3 things that worked and 3 things we wish we could’ve seen in Star Trek: First Contact

It’s the 25th birthday for Star Trek: First Contact.

Star Trek: First Contact is arguably the best film in the Trek filmography. Sure, you could argue between this and Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan but keep in mind that those are the only two films you’re going to be arguing between.

First Contact has lasted as long as it had in the Star Trek zeitgeist because at its core, it’s a timeless story. It’s not based on any modern point of view or any type of timely topic, it’s focused on the one thing that will always stay consistent; history. It’s the historical story of Star Trek; where it all began. It is one of the more obvious reasons that 25 years later that we’re still talking about it.

It’s also really freaking good, too. It tells the story of Zefram Cochrane’s first warp-flight, and the subsequent first encounter with another alien race, The Vulcans. It was the meeting between humanity and the Vulcans that spurred forward The United Federation of Planets and Starfleet as a whole. Without the Cochrane’s first warp flight, there’s no telling where the Alpha Quadrant would be all those years later.

It wasn’t just the meeting between humanity and the Vulcans that defined the story, it was the emotional journey of Jean-Luc Picard dealing with the post-traumatic stress disorder that had been haunting him since his time being assimilated into the Borg collective.

Both stories were beautifully told and both stories did a great job embracing past events in the canon and bringing them to a satisfying conclusion.