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Almost
immediately after the premiere of
"Star
Trek: Generations", Paramount Pictures approached
Rick Berman about making another "Star Trek" movie
featuring the cast of "The Next Generation." |
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Several
scenarios of time travel were considered, including the
American Civil War and the Renaissance. In the latter
idea, the Borg would partially assimilated a castle. |
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An early draft
of the script had Picard, Beverly and Geordi down on
Earth working to acheive the warp flight with Riker,
Troi and Worf aboard the Enterprise fighting the
Borg. The Borg would have also made environmental
control their hive and Data would have had his entire
body covered in human flesh. During the deflector dish
scene, a Borg would have assaulted Riker from above,
causing the two of them to tumble through space at each
other's throats, only to be saved by Troi on the bridge
who catches them in the tractor beam. The deflector
would have been destroyed by Worf manually rotating the
quantum torpedo launcher to point at the dish and
firing upon it. Picard and Geordi would have made the
warp flight alone. The character of Lily would have been
named Ruby and Picard would have brought her back to the
24th century with him. The script was reworked after
Patrick Stewart requested a more "action-role" for
Picard. Eventually, Picard and Riker's roles were
reversed and the "Ahab gets his whale" element added. |
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The
Enterprise-E originally was depicted as being part
of the "Nova class" of starships. It was later changed
to the "Sovereign class", however, the Nova class would
later appear on "Star Trek: Voyager" as the U.S.S.
Equinox in
"Equinox,
Part I"
and the U.S.S. Rhode Island
in
"Endgame." |
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Brannon Braga
had originally wanted to destroy the Defiant in
the Borg battle, but Ronald D. Moore opposed it, citing
the needless destruction of the ship from the series he
worked on ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine") in a film that
didn't even involve the majority of the DS9 characters.
It would also prove inconvenient for the television
series, so the ship was allowed to survive. |
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Rumours have
long suggested a scene where Avery Brooks as Captain
Sisko orders Worf to take the Defiant to battle
the Borg. Another rumour is that Kelsey Grammer has an
uncredited cameo as Captain Morgan Bateson of the U.S.S.
Bozeman saying the line "acknowleged" when the
Enterprise crew listens to the battle transmissions.
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CGI-animators
at George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic slipped a
shot of the Millennium Falcon from the "Star
Wars" movies into the Borg battle. It can (barely) be
seen flying to the left off-screen when the Defiant
fires its pulse phasers at the Borg ship. |
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Michael Dorn
was given only one line of dialogue in
"The
Ascent" of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" which aired
the day before this movie premiered. |
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The teaser
trailer for this movie features
a custom-made FX visual
of the U.S.S. Voyager firing phaser blasts at a
Borg ship. The Voyager model, however, has no
name markings on it, simply the "NCC-74656" registry on
the saucer. |
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The holosuite
menu features programs that have appeared or have been
referenced in episodes of the television series
including:
Cafe des Artises from
"We'll Always Have Paris",
Charnock's Comedy Cabaret from
"The Outrageous Okona",
The Big Goodbye from
"The Big Goodbye",
"Manhunt" and
"Clues",
Emerald Wading Pool from
"Conundrum"
and
Equestrian Adventure from
"Pen Pals." |
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Several people
from other "Star Trek" incarnations make cameos in the
movie, including:
Dwight Schultz who played Reginald Barclay in "The Next
Generation" and "Voyager",
Robert Picardo who played the E.M.H. as well as Dr.
