Star Trek VIII: First Contact

Summary:

Since yesterday was First Contact/ Zefrem Cochrane Day, I had to watch First Contact, as if I really needed the reason. The movie opens with the Picard dreaming that he in the Borg hive, remembering the time he was assimilated and became Locutus. Picard is awoken by a message from Starfleet that the Borg have reached Federation space, with a direct course for Earth (obviously). Instead of being thrust into the battle, the Enterprise-E  is sent off to the Neutral Zone; the higher ups don’t want Picard near Borg because it would be “unstable.”

Let’s talk about the Borg for a minute. I love the Borg; they’re a great enemy. They’re unfeeling and calculating and can hurt you in much worse ways than killing you. The terror comes from knowing that if captured, you won’t be enslaved or killed, but you will became that which you hate. I also love that they are genuinely stronger than the Federation. It takes all of Starfleet to fight one Borg ship. (Disregarding some Voyager for a moment, which I think overused/weakened the Borg) it’s nice having a superior enemy face the Federation in battle. And they do some heavy damage. Of course the good guys win in the end, but I love an enemy strong enough and scary enough to convince me that it might just turn out differently.

So, the Enterprise is out in the Neutral Zone and hear the reports of Borg attacks back home. We’re eight minutes in, and Picard decides following orders would make for a boring movie and conquered Earth, so they disobey and high-tail it to the battle. (I believe in Appalachian to Trek translation, high-tail is approximately warp 8.5.)

The Enterprise arrives, and the first thing the Captain does is take control of the entire fleet. I’m not sure how authorization works in Starfleet in wartime, but I’m pretty sure it’s more regulated than a renegade captain just declaring himself in charge. The fleet successfully blows up the Borg cube, but not before the Borg release a sphere that creates a temporal vortex. The timeline changes, and Earth is now 100% Borg. The Enterprise is close enough to the vortex that they remain unaffected, so they follow the Borg back 300 years to undo the damage.

Earth 300 years ago (or rather, 50 years from now) is repairing from WWIII, economic stability, and social riots. There is a small group of people living in Bozeman, Montana, including Zefram Cochrane, who is a day away from making his historical first warp flight. His flight will grab the attention of Vulcans and initiate first contact. The Borg want to prevent first contact so they can assimilate Earth easily.

Bev is rocking mid-21st century style.

 The crew beams down. Picard and Data find Cochrane’s ship, the Phoenix, which is made from an old nuclear missile. That is where they meet Lily Sloane who is kind of freaked out by the whole android, starship, time travel deal. Riker runs into Troi and Cochrane drinking in a bar. Tequila-drinking Troi is way more fun than synthahol-drinking sober Troi. The Enterprise could have used some real alcohol on board. Cochrane turns out to be more angry drunk than historic hero like they all imagine. Riker tries to explain the situation to Cochrane, who rather reluctantly agrees to continue with his flight as planned. He hates all the attention the visitors from the future are giving him; they think he is a noble dreamer while he claims he is only doing what he does for the money.

Classy BAMF.

Back on board, the Borg arrive and begin taking over. Apparently a 24th century starship orbiting 21st century Earth draws attention. They want to turn the ship into a beacon to call more Borg into the Alpha Quadrant. Picard and Worf both lead teams to clear the decks and try to regain control of the ship. Picard runs into Sloane and attempts to explain everything to her. They hid from the Borg in the holosuite, because…Dixon Hill. Phasers don’t work against Borg, but holographic machine guns do (obviously). Side note: Why can you disengage safety protocols on the holodeck? That’s just… unsafe.

Data is captured and taken to the Borg Queen. And the Borg Queen is all over Data. He has the encrypted codes that would give the Borg total control of the Enterprise. But she seems way more into him on a sexual level. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be turned on or repulsed. She activates his emotion chip and begins a process of turning him into an organic being.

Uncomfortably sexy.

