Star Trek: First Contact

Probably my favourite film of all time. The thing about First Contact is that it's not just about Star Trek. If you don't like Star Trek but can live through the first 20 minutes you'll find a gem of a movie which is as much about the future of humanity & an invention so wonderful as it is about Yet More Star Trek Plot.

Warp Speed - they've been saying that since Captain Kirk. But how did it happen? and why might it all not happen, our future could be in ruins and one flight of one makeshift spacecraft some time after world war III will make all the difference.

The on-screen relationship between Picard & Lily is totally magic, as is the relationship between the Enterprise crew members - you get a sense of team, of family.

First Contact is one film I enjoy watching again & again. The flight of the Phoenix is one scene I totally love, along with the end scenes.

The only sad thing about the movie is that you come away and deep down you know there is no Cochrain, no FTL engine around the corner. Well, not yet!

"I envy you, the world you're going to" "I envy you, taking these first steps"

Clearly one of the best Star Trek TNG films, this film minimizes typical TNG goody-two-shoes lameness in favor of action, and the result is quite good. There is no Wesley Crusher YA angst here; that character is thankfully absent. Patrick Stewart is excellent as usual, particularly in his "Captain Ahab" diatribe. Alfre Woodard was very good; I wish we could have seen her in more Star Trek productions. We even have a decent villain for a change, who has some pithy lines.

"I am the beginning, the end, the one who is many."

I like Star Trek, but the TNG/DS9/Voyager series are more about smarmy franchise-building than hardcore S/F. I give this film seven (7) stars.

The new crew takes on the great villain of the new era, the Borg. The Borg have sent one cube and the Federation is gathering a force. On the other hand, the Enterprise is told to patrol the neutral zone with the Romulans. Starfleet Command doesn't trust Captain Jean-Luc Picard. When the battle goes badly, Picard disobeys orders and returns to earth. The Borg cube is destroyed but a small ship escapes. The small ship travels back in time changing the present and the Enterprise follows them to repair the damage to the past. They travel to 2063 when Zefram Cochrane (James Cromwell) is about to make first contact.

A working knowledge of the Star Trek world is beneficial. It's a good thing that the filmmakers have figured out that a movie requires the greatest villains and the Borg is definitely one of the most compelling. It has a few laughs at the right time. It touches some profound literary concepts like Moby Dick. The space walk combat is cool. Jonathan Frakes takes the directing helm and he does a reasonable job. The story is the star here.

The next generation crew of the Enterprise star in their best movie. Picard and his crew hitch a ride back in time to save the Galaxy from being infested with Borg, by saving the drunkard who invented Warp Drive from being killed by the Borg. This Star Trek movie is nuanced enough for the 'trekkies' to get into, while still being very accessible to the rest of the cinema going public. Johnathon Frakes, for all of his smarmy, cocky demeanor, still I have to admit that he hits a home-run in this initial outing (now his "Insurection" is a whole nother story, one for a different day) This film is action-packed, features good performances, and is just plain fun. All those aforementioned traits easily puts it among the top echelon of Trek films.

My Grade: B+

DVD Extras: Disc 1) Commentary with director/actor Jonathan Frakes; Second commentary with writers Brannon Braga and Ronald Moore; Text Commentary with Michael and Denise Okuda Disc 2) 12 featurettes (Making 'First Contact', The Art Of 'First Contact', "The Story, The Missile Silo, The Deflector Dish,From 'A' to 'E', Jerry Goldsmith: A Tribute, The Legacy Of Zefram Cochrane, 'First Contact': The Possibilities, Unimatrix One, The Queen, and Design Matrix); 3 Scene Deconstruction;Storyboards, Photo Gallery; Teaser & Theatrical Trailers; and Trailer for the Borg Invasion Hilton show in Vegas

3 Easter Eggs: In the Main Menu, click on the sun for a list of all the alternative titles considered; In the Star Trek Universe menu highlight a circle for an interview with Ethan Philips; In The Borg Collective menu highlight a circle for an interview with Alex Jaeger

When the Borg launch an attack on Earth, the Enterprise is sent to the neutral zone due to the Admiralty's mistrust of Picard's abilities as he had been assimilated in the past. The Enterprise however, disobeys and returns to help destroy the Borg ship. However a smaller ship escapes and travels back in time, causing the assimilation of Earth in the future. The Enterprise follow the ship back in time and have to undo the damage the ship did on the surface to an experimental warp drive unit that will led Earth to it's first contact with alien life. Meanwhile, on the Enterprise, survivors of the Borg ship begin to assimilate decks within the ship itself.

The trend of the `even good, odd bad' continues in Star Trek with this good entry in the series. Linking to previous story lines, the film starts immediately and continues at a good pace. Where the previous time travel excursion for the crew was more funny than anything else, this film goes down a more dramatic route with the main plot not turning out to be on the ground (as I first thought it would be) but on the ship where the crew struggle to contain the Borg's advances. This aspect works well - it is not edge of the seat stuff, but it is dramatic and involving.

In contrast the stuff on the surface is more a side issue that is used well to contrast with the pace on the Enterprise itself. There aren't many laughs but it does have a nice little bit of self mocking humour that raises it's head occasionally. The cast (crew?) all do good work, but it is Stewart's film and his Borg past help to enrich his character well. Frakes does an able enough job as director but as an actor he has little to do, as indeed do most of those on the Earth aside from a cameo from Cromwell who adds humour. Woodard is OK in her role but not as good as I've seen her be in other things.

Overall this is a solid Star Trek film, which although not excelling in any one area, has a strong backbone of drama and action aboard the ship that works well with the lighter stuff on the earth.