Star Trek movie rewatch! First Contact (1996) is our first solo movie with the Next Generation crew, tossing out Shakespeare and replacing him with Moby Dick.

Here’s what happens: After failing to assimilate the Earth, the Borg return with a new plan. They go back in time to when Earth was wrecked after World War III, to assimilate it then. Picard and the Enterprise-E crew chase them back in time to stop them on two fronts, fighting the Borg on board the ship while also setting history right on the planet.

Captain’s holiday: Starfleet doesn’t want Picard encountering the board, based on the events of TNG’s “Best of Both Worlds” epic two-parter. Picard says he’s put it all behind him, but once the Borg start taking over the Enterprise, the cracks start to show. He gets more and more driven by revenge until Lily (Alfre Woodard) talks some sense into him.

Ol’ yellow eyes: Data doesn’t understand how physical touch can enhance a person’s understanding of an object – or each other. Later, the Borg take a particular interest in Data, giving him human skin for the first time, allowing him to touch the same way humans do. Again, this is not quite the “Data becomes human” story that fans dream of, but it gives him a whole new set of (heh) data to ponder when it comes to understanding humanity.

Welcome aboard: The Borg’s collective consciousness makes them scary and intimidating, but it also means they can’t have character development. Enter the Borg Queen to speak on their behalf. She says the Borg are all about seeking perfection, while Data answers, “I question your motives.” Borg continuity is all over the place throughout Trek history. I say this is because they are always evolving with every new person and/or tech they assimilate.

Continuity café: The 1987 novel Strangers from the Sky by Margaret Wander Bonanno depicts the first contact event happening differently. Similar and yet contradictory to this movie, it has Kirk and Spock traveling back in time to witness first contact. But that novel has a meta thing going on, with a book-within-the-book written by a Starfleet historian trying to put together what really happened during first contact.

What you leave behind: With a lot more time for pre-production, First Contact is a more ambitious and thought-out than the TV episode-like Generations. It’s the only TNG film to use the entire ensemble rather than just Picard and Data, and it uses the Borg in a way that similar to what was done before without fully repeating it.

Next: Both Gilbert AND Sullivan.

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Want more? Check out my novel MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF. It’s a comedic/romantic/dramatic superhero epic! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XPXBK14.