Another week, another live Star Trek movie streaming event! This time, it’s for Star Trek: First Contact.
‘Watch From Home’ with director Jonathan Frakes
Today, IGN announced this week’s episode of their “Watch From Home Theater” streaming show will feature Star Trek: The Next Generation star Jonathan Frakes as he and IGN’s co-hosts Clint Gage and Scott Collura discuss his film Star Trek: First Contact. Frakes will also be answering fan questions submitted during the event. The Watch From Home stream of Star Trek: First Contact will be held on Wednesday, April 29th at 5 p.m. PT.
RED Alert🖖🏾 pic.twitter.com/rXbgjI3m2j
— Jonathan Frakes (@jonathansfrakes) April 27, 2020
This event will be different from the Paramount/CYA.LIVE virtual screening of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan last Saturday. The IGN Watch From Home event requires you to bring your own copy of the film. If you don’t have a copy, it can be rented for $2.99 at Apple, Google, Vudu, YouTube, and other digital movie providers. There is no charge to join the Watch From Home stream, which you can watch live on IGN.com, and IGN’s YouTube channel. You can also participate in the live chat using their Discord or Twitter.
Jonathan Frakes began his directing career on Star Trek: The Next Generation and made his jump to feature films helming Star Trek: First Contact in 1996. The film was the most successful of the four TNG-era movies in terms of both box office performance and critical response.
Director Jonathan Frakes on the set of Star Trek: First Contact
More details on this event at IGN.com.
To get you started, here is the trailer for Star Trek: First Contact.
Keep up with all the Star Trek event news at TrekMovie.com.
Still my favorite Star Trek movie. Don’t @ me.
I hope I can do the q&a since I have questions! This is very cool of Frakes and all to do this. I love Star Trek.
Yeah this is soooo cool! I’m glad Frakes is doing this for the fans!
I think out of ALL the Star Trek movies I seen in the theaters, First Contact was probably the most excited I was to see a movie. I was excited for most of them (just so-so on Insurrection and Beyond though) but this one was the one I could not stop thinking about after the first time I saw that trailer! And did not disappoint.
Me too! I bought the 30th anniversary TNG VHS with best of both worlds only to see the teaser. I instantly loved all the design choices of the movie especially off course the magnificent Enterprise-E, the uniforms, the costumes, the music, the effects…I remember the cold sweat of excitement I had when I watched the intro sequence for the first time, seeing the E and the space battle…God this movie is a 110 minute showstopping Killer ride!
Another Livestream q&a, too much Star Trek in my life. Star Trek: First Contact is my favorite Star Trek movie personally.
May 4th is Star Wars day. There should be a Star Trek day. Star Trek deserves its own holiday. Make it happen CBS!
I love being a fan of pop culture.
Star Trek day: maybe the day of First Contact (ie. April 5th)? It also happens to be my birthday, so would be twice as great for me!
I like 4/5! Also 9/8 is often called “Star Trek Day”
Jonathan Frakes would be a fun dude to watch a livestream with. I wonder how you know if your synced up? I guess it’ll take a bit of guesswork.
They will probably tell everybody when to start the movie and then hope that it runs in sync. If it’s off by just a few seconds it shouldn’t really matter.
I think different frame rates in different markets/formats may lead to slightly different overall run times though. So you may start in sync and then drift apart slowly.
If people want to join in the middle of the movie that’s going to be more complicated to sync.
He’s a nice guy.
yes can’t wait… love me a bowl of some corn frakes… great trailer… gets your blood racing… too bad it’s the only rock solid tng movie… but nicely done… it’s one of 4 the best treks… khan, whales, this and rebootquel
I want to know how Picard knew EXACTLY where to target that Borg cube. I mean from a storytelling perspective that was horrid, no strategy to that battle at all. But beyond that:
Did he know in advance and just kept that tidbit from Starfleet (at the cost of lives and ships and putting the whole Federation at risk?) that he could be the hero? To avoid them from taking out the Borg (like I Borg)?
Alternatively did the Borg talk to him in which case he was compromised?
I think this has real ramifications in Picard regarding AI. Perhaps the Borg ultimately were using Picard to bring them Data in FC. And then in ST: Picard they are using Picard to develop research into AI life to eliminate the need for organic assimilation and just engineer new and better life.. which ironically he does!
Note that this would explain why Picard would be a-okay with Utopia Planetia using synths instead of robots even though it basically opens the door for them being slaves (if anything more than robots).
