'Star Trek: First Contact'

Star Trek:  First Contact

(viewed Saturday & Sunday, May 24-25)

 

• Although I was surprised to remember that Generations had such a nice soundtrack, the excellent soundtrack of First Contact is no surprise at all.  I generally consider it to be the best soundtrack among the TNG-era films, largely due to the return of the legendary Jerry Goldsmith (which is no slight against Dennis McCarthy).  After James Horner (The Wrath of Khan), Jerry Goldsmith has probably composed most of my favorite Trek music.
• Got a little PTSD there, Jean-Luc?  Just a little bit?
• This film marks the debut of a lot of new aesthetics for Star Trek.  And although they're not the biggest change, the first one we see is the new Starfleet uniform.  It features a black jumpsuit with a grey top and a turtleneck-esque undershirt bearing the wearer's department colors.
  
  
  
  (members of the Enterprise-E crew wearing the post-2373 uniform)
  
  

  These uniforms will become the standard for the next two TNG-era films, as well as the later seasons of DS9.  VOY will retain the "early-DS9"-style uniforms, arguably because they were in a slightly different quadrant when the new uniform was introduced.
• Admiral Hayes is apparently a high-ranking Starfleet flag officer, who appears one more time after First Contact (in a couple of episodes of VOY).
• And of course the biggest "new thing" introduced in this movie is the brand new Enterprise.
  
  
  
  
  USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E), the sixth Starfleet vessel to bear the name, is a Sovereign-class starship.  She's longer than her Galaxy-class predecessor (685m vs. 642m), but actually smaller in overall volume. 
  
  More compact and very reminiscent of the Excelsior class (to my eyes, at least), the Sovereign certainly retains the Galaxy's exploratory and diplomatic capabilities while clearly possessing a much more combat-oriented design (owing, no doubt, to conflict with the Borg and concern over new threats like the Dominion).
• "We're not going."
  
  "What do you mean 'We're not going'?"
• Also?  I already used the "Geordi got new eyes!" joke when I did "All Good Things...", but hey--GEORDI GOT NEW EYES!
• There far too many starships involved in the Battle of Sector 001 to mention them all by name, but First Contact is where we see a whole new family of starship designs--most of them, like the Sovereign class, designed with threats from powers like the Borg in mind.
  
  
  • Akira class
  • Norway class
  • Saber class
  • Steamrunner class
  
  And although the Defiant, Intrepid and Nova classes are introduced elsewhere (DS9 and VOY, specifically), I consider them part of this same crop of "First Contact" ship classes--the "new school" of Starfleet ship design.
  
• "I'm about to commit a direct violation of our orders.  Any of you who wish to object should do so now.  It will be noted in my log."
  
  "Captain, I believe I speak for everyone here sir when I say 'To hell with our orders.'"
• I enjoy that they play a few strains of the "Klingon Battle" theme from Star Trek: The Motion Picture when Worf is battling the Borg aboard the Defiant and preparing to ram the Borg Cube :)
• I can't recall if they appear on DS9 or VOY earlier than this, but the Battle of Sector 001 is the first time during my re-watch of "All the Trek" that I'm seeing the photon torpedo's bigger brother, the quantum torpedo.
• The ill-fated Lt. Hawk is played by Neal McDonough, better-known to most of us has having portrayed 1st Lt. Lynn "Buck" Compton in HBO's Band Of Brothers.
• "The Defiant?"
  
  "Adrift, but salvagable."
  
  "Tough little ship."
  
  "Little?"
  
  "Uh, yeah.  We're nearly 700m long, and it's about 120m long.  So yes.  Little."
• "You do remember how to fire phasers?"
  
  :trollface:
• First Contact takes another stab at writing the history of Earth in between the present day and the events that take place in Star Trek.  According to the "history", as told in this film, our planet experiences a Third World War that lasts until approximately 2053 and claims the lives of at least 600 million people.
  
