Star Trek First Contact
Star Trek Generations can best be considered a failure to launch for The Next Generation crew’s first ever foray into the world of being a cinematic franchise, hampered greatly by an indifferent William Shatner miming his way through passing the torch to Patrick Stewart’s Picard en route to an especially lousy death scene, Whoopi Goldberg’s even more indifferent turn as the ship’s bartender with an enhanced set of psychic abilities and Brent Spiner’s Data overacting horribly with the plot device of his newly activated emotion chip being the excuse for his character’s histrionics. It was almost enough to make them pull the plug, but since the original crew had survived and shouldered on after Star Trek 5, the decision was made to give them at least one more chance and thus we got this 1996 release, widely considered to be the Next Generation’s one true stab at greatness which was every bit as good as anything that Kirk and his crew had given us. The components here were all important: Jonathan Frakes (Riker a.k.a. Number Two) was given the director’s chair due to his extensive experience having directed several episodes of the show; any references to Kirk (RIP) or the other originals was completely jettisoned; Goldberg was point blank just not asked to come back, prompting her to openly complain in the entertainment media; Spiner was thankfully reined in on his acting from the previous entry, going back to playing Data in the classic style which he had done on the show; and the two most key elements added here was firstly the decision to have the main antagonists be The Borg, the all encompassing and all assimilating collective species who specialize in taking individuals and turning them into robotic drones, all for one and one for all always in pursuit of a common goal and of course most famous for capturing and fully assimilating Picard into their collective on the TV show, something which should have ended Stewart’s run had the rest of the crew not made an incredible effort to rescue him and bring him back to the Enterprise, albeit not before Picard was permanently affected by his experience, continuing to carry much of their nanotechnology inside of him and being haunted by dreams, hallucinations and disembodied voices due to still having a psychic connection to the collective. The second added element was perhaps even more important: Due to both The Borg and The Enterprise utilizing time travel here, both they and the viewer are thrust straight into the single most important event ever in the Trek universe / timeline, that being First Contact Day (April 5, 2063) when the first aliens (officially) arrived on Earth and openly declared our planet to be worthy of inclusion into The United Federation Of Planets, thanks mostly to the efforts of one Zefram Cochrane, a drunken space cowboy who had somehow lucked into inventing the first ever warp drive and on his maiden voyage around the solar system had caught the Federation’s attention which resulted in the alien ambassadors landing in (very) rural Montana to establish the first (official) contact with our species. Cochrane himself had gone on to be remembered in the same vein as George Washington and Christopher Columbus having been immortalized in Trek timeline history (although not to us the casual viewer whose only association with the character had been in the classic Trek episode Metamorphosis where he was played by an extremely bland actor named Glenn Corbett) and as played here by James Cromwell in a truly scene stealing performance, Cochrane is a wild, crazy and eccentric party animal who suddenly finds himself surrounded by time travelers from the future all telling him about how great he is (much to his own dismay). But one thing he definitely needs from Picard’s crew is HELP, because besides living in a dismal post World War 3 environment, he has also been targeted directly by The Borg who intend to kill Cochrane, destroy his vessel and then handily assimilate all of 2063 planet Earth so that all of the great Trek adventures in the future wind up never actually happening. But a showdown with The Borg is absolutely what Picard’s been craving, having still been a little bit salty from his past encounter with them and salivating over the notion of getting some payback. As Riker, LaVar Burton’s Chief Engineer Geordi and Marina Sirtis’ simply adorable Counselor Troi stay down in Montana to help sober up Cochrane and prep him for his date with destiny, Picard discovers that The Borg have infiltrated The Enterprise and is rapidly assimilating lowly crewmen and ensigns at an alarming rate (at one point it’s stated that The Borg have taken over half the ship) and along with Data, Gates McFadden’s Crusher (?), Cochrane’s sassy sidekick Lily (guest star Alfre Woodard) and the legitimate badass that is Worf (Michael Dorn), Picard takes up arms and instructs any and all still intact crew members that they should shoot to kill every Borg they see regardless of if they may possibly be Enterprise crew members and / or close friends, because he reasons that if they have the Borg poison in them already, then they’re better off dead. Off they go, with the real dramatic thrust coming from Data being captured and (being a cybernetic organism) getting special attention which warrants the collective “boss” to approach him in the form of Alice Krige as The Borg Queen, another scene stealer who essentially sets out to “seduce” poor innocent Data with the concept being that whenever The Borg grab onto someone who is considered to be “exceptional”, an attempt is made to form a (sexual?) bond with them in the hopes of somehow expanding their overall consciousness (and yes, it is made clear that Picard was the last individual they had grabbed who was looked upon this way) and with Data having human skin sewn onto him all while hearing veiled promises of fabulous sex with the monstrous yet still quite feminine Queen dangled in front of his nose, both the tension and chemistry between Spiner and Krige is on point. Meanwhile, Picard has become completely consumed with vengeance, mouthing off at Worf and nearly getting himself killed in the process all while putting Cochrane’s historic mission at risk by refusing to self destruct the Enterprise, a suggestion supported by everyone else since it would prevent The Borg from infecting a weakened, pre technology Earth even as doing so would prevent them all from going home leaving them stuck in the 21st century. Stewart is actually successful at portraying Picard here as a masculine, convincing action hero type whose motivation and mission at hand is completely understandable even as the other crew members don’t agree with it. On the other hand, Riker, LaForge and Troi are in considerably more agreeable surroundings, helping crazy Cromwell’s Cochrane fulfill his destiny while getting some fine character moments of their own (Troi gets drunk!). The biggest drawback here is easily the out of place and unnecessary tendency to again incorporate the Holodeck into the story which sees Picard and Woodard in a 1930s Cotton Club environment all while being chased by Borg. It makes no sense in the context of events and could easily have been excised from the story which was strong enough on its own without once again bringing this tired gimmick into play. Still, the whole thing winds up being a sterling history lesson for Trek fans that we obviously were never entirely aware of before and when those aliens do finally arrive to reveal themselves, it remains one of the all time classic moments in the history of the franchise along with being the finest hour for the Next Generation crew from throughout their entire run…
8/10