My Review of "Star Trek: First Contact"

Star Trek: First Contact came out back in 1996 only 2 years after Star Trek: Generations and I felt like I was missing out on a lot of stuff. Unlike the previous movie I haven't ever seen this movie before. I felt I kind of had to understand this story before getting into the Picard TV series that's going on right now. No wonder I was so lost.

This movie starts off a number of years after the previous movie. Worf is captaining his own ship. Geordi got new contact lenses. Data is in control of turning on and off the emotion chip in his head now. It definitely felt like I missed out on a lot of stories within the two years gap time between movies.

One of the big things that happened in those few years was that Picard was captured by the Borg and is having PTSD about the whole ordeal. This is unfortunate timing because the Borg has set their path towards Earth to assimilate everyone on the planet.

Due to the fact that Picard has been assimilated previously, his commanding officers tell him to stay out of the Borg situation. They fear that he's going to be a detriment to the battle. Seeing as the Borg are an unstoppable zombie like force the Federation ends up on the losing side anyways.

Of course, the Enterprise crew tells the Federation to screw their orders and set course for Earth to help out. Fortunately, Picard is still attuned to the Borg and finds a weakness to their armor that they all exploit. Doing so they destroy the giant ship but there's remnants that still remain.

That little remnant escapes back into time with the Enterprise following it. The little Borg ship intends to assimilate Earth from the past and the Enterprise is there to try to stop it. To make matters worse for the Enterprise there seems to be some sort of Borg member that has somehow beamed onto their ship and is infecting everyone on the ship.

Also the time that the Borg chose to go back to is 2063 when humans first implement warp speed. This pivotal moment in human history basically changes our evolution forever. The crew has to ensure that this actually happens or else the universe as they know it won't exist anymore.

A lot of confusing mumbo jumbo at times and they don't really follow any of the time travel rules of any other movies either. They tell everyone the truth and don't hold back. It was really weird for me to see this because these changes should have some sort of ripple effect in time. In fact a lot of weird things in this movie happen that are never really explained.

Throw that all out the window and we have more of an exploration of certain characters. Namely, Picard, Cochrane (the guy who creates warp speed), and Data.

Picard has to get over his PTSD and his sense of revenge throughout this movie. They tell you outright that he's basically Captain Ahab of Moby Dick. It just so happens that his white whale is the Borg. His character keeps you guessing throughout the movie. You start to judge whether he's actually sound of mind or reacting like a man bent on vengence.

Cochrane is an interesting character as he is a celebrated hero but he's not what they all expect him to be. He doesn't like the fact that he's going to be seen as a hero when his intentions were never in the direction for good. He's an everyday man trying to live his life and doesn't need the added pressure of saving the universe.

Data on the other hand has the same sort of issues he's had in the last movie. He wants to be more human and I guess that's his modus operandi. The Borg sees this in him and tries to sway him with his desire to be human with their own technology

Being a movie from 1996 you can tell that the special effects aren't going to be great and it shows. Fight scenes are kind of prehistoric as well although kind of reminiscent of the original Star Trek gang's fight scenes. It's still on brand with the franchise.

The whole Borg thing added a nice little horror element to the movie. It was like a science fiction space zombie movie at times. They have their own zombie rules and it was a bit fun to go along with the intensity of their unstoppable enemies. I was also constantly wondering how they were going to stop these beings.

Overall, I had an okay time with this movie. It's hard for me to still get used to this new crew but I think I'm warming up to them. I'm having a better understanding of who they are and what makes them tick. Still there's a lot of characters to keep up with whereas the original usually kept with 3. I have to give this movie a 6.5 out of 10. I think I'm going to have to again get to know the crew better in order to appreciate this movie. It felt like there was a whole bunch of inside jokes that I didn't get.