STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT (1996) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

star trek: first contact (1996) movie

Genre              |   Science Fiction

Classification   |   PG 

Running time   |   111 minutes

Released         |   22 November 1996 

cast

Patrick Stewart ... Picard
Jonathan Frakes ... Riker
Brent Spiner ... Data
LeVar Burton ... Geordi
Michael Dorn ... Worf
Gates McFadden ... Beverly
Marina Sirtis ... Troi
Alfre Woodard ... Lily
James Cromwell ... Zefram Cochrane
Alice Krige ... Borg Queen
Neal McDonough ... Lt. Hawk
Robert Picardo ... Holographic Doctor
Dwight Schultz ... Lt. Barclay

director

Jonathan Frakes

writer

​Gene Roddenberry ... (television series Star Trek)
 
Rick Berman ... (story) &
Ronald D. Moore ... (story) &
Brannon Braga ... (story)
 
Ronald D. Moore ... (screenplay) &
Brannon Braga ... (screenplay)

cinematographer

​Matthew F. Leonetti ... director of photography

music

Jerry Goldsmith

film editor

​John W. Wheeler

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box office result

Worldwide             $​​​​​​​​​​146,027,888

Australia                 $​​​​​ not available

North America       $​​​​​​​​​​​92,027,888

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movie minutiae

James Cromwell became the first actor in Star Trek history to actually utter the phrase "star trek" (although in STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION: ALL GOOD THINGS (1994), John de Lancie (Q) said, "It's time to put an end to your trek through the stars").

Up until 2009, this movie held the record for the highest worldwide gross of all the STAR TREK movies made to-date (over $150 million), as well as for highest first-weekend gross (over $30 million). This movie also had the second highest U.S. gross of all of the STAR TREK movies (over $92 million), just behind that of STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME (1986). All of these figures were broken by STAR TREK (2009).

Like STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK (1984), this is the first movie in the Next Generation film franchise to be directed by a cast member. Leonard Nimoy and Jonathan Frakes played the First Officer of their respective crews, and directed two movies in a row.

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related movies

STAR TREK: INSURRECTION (1998)

STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT (1996) MOVIE IMAGES

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STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT (1996) STORY SYNOPSIS

​After an epic battle against the Borg (cybernetically-enhanced life forms), Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise follow the Borg Sphere back into the 21st century to prevent the Borg from contaminating Earth's timeline and preventing Earth's first contact. Picard and the crew must work together to battle the Borg Queen before she assimilates all of mankind and changes history forever. Resistance is futile.

STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT (1996) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 22 November 2015

​​Pop Movee Rating

STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT is the best film featuring the cast of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION and ranks as the second best entry from the first ten movies based on the enduring science fiction franchise. The previous feature film – STAR TREK: GENERATIONS – was not a break-out hit but generated more than enough box office business for the Paramount feature film division to commission another movie relatively quickly.

Rick Berman, the man in charge of the television franchise, was, once again, asked to produce the film and this time around turned immediately to the experienced Trek writing duo of Ron Moore and Brannon Braga to develop the story and write the screenplay. In the two years between the previous film and FIRST CONTACT, Moore had gone to work on STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE, while Braga took a writing Producer’s role on its sister show STAR TREK: VOYAGER.

The development of FIRST CONTACT’s story was very different to that of GENERATIONS. Unfettered by the need to include any of the Original series cast, the writers were immediately more comfortable with a Next Generation-only movie. The appointment of Jonathan Frakes as Director reinforced this comfort level, as key cast members provided feedback to Moore and Braga about what they would like to see.

Ron Moore recollected:

We had done many drafts for Rick and the studio, and we had extensive talks with Patrick about the things he wasn’t happy with or things he thought could be better. We consulted Brent extensively, too, and then Jonathan became the director … and to some extent, the rest of the actors. I believe they’re all pretty happy at the moment … I think that, by and large, there’s a sense in this picture that everyone had a little more to do.

The story saw the return of the Borg; the cybernetic alien force whose singular goal is assimilation into their collective. The Borg were extremely popular among the STAR TREK fan base and the TV show’s Season Three-Four Borg cliff-hanger, THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS, is regarded among the very best shows any of the Trek series have ever put to air.

In the story, Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) is abducted by the Borg and forced to act against his own people. The consequences of his abduction were only addressed twice afterwards during the series, so a feature film follow-up with his greatest foe opened dramatic possibilities.

STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT sees Picard having to address the consequences of his abduction when, once again, he comes face-to-face with the Borg.

