History Main / FirstContactFauxPas

** A screeching GiantSpider lands on the White House lawn and is promptly incinerated. According to the uni-vocal translator the screech meant: "Strange two-legged beings, I greet you in the spirit of intergalactic friendship."

** One anomaly your science ships might discover is a coffin from a BurialInSpace containing a dead alien. If you decide to pop it open for study, it's possible that the next alien species you meet will reveal that you just desecrated the remains of one of their greatest heroes, which will put a strain on relations, to say the least.

* In ''Radio/SonOfCliche'', the radio precursor to ''Series/RedDwarf'', a luckless RedShirt crewman gets to make First Contact with apparently friendly aliens. After a squicky discussion of alien reproduction and a revelation that the aliens have met Earth people before
-->'''Alien:''' You must know Jan van Raavens? He's human too. From your Hoh-land? come on, you're from the same planet. you must have met him. No? [...] There is one final formality to establish friendship. Come, Earthman, we must now exchange heads.\\

** It's also possible to do this by colonizing worlds without fully exploring the space around them, by, say, settling an enticing planet that turns out to be the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Holy Guardians']] [[HolyGround sacred worlds]], or grabbing a system that turns out to be next to some [[AbsoluteXenophobe Militant Isolationists.]] One minute you're managing a production queue for your new colony, the next you're receiving a transmission from an irate [[VestigialEmpire Fallen Empire]] demanding that you remove yourself from their world before they do it for you.

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* ''Literature/TheConquerorsTrilogy'' by Creator/TimothyZahn, humans meet an alien race that's extremely vulnerable to radio frequencies, and hence interprets the messages of friendship that human ships send out as an unprovoked attack, to which they respond in kind. It's a problem they have a lot, apparently.

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--> You must know Jan van Raavens? He's human too. From your Hoh-land? come on, you're from the same planet. you must have met him. No?
there is one final formality to establish friendship.
-->Come, Earthman, we must now exchange heads.
-->''FX: swishing of steel blade. Meaty thump, spurting noise and the thud of body hitting ground.''
-->(Alien) Funny, that's what happened to Jan van Raavens...

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* A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJYRLFvJVFg trailer]] for ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' has humanity launching its first warp-capable starship towards a star that hosts life. The locals repeatedly warn it to stay away but the human ship doesn't understand and is destroyed. Fortunately the aliens learned English from salvaging the wreckage and were able to explain things to the rescue party.
* ''VideoGame/{{Sword Of The Stars}}'' has this as the default when making contact with aliens. [[YouHaveResearchedBreathing Being not at war requires researching the species.]] Whenever ships meet combat will begin - although it is thankfully possible to flee without inflicting any damage to avoid doing damage to relationships once established.

** Another strip had an alien fall down the stairs while exiting its FlyingSaucer. Its annoyed companion notes that any sense of awe in the crowd of humans watching is now gone.

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* In ''Series/BabylonFive'', the Earth-Minbari war began due a series of faux pases on both sides: the [=EarthForce=] squadron enters a Minbari system they believe is neutral space and starts using an active scan on the Minbari ships (one of which is carrying the Grey Council, their government); showing remarkable patience, the Warrior Caste ''satai'' (member of the Grey Council) who happens to be in charge at the moment orders to activate the stealth system and scan back at full power, unknowingly jamming the jump drives on the [=EarthForce=] ships, and approach with all gunports open, a gesture of respect and peaceful intent in their culture (you can see everything they have); captain Jankowski of [=EarthForce=], not knowing of this tradition, mistook it for an aggressive move and sent messages that they came in peace, but he called them in English, that the Minbari could not understand, and when they did not respond and a power spike on a Minbari ship made it look like they were charging their weapons he ordered to open fire, killing the Minbari leader (who had just called out the ''satai'' who had ordered to open the gunports because he knew what it could be mistaken for) and starting a drawn-out war that left people on both sides feeling terribly guilty.

* In ''Literature/TheForeverWar'' some of humanity's colony ships disappear without a trace, then aliens they can't communicate with are encountered in the area. Earth assumes they're responsible and declare war. [[spoiler: A thousand years of war later they figure out how to communicate and find out the aliens know nothing about the lost ships.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{SwordOfTheStars}}'' has this as the default when making contact with aliens. [[YouHaveResearchedBreathing Being not at war requires researching the species.]] Whenever ships meet combat will begin - although it is thankfully possible to flee without inflicting any damage to avoid doing damage to relationships once established.

