Which of the 10 existing Star Trek feature films is your favorite  

Good choice. Of the Next Generation films, First Contact is the best one, and I concur with your reasons. I would also like to add that Jerry Goldsmith's score and the relationship between Capt. Picard and Lily add emotional resonance and dramatic depth to this film.

Thanks for your response!

I like the way First Contact blended elements from all the existing TV shows (as of 1994), including Voyager and Deep Space Nine, plus James Cromwell really did a great job as Zefram Cochrane.

"You've not experienced Shakespeare until you've heard him in the original Klingon."

Interesting how Nick Meyer was able to get creative freedom and tweak Star Trek beyond Roddenberry's somewhat naive "Starfleet captains aren't soldiers, they're explorers" Utopian views and "there can be no conflict between the crew members" dogma. That "social commentary" along these lines was relevant during The Original Series' run from 1966 to 1969 is "sans reproach," as it were, but asking writers to create films without conflict (overt or suggested) was one reason Roddenberry was eased out as Executive Producer of ST-TNG.

As Meyer has said in his audio commentaries to Star Trek II and The Undiscovered Country, he benefited greatly from being a Trek outsider. He was willing to keep what worked from the mythos of Kirk and the Enterprise, but he was compelled to also follow his own path as a storyteller, which is why The Wrath of Khan and your fave film work so damn well.