by Billy Russell, Staff Writer

When it comes to Star Trek, there’s always going to be a friendly debate as to what the best series is. Some folks prefer The Original Series, with campy 60s flair, Captain Kirk throwing caution to the wind and the eternal wisdom of Mr. Spock. Others, like me, prefer The Next Generation, with Captain Picard standing for a more mature Starfleet, one that values decision-making and compassion over quick violence. 

The Next Generation, to me, embodied everything I always wanted the real world to strive for. In it, Earth has succeeded in accomplishing World Peace. There is no poverty. There is no racism. And war is a thing of the past--although intergalactic war is often a threat, humanity itself has moved long past that. Because there is no poverty, every member of senior leadership aboard the Enterprise-D is motivated by something else, something bigger than them, to be the best. Picard, Riker, Troi, Worf, Data, Dr. Crusher, Geordi–when something impossible happens, they gather together and intelligently discuss the situation before moving forward. “Thoughts?” Picard asks and one by one, they use their speciality to dissect the situation and resolve the plot for the week. 

Whichever series you prefer is up for debate, and there is no winner. Although, sadly, when it comes to the Star Trek movies, there is no debate: The Original Series crew got the better stories. Wrath of Khan is a stone-cold classic–one of the best sci-fi films of any franchise. The Voyage Home is a genuinely funny comedy. The Undiscovered Country is so good that people often debate if it’s better than Wrath of Khan (it’s not, but it’s damn good). The crew of the Enterprise-D was, sadly, saddled with some lackluster storylines and takes some detours through Cheese Country. For all the ire The Final Frontier gets, it’s got nothing on Nemesis, which is bottom-of-the-barrel Trek. 

The crew of The Next Generation, though, did get one title worthy of them, and that was First Contact. 

This has been true of Star Trek since 1979, but the films seem to have their own canon separate from the show. The movies are just a little faster, a lot more action-packed and some character traits contradict some firmly established guidelines. For instance, Picard once had the opportunity to commit genocide against a villainous alien race called the Borg, but he decided against it and allowed his morality to shine through. In First Contact, he has no patience for that bullshit. The Borg once turned him into one of them, and he’ll be goddamned to let them get away with it. He goes on a rampage. He screams. He smashes things. He acts very un-Picard. But you know what? When you’re having a good time with a movie, you can let things like this slide. It’s only when a movie goes against the grain and fails is when it becomes a problem. 

In First Contact, the Borg travel back in time to stop humanity’s first contact with the Vulcans and assimilate them instead. Sort of like a Terminator move where they eliminate their threat before they learn to become powerful. The Borg are a hivemind-controlled species, technological beings that absorb organic life and convert them into their collective. “First Contact” in Trek lore is an important part of their history. It’s when humanity was presented with the vastness of the universe and all the possibilities held and told, under to uncertain terms, that in order to realize these possibilities, they would have to do away with the bullshit of their past. No more war, no more greed, no more poverty. To join other species capable of reaching warp speed (faster than light travel) they’d have to act like fucking grown-ups. 

First Contact feels like a marriage between the action-packed spectacle of Wrath of Khan and the comedic time travel shenanigans of The Voyage Home and it works. Jonathan Frakes, like Leonard Nimoy before him, does a good job behind the helm as director and allows the entire cast of the show to shine. This was their first solo outing, with Generations before it, sharing the spotlight with the crew of the Original Series. 

First Contact also feels like an exciting venture, where they were to boldly go on their own adventures, and it’s such a shame that it didn’t quite work out that way. Whereas I feel Captain Kirk and his crew really came into their own on the big screen, I feel that Picard and his crew had a place on the small screen, week after week. Star Trek: The Next Generation had many episodes where the stakes were extremely low and just gave us a chance to get to know and hang out with its characters, which unfortunately doesn’t lend itself well to filmic storytelling outside of low-budget arthouse. First Contact, though, as a popcorn movie, can’t be beaten. It’s a ton of fun and holds up after all this time.