"Star Trek: First Contact" proved to be one of the most successful films of the Trek franchise not only because of its great villains and great pace, but because it provided a point-of-view on the Trek universe for the uninitiated through the character of Lily Sloane, according to the film's co-writer Brannon Braga, also executive producer of Star Trek: Enterprise.

Braga, a member of the Star Trek creative team since he joined The Next Generation as an intern in 1990, spoke Tuesday night at a special screening of "First Contact" at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood, as part of its ongoing "Hollywood's Master Storytellers" program. Besides giving his perspective on the film itself, Braga also spoke about the renewal of Enterprise for a fourth season and the future of Trek in general.

"A lot of people have asked me over the years why I think this was the most popular Star Trek film, aside from the Next Generation crew which was really, really popular... I would say the Borg made it popular. But I also think it was the fact that this film was more accessible to a wider audience," Braga said at the sold-out screening. The choice to set the film in a "post-apocalyptic near future" made the film more relatable to more people beyond the traditional fan base. Plus, he continued, "We created this character of Lily, played by Alfre Woodard, who knew nothing about Star Trek because she knows nothing of the future, so we could use her as a point-of-view character to kind of introduce a wider audience to what Star Trek is all about, and the philosophy of Star Trek and what it means. And I think that struck a chord."

Braga revealed that he, fellow writer Ronald D. Moore and producer Rick Berman once considered setting the film even further in the past, having the Borg invading medieval times on Earth. But Patrick Stewart said, "I don't want to wear tights," and they agreed. After further mulling they decided to set the movie "at the time that Star Trek was born."

"It was an historic moment in Star Trek that had never been depicted. You know, how did humanity make Gene Roddenberry's universe, achieve a paradise on Earth? How did they make that turn, what happened to make that occur? And we thought, Cochrane with his warp flight, the landing of the Vulcans, extraterrestrials changing the landscape of humanity on Earth.

"We were really fortunate that this idea came along, to put it in the near future and make it about the birth of Star Trek itself, because what's at stake in this movie really is Star Trek. If those Vulcans don't land, the universe the audience has come to know and love will not exist. So it really turned into something interesting as that storyline developed."

He said the Borg have always caught the imagination of the audience for a number of reasons. "They look cool, first of all," he remarked as the audience laughed. "They're these scary bionic zombie things, and they are so antithetical to our ideals — to be assimilated into one mind, to eradicate individuality ... All the good Star Trek villains have some motivation that's clearly defined and easily identifiable, and I think the Borg were definitely that."

Despite those chilling qualities, he quipped, "My feeling was if you get caught by the Borg, you deserve to get caught — lumbering along, y'know, like the Mummy. And they don't have weapons, they just kind of swing their arms at you — y'know, how scary can they be?" He gave director Jonathan Frakes a lot of credit for bringing a great pace to the film despite the inherent limitations of the villains, and also giving it an epic sweep despite the limitations of the budget. "Though it looks like there are a lot of Borg running around, there are only eight dudes. The rest are dummies that our make-up artist Michael Westmore created [and placed] in the Borg alcoves." He admitted, "We've exploited the Borg ad nauseam for years thereafter, but they never looked better than they looked here."

When the discussion turned to the current TV show Enterprise, the audience heartily applauded the fact that it's been renewed for a fourth season. Production will start next month, but meanwhile the writing staff is diligently at work. "It's going really well. We have a lot of really exciting things in store. We are very happy to have been picked up." He credited writer Manny Coto ("Chosen Realm," "Similitude," etc.), who was present in the audience, with being "instrumental in helping our third season be so successful."

Asked if he thought the move to a Friday timeslot on UPN is good news, Braga confessed he wasn't sure. "I think it's good. I mean, right now [on Wednesday nights] we're up against American Idol for crying out loud — basically might as well not even air the episodes. So Friday night, hopefully, will be a clearer night for us. And I think people will seek it out."

He was asked to comment on where he thinks the Star Trek franchise is going in a broad sense. "You know, I take it a season at a time," he replied. "It's really larger than me. It's up to Paramount and a lot of other people where it's going to go. Whether it will take a rest, frankly I think it probably should at some point."

He added that while there are no specific plans to produce an eleventh Trek movie at this time, there is a film concept currently in development at Paramount, but he is not personally involved.

Among the varied other topics Braga discussed was the possible reappearance of Q. "We always talk about it. Q kind of got defanged over the years. He was so great at the end of the finale of Next Generation, and then he came back on Deep Space Nine and Voyager and he was rather soft. So if we were to bring Q back we would want to bring him back with an edge to him. The right story has to come along, in other words."

A full transcript of the session, which includes comments on how Star Trek fits into the broader science fiction spectrum and the inspiration for the Borg Queen's disembodied entrance, is available on this page at BrannonBraga.com.