Star Trek: TNG Reviews - From Start to Finish!

Oh, yeah!

Almost forgot to run some final numbers. Out of the 178 hours of TNG, 41 failed to get even a decent or average rating from me. There were about 22 episodes out of the 79 from the original series that were utter fail for me. From DS9's 176 episodes, there were maybe 26 episodes that failed to impress me.

So, it'd go something like this for me-

TOS = 72%
TNG = 77%
DS9 = 85%

And that is just looking at the numbers. I still like TOS overall better than TNG and I think TNG gets the higher percentage simply because of the number of episodes produced. If TOS had gone on for a full five years, I suspect it would fall closer to DS9's numbers. Please don't ask how many episodes of VOY or ENT I like. I really couldn't tell you. I've only seen a handful of ENT episodes and it would be painful for me to go through an episode list for VOY and try to pick out the episodes I liked. Suffice it to say that neither series comes close to the TOS-TNG-DS9 trifecta.

BTW, what happened to Paladin? Looks like I lost you a couple weeks ago. And, finally, if you've never seen TNG before and would like a handy guide for which episodes to skip over, here is the compilation of all my season lists, cut and pasted here for future reference:












Episodes I liked

Encounter At Farpoint, The Naked Now, Where No One Has Gone Before, Justice, The Battle, Hide And Q, Datalore, 11001001, Home Soil, Coming Of Age, Heart Of Glory, The Arsenal Of Freedom, Skin Of Evil, We'll Always Have Paris, Conspiracy, The Neutral Zone

The Child, Where Silence Has Lease, Elementary Dear Data, The Schizoid Man, Unnatural Selection, A Matter Of Honor, The Measure Of A Man, Contagion, The Royale, Time Squared, The Icarus Factor, Pen Pals, Q Who, The Emissary, Peak Performance

Evolution, The Ensigns Of Command, The Survivors, Who Watches The Watchers?, The Bonding, Booby Trap, The Enemy, The Defector, The Hunted, The High Ground, Deja Q, Yesterday's Enterprise, The Offspring, Sins Of The Father, Allegiance, Captain's Holiday, Tin Man, Hollow Pursuits, The Most Toys, Sarek, Transfigurations, The Best Of Both Worlds part I

The Best Of Both Worlds part II, Family, Brothers, Remember Me, Legacy, Reunion, Future Imperfect, Final Mission, The Loss, Data's Day, The Wounded, Clues, First Contact, Galaxy's Child, Night Terrors, Identity Crisis, The Nth Degree, The Drumhead, Half A Life, The Mind's Eye, In Theory, Redemption part I

Redemption part II, Darmok, Ensign Ro, Silicon Avatar, Disaster, Unification part I, Unification part II, A Matter Of Time, New Ground, The Masterpiece Society, Conundrum, Power Play, Ethics, The Outcast, Cause And Effect, The First Duty, The Perfect Mate, I Borg, The Next Phase, The Inner Light, Time's Arrow part I

Time's Arrow part I, Realm Of Fear, Relics, Schisms, True Q, The Quality Of Life, Chain Of Command part I, Chain Of Command part II, Ship In A Bottle, Face Of The Enemy, Tapestry, Birthright part I, Birthright part II, Starship Mine, The Chase, Frame Of Mind, Suspicions, Rightful Heir, Second Chances, Timescape, Descent part I

Descent part II, Interface, Gambit part I, Gambit part II, Phantasms, Dark Page, Attached, Parallels, The Pegasus, Homeward, Lower Decks, Thine Own Self, Masks, Journey's End, Firstborn, Bloodlines, Preemptive Strike, All Good Things...



Episodes I disliked

Code Of Honor, The Last Outpost, Lonely Among Us, Haven, The Big Goodbye, Angel One, Too Short A Season, When The Bough Breaks, Symbiosis

The Outrageous Okona, Loud As A Whisper, The Dauphin, Samaritan Snare, Up The Long Ladder, Manhunt, Shades Of Grey

The Price, The Vengeance Factor, A Matter Of Perspective, Menage A Troi

Suddenly Human, Devil's Due, QPid, The Host

The Game, Hero Worship, Violations, Cost Of Living, Imaginary Friend

Man Of The People, Rascals, A Fistful Of Datas, Aquiel, Lessons

Liasions, Force Of Nature, Inheritance, Sub Rosa, Eye Of The Beholder, Genesis, Emergence

Hey I liked A Fistful Of Datas and Genesis.

