Star Trek: First Contact (1996) – aka The Next Generation Movie That People Actually Like.

Of course, as Jonathan Frakes pointed out, that one’s worth seeing just for the “drunken Troi” scene. I think my favorite part, though, was watching Cochrane explain to Riker that he never actually started out to be a famous guy, and just wanted to invent something that would make him loads of money so he could retire to an island full of naked women somewhere. Though a lot of people involved in the making of the franchise have insisted Cochrane is not an expy for Gene Roddenberry, it’s hard not to see the parallels: guy starts up a schlocky TV show in hopes of making some quick cash (and having opportunities to hit on some of the attractive starlets on the set such as his girlfriend/eventual wife Majel Barret, for one), and accidentally creates a whole popular franchise that gives rise to a huge geeky fandom.

One wonders if Roddenberry ever came to second-guess himself, maybe to think that if someone had traveled back in time to tell him what he was going to achieve the way the crew did with Cochrane here, he might similarly freak out and try to run away from his future fandom too. I mean, look what fame and fortune and fandom have done to the likes of George Lucas, Joss Whedon, and Steven Spielberg, just to name a few. Live long enough, and you get to watch your fandom divide into starry-eyed idealists who believe you can do no wrong no matter what you do and jaded hecklers disappointed by your later works who are convinced your earlier success was just a fluke and you’ve actually been a no-talent hack all along; and all this headache when all you really wanted was to make a bunch of money and then retire to an island full of naked women somewhere far away from all these obnoxious geeks!

Kinda gives you a perspective on that one William Shatner “Get A Life” Saturday Night Live sketch which he later said in his memoirs was really done only half in jest.