Last movie watched...

[JamesC]

The bits I liked pretty much all featured Picard. The Ahab scene, the bit where they went through the corridor full of Borg, the bit on the holodeck.
There are some horrifically embarrassing bits though - Troi's drunkenness *cringe*, Data's 'To hell with our orders' *cringe*, Worf's 'Assimilate this' *cringe*.


As others have said, I don't think TNG did very well with it's cinematic outings which is a shame.
I recently read a TNG novel (50p bargain from a village fete) called 'The Forgotten War' which might have made a good film. It was pretty entertaining, featured some decent aliens and had a sort of crossover with the federation from pre-original series era.

[Professor Bear]

See, that's the problem - it's full of good bits (which is why I still watch it) and great performances (Cochrane and Lilly are very good, the crew mostly do a good turn each), they're just embedded in an awful inconsistent mess of a thing.

I remember thinking on first viewing that Picard's PTSD - much like the Borg Queen - felt a bit out of nowhere - they even did an episode of the show telling the audience that Picard was totes over his trauma now and in true Trek fashion it was never mentioned again.
I also didn't understand why the crew could walk through that corridor full of Borg without being attacked when the Borg were actively trying to assimilate the ship and crew at the time.  And how can the Borg be poncing about in space without spacesuits if - and this is brought up by the film itself as a major plot point - their organic components are vulnerable to harsh environmental conditions? 

[JamesC]

See, that's the problem - it's full of good bits (which is why I still watch it) and great performances (Cochrane and Lilly are very good, the crew mostly do a good turn each), they're just embedded in an awful inconsistent mess of a thing.

   And how can the Borg be poncing about in space without spacesuits if - and this is brought up by the film itself as a major plot point - their organic components are vulnerable to harsh environmental conditions?

There's lots of stuff that the film doesn't explain.
Apparently the Enterprise E can travel through time at will too - no sling-shoting around the sun for them!
(They modify the warp signature to mimic the tachyon pulse of the Borg sphere or something).

[TordelBack]

Ah here, Deanna's drunk schtick is about the cutest thing ever. I'd watch a whole movie of just "Timeline? This is no time... to argue about time! We don't... have... the time!". Adorable.

As a director Frakes knows how to get the best out of his variably-skilled mates, and he shoots a good tense action scene... but the flaws are really deep in the plot and random recharacterisations (Picard as violent action hero?). In this way he's not unlike Nimoy on ST:IV, just cursed with even worse baloney to work with.

[Dandontdare]

I love FC - easily the best after Khan/Search for Spock, which I consider one movie in 2 parts. The only bit I dislike is emotional Data. Would've liked a bit more on post-war pre-warp Earth, but I didn't find Picard's PTSD or friendship with Data at all out of place. Every other TNG film sucks, with exception of the hybrid Generations.

[Theblazeuk]

As a kid, I enjoyed FC much more because I wasn't all that familiar with TNG beyond the basics. I think familiarity with the series and its emphasis on diplomacy (and the continuity of Data/Picard/etc mentioned here) breeds flaws.

Generations was boring though :/

On this note: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ChZ_KFY9PM is amazing.

[Tiplodocus]

I think Picard is on about the right level of action hero for dealing with Borg in First Contact.  It's not like the Die-Hard version of Picard you see in Insurrection and Nemesis; he has been deeply affected by the Borg, his ship and his friends are in peril and the whole future of humanity is in jeopardy.  That'd make you stop listening to Bizet (or is it Berlioz) and look up from your archaeological artifacts.

And I always sort of assumed that Picard became much closer the the rest of the bridge crew after "All Good Things".  The last line is "I should have done this a long time a go" if I recall.  So I never saw it as Data suddenly being his bestie, I just thought he'd do that for any of the bridge crew (especially as they had risked everything to rescue him when roles were reversed).

But yeah, I love it, so I'm biased.

(And oh, that score is fabulous!)

[Michael Knight]

the score is majestic right enough was thinking that myself during this debate about next gen movies 

[TordelBack]

Oh yeah, the score is terrific, especially the stompy stuff.  I didn't mean to give the impression that I don't enjoy First Contact, I really do, I just think it's an unholy mess.

[Mardroid]

I really liked First Contact. Then again, I'm not particularly a fan of The Next Generation series although I like certain episodes and storylines and generally Star Trek as a whole.

And the Borg in this film were really kinda scary.

I can understand people's dislike of introducing the Borg Queen as she kind of contradicts the concept of the Borg being a gestalt intelligence. On the other hand I thought her a great character, and there is a certain logic to having a single intelligence to guide the rest. Ultimately she was not so much a contradiction as just something not discovered before, anyway. There are a lot of Borg cubes with thousands (or is it millions, or even billions) of drones, and only one queen.

[Professor Bear]

Weren't there at least two different queens in Voyager?

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

Tom Paris and Harry Kim?

[ZenArcade]

Lol Mr Pops. I agree the queen took away from the concept of a distributed collective intelligence. One of my favourite concepts. Z

[TordelBack]

Weren't there at least two different queens in Voyager?

Given that the Queen's brain and spine were revealed to be entirely artificial, it seems like she can instantiate in a body whenever and wherever she wants, her 'being' emerging from the Collective she steers. Or something.

[Mardroid]

Weren't there at least two different queens in Voyager?

I only remember one but I didn't see the queen related episodes. At least not all the way through.

Or do you mean the queen in Voyager makes two if you include the one from First Contact?

I meant that there is only one queen end at a given time, [spoiler]since the one from First Contact was dead at that point. I assumed when she died another was triggered from a collection somewhere.
[/spoiler]

Given that the Queen's brain and spine were revealed to be entirely artificial, it seems like she can instantiate in a body whenever and wherever she wants, her 'being' emerging from the Collective she steers. Or something.

So it is the same person from a personality/memory point of view?

Interesting.