History Main / FirstContactTeam

* In ''Literature/{{Blindsight}}'', the crew of the ''Theseus'' consists of highly specialized individuals specially assembled to be able to initiate FirstContact, all of which have something unusual about them: Susan James, the linguist, has had her brain altered to facilitate the [[MindHive development of four different personalities]]; Isaac Szpindel, the biologist, has nerves which have been repurposed to allow him to see x-rays and taste ultra-sound; Major Amanda Bates is a military specialist whose defining career moment consisted of an act of treason in order to facilitate a peaceful outcome; Jukka Sarasti, technically the head of the team, is a genetically re-engineered vampire whose intellectual capabilities and foresight surpass those of any given human; and a synthesist, [[UnreliableNarrator Siri Keeton]], whose job it is to translate complex statements and/or data into more easily palatable language.
** Each of the crew also have potential replacements kept in hibernation until needed, [[spoiler:though only Szpindel's backup, Cunningham, is awakened before things go completely wrong.]]

* In ''Literature/{{Blindsight}}'', the crew of the ''Theseus'' consists of highly specialised individuals specially assembled to be able to initiate FirstContact, all of which have something unusual about them: Susan James, the linguist, has had her brain altered to facilitate the [[MindHive development of four different personalities]]; Isaac Szpindel, the biologist, has nerves which have been repurposed to allow him to see x-rays and taste ultra-sound; Major Amanda Bates is a military specialist whose defining career moment consisted of an act of treason in order to facilitate a peaceful outcome; Jukka Sarasti, technically the head of the team, is a genetically re-engineered vampire whose intellectual capabilities and foresight surpass those of any given human; and a synthesist, [[UnreliableNarrator Siri Keeton]], whose job it is to translate complex statements and/or data into more easily palatable language.

* Although only one of them is in on it at first, the three protagonists of ''VideoGame/TheDig'' are such a team. Ostensibly, they were organized in order to stop an asteroid collision, but the government also picked them on the basis that the asteroid had intelligent beings behind it -- and it did.

Whenever there's some kind of alien artifact found, or an extraterrestrial ship spotted in space, the government will always have [[ThePlan some kind of official plan]] for dealing with FirstContact. This trope is for when there is a "team" assembled, usually consisting of scientists, mathematicians, {{cunning linguist}}s, and often a few oddball specialities.

The reasoning is that, because nobody knows how the heck to talk with the aliens or how to interact with them, you'll want a team with a wealth of knowledge to draw on in order to ease the FirstContact. For example, if you can't understand the Aliens language, you might have your mathematician demonstrate a little FirstContactMath. Or, if the aliens behavior is bizarre and incomprehensible, you might have an anthropologist on the team to help discern their meaning.

[[folder: Fan Fiction]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* In ''Film/{{Sphere}}'' by Michael Crichton, when an alien ship is discovered at the bottom of the ocean, the government sends a team composed of a psychologist, a mathematician, a biologist, and an astrophysicist. Later becomes a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]]: the psychologist who wrote the "Emergency FirstContact Plan" admits that, after having been approached by the government to produce the plan, he thought it was so ridiculous that he lazily based all his recommendations on popular science fiction.
* According to Agent Kay in the movie ''Film/MenInBlack'', first contact with aliens was made in 1961, with 9 humans present: "7 agents, 1 astronomer, and 1 kid who got lost on the wrong backroad", who was, in fact, Kay himself.
* In ''Film/TheDayTheEarthStoodStill1951'' when they can't do a world leader group meeting with Klaatu, due to everyone's squabbling, they send in the best people from a number of different fields for the big formal meeting with him.
* Played with in ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'': the aliens [[spoiler: are recruiting a First Contact Team from the humans via subliminal communication]]. The government has its own team ready, but the only human the aliens will deal with is [[spoiler: Roy Neary, who is the only one of the alien-recruited humans to actually make it all the way to the contact site]].

