Star Trek’s Prequel Movie Can Answer First Contact’s 30 Year Old Questions (2024)

Summary

  • Toby Haynes' upcoming Star Trek prequel film will explore humanity's early contact with aliens and the formation of the United Federation of Planets.
  • Possibly set between 2063 and 2151, the prequel may reveal how Earth became a utopia and depict early tensions between Vulcans and Earthlings.
  • While concerns persist about potential changes to Star Trek canon, integrating aspects from First Contact could please long-time fans.

Star Trek's prequel movie can answer 30-year-old questions Star Trek: First Contact left behind. Paramount Pictures is developing an Untitled Star Trek Origin movie directed by Toby Haynes and written by Seth Grahame-Smith. Haynes directed Black Mirror's Star Trek parody, "USS Callister," and his Star Trek prequel film is reportedly set mostly on Earth and focuses on humanity’s early contact with aliens and the formation of the United Federation of Planets. Haynes' Star Trek prequel movie is said to be aimed toward general audiences who don't have expertise about Star Trek's vast canon.

Director Jonathan Frakes' Star Trek: First Contact was released in 1996, and the hit film was essentially Star Trek's origin story. To stop the Borg, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) leads the USS Enterprise-E to the year 2063. As Picard battles the Borg on the Enterprise, it's up to Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and his away team to ensure Dr. Zephram Cochrane's (James Cromwell) first warp flight launches as scheduled. Corchrane's history-making voyage succeeds, resulting in humanity's First Contact with the Vulcans. From that seed sprang Star Trek.

Related

10 Ways Star Trek: First Contact Improved The Franchise

Released to celebrate 30 years of the Star Trek franchise, First Contact laid the groundwork for its next 30 years from Enterprise to Picard.

Picard and the Enterprise left some questions behind

A Star Trek prequel movie set mostly on Earth would logically be set during the decades after Star Trek: First Contact's introduction between humans and Vulcans in 2063 and the launch of the NX-01 Enterprise in 2151, as seen in Star Trek: Enterprise.This is fertile ground for a Star Trek story as it's never been revealed what happened that led to the formation of Starfleet. Indeed, during those 90 years, Earth stopped wars, solved hunger, and the climate crisis, and abandoned the pursuit of money in favor of advancing the human race. In short, Earth became a Utopia - but how?

While it's doubtful Toby Haynes' Star Trek Origin movie would go into detail about what happened after Star Trek: First Contact, it could provide updates about how Zephram Cochrane meeting the Vulcans turned Earthlings into a spacefaring people. Easter eggs could reveal what happened to Lily Sloane (Alfre Woodard), what became of Cochrane's Phoenix starship, and the prequel could depict the early tumult between the haughty Vulcans and the scrappy people of Earth. There would have to be some space adventure in this Star Trek prequel movie, but Earth did have starships already before the NX-01 Enterprise became Starfleet's first Warp 5-capable vessel.

Star Trek: The Original Series established that Zephram Cochrane left Earth in the early 22nd century, but was kept alive in the Gamma Canaris region of space by an alien called the Companion.

Will Star Trek’s Prequel Movie Ignore Enterprise Canon?

What is this Star Trek origin movie really about?

For longtime Star Trek fans, the biggest concern about Toby Haynes' Untitled Star Trek Origin is that it will ignore or rewrite Star Trek canon. After all, the description from The Hollywood Reporter that the Star Trek "prequel focus[es] on humanity’s early contact with aliens and the formation of the Federation" is already problematic because the United Federation of Planets is founded afterStar Trek: Enterprise ends. It's possible Toby Haynes' Star Trek prequel could create a new history that will supersede known canon without J.J. Abrams' gimmick of creating an alternate timeline in Star Trek (2009) in which to do as he pleases.

It's unclear exactly when Toby Haynes' Star Trek prequel movie is set and what it will actually be about.

Then again, Star Trek (2009) recognized Star Trek: Enterprise's place in canon by name-dropping Admiral Archer. 2016's Star Trek Beyond was even more respectful and integrated aspects of Star Trek: Enterprise's era, including the NX Class USS Franklin starship. With little information to go on, it's unclear exactly when Toby Haynes' Star Trek prequel movie is set and what it will really be about. While there may be changes or revelations that will give Star Trek's origin a new direction or perspective, it may not outright break canon. But weaving in Star Trek: First Contact's history and answering some questions left behind would go a long way toward pleasing Star Trek fans.

