I'm not a fan of JJ Abrams re-incarnation of Star Trek, not by a million miles. So if I want to have fun Trek time I have to look way back to previous generations (ironically this time the Next Generation) and to 1996's Star Trek: First Contact - the last truly great Trek movie.
Haunted by dreams of the techno-zombie Borg race calling to him Picard wastes no time (okay, maybe a little) in charging the Enterprise into a Borg battle with the Federation above the Earth. The cube is successfully destroyed, but the Borg manage to travel back to the mid-21st century, a time when Earth is fractured due from World War III, and try to prevent the first meeting between humans and aliens.
Zefram Cochrane is the man who makes that connection with his first ever warp drive flight, and he's not quite the squeaky clean hero that the Enterprise crew thought he would be. Meanwhile, with their escape pod destroyed, the remaining Borg slowly take over the Enterprise, with their as-yet-unseen Queen attempting to seduce security codes out of Data with promises of humanity (a clever reversal of Borg culture).
Naturalized Star Trek movies tend to fare better with audiences. Both First Contact and the Voyage Home are more accessible for non-Trek fans but still have a sense of adventure and a strong connection to the universe (pun intended). First Contact also receives a huge boost from Jerry Goldsmith's beautiful score, which is his best Trek effort and certainly one of his best scores overall. The action is a little bit clunky (endless generic Enterprise corridor scenes get a bit tiresome) but the character chemistry is pitch perfect and there is a good variety in the excitement.
Haunted by dreams of the techno-zombie Borg race calling to him Picard wastes no time (okay, maybe a little) in charging the Enterprise into a Borg battle with the Federation above the Earth. The cube is successfully destroyed, but the Borg manage to travel back to the mid-21st century, a time when Earth is fractured due from World War III, and try to prevent the first meeting between humans and aliens.
Zefram Cochrane is the man who makes that connection with his first ever warp drive flight, and he's not quite the squeaky clean hero that the Enterprise crew thought he would be. Meanwhile, with their escape pod destroyed, the remaining Borg slowly take over the Enterprise, with their as-yet-unseen Queen attempting to seduce security codes out of Data with promises of humanity (a clever reversal of Borg culture).
Naturalized Star Trek movies tend to fare better with audiences. Both First Contact and the Voyage Home are more accessible for non-Trek fans but still have a sense of adventure and a strong connection to the universe (pun intended). First Contact also receives a huge boost from Jerry Goldsmith's beautiful score, which is his best Trek effort and certainly one of his best scores overall. The action is a little bit clunky (endless generic Enterprise corridor scenes get a bit tiresome) but the character chemistry is pitch perfect and there is a good variety in the excitement.