Star Trek VIII: First Contact |
  • USA • 1996 • 111m •   • Directed by: Jonathan Frakes. • Starring: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Alfre Woodard, James Cromwell, Alice Krige, Michael Horton, Neal McDonough, Marnie McPhail. • Music by: Jerry Goldsmith.      The time is the 24th century and the ship is the newly commissioned Enterprise-E. It's captain, Jean-Luc Picard, has been ordered not to interfere in a combat between a Borg Cube and ships from the Federation. However, seeing the Federation is about to lose, Picard ignore his orders and take command of the defending fleet. With his knowledge of the weak spot of the Cube, they destroy it. However, a small part of it escapes and plot a course directly to Earth. The Enterprise chases it and enters a time distortion created by the Borg. They end up in the mid 21st century, their only chance of stopping the Borg from assimilating Earth being to help Zefram Cochrane make his famous first faster than light travel to the stars...
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First Contact does come across like an extended episode, though no doubt it was more expensive that a simple episode. The crew returns with a new Enterprise (and new uniforms, which transfer over to Deep Space 9 at about the same time in the series). I am not sure where the other movies slip in though considering they seem to have been placed during the Dominion War. I do find it strange that we never see the new Enterprise E appearing in any of the later Deep Space 9 episodes, or even Picard making an appearance, considering that Starfleet's flagship would most likely be fighting on the front lines of what was quite a devastating war.
The Borg have attacked Earth again, but the typical bureaucracy of Starfleet pushes Picard out to the Romulan Neutral Zone in case his previous encounters with the Borg may prove problematic to the defense of Earth. However, as is expected, Picard disobeys orders and returns to Earth just in time to destroy the ship. However it is not all over immediately as an escape pod is ejected and begins to travel back in time to the mid-21st century, and Picard orders his crew to follow it. This is where the title of the film comes in because they arrive a couple of days before Earth makes first contact with the Vulcans. Once again they destroy the borg ship, but not before it severely damages the first warp drive ship being built, and also not before them manage to transport onto the Enterprise and begin to assimilate the crew.
As such there are two plots running concurrently. On Earth the away crew, led by Riker and La Forge are racing against time to get the ship launched on schedule, and also attempt to convince an alcoholic Zephram Cochraine to go ahead with his warp drive test to alert the Vulcans to their presence. The second plot has the crew of the Enterprise, led by Picard, attempting to deal with the borg and to stop them from alerting other borg of their presences and the presence of Earth.
After watching the entire season of Deep Space 9 I have come to really appreciate the Star Trek universe and some of the races that appear therein. Of course I always balk at this idea of a perfect, cashless, religionless, society where humans are always trying to better themselves. It just seems to be to be an unrealistic utopia that could never come about. Further, the whole idea that humans do not engage in conflict anymore seems to be silly, particularly when there is conflict within the episodes. Obviously the idea is to write off such humans as bad influences (such as the Marquis) and consider them destructive to the Federation.
I did quite enjoy this movie, though it is one of those movies that you do need some familiarity with the series to at least understand the characters. When the film opens it is automatically assumed that the audience knows who the characters are, there is really no introduction. As such to viewer who is not familiar with the Star Trek franchise, it can be a little confusion. Personally, having watched Star Trek in the past and being familiar with many of the characters that make an appearance, the problem is not really so great for me, and it is also difficult to see it from an alternate point of view. What was also a little disappointing was that the only character that came back from Deep Space 9 for the movie was Worf, and I noted that the crew of the Defiant were pretty much nameless crew members. It would have been good to have at least seen Dax in the episode, or maybe some of the other characters, but I suspect that bringing characters across from Deep Space 9 may have added some more awkwardness to the movie that is not needed.
In a way it sort of come across as part horror movie, as far as Star Trek can go with the horror genre. I suspect that is what they were trying to do with the Borg invasion of the Enterprise. First we have them scooting around the ventilation ducts as if it were an Alien movie, then we have the Borg Queen grafting skin onto Data to give him the sensation of humanity. In some horror films the concept of flesh plays a significant role, however in this film it is simply the representation of Data's desire to become more human. In the end he does sacrifice his new found skin, and sensation, to save the lives of his friends.
Review by david-sarkies from the Internet Movie Database.
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