Star Trek: First Contact (Jonathan Frakes), 1996
Second feature for the "Next Generation" crew of the Enterprise drops all links with the Shatner era and is stronger for it. This time, Picard and his crew are up against the Borg, a race of cyborgs introduced during the Next Generation's run on TV. The Borg are the most impressive opponents currently in Trek: the wishy washy tendency within Trek to rehabilitate evil alien races has left us unable to hate the Klingons. While the Borg haven't been totally untouched by this problem (there was a friendly Borg, Hugh, in the TV shows), they remain the closest thing Trek can provide to a guilt-free villain that can be blown out of the sky with impunity. The Borg's other good trait is their invincibility: while the Klingons succeeded mainly through their strong will, without much technical advantage, the Borg are far better equipped than the Federation. This has meant their appearances have been strictly rationed: they turn up only occasionally, in small numbers, because anything else would result in starfleet's total annihilation.
This is shown early in First Contact, when the Borg finally get around to an invasion of Earth... and send only one ship. This ship is defeated in a mildly disappointing battle sequence (c'mon guys, a last ditch battle to save the Earth has to bigger than this), but it launches a time travelling sphere in order to wipe out humanity in the past. The Borg plan, it seems, is to prevent the pioneering warp flight performed in the mid-21st century by the brilliant (but alcoholic) Zefram Cochrane. This flight resulted in Earth's first contact with an alien race, and thus their entry into (formation of?) the Federation. Needless to say, our brave crew navigate their sleek new Enterprise E through a "temporal vortex" to stop this heinous act taking place and restore the correct history.
The resultant plot, as effectively written by Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore (two of the Next Generation's best scriptwriters in its TV days), will be seen by most as a definite improvement over the preceding Star Trek: Generations. I enjoyed Generations, but it was from peripheral details that I drew most of that enjoyment. First Contact is more satisfyingly structured, making sure to give both hardcore and casual Trek viewers something to take away. For the non-Trekkers, First Contact is less talky than some previous Trek outings, shifting efficiently between its several plot strands. The new crew may disorient those used to Shatner and company, but I think most viewers will adjust quickly; generally, the acting is better. For those more familiar with the franchise, there are a wealth of Trek in-jokes and references (Robert Picardo, from Voyager, makes a brief appearance that incorporates a joky reference to McCoy, from the original). First Contact will also be a key text for those Trek fans who like to keep track of future history, as it clears up many details of the Star Trek backstory that had remained murky in the past.
All this bodes well for the future of the series, now placed in the competent hands of producers Rick Berman and writers Moore and Braga. The later episodes of "ST:TNG" had a class and polish lacking in many other Trek incarnations, and it's good to see that quality being transfered to the movie series. The policy of letting cast members direct is a risky one (remember Star Trek V?), but Jonathan Frakes (who plays Riker, the Enterprise's second in command) has a good visual eye and is at least as satisfactory in the role as Leonard Nimoy was. The cast can sleepwalk through these roles by now, but they still do good work. Patrick Stewart, as Picard, is an enormous step up from the bland Kirk, while Brent Spiner's Data helps make up for the loss of Nimoy's Spock. Even LeVar Burton, stuck for years in the thankless role of the blind engineer Geordi La Forge, gets a break with the removal of his awful "VISOR," though this unfortunately requires the addition of unsightly contact lenses.
If I have a reservation about the two Next
Generation
outings so far, it's the marginalisation of certain crewmembers. The
original
Star Trek crew was always notable for the dominance of three characters
(Kirk, Spock, and Bones). The remainder of the crew were kept largely
peripheral, and this wasn't a great loss since their was little beyond
each character than their accent/nationality and their designer
hairpiece anyway. In "ST:TNG," however, all the characters have been
extensively explored, and this has
not been reflected in the films so far. There is already a hierarchy
developing: Picard and Data are the top billed crewmembers; a second
group (Worf, Riker, and perhaps La Forge) get somewhat less exposure.
Meanwhile, the two female characters, Troi and Crusher, almost seem to
have disappeared. This shift may perhaps be short term. After all, the
focus on Picard and Data has been dictated by plot points (the shift
from one Captain to another, Data's emotion chip, the return of the
Borg). I hope this is the case: it would be a shame if the new crew
were thrown off kilter in the same way as the old crew was.
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© 2005 by Stephen Rowley