* Subverted in ''Film/CosmicSin'' (2021). The team assembled within minutes of receiving word via SubspaceAnsible of a hostile FirstContact is actually an illegal military strike force with a DoomsdayDevice; the belief being that humanity [[OutsideContextProblem really can't afford to give the aliens the benefit of the doubt]] when facing a TechnologicallyAdvancedFoe.

[[folder: Literature ]]

* In ''Literature/{{Blindsight}}'', by Peter Watts, the crew of the ''Theseus'' consists of highly specialised individuals specially assembled to be able to initiate FirstContact, all of which have something unusual about them: Susan James, the linguist, has had her brain altered to facilitate the [[MindHive development of four different personalities]]; Isaac Szpindel, the biologist, has nerves which have been repurposed to allow him to see x-rays and taste ultra-sound; Major Amanda Bates is a military specialist whose defining career moment consisted of an act of treason in order to facilitate a peaceful outcome; Jukka Sarasti, technically the head of the team, is a genetically re-engineered vampire whose intellectual capabilities and foresight surpass those of any given human; and a synthesist, [[UnreliableNarrator Siri Keeton]], whose job it is to translate complex statements and/or data into more easily palatable language.
* In the novel ''{{Literature/Contact}}'', an international team is assembled in order to make contact with the aliens who sent the signal.

* In the Salvadorean novel ''Yo Soy La Memoria'' ("I Am The Memory") by Hugo Lindo there is a team comprised of the wisemen from several different fields, tasked with checking upon some wreckage. It included: an Astrologer, a Physics man, a Biologist, a [[PhotographicMemory walking memory log]], and a Medic.
* In the ''Franchise/StarWars'' [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]], ''The Essential Guide to Alien Species'' reveals that the Old Republic had these.
* In Creator/JohnHemry's ''Literature/TheLostFleet'' series, the fleet is sent into alien space with xenologists who had attempted to work out how to contact aliens if they ever found them. [[spoiler:They turn out to be much less useful than a general-turned-politican who had been sent along as an official ambassador, and who had many fewer preconceived notions.]]
* ''Literature/InvasionEarth'' by Creator/HarryHarrison opens with an alien spacecraft crashlanding in New York City ([[HarsherInHindsight barely missing the World Trade Center]]). A general steps out of a helicopter and announces that he's taking charge of the situation...[[RuleOfFunny and is arrested by the police captain who's actually in charge.]] The next military man to show up is the protagonist, an Air Force Intelligence officer who respectfully offers the captain some intelligence and practical advise (which is taken), then waits quietly while a team of scientists and military brass dispatched by the President argue. When it's time to enter the craft, he takes a SergeantRock with a .45 as protection, and an electronics specialist with a cable-fed camera (the cable guarded by its own team of soldiers).
* When the Sun-kissed agree to negotiate in ''Literature/MusketeerSpace'', the hastily-put-together FirstContactTeam includes a mob of linguists, a group of Mendaki (another species of alien - what they bring to the table is never made clear, and [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by the other characters), an agent who has worked with a Sun-kissed spy in the past, and two Musketeers who have previously had sex with said Sun-kissed spy. Somehow, it works.
* In ''Literature/{{Chindi}}'' by Creator/JackMcDevitt, the First Contact Society are wealthy UFO-chasers who are generally regarded as kooks but are indulged because they help raise funds for the Academy. When they fund a private expedition to investigate an alien transmission, no-one expects they'll find anything but the Academy sends Literature/PriscillaHutchins as TheCaptain to babysit them. Unfortunately several of them end up getting killed when they make FirstContact for real, as [[CuriosityKilledTheCast they lack the caution of professionals]].
* In the ''Literature/XandriCorelel'' series, the protagonist works on the starship ''Carpathia'' as the head of Xeno-Liaisons. She and her four team members work to learn how newly-discovered species communicate, both verbally and nonverbally, in order to bring their planets into the [[TheFederation Starsystems Alliance]].
* Noah from ''Literature/{{Clade}}'' is part of a team of researchers scanning the sky for any sign of alien communication. They actually do receive a burst of noise from a star which, when slowed down, shows patterns that mean it's almost certainly a language of some kind. Unfortunately, they have no way of deciphering the language, and because the star is 500 light-years away, they have no way of establishing communication with the senders, either.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
* Any ''Franchise/StarTrek'' episode that revolved around first contact, from any season, often had this with the away team, although they avert it almost as much.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'' had the main team be a pretty balanced collection who take up a number of roles: a military officer with sufficient authority to represent the United States to foreign powers, a physicist who can perform preliminary analysis of alien technology encountered, an anthropologist and linguist who can help with establishing friendly relations with any cultures they encounter, and an alien defector knowledgeable about the greater galaxy that Earth is stepping into. Also somewhat present in the ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' movie.
** Parodied in the episode "Cure", where a HumanAlien delegation is awaiting the arrival of Tau'ri representatives. They talk about what they've heard about the representatives' leader, painting him as a brilliant negotiator. Then out of the gate comes O'Neill.
--> '''Colonel Jack O'Neill:''' Howdy, folks!
** Similar to SG-1, the team in ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' is frequently sent out on first contact missions, though they eschew an anthropologist in favor of a "native guide" in the form of Teyla. They later add another "native" in the form of Ronon, although he also doubles as TheBigGuy, just like Teal'c in SG-1.
* The pilot episode of the short lived sci-fi show ''Series/{{Threshold}}'' starts with one of these being organized.

