Nerds That Geek Movie Review - 'Star Trek: First Contact'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

‘Watch your future's end.’  
- The Borg Queen

There are few things more satisfying in this life than seeing a wrong corrected in some form for fashion. That sense of justice is something we can all partake in. Whether it be seeing a terrible criminal placed behind bars or something as simple as being able to say what's on your mind, we all strive to see things set right.  

Yet there are times when this simple gesture can be taken too far, when the desire for justice consumes you and turns into nothing more than petty vengeance. What began with giving someone a piece of your mind has now become a quest to end them and see them suffer in an incredible way. The duality of man is always a fascinating aspect of science fiction and it is joined by vengeance on the center stage in the incredible Star Trek: First Contact. 

In the depths of space, there is a race of beings devoid of emotion, of identity and remorse. They absorb species they deem worthy and once these creatures known as the Borg came for humanity using Captain Jean-Luc Picard as a pawn. But their pawn became their downfall and they returned to the void of space. Now, they have returned with a new plan to dominate the Federation by robbing it of its past and Picard is charged with once more facing the monsters that haunt his nightmares.  

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​By far First Contact is the cream of the crop of The Next Generation films, and with good reason. Plenty of action and adventure, a great villain and one of Patrick Stewart's best performances as Jean-Luc Picard. In fact, despite the scope of the story, Picard remains the focus and what a journey we go on with him. We see how haunted he still is by his experience with the Borg as Locutus and we see for the first time, fear from Picard.  

After all, this is a man who knows what these creatures are capable of and he knows that at some point they may be invincible. But it is that slow boiling vengeance that is new for Picard's character. To watch him go from the cool and collected commander of the Enterprise to a man hell bent on killing every Borg drone he sees with his bare hands if necessary is impressive to say the least. Yet, at no point in the film can you blame him. The Borg are brutal in this picture, specifically their leader the Queen, a controversial character but handled well in the film and played in chilling fashion by Alice Krige. 

But despite Picard's near descent into madness the film does a good job of giving Jean-Luc closure in his vendetta, giving us that sense of justice and it does a wonderful job of washing away the dark recesses of Generations with that closing image of man meeting Vulcans for the first time, hinting that everything is about to change for the better and that's what makes First Contact such an incredible ride, we see Picard pick himself up and defeat the greatest villain he has ever faced, not the Borg, but that ugly place inside all of us where vengeance acts as the collective itself and consumes us body and soul. 

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