Well if we're going to nitpick, it's Kal-El with a K.Cal El sounds like it should be a junior college in California.
Oops!!
Careless mistake. 
Like Kal Kan, not Cal Ripken.
Vulcan first contact?
- Thread starter Melakon
- Start date
- Status
Oops!!
Careless mistake. Like Kal Kan, not Cal Ripken.
Solkar (yes, that Solkar) is the name given to the Vulcan captain in Decipher's Star Trek Card Game, and since adopted to the character in many novels, RPGs, and reference works. Enterprise revealed that Solkar was the first Vulcan Ambassador to Earth, which is kind of an odd career leap for a survey ship captain.
Cully Fredrickson preferred the name "Senet" for his unnamed character, but as far as I'm aware, that never appeared anywhere outside of fandom.
Correct, and well done, Tim! Also to Tracy for your question. Cully asked that the character be named after his brother, Senet. The "Solkar" name is explained excellently by Tim, above. In reality, the character goes uncredited, which is a damn shame. Like Dr. Sevrin says above, Fredricksen really makes the most of it. And this exchange of emails is testament to the Power and Draw of Star Trek, and to our love for it. We are discussing and questioning and answering some pretty arcane aspects of this thing we love! And love it, we do!!!
Well if we're going to nitpick, it's Kal-El with a K.Cal El dropping in on the Kents predates Happy Days.
Oops!!
Like Kal Kan, not Cal Ripken.
Wasn't Kal-Kan a brand of dog food from the 70's?
Wow. How do I remember that?
Couple of possibilities.
It was the actual first contact, meaning there never was a verifiable contact previously.
Or, it's the first alien contact (of many) that grew into to something important.
Maybe the comics had ads for it starring Krypto.
Then again, the aliens that spent time here on Earth in the role of local gods were making their presence very public. So "first contact" credit should probably go to Apollo and his siblings, although many even earlier gods (including forgotten ones) may have been alien visitors as well.
The story told by T'Pol makes good sense in confessing to Vulcan interest in Earth. If there were no interest and no spying missions, it would be more or less impossible for them to be "passing through" the Sol system on a "survey mission", as claimed in ST:FC - after all, it would be astronomically unlikely for a survey mission to involve a trip through Sol unless it was actually a survey of Sol...
And if the Vulcans bothered to watch Earth in 2063, and possibly 1957, they probably were at it in 800, 123, 0 and 44 BC as well.
I have no problem with the Vulcan in ST:FC being Solkar - after all, I don't need to assume he was the captain of the survey ship T'Plana Hath. The skipper would probably have remained in orbit, her duties limited to bringing the Ambassador to the scheduled meeting under the pretense of "accidentally spotted warp experiment" and delivering him to a meeting place befitting that cover story in the shuttle we saw.
Timo Saloniemi
Good points all. We also have to remember that knowledge that Apollo and those gods were aliens didn't come about until the 2260s. By the time of Picard and his crew probably would have understood that it was First Contact*. The asterisk meaning that we all know that technically this wasn't the very first contact but that has become the common name for the event. Sort of like how we call the Great War, World War I even though it wasn't; or how we call the Eastern Roman Empire the Byzantine Empire, even though it wasn't.
The 2063 Vulcanian landing is called First Contact, even though it wasn't.
The 2063 Vulcanian landing is called First Contact, even though it wasn't.
Yes, the T'Plana-Hath's landing was the contact that made all humans aware of intelligent, space-faring extraterrestrial life and directly led to Earth becoming part of the technologically advanced interstellar community.
Whereas Von Daniken-esque contacts in ancient times did not lead to anything of that sort, but were understood as pure magic by the humans who experienced such contact, with the aliens perceived as deities, and remembered only in hoary legend.
Kor
Whereas Von Daniken-esque contacts in ancient times did not lead to anything of that sort, but were understood as pure magic by the humans who experienced such contact, with the aliens perceived as deities, and remembered only in hoary legend.
Kor
Wasn't the Spaceflight Chronology first contact with the Vulcans retconned into first contact with the Andorians in some of the later Trek novels? Spock's World, maybe?
I can't remember exactly why this was done, either. Was it superceded by something in onscreen Trek?
I can't remember exactly why this was done, either. Was it superceded by something in onscreen Trek?
Dunno about retconning in novels, but it's easy enough to do a fan retcon. After all, what we see in Strangers from the Sky is in no conflict with what we see in ST:FC!
