Star Trek: First Contact
For my money, Star Trek: First Contact is the best film in the entire franchise but unsurprisingly it contains elements that make it one heck of a holiday rump around Christmas time. It’s the climax of the Jean-Luc Picard and Borg saga, which sees Picard engage his deadliest threat one last time.
The ship and crew end up going back in time to the point where the first warp flight test was taken place; an event that would catch the attention of the Vulcans and bring them to Earth to interact with humanity in the first known First Contact event.
We’ve written about this movie quite a bit so we’ll leave the details of the movie to one of the dozen other articles. Instead, we want to break down the reasons we have for saying this film works as a Christmas movie, which we can do in the form of gifts.
The first gift is of knowledge, as in the knowledge that Lilly gets to see during her time on the Enterprise. A fish out of water, Lilly sees immense horrors but also incredible wonders and it gives her an optimism of the future, one that she’s envious of Jean-Luc getting to see after they leave.
The second gift comes in the form of Jean-Luc himself, who after eight years, finally is able to let go of his hatred for the Borg that has been consuming his life. He lets go of the rage and in doing so heals in a way that battling them could never truly fill. He’s finally at peace.
The third gift was one of hope, given to the survivors of Earth after the Third World War by the Vulcans. In Star Trek lore the arrival of the Vulcans always launched humanity onto a better and more righteous path. One that may not have been achieved without their help.