As you pointed out, there were some really good eps in there and IMHO, the best couple of hours of TV anywhere with AGT. given that, I'd call S7 a success, but defnitely uneven.

I attribute it to everything that was going on at the time. TNG S7, TNG finale, TNG movie, DS9 S2, VOY S1... they spread themselves thin and if you look at it, TNG S7 may have been the bottom of the totem pole.

Genesis was better than Emergence.

Movie reviews coming soon!

I have Generations and First Contact on DVD and I just watched those a few days ago, so those should reviews should be up soon.

At first I was planning on not reviewing Insurrection or Nemesis, because I think those movies suck ass and I don't have them on DVD. But I haven't seen either movie since they first came out, so I went ahead and downloaded the movies to my computer. I'm sure as hell not spending my money to purchase those movies.

I'm kind of dreading re-watching those movies. I have had such a good time watching the show and getting re-acquainted with the characters, I hate to see it all go to shit. But I might as well complete this experience, from start to finish.

80 TOS
70 TNG
90 DS9
-50 voyager
-100 Enterprise
Buffy 50
Angel 100
NBSG 100
Firefly 100
Stargate 60
atlantis 50
OLd bsg 15

Regarding the movies - first, I don't think INS is that bad. As a movie, a bit of a waste, but as a TNG episode, pretty good. NEM technically isn't that bad save for the fact that it is atrocious.

Also, I noticed you can't even purchase the old two disc sets anymore on Amazon. I own 1-4, 6, and 8 and was thinking of picking up the awful 7 and INS...but alas cannot.

Insurrection was, I felt, a pretty dyed-in-the-wool TNG movie. And I think it did an excellent job of pointing out both the strengths and weaknesses of TNG. I, to this day, maintain that it really wasn't that bad. Just about anything they made after First Contact probably would have paled in comparison.

Nemesis was, well, Voyager the Movie, but with the cast of the Next Generation. Which is to say that it's watchable, but only for it's badness (and as long as you don't try to slam your way through it - more reviews are coming, but damn, it's draining).

Star Trek: Generations

I'm probably in the minority on this one, but I actually enjoyed this movie for the most part. There were some glaring flaws in the movie but, overall, I found it ambitious, exciting, and most importantly it felt like a continuation of TNG.

To be clear, this is not an original cast movie. This movie is not really about Kirk. As far as I am concerned, we said goodbye to Kirk and to the original cast in STVI. Kirk is merely a glorified cameo in this movie, and because of that he certainly does not get the treatment he deserves... but I'll get to that in a bit.

The movie had a couple different things it needed to accomplish right at the outset. It needed to transition the films from the original crew to the next generation crew. It also needed to transition TNG from television to the big screen. It had to continue the development of our main characters and their adventures but also be somewhat accessible to a general audience. It needed humor, it needed excitement, and it needed to be a visual treat. I would say that it succeeded on most of these counts but it also managed to throw in a bit of classic Trek philosophy and some musings about life, time, and the universe... without getting too preachy or dull. There was a nice thematic backbone to the movie that connected the three principal characters and which was appropriate for such a transitional movie. The movie was all about the passage of time.

First of all, the visual effects for this movie are a very noticable step up from season 7 of TNG. In particular I'd like to note the scene where the Enterprise B encounters the Nexus, the scene where the Enterprise D is warping away from the Amargosa system, the stellar cartography scene, and the pulse-pounding destruction of the Enterprise D. If you're gonna blow up a ship, that is the way to do it! Seeing the Enterprise burn through the atmosphere and smash into the ground was sad but also quite spectacular! I have no problem with the destruction of the Enterprise D. In fact, it is one of the things I enjoyed about the movie. It gave the sense that time was not standing still and it gave the movie an epic quality. It also allowed them to put the TNG crew onto a better ship, one that probably films better on the big screen. Let's face it, the visuals for the Enterprise D were almost seven years old by that point. It was time for the old ship to go and, boy, did it.

