Is there a way to fix the awful James Kirk death from Star Trek Generations?

Star Trek Generations remains a landmark film in the franchise for various reasons. It's the film that brought the original franchise to a close, while also launching The Next Generation series of films. It also saw the first time appearance of both William Shatner and Patrick Stewart on screen together. The two faces of Star Trek stood shoulder to shoulder in an iconic meeting that few ever thought was possible.

The union of Shatner and Stewart would see their characters of James Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard team up to take on Tolian Soran, and his desire to enter the Nexus. It was a solid movie that failed to impress with the third and final act. The two heroes confront Soran, played wonderfully by Malcolm McDowell, leading to Kirk's death and Shatner's final appearance in Star Trek.

Kirk's death was controversial for many reasons but the one that often stands out the most is simply how he died. In the film, he's stuck on a metallic structure breaking down around him. As he clings on to dear life, the structure breaks and he goes crashing down a mountain. It's a very unheroic way to go.

It's the biggest mark against the film and one that prompted Cinemablend to ask Shatner if he'd change how it went. Shanter, however, knows the moment is over, saying;

""Probably not. The moment's over. It's done. I did the best I could. I would like to have another couple of shots at it. But, and then when I say this is what I meant, I've heard people say just actually just before you came on. No, no, I got that. That's what I got. So, you know, it enters the area. Uh, bullshit. Sounds cruel. This is the area of fantasy.""

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The way Shatner's Kirk went out isn't ideal. It's nearly downright malpractice for how they went and did it. Sadly, no matter how bad it was, you can't unwrite that moment from the series timeline. Not unless you go out and start cherry-picking moments to erase or redo.

If you decide to cleanse the canon timeline, however, there are more egregious moments in Star Trek that should be undone beyond the death of Kirk. So while Kirk's death is not great, it's beyond settled at this point. The only thing you can do right now is try and give Chris Pine's Kirk a better sendoff, should that be the direction they go in for the fourth film.