A team takes a spacewalk on the hull of the Enterprise to disrupt the beacon the Borg are trying to send. With no help coming, the only Borg threat is on the Enterprise. Worf and Crusher suggest blowing up the ship, but Picard is having none of that. They just got the Enterprise-E and now his crew wants to destroy it like the last one. Picard calls Worf a coward and throws him off the bridge. Then Picard walks off, leaving Crusher in charge of the whole fighting off Borg business. Picard and Sloane have it out; she makes him face the fact that he is still angry at the Borg for personal reasons and is hunting them for revenge, not for saving humanity. He agrees to initiate the self-destruct.

Side note: I’ve always been team Picard-Crusher, and while it is addressed and makes sense why they never wind up together, I really, really want them to. It also makes me a bit defensive when Picard has relationships with other women (or when Crusher sleeps with her heirloom ghost). But I really like Sloane. I’m not getting overly romantic vibes or anything, but I think even if I were, I’d still like her. She isn’t letting these people from the future use their technology and knowledge to make her feel inferior; she steps right up to their level. She calls Picard out on his flaws while Crusher is on the bridge following orders she disagrees with.

While everyone evacuates the ship, Picard stays behind in hopes of recuing Data. While watching all the escape pods leave Enterprise and head to Earth, I can’t help but think 1. didn’t anyone on earth notice those dozens of little ships? It’s the 21st century; we can see things in orbit and 2. I don’t believe that all those pods make it made to the ship. There are some 24th century crewmen stuck in the past. Anyway, Picard goes down to engineering and faces the Borg Queen. He offers to willingly give himself over to the Borg in exchange for Data’s freedom. But Data works with the Borg Queen instead and stops the self-destruct.

Meanwhile on Earth, Riker and La Forge tag along for the first warp flight, because they can. Just as they are getting ready to launch into warp, Data under the Borg Queen’s directive, fires torpedoes at them. But the torpedoes miss; Data sabotaged the attack and gives Picard a chance to escape. Data floods the room with plasma (I think?), wiping out the Borg, including the Queen. So the Enterprise is saved, the Phoenix is saved, and first contact happens as planned (and Cochrane doesn’t shoot first, like in the Mirror universe).

Then there is the whole getting back to the correct time problem. Something about the moon hiding the Enterprise’s warp signature from the Vulcans even though the Vulcans were able to pick up the Phoenix’s. And don’t tell me the Vulcans also missed the Enterprise calling back all those escape pods. The Enterprise casually recreates the Borg time vortex and goes home. The Vulcans hang out to drink and learn rock n’ roll, which is fun enough for me to overlook the time travel issues. Actually, I’m not much of a stickler on the science stuff, and you want the movie to end with Cochrane and the Vulcans, not worrying about the technicalities of making it back to the 24th century. 

This is my favorite of the TNG movies. Exploration for its own sake, diplomacy, questions of morals and humanity, technobabble, action, and a dash of interspecies sexual tension: it has everything that makes Trek Trek. 

Quotes: 

Data: “Captain, I believe I speak for everyone here, sir, when I say to hell with our orders.”

Picard: “They’ll assimilate the Enterprise, and then, Earth.”

Sloane: “Borg? Sounds Swedish.”

Emergency Medical Hologram: “I’m a doctor, not a doorstop.”

Troi: “Timeline? This is no time to argue about time. We don’t have the time.”

Troi: “[First contact] unites humanity in a way that no one ever thought possible, when they realize they are not alone in the universe. Poverty, disease, war, they’ll all be gone within the next 50 years.”

Borg Queen: “I am the beginning, the end, the one who is many. I am the Borg.”

Cochrane: “I’ve heard enough about the great Zefram Cochrane. I don’t know who writes your history books or where you get your information from, but you people have got some pretty funny ideas about me. You all look at me as if I’m some kind of saint or visionary or something.”
Riker: “I don’t think you’re saint, Doc, but you did have a vision.”

Picard: “In my century, we don’t succumb to revenge. We have a more evolved sensibility.”
Sloane: “Bullshit!”

Sloane: “Captain Ahab has to go hunt his whale.”

Picard: “Not again. The line must be drawn here! This far; no farther! And I will make them pay for what they’ve done!”

Data: “Resistance is futile.”

Cochrane: “And you people, you’re all astronauts on some kind of star trek.” (I see what you did there.)