What you did or didn't like about FC....

[Joel_Kirk]

Ahhh, the TNG that actually came off as a feature and not a bad episode....!

Likes:

*That Jerry Goldsmith theme...(It rivals TMP's score, I think. Goldsmith seems to use some 'sounds' and themes that were in TMP for FC)....

*Lt. Hawk...! (Cool character that had a too short life onscreen, I think)...

*Deanna Troi (She was beautiful in this film)

*Beverly Crusher (She was lovely too)

*The battle against the Borg sphere....

*How preachy Picard is not so preachy when it comes to the Borg....

Dislikes:

*The jarring change from an action scene on the ENT-E to a comedic moment on Earth with Cochrane...(That needed to be fixed somehow...)

 

[Brikar99]

Ahhh, the TNG that actually came off as a feature and not a bad episode....!

Likes:

*That Jerry Goldsmith theme...(It rivals TMP's score, I think. Goldsmith seems to use some 'sounds' and themes that were in TMP for FC)....

*Lt. Hawk...! (Cool character that had a too short life onscreen, I think)...

*Deanna Troi (She was beautiful in this film)

*Beverly Crusher (She was lovely too)

*The battle against the Borg sphere....

*How preachy Picard is not so preachy when it comes to the Borg....

Dislikes:

*The jarring change from an action scene on the ENT-E to a comedic moment on Earth with Cochrane...(That needed to be fixed somehow...)

Goldsmith often carried certain sounds or motifs from one score to another, and not just within the 'Star Trek' franchise. But I agree, his score for 'First Contact' was great, even if he lifted parts from 'The Motion Picture' and 'The Final Frontier'.

As for the 'jarring changes'... I think that's the necessary nature of the pacing of the film. I now a lot of people that found the Earth scenes boring, but I think they serve to highlight the tension on the Enterprise. I actually think they did a pretty good job with the flow of the movie, in terms of pacing and editing.

 

[Plomeek Broth]

This was my favorite TNG cast film, but Cochrane acted goofy on an annoying level. And Cromwell is a better actor than that too.

 

[Too Much Fun]

I love this movie so much. I've heard so many criticisms about it here that I think I can already predict what the detractors are going to say in here, but I've just never been able to understand their objections to it. I even tried to watch it being super critical to try to understand why others don't like it and avoid being biased, but I just can't see a lot of flaws in there. I think it is clearly the best of the Star Trek films.

I understand people ranking "The Wrath of Khan" higher because its early and final scenes are just so much better. The scenes dealing with Kirk's feelings about aging and the funeral at the end are more thoughtful, insightful, and resonant than anything in this movie, but pound for pound, I think "FC" is the most consistent movie in the franchise. Its opening scenes are much more rushed and therefore have less substance and thoughtfulness than those in "The Wrath of Khan", but it kills that movie in terms of special effects and I think its story and characters are just as strong, if not as emotionally involving.

Off the top of my head, the biggest thing I can think of that irritates me is that Gates McFadden dyed her hair blonde for this movie. She looked good, but not as beautiful as she always had as a redhead on the series. The fact that something so trivial this is the only major flaw of the movie I can think of shows how perfect it is.

 

[GalaxyX]

^^^ Well the Wrath of Khan was a great movie because it touched on such deep thoughts and ideas, as you have mentioned.

FC was just a silly action romp, and it didn't really do the action that well. I did not hate it though, it definitely is the only watchable TNG movie to me (and I'm a HUGE TNG fan!).

Stuff I liked?:

1. The Borg battle
2. The idea about the Vulcans being the first official alien contact with Earth.
3. The idea that Picard still had anger and a need for vengeance against the Borg.
4. Agreed with the above poster, Marina in this movie looks the hottest of anytime I've ever seen her.

Stuff I hated?: Really too many things, but I will mention the top 3 or.....7......

1. The Enterprise E is a fugly replacement of the beautiful Enterprise D, RIP . I particularly hated the insect like Nacelles.

2. The Borg battle lasted what, about 20 seconds? I wanted to see like 10 mins worth of a bunch of Cubes with the Federation going at it (Voyager did it on a TV Budget, why couldn't FC?)

3. Then we spend the rest of the movie half of the time with John McClane...err....Picard, and the other half with drunkie.....errr....Zefram Cochrane. I'm not a huge TOS fan although I still enjoy the series, and even I was insulted that this man was the same man shown in the TOS series.

