A Brief Guide to Star Trek

‘Cause and Effect’ (and would go on to direct
Deep Space Nine
and
Voyager
episodes, as well as appearing in the series finale of
Enterprise
).
    The loss of the
Enterprise-D
in
Generations
necessitated the creation of a new, more streamlined ship for use in
First Contact
and future movies. Long-time
Star Trek
production designer Herman Zimmerman came up with the new, sleek movie
Enterprise
, while the Borg were redesigned to stand up to the greater scrutiny they’d be under on giant movie screens. After Paramount executives criticised early drafts of the script (under the title
Star Trek Resurrection
) for making the Borg come across as little more than space zombies, a leader was created, in the style of the assimilated-Picard Locutus of Borg, seen in the Borg’s best-known TV appearance ‘The Best of Both Worlds’. The Borg Queen would be a figurehead for the collective, as well as an audience identification point and a Borg with whom the crew of the
Enterprise
could communicate, allowing for clear and simple exposition of major plot points that might otherwise be difficult to get across.
    Like
The Wrath of Khan
before it,
First Contact
drew its central character from an episode of
The Original Series
. Zefram Cochrane had been played by Glenn Corbett in the episode ‘Metamorphosis’, discovered by Kirk on an isolated asteroid after having been missing for 150 years. Cochrane was an important figure in the creation of the Federation as the inventor of the first warp-capable ship, the
Phoenix
. In the episode, Cochrane’s youth has been maintained by a female alien ‘companion’ creature. The movie would explore Cochrane’screation of the pivotal warp drive technology, and his encounter with Picard’s
Enterprise
crew and the Borg. Although Tom Hanks – a well-known
Star Trek
fan in Hollywood – had expressed interest in playing the role, he wasn’t available due to directorial commitments, so the part went to acclaimed actor James Cromwell. Oscar-nominated for
Babe
in 1995, Cromwell was a
Star Trek
veteran, having previously appeared in two episodes of
The Next Generation
and in an instalment of
Deep Space Nine
, two out of the three times under heavy alien makeup. Cromwell would play the part of Cochrane once again in the pilot episode of
Enterprise
, ‘Broken Bow’.
    The action-oriented role of Lily Sloane, a twenty-first-century woman working with Cochrane who battles the Borg on the
Enterprise
alongside Picard, went to actress Alfre Woodard, another Oscar nominee. South African-born Alice Krige filled the challenging role of the Borg Queen, who kidnaps and tries to convert Data to the Borg point of view. Krige would reprise the role on
Voyager
’s series finale ‘Endgame’. Comic relief was provided by the character of Barclay, a clumsy, fearful
Enterprise
crewmember played by
The A-Team
’s Dwight Schultz, and Robert Picardo as an alternate version of
Voyager
’s Emergency Medical Hologram.
Voyager
’s Ethan Phillips also appeared in the movie in a small, uncredited role.
    Just as
The Wrath of Khan
was a more accessible and enjoyable
Star Trek
adventure than
The Motion Picture
, so
First Contact
was an easier, more straightforward adventure for a non-
Star Trek
fan audience to connect with. The film cost about $10 million more than
Generations
at $45 million, but took $92 million at the US box office, a sum well in excess of
Generations
’ $75-million US take.
First Contact
pulled in an additional $57.5 million worldwide, and scored a $30.7-million US opening weekend, taking the number one spot in the top ten. The reviews were widely positive, with Roger Ebert leading the charge: ‘One of the best of the eight
Star Trek
films’, he wrote in the
Chicago Sun-Times
. ‘
Star Trek
movies are not so much about action and effects as they are about ideas and dialogue. I doubted theoriginal
Enterprise
crew would ever retire because I didn’t think they could stop talking long enough . . . [Director Frakes] achieves great energy and clarity. In all of the shuffling of time-lines and plotlines, I always knew where we were.
Star Trek
movies in the past have occasionally gone where no movie had gone, or wanted to go, before. This one is on the right beam.’ Writing in the
Los Angeles Times
, critic Kenneth Turan felt that
First Contact
‘does everything you want a
Star Trek
film to do, and it does it with cheerfulness and style’. James Berardinelli, of website ReelViews, wrote that the