I'd also like to mention that Generations had the most impressive location shooting we've seen in any Trek production up to this point. Trek has always felt so confined to sound stages, so it was great to see the climactic showdown take place in such a vast, expansive setting.

Anyway, let's go back to the start of the movie. The scenes which take place in the 23rd century are okay but you can sort of feel that this was not the real movie era, but simply Berman, Braga, and Moore's idea of it. Kirk doesn't seem like himself, but perhaps that also works to the movie's favor because Kirk is supposed to seem out of place. This isn't his movie, and the Enterprise B certainly isn't his ship. But I think it would have been even better if Kirk had come aboard alone. That would have added to the poignancy of it, I think. Chekov was not needed in any of these scenes and it felt wierd to have Scotty spout so much nonsensical technobabble when he never had before. These scenes were primarily included to do three things: establish the Nexus, establish the villainous Soran, and establish that Guinan will play a big role in all this. Nice to see Guinan again, by the way. I think her last appearance on the show was in Suspicions in Season 6.

I wonder if Guinan was the one leading the El Aurian refugees to Earth? Maybe she knew it would make a good home since she had been there before. I also thought it was interesting when Picard encountered an echo of Guinan that existed in the nonlinear Nexus. Perhaps that is what gave Guinan the ability to percieve time differently, as we saw in Yesterday's Enterprise, which ironically also dealt with a past Enterprise?

We also meet another El Aurian for the first time and he is certainly not the friendly ear that Guinan is. Soran, played by Malcolm McDowell, is an excellent Trek villain and, IMO, easily the best villain of the four TNG movies. He played the role brilliantly and although he was evil, he still gave a nuanced performance. I liked the name dropping of the Borg, not only did it tie into past continuity but it also set things up for the general audience to lead into the next movie. He is obsessed, like many Trek villains, but his motives seem plausible and I kind of liked the little things he added to the character. The sort of half-crazed look, the constant glances at his pocketwatch, his banter with the Klingons, Lursa and Be'tor, and his philosophical back-and-forth with Picard on the mountainside.

But I'm jumping ahead again. The 23rd century scenes were mostly entertaining and exciting. Alan Ruck is rather funny as the pathetic first captain of the Enterprise B, it was interesting to see Tim Russ on the bridge crew, and we also met Sulu's daughter, Demora. A nice touch. Of course, Kirk ends up saving the ship but apparently dies when the ship is lashed by the energy waves of the Nexus, opening the engineering compartment to space...

Flash forward to the next generation. This doesn't take place right after All Good Things... but it does take place somewhere halfway through DS9's 3rd season and before the launch of VOY. I'm not sure what was up with the uniforms though. Geordi's uniform, in particular, kept changing styles throughout the movie. But time has moved on and the crew has not stagnated. Worf has earned a promotion and Data finally decides to use the emotion chip he retrieved from Lore in Descent part II. This was kind of a mixed bag, but a necessary step in Data's character arc. He was sort of all over the place in this movie, feeling a rush of emotions ranging the gamut, but appropriately he seemed to have gained control of them by the next movie. I liked his scene in Ten Forward where he is trying Guinan's horrible drinks, and his "Oh, shit..." when the Enterprise was crashing. He got a bit annoying at times, but this is a big change for Data and I thought it was portrayed realistically. He should have trouble adapting to all these different emotions. This is all new to him.

Meanwhile, Picard learns that his brother and nephew (whom we met in Family) where killed in a fire. Damn! That is getting a bit dark for TNG. This finally forces Picard to really come to grips with something that has sort of conflicted the character since season 1... his lack of a domestic life. This connects him with the two other primary characters in the movie. Picard feels the passage of time because of the regrets in his life, and Kirk feels the same way. Soran also feels the passage of time in an agonizing way, since he once experienced bliss only to have it all snatched away. Eventually, Picard and crew learn that Soran has teamed up with the Duras sisters to create a powerful star-destroying weapon. There is yet another mention of the Breen in this movie, mentioned quite prominently along with long known Trek adversaries like the Klingons and Romulans. Ironically, we still have not yet seen a Breen or had any stories dealing with the Breen. That won't come until later in DS9.

