STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT


I'll admit up-front that I am a member of the Old Guard of Star Trek fans,
which is to say I'm a partisan of the original series.  Although, way back in
1987, I anticipated Star Trek: The Next Generation as much as any fan ever
anticipated anything, it took only a couple of years for my excitement to turn
to crushing disappointment.  Though I hung on through the series' brief high
point in 1990, I finally gave up on Star Trek about a year into Deep Space
Nine, and Star Trek: Generations, the previous film, was - I thought - my
"swansong" as a Trekkie.

I hadn't watched more than 25 minutes of Trek since Generations, so why did I
go to see Star Trek: First Contact?  Ultimately, the answer is peer pressure:
All my friends had seen it and were talking about it, so I felt I should go
see it and not feel left out.

Yes, it's a *dumb* reason, but hey, I'm only human.

And I'll gladly admit that First Contact had a few scenes that made me smile
and chuckle - Zephram Cochrane breaking the warp barrier, Data shouting
"Resistance is futile" as he smashes the warp coolant (or whatever it was) to
defeat the Borg.  But, ultimately, First Contact was no better than the
typical Next Generation episode, which means that it was deeply flawed.

The fundamental flaw is that the film destroys the single key element which
made the Borg an interesting foe, by introducing the Borg Queen.  The
foundation of the Borg's effectiveness is that they are implacable and
single-minded, that they possess great power turned to a single goal.  You
can't easily fight them, and you sure as hell can't reason with them, because
they want nothing other than surrender.  In that they assimilate living beings
into their cold collective, they are the worst nightmare of the Next
Generation view of humanity (treacly though that view may be).

First Contact opens with Starfleet bringing down a Borg cube through sheer
force of weaponry (and a hint of help from Picard's Borg memories), something
which was unthinkable in "The Best of Both Worlds".  And then we have the Borg
Queen, who inexplicably wants Picard, and then wants Data.  The concept of the
Borg wanting something - much less someone - much less for emotional or sexual
reasons - is patently absurd, and dramatically crippling.  Alice Kriege as the
Queen also seemed to turn in a really lackluster performance, although the
cheesy script she was handed to work with may have had a lot to do with it.

The characterization of the NextGen crew is about as bland as it was in the
series.  Worf is grunting his lines, Data acts curious and a little worried,
Riker and Troi get to act silly, and the other regulars other than Picard have
bit parts at best.

And then there's Picard.  Really, this was a very disappointing film for the
poor guy as a character, I think.  His fears about having been Borgified
finally pop up, although there's no reason in the world why they should have
popped up *now* rather than periodically over the last six years.  It's an
emotional link which just doesn't feel real to anyone who's see Picard deal
with the Borg in other episodes since "The Best of Both Worlds".

And, surprisingly, Patrick Stewart turns in a rather cliche performance as
Picard.  Maybe it was the script, or maybe Stewart's heart just wasn't in it,
but he seemed to have essentially two moods in the film:  Excessive fear
and/or anger, or the warmly cheerful Englishman.  I realize that it's
near-blasphemous to criticize Stewart's acting on The Next Generation, but he
just didn't seem to be 'on' to me.  It was like he was just going through the
motions.

Finally, TNG just has trouble getting the details right, and sometimes it
builds up to such a degree that it's just hard for a once-die-hard Trekkie
such as myself to overlook them.  Okay, I can deal with the sharp difference
between the Zephram Cochrane of First Contact, and the clean-cut Cochrane of
the original series episode "Metamorphosis".  However, it's a bit much to
expect the Enterprise to zip from the Neutral Zone to Earth in a matter of
hours - or maybe even minutes.  It's *very* hard to imagine that if the Borg
possessed the ability to Time Travel that they wouldn't have done so long ago
- far out of sight of any Starfleet ships - and assimilated everything in
existence 2000 years ago.  And it's hard to understand why Starfleet would
have altered its uniforms a second time in three or so years.  I could go on
and on, but ultimately all these details are the mark of shoddy scripting.

But, of course, it doesn't matter, because the point of the films is to
gosh-wow the audience with the action and pack them into the theatre like
Arnold Schwarzenegger does.  And on that score, First Contact does well.

The special effects are very well-done, and much more impressive than anything
the TV show ever sported.  (Although TNG spent a lot of money on effects
during its 7-year run, it often seemed like the scripts were written so as to
wring the least possible impact out of the effects, and ultimately they were
an irreelevant aspect of the series.)  The battle scene at the beginning is
exciting in its complexity, and the Borg and their takeover of the Enterprise
are rendered very well (although the creators perhaps put a little too much
effort into trying to make them grotesque).

And the script is more lively than the TNG series ever was, and is funny in
places.  The guest stars playing Cochrane and Lily were both very good in
their roles.  Cochrane was actually a well-handled character, and probably the
high point of the whole film as far as the characterization went.  I think he
would have been more effective if treated a little more seriously at the end -
his manner of introducing loud rock music to the Vulcans was just outright
embarrassing.  I winced, thinking "How could anyone write this stuff?"

But in the end, Star Trek: FIrst Contact isn't really *about* anything.  It's
an action/adventure flick with major plot holes and not much characterization.
It gets the adrenaline going, but it leaves the viewer empty afterwards,
unlike, say, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which is still a riveting and
moving film, 14 years after its release.

If someone offered me the choice of seeing Generations or First Contact on the
big screen next weekend, I'd be hard-pressed to choose.  I think I'd probably
choose Generations, because it has Kirk in it (and therefore is a little more
of a "real" Star Trek film to me than First Contact), and because nothing in
First Contact has the gosh-wow impact of the Enterprise-D's saucer section
crashing into the planet.  The buildup is a little slower, but the payoff is a
lot cooler, and the exchanges between Kirk and Picard work better than nearly
anything in First Contact.  (The confrontation between Picard and Lily in the
Ready Room was predictable in nearly every way, and was one of Stewart's
acting lowlights in the film, sadly.)

Will I be back for more when the next TNG film comes out?  Who knows.  But
Star Trek's artistic heyday is long past, so I tend to think I won't miss a
whole lot if I don't.

Grade: C-

PREVIOUS STAR TREK FILMS:
Star Trek: The Motion Picture: C
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: A+
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock: B+
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home: D+
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier: F
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country: C-
Star Trek: Generations: C+