Star Trek VIII: First Contact (1996)

Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

Dir. Jonathan Frakes

The Borg, having had a rather dramatic redesign to make them look a lot more menacing than they did in the weekly TNG series, attempt to bring the entire Federation to its knees once and for all.

Naturally, the Federation take up arms and fight back. The majority of the fleet is deployed to stop the aggressors, but the Borg have a Plan B.

First Contact is Picard (Patrick Stewart) and  Data's (Brent Spiner) story, everyone else is just along for the ride. That suits me; those two stalwart characters are my all time favourites.

More than just duty, for Picard it's personal. They invaded his ship in Season 02 (episode 16), and they invaded him in Season 03 (episode 26); so he'll fight to the bitter end to protect what's his.

Following in the footsteps of Leonard Nimoy and The Shat, actor Jonathan Frakes is a Trek actor turned Trek director; it was his first feature film, although he'd directed episodes of TNG, DS9, and VOY previously, so he wasn't new to the gig.

He nailed it. First Contact manages to be both an exciting action movie and a successful Star Trek movie, achieving a balance that previous films had struggled with. It's a better feature than Generations (1994), in my opinion, and a triumphant first solo outing for TNG's crew.

In addition to redesigned Borg, there's a new Sovereign-class Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) and new crew uniforms, the grey-shouldered type that eventually featured in DS9's later seasons.

 - "Mr La Forge, why is it so damn hard to see in here?" -

They complement the darker tone that pervades the film. From the themes explored in the script (revenge, obsession, desire, etc) to the low-key lighting that makes the ship's corridors seem like a dangerous walk alone in the backstreets at night, compared to the bright and airy stroll though a shopping mall that the TV series had, much of FC is designed to be deadly serious.

The obligatory non-Trek regulars who feature heavily in the story this time are Alfre Woodard, James Cromwell, and Alice Krige. Of the three, Alice Krige gets the most memorable role, but I'm not going to elaborate on why that is because it would be a major spoiler.

It's not a perfect Trek film, but it's a damn good one and is by far TNG's best cinematic outing.

- "Maybe if I drink enough tequila my Season One accent will come back." -