Star Trek: First Contact

In case you haven't heard, the Borg are back and they are itching for a fight. This simple idea is the overwhelming focus of Star Trek: First Contact, the eighth big screen entry in the series and the first full blown excursion by The Next Generation crew (minus those old guys). The result is the wildest and most action-packed adventure since Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Occasionally,the movie is almost too exciting as it attempts a tricky balance between humanitarian ideals and raw terror. Both ethics and good judgement can take a pounding when the Borg are on the loose.

The horror of it all is already bothering Capt. Picard(Patrick Stewart) when he jolts awake from a nightmare rooted in his own experience with Borg-style assimilation. Picard is equally bothered by the fact that Star Fleet still doesn't
trust him where the Borg are concerned. Despite rumors of a Borg ship heading toward Federation space, the Enterprise E has been sent to chill out along the Neutral Zone. No wonder Picard is in such a foul and snappish mood.

But the Federation's effort to destroy the Borg vessel through a massive attack turns into a disastrous failure(again) that is barely salvaged by the traditional wiliness of the Enterprise crew to conveniently disobey orders whenever they feel like it. But Picard's uncanny (and unexplained) ability to blow up the enemy's big cube doesn't help him to comprehend what is happening when a small sphere escapes from the exploding Borg ship. The sphere rushes for Earth, does the time warp bit, and presto - the 24th century is now thoroughly assimilated.

Thanks to an irrational combination of pseudo-science and techno-babble, the Enterprise E follows the Borg sphere back to the 21st century. Suddenly it becomes clear that the real target of the Borg attack is the legendary inventor of warp drive, Zefram Cochrane (James Cromwell). It is the eve of Cochrane's first test flight (and mankind's first encounter with an alien race) and the Borg intend to end humankind involvement with interstellar history at its origin.

Too bad the Borg didn't go for the easy way. Another round of drinks should be enough to put Cochrane out for a couple of years. In the history books, Cochrane is a great man. In the flesh, he's a bit of a drunken lout who seems quicker with the leer than the equations. If history is to be fulfilled, Picard has to successfully fend off the Borg(who have seized the Enterprise's engineering room and begun assimilating the crew) as well as sober up the world's shakiest rocket scientist.

The double narrative of Star Trek: First Contact is both its strength and weakness. Many of the scenes with Cochrane provides the movie with a zesty sense of fun, especially when Troi (Marina Sirtis) makes the mistake of trying to keep up with the tequila habits of this seasoned, soused pro. Likewise, the dim awakening of Cochrane to his historic role provides Star Trek: First Contact with a nice dose of Gene Roddenberry's old-school concerns about humanity.

But the real action takes place on the Enterprise as Picard turns the battle against the Borg into a very personal(and increasingly demented) campaign. The cybernetic bad boys of deep space have just assimilated over half of the ship's crew, are converting portions of the Enterprise into a Borg environment, and have kidnapped Data so he can be a boy toy for their queen (Alice Krige). So what. Picard is solely interested in avenging himself. It's Capt. Ahab time on the USS Enterprise as Picard picks up a phaser, drops some quotes from Moby Dick, and starts blasting at anyone who even has a lousy paper clip dangling from their face. In other words, he goes slightly nutso.

Which may explain why Star Trek: First Contact has an odd, distant feel to it. The movie is strongly dependent upon the viewer being familiar with the TV series and runs the risk of being difficult for the non-Trekker to follow. In turn, it deviates enough from the show's standard characterizations (as well as from its continuity) to be slightly confounding to the fans.

But a combination of strong acting, and surprisingly solid direction from Frakes, pulls Star Trek: First Contact through most of its weaker moments. Stewart is able to keep the increasingly obsessive Picard sympathetic, even while ripping a circuit out of the entrails of a Borgized shipmate. Likewise, Spiner is allowed to return to his more low key portrayal of Data ( the recently acquired emotion chip is mercifully down played). When the Borg Queen goes to seduce Data, Spiner is able to maintain the android's childlike sense of naivete without a single false moment of bad histrionic (unlike Star Trek: Generations).

The new movie is also more generous with the rest of the cast than was its half-baked predecessor. Marina Sirtis has a great drunk scene while Star Trek: Voyager's Robert Picardo unloads one of the funniest moments in the movie. As Cochrane, Cromwell manages to breath life into a weakly written role as he successfully transforms the deadhead professor into a figure of destiny. Only Alfre Woodard comes across as substandard, and her poor showing is clearly the result of playing a character who has no real function in the story. Even Woodard's one big moment in the film was obviously "borrowed" from another character (hey, only Dr. Crusher is allowed to talk to Jean-Luc in that manner).

But thrills are the main focus of Star Trek: First Contact as the movie takes the Enterprise on one of its most harrowing rides. Not only do the Borg get to be as bad as they want to be, but their Queen (Alice Krige) manages to throw in a bizarre set of sexual come-ons and snotty put-downs. Besides, Krige is also given one of the most impressive entrances in recent movie memory.

