fleet-insignia5113.giffleet-insignia5113.giffleet-insignia5113.giffleet-insignia5113.giffleet-insignia5113.gif

firstcontact0036.jpg

November of 1996. This was, and probably always shall be, the high water mark of Star Trek. You had DS9 at the absolute apex of its game – as good as if not better than any of the other shows would ever be. You had the TNG films coming out every two years and, if we took this to be a queue, they had the potential to be awesome. And you had Voyager, which, yes, kinda sucked, but was at least there as an additional weekly fix. What a time! What a time!!

Of course, nothing this good lasts. The next feature film would be flat and the one after that would be awful. DS9 would retire in two years and Voyager would continue floating around the Delta Quadrant (but at least Seven of Nine was coming to round out the scenery.)

First Contact represents a future that could be – just like Zephram Cochrane’s warp ship ushered in an era of peace.

Now that I’m in the middle of “the project” I can see what a joy it was to hang out with Picard again. Nothing against Sisko or even Janeway…but it is just great to be back on the Enterprise.

Here’s what I said in June of 2006:
An absolute marvel of a motion picture. It has everything: it’s a time travel mindfuck, it’s a zombie picture, action-adventure, comedy and a great Star Trek yarn. Like Star Trek IV, one can come to this movie knowing nothing about Trek and still love this film. Alas, it is the only Picard film that really works (to my recollection), so here is an opportunity to bring up a topic that, you’d think, I’d only talk about ironically. Who is the better Captain, Picard or Kirk? Now, obviously Kirk kicks more ass. And, obviously, Shatner is King. Let’s get that out of the way. But I do think that Picard has better management skills. And I think he may be smarter. And, when push comes to shove, he can kick ass and make out with alien hotties, too. This conversation embarrasses all of us, yes I know, but I think the kneejerk reaction to yell at anyone who dare think Picard is better than Kirk ought to be reassessed. (Picard has the better catch phrase with “Make it so” also.)