So all the rest of us who were alive at the time but weren't kids just have collective amnesia? I don't understand that phrase. Only a 90's kid would think that they are the only people who can remember things that happened in the 90's.
Considering the US government is ok dokie with separating families and locking them up, it seems we're seeing how Americans (in the DS 9 ep) allowed the 2024 ghettos. Another great video.
Just wanted to point out that if the original name of the shuttle was the Constitution, then technically, our first reusable space vehicle was a Constitution class ship named Enterprise
@@rudylikestowatch humanity's first starship(SpaceX Starship Mark 1) that's under construction in Boca Chica Villiage, Texas, right now won't make it to orbit. It's just meant to go real high up in the air a few months from now and then come back down and land. I'm glad it's not going to be named anything other than "Mark 1 Starship". I think after Mark 4 they might start naming them but one of the first names given will be the "heart of gold". So by the time we have a actual starships in space several years from now it's only a matter of time we'll have a real starship named "Enterprise". Such an exciting time to be alive! WOOT
Gotta say when I recently rewatched that episode of Deep Space Nine, their version of 2024 was honestly uncomfortably familiar. It rings truer than I think any of us want to admit. I’m not sure I WANT to live in this period of the Star Trek timeline, but as time passes I’m starting to think if we ever want the future Star Trek shows us, maybe we NEED it.
Well considering politicians in this state and any other are sheer trash and refuse to control rent in order to provide affordable housing, perhaps roped off hobo districts aren't that far off.
Don’t dismiss Past Tense yet. It was set in San Fransisco in a “sanctuary district”, a very currently used description of Frisco. Dax also dismissed her spots as “tattoos” which were popular during that time, also an accurate representation of the current time. So far, Past Tense is scary accurate. We should be watching for someone named Gabriel Bell.
Or, for that matter, 2049 - just look at the technology - especially genetic engineering and space travel/colonization and ultra futuristic architecture. I mean, 2049 is only like a couple weeks from now in the grand scheme of things. Which convinces me that the Blade Runner films are set in a very different alternate timeline/universe.
Well now they were a bit off the mark with the replicants or off world colonies etc! i've watched a load of movies in the cinema that have been surpassed in terms of their timeline, bicentennial man for one and what about bttf2?
I mean, Blade Runner obviously has to be in a parallel /alternate timeline - by only 2019 genetic engineering (Replicants) is already at least several decades ahead of where we are now. Roy Batty talks of sights he's seen during interstellar travel. Not interplanetary, but interstellar. In 2049, Joe (Agent K) mentions Calantha, an Earth colony planet in another star system that experienced a brutal civil war, in which Sapper Morton served as a combat medic. Niander Wallace talks of access to facilities at his disposal that are 'offworld'. And the list goes on and on. It seems to me that the world of Blade Runner is at minimum a good century ahead of where we are now technologically, if not appreciably more.
It’s interesting about the shuttle Enterprise was originally called Constitution, because Kirk’s starship Enterprise was said to be part of the Constitution class of ships.
Our "Revised Version" is the version that split off in "City On The Edge Of Forever". The homeless guy who vaporized himself influenced us in an unknown way that prevented the Eugenics War!
The real Eugenics Wars started in 1987 when an Asian warlord fought against his arch nemesis & his 4 genetically altered students for over a decade. Obviously, a lot of the important details got lost by the time of TOS. #Cowabunga
I used to think "Past Tense" would be an issue for reconciling the real world with the Trek one, but lately it has looked like it could be more and more likely. Basically I am saying please vote in 2020, or else people may want to prepare for the Bell Riots.
I have to agree, some of the recently events have been alarmingly similar to DS9's past earth events. THe US has been expanding on debtors prisons and clearing out homeless and forcing them into specific areas. Some years ago in Florida closed off gated ghetto was actually formed! www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/fl-column-gary-stein-stockade-homeless-20170630-story.html It's in Florida, but during its formation, San Francisco was eyeing it as a potential solution and both states had very similar policies and laws targeting the homeless. On the other hand, Utah has been eliminating homeless by giving them housing. So. that's the positive counterpoint to it.
I suspect the ghetto's that the Bell riot is about as shown in Deep Space Nine is about employment loss due to automation and the lack of social services. Eugenics seems to have gravitated to corporations and the control of our food.
Sanctuary Districts seem like something Trump or someone of his ilk would do. Hell, might even be something Biden or Hillary or another Centrist like that would do... :/
The riot bells are going off. After all. Cannot even clap. Not allowed to the Peace Sign. Bowl Hair Cuts are the sign of being a Racist. Got a gang going around being up old people and rioting for no reason. Yet supported by a political party regardless. Got companies kowtowing to a foreign government that censors everything it doesn't like and sends the military on its own people because it disagrees with government reform. And yet people blame it all on Trump. Take a moment and realize something here. Just take a moment. You do not need to love Trump or be a supporter. Yet need to look at the bigger picture. The Policial Correctness, Social Justice Warriors, and god who knows what else out there. They are off their rockers and they want a war to happen. They want to destroy everything. As they disagree with life itself. Oh and do not get me started with the Mass Media, Social Media, and ugh...California adding to this list. As it would go into a political debate and people hate them and likely will hate on me and call me a "Right-Winged Racist Fascist Jew". Or something. Even though I was pointing out I never stated any support of any kind. Though I guess disagreeing with the SJWs is a likely a hate crime to them anyway.
I was thinking the same thing. Heck, in the Star Trek episode that Janeway goes back to the 90s, the Time Agent they followed had already crashed for over a decade and his ship had been reverse engineered as a variation of ETGaveUsWifi trope. Heck, him crashing might have been the reason humans technology tree shifted in the way it did.
Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down, and I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, I'll tell you how I became the deposed ruler of a quarter of the planet.
You mean, how you became a bully whose big minion gets his jollies by slapping women like Uhura? Uh, no thanks. Best that you end up in suspended animation aboard the SS Botany Bay, and NOT get rescued and revived by Kirk and Company in the 23rd century.
Just saw this, 8 months late, but the retcon you are looking for is there in context. In space seed "the eugenics wars" is how McCoy describes our "last so called world war" K WW3. All of the TNG era content mentions WW3 as happening in the mid to late 21st century. The most significant of this would be the film First Contact. While the DS9 episode set in 2024 was set in that time period by accident (a producer forgot 100 years had taken place since space seed) the mistake lines up with when Archer says his grandfather fought in the eugenics wars.
You should, I've regretted not listening to it and laughing my ace off, since he first mentioned it. Bright side, plenty to binge listen (great for walks, chores, etc.)
Do, it is so good. The only downside is when you catch up, and there's no glut waiting for you, and you have to wait for the next episode in real time.
I love it when we look at Star Trek's "past", because trekkies sometimes forget that it's actually Post-Apocalyptic. In Star Trek canon the world was nearly destroyed before we met the Vulcans, it wasn't Mad Max but they had every reason to think that if they gave us Warp Drive that we'd go all "Terran Empire" on the Alpha Quadrant.
So, it's Jan 2023, and I watched this on the way home from work. My "home" right now is an RV built in 1987 with no working internal water or heating. I pay $300 a month for a legal place to park it and an electrical hookup. As I was listening, I made a joke to a fellow Trekkie about being happy we missed the Eugenics Wars but I didn't have faith we would miss the Bell Riots considering my own situation and the growing housing crisis. So I actually laughed aloud when that was brought up. Anyway, with the rising income inequality and continued demonization of homelessness and poverty, I fear we are heading towards something similar, if perhaps quieter. Anyway, awesome video.
PS: Gene Roddenberry was a time traveler from the future, and he used historical records from his timeline in order to influence ours to hopefully be better.
Space Seed was speculative fiction in 1967. Now, it is more like alternate history, sort of like a Tarantino movie. The bit about the space shuttle Enterprise having been originally intended to be the Constitution is doubly interesting since the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 was a Constitution Class ship.
I have a few thoughts on this topic: 1. In a setting with so much canonical time travel, it's not too weird to see the history leading up to Trek get changed from time to time. This could also explain how Discovery is so different from the rest of Star Trek. 2. Our current timeline actually leads to the Mirror Universe. Sad and cynical, but consistent enough on what we see in the various shows that we can't rule it out. The mirror universe always includes different but similar events to what happens in the Trek universe so bypassing the Eugenics Wars and not learning the lessons thereof might lead to a Terran Empire that goes out conquering and imposing their will on the galaxy. Skipping the Bell riots means that Earth didn't figure out that compassion was more valuable than oppression leading to an oppressive Terran Empire, etc. 3. I thought I had a number three for this list, but if I did, it seems to have slipped out of my head. Maybe it'll come to me and I'll edit.
It has been stated--as a bit of a joke that "The History that Wesly learned is not the same as what Scottie learned"... mix that in with the many divergent Timelines in Star Trek canon--the fact that Janeway's adventures in the Delta Quadrant have Three Alpha Timelines and a few off shoots from those for the last seven years of that stuff--and well that whole Kelvin Timeline stuff as well. What if the reason the Eugenics War didn't happen is because of Time Travel? The past that Janeway returned into had already had the Time Agent stuck there for at least a decade. IIRC, he crashed at around the 1960s... and there was a company made around the technology reversed from his stuff. What if that Time Agent's foray into the past is what stopped the Eugenics War. Essentially... Janeway is why the Eugenics War didn't happen. This naturally would have caused a spiral effect that would require the Federation to give itself Warp Technology--and have Riker do that Wikiwalk in the Holodeck to study for a speech that was generally inaccurate. As Federation Temporal shielding technology is still rather wonky at these early stages. There is so much of Star Trek Canon that is inconsistent that can be explained with either Riker Wikiwalking the Holodeck, or Janeway violating the Prime Temporal Directives with extreme prejudice. Think the Rodney King Beatings... with Janeway being the police and temporal coherence being Rodney King. This would go further to support the headcanon that the Temporal Cold War is also the fault of Janeway as well--and the Time Agents that attempt to pick a fight with Janeway (but lose and Janeway takes their lunch money) are their equivalent of assassinating Hitler.
So in Braxton’s log entries, he noted that the Eugenics Wars happened in the 1992-1996 period, but they were in the 1985A timeline as explored by Emmett Brown. Doctor Brown and his assistant Martin were able to close that timeline because of the equipment they had from Chronowerx, the so-called ‘time circuits’. Braxton also noted that after his rejuvenation and acquisition of hover and Mr Fusion tech for his vehicle, Brown made a trip into the 23rd century that he never told his assistant about. While there, Doctor Brown had a brief liaison with a member of the Klingon Defense force. Unknown to him, she had a child with him that she named Kruge.
The novels are really fun. I definitely recommend them. In addition to tying the Eugenics Wars into real world events, the novels also tie loads of characters from previous Trek time travel episodes into the events as well.
Agreed, and novels are less expensive to buy, because they don't involve travel, attending sci-fi conventions, and wearing stupid costumes and makeup. I'm too short to consider myself a decent clone for Garak, Gowron, Worf, Sarek, Spock, or Tomalok in costumes and pointed ears or head ridges. That's how I prefer my Star Trek fandom: reading the novels and watching the shows.