Star Trek’s Prequel Movie Can Answer First Contact’s 30 Year Old Questions (2)
Star Trek: First Contact

PG-13

Sci-Fi

Action

Adventure

Drama

Director
Jonathan Frakes

Release Date
November 22, 1996

Studio(s)
Paramount

Writers
Gene Roddenberry , Rick Berman , Brannon Braga , Ronald D. Moore
Cast
Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , Brent Spiner , LeVar Burton , Michael Dorn , Gates McFadden , Marina Sirtis , Alfre Woodard
Franchise(s)
Star Trek

Main Genre
Sci-Fi
Where To Stream
Paramount+
  • Movies
  • Star Trek
  • Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

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Star Trek’s Prequel Movie Can Answer First Contact’s 30 Year Old Questions (2024)

FAQs

Which Star Trek movie is first contact? ›

Star Trek: First Contact is a 1996 American science fiction film directed by Jonathan Frakes in his feature film debut. It is the eighth movie of the Star Trek franchise, and the second starring the cast of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

When did the first contact happen in Star Trek? ›

First Contact Day pays tribute to the flight of the warp-capable Phoenix and the pivotal first interaction between humans and Vulcans, which occurred on April 5, 2063.

What was after Star Trek First Contact? ›

Star Trek: Insurrection

What is Star Trek First Contact rated? ›

Parents need to know Star Trek: First Contact is the first Trek movie to Go Where No Star Trek Flick Had Gone Before, to a PG-13 rating. It has some pretty gruesome violence and a macabre threat in the menacing Borg, a zombie-like, infectious, cybernetic race who could give younger viewers nightmares.

Where does first contact fall in the Star Trek timeline? ›

Series, books, and film settings
YearEnterprise, Strange New Worlds, The Original Series, The Next Generation, Picard, original timeline films, major events
2049–2053World War III
2054–2079Post-atomic horror
2063First Contact (1996) [primary plotline]
2151–2152Enterprise season 1 (2001–2002)
87 more rows

What is the first contact in Star Trek humans? ›

It marks the historical moment on April 5, 2063 when humankind first encountered visitors of the Vulcan race after those logical point-eared aliens happen to detect Zefram Cochrane's warp drive signature during his triumphant Phoenix 1 test flight.

Did Vulcans visit Earth before first contact? ›

The 1987 Star Trek novel Strangers from the Sky shares the basic concept as this episode, in that Vulcans accidentally land on Earth years before the official "First Contact".

What was Picard listening to in first contact? ›

The music playing when Worf is practicing his combat moves is from the opera Les Troyens by Hector Berlioz (specifically Act V, No. 38 - "Vallon Sonore"). It's is the same opera Picard is listening to in his ready room at the beginning of the film Star Trek: First Contact (1996).

Is first contact the best Star Trek movie? ›

“Star Trek: First Contact” is one of the best of the eight “Star Trek” films: Certainly the best in its technical credits, and among the best in the ingenuity of its plot. I would rank it beside “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” (1986), the one where the fate of Earth depended on the song of the humpback whale.

Which enterprise was in Star Trek: First Contact? ›

USS Enterprise The Enterprise-E

Did Star Trek: First Contact change the timeline? ›

The classic 1996 movie makes it pretty clear that, when Troi (Marina Sirtis), Riker (Jonathan Frakes), and Geordi (LeVar Burton) help Cochrane rebuild and fly the Phoenix, they're making first contact happen, thus preserving the timeline, and not trying to change it.

Is Star Trek: First Contact a sequel? ›

What is the most important number in Star Trek? ›

But there's one number in the “Star Trek” universe that took on a whole life of its own: The number 47. Beginning from “Star Trek: The Next Generation's” run, the number 47 and various derivatives of it began appearing multiple times through each season.

What is the rule 1 in Star Trek? ›

In the fictional universe of Star Trek, the Prime Directive (also known as "Starfleet General Order 1", and the "non-interference directive") is a guiding principle of Starfleet that prohibits its members from interfering with the natural development of alien civilizations.

Who is Kirk's number 1? ›

Commander Spock (Leonard Nimoy) served as First Officer and Science Officer of the USS Enterprise under Captain Kirk in Star Trek: The Original Series. While others have now canonically preceded him, the Vulcan is the true standard-bearer as the Enterprise's Number One.

What is the first contact protocol in Star Trek? ›

First contact procedures form one of the guiding principles of Star Trek. Laid down in Starfleet General Orders, they describe a philosophy of respecting the sovereignty, property, beliefs and right to self-determination of alien cultures.

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