Every Star Trek Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

3. Star Trek: First Contact

Although The Next Generation crew came dangerously close to lacking a truly fantastic Star Trek film, First Contact came to the rescue in 1996. Directed by Jonathan Frakes, the film is the second Star Trek feature to sport a time-travelling storyline, focussing the action on humanity's first contact with extraterrestrial life during the 21st Century.

The Borg, TNG's most notorious villains, serve as the film's antagonists too. They're utterly terrifying, and Alice Krige's Borg Queen is one of the all time great Star Trek villains, playing off of Stewart's Picard almost gleefully at times. It's one of a bunch of contributing factors that make First Contact so great however, with the fact the film feels like a genuine film and not just another Next Generation episode helping it greatly.

The film itself is all about revenge, and while it's a theme Star Trek has toyed around with on many an occasion, there's a genius to First Contact's approach to it. Seeing the once collected and mature Picard adopt a shoot first, ask questions later policy with the Borg is a character defining moment, and one the Captain has to overcome by the film's end.

A few of TNG's biggest characters get lost in the melee between the Enterprise and the Borg, but in telling a truly dark and compelling Star Trek film, First Contact succeeds and then some.