Star Trek: First Contact (1996) - 10 trivia entries

I was reading through some of the entries concerning the Borg in the Star Trek Encyclopedia, and came upon a comment they had about Wolf 359 - it's the name of an actual star in space, it makes up part of the Constellation Leo. It's also the site of the first major fleet battle between StarFleet and the Borg. Take your mind back to the scene where Zef and Lily first walk out of that bar, and Lily sees a speck of light that is actually the Borg Sphere, and asks Zef what it is. He replies "That, my dear, is the Constellation Leo". Now, obviously he didn't see what she was pointing out the first time around, but we could probably assume that from their point of view the sphere was in the general area that the constellation occupies in the night sky. Nice coincidence that the first attack on Earth by the Borg came from the same direction as the major battle between Starfleet and the Borg.

The set that they use as sickbay on the Enterprise is the same set used as sickbay on Star Trek Voyager. In fact, the character of the holographic doctor is played by Robert Picardo, who starred as Voyager's holographic doc.

The missile silo scenes were filmed at the Titan Missile Museum in Green Valley, Arizona. It is a decommissioned site and the only Titan missile complex open to the public. In order to get the shot of the launch they lowered a camera down the length of the actual missile on cables. Members of the crew arrived weeks early to get exact measurements of the warhead so they could build the cockpit "capsule" to fit over it. The money Paramount paid to use the site was used to build the new Welcome Center.

The Borg eyepieces don't blink at random - they spell out "Rick Berman" , "Sherry Lansing" , the names of several studio execs , and "Bonnie" , the name of eye programmer Michael Westmore Jr's dog, in Morse code. Additionally , Data's head blinks "Resistance is futile".

The name of the Dixon Hill holo-program in this film, "The Big Goodbye", is also the name of the first episode to feature Picard as Dixon Hill. Also, the list of holo-programs that appears on the display are actual programs that were seen during the course of the TV shows.

Classic car nuts will find it humorous that a whole bunch of reproduction Chevrolet L-88 hood scoops are used as hatchway doors to the lifepods during the auto-destruct sequence, most obviously as they slam shut in close-up.

The character of the nightclub owner is played by Ethan Phillips, uncredited, who starred as Neelix for 7 years on Star Trek Voyager.

Watch the LCARS displays very carefully when Picard, Worf, and Lt. Hawk are reprogramming the maglock controls. Those with a careful eye can spot that one of the maglocks is the infamous AE35 unit, a tip of the hat to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

When Dr. Crusher is moving everyone out of sick bay when the Borg are about to break in, she calls for the holograghic Doctor. She tell him to distract the Borg long enough for them to escape. He says something along the lines of "I'm a doctor, not a doorstop" which was a nice salute to Dr. McCoy. It was one of his classic lines.

Not strictly a "movie mistake", but interesting to note. On the DVD commentary, Jonathan Frakes says repeatedly that the gun used by Picard in the holodeck scene is "a period German submachinegun". It is, of course, a Thompson M1928, possibly the most American submachinegun of them all.