Captain's Blog pt. 35: First Contact

After the receipts of Generations were totaled, Paramount called Rick Berman and told him to start assembling his team for a sequel. Berman ran into Moore and Braga on the studio lot and told them he wanted to do a time travel movie. Moore/ Braga countered with the Borg. Berman said, hey, let's do both. And thus was born:

First Contact

It wasn't so-named right off the bat. At first it was touted as Generations 2. (Ugh.) Then it was briefly Star Trek: Renaissance:

(Moore:) "The story would have found Picard and company searching history for a group of time-traveling Borg. Happening upon a Renaissance village, the crew would hear stories about strange creatures taking over neighboring villages (who of course turn out to be) the Borg. We track them down to a castle near the village where a nobleman runs a feudal society. Data becomes our spy, impersonating an artist's apprentice. He befriends Leonardo Da Vinci, who at the time, was working for the nobleman as a military engineer.

"You would have sword fights and phaser fights, mixed together, in 15th-century Europe. (But) it risked becoming campy and over the top."

Other eras were considered, but the story eventually congealed into the Borg trying to stop first contact between Vulcans and Humans. The idea that the Borg would choose this course of action over just wiping out humanity altogether (say, in its primordial-soup phase) or choose the day before first contact to launch their offensive is a bit wonky. But who cares? First Contact is one of the highest peaks in the whole Trek mountain range. A more succinct version of this blog would simply be "This movie kicks unholy ass. Resistance is futile."

Or, as Spiner pronounces it, "Resistance is feudal." Maybe that was a holdover from the feudal-lord aspect of the original script? I doubt it.

Taking its cues from "Best of Both Worlds" and not from any of the other Borg episodes of TNG, the series most popular villains are re-positioned along the lines of their most obvious genre analog: zombies.

The zombie genre is more popular than ever these days. It was less ubiquitous in the 90s.

One of the best parts about FC is how well it blends a zombie film / monster movie narrative with a more traditional Trek narrative. It's recognizably a Trek film from the very first (and recognizably a TNG-Trek film specifically, something Generations was not.) But the delayed-reveal of the Borg follows the classic "don't show the monster until the second reel" trope, and other bits of genre-fan-service follow suit.

 

 

Some took issue with the addition of a Borg Queen to the hive. I can understand the objection - it alters the organizational structure we've heretofore seen - but it never really bothered me. As the sole representative of unabashed female villainy in the Trek movies, (I'm not counting Valeris) Alice Krige sets a pretty high bar. I'm surprised our reactionary cultural gatekeepers don't claim the movie is misogynistic, come to think of it.

 

Frakes, Moore, and Braga later recalled a sense of "uneasy sexiness" in Krige's portrayal of the Queen. As did Roger Ebert in his review:

"I also admired the peculiar makeup work creating the Borg Queen, who looks like no notion of sexy I have ever heard of, but inspires me to keep an open mind."

Krige was in agony (though never complained) throughout the shoot, as the tightfitting bodysuit gave her painful blisters. The silver contact lens she had to wear could only be worn for four minutes at a time.

It makes perfect sense for the Borg to target Data. (Almost so much you wonder why he wasn't the target back in "Best of Both Worlds.")

The story cuts back and forth between the goings-on planetside, the fight to re-take the ship, and Data and the Queen's experience in Engineering. The sets in particular for this film are beautiful, the Data/ Queen sequence most of all.

 

This bit always skeeves me out a little... I can't be the only one.

Data is thankfully 1000% less irritating than he was in Generations. And much more pivotal to the story. And while this is a fine use of the whole cast, this is definitely Picard's movie. And this is the "Action Picard" for which Patrick Stewart had been campaigning for years.

 

His drive for vengeance and cold fury are played expertly by Stewart, and more importantly, it all makes total sense. Picard has managed to squelch his sense of violation from becoming Locutus, but it is sublimated here into violent release. (And he seems to rid himself of it by movie's end, something which also makes sense to watch unfold.) Even the more over-the-top moments such as the oft-quoted "The line must be drawn here!" business fit comfortably under the Picard-umbrella previously established, as does this sequence in the holodeck:

 

 

 

 

Patrick Stewart is aided and abetted throughout by Alfre Woodard, always a solid presence on-screen.

