Michael Dorn Believes FIRST CONTACT Is the Best STAR TREK Movie and Explains Why

Thanks to Star Trek actor Michael Dorn, who plays the fan-favorite Klingon warrior Worf in the franchise, it’s time to dive into a fun Star Trek discussion. He’s reignited the debate on what the best Star Trek movie in the franchise is. While a lot of fans consider 1982's The Wrath of Khan is the best, with a fanbase as diverse as this one there's plenty of room for different opinions.

Enter Michael Dorn, who is making his exciting return to the franchise in Star Trek: Picard Season 3. In the March 2023 issue of SFX Magazine, Dorn shared that his favorite film in the franchise is 1996's Star Trek: First Contact. This may seem like a curveball for some fans, but you can’t deny that First Contact isn’t a great movie! Dorn said:

"I always thought that The Wrath Of Khan was the best Star Trek movie, until First Contact. I thought First Contact was great for a lot of reasons, but one of the main reasons was that everybody contributed, everybody had a story. It was very complete, nobody was left out."

Dorn's appreciation for First Contact goes beyond just the film itself. He draws parallels between what made the film so effective and the success of Star Trek: Picard. Specifically, the fact that each character's story was well-written and given enough time to shine. As Dorn put it:

"I think that ['Picard'] is the same thing, that everybody's story is well-written. It couldn't have been easy writing for this many people, but I think they did a very nice job."

Fans of Picard have been eagerly awaiting the return of the original crew from The Next Generation, and Dorn's comments should be encouraging to those who are excited for the series that have been hoping to see these characters shine once again.

As a self-proclaimed Trek nerd, Dorn's opinion carries some weight. He's a huge fan of the original series, and when someone like him singles out a particular Star Trek movie as the best of the bunch, it's worth taking note. He went on to say:

"I'm a big fan of the original [series], like, a huge fan. I know every episode, I know all the characters and all the actors. I'm one of those people that would be in a production trying to tell people who each character is."

While I do love the original series and The Warth of Kahn, I grew up a much bigger fan of The Next Generation series, and First Contact has been one of my all-time favorite Star Trek films since I first watched it as a teen.