First Contact is a fantastic acting showcase for Stewart, who spends much of the movie paired with Alfre Woodard as Cochrane’s associate Lily Sloane. High-stakes adventure is what’s come to define modern Star Trek, but it still feels fresh in First Contact, both for the future of humanity and for the lives of the individual characters. In the aftermath of a Borg attack, Enterprise crew members must help engineer Zefram Cochrane (James Cromwell) launch his ship and keep his rendezvous with history.ĭata is held captive by the Borg Queen.

They end up in 2063, on the day before humanity is set to make first contact with the Vulcans. The Enterprise follows, determined to stop the Borg from rewriting history.

Once there, the Enterprise discovers the Borg have made a desperate effort to avoid defeat by sending a ship back in time to assimilate Earth’s population.

Of course, Picard disobeys orders and heads for Earth. There’s real anguish on the faces of Picard and his crew as they listen to transmissions from outmatched Starfleet vessels. Picard’s abduction still haunts him, so when the cybernetic aliens mount a new attack on the Federation, he’s furious that the Enterprise is ordered to stay out of the action. Like another excellent Star Trek movie, 1982’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, First Contact builds on plot elements from a TV episode, opening with a flashback to the time Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) spent assimilated by the Borg collective. The Borg have become a bit less threatening in their subsequent appearances on Picard, but in First Contact they’re terrifying, the closest that a Star Trek alien race has ever been to horror-movie monsters. It’s the best movie to feature the Next Generation cast, balancing character development with an epic battle against a formidable enemy. Star Trek: First Contact, which just hit HBO Max, still holds up as a franchise high point, and its themes and narrative threads have resonated through recent episodes of Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Lower Decks. Released in 1996, it’s the second big-screen adventure for the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, firmly establishing that Star Trek can thrive on the silver screen without the stars of the original series, and setting the subsequent course for both the Abrams movies and the current Star Trek streaming shows. An action-filled Star Trek movie opens at the top of the box office and receives praise from critics, reaching an audience beyond devoted Star Trek fans and delivering an effects-driven spectacle.

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