S4E15
First Contact
⚠ Spoiler alert This recap gives away what happens in this episode.
Episode Summary & Review
Summary
A first contact mission puts Riker in an alien hospital, leaving Picard to convince the planet’s leaders that the Enterprise poses no threat.
Our Take
A rare episode told entirely from the aliens’ point of view, and that gimmick pays off, making a routine Starfleet mission feel genuinely strange again. The paranoid scientist subplot gets a bit shrill, but the debate among the planet’s leaders is smartly written and the ending lands with real melancholy. One of season four’s most original hours and absolutely worth your time.