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)
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Plot summary
Directed by: Jonathan Frakes
Starring: Patrick Stewart, James Cromwell, Alfre Woodard, Michael Dorn, Brent Spiner, Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Alice Krige, LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden
The Borg attack Earth. They engage a whole fleet, which is driven back to Earth's orbit. Just when the battle seems over, with the admirals ship destroyed and the Defiant (of ST DS9 fame) having no weapons or shields, and the fleet getting systematically destroyed, the Enterprise shows up and helps destroy the Borg Cube. However, the Borg have a plan B.
The Borg go back in time to assimilate earth before our First Contact. But the Enterprise follows and tries to stop them.
Specifically, the Borg want to prevent Zephram Cochran from testing the first warp engine. Because when he engages it in a certain time frame, a passing Vulcan ship stops to investigate and makes First Contact with us. So Picard, Riker, Troi, and the rest have to stop the Borg to save Starfleet, the Federation, and all homosapiens from life as a drone.
Arnprior
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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.
William Riker: Someone once said, "Don't try to be a great man. Just be a man, and let history make its own judgment."
Zefram Cochrane: That's rhetorical nonsense! Who said that?
William Riker: You did! Ten years from now.
Trivia: The set that they use as sickbay on the Enterprise is the same set used as sickbay on Star Trek Voyager. In fact, the character of the holographic doctor is played by Robert Picardo, who starred as Voyager's holographic doc.
Question: How did the Phoenix land on Earth after the warp display for the Vulcans? It looked like a non-reusable rocket to me.
Answer: While the main fuselage was a re-purposed intercontinental ballistic missile, and they separated from the ascent stage of the rocket, the payload section housed two deployable prototype warp nacelles capable of achieving lightspeed. Beyond that, the payload also contained the prototype warp core (which was powered by matter/antimatter annihilation), the warp core coolant, elaborate magnetic-containment systems, and probably even impulse drive and landing thrusters (It kind of goes without saying that thruster and impulse technology would have existed before warp technology). There was no space left over in the payload section for conventional rocket propellant, and Zefram Cochrane's enormously-expensive and one-of-a-kind warp components would not be expendable; so he must have devised a way to safely bring the Phoenix down for re-use. Since the Phoenix's return and landing were never addressed in the film, my assumption is that the payload section was powered entirely by the warp core, including its impulse drive and landing thrusters.
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