Captain Sisko in First Contact

[Frontier]

If anyone where going to take Lily's part, I'd want it to be Guinan. I think she would have been great in that role.

That said, FC is a great film.

[grabthars hammer]

If Sisko were there, I believe he'd be more likely to take Picard's point of view, since he was hurt very personally by the Borg as well.

[BillJ]

grabthars hammer wrote:

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If Sisko were there, I believe he'd be more likely to take Picard's point of view, since he was hurt very personally by the Borg as well.

That is a good point.

[Gary Mitchell]

Dream wrote:

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No. FC was TNG movie, and having Sisko there would have taken away from the TNG cast.

No, it wouldn't take anything away from the Next Generation cast. If he had been in the movie only as long as that nameless helmsman it would have been fine. What didn't make sense was having Worf be the only recognizable person on Defiant's bridge. It doesn't ring true that Sisko would send the Defiant out to fight the Borg while he stays home whipping up some jumbalaya.

[BillJ]

Festering Esper wrote:

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No, it wouldn't take anything away from the Next Generation cast. If he had been in the movie only as long as that nameless helmsman it would have been fine. What didn't make sense was having Worf be the only recognizable person on Defiant's bridge. It doesn't ring true that Sisko would send the Defiant out to fight the Borg while he stays home whipping up some jumbalaya.

Maybe he was otherwise engaged? Starfleet didn't seem to concerned as they had their newest warship sitting on the Romulan border.

[Therin of Andor]

los2188 wrote:

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Maybe have Worf and Sisko piloting the Defiant, where Sisko in some regards is Picard's voice of reason regarding the Borg so to speak.

Practically, you're adding an extra salary and reducing other actors' lines for no bigger/better result.

Contractually, Michael Dorn was guaranteed that signing a contract with DS9 would not preclude him from doing TNG movies. Conversely, Avery Brooks was resistant to doing stuff beyond the actual TV series - still rarely does conventions and refused to participate in the "Making of DS9" video that came out after Season Two, or even grant permission for his image to be used in it. Colm Meaney had became a bigger-ticket movie star (beyond his TV contract), so he would have been expensive to use in "First Contact", too.

Under Regulation 619 Picard was clearly emotionally compromised. Had Lily not smacked him back to reality he should have been relieved.

[CoveTom]

Therin of Andor wrote:

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Contractually, Michael Dorn was guaranteed that signing a contract with DS9 would not preclude him from doing TNG movies. Conversely, Avery Brooks was resistant to doing stuff beyond the actual TV series - still rarely does conventions and refused to participate in the "Making of DS9" video that came out after Season Two, or even grant permission for his image to be used in it. Colm Meaney had became a bigger-ticket movie star (beyond his TV contract), so he would have been expensive to use in "First Contact", too.

Colm Meaney is not that big a movie star, and we're talking about little more than a cameo appearance. Meaney seems a good guy and one who was always willing to do what the producers asked of him, such as appearing in the TNG finale. I can't imagine he would have held them up for some huge some of money for a day or two's work on the movie. Plus, he could more reasonably disappear into the background than someone like Sisko.

I think the real area the film is lacking, as was hinted at upthread, though, is in the absence of Guinan. Guinan had an extremely personal connection to both Picard and the Borg. Her emotional arc with the Borg goes all the way back to their original appearance in "Q, Who?" and includes very important roles in "Best of Both Worlds" and "I, Borg." I think she would have been a much better, and more logical, fit to be the one counseling Picard than Lily. And Whoop Goldberg has indicated that she would have been willing to do the film and, in fact, was confused at how they could exclude Guinan from that particular story.

[NrobbieC]

BillJ wrote:

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That is a good point.

Yeah I'd have thought having lost his wife to the Borg, Starfleet wouldn't want him there either.

Under Regulation 619 Picard was clearly emotionally compromised. Had Lily not smacked him back to reality he should have been relieved.

Wrong universe.

[BillJ]

NrobbieC wrote:

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Wrong universe.