True but aren't these also just rationalizations after the fact... At some point we need to accept that the original TOS was just fiction written in the 60's and not something meant to be consistent with actual world events since then. We've already seen what damage happens when something written is taken as gospel/bible.
When I ran a ttrpg Star Trek Capaign using the original FASA ruels in the 80s my head cannon addressed this issue thus: between cold war secrecy, dumbed down modern media, an atomic war, and the propaganda put out by Khan during his reign the 90s, eugenics Wars, and all that is actually in a 100 year 'Dark age" period, where they don't really know what happened.
TOS episode with Khan is one of the hardest watches now. Starfleet and science officer betrays her crew and then gives up everything to go rot on some planet because big strong man say so... It's quaint, to say it nicely.
Yeah, that was an insult to point out how ridiculous the program was and funding should be cut (which it was). That's why movies like spies like us and real genius were so entertaining and better written then the majority of star wars movies. "Doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor" baahahha vs "I hate sand...".
Wellington Smith No. It happened (at least with the Bell riots) in 2024. And honestly if You-Know-Who wins another term, DS9 won’t be far off from the truth in my opinion. I don’t think we’ll send all homeless people to ghettos/concentration camps, but I do think the policies enacted in that hypothetical second term would be catastrophic. (Sorry if you’re a Trump supporter. I, obviously, am not.)
@@wellingtonsmith4998 that's the beauty of science fiction it can become science fact over time it's where the ethics of morality debate comes in versus big money that Star trek says no to if you take away the money aspect and just make it basically about science and ethics you have a pure purity debate of minds and intellectuals and exile in reality that's what's so sad about humans these days we're not involved like in Star trek yet because we still have money in the Star trek universe they evolved out of the eugenics debate because they learned a bad lesson all the irony of greed in science fighting each other sort of like religion and money fighting each other then religion and money fighting science again.
@@B_Squar3d well there is an idea that has been floating around Star trek fans online about the so-called trek movies before the rise of Star trek sort of like what happened before the movie alien made 1979 with a Prometheus trilogy I don't know if CBS parent announced studios will ever make the eugenics wars Star trek canon in movies like with Star wars before Star wars for a new hope movie in 1977 with The phantom menace the clone wars and the revenge of the sith here with the eugenics wars world war III and the interwar years in between it would really have to be compelling dark and would have to be strictly our rated in order to really sell to Star trek fans and those that are not into the original Star trek series of the 1960s or TNG that was made in the 80s and 90s because the revamps of the Star trek series that were made like into darkness really define the series into its dark age mentality meaning it has to go strictly into the dark the r-rated in order to really sell well and Gene Roddenberry would not like that I don't not know what Steve shy's thinks about the naturalization of Star trek and how mature it needs to become in its darkness in order to really appeal as a prequel trilogy in either TV or in movies in order to really understand and underline just how Star trek and star fleet came to be with the eugenics wars and then the interwar years that past tense covered and even q with the rise of the drugs being used in soldiers that were replaced pure ideological hatred leading to the third world war because TNG lightly touched on it and the first generation of Star trek TV series did cover it and so didn't first contact but nobody really knows what really happened during the interwar years in the third world war in the Star trek Cannon series or in the eugenics wars but looking at the eugenics wars in the 1990s it's very possible that the war was a scientific war that ultimately ended with these eugenics people expelled from the planet in cryogenic freezing tubes that were launched out in the space now of course Steve clarify that whole thing for me but what I'm saying is what I'm saying is if they were to make a real trilogy or any type of series of movies that were based before the Star trek TV series in the 1960s or the remakes that happened recently that CVS Paramount made it would have to be really dark meaning it would almost have to be extremely r-rated what you see in movies like saving Private Ryan Blackhawk down it would have to be in tears of the sun in order to really really appeal even it would the final ones would have to be extremely gut-wrenching almost like what you see in movies like threads and the day after and The testament to ultimately see how gene Roddenberry star trek post scarcity economic system really worked because there was no governments very few people in cities left because they were all nuked and what you see today in Chernobyl and in Fukushima daiichi the follower would not have lasted for a long time so in reality the first contact movie was more real than fantasy or science fiction made 1996.
The Voyager episode was an alternate timeline where the 29th century tech of the timeship that crashed in the 60s or 70s drastically shifted technological advancement. Effectively stopping or at least delaying the Eugenics Wars
Space Seed was written in '67, 25 years before the eugenics wars that it predicted. 2001 came out in '68, 33 years before its predicted future. Back to the Future 2 went off to the distant future of 2015 from 1989, only 26 years away. Transformers The Movie was set 19 years after it came out in the distant year of 2005 (although with cybertronian technology helping humanity along). What is with so many of these future stories lowballing massive societal and technological change?
I feel no need to reconcile dates from SF stories to present day realities. I watched Back to the Future Part II on Blue Ray several years ago and while I was aware it was supposed to have taken place 2 years earlier, I still enjoyed it for what it was - a product of its time.
Thanks for bringing up Greg Cox! I really love what he did in those novels! If you haven't already done so, I'd suggest you also read "Assignment: Eternity", a sort of prequel to the Eugenics Wars books, and "To Reign in Hell", which mainly fills in the gap between TOS and TWOK.
Future's End was an alternate timeline and is actually extremely easy to explain. Obviously, Henry Starling bringing about the computing revolution with his reverse engineered timeship somehow prevented the Eugenics Wars in the StarlingVerse.
I’ve always reconciled Voyager and the eugenics wars via a split in the time line caused by the time ship crashing. Then when causality is fixed they are taken to the Delta quadrant with out having to deal with the wars.
