Star Trek: First Contact Review
by Ram Samudrala (ram AT iris3 DOT carb DOT nist DOT gov)November 25th, 1996
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STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT
A film review by Ram Samudrala
Copyright 1996 Ram Samudrala
As a trekker, I view the release of a new Star Trek movie with excitement and apprehension. Excitement because I will be seeing one of my favourite sci-fi shows and characters once again on the screen, and apprehension because the movies have always been watered-down versions of the series done to satisfy a greater number of the general populace.
/First Contact/ is one of the best Star Trek movies made, and in terms of effects and detail, it surpasses anything that's seen previously on The Next Generation (TNG). However, in terms of plot, it doesn't compare to some of the better TNG episodes.
The plot is simply a mix of an old sci-fi scenario (the villain travels back in time to alter the course of the future) and the /Best of the Both Worlds/ episodes (instead of Picard (Patrick Stewart), Data (Brent Spiner) is the one who is assimilated). In this case, the villain is the Borg, a race of cybernetic beings who exist in the form of collectives, and assimilate other races into their own in order to acquire their knowledge and experience, with the ultimate goal of becoming "perfect".
After a short battle at the beginning of the film, where the new ship commanded by Picard and company (Enterprise E) easily defeats the Borg (thanks to the experience Picard gained while he was assimilated), the Borg travel back to the year 2063 where warp travel was invented by Zefram Cochrane (James Cromwell). The testing of the warp drive, leaving a signature, was the catalyst for the Vulcans making "first contact" with Earth which led to the United Federation of Planets, and all the other stuff we're so familiar with in the Star Trek series. The Borg plan to stop the test flight so they can, in the future, easily assimilate the inhabitants of Earth without any interference from the Enterprise crew. Needless to stay, the Enterprise crew must stop the Borg before the entire planet is Borgified.
One of the nice things about the episodes is that they usually focused on one character at a time. I personally felt none of the characters in the movie were given enough time to become really dominant. However, some of the characters did manage to shine. Highlights of the movie include some amazing shots of Enterprise E, the exterior and interiors of the Borg ship, some brilliant acting by Stewart, Spiner, and Cromwell, and some great space fights. The humour in the movie maintains the similar high standard seen in previous Star Trek movies and episodes.
I watched the /Best of Both Worlds/ episodes just before I went to see this movie and at the end, I couldn't help but think that the episodes were handled far better than the movie. While it's certainly true that /First Contact/ has a plot line that's followable even by uninitiated, the Borg have many episodes of history to them, and I thought the Borg as a threat was highly diminished. But even at its worst, TNG has been the best Star Trek spinoff from the original series, and it is great to see the characters back on the big screen again.
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