Star Trek: Generations | 1994
Some spectacular Nevada locations as the Star Trek franchise gets a shot in the arm with the Enterprise’s original captain handing over the baton to the Next Generation.
‘Viridian 3’, the planet on which Soran (Malcolm McDowell) tries to return to the total joy of the Nexus, and where James T Kirk (William Shatner) finally drops off the intergalactic perch, is Silica Dome in the Valley of Fire State Park, northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada.
To reach the Valley, take I-15 north from Vegas for 33 miles. A signposted turnoff, Route 169, winds for another 18 miles to the park entrance, and on to the Visitor Center (8.30am - 4.30pm). Silica Dome, a dazzling white rounded peak among the fiery red sandstone outcrop, is off Fire Creek Road.
Visit the park late in the day to see the vivid scarlet outcrops blaze up under the setting afternoon sun. This is one of my personal favourite locations – its savage beauty has also been seen in action adventure The Professionals and Sam Peckinpah's elegiac The Ballad of Cable Hogue.
Captains Kirk and Picard (Patrick Stewart) meet up near Hart Flat, Kern County, central California.
The scenes of Captain Kirk riding his uncle’s horse were filmed on William Shatner's own farm, and with his own horses.
One odd location for Star Trek: Generations you can find in Los Angeles. Jean-Luc Picard’s oddly Dickensian Christmas fantasy in the Nexus was filmed in the elegant mansion (recently put up for sale at $4,250,000) at 465 South Grand Avenue, Pasadena.
