Star Trek: First Contact is a 1996 American science fiction film directed by Jonathan Frakes in his feature film debut. It is the eighth movie of the Star Trek franchise, and the second starring the cast of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. In the film, the crew of the starship USS Enterprise-E travel back in time from the 24th century to the 21st century to stop the Borg, a cybernetic alien group, from conquering Earth by changing the past.
After the release of Star Trek Generations in 1994, Paramount Pictures tasked writers Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore with developing the next film in the series. Braga and Moore wanted to feature the Borg in the plot, while producer Rick Berman wanted a story involving time travel. The writers combined the two ideas; they initially set the film in Renaissance Italy, but changed the time period that the Borg corrupted to the mid-21st century, after fearing the Renaissance idea would feel kitschy. After two better-known directors turned down the job, cast member Jonathan Frakes was chosen to direct to make sure the task fell to someone who understood Star Trek.
The film's script required the creation of new starship designs, including a new USS Enterprise. Production designer Herman Zimmerman and illustrator John Eaves collaborated to make a sleeker ship than its predecessor. Principal photography began with weeks of location shooting in Arizona and California, before production moved to new sets for the ship-based scenes. The Borg were redesigned to appear as though they were converted into machine beings from the inside-out; the new makeup sessions took four times as long as their appearances on the television series. Effects company Industrial Light & Magic rushed to complete the film's special effects in less than five months. Traditional optical effects techniques were supplemented with computer-generated imagery. Jerry Goldsmith composed the film's score.
Star Trek: First Contact was released on November 22, 1996, and was the highest-grossing film on its opening weekend. It grossed a worldwide total of $146 million. Critical reception was mostly positive; critics including Roger Ebert considered it to be one of the best Star Trek films. The Borg and the special effects were lauded, while characterization was less evenly received. Scholarly analysis of the film has focused on Captain Jean-Luc Picard's parallels to Herman Melville's Ahab and the nature of the Borg. First Contact was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Makeup, and won three Saturn Awards. It was followed by Star Trek: Insurrection in 1998.
Plot
In the 24th century, Captain Jean-Luc Picard awakens from a nightmare in which he relives his assimilation by the cybernetic Borg six years earlier. He is contacted by Starfleet, who inform him of a new Borg threat against Earth. Concerned that Picard is too emotionally involved with the Borg, Starfleet orders the to patrol the Neutral Zone in case of Romulan aggression.
During their patrol, the Enterprise learns that the fleet is losing the battle against the Borg. Picard and his crew disobey orders and head for Earth, where a single Borg Cube ship holds its own against a group of Starfleet vessels. Enterprise arrives in time to assist the crew of the and its commander, the Klingon Worf. Picard takes command of the fleet and directs the surviving ships to concentrate their firepower on a seemingly unimportant point on the Borg ship. The Cube launches a smaller spherical ship towards Earth before being destroyed. Enterprise pursues the sphere into a temporal vortex. As the sphere disappears, Enterprise discovers Earth has been altered—Borg now populate it. Realizing the Borg have used time travel to change the past, Enterprise follows the sphere through the vortex.
Enterprise arrives hundreds of years in the past on April 4, 2063, the day before the historic warp drive flight that leads to humanity's first encounter with alien life. The crew surmise that the Borg are trying to prevent first contact and assimilate humanity while the planet is recovering from World War III. After destroying the Borg sphere, an away team transports down to Zefram Cochrane's warp ship, Phoenix, in Bozeman, Montana. Beverly Crusher and Cochrane's assistant Lily Sloane return to the Enterprise to treat her radiation sickness. Picard and Data also return to the ship after suspecting the Borg have survived their sphere's destruction, leaving Commander William T. Riker on Earth to make sure Phoenixs flight proceeds as planned. While in the future Cochrane is seen as a hero, in reality he built the Phoenix for financial gain and is reluctant to be the historic figure the crew describes.
A group of Borg invade Enterprises lower decks, assimilating some of the crew and modifying the ship. Picard and a team attempt to reach engineering to disable the Borg with a corrosive gas, but are forced back; the android Data is captured in the melee. A frightened Lily corners Picard with a weapon, but he gains her trust. The two escape the Borg-infested area of the ship by creating a diversion in the holodeck. Picard, Worf, and the ship's navigator, Lieutenant Hawk, travel outside the ship in space suits to stop the Borg from using the navigational deflector to call for reinforcements, but Hawk is assimilated in the process. As the Borg assimilate more decks, Worf suggests destroying the ship, but Picard angrily calls him a coward. Lily confronts the captain and makes him realize he is acting irrationally because of his past with the Borg. Picard apologizes to Worf and orders the activation of the ship's self-destruct and evacuation of the crew to escape pods, while he stays behind to rescue Data.