4. I hated the time travel bit. Isn't that the lowest level of hypocrisy? They completely RUINED the first TNG movie because they couldn't have time travel in it, but then make time travel the MAIN plot device in the second movie? Why not just use time travel in the first movie and have a fight with the Borg all in the 24th century in the second movie?

 

[Orac Zen]

My only real issues with First Contact are action hero Picard (barely recognisable as the same character we saw for seven years in TNG), the way Cochrane was depicted (same name as the OS character but otherwise bearing absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to him), and the butt-ugly Enterprise-E (hideous). Otherwise it's one of the best Trek movies of the lot, IMO.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

^^

I haven't had any real opinions on ENT-E, but I like the opinions from the posters...

I actually had an idea of why Cochrane looks different from the more 'handsomer' version we see in TOS: Something about the female cloud making Cochane 'in her image'....

 

[Orac Zen]

I didn't mean the character's appearance - that goes without saying. The actual character bore no resemblance to the one we saw in TOS.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

THE GOOD
The Defiant on the big screen!

THE BAD
Needed more Defiant.

 

[knine]

Like: Only TNG movie where the answer to "how did Worf get there?" made any sense.

Dislike: Only DS9 character on the Defiant is Worf. At the very least, O'Brien should have been there. And perhaps another like Dax.

 

[FormerLurker]

I loved the credit theme for FC and INS. Two of the best credit themes Star Trek has ever had. Pretty much the two best.

 

[SilentP]

Like: Only TNG movie where the answer to "how did Worf get there?" made any sense.

Dislike: Only DS9 character on the Defiant is Worf. At the very least, O'Brien should have been there. And perhaps another like Dax.

I've wondered how it might have gone down if Sisko was in command of the Defiant instead of Worf (Worf could have been at the helm or tactical instead, so we still get the full TNG crew). Would have been interesting to see how two captains so affected by the Borg last time round clash over it when fighting on the Enterprise.

I think this may of been someone else's idea on the board, and I'm just repeating it, but you could say imagine that instead of Lily going after Picard into the briefing room. On the one hand we have Picard, obviously still suffering in his mind from what they did to him, and on the other hand, we have Sisko who has managed to overcome the scars that the Borg inflicted upon him (maybe a flashback at some point in the movie to quickly explain Sisko and his motivations, say perhaps of Wolf 359).

One could imagine an exchange between the two including something alongs the lines of:

Picard: I will make them pay for what they have done! For what they have done to me! For all those people they made me kill!

Sisko: I know, my wife was one of them.

It helps solve the problem of Picard having been turned into an action hero, since we could insert Sisko into some of the actions scenes, to balance it out between them (Picard is still the one to go down into Engineering at the end).

A conflict between the two captains earlier in the film may not work in some people's eyes, due to them apparently resolving their differences at the end of 'Emissary.'

Anyway, to the likes and dislikes.

Likes:
-Return of Barclay!

-The landing of the Vulcans

-Opening battle was quite funky

-The fear the drones instilled when we see the Enterprise crew trying to fight them.

-Music

Dislikes:
-Opening battle could have been longer.

-Machine sex, ewwwwwww!

-Something about the pacing didn't work, can't place my finger on it.

 

[TheKeeper]

I don't win many popularity contests by admitting I just don't like FC. Even more so than TVH, this is the one where I can hear Paramount bellowing "We've got to appeal to a broad audience, not just the Trekkie propeller heads!" Anyway,

Likes:
- The music is fantastic, maybe the best of all the movies.
- Lily. They could have sent Lily against the Borg Queen and wrapped up the movie in two minutes.
- First contact itself, especially the Vulcan reveal. Despite myself, I laughed at the Vulcan's reactions to "Oobie Doobie"...

Dislikes:
- The opening sequence, while visually impressive, was just too much of a horror movie cliche.
- The characterization of Cochrane as a drunken buffoon. They could have made the great Cochrane realistic and fallible without going to those lengths.
- The Borg Queen. Made no sense in the context of Locutus from TBOBW. With all due respect to Alice Krige (who has the sexiest voice in the history of the female human species, by the way), I didn't get why she was smug and imperial one moment and a petulant brat the next.