Can a timeline divergence be "fixed", can situations and records become identical to as if the divergence never occurred. Some of the suspected timeline divergences such as the homeless man vaporizing himself in the original Star Trek episode " City of Forever" would be difficult to compensate for, though in Deep Space 9, Sisko encountered a similar situation with the death of Bell and Sisko then had to impersonate Bell to repair the timeline enough to return to a reasonable approximation of the future he came from. Mind you the Quantum Erasure experiment suggests that divergent universes can be recombined if all evidence of the divergence could be removed.
The Star Trek timeline is what would have happened if NBC had rejected “The Cage” and DIDN’T order a second pilot episode. Thus Star Trek became fiction instead of fact.
I prefer the Eugenics Wars from the 1994 novel Star Trek: Federation. The augments were called the Optimum in that story. The invention of warp drive was a race against time to save humanity from annihilation and and Zefram Cochrane is on the run from the Optimum who know that once fast than light travel is a thing they will lose their power because man will be free of their control. Zefram Cochrane beats them by publishing his warp drive designs on thousands of websites simultaneously. Any undergraduate with a couple of interns are now capable of leaving Earth shifting the balance of power and making it impossible for mankind to go extinct.
Theory: Our timeline is the result of of the time wars (see series 3 Discovery). We are in an offshoot of the mirror universe, in which the Eugenics wars never happened. Because of the interference of future forces, we will probably not end up with the Empire. However, our history from Shakespeare until 1970 is much more like that which formed the Empire than the prime universe.
People seems to be under the misconception that we are living in the same timeline as the Prime Universe. That's always been a big assumption that can be disproved by the existence of the Eugenics Wars. So what if they happened in the 90s?...thanks to the concept of the multiverse, we are simply living in a different timeline from Star Trek.
So... revisiting this after Strange New Worlds has become fun. Unless you already have and I missed it, I won't be surprised if you do a new video on this subject now.
Haven't watched yet due to work, but I always imagined that it was like a secret proxy war in the 1990s, and that the true details of it didn't come to light until much later after WWIII.
I always liked the explanation given in Federation: the first 150 years. It posits that at some point in trek history (I think it's actually around Search for Spock, but I'd have to go back and check) a conspiracy pulled a Kirk, stole a federation ship and went back in time to around 1992 for the express purpose of stopping the eugenics war and Kahn in particular. The book implies this created a second timeline, like the Kelvin timeline and that that's the one we're living in. It's a really good book altogether, written like an in universe history and does a really good job of bridging the canon of first contact, Enterprise and the original series.
Granted this doesn't entirely explain voyagers journey to 96 but it does try to explain it in that California was one of the place least touched by the wars and that this is also the reason San Fransisco ends up becoming so Central to the federation; it just happened to be one of the only major cities still in pretty good shape when the Vulcans show up in first contact, nicely tying the two facts together.
One of my favorite bits of Trek trivia is that the space shuttle Enterprise NEVER went to space. 😆 Anyway, I've always assumed that the Trek timeline split from our own around 1966 (when Trek first premiered).
And the shuttle that appears in the Enterprise opening credits isn't Enterprise--you can tell from the nose markings. It's one of the others, with the name altered. Maybe it's an alternate timeline in which Enterprise was an operational shuttle orbiter (NASA originally planned to make it one, but the data from Enterprise's approach and landing tests led to enough modifications to the design that it was cheaper to build new orbiters. They did make one of them by modifying an earlier test airframe--that was Challenger.)
I choose to think of it like this: our universe and the Star Trek universe broke apart the year Gary 7 went back in time and influenced earth's history.
What really should stand out even from the shows 1960s era perspective is that Kahn would have already been alive when Space Seed aired, if Kahn (in 1996 at the time of his stasis) was the same age as Montalban (during the filming of the show) then Kahin would have been born in the 1950s, so star trwk posits that in our own future eugenics had already created a race of supermen. Given the history of eugenics to date from their perspective its not hard to believe something like this could have been attempted. This is assuming eugenics in the traditional meaning, modern takes on Kahn and crew suggest they were actively engineered rather than bred. The idea that Kahn and the other augments were genetically engineered does open things up a bit, and I like the implication that Kahn may in fact have bee far younger than he appeared. A genetically engineered kid designed to age to adulthood rapidly and have superior mental and physical abilities would be a cool take on his origins. It's actually fitting that he might in truth have been functionally a child in the body of a man when we see him on the Enterprise. The intelligence and strength are obvious, but so is the hubris and lack of patience. A wiser Kahn may have recognized the changed landscape, argued that any conviction the old governments may have imposed now lacked teeth. Gained freedom gor himself and his people. Then began any ambitions for conquest from a better position. After all, even with a few of his people holding the keys to a decently strong starship he would be foolish to try and base any conquest from that position. There's a whole fleet that can easily take down the E, and entire empires of alien races he doesn't have the first clue how to approach. And a couple superhumans don't really amount to much compared to what we as the viewer know the galaxy has in store for him. No, I think an older wiser Kahn would be happy to insert himself into existing federation society. Since there's no other enemies within that would force his hand towards violence a true conqueror would make use of a stable society that seems welcoming to others to gain a high position largely peacefully.
