History Trivia / StarTrekFirstContact

* DeletedRole: Creator/AveryBrooks filmed a scene with [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Sisko]] ordering Worf to command the ''Defiant'', but it was cut.

** In ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' episode "[[Recap/TheBigBangTheoryS4E8TheTwentyOneSecondExcitation The 21-Second Excitation]]", Sheldon Cooper quotes Picard's "The line must be drawn here" speech while Creator/WilWheaton cuts in line at a ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'' screening due to his [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections friendship with the theater owner]].

* TheOtherDarrin: Creator/JamesCromwell replaces Glenn Corbett as Zefram Cochrane, who first appeared in the original series episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E9Metamorphosis Metamorphosis]]". However it is now almost a given that more people know Cromwell's performance over Corbett's, making Corbett ThePeteBest.
** Of course, Corbett also experienced AuthorExistenceFailure in 1993, so he wasn't really available.

** Creator/JamesCromwell was previously seen in two roles on ''Next Generation''. He was the Angosian Prime Minister in "The Hunted" and a Yridian information dealer named Jaglom Shrek in both parts of "Birthright".

** Don Stark, who plays Nicky the Nose, also previously played a Yridian, Ashrock, in the [=DS9=] episode "Melora".
** Michael Zaslow, who played ''Franchise/StarTrek'''s first ever RedShirt, Crewman Darnell from TOS's "The Man Trap", appears as Eddie the bartender.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** The original tentative plans would have seen the Borg going back in time to the time of the Renaissance, but it was decided that such a trip would make the film too much like a historical documentary, so the time travel was instead shifted to take the Borg back to a point in the past of ''Star Trek'' without making it the past of the present day.
** Picard and Riker's roles were to be switched, and more emphasis was going to be placed on the Earth storyline. Part of the reasons for the switch were apparently because Patrick Stewart felt Picard should have more of an active role in defending the ''Enterprise'', while Jonathan Frakes wanted to have more time to focus on directing. Picard was also the one who had been assimilated by the Borg, so it made more sense for him to be the one to confront them. According to Braga and Moore's commentary, the ''Enterprise'' plot was mostly unchanged but the Earth-based story was completely altered. Also Lily (who was called Ruby in the early script) would have stayed on Earth with Picard in the original story.
** The earlier drafts of the script were also quite different tonally, and more of a time-travel comedy in the same vein as ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome''. When Picard and Riker's roles were swapped, the main storyline became much DarkerAndEdgier, with the Cochrane scenes instead used to provide moments of relief.
** The Borg Queen wasn't in the early drafts of the script. They started to formulate the character when [[ExecutiveMeddling executive]] [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools script notes remarked]] that they were just cyber-zombies and the movie needed a more tangible villain.
** The ''Defiant'' was outright destroyed in one draft of the script. Unsurprisingly, the ''[=DS9=]'' staff objected to what effects this would create for their show, so it was changed. (Incidentally, the ship would be destroyed on ''[=DS9=]'', but not for another 2 and a half years, and would be replaced by a look-alike with the same name.)
** Although the role of Zefram Cochrane was written with Creator/JamesCromwell in mind, Creator/TomHanks, a big fan of ''Star Trek'', was approached for the role by Paramount first, but he had already committed to ''Film/ThatThingYouDo'' and had to reject the part. Creator/ChristopherWalken was also considered.
** In the original screenplay, Picard tells Lily her phaser was set to minimum, and would have just given him a bad rash. This original line is still found in the {{Novelization}}.
** The ''Enterprise''-E was originally planned to be another ''Galaxy''-class--they even repainted the four-foot model with the letters NCC-1701-E--but decided later to go with the more aggressive-looking ''Sovereign''-class.
** The Borg Queen originally looked like [[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/38/95/b2/3895b2c88a562e76555acd1c4e42af44.png something out of Alien]].
** They also drew up various alternate sketches for Borg ships, including a "Borg Obelisk".
** Q appeared in one draft.
** Creator/JohnMcTiernan and Creator/RidleyScott were both asked to direct.
** Creator/YaphetKotto was considered for a part, back when the film was called ''Destinies''.

* DeletedRole: A scene with [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Sisko]] ordering Worf to command the ''Defiant'' in the battle was to be featured. It was filmed, but cut.

** Although the role of Zefram Cochrane was written with Creator/JamesCromwell in mind, Creator/TomHanks, a big fan of ''Star Trek'', was approached for the role by Paramount first, but he had already committed to ''Film/ThatThingYouDo'' and had to reject the part. Creator/ChristopherWalken was also considered as Cochrane.

** Picard and Riker's roles were to be switched, and more emphasis was going to be placed on the Earth storyline. Part of the reasons for the switch were apparently because Patrick Stewart felt Picard should have more of an active role in defending the ''Enterprise'', while Jonathan Frakes wanted to have more time to focus on directing. Picard was also the one who had been assimilated by the Borg, so it made more sense for him to be the one to confront them. According to Braga and Moore's commentary, the Enterprise plot was mostly unchanged but the Earth-based story was completely altered. Also Lily (who was called Ruby in the early script) would have stayed on Earth with Picard in the original story.