Geordi is captured and again his visor is used as a tool to gain advantage over the Enterprise (Mind's Eye) No wonder he got rid of the damn thing by the time of the next movie. And maybe Soran's quip about not being normal got to Geordi? It was also nice to see the Duras sisters again and I liked how Soran was not at all afraid of them and ordered them around like they were nothing. With their weapons set to circumvent the Enterprise shielding, they hammer at away at the Ent-D and this leads to an exciting battle, the satisfying destruction of the Duras, and the aforementioned spectacular crash of the Enterprise D. Meanwhile, Picard tries to prevent Soran from launching his missle but his efforts are not successful. Let's face it, Picard was never the action hero that Kirk was, though that seems to change in the later movies. He runs out of time, the Enterprise and the Veridian system are destroyed, and he finds himself in the Nexus.

Guinan said that no one would ever want to leave the Nexus, and she seemed to be right. Picard finally finds the life he always regretting missing and becomes a husband and father in the Nexus. We even see Renee Picard again (though not played by the same actor, unfortunately). Of his own accord, Picard would probably never leave but Guinan is there to help him out. And he, in turn, must help Kirk out...

... and this is where the movie starts to go off the rails. Yes, it was very cool to finally have the big meeting between Kirk and Picard and their interactions in the Nexus were both surreal and mostly entertaining. But then Picard decides to take Kirk with him out of the Nexus and back to the mountainside to defeat Soran. Um... Picard? Hello? Did you miss the part where Guinan said you can go anywhere and anytime?? Why the hell wouldn't you go back to the start of the movie, prevent the death of your family members, and stop Soran?? It makes absolutely no sense to go right back to just a couple minutes before the Nexus swallowed everything up. And you had to drag Kirk into it too! Sure, he is a much more experienced hand to hand fighter than Picard, but there was no need for Picard to even mess with Soran on Veridian III. He could gone back to the Enterprise and put Soran in the brig as soon as he showed up.

This a huge plot hole! Although the Nexus is kind of a neat concept, and I'm all for Kirk meeting Picard, the writers really didn't think the resolution to the movie out at all. And this is my biggest problem with the movie: Kirk should not have died like that! It was just so mundane. This is Captain Kirk, for chrissakes! You don't just stuff him in the ground on some desolate world and then go on joking to Riker about future Enterprises. They should at least have taken the body and given Kirk a proper farewell or something. I guess his death was realistic in the sense that most people don't go out in a blaze of glory, but Kirk was larger than life and he should have died as a legend or his fate should have been left ambiguous. Instead we saw him fall of a bridge.. a lonely, balding, fat old man. I just have to tell myself that this was not a Kirk movie and his real ending was in STVI. Kirk did not die falling of a Bridge, damn it!

Other than the Nexus plot hole and Kirk's death, I really enjoyed this movie. It was epic and entertaining and, unlike the later TNG movies, it actually felt continuous with the TV series and the rest of the Trek universe. I will go into why the other movies failed in this regard in my future reviews. I also remember how much fun I had watching this movie in the theatre. There is nothing like watching a fun Trek movie with an audience full of Trekkies. It was awesome. Everyone got up and cheered when Riker said, "Fire!" and the whole audience burst out laughing when Data swore at the image of the Enterprise falling through the atmosphere. And I'm sure there wasn't a dry eye in the house when Kirk died. I admit, I was a little choked up about it. Kirk was my childhood hero, and I was shocked to see him die. I couldn't believe it. And I was angry that he died the way he did. At least Optimus Prime died a heroic death fighting Megatron in Tranformers: The Movie. That is how Kirk should have gone out.

Goodbye Captain Kirk and goodbye Enterprise D. So far, the TNG movies are off to an okay start!

Rating:

Well, I disagree about any need to destroy the D, but I agree with what you said about Kirk's death.

