Basic Trope: Humanity encounters an intelligent alien species for the first time.
- Straight: The crew of the starship Lazarus arrives in their destination solar system and picks up coherent radio signals from one of the planets.
- Exaggerated: ...And then from another ... And another ... And another...
- Downplayed: SETI picks up a radio signal from several light years away, and starts sending radio signals in response.
- Justified: The crew exobiologist explains that life is likely to evolve everywhere that human beings would find habitable in the universe.note
- Inverted:
- An alien species completely vanishes from the universe, never to be encountered again.
- An intelligent alien species encounters humans for the first time.
- Subverted:
- As the Lazarus closes in on the planet, they discover that it is actually Earth.
- The radio signal turns out to be from the crash site of Voyager I.
- Double Subverted: ...Millions of years after World War III, when a new species has replaced humanity.
- Parodied:
- A crew of geeks looking to see if intelligent life may be found in a biker bar after they get a response to a message they sent to there in a parody of SETI.
- The aliens turn out to be extremely stupid, not intelligent at all.
- It turns out that the humans have met these aliens several times before, but found them so boring they forgot about them.
- Zig Zagged:
- Two Human Subspecies from long-separated lineages encounter for the first time.
- The Lazarus finds out that the signals are an automatic message sent by machines, whose intelligent creators died out or moved unimaginably far away eons ago.
- Averted: Absent Aliens.
- Enforced: The story is being written for a collection of first-contact novellas.
- Lampshaded: "I don't believe it! To find extraterrestrial life on our first voyage out of the solar system... It's fantastic!"
- Invoked: The Lazarus was sent to its target solar system because spectral analysis of the planet indicated the presence of life.
- Exploited: The ship exobiologist uses First Contact as an excuse to seize control of the ship.
- Defied: The Lazarus immediately leaves the solar system when the signals are discovered.
- Discussed: "In the event of possible alien contact, starship crews are advised to proceed with extreme caution. Standard protocols are listed in Appendix L of The Terran Science Fleet Manual."
- Conversed: "What kind of aliens do you think they'll turn out to be?"
- Implied: The future Earth in the story has an Alternative Calendar based on years "Since Contact".
- Deconstructed: The alien species is so radically different from humanity that no communication or understanding is possible.
- Reconstructed: The radical differences between the humans and the aliens are not unbridgeable thanks to convergent evolution, and so both species can gain great benefits from their interactions.
- Played For Laughs: The aliens make a ridiculous Cliché Storm upon meeting humans.
- Played For Drama: The arrival of aliens threatens our place in the universe, leading to existential crises.
Back to First Contact
