History NightmareFuel / StarTrekFirstContact

* The way Picard acts, as the situation becomes more bleak by the minute. We're talking a man who normally is fairly cool in most situations, even life or death ones normally. Right from the get go, we see just how personal this is, when Picard is once again faced with the lack of trust of some other Star Fleet Officers due to his time as Locutus (as shown in episodes such as [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E01E02Emissary Emissary]] and [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E21TheDrumhead The Drumhead]]). Let's put that in perspective. Picard is Captain of Starfleet's newest, and most advanced ship at the time, an ''Assault Cruiser'' type ship. And the first thing Starfleet does is tell Picard and crew to take a hike, and DO NOT play the role of being BigDamnHeroes. Obviously Picard is not happy to be reminded of the fact that he had Starfleet secrets taken by the Borg when he was assimilated. By mid movie, he's clearly shifting into BloodKnight territory, taking actions just for the sake of engaging the Borg in battle, including dumping an entire Thompson machine gun's drum magazine worth of .45 calibur bullets into some drones, even after they're dead (and even knowing that one of them, like the guy pictured above, used to be one of his men). Near the end he's crossing into full blown RevengeBeforeReason, throwing one of the most violent fits ever seen in a Star Trek series, insulting his most trusted officers along the way. This is a movie which begins to really call into question Picard's psychological health.

* The fact that Starfleet initially leave Picard, their most experienced captain against the Borg, and ''Enterprise'', his brand-new ''Sovereign-class'' battleship (whose design envisioned exactly this sort of battle), out in the back of beyond, because they don't think Picard will be able to keep his cool precisely because of his prior experience with the Borg. Which is ''exactly why they need him in the battle'' -- as we see when he and ''Enterprise'' arrive there, and thanks to Picard's unique insight and his ship's new weapon systems, promptly ruin a Borg cube which had shrugged off everything thrown at it previously, and which was mere moments away from assimilation range of Earth. In other words, Earth was almost devastated because the Federation's high military command made a mistake - or were even borderline incompetent - and even ''that'' is almost preferable to what we see in the next film, Insurrection, which revolves around the corruption that apparently ''also'' riddles Starfleet's admiralty. You want scary? Borg and creepy crawlies are pretty bad, sure. But a government whose leaders are too stupid to know the right course of action when they see it, and too corrupt to carry through with it even if they did? ''[[AdultFear That's scary.]]''

** That [[MercyKill killing him]] before he was assimilated qualified as "helping" was just as bad.

* The one crewman who begs Picard to help him as the assimilation process begins. (That would be the guy pictured above.) It makes it so much worse when you realize these are probably his last conscious thoughts and feelings before his mind is superseded by the Collective.

* The way Picard acts, as the situation becomes more bleak by the minute. We're talking a man who normally is fairly cool in most situations, even life or death ones normally. Right from the get go, we see just how personal this is, when Picard is once again faced with the lack of trust of some other Star Fleet Officers due to his time as Locutus (as shown in episodes such as [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E01E02Emissary Emissary]] and [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E21TheDrumhead The Drumhead]]). Let's put that in perspective. Picard is Captain of Starfleet's newest, and most advanced ship at the time, an ''Assault Cruiser'' type ship. And the first thing Starfleet does is tell Picard and crew to take a hike, and DO NOT play the role of being BigDamnHeroes. Obviously Picard is not happy to be reminded of the fact that he had Starfleet secrets taken by the Borg when he was assimilated. By mid movie, he's clearly shifting into BloodKnight territory, taking actions just for the sake of engaging the Borg in battle, including dumping an entire Thompson machine gun's drum magazine worth of .45 calibur bullets into some drones, even after they're dead. Near the end he's crossing into full blown RevengeBeforeReason, throwing one of the most violent fits ever seen in a Star Trek series, insulting his most trusted officers along the way. This is a movie which begins to really call into question Picard's psychological health.

* The one crewman who begs Picard to help him as the assimilation process begins. It makes it so much worse when you realize these are probably his last conscious thoughts and feelings before his mind is superseded by the Collective.
** That killing him before he was assimilated qualified as "helping" was just as bad.

* The fact that Starfleet initially leave Picard, their most experienced captain against the Borg, and ''Enterprise'', his brand-new ''Sovereign-class'' battleship (whose design envisioned exactly this sort of battle), out in the back of beyond, because they don't think Picard will be able to keep his cool precisely because of his prior experience with the Borg. Which is ''exactly why they need him in the battle'' -- as we see when he and ''Enterprise'' arrive there, and thanks to Picard's unique insight and his ship's new weapon systems, promptly ruin a Borg cube which had shrugged off everything thrown at it previously, and which was mere moments away from assimilation range of Earth. In other words, Earth was almost devastated because the Federation's high military command made a mistake - or were even borderline incompetent - and even ''that'' is almost preferable to what we see in the next film, Insurrection, which revolves around the corruption that apparently ''also'' riddles Starfleet's admiralty. You want scary? Borg and creepy crawlies are pretty bad, sure. But a government whose leaders are too stupid to know the right course of action when they see it, and too corrupt to carry through with it even if they did? ''[[AdultFear That's scary.]]''

* Data, once the Borg Queen grafts flesh onto his face. The contrast between his normal appearance and the stolen skin and hair, and that innocent blue eye, is incredibly creepy. To say nothing of ''where'' she got such alive looking skin from...

* The blank looks and thoughtless eyes on the crewmembers' faces when they're in the early stages of assimilation - they're not afraid anymore...

* Data, once the Borg Queen grafts flesh onto his face. The contrast between his normal appearance and the stolen skin, and that innocent blue eye, is incredibly creepy. To say nothing of ''where'' she got such alive looking skin from...