My theory is that since he was so close to the cube he could hear them even better than before, and he heard the collective talking about an issue in those coordinates, possible a power surge or some weakness in the hull they were dispatching drones to fix. Hearing that, Picard took advantage of it and targeted the fleet to it.
I don’t believe it was a weakness all cubes had nor was it something Picard was aware of beforehand. I think he heard them and made the call.
So he was still connected to the Uni mind and compromised? Is was he still connected until he died in Picard? Is that why he was hiding? Alternatively were the Borg making him obsess about engineering AI via Data?
I like this theory!
Picard is standing on the bridge looking at the viewscreen, waits a bit, and then intones “Fire.” In that interval between “All ships report ready” and “Fire,” a Starfleet ship got blowed up. Not really a good time for a Dramatic Moment.
That bugged me too, along with the fact it seems like most of the fleet gets vaporized when the cube goes up.
“I want to know how Picard knew EXACTLY where to target that Borg cube.” and
The key dialogue bit is “I can hear them”. So he was connected and could “hear” their weak spot (similiar to BobW II), but only in that moment of closeness (Picard’s Borg cube episode kind of corroborated this). So the answer to your question is ‘neither’. Not the most elegant storytelling, agreed but I don’t think it’s a plot hole.
If Picard is still in communication with the Borg he is compromised. Has he been hearing them this entire time? Is it two way? Is that why Picard goes into hiding in ST: Picard, because he is hearing and talking to the Borg (or knows he can). Some how Locutus still is there? Why did that not concern Picard that he still had something in him that was Locutus? Where is Troy – wouldn’t that have been a concern to her that the commanding officer is compromised by the Borg (regardless of friendship)?
Did the Borg WANT Picard to bring them Data. If the Borg really wanted to go back in time and destroy Earth wouldn’t they just do it again and again from the Delta Quadrant until they got the result they wanted?
I think the more rational plan was they came in to get Picard to give them Data, the real mission of the Borg to develop engineered life that will make organic assimilation obsolete and free them to engineer their own future. When that almost worked, but didn’t due to Data not being all there (let’s remember he later commits suicide) the plan then is to ‘talk’ Picard into getting Starfleet and the Federation to build a Data v2.0 which is 100% equal to organic life. Then when in charge of the evacuation fleet at Utopia Planetia Picard subconsciously get’s AI experts working on synths. At the end of season two Picard completes what the Borg were looking for – AI life = organic life.
Now all they need to do is come get it – enter Season 2. New Picard is free of the Borg and knows the unthinkable truth…. can he find redemption and save the galaxy even at the cost of his own life?
I like that, bring it on! :-)
OMG I am SO there! I will definitely be home ;).
A live stream with Frakes talking about the best TNG film and one of the best films in the franchise is exciting (its my third favorite overall)! I didn’t have much interest for the TWOK one, but I am definitely game for this. And have my copy of FC ready to go!
1am in UK.
I hope that at least keep a pre recorded video up on YouTube like they did with Pierce Brosnan Goldeneye QANDA. Love these!
Very solid film and it holds up well over time, imo. May check this out! I’ll do BYO.
Question for Frakes:
How dare you?
Cochrane as a human drunk.
Read the first contact between Earth and Alpha Centauri in Goldstein and Goldstein’s Star Trek: Spaceflight Chronology circa 1980 and weep at what could have been, but wasn’t.
I actually didn’t mind the depiction of Cochrane (although do love the space flight chronology too). He was relatable and I wanted to know more. Even when he said he did it for the money and women. Also kind of funny since in some publications Alpha Centauri is populated by a matriarchal society (Number One in the Cage) in which men were in short supply. Could totally see him wanting to head up that trade delegation / embassy to get some resources to rebuild post WW3 Earth.
Frakes didn’t write the movie.
yeah but you don’t hear much about the fact that the RUSH HOUR guy did some uncredited writing on FC, presumably after Moore and Braga. I wonder if he is responsible for ‘the line must be snorted here’ … there aren’t that many great lines, so it could be the punching up of material didn’t all survive.
[insert image of Frakes shrugging]
[while throwing his leg over a chair]
Where did you get that info bro? That’s not even in memory alpha.
I believe it is an issue of CREATIVE SCREENWRITING magazine from the late 90s. It is only mentioned in passing, up front, no details at all, and any place I have ever mentioned it, I just get crickets. I haven’t even seen anything about WGA arbitration listed.
I kind of kick myself now, because I had Ron Moore on the phone last year for a piece about FOR ALL MANKIND and forgot to mention it.
