Did You Know?

For inspiration prior to filming, director Jonathan Frakes says he viewed the films Alien, Aliens, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Blade Runner, and Jaws.

At the end of filming, actor/director Jonathan Frakes got the nickname: "Two takes Frakes" because of the efficiency of his style.

Earlier drafts of the script called for the USS Defiant to be destroyed in the battle with the Borg, but screenwriter Ronald D. Moore objected to the needless destruction of the ship from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in a story that didn't even involve the DS9 characters (apart from Lt. Commander Worf). It would also prove to be inconvenient for the television show, so the Defiant was eventually allowed to survive the battle.

Dwight Schultz (Reg Barclay) was three hours late when arriving to the set because he got lost and a crew member had to come get him.

The program menu in the holosuite depicts various holodeck programs from previous episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Specifically: Cafe Des Artistes is from "We'll Always Have Paris". Charnock's Comedy Cabaret is from "The Outrageous Okona". The Big Goodbye is from "The Big Goodbye", "Manhunt", and "Clues". Emerald Wading Pool is from "Conundrum." Equestrian Adventure is from "Pen Pals".

When Dr. Crusher says "In the 21st century, the Borg are still in the Delta Quadrant", it was intended as a teaser for upcoming episodes of Star Trek: Voyager, in which The Borg were featured prominently.

The Enterprise E is a Sovereign class starship. The previous ship, the Enterprise-D, was a Galaxy class starship.

Robert Picardo doesn't just reprise his character from Star Trek: Voyager, but there is a very subtle reference to the joke that made him earn "The Doctor" role: During his Voyager audition, he was asked to say, "Somebody forgot to turn off my program." He did that, then added, "I'm a doctor, not a light bulb," and got the part. In this movie, he says, "I'm a doctor, not a door-stop." See Voyager trivia.

The opera that Picard is listening to is Berlioz' "Les Troyens". The song is "Hylas' Song" from the beginning of Act V. Hylas is a homesick young sailor being rocked to sleep by the sea as he dreams of the homeland he will never see again.

Certain USS Enterprise bridge set pieces from previous Star Trek movies were built into parts of the Enterprise-E bridge. These pieces include the turbolift foyers, which are the only surviving parts of the set from the first Star Trek movie, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and the aft master display station, which was a piece of the Enterprise-A bridge set originally built for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

Is the first Star Trek film in which none of the original Star Trek principal cast members appear (although Majel Barrett, who provides the voice of the Enterprise computer, was a regular as Nurse Chapel).

The display cases in the Enterprise's briefing room contain gold models of all six Federation starships to bear the name Enterprise.

In an early draft of the screenplay, the character Lt. Hawk (Neal McDonough) was gay, and therefore was to have been the first openly gay character in any Star Trek series or movie; however, any reference to his sexual orientation was excised from later drafts of the screenplay. Lt. Hawk was later confirmed as having been gay in the Star Trek tie-in novel Section 31: Rogue by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin.

The Teaser Trailer, included on the DVD, uses score from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and various shots from other Star Trek movies. It also shows a different take of the shot when Picard says, "The line must be drawn here," than the one used in the movie.

ILM animators created several new classes of Federation ships for the huge CGI animation sequence against the Borg. Classes include the Akira, Sabre, Steamrunner and others.

All the scenes filmed inside the silo and of the "Phoenix" were taken at the "Titan Missile Museum", located in Green Valley, 20 miles South of Tucson, Arizona. This site is the only Intercontinental Missile (ICBM) silo complex in the world that is open to the public. The 110 foot tall Titan II rocket has been "de-militarized" (no fuel or nuclear payload) and, per the SALT treaty and SMART (Strategic Missile Arms Reduction Treaty), one of the two silo doors must remain blocked open for Russian satellite verification.

Once the creative team decided they were going to make a time travel movie two of the time periods they considered the Enterprise and her crew visiting included The American Civil War and Medieval Europe (which gives the alternate title "Renaissance" more meaning), and would have included a castle that would have partially been assimilated by the Borg.

Was released the same day that Mark Lenard (Sarek) died.

The moon phase and position shown through the Phoenix windscreen (just prior to half full) are reasonably close to what they will actually be on April 5, 2063.

The Borg Queen was created because the writers were having difficulty in writing dialogue for what was intended to be the Borg's central computer.

In the early drafts, Picard was supposed to be the one helping Zefram Cochrane on Earth, with Riker fighting the Borg on the Enterprise. The main story was also focused on the happenings on Earth. After Patrick Stewart objected to that, the characters of Riker and Picard were swapped. This also resulted in making Picard more of an action hero and the story more focusing on happenings on the Enterprise.

