Trivia for
Star Trek: First Contact (1996) More at IMDbPro »

• The character Zefram Cochrane was first seen in the original series episode _"Star Trek" (1967) {Metamorphosis (#2.9)}_ played by Glenn Corbett. There are differences between the original Cochran and this character, most notably Kirk's identification of "Zephram Cochrane of Alpha Centauri?" but they are both noted space flight pioneers. This Zefram Cochrane role was actually written for James Cromwell. Tom Hanks was also considered for the role, but was unavailable as he was filming That Thing You Do! (1996). Glenn Corbett could not reprise the role, he died from lung cancer in 1993.
  
  
• For inspiration prior to filming, director Jonathan Frakes says he viewed the films Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Blade Runner (1982), and Jaws (1975).
  
  
• The Borg makeup and suits had to be constantly touched up. Several of the Borg actors lost a considerable amount of weight while in costume due to the heat of the sets and temperature in L.A. during the shooting.
  
  
• At the end of filming, actor/director Jonathan Frakes got the nickname: "Two takes Frakes" because of the efficiency of his style.
  
  
• The deflector dish is labeled AE35, the name of a component of a satellite dish in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
  
  
• Moby Dick is alluded to in this movie and in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982). Patrick Stewart contemporaneously starred as Captain Ahab in Moby Dick (1998) (TV).
  
  
• Cameo: [Ethan Phillips] The actor who plays Neelix in "Star Trek: Voyager" (1995) is the Maitre'D of the holodeck scene club.
  
  
• Cameo: [Ronald D. Moore] The screenwriter appears in the holodeck club scene.
  
  
• Earlier drafts of the script called for the USS Defiant to be destroyed in the battle with the Borg, but screenwriter Ronald D. Moore objected to the needless destruction of the ship from "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993) in a story that didn't even involve the DS9 characters (apart from Lt. Commander Worf). It would also prove to be inconvenient for the television show, so the Defiant was eventually allowed to survive the battle.
  
  
• The USS Defiant introduced in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993) was built for the sole purpose to fight and defeat the Borg. This movie features the only time the ship fights the Borg.
  
  
• Cameo: [Ronnie Rondell Jr.] The film's stunt coordinator appears in the Holodeck nightclub scene as the man who warns Picard that he is about to take his actions personally.
  
  
• Dwight Schultz (Reg Barclay) was three hours late when arriving to the set because he got lost and a crew member had to come get him.
  
  
• The Special Collector's Edition DVD trivia track mentions that someone with a sense of humor at ILM slipped the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars (1977) into the battle with the Borg cube.
  
  
• Cameo: [Brannon Braga] The screenwriter appears in the holodeck club scene.
  
  
• Cameo: [Dwight Schultz] reprises his role as Lt. Barclay from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987).
  
  
• Although several of the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987) cast members have directed various episodes of the show, Jonathan Frakes is the only cast member from the show to direct any of the TNG-related movies. He directed this movie along with Star Trek: Insurrection (1998).
  
  
• The program menu in the holosuite depicts various holodeck programs from previous episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987). Specifically: Cafe Des Artistes is from "We'll Always Have Paris". Charnock's Comedy Cabaret is from "The Outrageous Okona". The Big Goodbye is from "The Big Goodbye", "Manhunt", and "Clues". Emerald Wading Pool is from "Conundrum." Equestrian Adventure is from "Pen Pals".
  
  
• James Cromwell becomes the first actor in Star Trek history to actually utter the phrase "star trek" (although in the final TV episode _"Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1994) {All Good Things... (#7.25)}_, John de Lancie (as Q) said, "It's time to put an end to your trek through the stars").
  
  
• When Dr. Crusher says "In the 21st century, the Borg are still in the Delta Quadrant", it was intended as a teaser for upcoming episodes of "Star Trek: Voyager" (1995), in which The Borg were featured prominently.
  
  
• Cameo: [Robert Picardo] reprises his role as the Emergency Medical Hologram from "Star Trek: Voyager" (1995).
  
  
• In an earlier draft of the script, the character of Lily was originally named Ruby. In the theatrical version, Ruby is now a holographic character in "The Big Goodbye" holonovel. Additionally, the Enterprise-E was initially depicted as being a Nova Class starship instead of a Sovereign Class starship. The Nova Class ship was later introduced in the "Star Trek: Voyager" (1995) episode "Equinox" as the USS Equinox.
  
  
• The Enterprise E is a Sovereign class starship. The previous ship, the Enterprise-D, was a Galaxy class starship.
  
  
• The Enterprise-E Observation Lounge is a revamped version of the same Observation Lounge set used on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987). It was one of the few TNG sets that was not "destroyed" when filming the Enterprise-D crash scenes in the previous film, Star Trek: Generations (1994).
  
