It’s true, Students, Professor Jason and Professor Ashley love First Contact Day!
Star Trek: Lower Decks
If you are a long-time Geek History Lesson listeners then you’ve heard some of this before during our Star Trek: First Contract Movie Retrospective from a couple years ago:
First Contact Day gets its most comprehensive origin in the movie Star Trek VIII: First Contact which also happens to be Jason and Ashley’s shared favourite Star Trek movie. They will only ever entertain arguments for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan or Star Trek (2009). We love First Contact Day so much that a few years ago we went with our friend Adam Drosin (you’ll remember him from our We Went to … 10 Forward: the Experience Blog and The Red Shirt Diaries), to The Arrow Theater in Los Angeles, California in order to watch Star Trek: First Contact on the big screen!
“We love that, professors … but we still don’t know what First Contact Day is!”
Thank-you for keeping us on track.
First Contact Day ~*~technically~*~ hasn’t happened yet.
First Contact Day takes place on April 5th, 2063 outside Bozeman, Montana. It marks the anniversary of First Contact between human beings and aliens. The aliens in question happen to be Professor Ashley’s all-time favourite Star Trek aliens - the Vulcans!
James Cromwell as Zefram Cochrane and Cully Fredricksen as Vulcan (Star Trek: First Contact)
Glenn Corbett as Zefram Cochrane (Metamorphosis)
If you’re not as familiar with the first contact rules of the Star Trek universe, the principle upon which The Federation is born is that a civilization must independently achieve warp capabilities before first contact can be made. Otherwise the collective minds of the people won’t be able to deal with the implication of a diverse intergalactic system.
That’s us by the way right now. Right in this moment. Right as I sit here writing this Blog for you. Right as you sit there reading this Blog post.
Pre-warp.
On April 5th, 2063 Zefram Cochrane (portrayed by Glenn Corbett and James Cromwell respectively), got inside his home built rocket ship, The Phoenix, and achieves warp speed. All while hungover and living in the woods outside Bozeman, Montana.
If you ever hear us or other Trekkies referencing visiting Montana as old people this is why. Hopefully we’ll still be in the podcasting way and record on our amazing future tech about what the experience of witnessing actual First Contact Day is like about 40 years from today. If you are really wondering how much affection we have for First Contact - Professor Jason owns the Eaglemoss replica of The Phoenix and the Eaglemoss Enterprise-E (the version of the Enterprise which appears in Star Trek: First Contact), and we have a poster from the movie which hangs in a place of prominence in the Geek History Lesson office.
It’s such an important milestone in the Star Trek canon it is referenced in every series across the franchise including Lower Decks - which you saw above - and very prominently in Enterprise and The Next Generation.
Ultimately, what we really love about First Contact Day is what it exemplifies. A group of people who ought to have never succeeded overcoming all the adversity of a dying civilization in order to make their way to the stars and open up new worlds, new civilizations, and new peoples to themselves and all future generations. It represents a better world. A better tomorrow. On Geek History Lesson we often state our ideal future is a Star Trek future while our actual future is, in all likelihood, heading in the direction of an Expanse future. Mythology like First Contact Day reminds us of the excellence we are always striving toward.
If you are looking for a way to celebrate First Contact Day tonight the Star Trek streaming service, Paramount+ released the 4k remastered version of Star Trek: the Motion Picture and that is how Professor Ashley and Professor Jason are planning to spend our evening!