I agree. It seemed premature and ill-thought out to try to take the ship by force so quickly, not that that by itself wouldn't have been a simple task for them, but you're exactly right - unless the planet they chose to pursue was pre-warp or only in the very earliest stages of space exploration (which perhaps indeed was the agenda), one ship alone can't do much against a fleet. Also, if he did end up rashly taking the lives of any of the crew, SF would certainly pursue him aggressively, and unless Khan and his band were in hiding or staying on a planet with a culture possessed of extremely high technology, with enough time they would eventually be able to catch up to them. Seems to me for the true cunning warrior that is simply a complication that isn't worth risking. Would have been more powerful if one of his minions threatened or wanted to kill the bridge crew, as they only see them as strangers and don't value them as "ordinary" humans, but Khan steps in as says "we cannot- we cannot risk their SF coming after us- but we can ... (fill in the blanks)". (They then proceed to do the awesome thing, whatever that is, lol) I get that the Khan character was a hard pro-tip giga Chad, but I would have preferred they chose not to show him as someone willing to kill innocent people and decent people so capriciously. Even if he feels he has the right as the "superior being", why take good life needlessly? Is he not able to have just a little more respect for life than that?? I get the episode wanted it's dramatic sequence - and it still could have had a fight scene if it wanted- but a tense battle of wills and wits would have been even more effective then a brute force campaign imo. I understand a gigachad like Big K is willing to back up his threats with force if he feels it necessary, but he's also not mindlessly or chaotically evil. He can be charming and civil and congenial. Kirk and Co had been good to him and his people; he can see they're good people; it's not very good form to turn on one's host in such a savage manner. It would have been interesting to see what other ways they could have gone about the same goal. What about bargaining? Using brains over brawn??? Trying to make a deal with capt kirk before trying to kill the man that just saved you??? What about being curious about the space station and waiting until then to make his next move? A true chess player can plan many moves ahead and has the patience to wait until the time is right to make his significant move. I thought what they showed was strong, but if the writers that week had taken a little extra time, and extended it to a two-parter, they could have added a truly fascinating and stupendous piece of lore to the show.
My head canon acknowledges that the original series was not structured to support a franchise and that the "Eugenics War" is always 30 years in the future. My appreciation of the show is similar to yours in that the universe is developed by writers with the goal of making an entertaining show. That said - Do I wish the franchise had a lore bible? You bet I do!
The first shuttle's name was changed from "Constitution" to "Enterprise" after Trek's Enterprise which was a Constitution-class ship. COINCIDENCE? I think NOT!
My head cannon has our timeline diverging from the main Star Trek timeline on the 8th September 1966 the first air date for TOS. That way Star Trek can actually exist in a separate timeline but our precognition of this has positively altered our timeline. The closer we get to the Star Trek continuity the more extreme these divergences will be. Additionally when they travel back in time they can also cross into our reality (as evidenced by the presence of Star Trek in our pop culture) hence when visiting those times where Star Trek is on TV or cinema it is consistent with our timeline not theirs.
2019: "hopefully 2024 wont crowded gettos where homeless and unemployed people are forced to live walled off from the rest of the world." 2020: starting to feel like the the star trek universe is being too optimistic in it's painting of 2024.
Note: the Italian word "ghetto" originally meant iron foundry, and it was originally an area walled off in Venice for Jews--a Christian Pope made that ghetto happen, and Jews later established banks in there: that Pope gave them a monopoly on the business of moneylending and he didn't want Christians involved in the practice. Another Jewish Ghetto was established in Rome near the Theater of Marcellus and the Temple of Jupiter. Visitors can visit it after seeing the ruins of the Theater of Pompey (where Caesar was assassinated) in the Largo del Argentaria area: walk past the fountain of turtles and through gates that were originally locked after dark to prevent Jews from mixing with Romans in the evening hours. There are bakeries, restaurants, cafes, and produce markets in the area, along with several synagogues. How do I know? Because I visited the Jewish Ghetto in Rome in the fall of '12 after my cruise ended at Civitavecchia and I stayed in Rome for 3 days.
The Eugenics Wars would work a lot better in the Star Trek timeline if placed in the 2060s - 2090s, perhaps even as being the very same conflict as World War lll, rather than the 1990s. That would reconcile the contention in both Space Seed and Wrath Of Khan that the wars and subsequent launch of the Botany Bay occurred roughly two hundred years prior - with TOS taking place from 2265-2270, and Wrath Of Khan taking place in 2282.
I would like to see a revisit to this now that we have Picard season 2 and SNW, hinting at tying the sanctuaries to a second civil war to the Eugenics Wars to WWIII. Which to me makes a lot of sense.
I would also like to see this topic revisited because just two weeks ago an episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ("Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow") specifically dealt with events involving Khan near 2024-2039 (somewhere in there) and he was only about 11-14 years old, with a Romulan Temporal Agent thrown in the mix who somehow stopped the Eugenics Wars but Soong's Project Khan still caused history to proceed in a different way.
In TNG Data references the reunification of Ireland in 2024 (in an episode the BBC refused to air). It seems this one has a good chance of being on the money.
Thanks for another great video! From your previous offerings I know you have a dispassionate view of "canon" (and even less so for canon gatekeepers), so wasn't surprised that you presented the Eugenics Wars more as a way to explore the show's vision of current and future culture, rather than an essay of events and timelines. That did lead me to wonder about your thoughts of "canon" vs. "continuity" as storytelling devices, however. Where does one end and the other begin, where would they overlap, how important is each to a prolonged fiction, and what is the difference, if any? Whether as it applies to Star Trek directly or to narratives as a whole, would love your insight on the topic.
I just watched "Cause and Effect" (with my daughter -- we are going in order from front to back) -- maybe Star Trek as a franchise is a message we leave ourselves to improve our history by manipulating the local dekyon field.
I'm not a big fan of DS9. but I seam to recall an episode to that retconned the eugenics war. to the mid 21 century. Either just before or just after world war 3.
