First Contact: Starfleet Justified in Benching Enterprise-E 

True story, my first real date with my wife of 20 years was at this movie. We held hands for the first time, so it really was First Contact for us. It is a really great film we hold close to our hearts.

The first look of the Enterprise-E, in my opinion, is just fantastic. Such a beautiful ship.

Actually, keeping those who suffered personal loss from the battle would probably be why Sisko wasn't in command of the Defiant.

"They invade our space...we fall back. Not this time. The line must be drawn here! This far and no further. And I, will make them pay for what they have done." Well, Picard did get his white whale in the end!

I've actually been thinking this for a while. The brass had a point in having Picard sit out: we saw how he reacts to the Borg post Wolf 359.

Another reason that I speculate could be an influencing factor in sidling the Enterprise-E; The Soverign class is the most advance ship of Starfleet, and I bet you that Starfleet does not want the Borg to adapt to any defenses or attacks that the ship may possess that other Starfleet ships don't.

First Contact is goddamn fantastic. Seeing it in theaters was incredible.

Picard himself said that Starfleet was uneasy forcing him to fight the Borg when he’d been assimilated.

For all Starfleet knew, the Borg would be able to gain control of Picard when he got closer to the Cube. I often wonder if the Cube would have been destroyed had the Enterprise not arrived. It was heavily damaged.....

It would have been fitting for O'Brien to be on the Defiant as well. They brought Dwight Schutlz, and a few others, back for a cameo. He could easily have been on the bridge of the Defiant, made a quick cameo with Worf on the Big E, then been in the background for a couple of scenes (working around his schedule for DS9).

"We are the borg, your furniture needs and meatball cravings shall be satisfied" - the borg, maybe

I always loved this movie because of how it portrayed Picard. Even in the books, whenever the borg came into play, he becomes obsessed. He was willing to sacrifice his ship, crew, and potentially the future to get revenge on the borg. It isn’t like him, which in my opinion, is a great take of his character.

when have Star Fleet Admirals ever been honest with there Captains especially when they're in the field the Romulans could have been listening in even in they are on a priority channel.

"Your culture will adapt to service us." This line always made me groan a little. There is no distinctive culture left after _the borg._

I was hoping you would break down the movies, can't wait to see more!

Looking forward to see next episode. Great work Lore!

Absolutely love this! Can't wait for the next part, this is my favorite Star Trek movie.

Yes sir I believe that the Federation probably wanted to keep picard out of the battle. Because they felt they could utilize him later. I honestly believe that was tactically unsound. As Rikers stated nobody knew the borg better than him. To me they put the survival of the Federation in jeopardy.

Picard: "This is Captain Picard of the Enterprise. I'm taking command of the fleet. Target all of your weap..." Fleet: "WHOA WHOA WHOA! SLOW YOUR ROLL LOCUTUS..."

Yeah, I can buy the Ent-E being kept sidelined as a strategic reserve with regards to the Dominion. Though TBH, I didn't take the PTSD thing when I watched the film (least don't recall it). I thought it was more Starfleet Admiralty being concerned about Picard potentially being compromised by the Borg as to why they wanted to keep him away.

Really liking the new chapters! First time I have seen it on RU-vid

The end with the "ENGAGE" and audience applause 👏 had me 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Not just the dominion threat, remember the Klingons gave the federation a bit of a beating and that war was escalating until the changling was revealed.

I just like to say thank you for your vids, I'm a second generation Trek fan. My mom grew up watching reruns of TOS and original airings of the rest of the Trek shows and I grew up watching reruns but except for enterprise at least thats the only one I remember watching because I was born in 94.

Personally First Contact is my favourite Trek it has the Borg my favourite Trek villains, it has the Enterprise E my favourite Trek ship and how they handle Picard and let’s be honest personal vendetta with the Borg is done brilliantly in my opinion shows even in “perfect utopia” people still have the concept of revenge

Lord reloaded! What if the xindi vortex technologies had been used on Voyager?