The regulation may have a different name, but I'm pretty sure a CMO would have the ability to relieve a captain under those conditions.

Regardless of universe.

Kirk and Matt Decker were both threatened to be relieved of command due to emotional duress.

[RoJoHen]

Festering Esper wrote:

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No, it wouldn't take anything away from the Next Generation cast. If he had been in the movie only as long as that nameless helmsman it would have been fine. What didn't make sense was having Worf be the only recognizable person on Defiant's bridge. It doesn't ring true that Sisko would send the Defiant out to fight the Borg while he stays home whipping up some jumbalaya.

We have no idea what Sisko and Co. were up to when the Defiant was engaged in battle. I'm fairly certain that for a good chunk of the show, Worf is technically the commander of the Defiant, not Sisko. It's possible Worf had the ship out on another mission when he was called into the fight.

If FC had been a Star Trek mini-series or something spanning multiple episodes, I could see bringing in characters like Sisko to flesh out the story. But for a single film, adding Sisko (a character that many TNG fans might not even know about) would have just overcomplicated things.

[Captain Atkin]

CoveZombie wrote:

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Colm Meaney is not that big a movie star, and we're talking about little more than a cameo appearance. Meaney seems a good guy and one who was always willing to do what the producers asked of him, such as appearing in the TNG finale. I can't imagine he would have held them up for some huge some of money for a day or two's work on the movie.

Colm Meaney is probably the most successful "character actor" from any of the 24th century Trek shows, when it comes to getting continous work in movies. I was surprised that he wasn't in First Contact, but for all we know, he may have been busy working on a movie at the time, and wasn't available. Still, a shame he wasn't in the film.

[CoveTom]

RoJoHen wrote:

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I'm fairly certain that for a good chunk of the show, Worf is technically the commander of the Defiant, not Sisko.

No, Sisko was the commanding officer of the Defiant for the entirety of its time on the show, except for the brief period during the war in which he had been given duty on the starbase and Dax was placed in command. Worf was never commanding officer. This is evidenced by the fact that Sisko and Worf have more than one conversation about the potential of Worf becoming a starship captain one day, including one conversation in which Sisko says it is less likely to happen because of Worf's actions ("Change of Heart").

In fact, it's never entirely clear who the first officer of the Defiant is. In the third season, it is clearly Kira, and I believe stated as such on screen. However, once Worf joins the cast, it seems to be murky between him and Kira. Sometimes Worf acts as though he is, sometimes Kira acts as though she is. I also don't think they make it clear who is placed in command of the Defiant at the end of the series when Kira assumes command of the station.

[CoveTom]

Captain Atkin wrote:

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Colm Meaney is probably the most successful "character actor" from any of the 24th century Trek shows, when it comes to getting continous work in movies.

He is, yes. But he's not a "big name star" in the sense of commanding huge salaries, and certainly I can't imagine he would have held the producers of Trek up for some ridiculously large sum to make a brief appearance in a TNG film.

[RoJoHen]

CoveZombie wrote:

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No, Sisko was the commanding officer of the Defiant for the entirety of its time on the show, except for the brief period during the war in which he had been given duty on the starbase and Dax was placed in command. Worf was never commanding officer. This is evidenced by the fact that Sisko and Worf have more than one conversation about the potential of Worf becoming a starship captain one day, including one conversation in which Sisko says it is less likely to happen because of Worf's actions ("Change of Heart").

In fact, it's never entirely clear who the first officer of the Defiant is. In the third season, it is clearly Kira, and I believe stated as such on screen. However, once Worf joins the cast, it seems to be murky between him and Kira. Sometimes Worf acts as though he is, sometimes Kira acts as though she is. I also don't think they make it clear who is placed in command of the Defiant at the end of the series when Kira assumes command of the station.

Perhaps you're right, but we did see Worf take the Defiant on missions without Sisko multiple times, so it's certainly not unreasonable for Worf to be in command of the ship during FC.