How Alfre Woodard Missed Out On Becoming A Star Trek: The Next Generation Regular – SlashFilm

In Jonathan Frakes’ 1996 movie “Star Trek: First Contact,” the USS Enterprise travels again in time to the yr 2063, proper after the Earth had been devastated by world wars that just about drove people to extinction. This was additionally the yr, in “Star Trek” lore, that an inventor named Zefram Cochrane (performed by actual-life extraterrestrial fanatic James Cromwell) developed the very first sooner-than-mild engine, one thing he had been tinkering with in a small city in Montana. The plot of the film includes the crew of the Enterprise attempting to cease a vicious Borg assault in time for Cochrane’s flight to happen as traditionally scheduled.

Through the Borg kerfuffle, Cochrane’s assistant on the mission, a girl named Lily Sloane (Alfre Woodard) is injured and brought to the Enterprise for medical therapy. She then finally ends up sneaking away from sickbay and assembly Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) whereas he’s trying to combat the Borgs which have infiltrated the ship. In consequence, Picard and Lily solely have the opposite to speak to for a bit of “First Contact.” Picard explains the scenario to Lily, and Lily observes, fairly astutely, that Picard is behaving rather a lot like Captain Ahab in his quest for revenge towards the Borg.

The authentic intent of those scenes was to permit a Picard/Lily romance to develop whereas the characters traverse their adventures collectively. Sadly, the inevitable kiss scene was reduce early within the writing course of, and the romance was put to an finish. This can be a pity for Woodard, although, as a result of a romance between Picard and Lily would have been carried over into extra “Star Trek: The Next Generation”-era initiatives. Certainly, as famous within the December 1996 concern of Cinefantastique Journal, Lily would have turn into a recurring character, permitting Woodard to safe a daily “Star Trek” gig.

Watching “Star Trek: First Contact,” it is onerous to see any romance, so the love story was presumably written out previous to manufacturing. Picard is in a foul psychological area within the film, stuffed with wrath and desirous to hurt the Borg, with Lily serving as his conscience. Regardless of understanding little about Picard or the Borg, she clearly acknowledges what is going on on with him. When Lily compares Picard to Ahab, proper to his face, he has a short outburst, adopted by the conclusion that Lily is true. 

In Cinefantastique, “First Contact” co-author Ronald D. Moore described the eliminated love story and the way it initially performed out. The romance, Moore defined, would’ve taken place whereas Picard and Lily restore Cochrane’s warp ship collectively in a calmer, much less Borg-infested setting. Nonetheless, in the long run, he felt {that a} speedy love story was implausible:

“Picard [represented] this idealistic, nice man of the longer term, and her character [was] extra within the right here-and-now and actually beginning to lose hope and religion. Within the battle between the 2, they discovered a sure romance. We would even talked about bringing her again to the twenty fourth century on the finish of the image, however finally we determined that, [because] the timespan of the film came about over the course of two days on the most, it might be troublesome to consider they’d fall so deeply in love that he would carry her again to the longer term.” 

It is price noting, too, that within the subsequent film, 1998’s “Star Trek: Rebellion,” Picard has a brand new love curiosity within the type of Anij (Donna Murphy). Retaining Picard single all through the “Next Generation” movies allowed writers to provide him new girlfriends, “Seinfeld”-style, as usually as they needed.