Star Trek: First Contact had a slew of names you may have forgotten were in it.
Star Trek: First Contact remains one of the finest movies in all of Star Trek. Whether it’s your favorite or not, it’s usually among the top films in the franchise in the opinions of many. The story does a great job of explaining the Federation’s beginning, as well as examining the emotional state of Jean-Luc Picard when he’s once again confronted with The Borg.
The storytelling wasn’t the only reason this film gets such high marks, as the special effects and film design were incredible. Visually, it was a masterclass in execution.
The film also succeeded in the casting department as well. While the regulars were back, Alfre Woodard, Alice Krige, and James Cromwell all came in and put the roster of talent over the top. Woodard played Lily, Krige played the Borg Queen and Cromwell played Zefram Cochrane. Each brought something new and unique to the film that had been absent in past and future Rek film installments.
They weren’t the only big names that were in First Contact, however.
Neal McDonough
Neal McDonough starts us off as Lt. Hawk, a conn officer on the U.S.S. Enterprise that accompanied Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Lieutenant Commander Worf onto the exterior deflector dish where the Borg were building a messaging array to call for Borg reinforcements. While he had very few lines, at least memorable lines, McDonough’s Hawk did have a big moment in this scene.
Hawk would get dragged by one of the Borg off-screen, where he’d be assimilated. As Picard struggled to release the deflector dish, Hawk would return, stepping on Picard’s phaser rifle and revealing to his former captain that he was now assimilated into the Borg collective.
A well-timed phaser shot from Worf would send the man once known as Hawk off into space, presumably to his death.
McDonough was not a big name when the film came out, appearing in a lot of small roles but after his appearance in First Contact, he’d land the lead role on The Incredible Hulk cartoon, as well as major roles in Minority Report, Captain America: The First Avenger, Band of Brothers, and the Arrowverse as Damian Dahk.
Robert Picardo
Robert Picardo was the only actor on this list who was already in Star Trek and played the same character as well, kinda. Picardo is most known to fans as The Doctor on Star Trek: Voyager. During his tenure there, he started off simply as an Emergency Medical Hologram and gained a certain autonomy and individualism that no other similarly modeled EMH possessed.
Because of the uniqueness of that specific EMH on Voyager, it’s far to say that other EMH’s in Starfleet who bore his likeness had no real relation to him. Making Picardo’s cameo appearance in First Contact one where he played a different character entirely than the one he played on Voyager.
Even if they looked alike.
For his role in the film, Dr. Beverly Crusher activates the EMH, which she swore she’d never do, as a way to distract the Borg. The Borg break into the sickbay and the EMH attempts to offer skincare tips before they likely deactivated him.
Picardo has been no stranger to science fiction since First Contact, taking on projects like Chuck, as well as expanding his horizon and appearing on shows like The Mentalist, appearing in video games like Fallout, and even stopping by the world of caped crusaders and appearing on The Flash. Who actually doesn’t have a cape…
Ethan Phillips
Like with Robert Picardo before him, Ethan Phillips came into the movie long established as a Star Trek actor over on UPN’s Voyager. The only thing about Phillips’ appearance is that you may not have realized who he is at first. While his voice may give it away, you’d never that the doorman of the holographic nightclub is actually the man known to fans as Neelix.
In a scene where Jean-Luc Picard and Lily are trying to outmaneuver the Borg, Picard leads the Borg into the holodecks and activates a crime story that Picard enjoys playing out. He does this so Picard can use a holographic Tommy gun to mow down the two Borg drones following them.
When the program starts, however, the Borg are greeted by a man with no face paint or face prosthetics covering him up in any way. This man is in fact the same person who plays Neelix on Voyager; Ethan Phillips.
Unlike Picardo’s cameo, Phillips plays a character completely different than the one he does on Voyager, a simple hologram whose job is to protect the bar. It is ironic that both Voyager cameos are holographic creations.
Phillips continues to act, guest-starring in shows like Chuck, The Mentalist and having a role in The Purge: Election Year. He also continues to act in Star Trek properties, having appeared in Star Trek: Online as Neelix.
Adam Scott
Arguably the biggest name to appear on this list had the smallest role in the film. For those who missed Scott’s blink and you missed it appearance in First Contact, he appeared as “Defiant Conn Officer”, aboard the U.S.S. Defiant.
Scott sat front and center and was the only actor besides Michael Dorn (Worf), who had any screen time when the Defiant was seen. The Defiant appeared as part of the film’s opening battle against the Borg, and when systems started to fail, it was Scott’s character who relayed the information to Worf.
Worf, in his infinite wisdom, decided that today was a good day to die and ordered the Defiant accelerate to ramming speed in a last-ditch effort to wound the Borg. Scott’s character would then have his final line and scene of the film, where he instructed Worf that the Enterprise had arrived to make a dramatic save.
Scott’s biggest role at this point in his career was a forgettable turn on Boy Meets World as the new school bully Griffin ‘Griff’ Hawkins for four episodes. While this is likely not a film that made Scott famous, as it was arguably the smallest role of the film that had more than one line, it is an interesting footnote in his career.
Scott is most famous for his time on the NBC series Parks and Recreation but if you want to see something truly fantastic, check out his turn in the film Torque. It’s an awful movie but in the best ways possible.
Don Stark
A lot of the cameos, four of them actually, came in the scenes where Jean-Luc Picard and Lily went to the holodecks and activated the mob holonovel where Picard gets to pretend to be a character from The Big Goodbye, Dixon Hill. Picard, has Hill, has to peruse a giant ballroom, looking for a weapon along the way to battle The Borg with.
This brings Picard/Hill to a man named Nicky the Nose, a man with a silver-plated nose, like some kind of villain out of the old Dick Tracy comic (and film). Stark didn’t have a particularly large seen, probably getting only one line at best, and having very little to add to the plot.
He’s introduced rather quickly and is gone just as quickly. In fact, his appearance would probably make you wonder if it’s Don Stark or famous character actor Art LaFluer. Don’t blink, because you will probably miss this cameo if you do.
Stark is probably best known for his turn on That 70’s Show as Bob Pinciotti, the kind-hearted, albeit dim neighbor of the Foremans and father to Donna, one of the series lead characters. While it’s not a huge role, to see an actor like Stark, who was about to be on a huge television show, is a neat piece of history.
Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga
Let’s play a new game, it’s like Where’s Waldo but it has nothing to do with Waldo. Instead, it’s “where’s Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga!” The title of the game needs work. Both Moore and Braga had cameos in the same holodeck novel that Ethan Phillips and Don Stark appeared in. Braga can be seen in the same scene as Phillips, actually, sitting at the front of the club as The Borg walk in.
As for Moore, good luck, he’s there, somewhere but in all my viewings I’ve never seen the man. We do know he was there, on set, and we even know what he looks like thanks to a behind-the-scenes image with him and Braga. Braga is dressed just as he is in the film, and Moore clearly has era-accurate clothing on, so he’s there.
We just have to find him. Many of you probably know where he is, and if so, let me know down below.
Both men are known for their work on Star Trek, having a hand in much of the franchise from near the start of the Next Generation to the end of Voyager. Braga would stay on with Enterprise, while Moore would leave to do his reboot of Battlestar Galactica.