Customer Reviews

The Best Star Trek The Next Generation Movie
I have always had a problem with movies that are based on Star Trek The Next Generation (TNG). The seven season series was fine but the films have always seemed to me to be just glorified television episodes, they are just not grand enough.

The original series was of course shot in the 60's and was constrained by the technology that was available at the time, so much so that when The Motion Picture arrived in 1979 filmed with the most advanced movie-making procedures it elevated Star Trek in a way that had never been seen before, TNG movies used the basic procedures that the TV show had been using, admittedly with a bit more detail but not enough to make the films seem more epic than the series.

First Contact is however the best of TNG films and is the only one that can be described as a movie other than a 'big' tv episode. The whole idea of the Borg going back in time to prevent first contact with the Vulcan's was a good one, but I found the whole Picard/Data/Borg Queen section of the film to be somewhat predictable having seen something very similar in The Best Of Both Worlds. The Riker/Zefram Cochrane portions of the narrative were much more interesting with Cochrane superbly portrayed by James Cromwell. Having said that the scene where Picard loses control and smashes his display cabinet of the past ships called Enterprise is some of the finest acting ever to grace TNG, Patrick Stewart was brilliant.

Jonathan Frakes' direction is excellent with great camera angles and tilts, in fact the film starts with one of the best continuous Pull-Backs in movie history. The skill and dedication that he uses shows just how much he cares about TNG and pulled out all the stops to make the film (his first one) as good as he possibly could, I think he succeeded.

There is no denying the fact that all TNG movies are inferior to The Original Series films though, except this. This is the saving grace of TNG features and if I were to place the 10 films in order of preference I would put this at number 6, The Final Frontier is the only original cast film that is weaker than this, however it is vastly superior to the other TNG movies.

It seems sad that I am going to have to spoil my fellow reviewers maximum marks, but that is what these reviews are for and as such I can only give it three. If you want a TNG movie then this is the one to buy and avoid at all costs absolute rubbish like Star Trek Nemesis and total bores like Insurrection.

Believe the hype... this is significantly better than every other ST film
Everything that makes ST:TNG great is here: time travel, Borg, the brilliant character interactions, magnificent special effects. Unlike a lot (in fact, almost all) of the other ST films, this actually feels like a film, and not like a theatricized TV episode.

The Borg hatch a somewhat convoluted plan to travel back in time to the 21st Century in order to prevent the historic first contact between humans and aliens. Luckily, the (new) Enterprise is able to follow them, and the crew set about combatting the Borg and helping the inventer of warp drive to complete his crucial first flight.

The cast are right at home in their roles by now, and the respective actors seem to carry this film with almost no effort. Jamie Cromwell also makes a welcome return to the franchise as the aforementioned inventer of faster than light propulsion, who does not quite live up to the Enterprise crew's image of an altruistic hero. Also good as Alice Krieg's seductive and malevolent Borg queen.

The action sequences are lavishly appointed, with some of the best SFX seen in film up to that point, and the story itself is uncontrived (unlike the other three TNG movies).

If only they were ALL this good...

Best of the movies BUT....
has anyone at all ever questioned the plot holes here?

a/ why did the borg only send one ship again (they have hundreds)
b/ why wait untill the last moment to go back in time? why not before they left the delta quadrant?
c/ if borg have that capability why not do it all the time
d/ 21st century earth is not technology advanced enough for assimilation

there are a few more but you get my drift
don't get me wrong, it is a very good trek movie and the most engaging of them all but it gets annoying as it seems that the logic of the Trek universe died with the creator