The 14 Dumbest Things In Star Trek First Contact

Widely regarded as the best of the Next Generation cast movies, First Contact has the benefit of a relatively straightforward story. Yeah, it's a bit simplistic, but it's got action, a nice sequence on the hull of the ship, and some good character conflict moments between Picard and Lily Sloan. It even manages to get in enough fan-pleasing moments without engaging in outright pandering.

That's not to say it has no detractors. It's reimagining of TNG’s signature adversary, the Borg, was divisive. And many see this as the place where cerebral, diplomatic Picard transmogrifies into the less interesting “action movie Picard” we’d see more of in the subsequent films.

Compared to the films which immediately preceded and followed it, it's not as overflowing with dumb, but that's not to say it's perfect. So, let's fire up the chronometric vortex and travel back to 1996 to see just what kind of dumb we can find in First Contact.

At the start of the movie, Starfleet sends the Enterprise to cool its heels at the Neutral Zone for an unlikely Romulan incursion. As Picard puts it, “Let's just say that Starfleet has every confidence in the Enterprise and her crew. They're just not sure about her Captain.”

If this was the case, why not put Riker temporarily in charge? Or bring another Captain onboard to take command so that the brand new Enterprise can be sent into battle where it's desperately needed? Heck, if Picard is so concerned about the Borg, why doesn't he voluntarily step aside?

The only thing putting the Enterprise on ice seems to serve is a chance for Picard to make a dramatic decision and Data to get a one-liner in: “To hell with our orders.”