Book #123: Star Trek VIII: First Contact by J.M. Dillard
J.M. Dillard
Released: December 1st, 1996
My 53rd book for 2025 was J.M. Dillard’s "Star Trek VIII: First Contact.
10 more books to go until I hit my 2025 goal of 63 books read. I’ve been pounding away at them hellbent on achieving this goal. As of right now, I am set to hit it well ahead of schedule, and might have some bonus books to close out the year. We’ll see. Maybe even some older unpublished entries redone in this format. Stay Tuned.
Anyways…where was I…Ah, First Contact. Such a great story. The first TNG movie to be solely with their crew. Tie-ins from the series, memorable performances, well-written.
I found this one at Powell’s in Portland, OR. I was thrilled to learn that Star Trek had novelizations of the movies, and First Contact was a big find for me. Even if it did take me 8 years to read it.
Funny enough, this is the film I lost my innocence to. First Contact…how ironic lol. I was in college and had this friend I would eat lunch with and talk to. She wanted to hang out, so we did, and a couple beers in, we decided to watch this movie together. That didn’t last long. She asked if I wanted to “Engage” and I said “Make it so.” Ok, so perhaps the Star Trek lingo wasn’t there, but the film played a role in something that was a big moment in life.
I remember seeing advertisements for this one everywhere, but had no desire to watch it until years later. Something about 1995-1996 just never appealed to me.
In this story, the Borg have returned. After attacking the Federation, the crew of the Enterprise-E are startled to find the Earth has been assimilated. They understand it was done in the past, so they time travel to Earth in 2063 to stop the Borg’s attack, and ensure Zefram Cochrane succeeds to set up the future. From there Picard, Worf, and Data battle the Borg, while Riker and La Forge lead a team to help Zefram Cochrane invent warp speed.
This one had several good storylines in it. The way they intertwined worked well. It also establish the trope that any Star Trek film involving time travel would be a success. It also contained the villains everyone wanted to see in Generations: The Borg. The cybernetic villains who assimilated Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the now famous double-episode “The Best of Both Worlds” and affected him throughout the rest of the series. I will definitely be reading this book in the future.
Picard has to battle his connection to the Borg hive. It haunts and torments him throughout this story. He is even driven somewhat insane by his hatred and longing for revenge.
Zefram Cochrane is introduced here. The man who invented warp speed. While he doesn’t come across as the hero he was known to the crew as (alcoholism playing a role), he still makes his mark in history and goes on to change his life with this singular event.
The Borg are here in all their glory. We see the enemies we knew from the TV series, and they are put front and center. It worked super well, and made a great entry in a long-standing franchise.
Here is what I learned:
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- For Doc Marcia.
- Acknowledgments: First and foremost, I am grateful to all those whose efforts went into the creation of both script and film, and to those who gave me the honor of novelizing the former, specifi-cally: John Ordover, Star Trek editor at Pocket Books and all-around cheerful and adorable guy (at least, so far as I can tell over the phone); Paula Block, Viacom Consumer Products, the licensing division of Paramount Pictures, also a kind soul; John Eaves, illustrator for Star Trek: First Contact, another nice guy, who graciously provided material that helped me flesh out the details; And to Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, and Ronald D. Moore, who don't know me —but who, if I may say so, wrote a kick-butt movie that was pure pleasure to novelize.
- Apathy is the greater evil.
- This is a foe I can never engage, for they will never care enough to return my hate.
- “I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance…is futile.”
- Picard’s authorization is: Picard, 47AT.
- Picard is captain of the Enterprise-E.
- La Forge’s VISOR has been replaced with electronic ocular implants.
- “I am about to commit a direct violation of our orders. Any of you who wish to object, do so now and I’ll note it in my log.”
- “To Hell with our orders.”
- The Borg have time travel capabilities.
- People don’t die of cancer in the 24th Century.
- The Crash & Burn is a local bar in Montana.
- Zeframe Cochrane is a physicist entrepreneur who invented Warp Drive.
- Let me show you, he repeated, then grabbed a handful of blueprints off the cabinet, spread them out on the ground, and knelt before them. He spoke swiftly, hap-pily, of how the nuclear core contained in an old warhead could be harnessed for something he called a “warp engine," and he traced in the dirt some mathematical equations to prove it. She knew then that he really was what he claimed to be-a physicist. One, because he rattled on with blithe confidence that she would understand everything he said; after all, it was simple and obvious to him. Two, because she actually did understand much of what he told her, and it made frighteningly good sense.
- The Indonesians have offered millions for the Warp Drive.
- Cochrane is alcoholic.
- Cochrane has been suicidal in depressive times.
- The Enterprise travels to April 6th, 2063.
- Data has deactivated his emotion chip.
- Zev & Lily’s ship is the Phoenix.
- “And you people…you’re all astronauts on some kind of…star trek?”
- There are over 150 planets in the Federation over 8,000 light years.
- “The acquisition of wealth is no longer a driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity.”
- “Be careful of the enemies you choose — because the more you hate, the more you become like them.”
- Picard uses a Tommy gun against the Borg.
- La Forge attended Zefram Cochrane High School.
- According to space legend, drifting moonless into the void is the loneliest and longest of deaths.
- Data is full functionally in human physical pleasure and is programmed in multiple techniques.
- It has been 8 years, 7 months, 16 days, 4 minutes and 22 seconds since Data engaged in human sexual intercourse.
- “Don’t try to be a great man. Just be a man. Let history make its own judgments.”
- He had spent so many years hurting over all he had lost-the people, the treasured possessions, the life he had known-and then so many years hurting for no reason at all, except a damned disease that had been curable for half a century, that admitting that he cared about something was unthinkable.
- Lily and everyone else at the encampment shared the same belief, too: don't say you care about something-because then you will, and you'll wind up only losing it. Everything, everyone, was doomed to impermanence and decay.
- Humanity’s first contact with an alien culture were the Vulcans.
- Lily had admiration for the 24th century and laments losing Picard and the crew as they will never meet again.
- In the 24th century, you can cure brain chemical disorders with a single injection.
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Overall, pretty good read. The film is considered one of the best of the series, and the top of the Next Generation films. The novelization serves it well. I still say Wrath of Khan was better, but you still cannot deny how good this was. Recommended.
Recommended. Especially for Borg and history fans.
On to Book #124: Star Trek IX: Insurrection by J.M. Dillard.
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Need to catch up? See previous blog post: Star Trek: The Return.
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Want to read about just this series? See the other posts below:
Star Trek III: The Search For Spock
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
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