An Assimilating Movie Trivia Quiz

Answer: E

In the previous film, "Star Trek: Generations" (1994), the Galaxy-class USS Enterprise-D starship, which was used throughout the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" television series was destroyed following a surprise attack by rogue Klingons. "Star Trek: First Contact" introduced a new Sovereign-class version of the Enterprise, which was larger and sleeker than its predecessor. It was given the name USS Enterprise-E. Chief Engineer Geordi LaForge (LeVar Burton) mentioned early in the film that "the Enterprise-E is the most advanced starship in the fleet".

The Enterprise-A was introduced in the film "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" (1986). The Enterprise-C was featured in the "TNG" episode "Yesterday's Enterprise". The Enterprise-F would later be featured in the "Star Trek: Picard" television series (2020-2023).

Answer: Worf

Following the conclusion of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", Lt. Commander Worf (Michael Dorn), who was the tactical officer of the USS Enterprise had joined the crew of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993-1999), which was still ongoing at the time of "Star Trek: First Contact".

In "Star Trek: First Contact", Worf was in command of the USS Defiant, which was a small attack ship featured in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine". The ship ended up getting heavily damaged in the battle with the Borg above the Earth. However, Worf and the Defiant's crew were rescued by the Enterprise and Worf would be asked to assume his previous position aboard the Enterprise.

Answer: True

After the Borg cube attacking the Earth was destroyed, a spherical Borg escape pod was launched. It created a temporal (time) vortex which allowed the Borg to travel back to April 5, 2063, which (in "Star Trek" lore) was the day that humanity made first contact with an alien race. The Borg had been successful in changing history by preventing first contact and subsequently assimilated the entire Earth in the past.

The USS Enterprise was caught in the temporal wake and the Earth suddenly changed in front of the ship to become completely inhabited by the Borg by their present year of 2373. Due to the ship getting caught in the time rift, the Enterprise and its crew were not affected by the change in history. Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) decided to follow the Borg sphere through the vortex and was able to destroy it in the past, but not before some damage had already been done.

Answer: Hawk

"Star Trek: First Contact" introduced a new helmsman named Lt. Hawk (first name unrevealed) to the crew of the USS Enterprise. He was played by actor Neal McDonough, who also had a role in the television series "Band of Brothers", as well as various movies and television series within the "Marvel Cinematic Universe".

Lt. Hawk ended up getting assimilated by the Borg as he, Worf and Captain Picard were conducting a spacewalk outside of the Enterprise. Their plan was to manually disengage the Enterprise's deflector shield, which was being converted into a long range communicator by the Borg, who had secretly invaded the Enterprise when their escape pod was destroyed. Lt. Hawk would soon attempt to assimilate Captain Picard, but would be killed by Worf.

Answer: James Cromwell

In "Star Trek" lore, Zefram Cochrane was the man credited with developing the first warp drive engine and was the first human to make contact with an alien race. The character had previously appeared in the original "Star Trek" television series (1966-1969) where he was portrayed by actor Glenn Corbett.

In "Star Trek: First Contact", Zefram Cochrane was portrayed by James Cromwell, who also gained notoriety in movies such as "Babe" and "I, Robot". It would not be James Cromwell's first appearance in "Star Trek" media as he had previously appeared several episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" as well as an episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine".

Answer: Robert Picardo (The Doctor)

"Star Trek: First Contact" was released in November 1996, almost two years after "Star Trek: Voyager" (1995-2001) had premiered on television. Robert Picardo portrayed the show's Emergency Medical Hologram (aka The Doctor), who became the chief medical officer of the USS Voyager. Robert Picardo would make a cameo appearance on "Star Trek: First Contact", where he portrayed the same EMH program that was installed aboard the USS Enterprise.

The EMH was called upon by Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) to provide a diversion as a hoard of Borg drones attacked the sick bay of the USS Enterprise. Robert Picardo was not the only "Star Trek: Voyager" actor to make a cameo in "Star Trek: First Contact". Ethan Philips, who played Voyager's chef Neelix, also made an appearance as a holodeck character.

Answer: Phoenix

Zefram Cochrane's warp ship was named the Phoenix, which shares its name with a mythical bird that is said to rise up from the ashes of its predecessor. The Phoenix was constructed using a ballistic missile left over from World War III, which in "Star Trek" lore occurred between the years 2026 and 2053.

The Phoenix received minor damage during the attack from the Borg, but the crew of the USS Enterprise were able to repair the ship in time to make the first warp flight. The timing of the warp flight was critical in that it would pique the interest of an alien vessel traveling near the Solar System.

Answer: Captain Ahab

Captain Picard had previously been assimilated by the Borg in the episode "The Best of Both Worlds" during the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" television series. In, "Star Trek: First Contact", Captain Picard had been uncharacteristically aggressive towards the Borg.

Lily (Zefram Cochrane's assistant) had been injured during the Borg's attack and was brought aboard the Enterprise to be treated. She encountered Captain Picard while attempting to escape the Enterprise and they slowly formed a friendship. When the rest of the crew suggested destroying the Enterprise to kill the Borg, Captain Picard refused and ordered everyone to stay and fight what was becoming a losing battle. Lily argued the matter with Picard, where she compared him to Captain Ahab from the novel "Moby Dick", whose thirst for revenge clouded his judgement and ultimately led to his death. The argument convinced Captain Picard to destroy the Enterprise.

Answer: human flesh

During the Borg's invasion of the Enterprise, the android Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) was abducted and brought to the Borg Queen (Alice Krige). The Borg Queen attempted to seduce Data into joining forces with the Borg after she reactivated Data's emotion chip, which had been installed in the previous film "Star Trek: Generations".

The Borg Queen also grafted pieces of human flesh (including working blood vessels) onto Data's arm and face and was able to connect the nerves to his circuitry so that he could feel it. Following this, Data feigned forming a partnership with the Borg Queen. He later canceled the Enterprise's self destruct program and fired torpedoes at the Phoenix, which intentionally missed. Data then released flesh eating gas which killed the Borg Queen and her drones. At the end of the film, Data admitted to Captain Picard that he had thought about siding with the Borg for about 0.68 seconds, which for an android was nearly an eternity.

Answer: Vulcans

The Vulcans were revealed to be the alien race that made first contact with human beings following Zefram Cochrane's warp flight. Vulcans were the pointy eared, logic driven alien species associated with Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) from the original "Star Trek" television series. Zefram Cochrane had difficulty reciprocating the Vulcan hand gesture, offering them a hand shake instead. He brought the Vulcans into a local restaurant where he introduced them to Earth's "loud" music.

After the timeline was restored, the crew of the Enterprise were able to recreate the Borg's temporal vortex which sent them back to the future at the end of the film.