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

From: [email-masked] (Philip Richard Yabut)
Date: 9 Dec 1996 21:04:47 GMT

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                              STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT
                       A film review by Philip Richard Yabut
                        Copyright 1996 Philip Richard Yabut

Release date:  November 22, 1996
Author's viewing date:  December 7, 1996

The (very) long-awaited sequel to TNG "The Best of Both Worlds" has
arrived, mixing the Borg, time travel, a little history, some humor, a new
soundtrack, and eye-popping special effects.  It has proven to be a winner
in the eyes of the critics and box office receipts.

                        <SPOILERS FOLLOW THIS PROMPT>


SPELLINGS:  Zephram Cochrane

* Defining moment

FC wasn't just about the Borg and time travel and rearranging history.
This was also the continuation of the journey that Captain Picard has
taken as he continues to recover from his assimilation to the Collective
six years prior.  Here we see something that looks totally out of
character for Picard: the thirst for revenge.  But one has to remember
that Picard was violated beyond imagination, stripped of his humanity and
forced to murder thousands of his own people.  Ironically it is Lily, a
woman he had just met who had never even heard of the Borg, who reminds
Picard of his duty to humanity...and himself.  The Captain Ahab references
work beautifully to illustrate the self-defeating aspects of Picards
personal vendetta.

* Best cameo

The movie featured appearances, some uncredited, by other ST actors, like
Robert Picardo as the Enterprise's EMH and Dwight Schultz as Lieutenant
Barclay. But did you notice that Ethan Phillips was the first guy to get
thrown around by the Borg in Picard's holodeck program?  He acted a little
like Neelix, too.

* Recycling away

Speaking of other ST actors, there were a couple of recycled guys, too.
James Cromwell, last seen on ST as the Karemma representative Hanok in DS9
"Starship Down," is the most obvious.  But did you know that Jack Shearer
(Admiral Hayes) was last seen in VOY "Non Sequitur" and DS9 "Destiny?"

* Look Ma!  I'm a real boy!

Data's quest to be more human took a bizarre turn when the Borg Queen
kidnaps him and starts giving him some skin.  This is the opposite of what
the Borg usually do to other races.  And it looks like Data as finally
mastered the art of the bluff, as he fooled the Queen and Picard (and
probably the unspoiled viewer) into believing he was loyal to the Borg
(assimilated, as it were).

* A few words on those weird opening credits

It looks like the TNG movies are going to use the same font for the
credits, first seen in "Generations" (if anyone can identify the name of
that font, please tell me).  The credits themselves looked like they were
introducing a second-rate B-movie, and they made me dizzy.

* Useless factoids

There were plenty of 47s in the film, including Picard's access code...The
entire final scene with the settlement, the trees, and the musical score
was reminiscent of ST5's close.  Thankfully, you couldn't hear Kirk, Spock
and McCoy singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"...I guess the Borg don't have
to breathe.  Assimilated Earth didn't have oxygen in its atmosphere; and
they seemed to survive just fine outdoors while Picard and Co.  donned
spacesuits...That music Picard was listening to at glass-shattering volume
sounded a lot like Klingon opera...2063 happens to be 2 years after the
next flyby of Halley's Comet.  It's also 98 years before the founding of
the Federation and exactly 300 years before the Enterprise-D was
commissioned...That part of Montana looked pretty good considering the
world was just ten years removed from World War III...Past episode
~references:  TNG "The Best of Both Worlds" [I & II], "The Naked Now,"
"Generations"...The "Borg Queen" was never referred to as the "Borg Queen"
by anyone, although that's what the credits call her...Riker described the
Defiant as a "tough little ship." Tom Riker used the same words to
describe Captain Sisko's warship in DS9 "Defiant"...Was it just me, or did
Marina Sirtis use her real hair in the film (as opposed to a wig)?...The
Enterprise-E's bridge was reminiscent of Voyager's.  And Engineering bore
a resemblence to its counterpart on the Defiant.  Could they be redressed
sets?...The Typhon sector, the area where Starfleet made its last stand,
was also the setting for that temporal causality loop in TNG "Cause and
Effect."  Interestingly, the USS Bozeman also figured in both of these
stories.

* Top three lists

Best f/x --
- Third prize:  That first majestic shot of Hawk, Worf and Picard walking
  *on* the ship.
- Second prize:  The battle against the Borg in the Typhon sector.
  Definitely first-class.
- First prize:  The souped-up Borg are an f/x marvel by themselves.  But
  the spectacular opening shot of Picard/Locutus on the Borg ship is one
  to remember.

Best lines --
- Third prize:  "You broke your ships."  -Lily
- Second prize:  "Assimilate *this*."  -Worf
- First prize:  "The Borg?  Sounds Swedish."  -Lily

Best moments --
- Third prize:  Deanna gets drunk with the legendary Zephram Cochrane.
- Second prize:  Cochrane meets the Vulcans--and can't do the salute.
- First prize:  Picard and Lily square off in the Observation Lounge.

* Score

        "Star Trek: First Contact"         100 (A+)