* A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJYRLFvJVFg trailer]] for ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' has humanity launching its first warp-capable starship towards a star that hosts life. The locals repeatedly warn it to stay away but the human ship doesn't understand and is destroyed. Fortunately the aliens learned English from salvaging the wreckage and were able to explain things to the rescue party.

* In the third book of the ''Literature/ArkRoyal'' trilogy it turns out that the reason the aliens are attacking is that a human group colonized a a planet that was already settled by the (aquatic) aliens. But neither species knew of the others' existence until one alien happened upon a couple teenagers, who freaked out and shot it. The aliens have to debate everything with practically the entirety of their race before deciding on any action, so they thought humanity was invading.

* In one story of ''Anime/{{Doraemon}}'', a mini alien scout ship is sent to earth and comes across Nobita and Doraemon happily watching a show where aliens get beaten up by SuperSentai, thus making the alien in the ship conclude that HumansAreWarriors, so violent that the rest of his kind should not make any further contact with humans. The {{Irony}} is, said aliens are created by Nobita and Doraemon ''specifically to have them develop their own civilization and make FirstContact with humans.''

* One ''Anime/{{Doraemon}}'' story where an alien scout ship was sent to earth, the (mini) ship comes across Nobita and Doraemon watching a kind of SuperSentai show where they beat up aliens, and the aliens in the scout ship concludes that humans are scary.

* The central conflict between the [[BeePeople Vajra]] and humanity in ''Anime/MacrossFrontier'' was started by this. The Vajra mistook humanity for a broken HiveMind because HumanityIsInsane, and 'rescued' what they perceived to be the queen bee in the hopes of helping her. From humanity's perspective, however, their princess had just been kidnapped by a HordeOfAlienLocusts, and the BugWar was on...

* ''Literature/TheConquerorsTrilogy'' by TimothyZahn, humans meet an alien race that's extremely vulnerable to radio frequencies, and hence interprets the messages of friendship that human ships send out as an unprovoked attack, to which they respond in kind. It's a problem they have a lot, apparently.

* A somewhat more straightforward faux pas: First contact between the humans and VUX in the ''VideoGame/StarControl'' universe went sour when the human captain reacted to the appearance of his VUX counterpart with the memorable words "That's the ugliest freak-face I've ever seen!". Unfortunately, [[IsThisThingOn the mic was on.]] And the VUX had [[TranslatorMicrobes very, very good translation technology.]] Amusingly, you eventually learn that yes, humanity looks just as utterly hideous to THEM as they do to US, with one of them blithely admitting that he can barely restrain himself from throwing up whenever he sees you on his monitor.

* In ''Series/BabylonFive'', the Earth-Minbari war began due a series of faux pases on both sides: the [=EarthForce=] squadron enters a Minbari system they believe is neutral space and starts using an active scan on the Minbari ships (one of which is carrying the Grey Council, their government); showing remarkable patience, the Warrior Caste ''satai'' (member of the Grey Council) who happens to be in charge at the moment orders to activate the stealth system and scan back at full power, unknowingly jamming the jump drives on the [=EarthForce=] ships, and approach with all gunports open, a gesture of respect and peaceful intent in their culture (you can see everything they have); captain Jankowski of [=EarthForce=], not knowing of this tradition, mistook it for an aggressive move and sent messages that they came in peace, but he called them in English, that the Minbari could not understand, and when they did not respond and a power spike on a Minbari ship made it look like they were charging their weapons he ordered to open fire, killing the Minbari leader (who had just called out the ''satai'' who had ordered to open the gunports [[GenreSavvy because he knew what it could be mistaken for]]) and starting a drawn-out war that left people on both sides feeling terribly guilty.