* In the ''ComicStrip/ModestyBlaise'' storyline "Take Me To Your Leader", a respected scientist and government advisor encounters what he believes is a first contact situation, and Sir Gerald Tarrant is given the job of selecting a small discreet first contact team. Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin are his first and only choices; their ability to sniff out a scam is an obvious qualification, but Tarrant suggests that he would have picked them even if he didn't suspect a hoax -- of all the people he knows, they have the broadest range of interests, solid grounding in the basics of many disciplines, and open and enquiring minds, which he considers more likely to be useful than any number of experts whose expertise might be about to be proven useless.

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''

[[folder: Web Original ]]
* Literature/TheJournalEntries have White's Teams, which are often based on White's Ships, named for White's Theorem: "A space-faring species' first encounter with another space-faring species is most likely to be a distress signal." This occurs multiple times both on-screen and in backstories.

[[folder: Video Games ]]
* First Contact Teams were mentioned in passing in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' as envoys from Council space to any newly discovered species. In this instance, the species in question was [[AlwaysChaoticEvil the yahg]], and the incident got the yahg blacklisted and their world blockaded.
** Humanity never had the benefit of First Contact teams, as we had expanded far space and ended up meeting the Citadel species by accident. Specifically, [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy the turians]], who caught humans illegally reactivating mass effect relays, and assumed we were pirates. [[WeComeInPeaceShootToKill The ensuing war]] was brutal and brief, and made more bitter by a number of misunderstandings which nearly escalated the situation into a galactic crisis. The other Citadel species caught wind of the situation, stepped in and brokered a cease fire, paving the way for humanity to join the Citadel. The incident was a point of contention between humans and turians for years after.
** In ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'', Pathfinder teams are specifically trained to handle first contact, among other things. Ryder has to put this to use when the ''Tempest'' makes an emergency landing on the angara world of Aya. It's only afterward that the diplomats, xenoanthropologists, and sociologists are brought out.
* Although only one of them is in on it at first, the three protagonists of ''VideoGame/TheDig'' are such a team. Ostensibly, they were organised in order to stop an asteroid collision, but the government also picked them on the basis that the asteroid had intelligent beings behind it - and it did.
* In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'', the expedition into the [[NegativeSpaceWedgie Schwarzwelt]] consists of both scientists and soldiers. It's not initially conceived of as a First Contact Team, but they end up making contact with intelligent life within the Schwarzwelt, and their varied skills help see the mission through to completion.
* The intro to ''VideoGame/SidMeiersStarships'' has the colony assemble one after receiving a signal from another colony, the first word they've had from other humans in a thousand years. However, the signal is later determined to be a distress call, resulting in the civilian team being replaced by a fleet of well-armed warships.

