Corrected entry: The whole premise for this film is blown if you consider that the Borg are after technology. Why would they want to go back in time to assimilate a race that has almost no 'technological distinctiveness' to add to their own. Earth has a tremendous amount to offer during Picard's time and very little during Cochran's time. The hassle of time traveling to assimilate a pre-warp capable world seems like a waste of effort. Sending a few more cubes to finish the job in Picard's time seems much more advantageous.
lionhead
7th Dec 2002
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
4th Apr 2019
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Corrected entry: When Picard, Worf and Hawk are outside the ship and want to separate the transmitter dish from the hull, Worf sets down his gun. No gravity, so you cannot set anything down. The suits are attached magnetically for just that reason.
Correction: He puts it down, gravity doesn't do that, he does. It's instinctive to do it like that even though there is no gravity. They kneel down so the weapon stays close to them if they need it. It won't float off at great speed without something to propel it.
18th Nov 2002
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Factual error: In the scene where Picard opens a viewing port and shows Lilly that she is in a starship orbiting Earth he shows her New Guinea and Australia. New Zealand is missing. (00:42:45)
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Suggested correction: Actually when you look at Australia and New Zealand from orbit, New Zealand is a lot further away from Australia then shown on a map, also a lot more south of Australia. A map is a 2D image of a sphere, causing proportions to be off (its well known Africa is a lot smaller on maps than it is in real life). Especially the further south or north you go distances are way off. The depiction shown in the movie is actually correct, in that angle New Zealand is just outside of the frame. There are plenty of pictures from orbit to compare.
15th Jun 2018
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Factual error: When Zephram Cochrane, Riker and LaForge activate the warp drive of the prototype starship Phoenix, the prismatic starscape is seen streaking past (same effect as in the Star Trek: TNG series). However, the Phoenix never leaves the solar system or even the vicinity of Earth, achieving only Warp One (the max velocity of the Phoenix) for a few seconds. Even at lightspeed, the Phoenix did not enter interstellar space nor pass any other stars; therefore, the starscape should have remained almost motionless.
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Suggested correction: What happens when a ship goes to warp it essentially creates a subspace distortion. This causes the starscape to change and move, as they exit regular space and enter subspace.
At Warp One, there should be zero prismatic distortions. It takes a full 24-hour DAY for light to cross the solar system. In a few seconds, a vessel traveling at Warp One, within a solar system, would see no distortions.
A ship slips out of regular space when going to warp, it creates a bubble around the ship, that bubble causes the starscape for the people inside it to appear moving or at least distort. That's what you see. That's what you always see when a ship goes to warp.
The prismatic effect was created for the TNG series to depict the ship passing stars at hundreds of times the speed of light. The Phoenix only achieved Warp One, one time the speed of light (lightspeed). As fast as that sounds, it wouldn't be fast enough to create any visual distortion.
Even at hundreds of times the speed of light you would only pass a star every few seconds, they didn't make that effect for TNG as in TOS they were going that fast too (as high as warp 9) and the same distortion is seen. You also keep saying its the speed that causes the visual distortion whilst I specifically mention its the fact the ship exiting regular space and into subspace is whats causing the distortion.
8th Jun 2018
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Plot hole: When Picard, Hawk and Worf are out on the particle transmitter, they each have one gun. However, when Picard is attacked by Hawk, the gun that Hawk used is being stepped on by him. Picard left his gun over at the other mag lock, and Worf threw his away, but when the captain was in trouble, Worf had a gun. He would not have had time to run around to Picard's side before he was attacked by Hawk, so where did Worf get the other gun from?
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Suggested correction: As you can see in a wide shot after Worf's suit is cut, his gun is still hanging close by. So after he closed the gap in his suit he just grabbed his own gun. Of course, he did throw it away and it should have kept on moving all the way out of reach but something stopped it. But you do see it still in reach of Worf.
8th Sep 2016
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Corrected entry: Picard states in his log entry that the "alien" ship has detected the Phoenix's warp signature. Picard knows perfectly well that a Vulcan ship made first contact. Historically, he and the rest of the Starfleet doesn't use "alien" unless they are referring to an unknown race. This was only done to preserve the surprise of Vulcans walking off the ship.
Correction: Perhaps he was just being nostalgic. Since they have been on Earth in the past for a while he just empathizes the feeling these people had from a time before humans knew about extraterrestrials.
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Correction: Not really, since Starfleet has proven to be a direct threat to the Borg (and they were right to think so, since the Voyager crew destroyed one of the six trans-warp hubs a few years later), they went back in time with the intent of preventing the Federation from existing.
Okay, there needs to be a consensus here. One person has asked why the Borg didn't travel to an earlier time in order to stop First Contact more easily. The answer given was "they want technology." Another person asked: "why choose the 21st Century? There's no tech to incorporate" And the answer was: "because they want an easy way to stop First Contact." Honestly some of the answers on this page sound like they're bending over backwards to accommodate simple continuity errors but these two are literally the inverted opposites of each other and form a total contradiction. Which is it?
They went back in time to assimilate Earth and cripple the Federation. That is all.
Speaking of stopping first contact, wouldn't the Borg risk erasing their knowledge of earth if they did stop first contact, since they didn't know about earth until the first earthlings were assimilated sometime after first contact?
An entire Borg Sphere went back, including a queen. They were planning to stay, use their advanced technology in the past to conquer the future. Starting with Earth.
lionhead