Willow, I didn't rewatch the TNG episode - just googled "episode name" and "transcript"!
http://www.chakoteya.net/NextGen/264.htm
I was thinking about how this same concept could have been done better:
What if Riker was making contact with a species that hadn't been seen since ENT days, and he was trying to find out exactly how first contact went? If he was trying to extrapolate from private diaries and the NX-01 ship's log, there could be entertainment in seeing the same event play out from a number of different perspectives.
From the ship's log perspective, the event would play robotically, like a computer program.
For T'Pol, it would be watching her shipmates seem almost deranged from their inability to think straight.
For Reed, it would be living up to the crushing expectations that he thinks Archer has of him.
For Phlox, it would be just a series of medical conditions to be diagnosed.
For Archer, it would be both his crew and aliens constantly bombarding him with complaints and demands.
For Mayweather, it would be just another shift spent staring at a blank screen.
In the end, we get to see the event as it actually played out, both funnier and more moving than any of the individual accounts. I think this would be more faithful to the series, and a better justification for including TNG characters.