14 Dumbest Things In Star Trek Generations
10. Kirk Plays As Shatner
Even in his Nexus fantasy, Kirk cautions Picard not to accept promotion out of the captain’s chair, to stay where he is and can make a difference. That’s exactly in line with what we saw Kirk doing in the opening sequence on the Enterprise-B, right? So given that, why in the name of Hell would Kirk’s fantasy be set anywhere but on a starship? He ought to have been back on some version of his Enterprise, Spock, and Bones at his side, having a TOS-style adventure.
In fact, the opening scenes of the film were originally conceived and scripted to bring the Big Three of TOS back, but both DeForest Kelley and Leonard Nimoy turned down the opportunity to reprise McCoy and Spock for pointless cameos. Having them appear as illusory versions of themselves counseling him as they always did might have made the roles compelling enough to merit them signing on.
But, no, instead of Shatner playing Kirk, we’re given Kirk playing Shatner, pandering to the actor's equestrian interests...almost none of which has anything to do with the character of Captain Kirk.