Star Trek truly should only have one holiday, no matter what anyone says
By Chad Porto
When it comes to Star Trek holidays, only one truly matters.
Star Trek, like other properties owned by mega-corporations, has several franchise-centric “holidays” for fans to embrace. Usually, they’re backed by online sales or new releases for fans to indulge in, but mostly they’re just a reason for fans to talk about their favorite things about the franchise they love. Star Trek is no different.
They have three holidays, at least according to ScreenRant. Those three are First Contact Day (April 5), Captain Picard Day (June 16), and Star Trek Day (Sept. 6).
But of the three holidays, only one should really be given the time of day; First Contact Day. Since 1997, fans have been re-watching Star Trek: First Contact and celebrating First Contact Day. But what is First Contact Day? Well, it’s the day marked in the film First Contact when the Vulcans make ‘first contact’ with the human race, changing the course of history in doing so.
It’s a holiday of celebration of hope and possibilities.
The other two just don’t matter nearly as much.
Why does First Contact Day work better as a Star Trek holiday than the others?
Captain Picard’s day stemmed from an episode of The Next Generation in which the school children aboard the Enterprise made gifts and such for Jean-Luc Picard, despite his insistence they don’t. It’s odd to celebrate someone when they don’t want to be.
As for Star Trek Day, it’s really just Paramount and CBS coming up with hacky ways to promote new content and merchandise for fans to embrace, and they can’t even do that right. It’s the Sweetus Day to Picard Day’s Valentine’s Day.
First Contact Day is really the only one that happened organically and around a bigger concept than just one character. So in my opinion, it’s really the only one that has any real gravitas to it.