At a time when Star Trek has become an overblown heap of Hollywood overkill, with two running TV series, movies in the making, and enough commercialization to make the Olympics seem like child's play, the writers needed to inject some energy back into the series - something far enough from the Star Trek norm to shock Trekkies and non-Trekkies alike. They've done it.
Star Trek, meet "Alien."
Take heart: this is what makes the newest Star Trek Film such a gem. By taking classic plots from the "Aliens" movies, totally Star-Trekizing them and exploring other original subplots, director Jonathan Frakes has made a beauty of a movie.
You don't need an extensive history on Star Trek to understand the plot. The Borg, a nasty race of communist-zombie-cyborgs, reemerges. Obviously, these genocidal humanoid-creature maniacs from the nether regions of space need to die, especially when they try to change Earth's history for the worst. Smart, those aliens: by preventing humanity's first light-speed flight, there would be no pesky humans around later in time to hamper our conquering scuzzballs. But they don't bargain on our reliable Enterprise crew, who've saved Humanity enough times to irritate any antichrist.
There's Borg lurking in the Enterprise, like the creature from "Alien," and it's up to Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) to save his ship before his crew is swallowed by the Borg Babe (Alice Krige), the kinky-sex-object Queen Bee, much as soul-mate Sigourney Weaver saved her friend from that beastly mother Alien in "Aliens."
But the plot-link to "Aliens" doesn't quite permeate the entire film. There's important Trek-sentimentality, as Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) tries to convince a future Spacegoing Pioneer that he's fit for the job. But it's still Star Trek and sentimentality works, as it has since in the time of William Shatner. (I really liked the episode where he read the Constitution after ending all the fighting in a Future Revolution.)
Star Trek just isn't the same without that fuzzy-happy warm-belly feeling.
The film is gripping. The eighth Star Trek film is filled with pursuit sequences in the Enterprise's air ducts, (just like "Alien") lone commando rescue-missions ("Aliens") and ships escaping juuuuuust in the nick of time ("Aliens") with the added original bonuses of a sex-kitten villainess, and a drunken human-interest story - all in the pursuit of saving not only lives, but humanity itself.
The producers have stolen the right movies, and molded them into the right Star Trek plot. At last, Star Trek can describe itself as a "thriller." It is a just-as-gripping, not-so-gory version of "Alien." Varment eradication becomes a team effort.
"Star Trek: First Contact" isn't just another sequel. It stands on it's own as a tribute to "Alien."