* In ''Series/BabylonFive'', the Earth-Minbari war began due a series of faux pases on both sides: the [=EarthForce=] squadron enters a Minbari system they believe is neutral space and starts using an active scan on the Minbari ships (one of which is carrying the Grey Council, their government); showing remarkable patience, the Warrior Caste ''satai'' (member of the Grey Council) who happens to be in charge at the moment orders to activate the stealth system and scan back at full power, unknowingly jamming the jump drives on the [=EarthForce=] ships, and approach with all gunports open, a gesture of respect and peaceful intent in their culture (you can see everything they have); captain Jankowski of [=EarthForce=], not knowing of this tradition, mistook it for an aggressive move and sent messages that they came in peace, but he called them in English, that the Minbari could not understand, and when they did not respond and a power spike on a Minbari ship made it look like they were charging their weapons he ordered to open fire, killing the Minbari leader (who had just called out the ''satai'' who had ordered to open the gunports [[GenreSavvy because he knew what it could be mistaken for) and starting a drawn-out war that left people on both sides feeling terribly guilty.

* In ''Series/BabylonFive'', the Human-Minbari war began this way. When ships belonging to the two species first met each other in space, the Minbari approached with all gun-ports open, which was a gesture of respect and peaceful intent in their culture, similar to showing 'open hands'. To the humans, however, it seemed like an aggressive move, and when a turret-gunner lost his nerve in the face of the advancing wall of battleships, the meeting turned into a battle - and then a drawn-out war that left people on both sides feeling terribly guilty.

* Creator/OctaviaButler has this in both ''Bloodchild'' and ''Amnesty''. The former features the T'lic treating humans as cattle before realizing it's not a very sustainable method of hosting their young safely. The latter features the Communities kidnapping individuals and attempting to experiment/communicate with them, but abusing them due to a lack of understanding.

* ''Literature/HaloContactHarvest'' describes the events that kicked off the Human-Covenant war of the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' series. The Covenant are artifact seekers searching for relics of the Forerunners they worship, but a strange reading identifying the human colony Harvest as having thousands of relics causes some Covenant to launch an initial skirmish thinking humans are keeping the treasures for themselves. An attempt at peace talks is made, but broken by a trigger-happy Grunt. Within that week, the battles at Harvest turn from mis-communicating tussle to government sanctioned xenocide when the leaders of the Covenant discover that their sensors are identifying the humans as the Forerunner relics, meaning the Forerunners are not gods. Hoping to keep their discovery under wraps and so not shatter the Covenant's foundation, they order humans to be wiped out and so begin the series' long war.

* One ''Anime/{{Doraemon}}'' story where an alien scout ship was sent to earth, the (mini) ship comes across Nobita and Doraemon watching a kind of Super Sentai show where they beat up aliens, and the aliens in the scout ship concludes that humans are scary.

* Creator/OctaviaButler has this in both Bloodchild and Amnesty. The former features the T'lic treating humans as cattle before realizing it's not a very sustainable method of hosting their young safely. The latter features the Communities kidnapping individuals and attempting to experiment/communicate with them, but abusing them due to a lack of understanding.

* The sequel to ''Ender's Game'', ''Literature/SpeakerForTheDead'' picks up in a future where humanity has learned the Buggers/Formics had peaceful intentions and so are determined to avoid the same mistake of miscommunication with the next alien species they discover. But they go too far in the opposite direction, ordering their scientists studying the "pequeninos" to tell them little about humanity and only observe the aliens instead of interviewing them. Thus misunderstandings occur because the aliens are unfamiliar with human biology and assume it to be like their own, resulting in several humans dead from ritual vivisection. For the pequeninos, the act is a great honor because it triggers the reproductive stage of their life cycle, humans just die.

* In ''Radio/SonOfCliche'', the radio precursor to ''Series/RedDwarf'', a luckless red-shirt crewman gets to make First Contact with apparently friendly aliens. After a squicky discussion of alien reproduction and a revelation that the aliens have met Earth people before

* ''Series/BabylonFive'' is a strong example, with regards to the Human-Minbari war. When ships belonging to the two species first met each other in space, the Minbari approached with all gun-ports open, which was a gesture of respect and peaceful intent in their culture, similar to showing 'open hands'. To the humans, however, it seemed like an aggressive move, and when a turret-gunner lost his nerve in the face of the advancing wall of battleships, the meeting turned into a battle - and then a drawn-out war that left people on both sides feeling terribly guilty.