I think Starfleet did indeed tell Picard that he wasn’t wanted at the battle. The way he says “unstable element to a critical situation” sounds like he’s quoting someone. Surely they could have had Riker take the Enterprise to fight? It’s not like he didn’t do it last time. Anyway, I don’t really get why Picard isn’t wanted. Yes he was once a Borg, but he’s had dealings with them before and wasn’t majorly effected. The only mistake he really made was not using Hugh to destroy the collective, but that was a moral decision he would have made for any species. I think Sisko would have been made to send Worf with the Defiant for similar reasons, as a man seeking revenge for the death of his wife might have a tendency to disobey orders if he got the chance. I appreciate the tactics Starfleet uses here too. Compare this to what we saw in Emissary, with Starfleet attacking in waves of 3-4 ships, giving the Borg plenty of time to destroy them before the next wave. Here, the fleet swarms the Cube, forcing it to engage hundreds of ships constantly from every angle, contributing to its eventual downfall. 9:49 the guy in the yellow uniform... isn’t he Ashmore from Voyager!?

I just want to say... The Enterprise was able to get to earth all the way from the Neutral zone before the battle ended. I’m also under the impression that the neutral zone is quite far away from Earth by Federation standards. I would also estimate that they had 50-100 ships based on what was seen on screen, Yet I recall the federation having 600 ships at the beginning of the Battle of Cardassia. Hundreds of ships anyway. I just think the battle would have gone much better if they had pulled more of their fleet off the front of the dominion Cold War, which is probably closer to Earth than the Neutral Zone.

Out of all 4 TNG films First Contact is by far the best film without question!!!

The opera serves as a metaphor for the film's themes of struggle, sacrifice, and the clash of cultures. The story of Les Troyens also reflects the film's depiction of the conflict between the Borg and the Federation, as well as the personal struggles of the film's characters in facing their fears and overcoming obstacles. The use of Les Troyens in Star Trek: First Contact adds depth and emotional resonance to the film's story, and underscores the enduring power of Berlioz's music to inspire and move audiences. This is a great scene.

I love your analysis!

Very well thought out. Nice job. I think, if your imagination is engaged, canon will usually get you where you need to go. I notice, intentionally or not, you've quite correctly worked a couple of points from 'Picard' and 'Discovery' beta canon into the mix. I approve. Holding the Enterprise in reserve works both for the Borg here in First Contact, and for the Klingon war in season one Discovery, as laid down in the recent novel, 'The Enterprise's War'. Picard never explicitly states that the what the Borg took from him was never fully restored until he and Seven if Nine discuss it at the end if the 'Picard' episode, "Stardust City Rag", but oh, how much better the opening scenes of First Contact play now!

It makes complete sense to me.Great work

Great video. Great content. And I agree.

Great video, love the breakdown and the format, the tags are cool too. This enterprise is the best looking one too in my probably controversial opinion

One other consideration would have crew confidence in Picard. If the Enterprise was ordered to the battle, but Picard was relieved of command, that would have been a blow to crew's confidence in their Captain. Afterall, if Picard can't be trusted to handle this one battle, then why should we trust him on other missions. By sidelining one ship, even one as new and powerful as the Enterprise, lets them keep Picard in the field for future missions without hurting crew confidence in Picard.

One of your best so far. No one ever connects the DS9 timeline to the film timelines, and your reasoning makes perfect sense. We don't know much about how close the Fed and the Romulans have become behind the scenes of DS9, but patrolling the NZ seems a bit strange for them at this point in the timeline even if the alliance wasn't fully formed yet.

Do have to admit, without ever having watched First Contact on laserdisc as a kid I would have never have learned anything about Star Trek and not have gotten into the franchise. I do desperately love this movie, the uniforms, the Enterprise-E, the Battle of Sector 001 and the story. Nice breakdown, with the lore, love videos like this.

