Star Trek

By StarTrek.com Staff

April 05, 2011

From all of us here at StarTrek.com to all of you out there, we wish you a great First Contact Day.

“Say again?” you might be asking. “First Contact Day?”

It’s the holiday celebrated by good people of the galaxy in tribute to the flight of the Phoenix and the pivotal first interaction between humans and Vulcans. The event took place – or will take place, depending on how you look at it -- on April 5, 2063. That evening, a Vulcan survey ship, the T’Plana-Hath, landed in Bozeman, Montana, after tracking the warp signature of the Phoenix, a spacecraft that represented mankind’s first successful attempt at achieving warp drive. And, of course, moments later on that same day, a robed Vulcan, flashing the split-fingered Vulcan salute, greeted Dr. Zefram Cochrane, creator of warp drive and pilot of the Phoenix. Thus, First Contact was made, setting in motion a chain of events that led to the formation of the United Federation of Planets.

Fans interested in learning more about First Contact and First Contact Day should be sure to check out the TOS episode “Metamorphosis,” with Glenn Corbett portraying Cochrane; the TNG film First Contact, with James Cromwell in the role (which he reprised briefly on Enterprise); the books First Contact (the novelization of the feature) and First Frontier; and the Voyager episode “Homestead,” in which Neelix and Naomi Wildman oversee a party celebrating the 315th anniversary of First Contact Day, complete with an old-school jukebox, helpings of Cochrane’s favorite food (cheese pierogies), and the sight and sounds of a stoic, reluctant Tuvok giving the Vulcan salute and uttering those immortal words, “Live long and prosper.”