@Knixon said:

Sometimes while thinking about that movie, I think Picard should have told Kirk about meeting McCoy, and Spock, and Scotty...

It would have only taken a few seconds, but it would have been memorable.

That would be epic, but except for Shatner, Doohan and Koenig, no one else of the original cast wanted to return in this movie. Especially Nimoy disagreed strongly with Paramount - he and writer/producer Berman had a falling out - about the script and refused to direct the movie. So having them referred to by Picard would never happen.

I don't see why Nimoy not directing the movie would stop them from referring to Spock, Scotty, or McCoy. And none of them would have had to APPEAR IN the movie, in order for Picard to mention their characters to Kirk.

Unless you meant that Berman would not have mentioned them in the script, because of Nimoy. But that just makes them both rather childish.

The only drawback I can see to mentioning them, would be that Kirk might have wanted to meet them again, and thus not pursued the mission to the extent necessary, which then resulted in his death. And so then Soran would have succeeded, resulting in ALL of their deaths.

@Knixon said:

I don't see why Nimoy not directing the movie would stop them from referring to Spock, Scotty, or McCoy. And none of them would have had to APPEAR IN the movie, in order for Picard to mention their characters to Kirk.

Unless you meant that Berman would not have mentioned them in the script, because of Nimoy. But that just makes them both rather childish.

The only drawback I can see to mentioning them, would be that Kirk might have wanted to meet them again, and thus not pursued the mission to the extent necessary, which then resulted in his death. And so then Soran would have succeeded, resulting in ALL of their deaths.

'Childish' and not wanting to complicate the plot sounds good. It's disappointing that in a movie that started with the idea as a way to pass on the torch from the old cast to the next generation, the plot revolved so much around Picard and his crew. It was more like an episode of (S)TNG with Kirk making a cameo appearance.

I just don't see how it would have really complicated the plot. Picard says "By the way, I managed to meet Mr Spock, and Dr McCoy was present when my Enterprise was launched, and later Scotty turned up too" and Kirk smiles and maybe says "they were a great crew!" and then the movie continues as before.

Even better, because of the events of the "Relics" episode, Picard could have said to Kirk, "Your Mr Scott saved my Enterprise as well."

Kirk smiles, and says "That makes four!"

@Knixon said:

I just don't see how it would have really complicated the plot. Picard says "By the way, I managed to meet Mr Spock, and Dr McCoy was present when my Enterprise was launched, and later Scotty turned up too" and Kirk smiles and maybe says "they were a great crew!" and then the movie continues as before.

I was referring to what you posted:

The only drawback I can see to mentioning them, would be that Kirk might have wanted to meet them again, and thus not pursued the mission to the extent necessary, which then resulted in his death. And so then Soran would have succeeded, resulting in ALL of their deaths.

Well yeah, but it didn't have to be written that way. Especially if they had something about how the Nexus only allowed him to return at that place, and stay there. Or something. It could have been anything, including that Kirk just knew he would be out of place in that time so it was all-or-nothing. He already had the "make a difference" attitude.

@Knixon said:

Well yeah, but it didn't have to be written that way. Especially if they had something about how the Nexus only allowed him to return at that place, and stay there. Or something. It could have been anything, including that Kirk just knew he would be out of place in that time so it was all-or-nothing. He already had the "make a difference" attitude.

Just like you, I'd have preferred that Picard and Kirk would banter a bit about Kirk's crew, but it seems like Berman for whatever reason didn't want any one of the original cast mentioned by Picard or Kirk. That is his prerogative as producer and writer and simple souls like us will have to begrudgingly resign ourselves to this.

At least until AI can create the scenes that Berman refused to do.

Plus of course, Kirk did mention Spock in his early conversation with Picard.

KIRK: I take it the odds are against us, and the situation is grim?

PICARD: You could say that.

KIRK: You know if Spock were here, he'd say I was an irrational, illogical human being for taking on a mission like that. ...Sounds like fun.