Lewis Zimmerman on "Voyager",
Ethan Phillips who played Neelix on "Voyager" as well as
a Ferengi on "Enterprise",
Brannon Braga who was a writer and producer on "The Next
Generation", "Voyager" and "Enterprise" and
Ronald D. Moore who was a writer and a producer on "The
Next Generation", "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager." |
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Dr. Crusher's
line of "the Borg are still in the Delta Quadrant" is a
tease for upcoming episodes of "Star Trek: Voyager" in
which the ship finally encounters the Borg. |
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Borg eyepieces
displayed in the movie flash the names of several of the
cast and crew in morse code. "R-I-C-K-B-E-R-M-A-N" is
one of the codes. |
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An alleged
deleted scene features Zephram Cochrane jumping off a
cliff to prevent himself from attaining "hero status" by
the 24th century. He is assisted in his fall by
Counselor Troi who actually pushes him off the
precipice, only for him to fall onto a forcefield Geordi
had set up. Rumour has it that Jonathan Frakes cut the
scene because he felt there were enough "Cochrane as a
Reluctant Hero" scenes. |
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Unsure of a
fitting title, the names "Star Trek: Generations II",
"Star Trek: Destinies", "Star Trek: Renaissance", "Star
Trek: Resurrection" and "Star Trek: Borg" were all
considered at one time or another before "Star Trek:
First Contact" was eventually chosen. |
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Much like the
new Starfleet uniforms that were introduced in this
film, the Borg costumes were also given a face-lift for
the movie to make them "more cinematic" for use on the
big screen. Both the uniforms and the Borg costumes were
subsequently reused on "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager."
The "Deep Space Nine" variant of uniform which had been
used by several cast members in "Star
Trek: Generations" made their final appearance on
DS9 in
"The
Ascent",
while they continued to be used regularly by "Star Trek:
Voyager." |
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The
Enterprise-E was designed after the Galaxy-class
Enterprise-D was deemed "too television" to really
make for an effective model for any future movies. The
new ship was designed to take advantage of the
widescreen qualities of a motion picture, hence, its
longer, sleeker look. As a matter of policy, the
Sovereign class was used exclusively for the movies and
was not allowed to be seen on television, which is why
the Enterprise-E never appeared any of the
Dominion War battles on "Deep Space Nine." Before the
decision was made to design a new class ship, the
special effects team changed the registry on the old
Galaxy-class model they has used for
"Star
Trek: Generations" to read "NCC-1701-E"
because they thought the same model would be used again. |
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The
Enterprise-E sick-bay is the sick-bay from
Voyager with the doors repainted. It would be used
again in "Star
Trek: Insurrection." |
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The footage of
the Pheonix deploying its warp nacelles was later
used in the opening credits for "Star Trek: Enterprise." |
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This movie
serves as the "branching off" point for two episodes of
"Star Trek: Enterprise":
The episode
"Regeneration" deals with the wreckage of the Borg sphere the
Enterprise-E destroys in Earth orbit which
eventually crash lands in the Arctic circle and. . .
The episode
"In
A Mirror, Darkly,
Part I"
features a "what-if?" type
scenario as the people of Montana assault the Vulcans
and loot their ship. |
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The bartender
Eddy, played by Michael Zaslow, had originally played
Crewman Darnell, the first person to be killed off in
"Star Trek" in the classic episode
"The Man Trap." |
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Admiral Hayes,
whose ship is destroyed in the Borg battle, did
apparently survive the battle and would reappear in the
"Voyager" episodes "Hope
and Fear" and
"Life
Line." |
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Patrick
Stewart reflects on the development of Captain Picard:
"Apart from the fact that I obviously look so much
younger now than I did then, we have made him a much
lighter character, a man with a stronger sense of humour,
certainly a sense of irony, a man whose feelings and
passions are a good deal more on the surface as they
were. He was a little locked away in that first year or
two." |
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In earlier drafts of the
script, Lily was named Ruby. |
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Patrick
Stewart also gives his thoughts on his acting career:
"I
love making movies, but the theater feeds me in a
different way..." |
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Director
Jonathan Frakes on the "darker" tone of "Star Trek:
First Contact": "I think in
light of the way Roddenberry always envisioned Star
Trek, which was a very non-violent, non aggressive
offering, it is a real departure in that regard..." |
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LeVar Burton
on his hopes for more "Next Generation" movies:
"If there
are ever going to be any other 'Star Trek' movies after
this one, this needs to be really good. This needs to be
-- if not a home run -- at least a triple." |
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Brent Spiner
applauded the directorial efforts of Frakes:
"He really was on top of all of us on performance, and
adjusted things, and gave us great notes."
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