The movie shows Vulcans meeting humans in 2063 on Earth. The book says a human vessel encountered a disabled Vulcan vessel in 2065 far away from Earth. Both parties of humans could have considered themselves the first to meet Vulcans (or indeed any aliens), as information back then would move slowly - that is, no faster than at the speed of light.
It's too bad that Spaceflight Chronology states the space encounter took place no farther out than Neptune... OTOH, would Cochrane tell about his aliens before 2065, and would he be believed?
FWIW, and IMHO, both the books seem to be hinting, subtly or less so, that the "distress" of the Vulcan vessel was but a ruse and a way to make first contact less humiliating to the primitive humans...
Timo Saloniemi
The movie shows Vulcans meeting humans in 2063 on Earth. The book says a human vessel encountered a disabled Vulcan vessel in 2065 far away from Earth. Both parties of humans could have considered themselves the first to meet Vulcans (or indeed any aliens), as information back then would move slowly - that is, no faster than at the speed of light.
It's too bad that Spaceflight Chronology states the space encounter took place no farther out than Neptune... OTOH, would Cochrane tell about his aliens before 2065, and would he be believed?
FWIW, and IMHO, both the books seem to be hinting, subtly or less so, that the "distress" of the Vulcan vessel was but a ruse and a way to make first contact less humiliating to the primitive humans...
Timo Saloniemi
I like this better as well. It also established that while Vulcan knew of Earth's existence and humand society and studies us they basically tried to keep their distance until the right time.
FC makes it look like the Vulcans were willing to interfere with a less advanced species just coming out of a major war and still pretty much the same as we had been during the 20th century.
From what we learned later, the Vulcans had suspicions of how close the Romulans were and they were still battling the Andorians. Under those conditions it's understandable they'd rather neither of them gain any new friends close to Vulcan if the Vulcans could get to them first. Once Humanity invented their own Warp Drive they became something more noticeable.
It's difficult to say which Vulcans would find more logical in their strategic situation: establishing close ties with (that is, taking over) the primitive Earth, to deny its use from their foes - or steering well clear of the primitives, in hopes of keeping the enemies from noticing it and making their own arrangements (conquest, unequal alliance, preemptive termination).
Perhaps the Andorians were getting so close that the soft conquest of Earth could no longer wait, and the Vulcans were coming in the 2060s, warp or no warp.
Timo Saloniemi
Perhaps the Andorians were getting so close that the soft conquest of Earth could no longer wait, and the Vulcans were coming in the 2060s, warp or no warp.
Timo Saloniemi
It was a reference to a First Contact with natives of Alpha Centauri that was retconned into Andorians for "Spock's World".
It does seem like a rash decision...I wonder if that Survey Ship/Scout Ship captain ever got a reprimand or felt odd about it? I mean I guess the more 'adventurous' Vulcans would take on that job but still.
"Oh yea a warp signature? From the planet? The planet that just nuked itself? Probably another alien scout or a raider. Keep a wide berth. Move on...tell the Vulcan Science Academy Sol III is basically out of it, maybe we can do some light mining in the outer debris field and maybe the inner one...."
C
C57D
Guest
Always being a fan of the SFC, (and the FASA roleplaying game timeline which was derived from that) I assumed that Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites all had a primitive warp at the time that Cochrane invented it for Humanity.
I don't see a first amongst equals implied, or stated, for any of the four founding races (yes Alpha Centuri has to be an Earth colony -not an independent species). Andorian beat the last of the Vegan Tyranny and form a twelve colony empire, Tellarites meet the Orions and build a mercantile "empire" to trade with them, and Vulcans explore and examine and build a little science colony society. They (plus the United Earth colonies) all just get on equally with their own interests, while loosely federated together. TOS S1shows this continuing, but S2 and moving forward shows closer ties.
YMMV.
I don't see a first amongst equals implied, or stated, for any of the four founding races (yes Alpha Centuri has to be an Earth colony -not an independent species). Andorian beat the last of the Vegan Tyranny and form a twelve colony empire, Tellarites meet the Orions and build a mercantile "empire" to trade with them, and Vulcans explore and examine and build a little science colony society. They (plus the United Earth colonies) all just get on equally with their own interests, while loosely federated together. TOS S1shows this continuing, but S2 and moving forward shows closer ties.
YMMV.
Though, to be fair the Vulcans also nuked themselves just before the Romulans left the planet.
And if they really thought that the warp signature was from an Alien source then they would have had to check even more, to make sure that the Andorians or Romulans aren't setting up shop in Sol.
- Status
Similar threads