We need a new Star Trek series set during the Eugenics Wars. Crew accidentally gets sent back in time, grew up hearing about these terrible times, then learns the "Eugenics Wars" was just the future's way of referring to systemic white supremacy tied to end-stage capitalism, both circling the drain and doing everything in their power to get people to fall in line. Border wars in former colonial nations, oppression against minority demographics, backed up by poorly understood pauedo-sciences and FBI crime statistics, both backed by white supremacists. Or, the big shock could be that we are currently living through the Eugenics Wars. We're in an alternate universe where Kahn came back in time and explained that all-out war turned out to be disadvantageous to the cause of "creating superior humans". He explained that humans would willingly walk to the slaughterhouse if it was disguised well enough. If they could convince people that our outcomes are determined solely by individual merit and hard work, we will gladly let others die. Making more obedient and hardy generations, to be used as their overlords decide. At which point the crew has to decide whether they should interfere or not. It isn't the past they know, they can't go back and stop it from happening now. So what do they do?
I think my favorite Star Trek vs evolution moment isn't from TNG but the ridiculous Xindi civilization. According to Phlox, the Xindi are more closely related to one another than humans are to chimps, and yet the Xindi are divided up between Arboreal Mammals, Primates, Reptiles, 'Aquatics', Insects and the extinct Avians. Figure that out.
It would have to be the case that those major, order-of-life altering differences were determined by an extremely small number of genes. I don't think that's theoretically impossible, but it certainly isn't what happened in the evolution of Earth life.
The speciation event that made them have different habitat adaptions happened more recently in thier evolutionary history than our split from chimps. Like if our other hominid relatives we out competed were still walking around as distinct populations.
Pfft, only true 90's kids remember the Eugenic's Wars.
only 20's kids remember the bell riots
So all the rest of us who were alive at the time but weren't kids just have collective amnesia? I don't understand that phrase. Only a 90's kid would think that they are the only people who can remember things that happened in the 90's.
Lol. Only the chosen ones remember that specific thing which never happened.
LMFAO
Considering the US government is ok dokie with separating families and locking them up, it seems we're seeing how Americans (in the DS 9 ep) allowed the 2024 ghettos.
Another great video.
Just wanted to point out that if the original name of the shuttle was the Constitution, then technically, our first reusable space vehicle was a Constitution class ship named Enterprise
And if it launched on Jan.17, you could give it the registry number 1701.
Too bad it was just a test vehicle, and never flew into orbit.
@@rudylikestowatch humanity's first starship(SpaceX Starship Mark 1) that's under construction in Boca Chica Villiage, Texas, right now won't make it to orbit. It's just meant to go real high up in the air a few months from now and then come back down and land. I'm glad it's not going to be named anything other than "Mark 1 Starship". I think after Mark 4 they might start naming them but one of the first names given will be the "heart of gold". So by the time we have a actual starships in space several years from now it's only a matter of time we'll have a real starship named "Enterprise". Such an exciting time to be alive! WOOT
@@pauljohnson600 M-5?
@@rudylikestowatch You said "Too bad it was just a test vehicle and never flew into orbit."
I've always felt that way.
In TNG, NCC-1701 was specifically called a "Constitution-class" starship. I believe it was the homage episode with the characters all acting cuckoo.
Gotta say when I recently rewatched that episode of Deep Space Nine, their version of 2024 was honestly uncomfortably familiar. It rings truer than I think any of us want to admit. I’m not sure I WANT to live in this period of the Star Trek timeline, but as time passes I’m starting to think if we ever want the future Star Trek shows us, maybe we NEED it.
Well considering politicians in this state and any other are sheer trash and refuse to control rent in order to provide affordable housing, perhaps roped off hobo districts aren't that far off.
Damn
Don’t dismiss Past Tense yet. It was set in San Fransisco in a “sanctuary district”, a very currently used description of Frisco. Dax also dismissed her spots as “tattoos” which were popular during that time, also an accurate representation of the current time. So far, Past Tense is scary accurate. We should be watching for someone named Gabriel Bell.
Watch out for the Neo-Trotskyists
Please don't call San Francisco "Frisco."
Well, we got the George Floyd riots.
I think we're getting there faster by the day.
Have you seen him yet?? One year to go to find out.
Jeeze, imagine if they set Blade Runner in 2019 and... Oh, wait.
Or, for that matter, 2049 - just look at the technology - especially genetic engineering and space travel/colonization and ultra futuristic architecture. I mean, 2049 is only like a couple weeks from now in the grand scheme of things. Which convinces me that the Blade Runner films are set in a very different alternate timeline/universe.
Where are my replicants in flying cars!?!?!?!
Well now they were a bit off the mark with the replicants or off world colonies etc! i've watched a load of movies in the cinema that have been surpassed in terms of their timeline, bicentennial man for one and what about bttf2?
Or Buck Rogers' getting lost in 1987.... (TV Series titles)
I mean, Blade Runner obviously has to be in a parallel /alternate timeline - by only 2019 genetic engineering (Replicants) is already at least several decades ahead of where we are now. Roy Batty talks of sights he's seen during interstellar travel. Not interplanetary, but interstellar. In 2049, Joe (Agent K) mentions Calantha, an Earth colony planet in another star system that experienced a brutal civil war, in which Sapper Morton served as a combat medic. Niander Wallace talks of access to facilities at his disposal that are 'offworld'. And the list goes on and on. It seems to me that the world of Blade Runner is at minimum a good century ahead of where we are now technologically, if not appreciably more.
It’s interesting about the shuttle Enterprise was originally called Constitution, because Kirk’s starship Enterprise was said to be part of the Constitution class of ships.
From TNG. On that, the writers apparently did their research.