Amazing Work

This is similar to Star Trek Discovery's justification for Starfleet ordering Pike's Enterprise on its original exploratory mission during the Klingon war.

Like you, I didn't really buy Starfleet's decision to sideline Picard at Sector 001, but my own reason as to why he wouldn't be in the fight (despite being captain of the most powerful ship of that time) was because he was more a diplomat than a battlefield commander. If captains such as Sisko or Maxwell (from 'The Wounded') were better suited for tactics and battle, Picard was better suited for peace and negotiation.

The crew is also a concern why Starfleet may have been worried about picards mental condition, the Enterprise crew also have a history of bending or interpreting orders if not outright ignoring the chain of command due to loyalty to Picard, even if his decisions are somewhat questionable. Which was pointed out by Lilly slone later in the movie.

First contact has the best opening music of any star trek film.

love the video chapters ..great video from an OLD Trekie ..

Do you really want your most advanced ship in the fleet assimilated by the Borg? Much better to throw as many out of date vessels at the cube as possible. Then the Borg do not get to come up with counters for Star Fleet's most advanced technology before it is wheeled out across as many vessels as they can get their hands on. As the Borg say "we will add your biological and TECHNOLOGICAL distinctiveness to our own."

This video was so good at the endl of it I was like noooooo I want more more

This was the first moive I ever saw in theaters as a young kid, after moving to the states from Germany ( military family) & it's Still one of my all time favorites.

Also if you noticed in the background comms around 9:25, when TNG Enterprise encountered the causality loop and found the 75 year old suez class-ship: the captain Boseman also same actor Kelsey Kramer or gramer can't remember. He was acknowledged to move back. Little Easter Egg of bringing back a small piece of TNG in that movie.

If Starfleet benched Enterprise-E in the event of Dominion War, then why wasn’t it a part of the final battle of the War and was doing diplomatic mission in Insurrection? After watching some clips from Discovery. I believe, like the original NCC-1701, Starfleet kept the Enterprise-E away from the frontline in order to keep the Federation alive, and to why ships such as the Prometheus Class was built.

Every time I hear the Borg "Resistance is futile" thing I get chills, every... single.... time... They did a really good job of getting the fear factor across with that I think.

I fully agree. First, most of the continuity issues a lot of people have pointed out aren't really continuity issues. The real time signal from starfleet is probably because with all the issues with the Romulans recently, they simply upgraded the communications system. Second, its common for starfleet to bench ships. While Discovery confirmed it (oh God, a bit of vomit just came up in my throat) but before it was often alluded to that the 1701 Enterprise wasn't involved in the Klingon War, kept on the sidelines for a just in case. There is also several situations in both TNG and DS9. However, as far as Picard is concerned, I don't think Starfleet ever gave him a real answer. I've worked with real military, they tell you to go somewhere and they don't need a reason, and I always thought this was the same. They simply told Picard to head to the boarder and gave him the bull crap response (which actually may have been more pre-war paranoia that bull crap) but Picard may have taken it the wrong way, and took it as if they were afraid of him. Picard was actually afraid of himself, and he assigned a reason to the situation, and I think the movie ends up confirming this. But hey, at least that admiral survives!

Slight tingle up the spine as "ENGAGE" transitions to the E in space and going to warp.

The opening shot of the E is glorious

Definitely been looking for you to be on twitch.

I'd love to see you do an explanation video on why the enterprise was the only ship to chase the borg back to the past.

Gotta love Star fleets technological prowess here. In the space of 6 years they went from being unable to even scratch a borg cube to absolutely being the holy hell out of one.

I like the idea that the original orders from Starfleet was a fake out. Starfleet admirals reasonably assumed that the Borg could monitor their communications and ordered the Enterprise to the Neutral Zone. Given the history of Picard and his crew, they knew he would only obey those orders as long as Starfleets defense of Earth held. If it didn't, the Enterprise-E would be their backup plan.

picard shows up like "so hows it goin?" you guys still got this/, cool right on....

