Uploaded October 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
‘Fully Functional’ is the most beautiful passage from the soundtrack of Star Trek: First Contact. The late, great composer Jerry Goldsmith needs no introduction from me. Unfortunately this track, as it is presented on the official soundtrack album for First Contact, includes incongruous and intrusive action oriented cues at the beginning and the end, which ruin the mood.
So ‘Fully Functional’ is offered here with those jarringly out of place cues removed.
It opens and closes with sinister and unwelcoming synth textures. Between these it's just an atmospheric fantasy of ethereal strings. A fantasy which takes us very far away to another very beautiful place, wherever that may be. ‘Fully Functional’ was intended to score the dread and the beauty of the unknown and the alien, which it quite effectively does. And yet, this passage has always reminded me of something very familiar, which I am totally powerless to name.
The greater cosmos is at least partly menacing, and it remains so. But within that, there is beauty and mystery, and sometimes even moments of pure ecstasy. Something so utterly alien can, for that very reason, seem so intimately familiar.
Alice Krige and Brent Spiner were already accomplished, working pros when they played the very crucial scene which this music was written for. Underneath all of the makeup and prosthetics, Alice Krige’s Borg Queen possesses a disarming balance of confidence, flirtatiousness, and desire. She is so convincingly forward that her seduction is supreme. Brent Spiner, never missing a beat or failing to hit just the note as Data, skillfully affects a nervousness, an awkwardness, and an expectation. Any man can relate, if he is honest.
Can a Borg Queen dream of lying with a lover, in a field of flowers up in the mountains, clean air, a bright sun, and all the blessings of spring in full bloom? It seems like a dubious idea, but Alice totally sells me on it with her performance. And once again, Jerry Goldsmith has added the perfect musical touch. Iconic, at least within the Star Trek fandom, this scene means so much more than can ever be said. In a somewhat hostile existence, there are still transcendent moments of connection and sweet oblivion waiting to be found, waiting to be experienced.
The Borg Queen's ultimately self-destructive interest in both Picard / Locutus and in Data remains a bit murky. Doubtless, her attraction to both of them was tied up in a fixation with finally conquering this unusually resilient and resourceful humanity. Maybe it involved dreams of a new segment of the Borg Collective. A new caste of intermediate controllers, with more personal autonomy to utilize the Collective's vast resources in more spontaneous and idiosyncratic ways. Or perhaps it was about none of that. Perhaps this was for her, just for her.
‘Star Trek’ and ‘Star Trek First Contact’ are copyrighted properties of Paramount Global. I am not now, nor will I ever profit off of this video, neither directly nor indirectly. No copyright infringement is intended. This is a fan video.
‘Fully Functional’ is the most beautiful passage from the soundtrack of Star Trek: First Contact. The late, great composer Jerry Goldsmith needs no introduction from me. Unfortunately this track, as it is presented on the official soundtrack album for First Contact, includes incongruous and intrusive action oriented cues at the beginning and the end, which ruin the mood.
So ‘Fully Functional’ is offered here with those jarringly out of place cues removed.
It opens and closes with sinister and unwelcoming synth textures. Between these it's just an atmospheric fantasy of ethereal strings. A fantasy which takes us very far away to another very beautiful place, wherever that may be. ‘Fully Functional’ was intended to score the dread and the beauty of the unknown and the alien, which it quite effectively does. And yet, this passage has always reminded me of something very familiar, which I am totally powerless to name.
The greater cosmos is at least partly menacing, and it remains so. But within that, there is beauty and mystery, and sometimes even moments of pure ecstasy. Something so utterly alien can, for that very reason, seem so intimately familiar.
Alice Krige and Brent Spiner were already accomplished, working pros when they played the very crucial scene which this music was written for. Underneath all of the makeup and prosthetics, Alice Krige’s Borg Queen possesses a disarming balance of confidence, flirtatiousness, and desire. She is so convincingly forward that her seduction is supreme. Brent Spiner, never missing a beat or failing to hit just the note as Data, skillfully affects a nervousness, an awkwardness, and an expectation. Any man can relate, if he is honest.
Can a Borg Queen dream of lying with a lover, in a field of flowers up in the mountains, clean air, a bright sun, and all the blessings of spring in full bloom? It seems like a dubious idea, but Alice totally sells me on it with her performance. And once again, Jerry Goldsmith has added the perfect musical touch. Iconic, at least within the Star Trek fandom, this scene means so much more than can ever be said. In a somewhat hostile existence, there are still transcendent moments of connection and sweet oblivion waiting to be found, waiting to be experienced.
The Borg Queen's ultimately self-destructive interest in both Picard / Locutus and in Data remains a bit murky. Doubtless, her attraction to both of them was tied up in a fixation with finally conquering this unusually resilient and resourceful humanity. Maybe it involved dreams of a new segment of the Borg Collective. A new caste of intermediate controllers, with more personal autonomy to utilize the Collective's vast resources in more spontaneous and idiosyncratic ways. Or perhaps it was about none of that. Perhaps this was for her, just for her.
‘Star Trek’ and ‘Star Trek First Contact’ are copyrighted properties of Paramount Global. I am not now, nor will I ever profit off of this video, neither directly nor indirectly. No copyright infringement is intended. This is a fan video.
