Saturday 23 August 2014

Star Trek: First Contact (1996)


I reviewed Star Trek: Insurrection here a couple of months ago, and was surprised that I hadn't seen it before. Well, on watching Star Trek: First Contact I thought that the same thing had happened again, since I remembered almost nothing about it.

First Contact has two key plot elements: time travel and the Borg. In the New Generation TV series, the Borg were the greatest threat, not just an implacable foe but one which put Captain Picard through the most stressful experience of his life. There is a peculiar horror about their ability to assimilate rather than kill their victims, turning the most loyal comrades into robotic enemies.

This time, the Borg use time travel to return to the Earth just before that critical first contact with the Vulcans which led to the opening up to humanity of the galactic civilisation. Their aim: to prevent that contact and reserve the whole planet for assimilation. However, the Enterprise, in hot pursuit, is dragged into the past as well, triggering a 21st Century battle for the future of humanity.

The story alternates between scenes on Earth, where first officer Riker is leading a team to try to ensure the success of the historic first warp flight which catches the Vulcans' attention, and the Enterprise, which the Borg are trying to take over. The contrast in setting and mood between the two scenarios adds enjoyment to the film; particularly the humour provided by the character of Zephram Cochrane (James Cromwell), the inventor and pilot of that first warp-capable craft. He is a decidedly reluctant hero and is horrified to learn that he is due to become one of the most famous people in history. Meanwhile, Picard and Data come face to face with the leader of the Borg, played by Alice Krige, who delivers a bizarrely seductive performance despite her repulsive make-up. It was, in fact, Krige's performance which was the only element of this film that I recalled.

All of the usual suspects appear in the cast but most of the Star Trek regulars have relatively little to do: Picard very much takes centre stage in one of Patrick Stewart's strongest appearances in the role, aided by Data who is tempted by the Borg leader.

The mixture of darkness and humour makes this one of the best films of the franchise, in my view, and in a different league from the weak Insurrection that followed it. I have yet to see Nemesis, the last of the NG films (at least, I think so!) and, though the comments I've read are not encouraging, I might as well complete the set.

***************************************
Just in case you hadn't noticed, I have made some minor changes to this blog. I have added a section in the column on the left with links to longer SFF articles, mostly derived from earlier blog posts. The photos of my book covers are now live links to web pages about the books, including reviews plus (in the case of The Foresight War) the first couple of chapters, and (in the case of Scales) the ability to download the entire book. I am working on revised versions of both novels, but don't hold your breath… Finally, thanks to Hermione on the Blogger Help Forum I've at last managed to correct the glitch that was messing up the alphabetical ordering of the links to my book and TV/film reviews - keep scrolling down the column on the left to find them.        


6 comments:

dlw said...

I thought First Contact was by far the strongest of all the Trek movies. It stands alone even if you aren't all that familiar with the TNG canon.

Now that you've watched First Contact, you need to download a copy of "Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning", which is more or less the unauthorized sequel, done by some Finnish fans. It's better than most of the real Trek movies...

Anthony G Williams said...

Thanks for that; I've not come across any mention of that one, so I'll have to look it up.

dlw said...

The download link at the origin site keeps shifting, so it's probably easier to snag it from archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/StarWreckInThePirkining

While watching, keep in mind that it was done by fans using freeware and early-2000s desktop computers. In the opening shots, the entire bridge is computer generated... Hollywood should be very afraid.

The names of everything were changed to avoid copyright issues with Paramount, but that became amusing in its own right. I guess you'd have to be an old-time computer geek to find "Kickstart" amusing, though.

Basically, the crew of [NG Enterprise] is stranded in Finland in the early 21st century. They've been blending in waiting for [Zefram Cochrane] to invent the warp drive, when they plan to announce their present and help Earth get a head start on defending itself against the future [Borg] invasion. But when the assigned date passes and there's no sign of the warp drive, they decide to do it themselves...

So, first you conquer Russia, reassign their industrial base to future-tech weaponry, conquer the rest of the world, and send your new fleet out to conquer the rest of the universe...

Bear in mind, you're talking about a government held together with spit and baling wire, and a star fleet built to the finest Soviet levels of quality control.

Uh... it helps if you're familiar with Babylon 5 well. Things get a little strange further into the movie...


Not SF, but if you can find or rent a copy of "Leningrad Cowboys Go America", you'll find a *very* strange Finnish movie about a Soviet ukelele band that decides to tour the USA... and the imaginary band, put together for the movie, kept on going, and is still touring two decades later. There are lots of video clips of them on YouTube; look for "Leningrad Cowboys Sweet Home Alabama." Because when you're a Western rock group and have cash, you can hire the Red Army as your chorus and bring them to your concert in Helsinki. So you have a stage full of Russian soldiers belting out rock and roll in a foreign language, but they're having a blast and getting paid in hard currency when their pals back home are being paid in potatoes... there's a video for the 1993 Helsinki concert; I'm not ordinarily a concert fan, but they put on quite a show.

Finland. They must put something strange in the vodka there.

Anthony G Williams said...

Thanks for the info!

I really enjoyed Iron Sky, another SF spoof in which the Finns had a hand. I reviewed it a year or so ago.

dlw said...

I had heard "as many as several" people had enjoyed Iron Sky.

Most of us who waited for it had seen Samuli Torssonnen's earlier stuff, and when he got corporate backing and went big time we were expecting something... well, of course not a fan movie, but something with the rollicking craziness of the "Star Wreck" movies. Instead we got a bunch of "professionals" and what looks to have been a "too many Chiefs" problem.

I was bitterly disappointed in Iron Sky. I don't blame Torssonnen for taking the money, but I had hoped he would avoid most of the strings.

Anthony G Williams said...

Not having known anything about Torssonnen, I had no expectations of the film beyond something irreverently amusing, which it was. As I said in my review, best seen in company, with prior application of alcohol, and critical faculties locked away...