If you play close attention when they engaged the Borg to all that chatter you can hear them say defiant you are clear to engage. That tells you the defiant have been fighting the battle since the beginning. And it also explains why it's survive so long and almost is destroyed by the time Enterprise gets there

I forget specifically which novel, but the Star Trek Excalibur franchise hit this topic beautifully. When the Borg Cube came at Earth, the Excalibur - if memory serves, the Galaxy class version and not the first Ambassador, though i may be wrong - was benched. Calhoun, being in some ways the Dirk Pitt of Trek, was furious - until Shelby explained what she thought, and hinted at having good reason, explained - Starfleet was putting their final hopes into Calhoun. They knew his record, his strengths and weaknesses, and were betting that if they fell to the Borg, Calhoun could literally rebuild the Federation like he rebuilt his own world. If nothing else, Calhoun would be able to unify whatever was left to bring the fight back at the Borg - never mind the Dominion. (Really need to reread that series. By far, the best of Trek in novel form.) However, in the case of Picard? Yea, just plain fuckin stupid. Picard is *by far* the leading expert on the Borg. He demonstrates that, with zero room for doubt. Even when pushed to the breakpoint, he still pulled off victory. Within full continuity, Sidelining your topflite Starship, the biggest, meanest, most badass heavy hitter you got, that was built specifically FOR kicking any kind of ass presented it, is retarded. But, big caveat here - That is ALSO canon. Starfleet making absolutely braindead decisions (for the plot), we have a literal long ass history of that. Unfortunately.

I would've liked just alittle more ship on Borg fighting in the movie BUT that's just me

You traumatized me by introducing me to Renegade Cut in this video. You really weren't kidding...

The cloud behind the Enterprise-E looks like a Red Parrot.

👍Yes! Break this down

That was awesome.

This was good, plz hurry with the next one lol.

The Big E-E bridge was beautiful.

When the Borg give their line, you can definitely make out Picard's voice in the Collective. Subtle, and creepy.

Great Retcon btw

"Captain, I believe I speak for the whole crew when I say " To hell with our orders."

The chaos the Enterprise crew was listening to gave the viewers a monstrous image of the Borg without showing the battle. DS9 had some of the best space battles in the series and sci-fi in general, but it lacked the chaos through its communications and it was just random ships blowing up, amost like a video game. The Federation ships frantically giving orders fighting the Borg before transmissions being cut off, very likely destroyed, as if they were nothing. Very chilling.

It would have been really cool if Sisko had been on the Defiant along with Worf.

It's a fun little fan theory, and it fits with continuity and arguably with established characterisation, but it's not canon. What's canon is that starfleet sidelined the Enterprise because they weren't sure they can rely on her Captain - one man, yes, but the most important one. That makes perfect sense, and there's really no need to get into overarching quadrant-politics to find a "better" reason. And let's be honest, we all know that the writers of First Contact didn't go that deep into the timeline of the dominion war, which I doubt was even written when the movie was aired, much less scripted. They just needed a plausible excuse to keep the Enterprise out of the battle until the last moment, and that excuse being Picard's prior encounters with the borg was thematically appropriate and builds tension towards the ultimate confrontation.

I'm still miffed that the crew of the Defiant wasn't the cast of Deep Space Nine

You NEED to number your videos in a series, currently it is hard to go to the next one!

This was my first exposure to Post-TOS Trek. I loved it at first and while there are things I don't like about it after years of being into Star Trek and other Sci-Fi, it's still more than watchable and is probably the best TNG movie.

i dont know what a renegade cut is, but after hearing it mentioned so many times in this video, it sure is good advertising for it.