The action ramps up pretty quickly, as Picard disobeys orders and rushes to help an armada of Federation starships who are being savaged by the Borg’s colossal cube ship. Picard, using his intimate knowledge of the Borg gained through his abduction, destroys the vessel but not before a smaller spherical escape craft is launched. The ship creates a temporal vortex, catching the Enterprise and her crew in its wake.

Picard realises that the Borg have travelled into the past to stop the historical event of ‘First Contact’; the day that humankind is contacted by an alien race for the first time. The Borg have a very specific target, Zefram Cochrane, the inventor of warp drive; the faster-than-light propulsion system that allows speedy interstellar travel.

In the history books, Cochrane’s maiden flight is scheduled for the next day and Cochrane’s successful test attracts the attention of the passing alien vessel. The Enterprise crew assume that a successful disruption of this test by the Borg will leave them free to assimilate the planet with little to no resistance. The Enterprise destroys the alien menace, but not before it has unleashed a volley of destruction on the Earth below.

Non-Star Trek fans find this sort of exposition hard to handle at the best of times, but FIRST CONTACT strikes a good balance between mythology-building and action adventure. Picard takes several members of the crew to investigate 21st century Earth, but soon discovers survivors form the destroyed Borg sphere have transported on to the Enterprise.

Picard, Data (Brent Spiner) and Worf (Michael Dorn) engage in a running battle with Borg drones that are advancing on the Enterprise Bridge. In their effort to get back control of Engineering, Data is captured by the Borg and soon meets the Borg Queen (Alice Krige). Their by-play is laced with a sado-masochistic tone that is a hang-over from co-writer Brannon Braga's Jungian explorations during TNG's sixth and seventh seasons.

Down on Earth, Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Troi (Marina Sirtis) and LaForge (LeVar Burton) convince a reluctant Zefram Cochrane (James Cromwell) to launch his ship the Phoenix so ‘First Contact’ can happen with the passing alien spaceship. Cochrane, however, turns out to be less-than-reliable as his sobriety waxes and wanes throughout the course of the movie.

Back on board the Enterprise, the Borg Queen attempts to seduce Data by promising to graft human flesh onto his android body to fulfil his dream and become “human”. It’s a creepy concept that, quite literally, gives Data goosebumps when Alice Krige’s Queen gently blows on his newly-grafted skin. Elsewhere aboard the ship, Picard uses the holodeck to kill two Borg drones and retrieve their communication chips. He discovers that the Borg are reconfiguring the ship’s main deflector to contact the Borg of the 21st century, calling them to Earth to assimilate the planet. Picard, Worf and Lt.Hawk (Neil McDonaugh) stop the Borg by detaching the deflector dish from the ship, but Hawk is assimilated and killed.

After activating the ship’s self-destruct sequence, the Enterprise crew evacuate in escape pods, while Picard remains behind to save Data. Picard confronts the Borg Queen, who orders Data to destroy the Phoenix as it launches from the planet below. When the photon torpedoes fail to hit the Phoenix, Data reveals his true allegiance by flooding the Borg-converted Engineering compartment with toxic gas, killing all organic material. The Borg are destroyed as Picard climbs to safety. Cochrane completes humanity’s first warp-powered space flight, attracting the attention of the passing alien vessel.

Later that day, the alien space vessel lands at the Phoenix launch site as the Enterprise crew watch on from a distance. The aliens reveal themselves to be Vulcans, the alien race from which the Original series’ character of Spock comes from. It’s a nice touch to finish the film and closes the loop in relation to an important footnote in the larger STAR TREK mythology. Back on board their ship, the Enterprise crew recreate the Borg’s temporal disturbance and head back to the 24th century for more cinematic adventures.

STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT met with positive reviews from the majority of critics and enjoyed a healthy box office performance, with Paramount Pictures announcing that another feature film would go into production almost immediately.

While fan hopes were high that Producer Rick Berman would continue down the action adventure path of FIRST CONTACT, the next film – INSURRECTION – was a far more considered affair, echoing the humanistic principles espoused by Gene Roddenberry. In this respect, FIRST CONTACT is the oddity as far as NEXT GENERATION cast films go.

Of the four TNG cast films released, this one is by far the best and continues to rank in the top three feature film adventures of the twelve produced between 1979 and 2013; bested only by STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN (still) and J.J. Abrams’ 2009 STAR TREK big screen reboot.

STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT (1996) USEFUL LINKS

Star Trek: First Contact - Wikipedia​
Star Trek: First Contact (1996) - IMDb
​Star Trek: First Contact (1996) - Rotten Tomatoes

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