Adam Scott Was In Star Trek? First Contact Role Explained

Actor Adam Scott’s best-known role is Parks & Recreation‘s Ben Wyatt, a genuinely relatable Star Trek fan who not-so-secretly pens Star Trek: The Next Generation fan-fiction, which makes it pretty interesting that Adam Scott is actually in Star Trek: First Contact, in one of his earliest film roles. It’s a smaller part with a few lines that’s equivalent to a cameo and comes relatively early in First Contact‘s runtime. That may seem unusual given how famous Adam Scott is now, but all actors have to start somewhere, and First Contact was one such starting place for Adam Scott.

In 1996, Adam Scott was an up-and-coming working actor on his way to becoming the producer and star of film, television, and podcasting that he is today, so it makes sense that Adam Scott’s Star Trek role is a smaller one. Prior to Star Trek: First Contact, Adam Scott’s only film credits included Cityscrapes: Los Angeles, Hellraiser: Bloodline, and The Last Days of Frankie the Fly. Adam Scott’s television appearances at the time were limited to guest starring roles in single episodes of Dead at 21, ER, and NYPD Blue, and multiple-episode arcs as Sydney Schneider in Murder One and bully Griffin Hawkins in Boy Meets World.

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Who Adam Scott Played In Star Trek: First Contact

Adam Scott’s Starfleet Officer was stationed on the USS Defiant.

In Star Trek: First Contact, Adam Scott plays the officer at USS Defiant’s conn as part of Starfleet’s defense against the Borg in the Battle of Sector 001. Scott’s unnamed helmsman reports that the Defiant has sustained heavy damage, so commanding officer Lt. Commander Worf (Michael Dorn) decides today is a good day to die, and orders a visibly panicked Adam Scott to “prepare for ramming speed!” Fortunately, Adam Scott informs Worf the Enterprise-E has arrived, with a timely rescue that gives Worf, who was a regular on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine at the time, a narrative reason to join the crew of the USS Enterprise-E for First Contact.

When Adam Scott appeared in 1996’s Star Trek: First Contact, he wasn’t the star he is today. Adam Scott’s career continued to climb through the 2000s, leading to regular roles on HBO’s Tell Me You Love Me and Starz series Party Down. Adam Scott’s roles that may interest Star Trek fans are Ben in Parks & Recreation and Trevor in The Good Place, ​sitcoms that share Star Trek‘s optimistic ethos; The Twilight Zone (2019) season 1, episode 2 “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet” in William Shatner’s original role; and Mark Scout in Apple TV+’s award-winning sci-fi thriller Severance, with its memory and identity themes.

Adam Scott Auditioned For A Different Star Trek: First Contact Role

Adam Scott originally auditioned for the role of Lieutenant Hawk in Star Trek: First Contact, which went to Neal McDonough. Hawk is a new Star Trek character in First Contact who pilots the Enterprise-E into the time travel vortex, and stays aboard the Enterprise as part of a defense squad led by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Lt. Commander Worf when the Borg begin to assimilate the Enterprise. With far more screen time than Adam Scott’s Defiant officer, Hawk appears to be a great addition to the Enterprise bridge crew with his loyalty and ingenuity, though Hawk meets an untimely end when he falls victim to Borg assimilation.

Lieutenant Hawk would have been one of Adam Scott’s first major roles in a film if he had won the part in Star Trek: First Contact, but even though he didn’t, Star Trek can still be counted among one of Adam Scott’s many screen credits. Adam Scott’s Star Trek role may be small, but without his character’s involvement, First Contact‘s TNG reunion would be incomplete, since the Defiant’s battle with the Borg brings Worf back to the Enterprise, so the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation can be together for Star Trek: First Contact, and it’s Adam Scott’s character who pilots the Defiant. Ben Wyatt would be pretty proud.

Star Trek: First Contact is available to stream on Paramount+.