Blankbaby

Quick, name all three TNG movies!

Trick question, there were four. Sadly, most of them weren’t very good but First Contact is probably my second favorite Star Trek movie period (Wrath of Khan is number one, and may be my favorite movie in general).

I do have a strong memory of going to see Star Trek: Generations in the movie theater. I was in college, and excited to see the TNG crew on the big screen. The movie opens with, what soon becomes clear, a champagne bottle slowly rotating end over end as the credits roll. The bottle smashes into the Enterprise-B and that’s when you see your first Star Trek character: Capt. Kirk.

WTF? This was supposed to be a TNG movie! Though I will grant them that it was fun to see Picard and Kirk together most of the stuff that happens in the Nexus is boring, and (spoilers) Kirk’s second death is a bit anti-climatic.

First Contact’s main titles aren’t very impressive either:

However, the first scene is just a Borg punch to the eye (and the surprise in the mirror gets me every time):

This scene with Picard and Lily (Alfre Woodard) shows why this movie is so darned good:

Of course the big moments in that scene are great (Picard smashing the window, Lily telling him he wouldn’t he the first man to enjoy killing, THE LINE MUST BE DRAWN HERE!) but my favorite part is Picard’s reaction to being called Capt. Ahab. Perfect.

This movie really is really about Picard (and Data, though mostly Picard) but each of the characters get a moment in the spotlight. Plus good old Reg Barkley makes a cameo. I mean really, how can you not like that?

Now, calling First Contact the best TNG movie is damning it with faint praise I will admit. And if that were the extent to which I enjoyed the film I wouldn’t recommend anyone watch it. However, this movie is legitimately good and makes one wonder what happened with the two that came after it (the less said about them the better I think).