And my reaction to the ridiculous plant-on parts on the E-B is still

The purpose of the movie? This alone: for Rick Berman to obliterate any vestige of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek, and assimilate the franchise entirely unto himself. Kill Kirk, destroy the E-D, and create a new "sleek and armed-to-the-teeth" E-E that is 100% Rick's and Rick's alone.

Cinical? Me? Naaaah.

You forgot some plot holes: Guinan had said that her home world had been wiped out by the Borg, yet when she shows up on Earth in the 23rd century her and her people fail to mention this fact to the Federation who could have really used the tip off. There's the business with trilithium which terrorists in an episode of TNG were collecting it for a use as a weapon, yet Soran claims that he was the one who figured out how to turn it into a weapon. Oops. And I really can't figure out why Soran needed to blow up planets to get inside the Nexus, since Kirk had no trouble getting sucked in without doing that.

Yeah. It is ironic that in 2009 JJ Abrams took over the franchise and the first thing he did was resurrect Kirk (in a way). I hope he does some interesting stuff with the franchise, Berman has had control of it for way too long.

And create an even uglier Enterprise!

I agree about the last part. They obviously could have just flown a flown a ship into the Nexus since that was how Kirk, Soran, and Guinan originally got inside it.

I don't really think there was any particular need for Guinan to mention the Borg. For all she knew, an encounter with the Borg was centuries away. And the raiders in Starship Mine weren't collecting the trilithium to use themselves, they were simply going to sell it to some other party. Heck, for all we know maybe it was Soran they were trying to sell it to. When he couldn't obtain it from them, maybe he turned to the Duras sisters to help him steal it from the Romulans.

But, yes, nothing about the Nexus really makes any sense if you think about it too much. The writers had a good script but they totally botched the ending. Either Picard should never have gone into the Nexus and he should have met Kirk some other way, or he should have come out at an entirely different point of time.

I think the writers boxed themselves into a corner when they decided that Picard and Kirk absolutely had to meet in this movie. It might have been better if they had shown the launch of the Enterprise B and maybe mentioned that this was the first starship without Kirk in command, but there was no need to actually bring Shatner, Doohan, and Koenig in this movie. Yes, I think that would have been much more satisfying. They could have passed the torch without needing any of the original cast. The fact that the movie started in the Movie Era, sometime after STVI was enough for me. Nimoy was smart for not appearing in this movie. Heck, if Kirk hadn't died in Generations maybe we could have even seen Shatner in some form in the new Trek movie.

IIRC, Guinan seemed particularly bitter about the Borg in the episode where she talked to Picard about them. Can't imagine someone like that saying, "Eh, I'll let them figure out the Borg on their own." Not to mention even if the encounter was hundreds years away, the Federation could use the heads up to figure out how to deal with the Borg. Remember, it was only Q's intervention that saved the Enterprise the first time they encountered the Borg, and they got lucky a couple of other times when they fought them. The intelligent thing to do is to explain things to folks so that they have a better chance of defending themselves whenever they encounter the enemy.

Indeed.

[YT="How Generations should have ended..."]r_5h0BRO5O4[/YT]

[YT="Or if you weren't too particular on the "when...""]L-LnEWWj9F0[/YT]

[YT="...and now for something completely different."]kOQL3fbRCmE[/YT]

LOL!!!!!!!

I love that last one!!

Could be that Q sent the Borg to the El-Aurian homeworld. There was some serious hate for Guinan on Q's part back in Q Who? and vice versa in the one where Q loses his powers. And it's not like Guinan et al. could have been all that much help. Sure, they could have said something about the Borg (and for all we know, they did, giving the Hansons a reason to set out in the Raven), but worrying about the Romulans probably seemed like the higher priority at the time, especially with no information other than "cube-shaped ships that rip whole cities out of the ground".

As for the trilithium, I think it was stated that it could be used as explosive in its own right, and the implication was that Soran was the one who developed it into a star-destroying weapon.

NuTrek does have a lot of potential, I'm hoping the Directors Cut includes the bit about Nero and co having been captured by the Klingons as it opens up the possibility of using concepts similar to John Birmingham's Axis of Time trilogy.

