Subject: REVIEW: STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT (1996)

From: [email-masked]
Date: 2 Dec 1996 20:20:12 GMT

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                           STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT
                       A film review by [email-masked]
                        Copyright 1996 [email-masked]

Since ST:First Contact premiered over a week ago, I've had several people
write and ask what I thought of the film.  I didn't get to see the movie
opening weekend because I had both a sick baby and an ill wife, but we
finally got to go Friday night.  So here goes.

The Plot
The first thing I heard about STFC was the plot and to say the least, I was
uderwhelmed.  It sounded like fan fiction based upon the brief version I
initially heard and it sounded too much like Terminator for my liking.
Over all, the film was faithful to that version, but Braga and Moore's
script had enough twists and turns to overcome any geeky elements the
original concept might have contained.

The Script
With one exception (Data's "to hell with order's" speech), it was as tight
and as polished as any of the Trek films.  There were a couple of
Treknobabble inconsistancies (see the NitPicks section), but I was
impressed.

Direction
In a nutshell, Paramount is crazy if they let anyone but Frakes direct the
next film.  It's obvious he loves Trek, respects the fans and on top of
everything else, he's talented as a director.  If Hollywood does not offer
this man other projects in the future, it will be their and our loss.

Acting/Characters
I had grown to hate Picard.  After the political correctness of TNG's last
two seasons, I lost all respect for him.  After he had a chance to kill the
entire Borg collective and passed it by, he allowed an entire planet to die
in the name of the Prime Directive and eventually got Jim Kirk killed (okay
this is a reach, but I was POed at him to begin with), I was thoroughly
disgusted with both Stewart and Picard.  I prayed that this movie would
begin with Admiral Picard tossing Will Riker the keys the Enterprise-E, but
STFC has changed my opinion.  I will not call him "an action hero", but I
do see him as a very complex man of deep convictions and feelings.  If you
take TNG and the two movies as a whole, the arc of Picard's development has
reached a point where he is free of his demons and will be able become the
captain that I've wanted to see since Encounter at Farpoint.  Stewart is an
incredible actor and I hope he stays involved with Trek.
The rest of the characters felt more like real people than they did on TNG.
 I regret that we didn't see more of Sirtis and McFadden, but I loved
seeing Barkely.  LaForge has grown, but I wish we could have seen more than
the engineering side of him.  The only thing I had to keep asking myself is
why the heck hasn't Riker taken command of a ship yet?
When I heard that Cromwell was cast as Cochrane I worried that I would keep
expecting him to say, "That'll do, pig." but he was great.  No, he looked
nothing like the guy who played Cochrane in TOS, but it didn't bother me.
BTW, Steppenwolf was a perfect choice for the first warp test.

Technical
The technical merit of this film is way beyond Generations.  The previous
movie looked more like a wide screen TV episode, but this one looked and
felt like a movie.  The effects were awesome though I'm still not sure what
I think of Enterprise-E.  I like it much better that Enterprise-D, but
that's not saying much.

Summation
Except, for the nitpicks listed below, I loved this movie.  No, it wasn't
Babylon5, Star Wars, Aliens or Terminator, but it was the one thing it set
out to be: STAR TREK.  Regardless of what you think of Rodenberry's vision
of the future, this film was faithful to it while at the same time being
one heck of a ride.  I think Gene would have been pleased.
Is this the best Trek film?  I don't really know, but it does rank with
Kahn and Undiscovered Country.

Nitpicks
WARNING, WILL ROBINSON, DANGER - THERE BE SPOILERS BELOW

Nitpick#1
There's no way a tourniquet would have kept Worf's space suit from
completely bleeding off into space.
Nitpick#2
Plasma is a highly energized state of matter in which the electrons have
been stripped from the atomic nuclei and exist as a high temperature,
randomly charged soup.  The surface of the sun consists of plasma.  If warp
plasma had spilled into Engineering it would have either risen as a hot gas
would do or it would have uniformly dispersed through the compartment.
Either way, Picard would have been toast.
Nitpick#3
It was too darned easy for Geordi to configure to the nacelles to emit
chronoton particles and send the ship back to the 24 th century.  Why not
call it the Timeship Enterprise if it was that easy?  Granted, the story
was over, but at least give us the sling shot effect and a final shot of
the Enterprise blasting away from the sun back to the 24 th century.

Okay, that's it for what it's worth.

John