Ever since Gene Roddenberry dreamed up the wonderful (and sometimes wacky) world of Star Trek, the franchise has been through a fair amount, with various cancellations over the years, as well as various bad reviews and negative stereotypes cast upon fans. Thankfully, it seems like things are finally picking up again, with a multitude of new iterations into the universe, and seemingly many more on its way. The love for space is coming back, with many looking back up at the stars and wondering what life other than ours lives out there, and when humanity will finally make first contact.
If Star Trek is to be believed, this event will take place on the 5th of April 2063 in Montana. This was the first "official" (more on that later) contact that humans, or Terrans, had with an alien race, which just so happened to be the logic driven Vulcans. Audiences know a lot about this story, as it was the main focus of the aptly named 1996 film Star Trek: First Contact.
The movie followed the events of the time-traveling crew of the iconic Enterprise D, lead by a surprisingly passionate Picard, as they met and subtly helped Zafram Cochrane achieve earth first faster-than-light space flight. The Vulcans, who at this point had their own, Federation-similar prime directive, saw this, and decided humans were finally ready to meet them. They met, shook hands, and there began an eons long friendship and comradeship between the humans and Vulcans. From this point onwards the Vulcans, no longer worried about upsetting the natural development of the civilization, shared a variety of technological goodies, including superior medical advantages that saved countless humans. This newfound cooperation began to make huge changes for human society, slowly transforming them into the currency-less, utopian Federation seen in the later Star Trek iterations. It was also the foundation not only vaguely for each and every show and movie, but for the Enterprise series, which was set much closer to this first contact than the others.
While this meeting was the first official first contact, the one Federation children would read about in textbooks for years to come, it was by a long shot not the first contact made between a human and an alien race. Even if looking at the First Contact film, Cochrane shares a drink with Dianna Troi, a half-Betazoid, a while before he achieves warp and meets the Vulcans. Outside the film however, there have been countless alien visitations to earth. Many were masked in secrecy, but a surprisingly large portion of them were open, visually and verbally, about being aliens. These fleeting moments were simply lost in time or forgotten.
For example, there was the time during the Deep Space 9 episode “Little Green Men” where Quark, Rom, and the wonderful Nog accidentally traveled through time and found themselves way back in 1947 in no other place than Roswell, New Mexico. This played in perfectly with all the existing, real world conspiracy theories about aliens having landed already, and the huge Roswell military cover up that followed. They were caught and technically predate the official first contact by over 100 years, although the nature of their visit was both under very different circumstances, and was never publicly disclosed or proven.
Another, far less obvious contact humans had with an alien was around 40 years prior to this, where the El-Adrian and later ship bartender Guinan met Mark Twain in the Next Generation episode “Time’s Arrow.” Here it is revealed that she has been on Earth, hiding from her father, since 1893. This is not the earliest example either.
Going even further back in time and playing perfectly in Gene Roddenberry’s humanist disdain for the idea of Gods and Deities, it is revealed in the Original Series episode “Who Mourns For Adonais” that the highly egotistical and arrogant Apollo, Zeus, Athena, Hermes, Hera, Aphrodite, and Artemis were actually aliens who had visited earth thousands of years ago, influencing the Greek mythology. What was actually the first contact humans had with an alien life form took place before they were really human at all; rather, a primordial goo that came together to create our ancient genetic ancestor. This was watched by the omnipotent Q and Picard in the Next Generation episode “All Good Things,” and technically marks the moment humanity make first contact with an alien life form.
Depending on how literally the term "first contact" is to be taken, the issue often comes back to how deeply fans can obsess about Star Trek history, and the specificity of what "first contact" actually means. Officially however, to the point where they were known and accepted as part of the large civilization on Earth and not hidden from sight or memories of them lost over time, the memorable handshake between human and Vulcan during the First Contact movie is by all means the most important first contact found within the franchise. To those looking up at the stars wondering who might dwell there, you might only have to wait another 40 years.