* Data, once the Borg Queen grafts flesh onto his face. The contrast between his normal appearance and the stolen skin, and that innocent blue, is incredibly creepy. To say nothing of ''where'' she got such alive looking skin from...

* The way Picard acts, as the situation becomes more bleak by the minute. We're talking a man who normally is fairly cool in most situations, even life or death ones normally. Right from the get go, we see just how personal this is, when Picard is once again faced with the lack of trust of some other Star Fleet Officers due to his time as Locutus (as shown in episodes such as [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E01E02Emissary Emissary]] and [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E21TheDrumhead The Drumhead]]). Let's put that in perspective. Picard is Captain of Starfleet's newest, and most advanced ship at the time, an ''Assault Cruiser'' type ship. And the first thing Starfleet does is tell Picard and crew to take a hike, and DO NOT play the role of being BigDamnHeroes. Obviously Picard is not happy to be reminded of the fact that he had Starfleet secrets taken by the Borg when he was assimilated. By mid movie, he's clearly shifting into BloodKnight territory, taking actions just for the sake of engaging the Borg in battle, including dumping an entire Thompson machine gun's drum magazine worth of .45 calibur bullets into some drones, even after they're dead. Near the end he's crossing into full blown RevengeBeforeReason, throwing one of the most violent fits ever seen in a Star Trek series, insulting his most trusted officers along the way. This is a movie which begins to really call into question Picard's psychological health.

* The way Picard acts, as the situation becomes more bleak by the minute. We're talking a man who normally is fairly cool in most situations, even life or death ones normally. Right from the get go, we see just how personal this is, when Picard is once again faced with the lack of trust of some other Star Fleet Officers due to his time as Locutus (the first being ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine DS9]]'' when Sisko was not all that happy to see him after the Battle of Wolf 359.) Let's put that in perspective. Picard is Captain of Starfleet's newest, and most advanced ship at the time, an ''Assault Cruiser'' type ship. And the first thing Starfleet does is tell Picard and crew to take a hike, and DO NOT play the role of being BigDamnHeroes. Obviously Picard is not happy to be reminded of the fact that he had Starfleet secrets taken by the Borg when he was assimilated. By mid movie, he's clearly shifting into BloodKnight territory, taking actions just for the sake of engaging the Borg in battle, including dumping an entire Thompson machine gun's drum magazine worth of .45 calibur bullets into some drones, even after they're dead. Near the end he's crossing into full blown RevengeBeforeReason, throwing one of the most violent fits ever seen in a Star Trek series, insulting his most trusted officers along the way. This is a movie which begins to really call into question Picard's psychological health.

* At least five of the Borg drones are Klingons, If [[ResistanceIsFutile Resistance Was Futile]] for them, what chance would the rest of us have?
* The montage in which we see the ''Enterprise'' crew failing to hold back the Borg, during which we see several officers are being assimilated. One looking in horror as his amputated arm gets fitted with a cybernetic claw. Another with a freshly gouged eye being covered with an eyepiece.

* The warp coolant that dissolves (and seems to vaporize) tissue on contact. It's inexplicably kept in gaseous form in an easily-breakable vessel in main engineering.

* The way Picard acts, as the situation becomes more bleak by the minute. We're talking a man who normally is fairly cool in most situations, even life or death ones normally. Right from the get go, we see just how personal this is, when Picard is once again faced with the lack of trust of some other Star Fleet Officers due to his time as Locutus (the first being DS9 when Sisko was not all that happy to see him after the Battle of Wolf 359.) Let's put that in perspective. Picard is Captain of Starfleet's newest, and most advanced ship at the time, an ''Assault Cruiser'' type ship. And the first thing Starfleet does is tell Picard and crew to take a hike, and DO NOT play the role of being BigDamnHeroes. Obviously Picard is not happy to be reminded of the fact that he had Starfleet secrets taken by the Borg when he was assimilated. By mid movie, he's clearly shifting into BloodKnight territory, taking actions just for the sake of engaging the Borg in battle, including dumping an entire Thompson machine gun's drum magazine worth of .45 calibur bullets into some drones, even after they're dead. Near the end he's crossing into full blown RevengeBeforeReason, throwing one of the most violent fits ever seen in a Star Trek series, insulting his most trusted officers along the way. This is a movie which begins to really call into question Picard's psychological health.

** That killing him before he was assimilated qualified as "helping" was just as bad.

* The one crewman who begs Picard to help him as the assimilation process begins. It makes it so much worse when you realize these are probably his last conscious thoughts and feelings before his mind is superseded by the Collective.

* The blank looks and thoughtless eyes on the crewmembers' faces when they're in the early stages of assimilation - they're not afraid anymore...

* The blank looks and thoughtless eyes on the crewmembers' faces when they're in the early stages of assimilation - they're not there anymore.

** To be fair, it's easily-breakable by Data, who has been shown to have SuperStrength.

* The entire opening. We see Picard flashing back his time on the Borg Ship and assimilation (EyeScream included). It's frighteningly disturbing seeing him plugged in to one of those rechargers with this completely emotionless expression on his face, and at this point he's still in uniform and hasn't even had any implants put in yet. And then these flashbacks finish and we cut to present day Picard looking upset after recalling all these traumatic events. Then he goes up and looks at himself in a mirror, and [[JumpScare BOOM!]] - a Borg drill [[FacialHorror pops out of his face]]. Yes it turns out ItWasAllADream. It doesn't make things any less freaky to watch.

* The montage in which we see the ''Enterprise'' crew failing to hold back the Borg, during which we see several officers are being assimilated. One looking in horror as his amputated arm gets fitted with a cybernetic claw. Another with a freshly gouged eye being covered with an eyepiece.