Star Trek First Contact Retrospective/Review - Star Trek Retrospective, Part 11

the mid-1990s saw the star trek franchise riding high on its immense success the next generation had wrapped after seven years having become the definitive incarnation of star trek for millions of fans across the world as the tng cast made their leap to the big screen in star trek generations deep space nine was continuing to make big waves on the small screen with its ambitious serialized storytelling and voyager had successfully launched paramount's own network upn while generations had met with a mixed reception from fans and critics its box office was strong and there was clearly still demand for more big screen star trek adventures and so it wasn't long before work began on what would be the eighth star trek movie [Music] [Applause] during development of star trek generations paramount had secured a two-picture deal with executive producer rick berman and following the decent box office success of the tng era's debut feature film a subsequent star trek movie quickly began development once again the star duo of ronald d moore and brannan braga were enlisted to write the screenplay with berman telling the two to write a story involving time travel moore and braga however were more keen on doing something with the borg due to budgetary constraints the borg hadn't been seen in force since the next generation's best of both worlds and the writers were excited by what could be done with them on a feature film budget almost as soon as the writers had voiced the idea all three of them suggested doing both the borg and time travel in the following story meetings more and braga began batting around ideas for which time period the story could travel to an initial idea was for the enterprise to travel back to renaissancera italy with the initial treatment being titled star trek renaissance however as this idea developed budgetary concerns were raised around depicting this period on screen among other shortcomings moore recalled we begin to realize these horrific monsters were the borg we track them down to a castle near the village where a nobleman runs a feudal society we suspect the borg are working there but no one can get in so data becomes our spy impersonating an artist's apprentice data becomes friends with leonardo da vinci who at the time was working for the nobleman as a military engineer you would have sword fights and phaser fights mixed together in 15th century europe it risked becoming really campion over the top with the star trek renaissance ideas scrapped it was brandon braga who suggested travelling back to first contact between humans and vulcans he said the one image i had which i brought to the table was the image of vulcans coming out of the ship i wanted to see the birth of star trek we ended up coming back to that moment that to me is what made the time travel story fresh we got to see what happened when humans shook hands with their first aliens the following treatment was titled star trek resurrection and would see the borg travel back in time and attack zephyrum cochran's laboratory where he's building the first warp capable ship in the attack cochran would be injured with dr crusher fighting to save his life while picard would take cochran's place in history while working to repair the ship he would become romantically involved with a local photographer called ruby meanwhile riker would be in command of the enterprise fighting off invading borg forces this new draft was deemed strong enough that production expenses and other logistical needs began planning around it however when patrick stewart got wind of the draft he suggested switching the riker and picard stories with picard on the enterprise fighting against the borg and riker on the surface further notes from paramount took issue with the borg as villains as they were essentially a zombie-like force moore and braga admitted writing any kind of dialogue for a faceless enemy proved difficult therefore in the next draft the writers created the borg queen as a kind of figurehead expanding on the insect-like elements already present within the board they also had cochrane conscious for the plot and had fun subverting fan expectations by making cochrane a flawed prophet-driven individual whose invention accidentally utters in the bright future of star trek to direct the film paramount approached ridley scott and john mctiernan among others but they both turned it down as the search continued jonathan frakes petitioned paramount for the job having already directed a number of episodes for the next generation deep space nine and voyager patrick stewart championed frakes to direct as well stating frakes new star trek inside and out and would be the perfect choice for the job reportedly it was after directing deep space nine's past tense two-parter that paramount gave fricks the job while preparing for the film the freaks watched jaws at close encounters of the third kind 2001 a space odyssey and a slew of james cameron and ridley scott films he did this in order to familiarize himself with what was possible shooting in a widescreen anamorphic ratio as opposed to the square 4x3 ratio he was used to shooting in for the tv shows as script revisions continued 20th century fox had announced alien resurrection and so paramount ordered the star trek resurrection title be changed to avoid brand confusion eventually the team settled on star trek first contact the first task for the art department of the film was creating a new ship design for the enterprise e production designer hermann zimmermann worked with illustrator john eaves to create the new ship the notes they were given from moore and braga was for a sleeker more muscular looking craft eaves took heavy inspiration from the design of the uss excelsior and tried to create the excelsior version of the galaxy class as he put it his initial designer rotated the oval saucer section of the galaxy class and retained the horseshoe-like shape of the nacelle pylons enthusiastic at first eves was then told by a member of