Star Trek: The Next Generation
First Contact
TV Flash files “First Contact” as hour 89 of 178 in the TV Flash guide — Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) on Syndication, season 4, episode 15, aired 1991-02-18, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E15: listed hour 89 of 178 in the Star Trek: The Next Generation guide, hour 15 of 26 in season 4. It aired 1991-02-18 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Clues” (S04E14). Next is “Galaxy's Child” (S04E16).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
A first-contact mission puts Riker in an alien hospital, leaving Picard to convince the planet's leaders that the Enterprise poses no threat.
Viewer FAQ
Where does First Contact sit in the Star Trek: The Next Generation guide?
S04E15 is listed hour 89 of 178 — hour 15 of 26 in season 4, season 4 episode 15.
When did Star Trek: The Next Generation S04E15 air?
First Contact aired 1991-02-18 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Should I skip season one?
You can sample it, then jump. The pilot and early hours wobble; fandom's own catechism is that the series finds its voice mid-run. Stewart's Picard is already the instrument.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Peak optimistic space opera with philosophical teeth — Stewart's Picard is a master class in quiet authority, and Data, Worf, and the Borg made franchise television feel weekly and serious. First-run syndication revived Trek without Kirk. Start with mid-run classics if the pilot feels stiff; Make it so is still a management style.
First-run syndication is a window, not a shrine. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) regenerated Gene Roddenberry's universe without Kirk by putting Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard on a new Enterprise and selling **178 hours across seven seasons** outside a single network night. Rex can keep the original series in amber. This was franchise television learning to drop weekly at scale: idea-driven starship hours, a more ensemble bridge, prestige sci-fi as appointment TV that did not need a peacock to…
Open the Star Trek: The Next Generation package · Season 4 hub
Filed against
- Patrick Stewart as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard
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- Jonathan Frakes as William Riker
Jonathan Frakes’s William Riker made Star Trek: The Next Generation a first officer with a beard and a lean — peak optimistic space opera with philosophical teeth, Stewart’s Picard as quiet authority, Data, Worf, and the Borg making…
- Brent Spiner as Data
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- LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge
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- Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi
Marina Sirtis read the room as Deanna Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation — peak optimistic space opera with philosophical teeth, Stewart’s Picard, Data, Worf, the Borg, first-run syndication reviving Trek without Kirk. Counselor as…
- Michael Dorn as Worf
Michael Dorn’s Worf gave Star Trek: The Next Generation its ridge-and-honor bass — 1980s first-run syndication, Stewart’s Picard as quiet authority, Data, the Borg, optimistic space opera with philosophical teeth. Franchise television…