8 out of 10
 

Starring Patrick Stewart, Jonathon Frakes, Marina Sirtis

In the year 2063 Zephram Cochrane is poised to pilot the first warp-powered flight, which in the original time line attracted the attention of a passing alien survey ship thus precipitating earth’s First Contact with an alien race. However the Borg travel back in time to interfere with this chain of events in order to assimilate all humans. It’s up to Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his crew, with the assistance of a 21st century female, to foil the Borg and allow First Contact to take place. Later on Picard faces his nemesis the Borg Queen and also his demons from the past.

This is typical Star Trek fare with the requisite techno-babble, special effects etc. but it’s all very entertaining; “good guys vs. bad guys” and the Borg are the best “bad guys” in the Star Trek universe! Best Line: said by Lily the 21st century female: “The Borg? Sounds Swedish!” The concept of time travel i.e. going back in time in order to alter the present and future is a bit far-fetched although crops up frequently in ST. One weakness: towards the end, the Borg Queen failed to recognise that their scheme was going wrong; since all Borg are connected through the Collective she should have noticed this right away.

Acting performances were mostly excellent, especially those of the Borg Queen, Cochrane, Picard and Data (Brent Spiner). The writing was pretty good, it had a sufficiently strong plot with a few funny moments as we usually see in ST episodes; as I said, typical ST fare. In fact I love this genre which mixes such seriousness with humour!