History Headscratchers / StarTrekFirstContact

*** Also, it's a recurring plot point in ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' that Earth thinks that the Vulcans are ''holding them back'' in the 22nd century, which implies they didn't go about and just shared all of their technology, snd instead were very cautious about helping humanity because they realized that they had to achieve things on their own.
*** This may be blaspheme, but to borrow an idea from ''Series/Babylon5'', humans are community builders. We can go into a place, make something and welcome all to join in, adding their diversity to our own and strengthening the whole. Thus the Star Trek humans did the same thing with the Federation. We brought together three alien societies who have hated and fought each other for the past decades, at a minimum, to centuries, at the most.
** I think the idea is that becoming warp-capable is a sign that the a species is ready to join the interstellar community, which is shown in the unrelated, but aptly named [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]] episode ''First Contact.'' Humanity had just been through a catastrophic war, the aftermath of which Picard once referred to as the "Post-atomic Horror." Pulling ourselves out of that by our own bootstraps and inventing warp drive only a decade or two later shows the unbreakable spirit of the human race--and one cannot ignore the blunt symbolism of our first warp ship being named ''Phoenix''. In one of ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise's]]'' later episodes, the Vulcans reveal that we scare them because we were able to do in decades what it took the Vulcans about a millennium to achieve; so even if they help us a little, its made clear that the real reason we make it as far as we do is because of our species great drive to better ourselves.

*** ''"Ironically, humanity was dramatically benefited from something that they now deny other developing species for fear of causing more harm than good."'' But they did not. The Prime Directive states that you shouldn't interfere with pre-warp civilizations (or at the very least ones who didn't already had another First Contact) - the Vulcans didn't do that. It was one man who created the warp-drive but that still meant humanity was capable of expanding outside their planet. Cochrane (a genius but on the same level of intelligent evolution as everyone else on the planet) had made the breakthrough and if he were to get access to the resources (as well as people) he needed to build the ''Phoenix'', he could have easily made dozens more warp-drive vessels and would have been once again noticed by the Vulcans. Humanity had reached the ''intellectual'' level needed to understand and create warp-drive (you can't actually expect that in order for us to be warp-capable, every single person would need to understand the logistics behind it; hell, plenty of starship personnel have no intimate knowledge of the workings of the vessel) and there was nothing the Vulcans could do about it. If the timing wasn't right, we may haven't started expanding with the Vulcans' guidance but we would still have created the technology which enables us to explore the galaxy. Humanity/The Federation had never directly denied Contact with an already warp-capable civilization. (A lot of times on ENT, they run into plenty of ships/races which were slower than their own Warp 5 but they readily embraced contact with them because everyone who was warp-capable was already meeting multiple other warp-capable races in our quadrant; they hid themselves whenever a civilization/planet was pre-industrial and had barely gotten to the level of ''our'' 21st century.)

*** This is somewhat addressed by headscratchers about the Prime Directive in general on the main page, but try this on for size: consider what Zephram Cochrane's stated goal in creating Warp Drive was. To make money. He wanted to sell the tech to whoever would buy it, he didn't care how they used it (the question of who he thought could or would pay for it in a post-apocalyptic Earth stands, but has been discussed uppage). Say the two main forces in Earth's Third World War both bought Warp Drive from Cochrane, and now the Vulcans have two factions of humans fighting an interstellar war in their astronomical backyard. Not logical. Once a society has Warp Drive, they'll be out in the galaxy anyway, so it's a case of "ready or not, here we come." In the case of Earth, the development of Warp Drive led to First Contact, which led to United Earth (eventually) and the United Federation of Planets (still later). In other cases, contact with pre-warp civilizations have had disastrous results, up to and including civilizations that really weren't ready for it gaining the technology and misusing it dramatically. You pick up a warp signature where there shouldn't be one, you'd best check it out. Worst case scenario, you can deal with the problem while it's still confined to one InsignificantLittleBluePlanet.

*** It's a door that Lily * thinks* is a window precisely because Picard opens it up onto vacuum and there's no decompression. He's impressing her by showing that the ship has no need for airlocks or other complex systems -- it's smart enough to throw a forcefield over any door opened onto space instantly. It's not meant to imply that they use this kind of forcefield fail-safe * all the time* .

*** Especially on Star Trek.

*** Also, I wouldn't be surprised if they gave it to him in part as incentive to stay in Starfleet. Regardless of the Kirk's advice, anyone in Picard's position after ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'' would be giving serious thought to retiring. He'd just gone through a massive family tragedy, his ship had been destroyed, Starfleet policy required that he be court-marshaled for the second time in his career, and he had just lead a hero of the Federation to his death. Walking away from Starfleet must have been a very tempting thought for Picard. Recognizing this, Starfleet gave him ''Enterprise'' in the hopes of not losing him. And considering the political climate of the time--the Maquis crisis in full swing, the disastrous first contact with the Dominion, and a fleet that hasn't entirely recovered from the Battle of Wolf 359--keeping one of their most experienced, dependable, effective officers might have been a priority for Starfleet Command.

*** Remember that Q doesn't sent them all that far in "Q Who" by galactic standards -- just 7000 light years. It could be the Delta Quadrant but there's no reason it has to be. That terminology wasn't introduce till the subsequent season, and that Borg wouldn't be connected with the DQ till much after that.