  
• Robert Picardo doesn't just reprise his character from "Star Trek: Voyager" (1995), but there is a very subtle reference to the joke that made him earn "The Doctor" role: During his Voyager audition, he was asked to say, "Somebody forgot to turn off my program." He did that, then added, "I'm a doctor, not a light bulb," and got the part. In this movie, he says, "I'm a doctor, not a door-stop." See Voyager trivia.
  
  
• The eyepieces of the Borg flash the Morse code of the names of people associated with the production.
  
  
• The opera that Picard is listening to is Berlioz' "Les Troyens". The song is "Hylas' Song" from the beginning of Act V. Hylas is a homesick young sailor being rocked to sleep by the sea as he dreams of the homeland he will never see again.
  
  
• Barclay shows LaForge a coil of copper wire to ask if it would work to fix the plasma coil. It is the same prop used in Forbidden Planet (1956) where a crew-member asks Commander Adams if it would work in building the transmitter.
  
  
• Certain USS Enterprise bridge set pieces from previous Star Trek movies were built into parts of the Enterprise-E bridge. These pieces include the turbolift foyers, which are the only surviving parts of the set from the first Star Trek movie, Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), and the aft master display station, which was a piece of the Enterprise-A bridge set originally built for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989).
  
  
• The Enterprise-E sickbay is a redress of the sickbay from "Star Trek: Voyager" (1995)
  
  
• Is the first Star Trek film in which none of the original "Star Trek" (1966) principal cast members appear (although Majel Barrett, who provides the voice of the Enterprise computer, was a regular as Nurse Chapel).
  
  
• The Teaser Trailer features scenes from "The Best of Both Worlds", the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987) episode that leads to this film. Other scenes in the trailer include the destruction of the USS Pasteur from the final episode of the Next Generation, "All Good Things...”, and other stock effects shots produced for the TNG and "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993) television series. In addition, a quick shot of the USS Voyager can be seen in the teaser.
  
  
• The display cases in the Enterprise's briefing room contain gold models of all six Federation starships to bear the name Enterprise.
  
  
• The first Star Trek movie to receive an MPAA rating higher than PG.
  
  
• In an early draft of the screenplay, the character Lt. Hawk (Neal McDonough) was gay, and therefore was to have been the first openly gay character in any Star Trek series or movie; however, any reference to his sexual orientation was excised from later drafts of the screenplay. Lt. Hawk was later confirmed as having been gay in the Star Trek tie-in novel Section 31: Rogue by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin.
  
  
• The titles "Star Trek: Borg" and "Star Trek: Resurrection" were considered. The Resurrection title was almost a lock until the studio realized Fox had earlier registered the name for their upcoming Alien: Resurrection (1997) movie. First Contact is also the title of the TV episode _"Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1991) {First Contact (#4.15)}_.
  
  
• The Teaser Trailer, included on the DVD, uses score from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) and various shots from other Star Trek movies. It also shows a different take of the shot when Picard says, "The line must be drawn here," than the one used in the movie.
  
  
• The "first contact" in this movie takes place at a "missile silo in Montana". Montana's missile base is Malmstrom AFB in Great Falls, Montana, site of many of the more famous "UFO" sightings over the past few decades.
  
  
• ILM animators created several new classes of Federation ships for the huge CGI animation sequence against the Borg. Classes include the Akira, Sabre, Steamrunner and others.
  
  
• Footage of the Warp Ship Phoenix's launch was later reused in the opening sequence for the new Star Trek series "Enterprise" (2001). James Cromwell reprised his role of Zefram Cochrane in the pilot episode "Enterprise: Broken Bow: Part 1 (#1.1)" (2001), where he is seen as a recording from the dedication of the "Warp 5 Complex".
  
  
• All the scenes filmed inside the silo and of the "Phoenix" were taken at the "Titan Missile Museum", located in Green Valley, 20 miles South of Tucson, Arizona. This site is the only Intercontinental Missile (ICBM) silo complex in the world that is open to the public. The 110 foot tall Titan II rocket has been "de-militarized" (no fuel or nuclear payload) and, per the SALT treaty and SMART (Strategic Missile Arms Reduction Treaty), one of the two silo doors must remain blocked open for Russian satellite verification.
  
  
• Actor Michael Zaslow, the first actor to have been killed off in the Star Trek universe, has an uncredited appearance as Eddie, the bartender
  
  
• Cochrane asks La Forge, "Don't you people in the 24th Century ever pee?" This is a reference to the fact that toilets are never shown in the series.
  
  
• Once the creative team decided they were going to make a time travel movie two of the time periods they considered the Enterprise and her crew visiting included The American Civil War and Medieval Europe (which gives the alternate title "Renaissance" more meaning), and would have included a castle that would have partially been assimilated by the Borg.
  
  
• The Norway-class starship is seen for the first (and only) time in this film; the CGI "model" of the ship was subsequently lost due to a computer glitch, and so the class never appeared again in any other Trek show or film.
  
  
• Was released the same day that Mark Lenard (Sarek) died.
  
