A much darker movie than many of the other Trek outings, it focuses on the crew of the Enterprise-E as they travel back in time to stop the Borg from assimilating Earth. On 21st Century Earth, several members of the crew ensure that Zephram Cochrane's historic first warp speed spaceflight goes ahead, while on the Enterprise-E, Picard and his remaining crew battle against the Borg who are rapidly taking over the ship.
Considered to be the most successful movie starring The Next Generation cast, it is available on one-disc and special edition two-disc DVD.
THE CAST
- Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard
- Jonathan Frakes as Commander William T. Riker
- Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data
- LeVar Burton as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge
- Michael Dorn as Lt. Commander Worf
- Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher
- Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi
- Alfre Woodard as Lily Sloane
- James Cromwell as Dr. Zefram Cochrane
- Alice Krige as The Borg Queen
- Neal McDonough as Lieutenant Hawk
- Robert Picardo as Emergency Medical Hologram
- Dwight Schultz as Lieutenant Reginald Barclay
- Patti Yasutake as Nurse Alyssa Ogawa
- Jeff Coopwood as Voice of the Borg
- Zefram Cochrane was first introduced in the original series episode 'Metamorphosis' and is noticeably different, the original being a peaceful, calm man who reached to the stars for the good of all humanity, and the movie version being a partying, semi-drunk who reached to the stars for money.
- Cochrane is the first character in Star Trek history to actually say the phrase 'star trek'.
- Tom Hanks was considered for the role of Cochrane, but was unavailable.
- The song that Cochrane plays at the launch of the Phoenix is 'Magic Carpet Ride' by Steppenwold.
- Captain Picard is compared by one of the other characters to Captain Ahab from Moby Dick. In 1998, the year this film was released, Patrick Stewart also starred in a TV adaptation of Moby Dick.
- Someone at ILM, the special effects company that worked on the movie, inserted the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars into the battle with the Borg cube scene.
- Other titles considered for the movie were Star Trek: Borg and Star Trek: Resurrection.
- The actual title was taken from an episode of The Next Generation, 4.15 'First Contact'.
- In earlier drafts of the script, the USS Defiant was destroyed. This was eventually vetoed by Ronald D. Moore.