First Contact nitpicks upon rewatch...

1. Picard says Starfleet has every confidence in the Enterprise, just not her captain. But it's also the best ship in the fleet. And Starfleet is about to go up against the freakin' Borg. Why not just put Riker in charge?

2. Before the crew actually realizes what the Borg are doing, Crusher is startled by them pounding on the door to sickbay. But since nobody's had a chance to realize what's going on yet, wouldn't the door have just opened automatically, letting the drones waltz on in?

There are lots of plot holes.

If the Borg can go back in time to assimilate earth, why bother with the space battle in Sector 001 where the Enterprise follows them back - why not travel back from some other location without alerting Starfleet?

The Borgs orbital bombardment is laughably non-destructive. Each of those blasts seems to be about as effective as a hand grenade.

Why doesn't the Enterprise crew use tommy guns against the Borg generally? They seem to work fine in the holodeck.

And others. Still a good movie.

Though for some reason First Contact seems to be regarded as the "good TNG" movie I've never understood it.

Things I hated:

1) The extreme brevity of the space battle in the opening. Come on, we've waited a decade to see a big clash with the Borg onscreen and its over in 30 seconds.

2) The new Enterprise design. I know many fans loved it but to me it seems way to "retro" for my taste and not an evolutionary development post Galaxy class.

3) Zephrem Cochrane's "I'm not a hero" dick headedness.

4) Cochrane's odd motivation for building the first FTL drive. Dollar signs, naked women on the beach. Hasn't he noticed that he is living in the middle of the forests in a post apocalyptic world? Who is going to be paying big bucks for an starship?

5) The entire "starship/rocket" built by mad scientist in the backyard. Very 1950ish style science fiction concept.

6) The Borg Queen. Making every effort to conventionalize the Borg even more.

7) Picard's obsessiveness. It has been years since the Borg cut him up and suddenly he remembers he is pissed at them?

I could go on and on.

1. It is the best TNG movie, primarily because the other 3 sucked donkey balls.
2. It is a lot of fun, and the ending was incredibly touching/emotional for a Trek nerd.
3. The plot holes are a reminder of why it's not as good as modern JJTrek.

In fairness, JJTrek has even more horrendous plot holes.

You're demonstrably wrong. But, in all fairness, every single Star Trek film and television show has horrendous plot holes.

I see a Voyager quality paradox in your analysis. To wit: All Trek has plot holes; it is demonstrably wrong to say JJTrek had plot holes; therefore JJTrek <> Trek.

Because the Borg would adapt to it.

If Borg shields can stop a phaser blast then they can stop bullets. The Borg on the holodeck weren't expecting to be shot with guns.

Actually, Dayton said that JJTrek had "even more horrendous plot holes" than First Contact.

I did not say that JJTrek did not have plot holes; merely that it did not have as many plot holes as First Contact did.

Take that, Janeway!

Why didn't they use the second jury-rigged Borg temporal vortex to arrive back in the 24th century before the Borg sphere even went back in time, and blow it up then?
It would have prevented everything, and wiped away that tangent timeline, and made Temporal Investigations happy.

I'd guess Starfleet was overconfident (again) and thought they could destroy the cube without having to pull in every available ship, or even their newest ships. The Enterprise couldn't have been the only Sovereign class ship in service at the time, but it was the only one seen in the battle once it arrived.

I've got a better idea: When you hit the 21st century, you kill the Borg in the area, you then call the Vulcans, tell 'em to get their pointy eared asses to Earth, along with every other species they know of, you drop the word on all of them about the Borg, give them 24th Century technology, build up the biggest mother fucking fleet this galaxy has ever seen, find the Borg in the 21st Century, bitch slap those mothers into non-existence, then you start hoppin' timelimes to lay the smackdown on those bastards in the other timelines. Sendin' a real clear message to the multiverse: You fuck with the Earth, we're gonna bitch slap you so hard, even your ancestors are gonna feel it. :drops mike:

Innoculation against radiation.

Has been demonstrated in the lab.

I am satisfied with that explanation. For now.

I don't know how useful that would be long term. Radiation physically damages cells and DNA, you would need to find a way to stop the damaged cells from reproducing permanently...or you're still a cancer candidate.

Cells do have a suicide switch that they can turn on as a way to protect the body. Presumably, someone will figure out how to flip it on in cells that have been damaged by radiation.

I don't get how you can accept things like faster than light travel, dermal regenerators and food replicators, but draw the line at radiation inoculation.

The biggest plot hole was right in the beginning - the Enterprise is patrolling the Romulan neutral zone, listening to the Borg attack in real time via subspace, then when Picard decides to go help, they arrive at Earth in moments.

There's a lost scene where Q genies them there.

IIRC, the theoretical underpinnings of all three of those have already been established.

I'd say it's a combination of the technology being well enough explained, and in an area where there is little knowledge, whereas the area of radiation and its effects on biological material is well known, and even given advanced technology, it would be impossible to "inoculate" the human body against its effects. They might as well have "inoculated" the characters against space and sent them out without space suits - it would have made just as much sense.

Invented by Adam West in the 60's.

Which is apparently what Borg nanoprobes can do for you, since the Borg all went EVA without suits in this film.

None of the TNG films were that good, but First Contact was the best of them, warts and all. I think Generations holds up better over time and isn't a bad film overall. The Nexus was poorly thought out and Kirk's death was a total wasted opportunity. Still, it was better executed and more entertaining that Insuckrection and Nemeshits, where every print in the galaxy should be burned and erased from our memories.

Yeah, that is pretty contrived, since Picard had assisted with Borg-related incidents in the show without flipping his shit. Hell, there was a virus the he could've implanted into Hugh in "I, Borg" that would have eradicated the whole species, which he didn't use much to Admiral whatshername's chargin. But then, Movie!Picard and TV Show! Picard might as well be two different charcaters entirely.

Free advertizement for Voyager with the Doc cameo?

Overall, Fc still holds up as the only TNG film I can sit through more than once without pulling my hair out. INS and NEM are complete and utter dreck that should be nuked from orbit.

I kind of took it as them having some kind of shield that protected them, like the life support belts from the animated series, but that's also a stretch.

One of the problems to me was that the TNG crew was NEVER well adapted to be a feature film cast.

The OS at least had a very heavy focus on the characters of Kirk and Spock so having the major focus of the movies be on them was a natural out growth of the series.

But TNG was much, much more an ensemble cast which made the transition to the movies somewhat jarring. Especially when they desperately tried to make the movies "Picard & Data" just as though they were "Kirk & Spock".

Thing is, that would have been fixed so easily just by moving that scene to right AFTER they realize what's happening.

Unless Picard hit some kind of panic button as soon as he beamed up that locked all the doors, and just didn't have time to fill everyone in...

Maybe the superfast subspace corridor that runs from Nimbus III to the center of the galaxy also has exits at the Romulan Neutral Zone and Earth?