Daydream ... ? Hardly ... I would call that a flashback, typically associated with PTSD ... which is hardly surprising, given being 'operated on against one's will' is regarded as torture. And yes, according to modern research, very vivid dreams, and dreaming about dreaming, especially in those whom suffer from PTSD, and, its more insidious twin, Complex PTSD (C-PTSD), are considered psychological flashbacks. Hence one reason Starfleet 'benched' the Enterprise. Not willing, nor wanting, to seperate a Captain from his command, he, and 'his' ship was effectively placed 'out of harm's way', not just because of his encounter with the Borg, but --- as someone with diagnosed chronic C-PTSD --- I would imagine Starfleet was also nervous about any emotional, mental, and psychological, instability that Captain Picard may have had ... ... which doesn't add up. I mean, for God's sake, the Enterprise E was Starfleet's flagship. That is like having a man in charge of an aircraft carrier, whom any Navy (such as --- given I'm a Brit --- our Royal Navy), considers to be mentally unstable. If Starfleet was _that_ concerned about him, they could have promoted him to Commodore* (given his achievements), plus any other commendations, then an Honourable Discharge, on medical grounds ... Also, placing 'First Contact' in the same time period as the begining of the Dominion War, is something I never considered ... and makes sense, especially as it explains why the _Defiant_ , among the first _true_ warship, unlike an exploration-type vessel --- abet with teeth --- that Starfleet built, was present. One thing I wished could seen happen, somewhere, in Star Trek cannon is, ala Babylon 5, and more specifically, the White Star Fleet, seeing a dozen, or more _Defiant_ Class ships swarm attack a Borg cube ... especially a _Defiant II_ Class, of slightly bigger proportions, and fitted out with Quantum Torpedoes ... [ *= Yes, I am rather nerdy about Navy ranks, especially as I tried to join the Royal Navy, with an eye on joining the submarine force. Unfortunately, being only 5'2", and ~120 lbs, wasn't even recruited. But hey, it was a long shot, and I knew my chances were slim to none ... although, given that, some two-and-a-bit decades on, that women are now allowed to serve aboard submarines, especially SSBNs, is somwhat ironic ... Which leads me to this: despite the TOS 'Technical Manual' showing that Commodore was/is a recognized rank in Starfleet --- as being above Captain, but below Rear Admiral --- that both Kirk, then Janeway, were promoted, by two ranks, to Rear Admiral, has always baffled me ... ... told you I was a Navy Nerd ... Edited for being extra nerdy: was the Admrial, that contacted Picard, played by Gore Vidal ...? Certainly looked like him ...]

I had always assumed that these events took place shortly after the dominion war and that was why we did not see Sisko. It made sense that Worf would have commanded the new Defiant and Kira would have stayed back to command DS9.

I totally love the Sovereign class Starship

The most cannon thing about this film is that Picard this time left Riker on the ground this time, as the last time he gave him the keys to the ship, he crashed it.

I think the Riker taking command argument goes out the window because they know Picard has a history of doing whatever the hell he wants so they'd be worried he'd just take command back.

While I'm not convinced, this is the best argument I've heard for keeping the E out of the fight. I can even believe that they thought about this exact line of reasoning but still went with the dialogue about the Romulans bc more fans would get it more easily w/o having to have watched DS9 specifically

Very rad...

Having multiple defensive lines for a battle like this is definitely a bad tactic. Splitting your forces tends to be a pretty bad idea. If we assume that the Federation has 40 ships ready to do battle, and that a Borg cube can take on 10 ships simultaneously (pulling numbers out of the air as it's entirely hypothetical), then if all 40 Federation ships attack at once they can destroy the cube. If however they split them into 5 defensive lines of 8 ships then, assuming the cube has time to repair sufficient damage before reaching the next line, the cube smashes through them all.

Thanfully I fell in love with the franchise at least up until Picard and discovery and FC is my favorate Star Trek film so once again Thank you L.R.