the production staff that his design looked like a chicken in a pan being unable to unsee this image eaves and zimmerman started again with some help from rick sternbach and additional notes from rick berman the design for what would later be named the sovereign class was finalized in contrast to previous star trek film productions the interior sets for the new enterprise were almost entirely new creations with only some small parts cannibalized from past productions here and there the exception was sickbay which was reused from star trek voyager the bridge set ended up being far larger than the bridge seen in the next generation with a holographic projector at the front rather than the traditional view screen while not seen in the final film the design team made sure to include the blinkies the small blinking lights always seen underneath the view screen on star trek bridge sets herman zimmerman also collaborated with makeup designer michael westmore and costume designer deborah everton to create the new look for the borg contributions were also made by illustrator alex delgado while some of his more outlandish ideas like obelisk-shaped vessels and exposed organs were rejected the general aesthetic he came up with was well liked westmore loved the idea of a person looking as though they had been borgified from the inside out rather than the outside in he and his team created eight to borg suits which were then customized for different actors and characters the call times for the borg actors were as early as 2 am arriving on set it would then take 30 minutes for the actors to don their borg suits with another 5 hours of makeup and 90 minutes at the end of the day to remove it all south african actress alice krieger was cast as the boar queen for her costume a tight bodysuit was made out of hard rubber roughly halfway through shooting though her costume had to be adjusted to soft rubber as the hard rubber was causing blisters and her corneas were being damaged by the thick silver contact lenses she had to wear however according to the makeup team kriegen never once complained jonathan frakes called krieg and the other borg actors real troopers for putting up with the elaborate costumes and makeup so well for the phoenix spacecraft originally moore and braga envisioned the ship as resembling a nasa space shuttle situated on an outdoor platform however achieving this would mean either costly visual effects or costly set building while scouting locations berman was able to gain access to a real nuclear missile silo and suggested to the writers the phoenix could be a ship built out of a missile the writers liked the idea and so adjusted their script the missile silo in question was located in green valley arizona with a hollow out titan ii missile still inside jon eaves then designed a shuttle pod to sit at the tip of the missile he also took inspiration from real nasa rockets to create the look of the phoenix in its multiple launch stages its final form outfitted with fold-out warp nacelles for the role of zeph from cochrane the production originally approached tom hanks who is a die-hard star trek fan to this day unfortunately he was too busy with his own directorial debut at the time that thing you do instead star trek veteran and academy award nominee james cromwell was cast as cochran for the role of ruby which was later reworked into the character lily alfree woodard was cast being a close friend of jonathan frakes franks and the team also wanted to include a number of fan pleasing cameos such as dwight schultz as reginald barkley robert piccardo was the emh and ethan phillips as a holographic maitre d i remember going up to berman and saying uh you know i could be in this movie nobody knows what the heck i look like and i'm covered with makeup i said not to put my credit so my credit's not on the film when they do the cash list at the end on the scroll you won't see it in phillips has to make your day who said well why didn't you why don't you want to get credited and i said well i thought it'd be fun if uh you know somebody sees that major dean goes wait a minute isn't that the guy who plays nelix ethan phillips oh i don't know let's wait for the credits he's not there this is kind of my way of going yeah for filming freaks hired cinematographer matthew f leonetti friggs having been impressed with his work on poltergeist and strange days for much of the borg action on the enterprise leonetti chose to shoot with longer lenses for a claustrophobic look which complemented fraxe's choice to shoot the action in a more suspenseful horror movie-like style however due to the amount of new sets which had to be constructed the production had to take care of location shooting first after completing filming in the arizona missile silo filming moved to los angeles where herman zimmerman had built a small shanty town to stand in for montana many of the cast enjoyed these scenes immensely as i got them out of their regular starfleet uniforms and allowed them to have fun with the more comedic scenes i never thought ever in my wildest dreams that troy would be the comic relief in any star trek movie and i was thrilled absolutely thrilled to see councillor troy under the influence of five or six shots of tequila is worth the price of admission alone shooting in general took on a leisurely pace with friggs keeping spirits high with his high energy directing style something which he maintained throughout production this energy kept the crew engaged when the production moved into the action sequences which were dubbed borg hell the most complex sequence to film was the deflector dish set piece which required construction of a massive set surrounded by a blue screen the nature of the sequence also provided challenges to freaks when shooting he said we were on a circle which has no geography to it we had our three heroes picard wharf and hawk and spacesuits which look identical so you couldn't tell who was who until you got really close but the minute you get in close you defeat the whole point of being on the outside of the