Star Trek: First Contact on PAL Laserdisc

Star Trek: First Contactis the second big screen adventure to featurethe Next Generation crew, and the first without any members of theoriginal 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 whichPicard became assimilated into the Borg collective. Six years on, and Picardstill has nightmares about it. While the Borg are about to cause hell in onepart 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 kickBorg-butt and attempt to blow up the Borg’s cube.

As they try to destroy it, a sphere escapes and headstowards Earth creating a temporal vortex which allowed to Borg to go back intime and assimilate the entire planet. Duty bound, Picard insists they headinto the vortex so they can put things back to rights and return the ninebillion 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 stopZefram Cochran, inventor of the Warp Drive, from making his creation, andpreventing the events of the day after, April 5th – First Contact, whereEarthlings first made contact with the Vulcans.

What follows is the Borg’s attempt to colonise the Enterprise after teleportingonboard without being noticed, before continuing their course for Earth. Picardhas the choice of detonating the ship and making sure the crew escape, thusmaking sure the Borg go out with a bang. One crew member asks, “Do you thinkthey’ll build another one?”, to which Picard replies, “Plenty more letters inthe 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 itoff, this being the first feature film without any of the original Star Trekcast, and the answer is that yes, they managed it. Not being a follower of anyof the television series, apart from watching the occasional episode, suchas “The Best of Both Worlds”, I always enjoy watching their big-screenoutings.

In the crew’s cast, Patrick Stewart heads the cast as well as he didin the first film coming across as one of the few main stars who can actproperly, and being a trained RSC actor, he’s had other film roles includingthe gay comedy, Jeffrey.

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

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

However, those who get very minor roles are Geordi, who has little to doexcept potter around with Riker and Cochran, and the two ladies in the filmwho do as little as they did in the last one. Deanna Troi only seems toget 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 aboutit. I wonder though, why in the end credits their names are only referred toas “Troi” and “Beverly”, when it’s only the men whose names are abbreviated totheir surname.

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

The picture and sound quality on this disc are unsurpassable. Pioneer haveexcelled themselves with this transfer, and it has to be one of thebest-looking PAL discs I have ever seen, with exceptional levels of detailshowing well in the attack on the Borg cube, and also the film’s opening shotwhich reveals the Borg collective.

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

If you haven’t got a laserdisc player, then a widescreen box-set of filmswill 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 laserdiscpurchase? As Picard says, “Make it so”.

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

Check outPioneer‘s Web site.

[Up to the top of this page]

Dom Robinson

Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.

DVDfever.co.uk

Follow DVDfever.co.uk