On April 5, 2063, an alien race known as the Vulcans — famous for their green blood, pointed ears, and peaceful catchphrases — will land on Earth and solve all our problems. At least, that’s how the future will happen according to the 1996 film Star Trek: First Contact. 46 years from today, our first contact with aliens will come in the form of Vulcans from the planet … Vulcan.
Across the multiverse, today is First Contact Day. The interactive MMO Star Trek Online is blasting Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride” in honor of Zefram Cochrane’s historic space flight. Meanwhile, the mobile game Star Trek: Timelines is offering deals on obtaining characters for your crew who are connected to the historic event and giving existing Captains free “chroniton,” tickets they can use to play extra missions.
Meanwhile, Star Trek fans sites and Trekkies in general have taken to social media to spread around the gospel of long living and prospering. Trek Movie has a great roundup of the how you might celebrate the first human who ever achieved warp speed.
Accurately or not, Star Trek is often lauded for being a hopeful vision of the future. And in terms of the exact chronology, that hope begins on April 5. Happy First Contact Day! But remember, if you celebrate the way the inventor of warp drive did, you’ll have a huge hangover. E even if you don’t, you can still do what Cochrane did and have theme perfect music to help you boldly go.
