Overall I like the movie, but here's some problems I have with it. #1 In the initial confrontation he takes over the fleet and has all ships target a place of the Borg Cube where he says is the fatal flaw in that ship. If he knew it all along, since his first encounter with the Borg, he should've reported it to Starfleet then Starfleet would've had a far easier time against the Borg. #2 The Borg went back into the past to assimilate the earth. At that time earth was too primitive technologically. The borg were only interested in technology that could improve themselves. This seems to be more of a revenge based move than a real attempt at gaining new technology. One of the aspects of trek I don't like is to humanise hostile aliens that are truly alien. For example, the Ferengi, and the Borg. When first introduced, the Ferengi were a hostile menace that were completely alien in culture and beliefs. During Deep Space Nine they were turned into comedic relief through Quark and the Ferengi empire became just another Federation copy-cat. The Borg were more humanised by adding a Queen as a nemesis for Caprtain Janeway. And so on. I don't mind using aliens as metaphors, but I don't like taking a completelyh threatening and mysterious race and making them more human. #3 Time travel was too easy. But this is an example of techological advance. Still, overall I enjoy the movie. I give it a C.
well, he didn't know where the flaw was - he picks it up from the borg voices he can still hear. with the queen, she was done specifically for FC, so abortionger wasn't to blame for that. FC did make a hash with the time-travel, one book, 'engines of destiny' i think, suggests the sphere was only supposed to go back a day or so with the intention of providing information of the defeat so the borg could adapt. with the humanization of aliens, yeah too much of that gets done in trek - although the ferengii were supposed to represent teh eeeeevil capitalism and as such very understandable to viewers. if you a good insight into a alien race done well read 'a stitch in time' - a book about garak, by andrew robinson who played him and it highlights the differences between cardassians and humans. the '34th rule' does something similar for quark and the ferengii, plus notes the hypocrisy of the federation where its claims of tolerance are shown not to match with the arrogant superiority we tend to see on screen.
Oh cool! Garak wrote stitch in time?? Damn, I gotta get around to reading that now! Heh, cool, his Wiki reveals he was also the dad in Hellraiser. I thought that mug looked familiar.
While probably the best of the TNG movies, I didn't like it for several reasons, to be presented as counterpoints to your own: This movie had the Borg in it. The pussification of the Borg continues... Also, somehow the Enterprise moves from the Romulan Neutral Zone to Earth at the speed of....plot, I guess. But too damn fast. 1. The notion of a Borg 'queen' further hosed up the Borg. 2. This movie involved time travel. 1. Riker and co. don't just violate, but shatter the (temporal) prime directive. 2. Apparently the Borg and the Federation can just time travel at will in the 24th Century, which violated about everything else we've seen in Trek up to that point. (unless you use the Guardian of Forever or the slingshot maneuver, but they were too lazy even to do that)
How so? The Borg time vortex was essentially just a temporal wormhole. And TMP showed the warp drive can make wormholes. And DS9 showed "normal", wormholes can become time machines. And the Borg assimilated enough Federation computers to know all that. And then the Borg assimilated all those decks on the ENT-E, and the ENT-E scanned inside and out of the vortex before and after it plunged in. So, they had their scans, Borg computers with their knowledge of the vortex, which presumedly was modified Federation wormhole knowledge in the first place. Add all that up, and they could recreate it with the warp drive. So yeah, they can time travel at will by Picard's time.
Funny, I always thought it was the other way around. Ever since TNG's pilot, you got the sense that the Ferengi were badasses. Someone mentions them eating the last group of people that messed with them. A few episodes later, we see these comically ugly, tiny, and not at all scary aliens with laser whips. Throughout TNG, they continue to be on the level of Pakleds--threatening but comically stupid, usually acting as comic relief. In DS9 we finally get to see how devious some Ferengi really are. Liquidator Brunt, for example, closed down Quark's bar and forbade any Ferengi from doing business with him just because Brunt was a douche-bag and wanted Quark's vacuum desiccated remains. The only thing that changed about the Ferengi culture is that women started to have more rights. The Ferengi were still just as alien--eating bugs, liking oo-mox, greedy sumbitches, nasty teeth, etc. Also, keep in mind that Quark, Rom, and Nog weren't at all representative of normal Ferengi.
How the Borg Incursion would have worked in Real Life: Admiral: The Borg are coming. We need the Enterprise. Admiral2: But Picard is in command of the Enterprise. We can't have him in conflict with the Borg. Would insert an unstable element. Admiral: Well, Riker's a capable guy. Send Picard on leave for the duration and have Riker take over the Enterprise. Seems in this situation the firepower of the Enterprise is worth more than Picard's feelings.
Troi getting drunk is one of the most embarassing scenes I've ever watched in a film. It just extends Marina Sirtis' already thinnly-stretched acting skills too far
Yeah that was the most blatant 'turn the crew into rebels' bit of bullshit until the Insurrection 'I'll do all this on my own and not involve the crew that I KNOW will back me' Picard maneuver. And of course if neither had happened we wouldn't have the pleasure of 'Lock and Load' or 'To Hell with our orders!'.
I didn't think it was as bad as it could have been and was largely redeemed by the decent comic timing of her falling over and Riker's look. Plus the tunes.
Probably would have gone a lot better if they'd actually given her a few shots before turning the cameras on.
Mostly agree about humanizing aliens, but the borg are perhaps the one exception to the rule. It must have been frustrating, the frequent failures to assimilate the federation. My guess is that the queen was created as an effort to understand the enemy. Agree with Ecky regarding Picard's battlefield insight and I agree with Phantom that Picard would simply have been re-assigned. Now, this latter part could still work, because he would still be driven to be at the battle, would still figure out the vulnerability, still be on the Enterprise when it followed the sphere into the time vortex. My thouhgt on the how is that he would have privately made his way to DS9 and convinced Warf to take him on the Defiant.
Regarding the RNZ --> battle timelapse -- It could have been much better, couldn't it, if the Enterprise were, say, halfway to their post at the RNZ. Less problem with "how'd they get there so fast?" plus it reinforces the seeming absurdity of Starfleet's refusal to let the Enterprise get into the fight. "We aren't there yet! There's still time for us to turn around right now! You HAVE to make this decision, Admiral, and make it NOW. Every minute we waste increasing the distance between this ship and where it NEEDS to be is precious." "I'm sorry, your orders are final. Admiral out." Or whatever.
Even better if she'd been drunk enough to flash her tits and ask for beads... ...not that we care about such things these days.
It's been 10 years since the last decent Trek movie and almost 8 years since the last good Trek series went off the air.
