Star Trek: First Contact - "They've Adapted!"

Today's film is Star Trek: First Contact. It was released in 1996, and was directed by Jonathan Frakes, who had previously directed several episodes of The Next Generation, Deep Space 9, and Voyager, but never before this a feature film. The movie stars the same crew as before, with the excellent additions of Alice Krige, James Cromwell, and Alfre Woodard.

The movie begins when Picard receives word of the Borg in the Terran system - home to Earth and Starfleet Headquarters - and also the newly-made Enterprise E is to stay in the Neutral Zone during the battle. When Picard protests, the admiral issuing orders informs him that while they have the utmost confidence in the Enterprise and her crew, they didn't think it wise to bring Picard - who had previously been assimilated as a human/Borg hybrid "ambassador" and escaped - into a situation where he would encounter the Borg again. Shortly after the battle begins, Picard disobeys orders. In the nick of time, the Enterprise saves the heavily damaged fleet, including the Defiant, a rather familiar ship commanded by Worf. The Enterprise takes on the crew of the Defiant and takes command of the fleet. Picard orders all ships to fire at what appears to be a non-essential part of the Borg cube, but succeeds in destroying the cube.

A life-pod escapes from the cube, and opens up a temporal rift. The Enterprise gets caught in the temporal wake, and sees the world change around them; they see Earth entirely assimilated and the Borg living on it. Determined to stop this potential future, the Enterprise follows the Borg sphere in.

They find themselves in the 21st century, one day before the first warp-capable ship (the Phoenix) was to fly. The Borg try to annihilate that ship and her captain, but the Enterprise destroys the sphere before they are able to do so. In an effort to ensure the safety of the Phoenix and her captain, an away team beams down. After they locate the Phoenix, and begin minor repairs, Troi finds Zephram Cochran (Cromwell) - the man who is to make the first warp flight - drunk in a bar. She and Riker tell him the truth: they are from the future, and he has to make the flight to usher in a new era for humanity (since this flight would attract the attention of the Vulcans, and be the catalyst for the Federation). He agrees to make the flight, but is creeped out by the hero he is to become.

Meanwhile, on the Enterprise, they discover that the Borg had gotten onto their ship before they blew up the sphere. The Borg commandeer Engineering, lock out the controls from the bridge, and start assimilation of both ship and crew. Picard forms several teams to investigate the situation with the Borg and confront them, as necessary. While patrolling, Data gets captured by the Borg, and Picard gets separated from his team.

Picard, while attempting to outrun the Borg and get back to the bridge, runs into a 21st century woman, Lily (Woodard), who had been brought on board for medical treatment. Picard explains the situation to her and, after some initial conflict and disbelief, the two work their way back to the bridge.

Data, meanwhile, is reactivated strapped firmly to a table. He meets the Borg Queen (Krige), an entity that is the one mind of the Borg, like the queen in a hive of bees. "I am the Borg," she introduces herself. She reactivates Data's emotion chip, and attempts to seduce him by hooking up human skin to his mechanical frame and allowing him to feel the sensations that follow.

After a few more battles with the Borg, the remaining bridge crew advises Picard to set the ship to self-destruct. He vehemently disagrees and orders them to go on fighting. In fact, he loses his temper enough to call Worf a coward. Lily follows Picard into his ready room. The two joust verbally. Finally, Picard realizes that it is a misbegotten sense of revenge that is driving him to keep fighting to the point of suicide rather than destroying the ship, and the Borg with it (giving the Borg the Enterprise as well, as he saw it). Because of Lily, he sets the self-destruct, and evacuates the ship.

Picard stays on board in an effort to save Data. He enters Engineering and encounters the Borg Queen. He offers to willingly take his place by her side as Locutus - sacrificing himself - if she lets Data go. She seemingly accepts his offer, has drones hold him in place, and then calls to Data. Data responds that he does not wish to leave. Data then unlocks the ship's computer for the Queen, and fires torpedoes at the just-emerged Phoenix.

And misses.

Data then breaks open a coolant tank, which releases toxic gas that destroys organic material. Picard deftly maneuvers out of the reach of the gas with quick climbing, while the Queen and her drones die in gruesome agony. Picard stops the self-destruct sequence, and the Phoenix successfully goes to warp. The Vulcans see the warp signature and come down to Earth. The rest, as they say, is history (future?), and the Enterprise goes home.

This was critically considered the best of the Next Generation movies. I haven't re-watched them all yet, but it is certainly excellent. It is definitely more action-oriented than Generations, and also manages to carry with it the character development from TNG.

One of the coolest carry-overs from the series is, of course, the Borg. The Borg are simply terrifying. It's both freaky and cool that you can walk among the Borg until they consider you a threat, for example. Before then, you are no more than a bird on a branch to them, and they don't even look at you. The incorporation of Lily into this environment was especially effective. She reacts by screaming, clutching at Picard's arm, and visibly shaking until they get to relative safety. Lily brings the viewer straight into what it must be like to be in a Borg environment. The TNG crew are so used to it, the viewer can become nonchalant about the Borg. Not so when Lily is reacting the way we would to the same situation.

The interaction between Data and the Borg Queen, however, really bothers me. The character of the Queen is well-played, and quite an interesting concept, but I don't see Data being seduced the way he was, or at least the way he seemed to be. Of course, he only considered the Queen's offer to stay and rule with her for .68 seconds, but, as he said, that is an eternity for an android. I guess that Data is more human-like than even I want him to be.

I believe we see Picard at his best and worst in this movie. He is brave and self-sacrificing, but also petty and vengeful. He calls Worf a coward merely to rile him up - which it does. Worf retorts,"If you were any other man, I would kill you where you stand." When he argues with Lily about the ship, I actually get frightened of his ferocity and single-mindedness. But then he goes back to the Picard we know and love, quoting Moby Dick, and finding that he is no different than Captain Ahab in that moment. Absolutely superb acting, although I have always been quite partial to Patrick Stewart.

A side-note issue is when Picard is explaining the 24th century to Lily, he says that, "Money doesn't exist in the 24th century." This is clearly not the case, as in other TNG movies and clearly in Deep Space Nine, gold-pressed latinum is the currency of the day. What that should have said in my opinion, was that money is not at play within the Federation. Then again, I suppose it is easier to explain the first way.

Deanna is incredible when she's drunk, and I believe it is her best acting yet. She also seemed like she was having fun, which was a first.

This film is certainly worth a watching. It has two simultaneous "A" plots, action, terror, and even a few laughs. Totally worthy of being a descendant of the TNG series.

Let me know what you think in the comments!