanity. Generations may not be the greatest Trek of all time, but Shatner’s last-minute contribution certainly helped make Kirk’s tragic end memorable, and, crucially, relatable. Star Trek Generations streams on Paramount+. The Center Seat II streams on YouTube and elsewhere.Phasers on Stun!: How the Making — and Remaking — of Star Trek Changed the WorldAmazon -