One of our favorite Star Trek movies, so we have to open the floor again to anyone who wants to add their 2 cents in.
Citizen-Bot: This is certainly my favorite of all of the Next Gen movies, and the only one that doesn’t have some flaws to it. It’s so perfect because it both moves the overall Trek story and mythos forward, but it’s also intensely personal. Picard and Data both have epic story arcs, and most of the rest of the cast get something good to do, too, instead of just being window dressing.
Picard gets to be obsessed and irrational, which is so out of character with him most of the rest of the series/films, but it’s believable. Data gets to be very literally seduced by the Borg, and there’s a while there that we as the audience think he’s turned. 0.63 seconds, if you’re paying attention.
Vagabond Prime: You would think Paramount would have looked at this one and said “this is how it’s done”. If the creative guns behind this movie had flexed just a bit in the next movie, we would probably still be getting Next Gen movies.
Citizen-Bot: Agreed. People give Jonathan Frakes a lot of crap as a director, but he made the best damn Star Trek movie involving the Next Gen cast. After this. . . just so much dreck. This film blended both old and new and approached the franchise with cinematic sensibilities rather than just kinda pushing the story along.
But the real meat here is the character development. Just watch this:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3RNsZvdYZQ
Tell me you could’ve gotten a performance like that from Shatner and not had it be ridiculous. Patrick Stewart mixes the perfect blend of trauma and hate, and it remains one of the emotional touchstones of the entire Trek franchise.
I also like that the most unlikely characters get the fun things in this movie. Data and Worf have all the laugh lines, and the big cheesy action movie catchphrases. And we get to see Worf and the Defiant taking on a Borg cube! Deanna Troi gets to get drunk with Zephram Cochrane. And we get some nice nods to the Next Gen series: Lt. Barclay shows up, Picard retreats into the holodeck to play Dixon Hill. And don’t blink or you’ll miss some of Voyager’s cast– Ethan Phillips (Neelix) is in the holodeck scene, and Robert Picardo shows up as the EMH in Sickbay.
And then there’s the supporting cast. James Cromwell plays a believable and fun Cochrane and really shows what a burden it is to be told how important you are– especially when all you’re trying to do is make a buck. And Neal McDonough as Lt. Hawk brings that everyman-action-star quality that you need for a guy who is still, essentially, a redshirt.
Now this movie, I think, still has a couple of flaws. It’s part of the mythos of Zephram Cochrane that he loved mid-20th century rock’n’roll music, but I question one of the song choices. Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride” as you take off? Yes. But “Ooby Dooby” by Roy Orbison? Come on. I have to legitimately believe that song would be on the jukebox of some bar in the mid-21st century, meaning Zephram Cochrane would be the age of my kids. Are they listening to Roy Orbison? Hell no. Beatles, Zeppelin, The Who, Rolling Stones, Elvis? Sure. Steppenwolf is conceivable. But not Roy Orbison. If they’d wanted a 12-bar-blues rock number with a twinge of country, then they should’ve considered any number of Buddy Holly songs, or some Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Anyway, enough nit-picking. I love this movie. It might be my favorite of the original Trek movies. If not, it’s in good company with Wrath of Khan and Undiscovered Country.
But because no good Trek movie can go unpunished, off to tomorrow and Insurrection!