First Con-tact (episode)
When a mentor from Dal’s past persuades him to use their Federation cover for personal gain, they quickly discover Starfleet has protocols for a reason.

Summary

Teaser
The crew has been on edge since Gwyn uncovered what happened to the original Protostar crew but has been unable to uncover anything more. While  is obsessing over the recordings of Chakotay, the crew has left messes around the ship and found a new "welcome distraction" to play with: the transporter. After beaming a piece of pie around the ship gets boring, the crew volunteers Murf as a live test subject, only for him to be sent to the wrong side of the bridge window. Fortunately, he is unharmed due to his apparent indestructibility and is beamed safely back aboard.

Act I
After safely rematerializing Murf back in the ship, Janeway calls the crew to the bridge to answer a distress call. On-screen, a hooded figure talks about have orphans abord her ship who are sicken with the phage, which Dal immediately recognizes as the con of his adoptive mother, Nandi. She disables the holo-emitters and invites Dal and his friends on to the Damsel.

Log entries
 Captain's log, USS Protostar

Memorable quotes
"It's Murder Planet all over again!"
 - Zero

"How could Nandi do that to me? I was like a son to her."
"And I was my father's daughter. But here we are."
"I'm sorry, I-I… because of me, we lost the cloaking device and the chimerium."
"But you learned who your true friends are. The ones willing to go along with you no matter how foolish it seems. Never take that for granted. I wish I could tell you it'll stop hurting, but I don't know that yet."
 - Dal and Gwyn

Background information

Title

 The title was announced by StarTrek.com on .  It was initially revealed as "First Con-tact" and was presented as such on the Paramount+ episode menu, however the original title card itself read "First Contact" without a hyphen. Creators Dan and Kevin Hageman tweeted that the title card was an error and "the fix is on the way" , and to their credit a corrected title card was uploaded to Crave on , and later updated on Paramount+.
 This episode marks the fourth time that the phrase "first contact" is used in the title of a Star Trek installment, the first three being ,  and .

Production
 Excluding the premiere episode, , this is the first episode to feature a teaser scene before the title sequence.
 Though initially credited for their roles in this episode, Robert Beltran and Melissa Villasenor's names were later removed from the episode's end credits.

Continuity
 Dal is revealed to have been raised by a Ferengi woman, Nandi, who was the third Ferengi female (after  and Ishka) to appear on Star Trek, and the first identified as DaiMon. She was also the first Ferengi directly encountered in the Delta Quadrant since .
 Grand Nagus Zek granted Ferengi females the right to wear clothes with an amendment to the Ferengi Bill of Opportunities in 2374, which was meant to act like a snowball effect for females to be able to acquire material goods, profit to buy the goods, and becoming part of the workforce so they could accrue profit, as seen in .
 This episode marks the first appearance of a  marauder (first introduced in ) since , and the second Alpha Quadrant starship (since the abandoned Klingon Bird-of-Prey in ) directly encountered by the Protostar crew. 
 A lirpa, a horga'hn, and a Klingon cloaking device are among the items found aboard Nandi's ship. She also carried with her a Klingon disruptor.
 Three previously known Rules of Acquisition were recited in this episode: #1 (originally from ), #21 (originally from ), and #208 (originally from ).
 A reference is again made to the Window of Dreams (last referenced in ), as well as the Phage (last mentioned in ).
 The text of the first two sections of the General Order 1 is taken from the reference book Star Trek: Federation - The First 150 Years (p. 108).
 The crew has designated Gwyn as the communications officer.

Production history
 : Premiere on Paramount+
 : Broadcast premiere on Nickelodeon

Links and references

Cast
 Rylee Alazraqui as Rok-Tahk
 Dee Bradley Baker as Murf
 Brett Gray as Dal
 Angus Imrie as Zero
 Ella Purnell as Gwyn
 Jason Mantzoukas as Jankom Pog
 John Noble as The Diviner 
 Jimmi Simpson as Drednok 
And
 Kate Mulgrew as Hologram Janeway
 Robert Beltran as Captain Chakotay 
 Grey Griffin as Nandi
 Melissa Villasenor as Nandi/Frail Woman 

Characters with unidentified voices
 Pik-Pox

Background characters 
 Unnamed Cymari

References 
alien; bread; body; chimerium; civilization; combadge; cloaking device; communications officer; Cymari; Cymari homeworld; cymatic ability; cymatic transmutation (aka acoustic terra-molding); cymatics; dabo table; DaiMon; Damsel; "develop-lution"; diplomatic exchange; distress signal; ; electricity; energy; engine; evolution; face; Federation; Ferengi; Ferengi language; first contact; frequency; friend; friendship; General Order 1; gift; gravity boot; ground; hair; harmonic; harmonic resonance; holo-emitter; horga'hn; hover; kidnapping; Klingonese; Klingon disruptor; laughter; lifeform; lirpa; loaf; lobeling; lobes; mathematics; matter; mayday; metal; meter; mine; money; motive; mouth; Murder Planet; orphan; outer space; pain; parsec; partner; Phage; pie; pitch; planet; power source; precious metal; Prime Directive; profit; remalite crystal; REV-12; room; Rules of Acquisition; sand; sector; shield; Skeralyx system; song; sound wave; species; spit pan; star; Starfleet; Starfleet Command; Starfleet uniform; story; teleportation machine; test subject; thought; tone; trade; translator; transporter; transporter room; tricorder; tube grub; wall; warp core; Window of Dreams; year

Console references 
analysis; impulse engine control; level; live data; lock mech; offset; radar scanner; short range sensor; target; tracking; window; wireframe

External links