Star Trek: 10 First Contacts We Need To See

So far, we've only been teased with snippets of information about the Lanthanites, but we do know that the species had been living incognito on Earth for centuries. Certainly, before more formal human-Lanthanite relations were established, it might also be more proper to talk about multiple first contacts or 'comings-out,' as one member of the perennial species phrased it to Spock in The Broken Circle.

In that episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Spock, a little the worse for bloodwine, says to Pelia:

I have always been fascinated by your people. That you managed to live on Earth among other humans undetected until the 22nd century is remarkable.

First, that seems to suggest the Lanthanites didn't reveal themselves, or were forced to, until decades after humanity had invented warp drive and made first contact with the Vulcans. Second, Spock's "other" in "other humans" raises a few questions.

Was Spock intimating that Lanthanites were, in fact, human, but perhaps a separate (sub)species — like homo heidelbergensis or homo neanderthalensis — and not aliens come to live on Earth at all? That would certainly have made for one hell of a first contact! We're almost certainly overthinking what is probably just a turn of phrase, but if this writer is correct, Seán has promised to eat his hat!! Shall we go find the Voth?

In the same scene, Pelia also states that one of the first people she 'came out' to (i.e. disclosed her identity as a Lanthanite) was Spock's mother, Amanda Grayson. Grayson wasn't born until the early 23rd century, so that might suggest a staggered period of first contacts with the Lanthanites (on Earth) on an individual basis.