Hey, it’s time to check in with our old friends from Star Trek: The Next Generation! Watch Picard as he freaks out over the Borg for some reason! Watch Zefram Cochrane as he invents warp drive with no materials or staff in the middle of a mining camp in post-war Montana! Listen as Trekabout’s affection for TNG slowly dies!
Trekabout Episode 197: Star Trek: First Contact
Lev
-Very good show! Lots of good points in here, particularly enjoyed the discussions of the Borg Queen and the franchise’s rather shoddy continuity on what was meant to have happened in the 21st Century. I do have more use for the Data temptation subplot than I think you do: if you happen to think the emotion chip was an irredeemable mistake (and that’s not unreasonable) then I can see dismissing it, but it’s the only time they really try to do anything with it–the next two TNG movies show them moving steadily away from the concept altogether. And it’s a different sort of tension playing on Data than we’ve seen before. I think the major problem here is (as always) the Descent episode–without that, it may have had more juice, but we’ve already seen this basic story with Data and emotions and him ultimately choosing the right path. Done better here but…
I will disagree a bit about the Picard stuff. I always read the scream in the holodeck as one of pain, and the important detail to note is that he emits it while approaching the Borg drones. I’m not an expert in the field of killing–my wife, who is a genocide scholar, legitimately is–but I have read some of the pertinent literature, and the general rule of thumb is that killing is (for nearly all humans) deeply traumatic, moreso the physically closer you get to the victim, especially if you’re facing them (see On Killing, Grossman). I actually think Picard’s arc is a reasonably well-observed story about the cycle of violence: while his trauma about his prior experience with the Borg drives him (I think it’s no mistake that after Picard says to kill assimilated Enterprise crew members, we cut to a reaction shot of Worf and Data, whom we know of course rescued him from all that), it’s his actions that drive the cycle. Picard isn’t someone we’ve seen personally kill like that a lot. Worf, sure. Even Beverly phasered a guy once. But it’s hard to think offhand of when Picard killed at close quarters. So between when he shoots the crew member in the process of assimilation, to the holodeck scene, to when he’s so wracked with trauma that he really can’t think of anything but killing the Borg by the end (when even Worf of all people says it’s time to pack it in), it’s all showing a clear escalation that jives with what science tells us happens in these situations. (My wife would point out that a major reason why people become killing machines is in large part to try to dilute the heavy traumatic cost of the first kill–genocide perpetrators are aware of this and use it to their advantage, as in Rwanda, where they force a person to kill the first time and then they own them.) Some people argue this is out of character, but Picard is a human, and his reactions to the trauma of killing fit well within how humans tend to react to the act, so I’d argue it is quite within character.
Needless to say, this is all quite dark for a Next Generation movie, though Picard does choose to break the cycle and to do the right thing, which is plenty “Star Trek-y” I think. I chalk it up to Ron Moore’s intermediary tenure on DS9, where this sort of thing was not all that uncommon. But I suspect this sensibility is why Moore and Braga weren’t asked back to write the next movie.
Eric Brasure
-Good observations! I think there is some good Trek-y stuff in First Contact, but of course, it’s hampered by having to be “actiony”. If you contrast it with Star Trek IV, for example, that movie was able to tell the kind of story Star Trek does very well without devolving into villains and action.
Insurrection should be very interesting when we get to it (between DS9 and Voyager) because I remember liking it quite a bit but it has a reputation of being a mess. Also I believe it was the last Trek Michael Piller ever worked on.
Seth
-I can’t find any way to defend Picard’s Rambo scream in the holodeck, or really much of this movie. It’s basically fun, but so much of it doesn’t make any sense. For all the crap some Trekkers give the JJ movies for not being very Trekky, I think they’re forgetting the TNG movies started that trend.
Maybe I’ll watch Voyager to see how the Borg Queen story continues. (I’m watching DS9 for the first time because of you jerks. Not sure if I’ll be able to pull the trigger on Voyager. But then I’d miss my Tuesday Trekabout Walkabout. I seriously put the episode on and go for a long walk around my workplace. So thanks for the ergonomics break.)
Eric Brasure
-You totally should keep going with us for Voyager! It’s not as good as TNG or DS9 as far as 90s Trek goes, but it’s surprisingly good if you watch it in the right context.
Seth
-Hey BTW your TNG archive links are all resolving to this URL for me:
http://trekaboutshow.mystagingwebsite.com/trekabout-episode-166-playing-godprofit-and-loss/?category=TNG%20Season%206
No workee.
Eric Brasure
-Hey Seth, yeah, I need to get to fixing that… all the TNG podcasts are categorized, so you should be able to find them that way, also, the search works really well.
David
-I definitely liked this movie a lot when it came out, I think it was probably down to just being really happy to see the characters again, and that it seemed much better put together than Generations. The action stuff was also fun on the big screen (kind of JJ-style like Richard said)… but yeah, watching it more recently, none of it holds up that well. And I kind of hate the Borg stuff now for where it leads in Voyager. I feel like this movie starts a visual shift into excessive green lighting and “horror movie”-esque drones/assimilation, when I found the more dull/gray/robotic TNG Borg much creepier. And the Queen kind of ruins the whole premise for me a bit too, she’s like a walking talking “emotion chip”…
Also, your bit about them wanting to do “Die Hard on the Enterprise” is even weirder given they had already done that (and much better) with the episode where Picard goes back to get his saddle during the bio sweep thing.
Eric Brasure
-Yeah, First Contact for me is one of those movies that just has not aged well as all, especially as I’ve really grown to appreciate what TNG was doing.
Jonas
-None of the TNG films really feel like they share the values of TNG. This one is the best of the lot, in my opinion, but it’s still a thoroughly different animal. It almost feels like fan fiction, or a soft reboot.
Trekabout Episode 237: Star Trek: Insurrection – Trekabout: A Star Trek Podcast
-[…] the wildly-successful but maybe not wildly-good Star Trek: First Contact, the Next Generation crew returns in Star Trek: Insurrection. Telling a very classic morality play […]