Toward the end ofStar Trek: First Contacts first act, an away team from the USSEnterprisedescribes their world.
Mankind [starts] exploring the galaxy, LeVar Burtons Geordi La Forge declares.
These descriptions ring true to anyone who has seenStar Trekbefore.
ButStar Trek: First Contactalso acts more discretely as a reminder that such a future does not come easy.
He originally appeared in the season 2Original Seriesepisode Metamorphosis, played by Glenn Corbett.
Not so when theEnterprise-E away team meet Cochrane in 2063.
The ever-awkward Reginald Barclay isnt the only one whose hero worship freaks out Cochrane.
Cochrane realizes the irony at work.
Apparently he inspires the world.
But he cant even inspire himself.
The more that La Forge et al.
tell Cochrane about the man hell become, the more the man he is shrinks away.
He sees the vast gap between the future described by Riker and the world in which he lives.
Instead of working to bridge it, Cochrane collapses.
A Communal Effort
Cochranes response actually makes a lot of sense.
Its not just that the world described by Starfleet sounds too good to be true.
Cochranes right to fear such individualist hero worship.
No one person could shoulder such a responsibility, even one as brilliant as him.
Yet the actual Cochrane plot inFirst Contactshows that, in fact, he didnt do it alone.
Its not just physical labor that makes thePhoenixfly either.
Of course Cochranes used to such behavior, as demonstrated in his first scene in the movie.
Lily keeps Cochrane focused and Lily provides the support.
Like Cochrane, Picard approaches his problems from an individualist standpoint.
Lily forces Picard to face his fears and to look beyond himself, to look toward the greater good.
And its through Lilys determination and help that Picard becomes the hero who saves the day.
With a little help from an android named Data.
Yet no one in Starfleet seems to know her name.
First Contactitself is an imperfect work, but thats the point.
