Adam Scott Kickstarted His Movie Career By Appearing In A Beloved Star Trek Project

Near the beginning of director Jonathan Frakes' 1996 film "Star Trek: First Contact" (one of the most beloved "Star Trek" movies ever), the Borg — a malevolent race of cyborgs — have attacked Earth. Starfleet gathers to fight the Borg's outsize, cube-shaped ship, and has a very rough go of it. The Borg are immensely powerful and act with a cold machine intelligence, so many of Starfleet's ships are disabled during the battle. 

One of the ships in the middle of the fracas is the USS Defiant, a tiny vessel that was constructed specifically for fighting the Borg. The Defiant was first featured on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," and it was captained by Worf (Michael Dorn), who was a regular on the series at that time. Fans of "Deep Space Nine" got a thrill seeing the Defiant finally being put to its intended use in "First Contact."

Sadly, the Defiant doesn't fare very well. The Borg batter the little overpowered ship to within an inch of its life. A brief scene on the bridge of the Defiant reveals that its computer panels have all exploded in the attack, and sparks burst out of the walls and ceiling, showering its crew. A plucky helmsman informs Worf that many of the ship's systems are offline, leaving them helpless. Worf, pumped up from the heat of battle, declares that it's a good day to die, adding that the Defiant should prepare for ramming speed. At the last minute, though, the plucky helmsman notes that the USS Enterprise has suddenly come to their rescue. "It's the Enterprise!," he yells. 

That plucky helmsman, only credited as "Defiant Conn Officer," is played by Adam Scott, star of "Parks and Recreation," "Severance," and the creepy horror movie "Hokum." It was one of the actor's earliest gigs.

Adam Scott's earliest notable acting gig came on the intense 1990s MTV sci-fi drama series "Dead at 21." Some might also remember him playing the too-cool-for-school character Griff on a handful of episodes of "Boy Meets World." 1996, however, was a big year for Scott, as he managed to make brief appearances in two feature films that were part of long-running franchises. Namely, he played a flopsy aristocrat named Jacques in "Hellraiser: Bloodline" (where he is murdered by a demon), and he portrayed the aforementioned helmsman in "Star Trek: First Contact."

Scott's single scene in "First Contact" is brief, and one might not even recognize him. Because the USS Defiant is under attack, the lighting is low, sparks explode in his face, and the camera is constantly shaking. Also, his face is covered with scrapes. At the very least, Scott played a human (or human-looking) character; he wasn't buried under a mound of alien facial prosthetics. 

Although Scott's character had no credited name, he did eventually accrue an identity of his own via "Star Trek Timelines." That deep-cut online role-playing strategy game is unbearably thorough with its vetting of the "Star Trek" canon, giving even background players names and playable stats. According to "Timelines," Scott's "First Contact" character is named Helmsman Wyatt and is codified as a human character. The name "Wyatt" was clearly inspired by Scott's character on "Parks and Recreation," Ben Wyatt. Sadly, because Helmsman Wyatt is bloodied and charred in "First Contact," his online avatar is forever cursed to be eternally injured as well.

It should be noted that Adam Scott worked on "Star Trek: First Contact" because it was a job and not because he has any sort of affinity for the "Star Trek" franchise. Indeed, during a famous appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in 2017, Scott admitted that he's much more of a "Star Wars" fan and melted in bliss when he got to meet Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill right then and there. (Scott, you see, had invited Hamill to his birthday party as a child.)

To this day, Scott doesn't seem to have leaned into his association with the "Star Trek" property and prefers to explore his career in his own idiom. Thanks to the likes of "Parks and Recreation," "Party Down," "Severance," and "Hokum," along with dozens of other credits, Scott seems to be doing quite well for himself. He doesn't need to reprise his "First Contact" role for any reason.

Indeed, Scott doesn't seem to have even fully grasped who his "First Contact" character even is. In a comedic 2015 interview with Moviefone's "Unscripted," Scott described his role in the film as follows:

"He was only on the screen for 15, 20 seconds. He was a crew helmsman, but as it says in his character's name, he was defiant. And I think you have to respect that." 

Given that neither Scott nor his co-stars acknowledge the error, it appears to have been unforced. Scott apparently doesn't remember that he was the Conn Officer on a ship called the USS Defiant, not that his character was merely being described as "defiant." Scott merely used the movie as a stepping stone in the early days of his career. Given where he is now, it clearly worked.