You would think the the rush hour guy would say something after all this time if he was involved. I most certainly would brag if I had a hand in a critical and commercial success. But like you say just crickets.
Cochrane being flawed was what made the FC story interesting. The whole crew had an idealized image of what Cochrane was going to be. When they actually met him they were disappointed – and they had to work with the reality of the man. It lends credence to the old adage “never meet your heroes”. Plus, I think the movie wraps up pretty well by intimating that the experience with the Enterprise crew showed Cochrane his potential. And I think he eventually lived up to the “great man” hype.
Anyone remember the teaser which was detracted by the actual movie? Pepperidge Farm remembers… I loved First Contact, but I was expecting much more… Thanks, Berman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W2Ehf4qrh4
I loved this teaser trailer!
Still think this movie could have benefited ENORMOUSLY from a shuttlecraft flyover showing the devastation of post-war landscape. Phoenix doesn’t rise as nicely from the ashes if you don’t see any ashes.
It’s like Verhoeven justifying Murphy’s massacre in ROBOCOP – the resurrection only works if you see the crucifixion.
I’ve got a lot of problems with this movie — never even fully enjoyed till about a decade or so back — but failure to deliver on the environment of 21st century Earth was one of the biggest missed opportunities in my book.
Apparently there is some concept art of what the Earth looks like once it has been taken over by the Borg (maybe New York City Borgified? – can’t remember). That would have been cool to see too.
Might be worth seeing if Alex Jaeger still has a website. I remember talking to him about this stuff, he did pretty much all the ships and most of what Bill George handled on previous films as ILM art director. (I think George only did some planning on the sphere and/or cube.)
I agree kmart. So many fans seem to forget that this movie is supposed to take place in a fragile time in human history post WW III.
It’s clearly stated as the away team preps that the community is marginal and in a polity that isn’t the USA.
But then fans don’t understand why Vasquez Rocks aren’t still part of the current era state park in Picard and cry foul at this and any number of other situations that reinforce that Earth has a world government by the 23rd century at minimum.
A visual reinforcement of the devastation from the war would have not only helped the film, but the entire franchise.
Yes, that was the oddest thing that people complained about the Vasquez Rocks in Picard and that it ‘ignored’ the fact more people live there today. Yeah, maybe less people live there in the 23rd and 24th century because a nuclear war devastated much of the Earth and some areas became more barren while others prospered again. We’re not talking London, New York or Beijing, it’s a very tiny area end of the day; and future Earth is dramatically different from 2020.
A flyover would be great
Even BABYLON-5 managed a flyover of nuked San Diego, but ILM or Matte World Digital on FC could have REALLY delivered on that kind of vista in a deluxe way.
For those of us who don’t have Twitter and would like to ask a question , how dues this ign discord work?
Thanks
double post
The best Star Trek movie ever for me and one of my most favourite films. Funnily I am reading the TNG Sketch book for Generations and FC at the moment. Unbelievable the amount of talent, precision, thought, time and enthusiasm which is put into this movie by the producers like Eaves, Zimmermann and Berman. Huge respect, those where the golden days of Star Trek. Wish they could reach the quality again but Kurtzman is no way near Roddenberry and Berman
First Contact happens after World War 3, one of the most devastating conflicts in human history. A nuclear war on a planetary scale. Millions of people die and nuclear radiation is everywhere.
There should be a Star Trek show about World War 3 and its impact on history.
It is a little unexplored time in Star Trek canon that deserves some attention. How did we get there?
After the war, humans made first contact with the Vulcans, who are an alien civilization. The nations of Earth put aside their differences and come together for a common goal, rebuilding the human race from the ashes.
There is now a world government since every country on Earth is now one. The closest thing we have to a world government in 2020 is the United Nations and European Union.
What happened to London, New York, Beijing, Moscow, Tokyo and other major cities after the war? Earth has changed into something unrecognizable.
These things could happen in the real world. Nuclear war is pretty likely in our lifetime. Our grandchildren might live under a world government. We are going through a war of our own. The fight against COVID-19. Be hopefully for a optimistic future for ourselves and the next generation.