Our "Revised Version" is the version that split off in "City On The Edge Of Forever". The homeless guy who vaporized himself influenced us in an unknown way that prevented the Eugenics War!
OMG, I love that you said this! I never heard anyone other than me say this!
The real Eugenics Wars started in 1987 when an Asian warlord fought against his arch nemesis & his 4 genetically altered students for over a decade. Obviously, a lot of the important details got lost by the time of TOS. #Cowabunga
BRILLIANT!
The Star Trek events occurred in an alternate universe. Problem Solved.
😂😂 that's true that's so true
Pizza Power!
IDW comics moment...
I used to think "Past Tense" would be an issue for reconciling the real world with the Trek one, but lately it has looked like it could be more and more likely. Basically I am saying please vote in 2020, or else people may want to prepare for the Bell Riots.
I have to agree, some of the recently events have been alarmingly similar to DS9's past earth events. THe US has been expanding on debtors prisons and clearing out homeless and forcing them into specific areas. Some years ago in Florida closed off gated ghetto was actually formed! www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/fl-column-gary-stein-stockade-homeless-20170630-story.html
It's in Florida, but during its formation, San Francisco was eyeing it as a potential solution and both states had very similar policies and laws targeting the homeless.
On the other hand, Utah has been eliminating homeless by giving them housing. So. that's the positive counterpoint to it.
I suspect the ghetto's that the Bell riot is about as shown in Deep Space Nine is about employment loss due to automation and the lack of social services. Eugenics seems to have gravitated to corporations and the control of our food.
There's no hope either way. Its not like Biden is going to stop gun violence or ensure every american has access to healthcare etc.
Sanctuary Districts seem like something Trump or someone of his ilk would do. Hell, might even be something Biden or Hillary or another Centrist like that would do... :/
The riot bells are going off. After all. Cannot even clap. Not allowed to the Peace Sign. Bowl Hair Cuts are the sign of being a Racist. Got a gang going around being up old people and rioting for no reason. Yet supported by a political party regardless. Got companies kowtowing to a foreign government that censors everything it doesn't like and sends the military on its own people because it disagrees with government reform. And yet people blame it all on Trump. Take a moment and realize something here. Just take a moment. You do not need to love Trump or be a supporter. Yet need to look at the bigger picture. The Policial Correctness, Social Justice Warriors, and god who knows what else out there. They are off their rockers and they want a war to happen. They want to destroy everything. As they disagree with life itself.
Oh and do not get me started with the Mass Media, Social Media, and ugh...California adding to this list. As it would go into a political debate and people hate them and likely will hate on me and call me a "Right-Winged Racist Fascist Jew". Or something. Even though I was pointing out I never stated any support of any kind. Though I guess disagreeing with the SJWs is a likely a hate crime to them anyway.
Let's blame Daniels, he was a terrible time agent.
I was thinking the same thing. Heck, in the Star Trek episode that Janeway goes back to the 90s, the Time Agent they followed had already crashed for over a decade and his ship had been reverse engineered as a variation of ETGaveUsWifi trope. Heck, him crashing might have been the reason humans technology tree shifted in the way it did.
Yeah he is lol
always with those meddlers... splitting the timeline every five years
Daniels he was a lower deck of the police temporal
Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down, and I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, I'll tell you how I became the deposed ruler of a quarter of the planet.
Well... that wasn't what I was expecting at the end there lol
You mean, how you became a bully whose big minion gets his jollies by slapping women like Uhura? Uh, no thanks. Best that you end up in suspended animation aboard the SS Botany Bay, and NOT get rescued and revived by Kirk and Company in the 23rd century.
@@shepwillner7507 lmfao
I think you missed my man's dope rhymes tho
😭😂💀
The Fresh Ruler
He had to go live with his auntie and uncle in Southeast Asia
Just saw this, 8 months late, but the retcon you are looking for is there in context. In space seed "the eugenics wars" is how McCoy describes our "last so called world war" K WW3. All of the TNG era content mentions WW3 as happening in the mid to late 21st century. The most significant of this would be the film First Contact. While the DS9 episode set in 2024 was set in that time period by accident (a producer forgot 100 years had taken place since space seed) the mistake lines up with when Archer says his grandfather fought in the eugenics wars.
Infinite worlds with infinite possibilities...we’ve just branched out into an alternative timeline.
Ooh I’ll check out the Ensigns Log!
You should, I've regretted not listening to it and laughing my ace off, since he first mentioned it. Bright side, plenty to binge listen (great for walks, chores, etc.)
Do, it is so good. The only downside is when you catch up, and there's no glut waiting for you, and you have to wait for the next episode in real time.
The future's not written yet, Marty!
I remember a mention in TOS that information prior to World War III is sketchy especially between the 1960's and the end of WWIII.
That would explain the premise for "Assignment Earth." The Enterprise went back in time to flesh out the historical record.
I love it when we look at Star Trek's "past", because trekkies sometimes forget that it's actually Post-Apocalyptic. In Star Trek canon the world was nearly destroyed before we met the Vulcans, it wasn't Mad Max but they had every reason to think that if they gave us Warp Drive that we'd go all "Terran Empire" on the Alpha Quadrant.
So, it's Jan 2023, and I watched this on the way home from work. My "home" right now is an RV built in 1987 with no working internal water or heating. I pay $300 a month for a legal place to park it and an electrical hookup. As I was listening, I made a joke to a fellow Trekkie about being happy we missed the Eugenics Wars but I didn't have faith we would miss the Bell Riots considering my own situation and the growing housing crisis. So I actually laughed aloud when that was brought up. Anyway, with the rising income inequality and continued demonization of homelessness and poverty, I fear we are heading towards something similar, if perhaps quieter.
