- Isn't there a line in the movie or in an episode where Picard says "I have their devices within my body?"
- Given Seven of Nine's eventual looks this seems likely. Once someone is assimilated, even partially, the sheer amount of mutilation and replacement of organic tissue makes returning to being wholly organic impossible at least in anything but the long term. Picards arm for example is likely a prosthetic that mimics his original after removal of the Borg implant.
- This is presented exactly that way in the beginning of Enterprise's "In a Mirror, Darkly" two-part episode: the Vulcan ship lands, the Vulcan greets Cochrane, and then a refilmed version of the scene shows Cochrane (or his hand double) drawing a gun and shooting the Vulcan before the rest of the crowd rushes forward to loot the ship.
- Actually, this theory is Jossed by "In A Mirror Darkly". Mirror-Phlox clearly states that he's looked at the historical records of the USS Defiant NCC-1764 and found that there never was any specific point of divergence between the two universes throughout recorded history. The timelines moved in parallel but were never the same, with the Mirror Universe's history always being distinctly more brutal than the "main" universe (with the exception of the works of William Shakespeare). The opening sequence with Mirror-Cochrane simply illustrates the difference between the two universes.
- We only have Phlox's reading of the Defiant's records to suppose that, though. The Mirror Universe inhabitants' understanding of history could well be coloured by the Imperially-sanctioned narrative of history which, in such a tyrannical society, is bound to be pretty heavily revisionist, possibly even to Nineteen Eighty-Four levels of wholesale rewriting. This might likely extend to classic literature.
- Then again, that theory is also Jossed by Discovery, in which Mirror Universe Terrans are somehow more sensitive to light than those in the Prime Universe. That could (probably) only have happened at an earlier stage of human evolution predating recorded history.
- Actually, this theory is Jossed by "In A Mirror Darkly". Mirror-Phlox clearly states that he's looked at the historical records of the USS Defiant NCC-1764 and found that there never was any specific point of divergence between the two universes throughout recorded history. The timelines moved in parallel but were never the same, with the Mirror Universe's history always being distinctly more brutal than the "main" universe (with the exception of the works of William Shakespeare). The opening sequence with Mirror-Cochrane simply illustrates the difference between the two universes.
Enter the crew of the Enterprise-E, who are determined to ensure that not only does the Phoenix test flight go off without a hitch, but they also want to make sure that it happens at the exact date and time required to cause first contact with the Vulcans. To this end a bunch of late-24th Century starship engineers swarm over the Phoenix and make sure that it is in perfect working order in time for the historical flight. But this could be seen as a case of a Stable Time Loop and You Already Changed the Past.
The Phoenix does work perfectly, as one would expect given the fact that it received extensive pre-launch service from engineers from 300 years in the future! One is left to wonder if, had the Borg not led the Enterprise on a chase into the past and done enough damage to the launch site to justify sending in engineering teams to work on the Phoenix, whether the actual vessel, as constructed by Cochrane and his followers, would have actually worked, or if it would have succumbed to some mechanical failure. Lily Sloan seemed to be the only person in the whole settlement, including Cochrane himself, who took the ship and the flight seriously. Cochrane appeared to be running on drunken ambivalence and constant prodding from Lily. The actual test flight appeared to have nothing even resembling the usual rigorous procedures of a space launch.
If the whole Time Travel incident had not occurred, it seems as if odds were good that the Phoenix would not have worked, Cochrane and Sloan would have died during the failed test flight, and first contact with the Vulcans would never have happened.
If humans could travel at about .5 of light speed (theoretically doable IRL from the 1970's with nuclear pulse engines, I believe), that's eight and a half years (on Earth or another stationary point of reference) or seven years and four months (ship time, which, per relativity, would pass at circa 86.60 percent of normal) to travel to or from Proxima Centauri (4.24 light years from Earth). Correct my math if it's off, but I don't think it is.
Now, First Contact takes place in 2063. There could have been a colony founded in the 1990's, around the time of the Eugenics wars, with semi-regular commerce back and forth until sometime during WWIII, which lasted from 2026-2053. That's plenty of time for Zephram Cochrane to be born on Alpha Centauri and travel to Earth.
Now, this a lot of math and references to explain away a throw-away line from a series that, overall, doesn't have great continuity with its successors. However, consider this theory as part of the following WMG:
So there's all this attempt to square references to the Eugenics Wars with the way history turned out in real life. I don't get it. Star Trek is perfectly willing to allow multiple timelines even in the course of its own canon. (It's not like the Kelvin timeline was the first time history was changed in canon. What time-travel episode hasn't changed the timeline slightly?) Why can't Star Trek be in a different timeline than our own? We're certainly not on track to have FTL by the 2060's, although WWIII by the late 20's might still be achievable...
So the Eugenics Wars were fought in the open (with nukes and all) in the 1990's, slower-than-light interstellar ships were launching as early as 1975, and the Soviet Union continues existing in some form or another well into the TOS era, as opposed to dissolving in the early 90's. (Why the Soviet Union? There's a throwaway line in TNG, I think. One of the movie-era Starfleet ships they find adrift in space was recorded as being commissioned in the Soviet Union at Baikonur, iirc. Also, Chekov's jingoistic posturing makes a lot more sense if the Soviet Union had existed within his lifetime, perhaps even during TOS.)
The main objection to this theory is that, every time someone in Star Trek travels back to the approximate year the episode/movie was written (AKA, about once per series, barring The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, and one movie), the world they end up in doesn't really differ that much from that period of our timeline. To me, this isn't much of a problem. The Eugenics Wars could have been going on when Voyager traveled back to the 90's in Future's End (in fact, canon implies that they had just ended,) and we might never know it from what was shown on screen. Refresh my memory: does anyone in The Voyage Home ever say that Earth wasn't sending out slower-than-light interstellar spaceships in the 80's, when the Enterprise bridge crew visited the past to save the whales?
The Borg DID attempt this offscreen, and many other ploys, but none of them ever worked due to the Pogo Paradox.
On Voyager, Seven of Nine discusses the "pogo paradox" and references the events of this film. The pogo paradox: "A causality loop in which interference to prevent an event actually triggers the same event."
Specifically: "The Borg once travelled back in time to stop Zefram Cochrane from breaking the warp barrier. They succeeded, but that in turn led the starship Enterprise to intervene. They assisted Cochrane with the flight the Borg was trying to prevent. Causal loop complete."