Star Trek: First Contact is a great movie but it does have its issues.
First Contact Day is here and it’s all thanks to Star Trek: First Contact, the film. The film is a major piece of Star Trek’s cannon and has done a lot to not only establish the lore but make casuals into fanatics. It’s one of the best films that Star Trek has ever made and remains a film that many love to this day.
Yet, like all forms of entertainment, it isn’t perfect.
So on this First Contact Day, we’re going to play a little bit of a Devils’ Advocate role. The film is my personal favorite and I consider it as perfect as a film can be. Yet, I did find five things that make this film a bit much, and we’re going to talk about them.
Five things that didn’t work so well in Star Trek: First Contact
Data and The Queen
Basically, the introduction of the Queen has set some fans off, as the Borg were supposed to be a collective of one thought and mine, yet the Queen trumps that theory. They’ve tried to make it make sense, but it never really has. Yet, she’s a cool enough character you can look the other way. Yet, when she and Data started to, for lack of a better term, get it on; yeesh. Data was in bits and pieces and The Queen looked like a zombie ant-queen.
Zefram Cochrane being a drunk
I loved this Zefram Cochrane. I loved his drunkenness because it’s very real. Very authentic. Yet, Cochrane appeared as a young, bright-eyed, and bushy-tailed character in the Original Series. This version of Cochrane, while highly entertaining, upsets the timeline a bit as this isn’t how he was originally portrayed. Maybe there was a lot more time intended between the youthful Cochrane of the Original Series and the First Contact version but still, it causes too many questions.
Geordi La Forge breaking protocol and telling Cochrane about the future
There’s a scene in the movie where Geordi La Forge breaks all the rules and tells Cochrane about his own future. A scene that really works, the issue with the scene is that it’s entirely un-Geordi-like. Reg Barclay was right there, and he’s far more prone to break the rules and cause issues, so why they made Geordi be the one who causes Cochrane to snap is a bit of a mystery.
Worf’s suit popping a hole
The Borg cut a hole in Worf’s spacesuit in the vacuum of space. It takes him well over a minute to seal it with string from a dead Borg drone. Shouldn’t he have died? Yes, he’s a Klingon, but space is far colder than even a Klingon can survive.
Where was Guinan?
For someone who knew so much about The Borg, time travel, and Federation history; you’d think she’d be the perfect fit for this film. She would’ve added some intrigue to the film for sure, but maybe they didn’t like the idea of her powers and how they’d play with the overall tone of the film.