Says Woodard: "I’m not a Trekkie, but I had a lot of friends who worked on Star Trek. Jonathan Frakes is my godson. I think he’s a year younger or older than me, but we first got to L.A. years ago and I was talking about my godmother, and he said, “I never had a godmother.” I said, “I’ll be your godmother.” He’s called me “godmommy” since then. LeVar [Burton] is a dear friend. So I knew they all did Star Trek, and they knew I never watched it or anything, but we’re close friends, family friends. So when they were going to do the movie and Jonathan got the chance to direct, he said, “I want you to be in the Star Trek movie.” I said, “Okay, give me the script.” I read the script, and it was an action picture. I couldn’t put it down. And I said, “Oh God, I’m so there.” Plus, I was going to work with all my friends, and he was going to direct me."

She also gets two of the best lines in the movie. "The Borg? Sounds Swedish."

(After seeing them in action.) "Definitely not Swedish!"

Picard and Lily are a pleasure to watch. I love that there's no forced romantic relationship, (which might have happened under a different director) and what we get is an organic relationship and burgeoning trust that never once feels false. As Anij notes in Insurrection, the sense of trust Picard engenders is something to behold.

Add "New Guinea" to the phrases/ nouns I want to hear Patrick Stewart say, looped.

Incidentally, Patrick wanted Picard and Lily to be more than friends and hints that the kiss at the end was supposed to be full-on lip lock and not on-the-cheek. It's unclear whether this was cut for BS-studio concerns about the audience, or that Frakes et al felt it would be out of place in the movie. If the former, two words come to mind and they ain't "Whistlin' Dixie;" if the latter, I tend to agree.

 
 

It's uncommon enough that a non-romantic-interest male/female duo makes its way to the big screen in this (or any other really) day and age, but it's downright rare when the sort of relationship that Picard and Lily bring to life acquits itself so well without it. The friendship and partnership that develops (not to mention Lily's woman-out-of-time-ness) are effectively communicated to the audience.

Bottom line is that Lily and the Borg Queen are strong characters, and Woodard and Krige deliver the goods. FC is commendable for many reasons, but not shoehorning either of these female roles into more sexist/ perceived-blockbuster-audience-bait.

The rest of the cast (unsurprisingly, given Frakes' history with the performers/ characters) also get several nice moments.

Geordi's "Predator-vision."

 

And Worf gets to deliver his signature line in perhaps the greatest circumstances ever contrived to showcase it:

"Then perhaps today IS a good day to die!" I say this every morning.

In a slight reversal of the screen-time/ story purpose afforded Woodard and Krige, Beverly and Troi don't get too much to do.

Drunk Troi gets to do the Katherine Heigl/ Sandra Bullock thing, i.e. play "adorable drunk" and bitch at the guy, in this scene.

And then she gets to do Gwen from Galaxy Quest thing and do the countdown-to-zero, here.

The other most notable guest star is Zefram Cochrane, originally played by Glenn Corbet in TOS and played here by James Cromwell.

Rock and Roll Drunk Zefran is a lot of fun.

I know it'll never happen, but how cool would it be for the new-cast Trek to reboot "Metamorphosis" and get Cromwell to play Cochrane again, with that episode's plot? I say, pretty cool.

Cohran's story arc is important to the proceedings, as well, not just in the "got to get you to warp drive" sense re: first contact with the Vulcans, but in the reluctant hero surrendering to history/ his own hand in making it. There may be one or two extraneous lines concerning this, but it's a mild objection. I understand there were even more, and they were whittled down to what we see here. 

Some cameos worth mentioning:

Adam Scott, well before he was a household name.

Robert Picardo as the EMH, advocating an analgesic for the Borg's skin irritations.

And a non-Neelix-ified Ethan Phillips as the Holodeck host.

The fx team slipped this shot of the Millenium Falcon into the war-against-the-Borg-Cube sequence:

And really, there's not much more left to say. This film hits on all cylinders. It looks and sounds fantastic, and everyone involved delivers.

The scenes on the ship's exterior are great.

 

Worf gets another great action-movie line with "Assimilate this!" Something I also say to myself every morning.

The film ends with our heroes witnessing first contact, then warping back to the future.

 

 

This shot at film's end is one of the more shameless pose-for-posterity moments, but I like how Data's got his Phantom of the Opera look, still. That'll require a little bit of explanation for future posters/ screencaps.

Whether it's zombie films or space-aliens or time travel films you crave, First Contact has something for everyone.