Resistance Is Slutty

Perhaps reeling from their previous disasterous effort, writers Branon Braga and Ron D Moore pulled it together in dramatic fashion for the second Next Generation movie, Star Trek: First Contact.

Every aspact of film-making has been improved upon over its predecesor, creating a movie that demands multiple viewings.

As before they pull together a wish-list of want-to-see story elements (time travel, space bettles, Borg). This time, however, these elements blend perfectly. The time travel device is kept simple and uncomplicated...keeping Modern Trek's achilles heel(technobabble) restrained. The chosen time zome is the 21st century, at the birth of warp travel, as we get to witness the precise fictional moment that the Star Trek world came into being. This more contemporary setting allows a wider audience to relate to Star Trek and help them understand and appreciate the optimism present in the core Trek concept.

The Borg story strands create two ticking narrative bombs that provides tension and urgency. On the planet its a race against time to repair Cochrane's warp ship before first contact, while on the ship its a race to prevent the Borg, the unreasonable/unstoppable foe from the TV show, from taking over the Enterprise. Either way, there's plenty of end-of-the world drama to drink up.

The script is lean and economic as shown in the first two scenes, informing Picards history and it also sets up the plot quickly. It also comprises some great character moments for both the regulars and guest stars. The Earth story providing many moments of comedy gold (a drunk Sirtis & a bemused Frakes) while the Enterprise story has the juicier dramatic scenes (Worf vs Picard). Indeed the confrontation between a revenge obsessed Patrick Stewart and fish-out-of-water Alfre Woodard is prehaps one of the franchises most memorable dramatic moments. A typically dependable pushes his restrained hatred right to the limits. But an exceptional Woodard matches him with intensity, mixed with vulnerability.

The ILM effects, supervised by John Knoll, are stunning; why is it so rare to have quality and striking art direction in FX shows these days? After forgetting to properly introduce the Enterprise in Generations, here she gets a magnificent intro.
The spacewalk combat adds some variety to proceedings and the space battle, while brief, is quite epic for movie Trek.

The film has a rich, gritty look and director Frakes provides a solid effort visually, but inspires him team of crew and actors to find memorable moments to enrich the piece. Jerry Goldsmith's third Trek score is both beautiful and scary; the main theme evoking mankinds nobility. The new uniforms are a major improvement and the new Enterprise is cool looking, inside and out, but lacks the elegance of previous designs.

Everythings working on full cylinders here...the Borg queen design and her intro, the holodeck scene integrates into the plot seemlessly...even the annoying Dwight Shultz charcter appearing briefly to provide enlightenment to further propel the story.

Easily the best of the Next Gen films...and one of the best of the series.