 

[bullethead]

Like:
-The music
-The Enterprise's reveal with the nebula background
-The uniforms
-The battle with the Borg, especially seeing the Defiant do what it was designed to do
-The new phaser rifles, especially those awesome EVA rifles
-The EVA scene
-Picard going back to save Data after evacuating the crew
-First Contact
-Cochrane not being the historical figure the crew knows him as

Dislike:
-The whole deal with Starfleet not trusting Picard's ability to deal with the Borg
-How short the Borg battle was
-The fact that the Borg going back in time doesn't seem as much of a last ditch move as it should
-The Queen and her whole schtick with Data
-The room Picard shows Earth to Lily in
-The explanation for why the Vulcans didn't detect the E-E
-Cochrane being a drunk for no apparent reason. A little backstory could've made it not seem so random

 

[GalaxyX]

Drunk Zefrane Cochrane was probably the worst part of the movie IMHO.

Not for one second did I believe this bum was capable of coming up with the theory of warp drive, yet alone build it with a surplus Titan Missile.

 

[DarKush]

Likes:
-Enterprise-E
-New uniforms
-Opening dream sequence
-Borg invasion of Enterprise-E
-Picard/Worf confrontation
-Picard losing it
-Lily checking Picard
-FC remembered the idea of an ensemble cast and gave everyone, including Barclay something to do, or at least some lines
-Their take on Zefram Cochrane
-Borg Queen: I didn't care for the idea of a queen, but I liked Alice Krige's performance. She was creepy and sexy and that's hard to pull off. I enjoyed her flirtation with Data.

Dislikes:
-Borg Queen; I liked the idea of a leaderless collective; it made the Borg more alien and menacing
-Borg-Starfleet battle was too short
-Killing Lt. Hawk off
-Picard's pecking Lily on the cheek; why couldn't they share a kiss? Hadn't Kirk crossed that frontier already? Outside of Vash, Lily was the most interesting potential romance for Picard. I like Crusher, but I think Vash and Lily challenged Picard in ways Crusher never did. I first saw the film in Mississippi and I can remember the audience holding their breath at the end when Picard should've kissed Lily, but instead he gave her a safe peck.
-Riker talking about humans overcoming poverty, war, etc. in only 50 years. I just thought that was so stupid and unrealistic and perhaps handicapped ENT a bit. Of course Riker did it again with the Remans, perhaps making it harder to just use the Remans as proxy soldiers during any depiction of the Earth-Romulan War. I just chalk it up to Riker being a bad history student.
-No Sisko. Even though I know it would've been hard to fit him in, man I would've loved to see him go at the Borg once again. To me, I think Picard's arc could've easily been Sisko's as well.

 

[I am not Spock]

Likes:
The Ent E
The redesigned Borg
The Defiant on the big screen!
The cast
The story
Seeing Dixon Hill again
The score
The deflector dish scene
Seeing the EMH and Neelix (kinda)
Picard as John McLane
'the line must be drawn here!' scene

Dislikes:
Not enough space battle at the beginning
Should have been more DS9 crew on the Defiant. Imagine Sisko having a confrontation with Picard about blowing the ship up! Awesome
The Queen as a concept. She was hot, sure, but the Borg were kind of defanged after they came up with her
Cochrane being played mostly for laughs
Data and the Borg Queen kissing in a tree... ewww

I had to think about my dislikes for a while. It's one of my favourite Trek films.

 

[DevilEyes]

The Borg Queen is my one big dislike about FC. I love Alice Krige in almost everything I've seen her in, but the concept of the Queen is just stupid, and made worse by the way she is portrayed as an classic villain/vamp, emotional and way too human. This goes against the very essence of what Borg is. It almost ruins the movie for me - fortunately, I like almost everything else - most of all, the fact that FC is the only TNG film that feels like a real big screen feature film, rather than an extended episode.

 

[Omega_Glory]

Dislikes:
1) I can't stand the Borg...they are as boring as toasters. Cylon robots have more character.
2) The characterization of Cochrane was ludicrous. He was already portrayed in Star Trek and that wasn't him.

As far as likes go, I thought is was just another Next Gen episode, lukewarm at best.

 

[Phantassm]

Loved the film overall but I just had problems with how Zefrem Cochrane was portrayed. "I didn't build this ship to usher in a new era for humanity. I wanted money and naked women." (Gods!) Other than that it was a well made film.