** The Borg Queen wasn't in the early drafts of the script. They started to formulate the character when [[ExecutiveMeddling executive]] [[TropesAreNotBad script notes remarked]] that they were just cyber-zombies and the movie needed a more tangible villain.

** Creator/TomHanks as Zefram Cochrane. "Life is like a box of Gagh...". Creator/ChristopherWalken was also considered as Cochrane.

** Cromwell was previously seen in two roles on ''Next Generation''. He was the Angosian Prime Minister in "The Hunted" and a Yridian information dealer named Jaglom Shrek in both parts of "Birthright".

** Creator/TomHanks as Zefram Cochrane. "Life is like a box of Gagh..."

* BeamMeUpScotty: Picard actually misquotes ''Literature/MobyDick''. The change is obviously to simplify the text for modern audiences by putting it into more modern language. There are three possibilities: in the future, someone has revised one of the greatest novels of all time, Picard's exhausted and either misremembering or paraphrasing the quote, or Picard's [[TranslatorMicrobes translator]] gives it in modern English for Lily rather than the original language.

* RealLifeRelative: While Jerry Goldsmith composed most of the score, his son Joel wrote some of his own cues.
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The ''Defiant'' is heavily damaged and her bridge is darkened and filled with debris because the set was intended to only be shown on television and wouldn't have looked good fully lit on a cinema screen.

* TheOtherDarrin: James Cromwell replaces Glenn Corbett as Zefram Cochrane, who first appeared in the original series episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E9Metamorphosis Metamorphosis]]". However it is now almost a given that more people know Cromwell's performance over Corbett's, making Corbett ThePeteBest.

** A scene with [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Sisko]] ordering Worf to command the ''Defiant'' in the battle was to be featured. It was filmed, but cut.

* ActorAllusion:
** Inverted - At one point, Lily calls Picard "[[Literature/MobyDick Captain Ahab]]" in reference to his personal vendetta against the Borg. Creator/PatrickStewart was so pleased with this scene that he went ahead and played Ahab in a made-for-TV movie version of ''Moby-Dick''.
** The ''Enterprise''[='=]s EMH program tells Dr. Crusher [[ImADoctorNotAPlaceholder "I'm a doctor, not a doorstop."]]. For his audition as the EMH on ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', Robert Picardo had [[ThrowItIn ad-libbed]] the line "I'm a doctor, not a nightlight". While having ''no idea'' that fit with a famous series of lines from the franchise.
** La Forge's exposition to Cochrane about how the whole launch site will become a museum and [[OurFounder Cochrane is standing where his statue is going to be]] [[Series/ReadingRainbow sure channels his pre-TNG work]].

** La Forge's exposition to Cochrane about how the whole launch site will become a museum and [[OurFounder Cochrane is standing where his statue is going to be]] [[ReadingRainbow sure channels his pre-TNG work]].

** And [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Neelix]] tries to stop the Borg from entering the Dixon Hill nightclub.

** The ''Enterprise''[='=]s EMH program tells Dr. Crusher [[ImADoctorNotAPlaceholder "I'm a doctor, not a doorstop."]]. For his audition as the EMH on ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', Robert Picardo had [[ThrowItIn ad-libbed]] the line "I'm a doctor, not a nightlight". While having ''no idea'' that was a famous line from the franchise.

** The ''Enterprise''-E was originally planned to be another ''Galaxy''-class--they even built a GCS model painted with the letters NCC-1701-E--but decided later to go with the more aggressive-looking ''Sovereign''-class.

** The ''Defiant'' was outright destroyed in one draft of the script. Unsurprisingly, the ''[=DS9=]'' staff objected to what effects this would create for their show, so it was changed. (Incidentally, the ship would be destroyed on ''[=DS9=]'', but not for another 2 and a half years.)

* YouLookFamiliar: Cromwell was previously seen in two roles on ''Next Generation''. He was the Angosian Prime Minister in "The Hunted" and a Yridian information dealer named Jaglom Shrek in both parts of "Birthright"

** ActorAllusion: La Forge's exposition to Cochrane about how the whole launch site will become a museum and [[OurFounder Cochrane is standing where his statue is going to be]] [[ReadingRainbow sure channels his pre-TNG work]].

* RecycledSet: Aside from exceptions like the Bridge and Engineering, most of the ''Enterprise''-E's sets are actually modified versions of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'''s sets. It's particularly obvious in Sickbay, whose layout is almost unchanged.
* ShowAccuracyToyAccuracy: The original Playmates version of the ''Enterprise''-E takes some cues from an unused design for the ship, most notably the uncovered bussard collectors and the large singular impulse engine.