Star Trek: First Contact featured a brief but memorable cameo of the Emergency Medical Holographic System played by Robert Picardo, who managed to score his spot in the movie using some crafty behind-the-scenes tactics. Star Trek: First Contact premiered in November of 1996 as the 2nd film to focus on the characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation and the 8th film in the Star Trek franchise overall. The plot revolved around Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew traveling back in time to 2063 in order to stop the Borg from preventing humanity's first contact with the Vulcans and subsequently assimilating Earth.
The second season of Star Trek: Voyager was also airing on television at the time that Star Trek: First Contact was released. Voyager had introduced the concept of the Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH for short) into Star Trek canon: a holographic system meant to function as a temporary medical substitute in case the Chief Medical Officer was killed or incapacitated. Voyager's EMH, played by Picardo, became the permanent CMO after the ship was stranded in the Delta Quadrant, subsequently gaining full sentience and becoming an integral member of the crew. Thanks to the Enterprise-D's destruction in Star Trek: Generations, Star Trek: First Contact took the opportunity to include their own version of the EMH, also played by Picardo. During the brief cameo, Doctor Beverly Crusher uses the program to stall a group of Borg attacking sickbay long enough for her and her staff to escape. The scene is a humorous moment in an otherwise serious film and serves as a great tie-in to the wider Star Trek universe.
What fans may not know, however, is that Robert Picardo himself was responsible for the inclusion of the EMH in Star Trek: First Contact. In a 2012 interview, Picardo recounted how he went to everyone involved with the First Contact script, including executive producer Rick Berman and director Jonathan Frakes, and slyly posed the idea that the new version of the Enterprise should logically be equipped with an EMH. Picardo's reasoning was that, since the Enterprise was the Federation flagship, it would not make sense for a lesser class of ship like Voyager to have technology that the Enterprise did not have. When questioned about why the Enterprise EMH would look the same as the one on Voyager, Picardo countered that the first generation of a new piece of technology would almost certainly all have the same design.
Picardo's arguments may have only been a clever ploy to land him a little extra screen time, but they do make quite a lot of sense when taken in the context of Star Trek canon. Additionally, Star Trek has a long history of being an interconnected franchise, with references and cameos used abundantly throughout the various series and movies to tie them to one another. These facts were likely what made Picardo so successful in landing his cameo in Star Trek: First Contact. After Picardo spoke with everyone individually, the producers and Jonathan Frakes collectively agreed that it only made sense to include a reference to the EMH in the film, and the scene in sickbay was born.
Robert Picardo's cunning behind-the-scenes maneuvering not only paid off for him but for fans as well. Voyager's Doctor was already well on his way to becoming a fan-favorite character, and seeing Picardo play a version of his iconic role in Star Trek: First Contact must have been just as enjoyable for fans back then as it is today. While it clearly took some doing on Picardo's part, the EMH cameo in Star Trek: First Contact ultimately served to make an already good movie even better.