Star Trek – First Contact (1996)
Paramount Home Video
Cast: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Marina Sirtis, Alice Krige
Extras: Theatrical trailers
Rating:

This release from Paramount Home Video features the film’s original theatrical 2.35:1 aspect ratio in a flawless anamorphic widescreen transfer. The color is sharp with lots of detail.Color reproduction is very good with strong, naturally rendered colors that don’t exhibit any chroma noise or color bleeding. The film contains a number of dark interior shots that are well reproduced on this disc with plenty of detail even in the darkest shadows and strong highlights.

“Star Trek – First Contact” contains a score by Jerry Goldsmith. In this soundtrack he uses many of the trademark brass voicings he established for the Star Trek movies, yet manages to create a very different sounding score that nicely embellishes the experience and highlights the extra-terrestrial menace of the Borg. The disc contains an English 5.1 channel Dolby Digital soundtrack that makes very good use of the split surrounds and has a good bass extension. The disc’s Dolby Surround tracks in English and French are very good too, although they lack some of the directional surround effects of the Dolby Digital track.

“First Contact” is definitely one of the better Star Trek movies with its dark and foreboding atmosphere.