  About a decade after this, in 2063, Dr. Zefram Cochrane makes his first warp flight aboard the Phoenix and shortly thereafter makes First Contact with the Vulcans.
• The Star Trek Encyclopedia states that the launch vehicle for the Phoenix was a "Titan V nuclear missile".  However, the Titan V was a proposed (but not produced) civilian launch vehicle derived from the overall Titan rocket program--it would have launched from a launchpad, not a missile silo.  The actual launch vehicle for the Phoenix appears to have been an LGM-25C Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile.  Such missiles wouldn't have been in service anywhere close to the events of the fictionalized WW3 of Star Trek however, as they were all taken out of service by the late 1980s and replaced with variants of the LGM-30 Minuteman missile.
• "Yeah, what you have here is a pretty severe Borg infestation.  You'll want to spray right away."
• So what does a ship without an android do if they need to encrypt their computer in a hurry? :P
• Hey kids, it's the Doctor (sort of)!
• "Timeline?!?  This is no time to argue about time!  We don't have the time!"
  
  Drunk Troi is my favorite Troi.
• This movie was Jonathan Frakes' directorial debut (at least for a feature film).  He also directed the much-maligned Insurrection, but we can't blame him for Nemesis--that movie was the fault of a Star Trek-hating human turd named Stuart Baird.
  
  
  
• "Captain, I believe I am feeling...anxiety.  It is an intriguing sensation, a most distracting..."
  
  "Data, I'm sure it's a fascinating experience.  But perhaps you should deactivate your emotion chip for now."
  
  "Good idea sir...done."
  
  "Data, there are times that I envy you."
• It's official.  Data's gettin' pretty good at headbutting breaking Borg necks.
  
  
  
  
• Again, sometimes the props on Trek do look like they came straight from a Spencer Gifts.  None more so than the signature Borg "place where they put your head" thingie.
  
  
  
• "And you people--you're all astronauts on some kind of...star trek?"
• I never liked the concept of the Borg Queen.  Sure, individuality within the context of the Borg has been explored before--notably with Locutus and then with Hugh and the separatist cell under Lore's leadership.  But the Borg Collective itself having a singular representative, while very useful for narrative purposes, dulls their sinister edge just a bit.  A faceless, relentless enemy is ever-so-slighly more menacing, in my opinion.
  
  This "nerfing of the Borg", as I've sometimes called it, continues in VOY.  It doesn't really diminish my enjoyment of this movie (I consider it my favorite among the TNG-era films), but it is a minor irk.
• Also?  The sexual innuendo in the scenes between Data and the Borg Queen makes me...uncomfortable.
• Picard tells Lily that there are 150 planets in the Federation, spread over 8,000 light years.  This is probably the most definitive statement we have in Trek as to the size of the UFP, and along with other clues it allows us to make a fairly accurate (although logically flawed; see below) guess as to the size and location of the Federation and its position relative to the other galactic powers.
  
  As usual, Ex Astris Scientia has a pretty fascinating piece about this (well, fascinating if you're into that sort of thing) as well as a conjectural map. 
  
  
  
  (image courtesy of Ex Astris Scientia)
  
  The one serious issue with a Federation of that size is the time it would take to travel to its various corners, which doesn't jive at all with the time it takes the Enterprise-D and other ships to criss-cross Federation space.  A figure of a few hundred light years in diameter is much more reasonable, although this is directly contradicted by what's said on-screen.
  
  Ultimately, this is one of those things that is just "wrong" about Star Trek wherein we just have to sort of suspend disbelief and/or ignore the inconsistencies.  Much like we (or at least I) ignore the ridiculous 700m size of the Enterprise in the new Abramsverse films, I ignore the "8,000 light years across" remark by Picard.  Who knows, maybe he's referring to the limits of human exploration (contrary to what the context of that sentence would have us believe)?
• "Borg?  Sounds Swedish."
  
  The television series Vikings (worth checking out, if you like fictionalized historic drama) features a character named Jarl Borg, and I think of this line every time he shows up :)
• "You see, money doesn't exist in the 24th Century."
  
  What he means, of course, is that for a small minority of the galaxy's intelligent creatures lucky enough to live in the Federation, their basic needs are taken care of and there is no need for currency in order to purchase goods and services--allowing its citizens to pursue art, exploration, science, etc.
  