  
• 5th April, 2063 - First Contact day - will be a Thursday.
  
  
• The moon phase and position shown through the Phoenix windscreen (just prior to half full) are reasonably close to what they will actually be on April 5, 2063.
  
  
• A scene filmed that did not make the final cut featured Deanna Troi attempting to communicate with the abrasive Zefram Cochrane. Fed up of his attitude she pushes him off an embankment, fully aware that he will land on a force field which breaks his fall.
  
  
• The Borg Queen was created because the writers were having difficulty in writing dialogue for what was intended to be the Borg's central computer.
  
  
• The character of "Ensign Lynch" is a reference to Internet critic Timothy W. Lynch, who watched and reviewed every episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987) and "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993).
  
  
• In earlier versions Picard's character was supposed to be the one helping Zefram Cochrane on Earth, with Riker fighting the Borg on the Enterprise. The main story was also focused on the happenings on Earth. After Patrick Stewart objected to that, the characters of Riker and Picard were swapped. This also resulted in making Picard more of an action hero and the story more focusing on happenings on the Enterprise.
  
  
• Whilst Star Trek: First Contact (1996) is the only Star Trek film to actually feature the Borg, they are also mentioned in Star Trek: Generations (1994), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002).
  
  
• Whenever a scene features the Borg, the music score includes an instrument called the Blaster Beam, the instrument used in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) whenever V'ger is shown. Both films were scored by Jerry Goldsmith.
  
  
• The Borg Sphere, the Cube's smaller counterpart, makes its first on-screen appearance during this movie.
  
  
• As Zefram Cochrane's ship is taking off, a closeup of a button panel shows two adjacent buttons labeled TOS 3 and TOS 8. Zefram Cochrane's character was first introduced in the 38th episode of Star Trek: the original series (TOS).
  
  
• The Millennium Falcon from Star Wars (1977) can seen in the background during the fleet battle against the Borg cube.
  
  
• The eyepiece of one of the Borg contains the front canopy of a 'Star Wars TIE Fighter' toy made by Kenner.
  
  
• Toward the beginning of the film, when Lilly Sloane pointed to the sky and asked Zephram Cochrane about the newly arrived Borg ship, Zephram replied that it was the constellation Leo. Leo contains several bright objects and would be visible from northern Montana during evenings in April, which was when and where the story took place. The star system nearest to Leo is Wolf 359, the site of the Borg's first major incursion into Federation space after they abducted and forced Captain Picard's cooperation.
  
  
• Up until 2009, this movie held the record for the highest worldwide gross of all the Star Trek movies made to-date (over $150,000,000), as well as for highest 1st-weekend gross (over $30,000,000). This movie also had the 2nd highest US gross of all the Star Trek movies (over $92,000,000), just behind that of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986). All of these figures were broken of course by Star Trek (2009).
  
  
• The song Zefram Cochrane (James Cromwell) plays on the jukebox is "Ooby Dooby" by Roy Orbison.
  
  
• The original 1993 edition of "The Official Star Trek Chronology" had hypothesized that the year of Zefram Cochrane's warp flight was 2061. This movie shows it as taking place in 2063. A revised updated version of the Chronology correcting this information was released shortly after the movie.
  
  
• The film was released on November 22, 1996, the anniversary of the date that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and the characters land on Earth on April 4, 2063, the anniversary of the date that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.
  
  
• Captain Jean-Luc Picard is likened to "Moby Dick" character Captain Ahab for his obsession with destroying the Borg, as Ahab was obsessed with killing the white whale. Patrick Stewart, who portrays Picard, also portrayed Ahab on television two years after appearing in "First Contact".
  
  
• In this film, the EMH says "I'm a doctor, not a doorstop". This is a nod to Dr. McCoy from the original series. Whenever McCoy was given a non-medical task, he would say "I'm a doctor, not a... (bricklayer, moon shuttle conductor, escalator, etc.)"
  
  
• Although quotes from Moby Dick have been quoted during the life of the Star Trek franchise often, Patrick Stewart is the first to have quoted it as the Captain of a vessel in more than one series. He also did so playing Ahab in the Moby Dick (1998) (TV) TV serial.
  
  
• The escape pod doors on the Enterprise E are the center section of cowl induction hoods found on many high performance cars and trucks.
  
  
• The design for the Borg Queen was heavily influenced by a similar character from the Michael Jackson 3-D film Captain EO (1986). In that movie, Anjelica Huston played the villainous Supreme Leader, who descended from the ceiling using long cables, much like the Borg Queen does in this movie.
  
  
• Geordi tells Zefram Cochrane that by the 24th Century, the Phoenix Missile Complex will become a museum, and will feature a 20-meter-tall statue of Cochrane himself, with his arm reaching out towards the sky "towards the future". Although the statue itself is never shown through the length of this movie, a smaller scale model of that very statue can be seen on a shelf in Capt. Archer's quarters in "Enterprise" (2001).
  
  

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