I personally think TNG is the best Star Trek series ever. I assume I am not alone in thinking this. But unfortunately I have found some of the movies that immediately followed less than stellar (if you’ll forgive the pun). The first one esp. was poor IMHO. Star Trek Generations. The nexus was an especially silly plot device I thought. I like my sci-fi to be plausible, predictions of the actual future if you will. And the nexus was just plain silly (it is not poss. such a thing would really exist–is it?).
No, my all-time favorite for TNG movies is unquestionably Star Trek First Contact. It had all the things that made the series so good. The triumph of technology over adversity. Hope for the future. The triumph of hope over adversity. I esp. loved Zefram Cochrane as the unlikely hero. They put him on a pedestal. But he proved to be all too human.
I haven’t bothered to look at other posts involving Star Trek movies for a reason. I want my opinion on the matter to be fresh and unspoiled by reading other posts on the matter.
In some ways First Contact seemed like a rehash of what we saw in Wrath. You had someone obsessed with the enemy and they made Moby Dick references. In Wrath it was Khan who was obsessed and in First Contact it was Picard. Still, First Contact is most certainly the best TNG movie because the others sucked.
If you’re gonna shoot down Generations on the basis of the plot being unrealistic, I’m afraid the movie about the time traveling cyborg aliens gets similarly disqualified.
That said, of the TNG movies, First Contact was my favorite too, for various reasons. Mostly it was interesting and exciting and fun.
Red Letter Media do a pretty good job of explaining why the TNG Star Trek movies don’t work. Careful though, lots of profanity and twisted humour.
The only thing that truly bothered me in First Contact when I first saw it was that Data is apparently bulletproof. RLM point this out too - in previous TNG episodes it is established that he is susceptible to projectiles (in the holodeck he is hit by an arrow, and explains that he only narrowly avoided serious damage).
The best of the (generally mediocre) TNG movies is the half of First Contact that deals with the Borg directly. The Zephrem Cochrane half was annoying, and the movie as a whole suffered from feeling like a TV show, what with having the A and B stories.
I have to disagree with the notion that TNG is the best of the series. That’s clearly DS9, though TOS is close on its heels.
I think she was more interested on the other side. And I’ve never been sure Riker or Worf or even Beverly Crusher would have gotten any less laid if they’d been the one knocking on her door.
Data gets some funny gags in Generations after his emotion chip is implanted and activated. “Lifeforms! My lovely little lifeforms!” while he uses “Mr. Tricorder”.
