Cardassian first contact?

Well, it seems that everybody else did.

We had the whole set of old Greek gods here once, although "Who Mourns of Adonais" does not specify exactly when. Probably well before the local classic era, tho. We had the Platonians, and the Sky People, and Kukulkan. These groups freely interacted with us natives, too.

Between the beginning of western history and the French Revolution, we don't know if anybody besides Rojan the Randy Ghost cared visit us, although we can assume Q dropped by more than once, too. But it makes sense that these folks would have kept the lower a profile, the more global our globe got.

Then came the Preservers and abducted some injuns for slave labor, perverse experimentation, or for the sheer heck of it. Then we had Redjac. We got Spock. We got T'Pol's granny and her pals. And as if insult needed to be added to injury, we got the Ferengi. And then Spock again. And then Spock again. And then Dax. And all that before the official first contact with aliens...

Timo Saloniemi

 

^If we're counting time travel, you're forgetting Deanna a few years after Redjac; a third Spock between the Ferengi and Dax; Tuvok and then T'pol between the Spocks and Dax; the Borg, Worf, Deanna Troi, and any other aliens on the Enterprise-E at the end, just before First Contact; as well as Kira appearing at several times through the twentieth century when looking for Sisko, Bashir, and Dax in Past Tense. So yeah, Earth seems to have been a pretty busy place before First Contact.

 

And guinan, in the 19th century.

 

I think it's pretty clear that there's a big difference between first contact and First Contact.

(And, for that matter, between "First Contact" and First Contact...)

 

So, how do you make the distinction?

My feeble attempt (or mannerism, or whatever):

"First Contact" the TNG episode
First Contact the literary work
ST:First Contact (or preferably just ST:FC) the movie

Timo Saloniemi

 

If the show continued they could have done a Betazed first contact given it's proximity.

 

How about a special episode, set away from Enterprise, where Shran and his crew encounter the Bolians for the first time?

 

Plus in NuTrek they already had contact with the Cardassians since they can order Cardassian drinks.

 

Only because Iloja of Prim became a bartender while exiled.

 

Not necessarily. Europe had been wearing Chinese silk long before they established regular contact. Those drinks could have been imported through intermediaries.

 

And then we have a range of more exotic interpretations... Cardassia might be a location or concept known well before our UFP heroes named the Cardassians after it, for example.

Also, contacts come and go. The Yridians were supposed to be extinct before Capt. Ransom proved otherwise; the Ferengi weren't revealed to the UFP despite dealing extensively with other cultures in the region. Cardassians might also have been considered a past, lost culture until somebody found out they weren't.

In a context like Star Trek, we simply can't know for sure, not until something is explicated. Until then, we can only speculate, and make mistakes - such as assuming that the Klingon Empire features an Emperor!

Timo Saloniemi