Star Trek: First Contact - Themes

Themes

Frakes believes the main themes of First Contact—and Star Trek as a whole—are loyalty, friendship, honesty and mutual respect. This is evident in the film when Picard chooses to rescue Data rather than evacuate the ship with the rest of the crew. The film makes a direct comparison between Picard's hatred of the Borg and refusal to destroy the Enterprise and that of Captain Ahab in Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick. The moment marks a turning point in the film as Picard changes his mind, symbolized by his putting down his gun. A similar Moby-Dick reference was made in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and although Braga and Moore did not want to repeat it, they decided it worked so well they could not leave it out.

In First Contact, the individually inscrutable and faceless Borg fulfill the role of the equally unreadable titular white whale in Melville's work. Picard, like Ahab, has been hurt by his nemesis, and author Elizabeth Hinds said it makes sense that Picard should "opt for the perverse alternative of remaining on board ship to fight" the Borg rather than take the only sensible option left, to destroy the ship. Several lines in the film refer to the 21st century dwellers being primitive, with the people of the 24th century having evolved to a more utopian society. In the end it is Lily (the 21st century woman) who shows Picard (the 24th century man) that his quest for revenge is the very primitive behavior that humans had evolved to not use. Lily's words cause Picard to reconsider, and he quotes Ahab's words of vengeance, recognizing the death wish embedded therein.

The nature of the Borg, specifically as seen in First Contact, has been the subject of critical discussion. Author Joanna Zylinska notes that while other alien species are tolerated by humanity in Star Trek, the Borg are viewed differently due to their cybernetic alterations and the loss of personal freedom and autonomy. Members of the crew who are assimilated into the Collective are subsequently viewed as "polluted by technology" and less than human. Zylinska draws comparisons between the technological distinction of humanity and machine in Star Trek and the work of artists such as Stelarc. Oliver Marchart drew parallels between the Borg's combination of many into an artificial one and Thomas Hobbes's concept of the Leviathan. The nature of perilous first contact between species as represented by films such as Independence Day, Aliens and First Contact is a marriage of classic fears of national invasion and the loss of personal identity.