I cant remember what book it was in that I read.. .I believe it was a TOS expanded universe book.. but anyways.. one of the ideas for starfleet standard fleet engagements was for there to be an area that ships which shields had collapsed to "retreate" to in order to take time to reinforce shields and then get back into the fight.. think hit and run.. Shield tank and not hull tank as we would say in Eve. That would explain the mobile fall back position one.

Would have loved to have seen Enterprise-D refit (seen in "all good things" episoed) go up against the dreaded Borg collective

This theory fascinates me. But with the Borg, it could have been them wanting to just delay the launch. In effect slowing down the progress in the Alpha and Beta quads. They knew the Enterprise was behind them.

"If you like renegades cuts, your on par with hitler"?? What in the world did that guy do to you? He just analyzes movies in a different philosophical lens? Or did he make a video directly at you? I dont follow the analogy

I love the Enterprise-E It's introduced in a beautiful way, It's actually my favourite Enterprise ever.

"...an unstable element to a critical situation" is Starfleet's way of being EXTREMELY POLITE when telling Picard "We're not gonna risk another Wolf 359 w/ your ass getting involved." The music scene was him dealing with the fact he, tragically, knows they're right.

Which movue is this??? I cannot find it to buy

“Using Dutch angles to let you know somethings wrong” me getting motion sick

@LoreReloaded I should remind you of Hitchens' Razor. Anything that can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence. While your assertions make sense in the larger scheme of naval military conflict, it's not said. And if the writers and producers wanted us to know that, they could have said it. But they didn't. There is no reason why Starfleet would obfuscate a reasonable explanation with a personal attack against a decorated Starfleet Captain.

I think another factor was that because Picard has been assimilated by the Borg before, Star Fleet were afraid he might still be under their control

Well Lore is right about this being a new state of the art ship and they do not not want risk losing it to the borg. It may have been intended not be scriaficed here or during Dominion war. The Enterprise E was not used then either. It may have been intended for the assualt on Cardassia but not even used then. As Lore mentioned it is an ace in the hole. The Soverign the other ship of the class may have only been used to defend Earth they have sent the ships away with best to try and make sure they don't become extinct.

This... is pretty solid. Whether or not it was an intentional choice for the film-makers, it's a quite plausible and better in-universe justification than any others I've heard of. While I love all of Star Trek, and think this particular movie was one of the better ones (and damn sure the best one with the TNG crew) this contrivance always bothered me. Unlike many fans, I don't think it was at all a bad decision for Starfleet to sideline Picard in this matter; he is an excellent leader, and obviously very combat experienced, but the reality is he is unlikely to be making the best decisions when opposing an enemy he is so intertwined with. A relevant point to consider from continuity is the events of "The Wounded"; Captain Maxwell seems like a good commanding officer, and also tactically proficient since we see he is able to take on a warship head to head and win even with the ship's shields disabled entirely, but he was unable to maintain any kind of objectivity with the Cardassians being involved. What bothered me is that this is a powerful vessel, with an experienced command staff whom are all familiar with the Borg, and sidelining Picard doesn't mean you have to sideline the ship. But this rather nicely takes care of that plot hole. Further, it not only uses previously existing material from the franchise to justify the decision, it also matches up quite well to Starfleet's decisions in Season 2 of Discovery. The stated reason the Enterprise was kept out of the war, is there was a good chance they were going to lose- and if that happened, they wanted the best of their officers and ships away from that war so that the best of them could survive. To further link that mindset (and until just now as I started typing I had not thought of this) the episode of Discovery where this explanation was revealed, Project Daedalus, was directed by Jonathan Frakes... whom also directed Star Trek: First Contact.

Going with the idea that he was being held back because of up and coming war isn't new. In fact Fleet Admiral Nimitz turned down the roll of CINCPAC because he was sure war was coming and didn't want to be on a staff when it began. Knowing Pearl was a prime target being responsible for it and knowing the Japanese tactics he was keen to not be in charge when the SHTF.

what is the name of the song Picard listens to????