Dom Robinson reviews

Distributed by
Pioneer LDCE

Cat.no: PLFEB 36251

Cert: 12

Running time: 106 minutes

Sides: 2 (CLV)

Year: 1996

Pressing: UK, 1997

Chapters: 32 (18/13+1)

Sound: Dolby Surround

Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Panavision)

Price: £24.99

Extras : Trailer for Star Trek: Generations

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Director:

Jonathan Frakes

Producer:

Rick Berman

Screenplay:

Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore

Music:

Jerry Goldsmith

Cast:

Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: Generations, Jeffrey)
Commander Riker: Jonathan Frakes
Data: Brent Spiner (Independence Day)
Geordi: Levar Burton
Worf: Michael Dorn
Dr. Beverly Crusher: Gates McFadden
Deanna Troi: Marina Sirtis
Lily: Alfre Woodard (Grand Canyon, Passion Fish)
Zefram Cochran: James Cromwell (Babe, Eraser)
Borg Queen: Alice Krige (Sleepwalkers)
Medical Officer Hologram: Robert Picardo (The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. (TV))

Star Trek: First Contact is the second big screen adventure to feature the Next Generation crew, and the first without any members of the original Star Trek cast.

The film is a continuation of the story that began with the TV two-parter, The Best of Both Worlds, also available on PAL Laserdisc, in which Picard became assimilated into the Borg collective. Six years on, and Picard still has nightmares about it. While the Borg are about to cause hell in one part of the universe, the crew of the Enterprise "E" are in the Neutral Zone 'chasing comets'. Getting bored very quickly, Picard decides it's time to kick Borg-butt and attempt to blow up the Borg's cube.

As they try to destroy it, a sphere escapes and heads towards Earth creating a temporal vortex which allowed to Borg to go back in time and assimilate the entire planet. Duty bound, Picard insists they head into the vortex so they can put things back to rights and return the nine billion Earthlings back to human, and they are taken back to the year 2063, ten years after the Third World War.

The Borg's plan is to colonise the Earth from April 4th, 2063, and stop Zefram Cochran, inventor of the Warp Drive, from making his creation, and preventing the events of the day after, April 5th - First Contact, where Earthlings first made contact with the Vulcans.

What follows is the Borg's attempt to colonise the Enterprise after teleporting onboard without being noticed, before continuing their course for Earth. Picard has the choice of detonating the ship and making sure the crew escape, thus making sure the Borg go out with a bang. One crew member asks, "Do you think they'll build another one?", to which Picard replies, "Plenty more letters in the alphabet". However, it can't be quite that easy a solution, can it?

It was interesting to see if the crew of the Next Generation could carry it off, this being the first feature film without any of the original Star Trek cast, and the answer is that yes, they managed it. Not being a follower of any of the television series, apart from watching the occasional episode, such as "The Best of Both Worlds", I always enjoy watching their big-screen outings.

In the crew's cast, Patrick Stewart heads the cast as well as he did in the first film coming across as one of the few main stars who can act properly, and being a trained RSC actor, he's had other film roles including the gay comedy, Jeffrey.

Jonathan Frakes has as level a stance as Stewart. While not having quite as much screen-time in the form of Riker, as Stewart, and spending most of the film helping out invent the warp-drive, he directed the film, and made a very good job of it. Having previously directed other Next Generation episodes, he is currently tipped to direct the ninth feature film.

The other major role goes to Brent Spiner as Data, the android who aims to become more human as the series goes on, as he comes face to face with the Borg queen. Spiner had a cameo role in last year's smash hit sci-fi extravaganza, Independence Day as Area 51's lead scientist.

However, those who get very minor roles are Geordi, who has little to do except potter around with Riker and Cochran, and the two ladies in the film who do as little as they did in the last one. Deanna Troi only seems to get drunk early on in the film, or count-down the warp-drive's test rocket, while Beverly Crusher administers some injections early on, and that's about it. I wonder though, why in the end credits their names are only referred to as "Troi" and "Beverly", when it's only the men whose names are abbreviated to their surname.

There's good support from the secondary characters in the film, namely Alfre Woodard, who does more for Picard, as Lily, than most of the rest of his cast, staying by his side almost the whole time. James Cromwell, coming direct from both the sheep-pig film Babe, and Arnie's action-packed Eraser, puts in a good turn as the warp-drive's creator Zefram Cochran, occasionally looking confused when people tell him how great he is for his invention - before he's actually invented it! Finally, Alice Krige takes the stage as the Borg Queen, and makes the best entrance to a film than most actors will ever make in their lifetime.

The picture and sound quality on this disc are unsurpassable. Pioneer have excelled themselves with this transfer, and it has to be one of the best-looking PAL discs I have ever seen, with exceptional levels of detail showing well in the attack on the Borg cube, and also the film's opening shot which reveals the Borg collective.

31 chapters adequately cover the film, allowing access to your favourite scenes with ease, and the disc is completed by a trailer for Star Trek: Generations.

If you haven't got a laserdisc player, then a widescreen box-set of films will be out before Christmas, but the single-tape release of Star Trek: First Contact won't be out until March '98.

So, after a recommendation like this, should you make this your next laserdisc purchase? As Picard says, "Make it so".

Film: 4/5
Picture: 5/5
Sound: 5/5

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1997.