ship so you can see the stars and earth looming in the background it was a shooting and editing nightmare the majority of visual effects for the film were once again handled by industrial light and magic supervised by john knoll to help frakes better envision the vfx sequences computer-generated animatics were used something which is now an industry standard but was a new technology at the time first contact was the last star trek movie to use a model for the enterprise although later films reused this same model of the enterprise e the majority of shots would go on to use a cg enterprise instead the only other large miniature built for first contact was that of the borg cube the sphere which ejects from the cube was also computer generated for the opening battle sequence a number of brand new starfleet ships were designed previous films mostly used miranda excelsior and nebula class ships as the models for these ships were readily available in storage for first contact the norway class akira class saber class and steamrunner class were all designed by the ilm team and built from scratch in cg the defiant from deep space nine also made an appearance with ilm reusing the same cg model from the show the entrance of the borg queen was considered by friggs to be the film's signature shot on set krieg was lowered into position on a motion controlled rig with her lower body being covered in a blue screen suit multiple motion-controlled camera passes were shot so different takes could be combined the shot took the ilm team at five months in total to complete for the film's music composer jerry goldsmith once again returned to the franchise he once again used his main theme originally written for the motion picture supplemented by a more hopeful theme unique to the film itself goldsmith also brought back the klingon theme for the motion picture during wharf's reappearance for the borg goldsmith created an intimidating march with hints of synthesizers due to the tight post-production schedule goldsmith was given only three weeks to finish the music for the film to do this he enlisted the help of his son joel goldsmith who would later compose for these stargate television shows joel goldsmith handled many of the action cues with the fight at the corridors and deflected his set piece being handled almost entirely by joel for the first time in the film series first contact also utilized licensed music with roy orbison's ooby-dooby for the scene where cochrane dances while drunk and steppenwolf's magic carpet ride for the phoenix launch after a generally pleasant shoot and challenging post-production process star trek first contact was released on the 22nd of november 1996. star trek first contact is another one of the strongest entries in the movie series it achieves that rare feat of being a real crowd pleaser full of thrills and fun while also being driven by a character-centric and thematically rich story while i personally don't think it quite reaches the same heights as the wrath of khan or the undiscovered country it's still one of my favorites to watch with a big bowl of popcorn i previously gave a lot of praise to the visuals of generations and how grand david carson managed to make the film look but that was in spite of having to reuse so much from the tv show first contact on the other hand looks properly cinematic the entire visual style simply looks sleeker with rich warm colors in each location and layers of sculpted lighting to create far more depth in the image while i personally don't rate the sovereign class particularly high on my enterprise ranking list preferring the more taller modular ship designs even i can't deny how fantastic it looks in this film and the plethora of other new ship designs are very welcome the revamped borg designs are also very successful while i've always liked the starkly pale skin and black coloured cybernetics seen next generation the bulkier armor and veiny skin in first contact adds a level of creepiness and body horror to the borg which enhances their sense of threat jonathan frakes also does a brilliant job in his direction of the movie he gets an incredible amount of mileage out of these very cramped spaces in the action scenes the close quarters fighting with wharf and data is very well staged and packs some real punch and for all the difficulties in shooting the deflector dish sequence it's definitely the standout set piece of the film with an inescapable rising tension and badass action movie equipped from wharf to finish it off assimilate this ilm's work is once again top notch as is expected from them the 90s was that perfect grace period when it came to computer-generated and more traditional visual effects the combination of miniatures and cg effects is almost seamless with the different techniques being used in clever ways throughout and as a result playing to their strengths one can nitpick a few shots here and there but in general ilm knocked out the park as usual jerry goldsmith's music is always welcome to my ears and the themes he created for star trek are simply iconic whenever i hear that big main theme come in it always puts an instant smile on my face the hopeful original theme for this movie also works very well tonally the movie strikes a great balance between the horrors of the borg the thrills of the action and the bright future the enterprise crew compel cochrane to make happen and this additional theme for the film is a big part of why it all works joel goldsmith's contribution to the action scenes is also great work i'm a big fan of his later work on stargate and while he was certainly imitating his father's style for this film there are some nice flourishes of his own here too sometimes in the star trek fandom there is a debate over how much action star trek can have without diminishing the more thoughtful themes and ideas often engaged with in star trek for me first contact is proof that star trek can comfortably do both although in my opinion the wrath of khan and many other entries in the franchise already did so that being said first contact