10 Best Riker Episodes In Star Trek
5. First Contact
The world is being invaded by aliens! Oh wait....that alien looks quite familiar. Flipping the alien intruder scenario on its head, Riker becomes the visitor from another world here, trying his best to hide who he is until his cover is blown.
This show was a rule breaker. Star Trek had a set of rules set up by Gene Roddenberry and one of them was that the show was always told from the Starfleet characters' points of view. Here, the show is told from the Malcorians' points of view. This switched the regular stars roles from the leads to the outsiders, something which only served to strengthen the episode.
Paying homage to the '50s Sci-Fi classic The Day The Earth Stood Still (directed by Motion Picture helmer Robert Wise), this was created to show how a different first contact with aliens species was handled. Great pains were taken to show that the Malcorians were not far from modern day humanity in terms of technology so that the audience could identify with them a little faster.
Everything from their mannerisms to the sets and props were created to give a same-but-different feel, which was a lot of effort for what was essentially a talky show. Frakes remembered the episode as being best for its performances, though he felt the script could have been better.