Star Trek: First Contact

Movie Title: Star Trek: First Contact
Official Website (it might still work): Star Trek: First Contact
Rating (out of 10): 9
Reviewed By: Michael Stevens
Buy the: Video/DVD \| Soundtrack
The Review:

Are you a Trekkie? If you are, then you know that Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart, Robin Hood: Men in Tights) has issues with The Borg. Well, even if you are like me and casually follow the Star Trek saga without going to the conventions and learning Klingon like the fat comic book storeowner on The Simpsons, then you may also know that Picard has issues with The Borg. This is a vital issue in the latest Trek film (number nine if you are counting at home), First Contact.

In the film the crew is out testing their brand-new Enterprise (you may recall they crashed the last one in Generations) when word reaches them that The Borg are on their way to Federation space and headed towards Earth. At first the Enterprise is ordered to stay away, but soon they disobey that order (like in all Trek films) and come to the rescue of the Federation armada that is being beaten by the lone Borg cube-shaped ship. Well first they rescue Mr. Worf (Michael Dorn) off of his damaged ship, then proceed to follow Captain Picard’s order to aim for one part of the ship, which blows it up. Unfortunately, a small Borg ship then launches out of the larger ship before destruction and keeps heading for Earth. Then it starts to disappear into a ‘temporal wake’ that the Enterprise follows it into. The next thing you know is that both have gone back in time to the mid 21^st Century just days before ‘First Contact’ when humans demonstrate warp propulsion and are observed by The Vulcans. Apparently The Borg plan on stopping this event so that Earth is easily conquered in the future, but the Enterprise blows away the little ship before it can destroy the warp ship on Earth built by Dr. Zefram Cochrane (James Cromwell, Eraser). So it looks like the movie is over, but no, not yet. You see just before their ship is destroyed, The Borg crew beems over to the Enterprise undetected and starts to assimilate the ship. Before discovering The Borg, Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes who also directs), Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis), and a bevy of engineers go to Earth to help make repairs caused by the Borg attack. Soon these people are stuck as the Captain, Data (Brent Spiner, Independence Day), Worf, Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden), and the obligatory extra Starfleet personnel that will be killed do battle with The Borg for control of the Enterprise. On a side note, much of the film focuses on Picard’s past experiences with The Borg and how that effects his decisions now.

First Contact has to be the best Trek Film so far. Granted, that is only my opinion and I wasn’t a big fan of the original series, but I have seen six of the eight films. Now this is not a comedy, but there are plenty of laughs, many at the expense of Data. The action is first rate, the special effects are good, and the story is wonderful (though flawed like most Hollywood products). Others in the film worth mentioning are Alfre Woodard, Alice Krige as the Borg Queen, Dwight Schultz, Robert Picardo, Neal McDonough, and Michael Horton. A really good movie that gets nine couches out of ten.