Plus there's all the old TOS plots that can be revived and expanded upon, and hopefully the burying of the Roddenberryverse. Much as I love Trek, the whole arrogant Manifest Destiny of Federation superiority irks me.

There was another one on DS9, before Generations. He used his listening skills basically to panhandle, and opened a bar to compete with Quark.

Oh shit, you're right!

Damn man, I had blocked that episode out of my memory! Truly one of the dullest DS9 episodes ever.

By the way, I just hooked up my new TV and DVD player and I've been trying out a couple discs. I watched a few minutes of Ds9's Emissary and it was a blotchy mess. Very distracting.

But then I took it out and put in What You Leave Behind and I was amazed at how much sharper the image looked. Even though the show wasn't meant to be viewed in widescreen the image still looked pretty good. Guess the filming process improved quite a bit in those seven years.

I'll be getting the nuBSG complete set soon and I'm anxious to try those out on my new TV!

I should have the First Contact review up sometime this week.

DS9's effects and filming got way better as the show progressed. I just finished the run on Saturday night with WYLB and I can certainly say that is true.

Around what point did you start to notice the better looking episodes? Or was it gradual?

I'm very tempted to run through Ds9 now that I'm done with TnG.

I want to say Season 4...but honestly, I watched it over the last year so it was pretty gradual.

For sure Seasons 5-7 far outshine the earlier eps and make you really say - wow this is a lot better.

Season 4.0 really looks good on a hdtv the dvd set that is.

I'm not sure HDTV does much difference for the DS9 DVDs.

With the wrong font!

Star Trek: First Contact

This is definitely the best all around TNG movie but it probably also should have been the last one. The Borg were always the looming threat on TNG and it would have been sort of appropriate if this had been the TNG crew's swan song. The two following movies just couldn't live up to this one.

One could compare Star Trek: Generations to Star Trek: The Motion Picture. They were both transitional movies. Neither were perfect but they did a good job of bringing their respective crews to the big screen. Following that analogy, First Contact is comparable to The Wrath Of Kahn. Both tales deal with revenge, but the twist in First Contact is that it is the hero seeking vengeance and not the villain.

This is the first real encounter with the Borg Collective since The Best Of Both Worlds. And they have gotten a huge visual update! In fact visually, this whole movie is leaps and bounds better than the last one, which itself was much better than the series. Generations took place during DS9's third season and First Contact takes place somewhere in early season five, just before the start of the Dominion War. And time has definitely moved on for the crew, a big plus in my book.

We are introduced to the rather magnificent Enterprise E which is basically a top of the line, badass Federation warship. I'm quite certain there are no children on this ship. All the uniforms have been updated and these are actually my favorite uniforms of any Trek era. Very nice color schemes. Geordi finally got rid of the visor and is using some sort of ocular implants that were mentioned WAY back in season one. Data seems to have gotten control of his emotional chip and has even figured out a way to turn it on and off, which is kind of cool but also a bit of a cheat IMO. Worf is over on DS9, Beverly is a blonde, and Picard is starting to have horrible nightmares again. Before he even gets the communication from Starfleet, he seems to be aware that the Borg have returned. They haven't really dealt with Picard's trauma from his assimilation since I, Borg but now he must confront that event again. Starfleet is not confident that Picard can deal with the Borg and keep the Enterprise away from the battle with the Borg cube.

Oh, I should mention that this movie gets into the plot really quick! They don't waste any time. We see a very brief but very sweet battle between the Borg cube and dozens of Federation starships. This is probably one of the coolest scenes in all the Trek movies and its a visual treat for Trek fans. This is the battle we never got to see in BOBW. Like that prior battle with the Borg, Starfleet again is getting decimated by a single cube. We see Worf commanding the Defiant, ready to kamikaze the Borg cube. Can I just mention that it is awesome seeing the Defiant on the big screen? And this was actually a clever way to bring Worf back into this story. Picard disobeys orders and takes the Enterprise to the scene of the conflict. He takes command of the fleet and quickly annihilates the Borg cube. Badass.

But within seconds the Borg have launched a second, smaller ship for Earth and they are clearly not giving up without a fight. This ship is a perfect sphere (which seems like an appropriate shape for time travel) and the Enterprise follows the Borg sphere into a temporal vortex.