This is what ENTERPRRISE should have been. Post WW3 Earth had hope… then Cochrane returning from the new embassy and with resources from the matriarchal society on Alpha Centauri went missing and it all started falling apart again. Archer has lost his idol. Desperate he sends out whatever ships they have to warp jump and find them. Months pass and some return without him. One ship however, the Bonhomme Richard returns to Earth having detected a mayday, not from Cochrane but from a Vulcan Science ship. The Vulcans, who see humans as emotionally reckless and unstable, tell Archer to forget about it. The science ship has been captured by a relic of the Vegan Tyranny which once suppressed interstellar travel/communications in the sector and a rational rescue is impossible. Archer, to prove humans have a place in the universe and to stress the importance of life, goes anyway armed with just some nuclear weapons, machine guns, no phasers on stun. When finally arriving, out of contact with Earth, the Vegan installation doesn’t even communicate, it just blasts the starship blowing it apart. Thanks to some quick thinking Archer and some of the crew survive however and spacewalks along with some nuclear devices to board the complex which is relatively uninhabited. They rescue the Vulcan crew placed in a cryogenic prison (like a zoo), steal back the Vulcan science ship and set off nukes within the complex destroying it that they can escape and in the process and freeing the sector (this is the answer to the Fermi Paradox, the Vegan Tyranny has been preventing interstellar flights/comms). On return to Earth the Vulcan’s have to take a second look at privative Earth. A young diplomat suggests the humans get to keep the science ship which the senior ambassador agrees to. The rescued science officer T’Pol can’t believe the irrationality of the humans has saved her life and wishes to learn more. Her science mission, monitor the humans on the ship and report what she has learned. The science ship is retrofitted with some human tech including weapons. Their mission – get resources to rebuild Earth, make friends and prove we have a place in the universe, seek out new life and new civilizations. Other spacefaring civilizations now know the Vegan Tyranny is in complete decline and set out themselves at the same time – a space race is on.
What you’re talking about – rebuilding after World War 3, First Contact, uniting the Earth under one government – would probably take place over a period of many years or even decades. Star Trek doesn’t do such long serialized stories.
We have seen glimpses of several major present-day cities in the 22nd, 23rd and 24th centuries (e.g. Paris, San Francisco, London). They usually looked familiar enough to identify them so it seems they either weren’t destroyed in World War 3 or rebuilt to resemble what they looked like before.
Watching it now!!!! Watching First Contact on my big TV while listening to Frakes and the guys on Youtube. Already some fun insight and Frakes is back in his element! I learned he actually had approval for all the new elements like the new ship and uniforms. Pretty cool!
Frakes said the Enterprise E bridge reminds him of the Discovery bridge. Yeah, we know Frakes, we know. ;)
Frakes is awesome. My favorite movies are Star Trek: The Voyage Home and Star Trek: Insurrection.
In Frakes we trust!! :)
Just ended! A great two hours and I actually manage to learn a few things too. Frakes is a treasure to Star Trek and loved this live stream. First Contact is still an amazing film nearly 25 years later!
Yeah have to agree about Frakes being a treasure and he obviously loves being part of the Star Trek family. Really happy he decided to take the leap to Toronto and dig into being part of Discovery. That cemented his deep involvement with everything CBS is doing with Picard and who knows what will come next. I missed the first half of the stream tonight, but I hear because Frakes’ return to acting went so well in Nepenthe and the Picard finale, he is now open to doing something on The Orville, that would be cool!
Yes, people are mixed on many things about Discovery but I think most can agree having Frakes there is a big positive. Even if just for PR reasons his presence seems to bring a lot of good will from fans, even the ones who are not into the show at all.
A lot of interesting bits happened in the first half but you can still watch the video but I can’t think of anything too major. It was just fun listening to those guys talk about Star Trek and all the inside baseball stuff.
Would love to see him (and Stewart ;)) on the Orville! It’s crazy Frakes hasn’t been on it since so many others have now. But I have no doubt we will see him in Picard again next season.
I read someplace that he was hesitant about returning to acting because he was unsure about his thespian skills having been focused on being behind the camera for so long. Now that he knows he can still more than handle his own as Riker, I am sure he will come back in Picard S2 and it would be hilarious to see him make a cameo on Discovery and The Orville. Let’s hope S3 of both Discovery and The Orville don’t get held up for too much longer!!
Just finishing the live stream on YT. Great insight into that great ready room scene and some of the best acting we’ve ever seen on Star Trek. Sir Patrick and Ms. Woodard were golden! Laughed at Frakes “Phantom” comment regarding Data. Another one of the best scenes of the movie is the first contact scene and was happy Frakes mentioned the theme music – IMO that really makes it and gives the scene an emotional kick. As the Director said, that was a “pretty good movie!” Happy to hear Frakes will be back for Picard next season (whenever that gets started). Now will he be both in front AND behind the camera? We shall see. Stay healthy and safe everyone.