First Contact Day: 5 of our favorite minor moments from Star Trek: First Contact

Star Trek: First Contact has given us First Contact Day, and in that honor, we’re looking at five great minor moments from the film.

Star Trek: First Contact is the reason we have First Contact Day, and in that honor, we’re looking at five of the best minor moments from Star Trek: First Contact. The film is among the best of the best for Star Trek fans universally. While liking one thing over another is always a subjective thing, this is the film that many people cite as their favorite or second favorite film.

It’s for good reason, it’s got a lot of great moments and great lines. There’s Worf shooting the Borg who were on a communications dish while dropping the “Assimlinate This” line. You had the meme-worthy Jean-Luc Picard mowing down the Borg in the Holodeck and of course, you have the iconic line of “The line must be drawn here. This far, no farther!”

It’s so great, but today we’re looking at five of the best moments that don’t get the same love. The five most minor moments of the film that we love re-living.

5  great minor moments from Star Trek: First Contact

Adam Scott sighting

In a blink and you miss it moment, Adam Scott of Step Brothers and Parks and Rec fame had a minor cameo as a Deep Space Nine officer, who was piloting the USS Deviant in The Battle of Sector 001. While the Deviant is rendered immobile the crew is beamed to the Enterprise but Scott’s fate isn’t revealed.

“Perhaps…”

In the same scene where Scott is seen, Michael Dorn has one of his most underappreciated moments as Worf; uttering “Perhaps today is a good day to die”, in almost utter bemusement. It’s such a cheeky line in a very tense moment. It’s utterly perfect.

The handshake

At the end of the film, Zefram Cochrane is face to face with the Vulcans, who have finally arrived to make first contact with humanity after Cochrane’s first warp-speed trip. In a moment that defines the idea of Star Trek, the Vulcan gives Cochrane the Vulcan salute, only instead matching Cochrane’s extended hand, greeting the alien with a sturdy handshake.

He then gets drunk and dances in a bar with them, which just fits this character to a T.

“You broke your little ship”

Lily was one of the best parts of the film. She was interesting, human, and very passionate and that showed in nearly every scene. Yet, the scene that really showed you who she is, someone who wants the best for those around her, was when she was begging Jean-Luc Picard to blow up the Enterprise and eliminate the Borg threat. Picard smashes a decorative display of past ships to bear the name Enterprise, and almost comically, Lily picks one up and comments “You broke your little ship.” It’s hard to put that scene into words, it shows her humanity, as she was intent on picking up something once beloved, but it also showed her almost fear. Here was Picard, the Captain’s captain, and he just had a full-blown emotional meltdown, shocking her into a quiet state. Yet, like always, she found her way through. It’s a quiet moment in a movie full of very loud ones, but if you pay attention, it’ll tell you all you need to know about Lily the character.

The Voyager cameos

This is a personal favorite, but getting to see Robert Picardo (The Doctor) and Ethan Phillips (Neelix) cameo on Star Trek: First Contact was a real treat. Picardo played a version of his Voyager character, The Doctor, aka The Emergency Medical Hologram, and is confronted by The Borg as a last-ditch effort by Beverly Crusher to get her patients away from the Borg. Phillips didn’t reprise Neelix, instead, he was a hologram Maître d’. And I’m only now realizing they both played holograms.

Happy First Contact Day.