Review of Star Trek: First Contact (1996) by Adrian Z — 14 Jan 2012

3 - First Contact has some (overrated) action - a novelty for the formerly sound-stage bound TV series. The Star Trek crew follow the evil Borg back in time in an attempt to prevent them from assimilating humanity before it has the chance to make first contact with the friendly Vulcans.

Structurally, the film is problematic as it branches off into, on the one hand, a tense "Alien" infestation type scenario occurring on the Enterprise (Alice Krige is impressive as the sinister Borg queen), contrasted on the other by an uninteresting subplot which sees most of the key Enterprise personnel trying to convince drunk inventor Cromwell (plain weird in the role) to conduct the test flight that leads to the titular first contact.

It's hard not to get caught up in the darker tone of this Star Trek entry, but Frakes, in his motion picture directorial debut, should have delivered a tighter experience, specifically by reducing the subplot.