Star Trek: First Contact - November 22, 1996
Synopsis:
Picard orders the Enterprise to follow the Borg back in time to stop them from destroying the Phoenix, Earth's first warp-speed vessel.
Story by Rick Berman, Brannon Braga & Ron D. Moore
Screenplay by Brannon Braga & Ron D. Moore
Directed by Jonathan Frakes
Review By Gadget (*****Major Spoilers are found herein*****)
The best Next Generation Movie of them all. The Borg, the race of cyborgs that are constantly searching for new technology are on a course for Earth and the Federation Starfleet meets the Borg in battle and is routed in the Typhon Expanse. Captain Picard and the Enterprise rush to Earth and in a pitched battle, destroy the Borg Cube. Just before it was destroyed, the Borg Cube unleashed a smaller ship, a sphere that reaches Earth and launches itself into a temporal vortex and into Earth's past. The Enterprise is caught in the temporal wake of the Borg sphere and is able to see that Earth is now changed: all humanity has been assimilated into the Borg race and the nightmare that most had expected for six years has come to pass.
Resistance is Futile.
Picard vaulted the Enterprise into the past to effect repairs on the timeline and to beat back the Borg . . .
Our heroes, the courageous crew of the Enterprise, destroy the Borg sphere in Earth's orbit, but not before they attack a missile complex in Montana AND send drones aboard the Enterprise - unbeknownst to our intrepid heroes. Turns out that the Borg were attempting to alter Earth's history by destroy Zefram Cochrane's warp ship, the Phoenix, from flying on April 5, 2063. This flight, a short warp-jump would be detected and draw the interest of a race traveling close to our solar system - this race would come to Earth and this First Contact with an alien race would lead to Earth mending its ways and later to the founding of the Federation. Up until now, the only race that had been able to keep the Borg at bay was the Federation. What better way to defeat the Federation than to never have it in the first place?
Commander Will Riker leads the endeavor to find Zefram Cochrane, repair the Phoenix, make the warp flight at 11:00 A.M. the following day. Picard and Data return to the ship and they discover that the Borg are indeed aboard the Enterprise and are attempting to assimilate it.
Being that the Borg are part machine and part flesh and bones, Picard proposes a simple and effective plan: take two strike-teams into engineering, destroy the plasma conduits around the warp core and this poison would kill the flesh and bones half and disable the Borg.
Too bad the Borg are already far too numerous, they adapt quickly to the particle weapons being used by the Enterprise crew, capture Data and route the strike-teams. Picard and others are forced to flee for their lives.
While attempting to flee, Picard runs into Lily Sloan, Zefram Cochrane's assistant that had been beamed aboard previously by Dr. Crusher. The medical staff was attacked in sick bay, Lily was revived and was separated from Dr. Crusher in the ensuing escape in the Jeffries Tubes. Now Picard has to deal with Lily who now has his weapon and he must convince her to trust him, all the while evade the oncoming Borg.
Picard discovers that the holodeck grid is still online and he draws the Borg into it and he is able to disable two Borg by removing the holodeck safeties . . . even holo bullets can kill with the safeties removed. He finds the Borg node in one of them and he must now get to the bridge for he knows what the Borg are up to: they are constructing a beacon on the outside of the Enterprise to contact their counterparts far off in the Delta Quadrant. If they Borg bring reinforcements to Earth . . . it is over. The Warp Flight won't matter, Earth will not be able to stand up to anyone, much less another Borg Ship with millions of Drones aboard and the future of Picard's time never happen. The beacon must be destroyed . . .
You are irrelevant.
Picard, Worf, and Hawk don space suits and make their way out to the deflector to literally detach the Borg from the hull. Three magnetic locks must be disabled and each time one is disabled, the Borg march to the offending person. Worf disables his attacker, but in turn has his pressure suit torn by the dying Borg. Hawk fails in his endeavor and all of humanity is riding on Picard. He deftly avoids the Borg, gets to the panel where Hawk failed to release the magnetic lock and as he is about to release the third and final lock, Hawk, now assimilated, pulls him away and smashes his mask. Just as Picard is about to be killed by this Borg, a particle blast sends the Hawk-Borg flying off into space, we see Worf with a Borg appendage wrapped around his pressure suit and holding the particle weapon that just saved Picard's life. Picard releases the locks, the Borg fly off into space and Worf, uttering "Assimilate this!", destroys the Beacon in high-earth orbit. A rousing moment indeed, for Earth is spared.
The Borg Queen has been trying to seduce Data in everyway imaginable and is dismayed by this set back on the deflector dish. She launches the drones aboard the Enterprise to take the rest of the ship. Time is running out . . .
On Earth, Riker, Deana, and Geordi are able to effect repairs and convince Dr. Cochrane to make the flight. Cochrane is not the man that history has painted him to be, but they all get past this. Cochrane is overwhelmed by their hero-worship and decides to flee. He is found, but he just isn't ready to become a historical figure . . . he is just a man trying to make money.
Picard orders his people to find to the last man, hand-to-hand combat if necessary. Worf points out that it won't work and Picard calls him a coward. Picard is still trying to defend his ship from the Borg and he will do so at any cost, even if it costs every man and woman aboard the Enterprise. Picard had brought Lily into the future, a glimpse of what her and Dr. Cochrane's endeavors will achieve and they give her hope, they give her reason to go on. Now that Picard is losing hope on the future she goes to him and fights him on this very issue. She calls him a coward for not wanting to live and to destroy the ship. The Borg be damned. If the only way to destroy the Borg is to destroy the Enterprise - so be it. Picard won't give in and they rail against each other until Lily compares him to Captain Ahab . . . "What?!" Picard demands of her. "You have books in the 24th century, don't you?" and with this simple and powerful remark, Picard realizes what he has become and decides to do what Lily did to him: trust him and listen to him. He acknowledges her remark by quoting Captain Ahab and Lily doesn't know what he is saying. "Moby Dick" answers Picard and sly Lilly Sloan walks over to Picard and shyly answers: "I never read it."
The Enterprise will be destroyed as will the Borg. The crew commences the auto-destruct sequence and at the same time, the Phoenix is counting down as well, this time, to launch the human race into history.
Picard leaves Lily with a message for his first officer and she immediately deduces that Picard is not leaving with her on one of the escape pods. He tells her that when he was captured aboard the Borg ship in the past, one of those that risked everything to save was still aboard and in the clutches of the Borg. He would go and save his friend.
In an epic confrontation, Data turns the tables on the Borg Queen by smashing the plasma conduits in engineering and saving the Phoenix's warp flight. We witness first contact between the inhabitants of Earth and the space faring race that discovers that Earth isn't as primitive as they thought.
The ending is an emotional and worthy ending to this wonderful action/adventure story that is just short of epic in scope - in scale, nah. The story was just darn good and worthy of your attention. Jerry Goldsmith was at his best in this movie with the musical score.
Story A Acting A Direction A Flow A Believability B+
Grade 3.86 (A-)