Best of all, Star Trek: First Contact is a sure sign that The Next Generation crew is bound to live long and prosper on the movie screen. That prospect alone turns the new film into an absolute must-see for fans.

The Triumph of the Tube

The Fugitive and The Coneheads will hit theaters very soon. Also barreling down the production pipeline is The Addams Family sequel and an expensive, live-action version of The Flintstones (produced by Steven Spielberg’s company, no less). Right behind them are films of The Beverly Hillbillies, The Brady Bunch and Car 54, Where Are You.

Surrender, Dorothy! The wicked witch of the little box has won. TV no longer threatens Hollywood – it owns the place.

There was a time when the dividing line between film and television was almost as rigid – and certainly more hostile – than the border between the free world and the Eastern Bloc. When TV first appeared, many in the film industry viewed it as a mere novelty. Radio with pictures, as Fred Allen dubbed it. But as the tube’s influence began to spread faster than a wild fire in the Hollywood hills, many studio executives viewed the box as a threat to the American way of life.

They were almost right. It was a threat to their way of life.

Studio bosses loathed the box, but they were anxious to exploit it financially. They began dumping butchered versions of old movies onto the airwaves with the greedy indifference of a junk dealer. A few popular TV shows of the 1950s – such as Dragnet and The Line Up – were quickly churned out as “B” features.

But there was a dividing line. A few TV directors – such as John Frankenheimer and Arthur Penn – were able to make successful transitions to the big screen. Others, like Robert Altman and Sam Peckinpah, were growing intensely restless with their televised servitude.

The situation was even worse for actors. To appear on television was a little like dying – except its effect was more lasting. There were film stars and there were mere TV players. Never would the twain meet.

That is, not until Clint Eastwood blasted his way from the box to the screen. When CBS canceled the Rawhide series in the early ‘60s, Eastwood became the town’s youngest has-been. He actually had to choose between truck driving and the lead in a low-budget Italian Western. With A Fistful of Dollars, Eastwood became the first major star to mutate out of the cathode-ray prison.

The message was clear. TV could be good for your career.

But the turning point came in 1979. The enormous success of Star Wars sent Hollywood into a sci-fi frenzy. Like everyone else, Paramount was looking to cash in. Unlike everyone else, they already had ownership of an old sci-fi series that was being redeveloped as a sequel program. What started out as Star Trek II for television suddenly became Star Trek – the Motion Picture.

The floodgates were opened. Like William Shatner’s toupees, TV began its relentless movement across the theater screen. With its prepackaged concepts – and an audience preconditioned by its pervasiveness – television took control of cinema.

There is simply no way to stop it.

Charlie’s Angels – The Movie is bound to be next.

(Note: At the time this was published, I thought I was joking. Instead, I became a prophet for Drew Barrymore.)

The Fugitive

First, here’s the answer to the question that buzzed around the theater during the screening of The Fugitive. David Janssen played Dr. Richard Kimble in the old TV series of the same name.

The film is only loosely inspired by the television series. On a couple of points, it’s much better – it’s closer to the spirit of Hitchcock and it has a far superior climax than the series’ disappointing wrap-up.

Harrison Ford is the new Dr. Kimble – a role he acquired after Alec Baldwin backed out of the picture. Good thing, too. Ford is a much better actor than Baldwin. He’s also the modern master of the morose, hunted look. Granted, Ford has always looked as if he had just bitten into something slightly foul-tasting, but it’s an expression that works for The Fugitive.

Kimble has every reason to feel morose: he’s railroaded for his wife’s murder even before the opening credits are over. Then, a shoot-out erupts on the bus in which he’s being transported to prison. The bus is then broad-sided by a train, and Kimble ends up being chased over half the countryside by the train engine. Then he takes a five-mile nose-dive down the side of a dam.

Fortunately, the preposterous stunts that open The Fugitive quickly give way to a dark, grim and (most surprising) witty film that slows to a more realistic tempo as Kimble returns to Chicago and doggedly searches for the one-armed man who killed his wife. Before you know it, the movie becomes a genuinely suspenseful thriller.

Kimble has more than his wife’s murder to contend with. He also has to learn who framed him, and why – and he quickly discovers that there is only one person he can trust.

Enter Deputy U.S. Marshal Gerard, the man who is pursuing him with near fanaticism. As played by Tommy Lee Jones, Gerard first appears to be a cold-blooded lunatic with the compassion of a pit bull. It’s halfway through the movie before we begin to realize that Gerard is neither stupid nor lacking a sense of justice.

Besides, Jones delivers some of the best put-downs in recent memory. His Gerard may be a mad dog to duty but he’s smart enough to cut through other people’s hogwash.

Aside from being the best thriller of the summer, The Fugitive propels the career of Chicago-based filmmaker Andrew Davis into high gear. Davis earned a modest critical reputation with a handful of early action flicks, including Under Siege, whose success made him bankable. With The Fugitive, he may be ready to enter the major league.