Star Trek 8: First Contact (4 Stars)

I've watched this film a few times, but I'd forgotten how good it is. I might have rated it higher if I didn't find the Borg distasteful. I consider them a second rate copy of Doctor Who's Cybermen. I fully realise that most Star Trek fans will disagree with me on this, so that's what the comments box is for. Let's start a heated argument!

The film begins with a Borg craft heading for Earth. The Enterprise isn't allowed to join the ships attacking it because Jean-Luc Picard is considered a risk. He was formerly assimilated by the Borg but freed himself. The Star Fleet admiral thinks he might be somehow susceptible to the Borg, but the opposite is the case. His knowledge of the Borg makes him the only person able to fight against them.

Picard disobeys orders and joins the battle against the Borg. His leadership is crucial in destroying the Borg cube. However, a smaller craft is ejected from the cube towards Earth. Instead of landing on Earth it creates a time vortex and travels into the past. The Earth instantaneously changes into a Borg colony. Jean-Luc Picard determines that if the Borg have changed human history, the only solution is to change it back. He orders the Enterprise to follow the Borg craft into the time vortex before it closes.

The Enterprise arrives on 4th April 2063 and sees the Borg attacking positions in Montana. The Enterprise destroys the Borg craft first before trying to figure out their intentions. This is the day before Zefram Cochrane took off in the first spaceship with a warp drive, leading to first contact with the Vulcans, and eventually to the foundation of the United Federation of Planets.

Zefram Cochrane was shown in the original series, and he's been frequently mentioned as one of Earth's greatest heroes, but whoever chose James Cromwell to play him in this film is a genius. He's nothing like the history books described him. He's part hippy, part drunkard, part capitalist. As he openly admits, he didn't invent the warp drive to benefit humanity, he did it to put money in his own pockets.

Cochrane's ship, the Phoenix, has been damaged by the Borg attack, so Picard and his first officer William Riker beam down with a large engineering team to help with the repairs. In the Star Trek TNG series it was unusual for Picard to beam down to a planet, and in the exceptional cases it happened he left Riker on board. Is this the only time that they beamed down on an away mission together? I think so, but if I'm wrong please leave me a comment.

It's not as simple as that. The Borg have somehow entered the Enterprise, and they assimilate ten of the decks. They don't yet know that the Phoenix is being repaired, but they will definitely attack it when they see it taking off. They also want to send a signal to the Borg in the 21st Century, calling on them to attack the Earth.

Now here's where it gets interesting. Until now the Borg have always been portrayed as cold and unemotional. Now we find that they have a leader who thinks and talks intuitively. The Borg themselves are very male, even when they assimilate females, but their leader is female in her appearance and her personality. She's very sexual and seductive.

The Borg Queen's greatest interest is in Data, because all the knowledge of the Enterprise has been stored in his artificial brain. The usual methods of assimilation fail, so she tries a personalised approach. She assists him in his quest to become human. She grafts human skin onto his body, so that he can experience human sensations. Effectively, she's torturing him with pleasure.

But it goes further. After questioning him about the functionality of his genitalia, she offers herself to him sexually. She promises him pleasure such as he's never experienced before. This is like no Borg we've ever seen before. She presses her body against his and whispers suggestive words. Why can't all Borg be like this?

Even though Worf is no longer posted to the Enterprise, he's featured in the film. It would have disappointed the fans if he'd been missing.

Data is arguably the character with whom most of the Star Trek TNG fans associated. His efforts to become human progressed from episode to episode. It's ironic that in this film his striving to become human is turned against him.

William Riker is the captain who never was. He has all the qualifications to captain his own starship, but he treasures his position alongside Captain Picard too much to follow his own career.

This is a very good film. It goes without saying that it's far superior to the recently rebooted film franchise with new actors.

Success Rate:  + 1.2

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