** They didn't really show any deference to the timeline. They told Zefram and Lily ''everything'' about the future. They sent a team of 100 engineers to earth to fix the rocket. (I think someone would have noticed all the professional engineers with futuristic equipment, in the middle of a dystopian civil war zone, having all of a sudden materialized to fix the rocket.) Two enterprise crewmen accompanied Zefram on the flight. I think that sometime later on, as WebVideo/RedLetterMedia [[http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-trek/star-trek-first-contact/ notes]], people would be like, "Who was in those other two seats on the rocket? What were their names? Where are they? We want to interview them!" etc. etc. The crew beamed back to the Enterprise at the end in full view of ''everyone''. The argument that they were trying to preserve the timeline is bunk. They just wanted to ensure that first contact would occur. Communicating with the Vulcans would not have prevented that goal.

** The Vulcans who made first contact were a small scientific research vessel. Even if the Enterprise could have contacted them, they wouldn't have been able to help much.

*** That was the first event shown, but not the point of divergence. Mirror!Phlox looked up human literature in the database of the ship from the main universe and remarked that it was a lot softer than the equivalents from their universe (except for Creator/WilliamShakespeare, who is just as gruesome in any universe).

* PlotHoles: How did they go about recreating the time-vortex after having gotten rid of their only deflector dish?

*** ''"Ironically, humanity was dramatically benefited from something that they now deny other developing species for fear of causing more harm than good."'' But they did not. The Prime Directive states that you shouldn't interfere with pre-warp civilizations (or at the very least ones who didn't already had another First Contact) - the Vulcans didn't do that. It was one man who created the warp-drive but that still meant humanity was capable of expanding outside their planet. Cochrane (a genius but on the same level of intelligent evolution as everyone else on the planet) had made the breakthrough and if he were to get access to the resources (as well as people) he needed to build the ''Phoenix'', he could have easily made dozens more warp-drive vessels and would have been once again noticed by the Vulcans. Humanity had reached the ''intellectual'' level needed to understand and create warp-drive (you can't actually expect that in order for us to be warp-capable, every single person would need to understand the logistics behind it; hell, plenty of starship personnel have no intimate knowledge of the workings of the vessel) and there was nothing the Vulcans could do about it. If the timing wasn't right, we may haven't started expanding with the Vulcans' guidance but we would still have created the technology which enables us to explore the galaxy. Humanity/The Federation had never directly denied Contact with an already warp-capable civilization. (A lot of times on ENT, they run into plenty of ships/races which were slower than their own Warp 5 but they readily embraced contact with them because everyone who was warp-capable was already meeting multiple other warp-capable races in our quadrant; they hid themselves whenever a civilization/planet was pre-industrial and had barely gotten to the level of ''our'' 21th century.)

** New Zealand seems to have disappeared in the early 21[[superscript:th]] Century, and reappeared sometime before the mid 24[[superscript:th]]. It doesn't seem to have moved, just ''disappeared'', somehow--being Trek, we can be fairly sure a NegativeSpaceWedgie was involved. We know it will exist again in the future, because Tom Pairs will be incarcerated there at some point, and it hasn't been physically moved, because it appears exactly where it should on a [[http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/images/b/b8/Gravett_Island%2C_location.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130211122857&path-prefix=en computer map of Earth]] while ''Enterprise'' is being evacuated. So...maybe New Zealand is like that disappearing planet from the ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine DS9]]'' episode "Meridian?"

** There's also a more immediate concern. Data was the one who encrypted the Enterprise's computer system, and the only one capable of decrypting it. If he's turned by the Borg, they could use it to take over the Enterprise completely, or override the self-destruct (which we do see him do later on). So there's this Information Security reason, too.

** There's also a more immediate concern. Data was the one who encrypted the Enterprise's computer systems, and the only one capable of decrypting it. If he's turned by the Borg, they could use it to take over the Enterprise completely, or override the self-destruct (which we do see him do later on). So there's this Information Security reason, too.

*** [[OurElvesAreBetter They're Vulcans]]. Their captain might just have assumed that he ''was'' qualified for the task; for all we know, he was- after all, in ''Star Trek'', every single Federation captain is ''also'' a professional diplomat (amongst other things), so why not the same for the Vulcans?

* Prime Directive be damned. Just get the Vulcans on-board with the Borg extermination already. Explain the situation -- i.e., "Our species was supposed to have its very first Warp flight today, which would set into motion a series of events including First Contact with Earth and leading into a Federation of Planets, of which Vulcan is a part, yadda yadda, but we are facing the greatest enemy any Federation planet has ever known, and we need your help." If the Borg assimilate Earth, then the whole Alpha Quadrant is vulnerable, including Vulcan, so there is a logical argument that the Vulcans should throw some of their military might behind Earth, whether or not discretely.

* Prime Directive be damned. Just get the fucking Vulcans on-board with the Borg extermination already. Explain the situation -- i.e., "Our species was supposed to have its very first Warp flight today, which would set into motion a series of events including First Contact with Earth and leading into a Federation of Planets, of which Vulcan is a part, yadda yadda, but we are facing the greatest enemy any Federation planet has ever known, and we need your help." If the Borg assimilate Earth, then the whole Alpha Quadrant is vulnerable, including Vulcan, so there is a logical argument that the Vulcans should throw some of their military might behind Earth, whether or not discretely.