check out tht champagne bottle in the opening credits. not only a cool metphor, but some of the single best special effects that i have ever seen. kirk goes out like a hero, as i always knew he would, and i enjoyed the brief friendship he had with picard. picard standing over his grave was a little painful: at the risk of sounding like the biggest dork in the world, it put me close to tears, as when optimus prime died in the transformers movie. like losing a big brother. sniffle. malcolm mcdowell is always great, and i really enjoyed his villain, a 300 year old dude whose planet was wiped by the borg (nice touch). he's trying to return to a timeless (edenic) space ribbon but unfortunately killing hundreds of thousands of people in the process. worst points: whoopi goldberg (boring old drag) and data is relentlessly compromised. i'd like to see more stuff like first contact, in which the tin man story can be done with taste and intelligence.