Star Trek: First Contact

Star Trek: First Contact is the eighth full-length motion picture in the Star Trek franchise and second movie set in the TNG time-frame.

The film begins with a Borg attack on the Federation. Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the new Sovereign-class starship Enterprise-E, having the most experience with the Borg of anyone in Starfleet, are naturally sent off to patrol the Romulan Neutral Zone during the attack because of the fear that Picard's former assimilation might make him more of a liability in the battle than an asset. Some time during the battle, Picard and crew decide to dismiss their orders and join the battle. They arrive in time to rescue Worf and the crew of the USS Defiant. Picard still has some remaining Borg technology in him, allowing him to "hear" the Collective. Through this contact, he learns the exact spot needed to shoot at on the cube to destroy it. The cube is destroyed but launches a sphere before it explodes.

The Borg sphere travels back in time to the twenty-first century. Its goal is to prevent humanity's first contact with Vulcans, thus creating a new timeline where Earth is not strong enough to resist the Borg (contrary to Borg propaganda that "resistance is futile"). Firing from orbit, the sphere damages the first warp-capable ship, the Phoenix, built from an ICBM by Zephram Cochrane. Upon seeing the changes to the timeline, including a Borg-inhabited Earth, Picard orders the Enterprise-E to follow the sphere back in time to attempt to repair the timeline.

The Enterprise destroys the sphere but several Borg, including the Borg Queen transport to the Enterprise and begin assimilating the ship and crew. The surviving Borg make multiple other attempts to change history, each being subsequently thwarted. The final showdown takes place in the Borg hive in main engineering. Data, previously captured and tempted to join the Collective, fires on the Phoenix at the command of the queen. At the last second though, we see the torpedoes miss their target and we realize Data has resisted the queen's temptations. Data kills the queen by smashing a plasma coolant container which dissolves the queen's organic components, killing her.

Eventually, the warp flight is made, the Vulcans come to Earth, and the Enterprise returns to its own time.

Continuity problems

Much has been made concerning the history of the man Zephram Cochrane. He and his history seem portrayed very different in this film than in the TOS episode "Metamorphosis", in which the character first appeared.