star trek: first contactstar trek: first contact |
Here it is, the sypnosis to the new TNG movie that appeared
on Nov. 23, 1996, Star Trek: First Contact.
Caution is advised, there are hefty spoilers which give away pretty much everything.
You may also want to take a look at the Sovereign Class NCC-1701-E, available at Starbase Cube3 as reported by Starlog and rendered by Larry Rosenthal. Fascinating ship, but definitely more sombre and warlike than any of its predecessors.
This sypnosis was, as most things are on the Internet, supplied anonymously. It has been edited for spelling and storyline mistakes. It is now, in fact, very accurate. If I am breaking any copyright infringements by display this, much like it is now illegal to post the Star Trek: Generations script online, PLEASE tell me. If the summary is legit, then it is the property of Paramount Pictures. Now, on with the show.
Image: Picard and Data in Stellar Cartography [ST:G] (c)1994 Paramount
THE FILM OPENS WITH PICARD'S nightmarish memories of being assimilated by the Borg and made into Locutus. He awakes in his quarters, aboard the Enterprise-E, to an incoming hail from Starfleet command. Picard is about to be told about a report from Deep Space 5 of an incoming Borg ship by Admiral Hayes, but Picard knows. He can feel it. He still maintains a slight connection with the Borg, a connection that frightens Starfleet enough to send the Enterprise to patrol the neutral zone for Romulan activity, not take part in the massive fleet being assembled. "Starfleet thinks I may be an unstable element in the battle," Picard dryly remarks.
Picard follows his orders grimly, sending the ship to the boring, uneventful patrol, much to the dismay of his crew (Riker, Data, Beverly, Troi, and Geordi - sans visor.) For the past 6 months, the new Sovereign Class starship has been on a shakedown cruise, testing her new systems. At the border, Picard and company listen on Starfleet audio channels as the battle wages on in Earth orbit. Suddenly, the transmission is lost. Picard orders the Enterprise to Earth, but has reservations about disobeying orders. Data assures him "I believe I speak for all of us present when I say, to hell with our orders." The Enterprise sails to earth at maximum warp.
At Earth, dozens of Starfleet ships, including the Defiant under Worf's command, try to hold the ship back, but to no avail. The Defiant is about to be destroyed when the Enterprise arrives, opens fire on the Borg, lets the crippled Defiant retreat and then beams the Defiant crew to safety. With Haye's ship destroyed, Picard takes command of the fleet and using his knowledge of the Borg, has the entire fleet target a specific, seemingly non-vital area of the ship. All weapons fire; hundreds of torpedoes and phaser blasts creates a deep gash in the cube's hull; the Borg ship explodes. The Federation has won.
Or, so they think. From the wreckage, a spherical daughter ship shoots out, heading straight for Earth. The Enterprise follows her in as the Borg sphere creates a temporal vortex and disappears. The Enterprise is caught in the backwash and spared the changes in the timeline. Earth changes into a Borg world with a methane atmosphere, supporting 9 billion Borg drones. Realizing the Borg have somehow altered Earth history, Picard orders the Enterprise into the collapsing vortex.
The Enterprise arrives in the mid 21st century - April 4th, 2063 to be exact: the day before the first warp flight and subsequent first contact by Zefram Cochrane. The Borg sphere appears over Resurrection, Montana and attacks the settlement. The Enterprise is barely able to stop it with her torpedoes. With the Borg threat extinguished, Picard sends down officers to make sure history wasn't entirely screwed up.
On the surface, Picard, Data, Troi, and Crusher find the launch site of Cochrane's ship, the Phoenix. Crusher beams herself and an injured woman, Lily Sloane, who is Zefram's assistant, to sickbay. The Phoenix took damage and Zefram's team has died, so Picard has Riker and Geordi beam down to repair it. Troi sets out to find Cochrane, and Riker later finds them both at the local bar, bombed on tequila. Unfortunately, to get Zefram to cooperate, they must reveal themselves to him and they find that the greedy drunkard they meet is a lot different than the revered historical figure their history books taught them.
In a quiet scene, Data is puzzled by Picard's fascination to touch the surface of the Phoenix, as Data can only sense touch in purely analytical terms. However, they soon beam up when they learn of peculiar aberrations in the Enterprise's environmental systems. The Borg weren't killed in the sphere explosion. They beamed into the Enterprise's lower decks, took Engineering as their command centre and are beginning the process of assimilating the Enterprise and her crew, from the inside out.