Yes, time travel again! And like the Nexus in Generations, if you think about this too much the movie's entire plot starts to fall apart. If the Borg are capable of time travel, why can't they just keep trying to go back in time to assimilate Earth? Eventually they should get it right. Alternately, why not travel back in time somewhere in the Delta Quadrant and then journey to Earth where they can proceed without opposition? And why would they assimilate Earth in the past anyway? This would seem to defeat the entire point of assimilation, since the Federation has not yet developed any worthwhile technology (in fact the Federation does not even exist at this point). None of this makes sense, which is why I sort of dislike overuse of time travel but at least it gets all our characters into the setting the writers want to explore.

The time period that they have travelled to is just after WWIII. Human civilization is just barely hanging on and humans have not yet travelled to distant stars. The Borg intend to stop Zephram Cochrane, creator of the warp drive, from completing his historic first flight which will lead to humanity's eventual domination of the quadrant and the formation of the Federation. There are some cool ideas here. First, it is neat to find out that the first contact procedures used by the Federation were actually first used by the Vulcans. Seems logical. Second, it is cool that Cochrane's warp ship is actually a converted nuclear warhead. It is good to finally see Trek explore this rather important era in the Trek timeline and the first contact scene between Terrans and Vulcans is a nice treat for every long-time Trek fan. However, I'm not quite sure I like the portrayal of Zephram Cochrane. James Cromwell did a good job in the role, but I am not sure why the writers felt the need to completely change the character from the way he was presented in the TOS episode, Metamorphosis? It would have been a nice bit of continuity if Cochrane was portrayed in the same manner, and I don't think it would have made a bit of difference to the plot of the movie. It is a minor nitpick I suppose, but it is noticable. We are also introduced to Zephram's friend Lily, played by Alfre Woodard. On viewing this film again, I found that the Lily character actually annoyed me this time around. She was just too hysterical for much of the movie. But she had that excellent scene with Picard in the ready room which entirely justifies her presence in the movie. I'll get to that in a second.

While Riker, Troi, Geordi, and Barclay stay on the planet and attempt to help Cochrane with his warp flight, the rest of the crew stay on board the Enterprise to deal with the Borg, who managed to beam aboard before the destruction of their sphere. The scenes on the planet were amusing and light-hearted but nothing to really write home about. Deanna's drunk scene was kind of amusing and most of this was a good counterpoint for the dark stuff happening on board the ship.

We learn that Picard is still in tune with the Collective somehow and that they have quickly taken over Engineering and have begun transforming the Enterprise into a Borg ship, deck by deck. Again, the visual updates to the Borg are very impressive and the corridors of the Enterprise have become spooky, alien, and claustrophobic. Johnathan Frakes, as director, really does an excellent job handling all of this. This is the first Trek movie to really work as both sci-fi and horror. The crew struggle to retain control of their vessel and Picard asks Data to lock out the ship controls. This makes Data a target for the Borg and he is quickly captured by them.

We are introduced to the Borg Queen. We learn that she brings order to chaos. Data notes that this is rather vague and probably echoes the thoughts of all Trekkies when he inquires about the hierarchy of the Borg. I don't necessarily have a problem with a Borg Queen. The Borg were originally supposed to be an insectoid race and the Borg Queen would probably be similar to the Queen in an ant colony or a bee colony. Ants and bees also work collectively and are also referred to as drones. If the Borg Queen's function is to lead the Borg, then it makes sense to have them networked as a collective. It is easier to control one mind, rather than millions... something which Lore also realized when he took control of that Borg faction. And maybe that is why those Borg took to Lore so easily. He, like the Queen, promised to bring order to chaos. And I guess it helps to have an outside voice in the collective decision making. Makes the Borg more flexible and more dangerous, IMO. Visually the Borg Queen is rather...interesting. She is revolting and alluring all at once. She is definitely an effective Trek villain and quite bizarre looking but this works for the film. I think it definitely helped the film by having a primary villain and although it turned the Borg into a truly malevolent race and not simply an indifferent force of nature, I don't have too many problems with these changes. They were still badass villains, at least until Voyager overused them and ran the concept into the ground. The dialogue between Data and the Queen is great and probably the highlight of the movie for me. Data cannot be assimilated, so he must be coerced into giving up the Enterprise access codes. This presents an interesting challenge for the Borg Queen.