manages to pack in so much of what makes star trek great into a tight and entertaining movie it's one of those movies where you can turn your brain off for some solid action but also turn your brain on for some well-explored themes just like the wrath of khan first contact references moby dick and uses it as an allegory for revenge but while the previous film used this to characterize the villain first contact using it for picard adds a lot of weight patrick stewart gives a stellar performance as usual as we slowly see him start to unravel the more of the enterprise which is taken by the borg the more unhinged picard becomes the usually calm and collected persona of the captain showing its cracks the scene where he finally breaks is another one of those iconic quotable star trek moments brilliantly performed but there's even more to the film's themes than this drive for revenge first contact also examines the human capacity to grow and help shape that bright future star trek is known for characterizing zephrim cochrane as an alcoholic wreck only interested in making money is a stroke of genius and cromwell frankly steals the show from the regulars on the planet surface cochran's growth as a character as he comes to understand and embrace the implications of his warp drive is cleverly mirrored by picard's own degeneration into a revenge obsessed captain ahab standard although picard insists how much more advanced humans of the 24th century are it's lily the 21st century individual who gets him to recognize what he's become wrapping all of this up with the borg an enemy who represent the failure of empathy in favor of technology makes them the ideal antagonists for this story the introduction of the boar queen though is a little controversial and something i have mixed feelings on myself now make no mistake alice krieg's performance is fantastic with the actress choosing to instill the queen with an uneasy sexiness i suppose what drives her is a kind of insatiable need for power they say what eros and fanatas are the driving forces of the universe at any rate according to freud and i so i just thought it was interesting that there should be a very sexual spin to her exercise of power the dynamic she has with data is particularly fascinating as the borg aspire to make themselves strong through technology while data is often jealous of organics the sexually charged relationship between the two is all kinds of twisted but very interesting to watch on the other hand i do totally understand those who say the bore queen kind of ruins the idea of the borg being this monolithic hive mind with no individuals committing to this concept is what made them so threatening in their first appearance and in the best of both worlds i do agree with this criticism for the most part but at the same time within the context of this movie i think the character works extremely well perhaps if having a queen was something unique to this particular set of borg everyone would be happy but overall it doesn't bother me significantly in first contact itself ultimately i think first contact is a star trek movie which just gets things right the action is exciting the borg are scary as hell but it's also a thoroughly enjoyable fun flick with healthy doses of humor here and there there are plenty of sci-fi thrills to be had but also some classic star trek themes being explored to engage your brain as i said on an emotional level i don't love first contact to the same extent as other star trek movies but it's clearly a strong outing for the franchise if ever you're in the mood for some rock solid star trek action adventure you can't really go wrong with first contact upon release star trek first contact was a much greater success than star trek generations having been pleased with test screenings paramount made a much bigger marketing push with first contact commissioning making of documentaries video games and other tie-in merchandise to help generate hype for the release critics and fans alike received the film very positively praising the visuals and art direction as well as the revamped borg and character-driven drama the accessibility of the film was also praised as although the film does reference events from the show it does a good job of getting newcomers up to speed it opened at number one at the box office and went on to gross 146 million dollars worldwide on a budget of 45 million comfortably exceeding the gross of generations it also sold well on home video eventually becoming one of the first paramount releases on dvd two years later while generations was an overall success with a few caveats first contact was a genuine hit and it wasn't long before paramount were asking for the crew of the enterprise to embark on another big screen adventure meanwhile on the small screen the team behind star trek voyager had been wanting to use the borg for quite some time but were forbidden from doing so before first contact was released now with the federation's deadliest enemy having been successfully revamped the voyager team was finally given the green light [Music] thank you for watching if you like these videos subscribe and hit the bell icon to stay up to date on my new uploads if you want to help the channel grow join my patrons or my youtube members where you can see videos early as well as some other exclusive content speaking of which i'd like to quickly thank all of my patrons and members who are now appearing on screen have a good one and as always live long and prosper

Channel: Rowan J Coleman

Views: 222,070

Keywords: star trek, star trek first contact, star trek first contact retrospective review, star trek first contact review, star trek first contact movie review, star trek generations, star trek the next generation, star trek deep space nine, star trek voyager, star trek enterprise, star trek discovery, spacedock, generation films, trek culture, star trek retrospective, star trek retrospective part 11, rowan j coleman

Id: 3crtj7XcQVU

Length: 23min 24sec (1404 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 22 2021