Walter Koenig is not impressed with how Star Trek Generations handled Captain James T. Kirk's death. The actor — best known for portraying Pavel Chavek in several Star Trek shows and movies — slammed the decision to give Captain Kirk an unheroic death in the 1994 sci-fi movie.

Koenig recently appeared on the Star Trek podcast, The 7th Rule (via Screen Rant), to review the Star Trek: The Original Series Season 2 episode, "The Doomsday Machine," with hosts Cirroc Lofton and Ryan T. Husk. During the conversation, Koenig touched on how Commodore Matt Decker (portrayed by guest star William Windom) received a more heroic death than William Shatner's Captain Kirk did in Generations. "It makes me think [of] Star Trek: The Next Generation’s first movie… the way they wrote off Captain Kirk was, I think, just unforgivable," the actor stated."He should have died trying to save the ship… He dies on a bridge or something, and he falls down, and he’s dead. If they’re going to kill off somebody as important as Captain Kirk, then it should be heroic."

Koenig continued, "Now, William Windom, his mind is going and he’s in bad shape, but at least you understand why he’s doing this and you can feel for him. He has an extraordinary sense of guilt because his crew was all killed. Now, I really think it wouldn’t have taken that much… that Kirk should have had a heroic ending. Could’ve, should’ve. If he was going to die, he should have died trying to save the ship or something of that nature."

Generations Brought Together the Casts of TOS and TNG

Released in theaters in November 1994, Star Trek Generations is the seventh film in the long-running sci-fi franchise and the first to feature the cast of The Next Generation, which had aired its final episode earlier that same year. The movie sees Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise-D joining forces with Captain James T. Kirk to stop the villain Tolian Soran (Malcolm McDowell) from destroying a planetary system in his attempt to return to an extradimensional realm known as the Nexus.

Despite mixed reviews from critics, Generations was a commercial success, grossing $118 million worldwide off a budget of $35 million. Besides Koenig and Shatner, The Original Series star James Doohan returned for Generations, reprising his role as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott. Doohan had previously appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generations episode, "Relics," which first aired in syndication on Oct. 12, 1992.

More Star Trek Movies Are in Development

Three more Star Trek movies featuring the cast of The Next Generation followed Generations: First Contact in 1996, Insurrection in 1998, and Nemesis in 2002. The sci-fi franchise's film series was then rebooted in 2009 with J. J. Abrams' Star Trek, which was set in a new timeline (Kelvin) and featured younger versions of The Original Series' cast of characters. Paramount Pictures is currently developing a fourth film in the Kelvin timeline, as well as a prequel directed by Toby Haynes. A feature-length spinoff of Star Trek Discovery titled Section 31 and starring Michelle Yeoh's Philippa Georgiou is also in post-production and is set to be released exclusively on Paramount+.

Star Trek Generations is currently streaming on Fubo, Max, MGM+, Paramount+, and Prime Video.