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* In the ''Literature/XandriCorelel'' series, the protagonist works on the starship ''Carpathia'' as the head of Xeno-Liaisons. She and her four team members work to learn how newly-discovered species communicate, both verbally and nonverbally, in order to bring their planets into the [[{{Federation}} Starsystems Alliance]].

* In the ''Literature/XandriCorelel'' series, the protagonist works on the starship ''Carpathia'' as the head of Xeno-Liaisons. She and her four team members work to learn how newly-discovered species communicate, both verbally and nonverbally, in order to bring their planets into the Starsystems Alliance.

* Subverted in ''Cosmic Sin'' (2021). The team assembled within minutes of receiving word via SubspaceAnsible of a hostile FirstContact is actually an illegal military strike force with a DoomsdayDevice; the belief being that humanity [[OutsideContextProblem really can't afford to give the aliens the benefit of the doubt]] when facing a TechnologicallyAdvancedFoe.

* Subverted in ''Cosmic Sin'' (2021). The team assembled within minutes of recieving word via SubspaceAnsible of a hostile FirstContact is actually an illegal military strike force with a DoomsdayDevice; the belief being that humanity [[OutsideContextProblem really can't afford to give the aliens the benefit of the doubt]] when facing a TechnologicallyAdvancedFoe.

* Subverted in ''Cosmic Sin'' (2021). The team assembled within minutes of recieving word via SubspaceAnsible of a hostile FirstContact is actually an illegal military strike force with a DoomsdayDevice; the belief being that humanity [[OutsideContextProblem really can't afford to give the aliens the benefit of the doubt]].

* In ''Communion of Dreams'' by James Downey, when an artifact is discovered on Titan (Saturn's largest moon), the government sends a team similar to the ''Sphere'' example, but also includes an anthropologist, an expert on Game Theory, and an artist.

* When the Sun-kissed agree to negotiate in ''Musketeer Space'', the hastily-put-together FirstContactTeam includes a mob of linguists, a group of Mendaki (another species of alien - what they bring to the table is never made clear, and [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by the other characters), an agent who has worked with a Sun-kissed spy in the past, and two Musketeers who have previously had sex with said Sun-kissed spy. Somehow, it works.
* In ''Chindi'' by Creator/JackMcDevitt, the First Contact Society are wealthy UFO-chasers who are generally regarded as kooks but are indulged because they help raise funds for the Academy. When they fund a private expedition to investigate an alien transmission, no-one expects they'll find anything but the Academy sends Literature/PriscillaHutchins as TheCaptain to babysit them. Unfortunately several of them end up getting killed when they make FirstContact for real, as [[CuriosityKilledTheCast they lack the caution of professionals]].

* In ''Chindi'' the First Contact Society are wealthy UFO-chasers who are generally regarded as kooks but are indulged because they help fund raise for the Academy. When they fund a private expedition to investigate an alien transmission, no-one expects they'll find anything but the Academy sends Literature/PriscillaHutchins as TheCaptain to babysit them. Unfortunately several of them end up getting killed when they make FirstContact for real, as [[CuriosityKilledTheCast they lack the caution of professionals]].

* In ''Chindi'' the First Contact Society are wealthy UFO-chasers who are generally regarded as kooks but are indulged because they help fund raise for the Academy. When they fund a private expedition to investigate an alien transmission, no-one expects they'll find anything but the Academy sends Literature/PriscillaHutchins as TheCaptain to babysit them. Unfortunately several of them end up getting killed when they end up making FirstContact for real, as [[CuriosityKilledTheCast they lack the caution of professionals]].