In an interview with Mental Floss back in 2010, McDowell revealed that he had received death threats after “Star Trek: Generations,” and explained how he and Paramount Pictures didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye on the whole thing:
“I didn’t take it seriously. The studio took it seriously. I suppose they had to because they didn’t want a lawsuit. They assigned two detectives to come with me to New York to do the press. It was a complete waste of time and quite funny. I kept telling the guys to go home, and they were going to stay outside my room the whole night at the Carlyle Hotel. I went for a walk, and they came with me. I literally came out of the Carlyle at 10 o’clock at night. I looked this way and that way, and there wasn’t one person on the street. Not one. I went, ‘Wow, this is some death threat.’ I said, ‘I feel embarrassed that nobody’s tried to kill me, for Christ’s sake! I feel like I’m letting the detectives down.'”
It’s pretty funny that McDowell felt like he was letting the detectives down and that there wasn’t really any real threat, but it’s also a good thing that the threats amounted to nothing. After all, McDowell doesn’t deserve to be hated for the actions of his character, and his involvement in Kirk’s death had almost been much, much worse.