To my surprise I saw First Contact the other day for the first time. The first time all the way through. I've somehow managed to miss all the TNG movies over the years, so it seems fitting that I saw the first one so shortly after concluding my review of the series.
I liked it of course. But it was somewhat lacking. In discussions with others about the difference between Star Trek and Star Wars I've described Star Wars as being designed for the big screen while Star Trek was designed for the small screen. Therefore, they're two different animals so making comparisons is almost pointless. I've also noted that because Trek was designed for the small screen it explains why the movies are hit-and-miss as far as likeability goes. The even numbered movies have generally been the best ones although III arcs in with II and IV. First contact is the eighth in the series and it's better than the seventh Generations in which the torch was officially passed from old cast to new. It deals with the primary nemesis set up in the series, the Borg, which was the most natural transition into a full length movie they could've done. Although I think it was supposed to wrap up the Borg since it had been with them so long, but the series Voyager latched onto the new development of the Borg Queen and ran with it. The Queen was an interesting twist. Created because they needed to find the heart of the Borg to destroy, and the lines wouldn't have made sense coming from a computer, so they turned the Borg into a hive like bees with the Queen at the center. The thrust of the story is that the Borg has always had more trouble with humans than any other species so when the Enterprise is on the verge of owning them once again, they slip into our past to assimilate Earth before it makes its first warp flight which puts Humans in contact with Vulcans and the rest of the Trek universe. It's a clever way to begin the TNG movie voyage with a big victory for the crew as well as further development of the Trek universe via their beginnings which had been often eluded to over the years.
The biggest problem would be the over simplicity of the story. It's not a huge problem... The movie plays out like an elongated episode which is the best formula for Star Trek movie. But the expectations for the production values of movies tends to push the more intimate details into a corner. They drop a lot of money on higher quality battle scenes, special effects, and set designs so they have to make the final cut while the atmosphere among the players which used to get a slower buildup is compressed for the sake of time. For example the new Enterprise. No explanations as to why they've upgraded except that it was probably time and they'd been field testing it for quite a while. I don't like the design of Enterprise E because it doesn't look as warm and inviting as D was but I totally understand why they wanted to redesign it to be more action friendly. Still, no time in the conversations for the characters to make comparisons and make the new ship feel like home to the audience because they had to jump into the action. Data's emotion chip is another example. At the end of the second part of the episode Descent Geordi promises to fix Data's emotion chip so he can finally experience emotions in a normal environment as opposed to the abusive way Lore had been manipulating him with it. But they didn't take a moment for a commentary from Data on how intriguing and fascinating it has been or any reaction from the rest of the characters to his new development. He's clearly had this modification for a quite a while too but even though the other characters are used to it, the audience isn't yet. Nor does the audience get to experience the relief that Geordi must feel now that he has ocular implants and doesn't have to deal with the uncomfortable VISOR anymore. However, they were probably banking on the fact that most viewers had been with the series from the beginning and didn't need the niceties and pleasantries to understand what was going on. It's a valid position to take because it wouldn't have been fair to casual viewers to clutter up the movie with the more quiet character development that had been going on for seven years on T.V. Still, part of me misses the series where, in a two part episode that spans about the length of a movie, you could have some action and also Riker playing jazz piano with a four armed alien woman while trying to get information from her.
Of course, you get some of that ethos back with the character of Zephram Cochran and the crew being awestruck by getting to be a part of the first warp flight which is part of their distance history. It's a typical trope that their hero isn't the great philosopher and honorable guy they'd built him up to be over the centuries, but it's this familiarity that brings warmth and comfort of the series to the movie.
Lily is the other component to be a counter for Picard bringing out all of his qualities that we'd grown so used to seeing in the series. Since this is the big follow up on the Borg from the series, they delve into Picard's need for revenge which is highlighted and cooled by the woman from the past who can give a fresh perspective to what the characters had been dealing with for so long. They even manage to work in the holodeck and the holographic doctor for more comical moments which, again, dispense with detailed explanation but also injects the feeling of familiarity that long time fans appreciate. Yes, there's lots to love here.
The only reason why a little more attention to character development would've been helpful is for Data's part in the movie. He'd already been corrupted once in the episode Descent, and in this movie the Borg Queen attempts to corrupt him again. It makes the twist at the end kind of predictable... that he's only playing along until he has the chance to strike back and save the day. But he'd have learned that behavior both from his experience with Lore and from his newer experiments with emotions which, unfortunately, are left out between here and there. Still, this is a nice twist for those who only watch the movies. That and the first warp flight made it one of the best Star Trek movie installments. I give it four and a half of five stars.
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