Star Trek: 10 Huge Discoveries That No One Cared About

Throughout humanity's history in Star Trek, there have been many instances of aliens interfering in our development and effectively breaking the prime directive before it was cool. Sometimes it's minor, such as when T'Pol's ancestor from the Enterprise episode Carbon Creek crash landed on Earth in the 50's and introduced humanity to Velcro. Other times, though, it's something that can profoundly change our history.

In the Voyager episode Death Wish, Janeway learns that a member of the Q Continuum was responsible for the apple falling on Isaac Newton's head in the 17th century, leading to him developing his laws of gravity. Despite learning that a super-intelligent alien entity was secretly guiding human history, Janeway simply moves on by the next scene.

Q is actually actively training humanity throughout The Next Generation by putting us on trial, effectively controlling the course of our history by teaching Picard and the Enterprise-D crew his many "lessons."

There are other examples, such as the Preservers and the Skagarans. The point is, first contact definitely did not take place on 5 April 2063. At least not for everyone.