This sort of continues Data's story from Descent. Data is still new to having emotions and the Queen attempts to seduce him through these emotions. It is telling that the first thing she does is activate his emotion chip. As an emotionless android, there would have been no way to coerce Data, but emotional awareness has become Data's achilles heel. In one amusing moment, Data informs the Queen that he has not had sexual relations in nearly eight years, referencing his interlude with Tasha back in The Naked Now. I guess Jenna D'Sora from In Theory never got to use Data as a vibrator. The Borg even graft organic skin onto Data's body in order to heighten his emotional awareness and tempt him further. This is definitely taking Data's character development into new areas and is the logical progression for Data's character. Too bad the next movie throws all this out the window!

Meanwhile Picard, Worf, Beverly, and Lily are stuck dealing with the Borg on the ship. We get to see the visually impressive spacewalk scene, the first time we've seen Trek characters in space suits since The Motion Picture. I guess Trek has never had the budget to do something like this until now, but the entire scene was very cool. Picard and Worf (and the ill-fated Lt. Hawk) manage to stop the Borg from using the deflector to send a message to the Borg in this century. Picard also runs around the ship with Lily and even hides out in the Dixon Hill holoprogram to evade the Borg. I appreciated this scene much more, since I finally saw the episodes of the series dealing with the Dixon Hill program. Nice to see Ruby, Hill's secretary, again in a brief cameo. Robert Picardo also cameos as the Enterprise E's EMH program and has an amusing scene with the Borg in sickbay. Meanwhile, Picard goes buckwild and starts slaughtering Borg drones. Did I mention that this is an incredibly violent movie by TNG standards? We see Data snapping necks in this movie, and we see Picard riddling Borg drones with bullet holes. Clearly, he is not thinking straight. He does not want to surrender to the Borg and he wants to make them pay for what they've done to him. This leads to probably the single best scene of all the TNG movies, when Lily confronts Picard and compares him to Captain Ahab from Moby Dick. The tables are turned and Picard becomes the Khan of this story. Picard's diatribe is awesome and Patrick Stewart and Alfre Woodard act the hell out of this scene. Picard comes to his senses and prepares to evacuate the Enterprise and destroy the Borg once and for all. But first he is going to try and rescue his friend Data.

In the exciting climax of the movie, Cochrane is proceeding with his warp flight and the Borg Queen is about to destroy his vessel. Picard confronts the Queen and this seems to jog his memory about his own experiences on another Borg vessel. We learn, finally, why the Borg turned Picard into Locutus, rather than just a simple drone. The Queen wanted another voice in the Collective and wanted someone to rule alongside her. That is what she claims anyway. Picard offers himself up again but it seems the Queen has already found her mate in Data. Unfortunately for her, Data was only tempted by her feminine wiles for a fraction of a second and floods Engineering with some sort of lethal gas that destroys all the Borg, kills the Queen, and burns away all of Data's organic skin grafts. Cochrane makes his warp flight and the Vulcans arrive on Earth to meet Humans for the first time. All is well with the universe and the Enterprise heads on back home, mission accomplished.

As far as I am concerned, this is the TNG crew's swan song. This is their last voyage. For completion's sake I will review the next two TNG movies. But for me personally this is the end of the road and this is how I'd like to remember TNG. At the top of its game. Outside of the final 2.5 seasons of Ds9, this is the last Trek story I'd really enjoy until 2009's reboot of the franchise.

Rating:

I've always found it a pity they had the Queen simply as The Badass of the Borg, thought she could've been made so much more - especially with the "bringing order to chaos" line.

They really ought to have given her a different origin from the Borg, and have her as a new bad who'd been quietly taking over the collective for her own nefarious ends.

I think Worf and Picard had the best interaction in the movie - "If you were any other man I would kill you where you stand."