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Besides Vulcans and Denobulans, what races had Humans encountered before "Broken Bow"?

t_smitts

Fleet Captain
Fleet Captain
To be clear, I'm not including encounters where one side was unaware, like Guinan, Spock, or Dax on Earth in past centuries, or mass abductions like in "North Star" or "The 37's".

There was an 88 year gap between Cochrane's flight and the launch of the NX-01. It's safe to say the United Earth government was unaware of most of the major Alpha and Beta Quadrant powers at the time like the Klingons, Andorians, Tellarites, Cardassians, Tholians, and certainly Romulans.

Human interstellar travel was very limited (mainly by cargo ships). Travis specifically mentioned the Horizon encountering both Deltans and Nauciaan pirates, though the NX-01 crew was apparently unfamiliar with both, so contact (if any) by either races' government with Earth itself was probably very limited.

Nathan Samuels mentioned losing his father in a freighter accident at age 18 and initially blaming the Denobulan pilot. Given that the script suggests he was in his 60's, we can safely say Denobulans have been visiting Earth since at least the 2110's. They may have even been the second race, after the Vulcans, that Humans made contact with.

Also, since both races are members of the Interspecies Medical Exchange by the 2150's, presumably other races (including the Mazarites) have had dealings with Earth. Since one conference took place on Tiburon, humans had probably met them, as well

Did I miss anything?
 
Travis mentions meeting Draylaxians in the first episode. That particular conversation remains burned into my brain…
 
I think they mentioned Rigellians living on Earth in S4, though that might have been the "Rigel" from Broken Bow, and those had only recently moved.

If TAS is fully canon, they would've had a war with the Kzinti well before this point
 
I think they mentioned Rigellians living on Earth in S4, though that might have been the "Rigel" from Broken Bow, and those had only recently moved.

If TAS is fully canon, they would've had a war with the Kzinti well before this point

This is admittedly just an opinion, but it's hard to imagine the Kzinti waging FOUR successive wars against Earth in the mid-21st century, all of them not too long after Cochrane's flight, if we had the Vulcans acting as our big brothers at that point.
 
This is admittedly just an opinion, but it's hard to imagine the Kzinti waging FOUR successive wars against Earth in the mid-21st century, all of them not too long after Cochrane's flight, if we had the Vulcans acting as our big brothers at that point.
It’s just one of those things one has to ignore after it was decided that humans met the Vulcans first, who then proceeded to babysit humanity for almost 100 years.

Paying careful attention to TOS, it seems more likely that humans went out and established a number of colonies and that contact with the Vulcans was more recent (Mr. Spock and Vulcans in general still seem mysterious to our crew and there’s no way things like Pon Farr would be a secret if we had been in close proximity for 200 years), so for TAS the Kzinti thing works.
 
This is admittedly just an opinion, but it's hard to imagine the Kzinti waging FOUR successive wars against Earth in the mid-21st century, all of them not too long after Cochrane's flight, if we had the Vulcans acting as our big brothers at that point.
The wars were fought over a matter of days because the Kzinti couldn't decide if they wanted in or out.
 
Well, there's this movie called "Total Recall" (the Schwarzenegger one) that might allow you to decide.
... There's another total recall?

Ah, yes. Booba.

Repression unlocked.


Anyways, the multispecies medical thing - do know of any aliens from that?
 
there’s no way things like Pon Farr would be a secret if we had been in close proximity for 200 years

tbf they didn't seem too familiar with it in Enterprise, either

Archer said humans hadn’t known the Vulcans long enough for anyone to live there. And therefore, be familiar with all of their customs. And Phlox said that prior to T’Pol, Vulcans rarely stuck around on human ships beyond a few weeks. Not to mention that Phlox probably kept T’Pol’s premature experience confidential.

By the 23rd century, SNW shows that activity outside of pon faar is not unusual to Starfleet officers. And with DIS, Burnham never shared any knowledge she may have had with her crew, possibly because of her Vulcan upbringing. And by the 24th century, the Federation have Vulcan only crews. Plus, Tuvok told Janeway that he had Tarkalean flu, hiding it from her and the crew.

Adding on to all of that, its quite possible that with the growing numbers of Federation members over a couple of centuries, and having to learn all of their new members cultures and customs, that knowledge of pon farr simply got lost in the shuffle.

There are many plausible explanations as to why knowledge of pon farr was not as widespread as it should have been after 200 years.
 
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