Whenever a scene features the Borg, the music score includes an instrument called the Blaster Beam, the instrument used in Star Trek: The Motion Picture whenever V'ger is shown. Both films were scored by Jerry Goldsmith.

As Zefram Cochrane's ship is taking off, a closeup of a button panel shows two adjacent buttons labeled TOS 3 and TOS 8. Zefram Cochrane's character was first introduced in the 38th episode of Star Trek: the original series (TOS).

Toward the beginning of the film, when Lilly Sloane pointed to the sky and asked Zephram Cochrane about the newly arrived Borg ship, Zephram replied that it was the constellation Leo. Leo is in fact visible from northern Montana during evenings in April, which was when and where the story takes place.

The song Zefram Cochrane (James Cromwell) plays on the jukebox is "Ooby Dooby" by Roy Orbison.

The film was released on November 22, 1996, the anniversary of the date that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and the characters land on Earth on April 4, 2063, the anniversary of the date that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

In this film, the EMH says "I'm a doctor, not a doorstop". This is a nod to Dr. McCoy from the original series. Whenever McCoy was given a non-medical task, he would say "I'm a doctor, not a... (bricklayer, moon shuttle conductor, escalator, etc.)"

The design for the Borg Queen was heavily influenced by a similar character from the Michael Jackson 3-D film Captain EO. In that movie, Anjelica Huston played the villainous Supreme Leader, who descended from the ceiling using long cables, much like the Borg Queen does in this movie.

At the beginning of the movie Picard is listening to "Les Troyens" by Hector Berlioz; a short while later Riker asks, "Why are we out here chasing comets?" There is an asteroid named "69288 Berlioz."

The use of the number 47, done remarkably often in the show Star Trek: The Next Generation, returns here: Capt. Picard's authorization code is "Picard 47 Alpha Tango"

When Lily points out the Borg Sphere just before it attacks, Cochrane thinks she's pointing at the constellation Leo. One of the stars that makes up Leo is Wolf 359, which was the site of a massive massacre of Federation ships by the Borg as mentioned in Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Best of Both Worlds: Part 2 and dramatized in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Emissary.

One of only three Star Trek movies to have any swear words spoken. The others are Star Trek: The Voyage Home, and Star Trek: Generations. In each case, the cursing was a single use of the "s**t" word.

Geordi LaForge's visor is replaced here with "ocular implants." LeVar Burton lobbied for years to have his visor replaced so people could see his eyes. He always felt it limited his acting ability. His request was finally granted here.

The last scene filmed, Picard's nightmare, was the film's very first.

In the scene where Picard smashes the display case containing the various Enterprise models, the screenplay called for the model of the Enterprise-D (NCC-1701-D, Picard's ship from the TV series that was destroyed in the previous film) to fall and break. In the film, we see the Enterprise-D model start to slide off its mount but then the camera cuts to Picard's face and we only hear the sound of the impact. Subsequent shots show the saucer section of the Enterprise-D model still hanging from its mount, and the warp-drive section on the bottom of the case along with broken pieces of the Enterprise-C (NCC-1701-C) model. Apparently the Enterprise-D model did not fall and break as planned, but the scene could not be re-shot without replacing the glass and the broken models, so the footage was edited to imply that the Enterprise-D fell and broke. Lily's line to Picard as she picks up one of the model pieces was changed from "You broke your ship" to "You broke your little ships."

Ronnie Rondell Jr.:  The film's stunt coordinator appears in the Holodeck nightclub scene as the man who warns Picard that he is about to take his actions personally.

Dwight Schultz:  reprises his role as Lt. Barclay from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Michael Zaslow:  who appeared as Crewman Darnell in the original series episode "The Man Trap", makes an uncredited cameo as the barkeep. Claims that Darnell was the first actor/character/crewman to be killed in the series, are not really valid because the series episodes were not broadcast in the order they were made, and the original pilot - The Cage - is ignored completely in such arguments. In the original pilot The Cage, the actor Mike Dugan as the Rigel VII Warrior (uncredited) was the first actor/character killed, by falling onto the broken spear point that Captain Pike was holding up as the Warrior fell. In terms of the series episodes that were aired, the first crewman killed was in the episode Where No Man Has Gone Before, the second pilot for the whole series which led to the show being actually approved and broadcast even if it wasn't the first episode aired. Paul Carr as Lt. Lee Kelso, was telekinetically strangled in the control room of the lithium cracking station on Delta Vega by Gary Lockwood as Lt. Cmdr. Gary Mitchell, from the security cell where Mitchell was being held.