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

From: [email-masked] (Robin Starvling)
Date: 25 Nov 1996 17:58:10 GMT

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                          STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT
                       A film review by Robin Starvling
                        Copyright 1996 Robin Starvling

Star Trek First Contact: rename it STAR TREK FIRST CONTRIVEMENT

There will be spoilers, but how can one spoil a movie worse than this?

The movie takes place about a year after the last one. There's a whole
new ship, a whole new crew of extras, brand new uniforms and Geordi
suddenly has brand new eyes. No explanation. We're to take it for
granted.

The Borg have arrived at Earth and plan to assimilate it. The Federation
orders their brand new flagship to hide out in the Neutral Zone because
they're afraid Picard might get assimilated again. He of course gets
sick of this when news travels back saying that the entire fleet can't
stop them.

Predicatable. Off they go in the new ship to save the day. They get
there and suddenly Picard knows if everyone shoots at the same place,
it'll blow up the borg ship. Why didn't he know this before? And how
come Picard can suddenly hear them? Still a few implants in his brain
that Doctor Crusher overlooked?

The Borg head towards Earth and suddenly go temporal. They head back in
time. The Enterprise goes after them. At least they didn't mention
anything about whales this time.

The tale drags on. A landing party goes down to fix temporal changes
made by the Borg, The Enterprise gets infiltrated and Data, Worf and
Picard try to stop them. Deanna gets drunk (the only tolerable scene in
which either Sirtis or McFadden get any kind of center stage time) and
after a number of predicatable and contrived plot developments and tried
and proven lines of dialogue, Picard saves the day after being compared
to Captain Ahab of Moby Dick.

The dialogue is stilted. Jonathan Frakes should have spent more time
behind the camera and less in front of it. He "acts" like Frakes, not
Riker. Worf's "assimilate this" rang of Terminator influence. Data's
romantic trist with the Borg Queen was forced and uninteresting.

Gates McFadden as Doctor Crusher once again is given nothing to do,
which again is predictable. All they did in Star Trek Generations was
have Data push her into the ocean and give her a cold. She conveniently
disappears after practically a cameo role in both pictures.

I went to IRC to see if I was the only one who disliked it. I found
myself in the minority. To the point of being kicked out of the #trek
channel after being invited by a CAPTMARY specifically for talk about
the new movie. A little disagreement and suddenly I'm an outcast. Again
predictable.

Guess Paramount is right. Stamp ST on something and the Trek masses will
buy it in truckloads. This is not worth buying. The special effects were
great, but you could say that about the first ST movie, which is one of
the worst of the eight they've ever made.

If you haven't seen it yet, DON'T. Don't believe the hype. Don't even
wait till it comes on video. It's forced, contrived, and predictable. It
utilizes variations of many plot devices tried and proven in previous
shows. It's a poor excuse not only for an ST movie, but any movie
whatsoever.

Unless of course you want to be assimilated into the ST cash cow, then
by all means give in to it.

--
Located Somewhere Near the Moon,
                        Robin Starveling
                http://rampages.onramp.net/~myst/