Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

First of all, I have no interest in debating which version of Star Trek is better, or which captain is better, or which villain is the best, etc.  One of the delights of the Star Trek franchise is that it’s been around long enough that a lot of people have grown up with it.  Which version you prefer may depend on your age and exposure.  I grew up as the original movies were being released, and Star Trek: The Next Generation was on television.  I’ve been watching Star Trek most of my life, and while I have my preferences, this essay will focus on my favorite of the films.  (Do I think it’s the best?  Hard to say.  There are others that I admire greatly and may write about in the future.)

Star Trek: First Contact (1996) was the second film of the Next Generation cast, and probably stands as their best.  Their first feature film outing felt more like a glorified television episode instead of a full-fledged movie.  The success of First Contact began with writers Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore.  They decided to add the element of time travel, and, even more crucially, brought back the best Next Generation villains: the Borg (cybernetic zombies, if you will).  These and other decisions gave the film a slightly darker, grittier tone, which ended up being exactly what the series needed.  These story decisions, under the spirited and confident direction of Jonathan Frakes (aka Commander Riker), made First Contact an exciting adventure.

The movie starts with a wonderful shot that seems to begin in space, but pulls back to reveal the eye of Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart), and keeps pulling back to reveal the interior of a vast Borg ship.  When the story begins, the Borg are attacking Earth and the ships of Starfleet when the USS Enterprise flies to the rescue.  The crew of the Enterprise end up following the Borg back in time to the 21^st century.  It appears that the Borg are attempting to prevent “first contact,” that moment in Star Trek history when aliens made contact with Earth, thus giving birth to the Federation, Starfleet, and all things Star Trek.

The Borg, those sneaky buggers, manage to beam aboard the Enterprise and begin assimilating entire decks.  (The good news for non-Trekkies is that the movie brings us up to speed nicely, so a familiarity with the television series isn’t a requirement.)  Commander Riker and a team beam down to Earth, while Picard leads the remaining Enterprise crew against the Borg.  In the confusion of the Borg attack, two important things happen: Lily (Alfre Woodard), who is from the 21^st century, gets to tag along with Picard on the Enterprise, and Data (Brent Spiner), an android member of the Enterprise crew, is kidnapped by the Borg.

What happens on Earth with Riker and his team qualifies as the “lighter” storyline.  Part of their mission is to locate and assist Zefram Cochran (James Cromwell), the man who will be known historically as the inventor of warp drive, which made “first contact” possible.  Instead of some stuffy intellectual, Cromwell plays him as a drinker who likes loud music and wants to make lots of money in order to attract lots of women.  What later generations mistakenly regard as his vision for a brighter future owes a lot to luck (and a little help from the Enterprise crew of the future).  At one point, Cochran even succeeds in getting Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) drunk.  There are other amusing moments when crew members of the future can’t help but gawk in open-mouthed wonder at their hero.

Back on the Enterprise, Picard must find a way to stop the Borg from assimilating his entire crew and ship.  Lily, in essence, is the audience, the outsider who gets a glimpse into the future.  Her lack of knowledge provides Picard with a chance to fill us in on how things have changed.  He also has a unique perspective on the Borg, having once been assimilated into their collective and subsequently rescued by his loyal crew.  His growing friendship with Lily is one of the strongest elements of the film.

Once Data is captured by the Borg, the film gives us one of its biggest surprises.  The Borg are a collective with a hive mind, but we discover that there is a Borg Queen (Alice Krige).  I guess with so many drones, somebody had to be calling the shots.  Her look is both disturbing and vaguely sexy.  She pretty much tries to seduce Data, as the Borg graft human skin to his body so he can experience human sensations, all in an attempt to bring him to the dark side, so to speak.  As far as Star Trek villains go, the Borg Queen is a good one.  Her appearance is unexpected, and throws aside many of our assumptions about the Borg in general, and female villains in particular.

Without giving anything away, I’d like to talk about an important scene.  It’s the scene right after Picard calls his Klingon security officer Worf (Michael Dorn) a coward.  While Worf and the crew think they should abandon the Enterprise and set it to self-destruct, Picard is determined to defeat the Borg no matter the consequences.  The only person who will stand up to him is Lily, which works because she is not bound by the Starfleet chain of command.

The remainder of the story aboard the Enterprise hinges on this one pivotal scene.  Lily confronts Picard about his need for revenge, even calling him Captain Ahab.  Picard responds with equal force, in a powerful display of Patrick Stewart’s acting ability.  The most impressive element of this scene is watching these two actors give it all they’ve got.  Other than the unmistakable chemistry between the actors, there are no special effects, and Jerry Goldsmith’s score is properly subdued.  A crucial decision must be reached through (sometimes heated) discussion, and Patrick Stewart and Alfre Woodard make the scene spellbinding.

At the time of its release, Star Trek: First Contact had the most state-of-the-art special effects of any Trek film. It still holds up pretty well. Even so, the real pleasure of science fiction is the exploration of ideas, and in the case of Star Trek, the exploration of relationships. As we’re taken on an adventure with thrills and scares and action and humor, we wouldn’t care so much if the characters weren’t—as Spock would say—fascinating. The real success of Star Trek has been the creation of consistently compelling characters that we want to follow where no one has gone before.