As Cochrane, Riker, and engineer Geordi La Forge prepare to activate the warp drive on Phoenix, Picard discovers that the Borg Queen has grafted human skin onto Data, giving him the sensation of touch he has long desired so that she can obtain the android's encryption codes to the Enterprise computer. Although Picard offers himself to the Borg in exchange for Data's freedom, Data refuses to leave, deactivates the self-destruct, and fires torpedoes at Phoenix. At the last moment, the torpedoes miss, and the Queen discovers that Data has deceived her. The android ruptures a coolant tank, and the corrosive vapor eats away the biological components of the Borg and Data's new skin.
With the Borg threat neutralized, Cochrane completes his warp flight. Later that night, the crew watches from a distance as an alien Vulcan ship, attracted by the Phoenix warp test, lands on Earth. Cochrane greets the aliens. Having ensured the correction of the timeline, Picard bids Lily farewell, and the Enterprise crew slips away and returns to the 24th century.
Cast First Contact is the first film in the Star Trek film series in which none of the main characters from The Original Series appear. Rather, the main cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation play the following characters: Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard, the captain of the USS Enterprise-E who is haunted by his time as a member of the Borg. Stewart was one of the few cast members who had an important role in developing the script, offering suggestions and comments. Picard's character was changed from the "angst-ridden character [viewers have] seen before", to an action hero type. Stewart noted that Picard was more physically active in the film compared to his usual depiction. Jonathan Frakes as William T. Riker, the ship's first officer who leads the away team on Earth. Frakes said he did not have much difficulty directing and acting at the same time, having done so on the television series. Brent Spiner as Data, an android and the ship's second officer, whose ambition is to become more human. Rumors before the film's release suggested that since Data's skin had been largely removed at the end of the story, it would allow another actor to assume the role. LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge, the ship's chief engineer who helps repair the Phoenix. La Forge was blind, and had been depicted wearing a special VISOR to see. Burton had lobbied for the VISOR to be discarded, since it hid his eyes and restricted the actor's ability to convey thoughts and emotions. The VISOR was replaced in First Contact by ocular implants, which were shown to be artificial but otherwise unexplained. Michael Dorn as Worf, the commander of the USS Defiant and Picard's former chief of security. Gates McFadden as Beverly Crusher, the ship's doctor. In an interview before the film's premiere, McFadden said she considered women finally on par with the men in Star Trek: "We've come a long way since Majel Barrett was stuck in the sick bay as Nurse Chapel in the [1960s] and made to dye her hair blond." Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi, counselor aboard the Enterprise. Sirtis missed working on the television show, and was acutely aware that expectations and stakes for First Contact were high; "we were scared that people thought we couldn't cut it without the original cast", she said. Alfre Woodard as Lily Sloane, Cochrane's assistant. Woodard was one of the first people Frakes met when he moved to Los Angeles. During a conversation at a barbecue Woodard said she would become Frakes' godmother, as he did not have one. Through this relationship, Frakes was able to cast Woodard in the film; he considered it a coup to land an Academy Award-nominated actress. Woodard considered Lily to be the character most like herself out of all the roles she had played. James Cromwell as Zefram Cochrane, the pilot and creator of Earth's first warp-capable vessel. The character of Zefram Cochrane had first appeared in The Original Series episode "Metamorphosis", played by Glenn Corbett. Cromwell's Cochrane is much older and has no resemblance to Corbett, which did not bother the writers. They wanted to portray Cochrane as a character going through a major transition; he starts out as a cynical, selfish drunk who is changed by the characters he meets over the course of the film. Although the character was written with Cromwell in mind, Tom Hanks, a big fan of Star Trek, was floated for the role by Paramount, though producer Rick Berman said it was never a serious consideration. Frakes commented that it would have been a mistake to cast Hanks due to his being so well known. Cromwell had a long previous association with Star Trek, having played characters in The Next Generation episodes "The Hunted" and "Birthright", as well as a role in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Cromwell described his method of portraying Cochrane as always playing himself. Part of the actor's interest in the film was his involvement in Steven M. Greer's Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence, which offers training for first-contact scenarios. Alice Krige as the Borg Queen, the controller of the cybernetic collective. Casting for the part took time as the actress needed to be sexy, dangerous, and mysterious. Frakes cast Krige after finding that she had all of the mentioned qualities, and being impressed by her performance in Ghost Story. Krige suffered a large amount of discomfort filming her role; her tight costume caused blisters, and the painful silver contact lenses she wore could only be kept in for four minutes at a time.
Some of The Next Generations recurring characters also appeared in the film; Dwight Schultz reprised his role of Lieutenant Reginald Barclay and Patti Yasutake briefly appeared as Nurse Alyssa Ogawa. Whoopi Goldberg was not asked to return as Guinan, a wise bartender whose homeworld was destroyed by the Borg. Goldberg only learned about the decision through the newspapers. "What can I say? I wanted to do it because I didn't think you could do anything about the Borg without [my character]", she said, "but apparently you can, so they don't need me."