  Of course, there's absolutely still money in the 24th Century.  Outside of the Federation, gold-pressed latinum seems to be a common form of exchange.  Even Federation citzens (or at least Starfleet officers) receive credits that can be spent on luxury items.
• I'm convinced that the entirety of the holodeck sequence was contrived just to give Captain Picard a chance to mow down Borg drones with a tommy gun.
  
  
  
• Speaking of which, the host of the club in the holodeck program is played by Ethan Phillips, more familiar to most Trekkies and Neelix on VOY.
• Nicky the Nose is played by actor Don Stark, who I know better as Bob Pinciotti on That '70s Show.  He also played a Yridian on DS9.  But then again, who didn't play a Yridian on DS9?
• Lt. Reginald Barclay:  Awkward in any century.
• "I gotta take a leak."
  
  "Leak?  I'm not detecting any leak."
  
  "Don't you people from the 24th Century ever pee?"
  
  "Oh...leak.  I get it.  That's pretty funny!"
• The sequence in which Capt. Picard, Lt. Cmdr. Worf and Lt. Hawk venture onto the hull of the Enterprise-E to stop the Borg from completing their inter-plexing beacon is, much like the crash sequence in Generations, a nice reminder of just how gigantic these ships are.  You don't see them to scale with every day objects (or people, as the case may be) very often.
• EW.  DON'T DO IT.  DON'T RIP THE SKIN OFF, DATA.
• Data and the Borg Queen = moistest kiss in the Alpha Quadrant :ick:
• "You told him about the statue?"
• Sure, Worf always packs his mek'leth when he's going for a stroll in zero gravity.  Don't you?
• Poor Lt. Hawk :(
• "ASSIMILATE THIS."
  
  WORF ANGRY.  WORF SMASH.
• "I didn't build this ship to usher in a new era for humanity.  You think I want to go to the stars?  I don't even like to fly.  I take trains!"
• "You're afraid.  You want to destroy the ship and run away.  You coward."
  
  "If you were any other man, I would kill you where you stand."
  
  Woops.  That's going to be an awkward exchange to take back later.
• "Come on, Captain.  You're not the first person to get a thrill out of murdering someone!"
• "I will not sacrifice the Enterprise.  We make too many compromises already; too many retreats.  They invade our space, and we fall back.  They assimilate entire worlds, and well fall back.  Not again.  The line must me drawn here!  This far, no farther!  And I will make them pay for what they've done!"
• "You broke your little ships."
• This is one of the first times that we actually see the escape pods being boarded and leaving a starship.  I believe the only other time is in the DS9 series premiere.
• "So much for the Enterprise-E."
  
  "We barely knew her."
  
  "Think they'll build another one?"
  
  "Plenty of letters left in the alphabet."
• The Enterprise-E's escape pods are all locked in for a course to Gravett Island, a fictional location in the South Pacific named after screenwriter Ron Moore's assistant.
• "Magic Carpet Ride" for a lift-off song?  Sure, I like Steppenwolf too.  I'd probably go with "Rocket Man", though.
• The Phoenix sports fairly recognizable warp nacelles, although we don't know much else for certain about her warp engine.  I've always assumed that--in the same vein as other non-canon, early Earth starships--she used a comparatively primitive fusion reactor to generate the power necessary for warp flight, as opposed to the matter/anti-matter reactors used on later starships.
  
  
  
  
  

  Although it's all non-canon, the Starfleet Museum has a neat piece about the development of M/AM drives and the transition to those from fusion-powered drives.  It's a fun read, if you're a turbo nerd like me.
• The Borg Queen explicitly states that she was present during Picard's assimilation and his brief existence as Locutus, even though we don't see her in "Best Of Both Worlds".
• The plasma that evaporates all of the other organic material in engineering spares Data's uniform, so I guess we can assume that the new uniforms are all-synthetic.  And plasma-safe.
  
  
  
• The Vulcan survey ship that makes contact after Dr. Cochrane's warp flight is the T'Plana-Hath.  The name is an homage to a Vulcan "matron of philosophy" briefly mentioned by Spock during his "re-training" on Vulcan after his refusion (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home).
• They make a pretty clean get away at the end of this movie.  Heavy damage in their engineering section, no functioning deflector dish, and they can just generate some chronometric particles an get out of dodge without a problem?  Seems legit.