![[The big E to the rescue]](1701e4.jpg)
Everything below Deck 11 is taken and power is shut down. Dr. Crusher and the medics evacuates sickbay, leaving the emergency medical hologram as a diversion. In the Jeffries tube scramble, Sloane, still suspecting that the crew are a rival faction from the 21st century, escapes. Data is able to encrypt the computer system to prevent access by the Borg, but they are quickly gaining the upper hand. Picard leads an attack force comprised of Data, Worf and several security guards into the bowels of the ship, which now resemble more of a Borg ship instead of the Enterprise. A battle in Engineering claims the lives of many of the security force, Data is captured, Picard is trapped below decks. Crewmembers trapped down there are immediately assimilated, turned into drones who attack their former crewmates. Only Worf escapes.
Picard finds a phaser-wielding, hysterical Lily and has to work with her and convince her that they aren't the enemy. Data is strapped to an assimilation table and is worked on by Borg drones. It is here that Data comes face to face with the driving force behind the Borg, the Borg Queen. Data, who can now turn his emotion chip on and off, is able to fight back, but finds it difficult when the Borg Queen implants real skin on his endoskeleton, making his dream of becoming more human a reality.
Picard and Lily use a Dixon Hill holodeck program to escape the Borg. Picard kills two Borg with a holographic tommygun, and proceeds to ruthlessly rip out one of the Borg's memory processor. Lily points out in horror that the Borg is wearing a crew uniform. "That was Lt. Lynch," Picard replies coldly. From the processor, Picard discovers that several Borg drones have left the ship and have begun to alter the deflector dish to send a message to the Borg of this time period, "Attack Earth." Picard, Worf and Lt. Hawk go outside the Enterprise to destroy the deflector.
On Earth, overwhelmed by all that he has learned of his future life, Zefram escapes the crew. On the Enterprise, Worf and Picard are able to destroy the deflector after a zero-G firefight with the Borg. At that moment, the Borg recommence their assault. The only solution is to evacuate the Enterprise and scuttle her.
Picard first refuses, grimly instructing the crew to "fight to the last man." Picard becomes angry and unreasonable, accusing Worf of cowardice. Lily confronts him in his ready room, and learns of Picard's hidden desire to pay the Borg back for what they've done to him. After arguing, Picard changes his mind, and with Worf and Beverly, arms the self-destruct. The ship is evacuated, but Picard stays behind, intent on rescuing Data, and confronting the terror that has dominated his life for so long.
On Earth, Riker and Geordi assist Cochrane with the launch of the Phoenix. Upon seeing the stars in Earth orbit, Cochrane realizes his loft and greedy goals of capitalizing his warp engine are futile to the possibilities the engine could hold for reshaping Earth, just as Riker, Geordi and Troi have said. The Phoenix prepares for warp, oblivious to the now Borg-controlled Enterprise looming closer and closer.
In the engine room, Picard confronts the Borg Queen, an entity Picard encountered before, when he was known as Locutus. We learn here why Locutus was made, to be an equal to the Queen. However, Locutus refused to work with the Borg voluntarily, so he could not be her consort. The Queen is the Borg. The drones are her inner workings, the cube ships, her grasping hands. Picard attempts to trade himself for Data, now almost covered in grafted skin, now able to feel true physical pain and pleasure. However, Data has submitted to the Queen. He deactivates the self destruct, takes out the encryption lockouts on the computer, and locks quantum torpedoes on the Phoenix. Picard is strapped to the assimilation table. "Watch your future's end, Picard" the Borg Queen says breathlessly. It appears all hope is lost as the torpedoes fire...
...and cleanly misses the Pheonix. Data fights back, ending the ruse. Data blow out the plasma injector feeds, belching out a substance that melts away the biological components of the Borg. Picard jumps to safety, and Data takes the Queen and holds her in the stream. Data loses his human flesh, revealing his endoskeleton, but kills the Borg Queen, ending this newest Borg menace.
The Phoenix successfully makes the warp jump. On Earth, Picard and crew watch from a safe distance as Cochrane and Sloane make the first contact with the Vulcans, essentially the birth of the Federation. They return to the Enterprise and warp back to the 24th century.
"I'm just a Starfleet officer again. All I have to worry about are the Klingons, the Dominion, and the Maquis. I feel like I'm on vacation."
-- Capt. Benjamin Sisko, on stepping down as Emissary, DS9 "Accession"
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