Happy First Contact Day. We are now 40 years away from the Vulcans showing up to help us drag our asses out of the mess we've made. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure we're in the timeline where Zefram Cochrane has a shotgun.
Of the first ten Star Trek movies, First Contact is what your average Joe Six-Pack or Jennifer Two-Liter back in the 90s would call "the cool one." And yeah, it's pretty cool. It might be the only one of those ten that was even trying to be cool. But is it good, though? Hmm.
Sure, mostly. First Contact is fairly unique among those ten in that it holds up reasonably well as both a Star Trek movie and a big splashy Hollywood summer blockbuster, if you take into account the standard of the era for both — who knows how the folks who cut their teeth in 2009 feel about First Contact now. But back then, it's the only one that I remember getting some of the Star Wars kids onboard, however briefly.
I think my "mostly" largely comes down to personal preferences. First Contact is a movie that I like slightly less on every viewing and I'm not always sure why, while Generations has become the opposite, ticking gradually upward on every reappraisal. It could simply be that my idea of what The Next Generation is feels at odds slightly with how First Contact presents itself. This ain't my Enterprise. These ain't my uniforms (until Sisko's squad got them, then I'm onboard.) Jerry Goldsmith's score is perfectly fine but it's not my Dennis McCarthy TNG-era sonic wallpaper. These definitely aren't my Borg even despite Alice Krige's killer performance.
It's all mouthfeel, x-factors, intangibles, reviewer's tilt. Generations to me was TNG writ large, versus First Contact's evolution into the franchise's next stage, for better or worse. Still light years ahead of Insurrection and Nemesis in any case.
Odd that for a movie I've seen probably a dozen times I don't have much more to say about it than that. Perhaps I can muster up a few stray thoughts.
- This was my first time watching First Contact in a format better than my old DVD from like 2002, so obviously a lot of visual details pop a lot more. I never noticed until today the light blue piping separating the grey from the black on the uniforms and honestly, it bugs me. Take it away.
- Data's "to hell with our orders" feels a little quaint suddenly. I'm not saying that writers today would have him yell "fuck the orders, old man!" before jumping around the bridge doing Degeneration-X crotch chops while "Here Comes The Boom" plays over the ship's comms, but I'm also not not saying that.
- There are themes at play regarding hero worship and historical bias, the little white lies societies tell themselves and how we actually are as individuals, metatextual criticism of the Roddenberry myth, the deflating truth behind lofty visions that can still help change people regardless — all of which feels extremely valuable, but none of which is truly fully explored because it's a movie and it doesn't have the time. I always appreciate the effort nonetheless.
- First Contact's upgrade of Borg set design and costuming is about as close as it's possible for Star Trek to get to the Cronenberg body horror ballpark while keeping a PG-13 rating and not straying too far outside the typical Trek sensibilities of the era. I would absolutely love to see an actual attempt made at a Borg redesign with a hard R, just for curiosity's sake. Cronenberg is a regular guest on Discovery, someone could just tap him on the shoulder. Please.
- Everyone is so young here! Watching First Contact immediately before today's episode of Picard might not be recommended unless you're okay with how that's going to mess with your perception of time.
- Mid-21st century fashion is going to be pretty dire unless you're Marina Sirtis, in which case everything somehow works.
- Star Trek: Enterprise is as much a sequel to First Contact as it is a prequel to Star Trek. Consider that contextual adjustment before doing a run through Enterprise should you honestly wish to enjoy that series a little more. It's a long road.
