MovieChat Forums > Star Trek: First Contact (1996) Discussion > Major Plothole!

Major Plothole!

posted 9 years ago by powermandan
18 replies | jump to latest

First Contact deals with the Enterprise trying to stop the Borg from altering the first contact. Okay. But while some of the crew members are on Earth helping James Cromwell with the spaceship, wouldn't they be altering the future too as it never happened before? The Enterprise wasn't there in the previous timeline, so just imagine how much they altered themselves. They could potentially prevent some of the crew members from being born.

Anyway, i love this movie. This plothole doesn't diminish the overall quality of the movie. It's just something I thought of.

[–] Judger 9 years ago

Not so much a plot hole but deliberately overlooking the obvious.
Typical in time travel stories

I was born in the house my father built

[–] Clemicus 9 years ago

Time travel paradox. It was discussed in the movie.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] finchy_000 9 years ago

Worf would have been given command access to the computer after he came on the ship so he could do his job it just was not shown

[–] ManuelManipulation 9 years ago

He is Chief of Security after all... Of course what happened to the Security Chief that was working until Worf waltzed in?

Of course if The Borg want to time travel, why do it right in front of planet earth? (Yeah, I know no movie)

I never understood why The Borg had such a hard on for humans and planet earth in particular

[–] moonglum9 9 years ago

Of course if The Borg want to time travel, why do it right in front of planet earth?

I looked at it like it was a last resort after they had been beaten. I figured they intended to assimilate earth normally, but when Picard led the charge against them and destroyed the big cube, they launched an escape pod sphere and did the time travel thing because that was the only way to accomplish their objective now that the big ole cube was destroyed.

[–] Nedithvm 8 years ago

Kinda late to answer, but it's not really about Humans or Earth but about Earth being the main Headquarters of Starfleet.

[–] theguitarman18 8 years ago

When the film begins, Lt. Cmdr. Worf is in charge of the Defiant.

At least they had an excuse for his presence in this movie. Insurrection hardly brought it up and by the time Nemesis rolled around they didn't even care about continuity any more...

The movie is full of holes. The queen was forced into the stucture of the Borg hive, and when Data asks her about it she's just being evasive. "Are you their leader?" "I am the Borg" that's *beep* she clearly acts as their leader. Why did they even need Locutus if she was around? Again, the movie explains these things only in vague sounding terms.

Why did the Borg travel all the way to Earth before travelling back in time? If they have that kind of technology they would have conquered the entire universe by now. And why only send one ship? Last time it wasn't enough. Send an armada to wipe out the Federation.

How did the Enterprise travel back to the 24th century? Don't they need special technology to travel through time? Apparently any old ship can be reconfigured without any problem to do that. Just a quick scan of the Borg ship was enough. No hardware required, instant time travel! And if they could use it so easy, why didn't they travel backwards in time and stop the Borg at an earlier moment?

Perhaps not a plot hole for this movie, but many people were killed during the initial Borg attack, history would probably have been altered from this point on...

How can a bunch of survivors from a devastating war develop something as sophisticated as a warp drive? They don't seem to have a lot of resources there. How did they obtain antimatter? If they were researching it before the war, surely it must have been used by the military.

[–] mikeyg24 8 years ago

Do you think it's at all possible that Worf's security protocols were reinstated when he was reassigned to duty? Jeez the fact I have to share a planet with morons like you makes me want to look into warp drive myself and get the hell away from here!

If you dip your foot into a pool of piranhas don't cry when you lose a toe!😞🐟

[–] frosted_one 8 years ago

Did the computer think "Oh, I remember him" or something? Surely his voice-prompt would have been removed and someone else's would have been necessary at that moment.

Actually yes the computer does has a level of intelligence, the communicators also act as some sort of high tech RFID tags. When Picard told him to take over tactical he was logged into the ships security system as a senior officer.

[–] arto-helenius 9 years ago

It can also be seen that there is infinite number of timelines and time isn't linear going from the beginning to the end. So there are several possibilities that can happen and will happen, but in their timeline this is what happened. So Borg's might have won 24th century, 21st century or other outcomes. But it can also be seen as a multiple lane highway, so it doesn't matter which lane you choose, you end in same place you intended in the first place, unless you're out of fuel and you arrive later or you have a collision and arrive much later. Also in ST:TNG episode Time's Arrow 1 & 2 Quinan knows in 24th century that she met Picard in 19th century, but it hadn't happened in yet in Picard's timeline. This meeting in 19th century caused Quinan to be a member of the Enterprise in the first place.

Also we don't know why Geordi and Riker aren't mentioned in history books to be a part of first flight, but I think it is very plausible to Zephram and Lily to be silent and take full credit, because Enterprise's crew don't want to and are not there to take a credit for their doing. It is also likely explanation that Enterprise's crew helped Zephram to overcome certain faults in his design that it took almost 90 years to reach technology level of ST:Enterprise. Because Zephram became a such celebrity I think he didn't want to reveal that people from future helped him to achieve that goal.

[–] sage2112 8 years ago

I see - it's a plot hole because you know how time travel really "works". Got it.

[–] cgrill8 8 years ago

Actually it was all a PART of their history. And they were simply 'left out' on purpose. The whole movie made it out to me, that Earth's near annihilation was the result OF our First Contact... like someone else mentioned... the crew is NOT in the history books on purpose... because Pickard even made sure when the entire crew (or what was left) had nearly ALL left the ship near the end, he ordered everyone to remote areas and not disrupt the timeline... so once the Borg were dealt with... they all flew back to the ship in their little polygon pods so they wouldn't be left either. We just didn't see all that. Had they NOT gone back in time, there would have been no 'First Contact'... it was Riker and crew that 'sobered' him up to even be able to DO it! No, Enterprise going into the past was apart of their history all along... not a plot hole, or at least that's how I see it.

3rd generation American from a long line of Gottscheers... it was Drandul, dude!

[–] NightRavyn 8 years ago

You raise a good point. but that isn't really a plot hole. its actually a causality paradox. the crew of the enterprise were always there. Seven of Nine explained it in the Voyager episode Relativity. The effect where one goes back in time to prevent something from happening, but doing so causes the very thing they went back to prevent.

[–] powermandan 8 years ago

Sounds reasonable. Thanks!

[–] bearuk 8 years ago

Although I could be proved wrong, I think the biggest problem is that 'time travel' into the past is impossible.

[–] recyclar13 8 years ago

weeeeell, time travel into the past as depicted in this and most media is impossible, yes.

[–] AndrewGS 8 years ago

First Contact deals with the Enterprise trying to stop the Borg from altering the first contact. Okay. But while some of the crew members are on Earth helping James Cromwell with the spaceship, wouldn't they be altering the future too as it never happened before? The Enterprise wasn't there in the previous timeline, so just imagine how much they altered themselves.

Yeah, some change could occur but they were trying to alter it the least amount/restore it to the original timeline as much as possible. The ending has the characters assuming that they succeeded, that their future probably won't be much different, and they seem to have been right.