Star Trek: First Contact Review
by Mark R. Leeper (mleeper AT lucent DOT com)December 4th, 1996
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STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1996 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: The newest "Star Trek" adventure is an
okay science fiction piece lacking in some of the
absurdities from which the "Star Trek" films have
occasionally suffered. The first of the series without
William Shatner finds Patrick Stewart a more than
adequate replacement on the screen. The script needed a
little tightening, but the Borg turn out to be a good,
if familiar-seeming screen foe. Rating: high +1 (-4 to
+4)
To this point the "Star Trek" films have either had reasonable action but scripts that have shown far too little thought to the concepts (numbers 2-4, 6 and STAR TREK: GENERATIONS). Or have had intriguing ideas wasted on poor execution (1 and 5). STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT falls into the first category, but is blessedly free of ill- conceived ideas like the Genesis Device or the Nexus. The Borg at one time added desperately-needed tension to the "Star Trek" suite of series by introducing an enemy that was at once orders of magnitude more powerful than the Federation ships and as implacable as a nest of ants. The Borg underscored that space exploration was still dangerous and that whatever the current Enterprise was, it still had limitations. However, whatever value that property represented has long since been mortgaged in episodes that showed in a fair fight the Universe has nothing--not even the Borg--that can stand up to the Enterprise, and individual Borgs can be won over by niceness. Some dim bulbs in the "Star Trek" factory have safely established that we never need to worry about "Star Trek" characters again. Vulcans return from the dead and new Enterprises come in convenient six-packs, so we can safely ignore the series and give our primary attention to "Babylon 5." With the concept of the Borg already compromised, they seem fair game to use in a film. In large part they are reduced here to NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD style zombies with electronic enhancements they do not seem to use, but then the concept has already been compromised.
In the new film the Borg have an unusual strategy for assimilating Earth. They go back in time to just before that momentous day in the 21st Century--and who can forget it?--April 5, 2063 when both Zephram Cochran (James Cromwell of BABE) took the first warp jump and as a result Earth also makes its first contact with an alien race. It is amazing that both happened in one day and even more that nobody in any of the series or films has ever mentioned that fact till now. If the Borg can manage to abort the first warp trip and the first alien contact, apparently everything else will be okay for them. And their arrival has to be just within hours of the flight and not two weeks earlier because ... uh ... well, maybe the Borg are not quite so smart after all. To the rescue in their time-travel wake comes the Enterprise commanded by Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart, of I, CLAUDIUS and JEFFREY). He is here against the express orders of the Federation in a move that would be more characteristic of James Kirk than of Picard.
In the new "Star Trek" tradition of giving the directorial reins to an aspiring "Star Trek" actor, the task went to Jonathan Frakes, who is perhaps one of the least noticeable actors in this film. He is in some major scenes but is only noticeable when he seems to be grinning at the joke of him directing himself. But Frakes has always been a little redundant in the Next Generation stories. He was thrown into the cast because the creators knew that there could be no romantic interest in a bald middle-aged captain. Then Stewart demonstrated far more appeal than anyone expected. Speaking of whom I am not sure if it is meaningful to talk about whether Patrick Stewart is a good Captain Picard, but he is. Stewart is the best actor who was ever a regular in the "Star Trek" stories and his is the most interesting character. There are a few other familiar actors sprinkled in (besides the regular cast), but none to very good advantage. James Cromwell plays a sort of working class physics genius in a role that never really gels. He is never believable as the inventor of warp drive, which is perhaps the point of the joke, but it just adds to the question of how with so little resource, physical as well as mental, could this particular person putter together warp drive. Alfre Woodard is totally wasted in a throwaway role. Alice Krige, best remembered for GHOST STORY has only slightly less thankless a role as the one-dimensional punk-looking queen bee of the Borg.
This episode is not just darker in tone than many of the chapters, it is literally darker in lighting. In the entire film there are just two scenes that come to mind that are filmed in daylight. This, combined with the somewhat repulsive Borg and their queen who, as a possible homage to INVADERS FROM MARS, is little more than a head gives the film a decidedly colder and more dour feel. This could be a positive touch, but it really undermines the attempted humor scenes. It is hard to imagine Marina Sirtis doing a drunk act being funny even under the best of conditions, here it does not stand a chance. Visual effects are generally fairly good with the exception of some zero-G floating that would have been unconvincing even before the release of APOLLO 13. Jerry Goldsmith has written a nice score incorporating themes from other "Star Trek" series and films but also including some new themes.
This is a "Star Trek" episode with its share of faults, but few that come to mind while watching it. It has the melodrama of other episodes of the films but fewer absurdities this time around. Oh, and it is entertaining. I rate it a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Minor spoiler...Minor spoiler...Minor spoiler...Minor spoiler...
Some complaints about the script. I have avoided reading discussions on the net so some of there may have already been brought up there without my knowledge.
1. Even a few minutes of warp should have taken a ship a lot further from Earth than it was. Presumably warp speed is faster than light if not out and out discontinuous jumping.
2. The claim in made that in the 25th century they no longer use money. This is patently inconsistent with STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE 9. People are spending and gambling something in Quark's Bar. Gold-pressed
latinum is also frequently mentioned and used as money.
3. Data turning off his emotion chip by twisting his head is a nice piece of mime, but it makes little sense.
4. It really reduces the Borg to a very unintelligent level to say they do not even notice intruders in their midst. Even ants are smarter than that with far smaller brains.
5. There are two strategies to use against the Borg and Picard chooses one because he has an unreasoning hatred of the Borg. Someone who really had an unreasoning hatred of the Borg would have chosen the other strategy.
6. Admittedly complaining about holodeck sequences is like tripping a dachshund, but this one seems especially stupid. The holodeck in principle creates only visual effects. It would take a lot of double-talk to make it sound possible that anyone could actually be shot by a visual illusion and bleed real blood.
7. The Universal Translator already sounds like magic assuming that it needs a lot of input about a new race. It goes considerably further to say that it knows the new language instantly with virtually no sampling.
Mark R. Leeper
[email protected]
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