Anyway, awesome video.
*Frakes voice* Its FICTION! It's a made up tale. It's an urban legend that never nappened.
*Benny Russel Voice* It's REAL! IT IS REAL!!" 😉
Crispir is real. Star trek fans. KHANNNN!!!!
This one was invented by a writer.
We gotcha!
PS: Gene Roddenberry was a time traveler from the future, and he used historical records from his timeline in order to influence ours to hopefully be better.
I'm glad I read the comments because I was going to post something similar.
April 5, 2063 44 years and counting down
First Contact.
Thank you Google.
You’ll probably have to keep count in your head or something for the last ten years or so...
The only problem is Zephram Cochrain wasn't from Earth.
As a member of the class of 2001, I often lament that we were robbed spinning space stations.
Steve: "I've got a little thing called class." Me remembering the Apollo 1 joke: Huh...
Is it classy to point out that you have class?
As a Star Wars fan, we have a legally recognised religion in several countries!
I also don't remember New York being turned into a maximum security prison in 1988.
Damn you Snake Plissken!
I'd argue that where we split off only pushed the Bell Riots/Eugenics Wars/WW3 into the future, not that we fended off these disasters.
Your channel is great! Please do a vid on General/Chancellor Martok! He’s so hard yet noble, like how Worfs father would’ve been if he had lived
Agreed
Space Seed was speculative fiction in 1967. Now, it is more like alternate history, sort of like a Tarantino movie.
The bit about the space shuttle Enterprise having been originally intended to be the Constitution is doubly interesting since the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 was a Constitution Class ship.
Always a good day when I see a new Trek, Actually video up
I have a few thoughts on this topic:
1. In a setting with so much canonical time travel, it's not too weird to see the history leading up to Trek get changed from time to time. This could also explain how Discovery is so different from the rest of Star Trek.
2. Our current timeline actually leads to the Mirror Universe. Sad and cynical, but consistent enough on what we see in the various shows that we can't rule it out. The mirror universe always includes different but similar events to what happens in the Trek universe so bypassing the Eugenics Wars and not learning the lessons thereof might lead to a Terran Empire that goes out conquering and imposing their will on the galaxy. Skipping the Bell riots means that Earth didn't figure out that compassion was more valuable than oppression leading to an oppressive Terran Empire, etc.
3. I thought I had a number three for this list, but if I did, it seems to have slipped out of my head. Maybe it'll come to me and I'll edit.
It has been stated--as a bit of a joke that "The History that Wesly learned is not the same as what Scottie learned"... mix that in with the many divergent Timelines in Star Trek canon--the fact that Janeway's adventures in the Delta Quadrant have Three Alpha Timelines and a few off shoots from those for the last seven years of that stuff--and well that whole Kelvin Timeline stuff as well.
What if the reason the Eugenics War didn't happen is because of Time Travel?
The past that Janeway returned into had already had the Time Agent stuck there for at least a decade. IIRC, he crashed at around the 1960s... and there was a company made around the technology reversed from his stuff. What if that Time Agent's foray into the past is what stopped the Eugenics War.
Essentially... Janeway is why the Eugenics War didn't happen. This naturally would have caused a spiral effect that would require the Federation to give itself Warp Technology--and have Riker do that Wikiwalk in the Holodeck to study for a speech that was generally inaccurate. As Federation Temporal shielding technology is still rather wonky at these early stages.
There is so much of Star Trek Canon that is inconsistent that can be explained with either Riker Wikiwalking the Holodeck, or Janeway violating the Prime Temporal Directives with extreme prejudice. Think the Rodney King Beatings... with Janeway being the police and temporal coherence being Rodney King. This would go further to support the headcanon that the Temporal Cold War is also the fault of Janeway as well--and the Time Agents that attempt to pick a fight with Janeway (but lose and Janeway takes their lunch money) are their equivalent of assassinating Hitler.
So in Braxton’s log entries, he noted that the Eugenics Wars happened in the 1992-1996 period, but they were in the 1985A timeline as explored by Emmett Brown. Doctor Brown and his assistant Martin were able to close that timeline because of the equipment they had from Chronowerx, the so-called ‘time circuits’. Braxton also noted that after his rejuvenation and acquisition of hover and Mr Fusion tech for his vehicle, Brown made a trip into the 23rd century that he never told his assistant about. While there, Doctor Brown had a brief liaison with a member of the Klingon Defense force. Unknown to him, she had a child with him that she named Kruge.
The novels are really fun. I definitely recommend them. In addition to tying the Eugenics Wars into real world events, the novels also tie loads of characters from previous Trek time travel episodes into the events as well.
Agreed, and novels are less expensive to buy, because they don't involve travel, attending sci-fi conventions, and wearing stupid costumes and makeup. I'm too short to consider myself a decent clone for Garak, Gowron, Worf, Sarek, Spock, or Tomalok in costumes and pointed ears or head ridges. That's how I prefer my Star Trek fandom: reading the novels and watching the shows.
Yes the novels were great. I recommend them. A good read.
True but aren't these also just rationalizations after the fact... At some point we need to accept that the original TOS was just fiction written in the 60's and not something meant to be consistent with actual world events since then. We've already seen what damage happens when something written is taken as gospel/bible.
When I ran a ttrpg Star Trek Capaign using the original FASA ruels in the 80s my head cannon addressed this issue thus: between cold war secrecy, dumbed down modern media, an atomic war, and the propaganda put out by Khan during his reign the 90s, eugenics Wars, and all that is actually in a 100 year 'Dark age" period, where they don't really know what happened.
The NCC-1701 was changed to a Constitution class with the release of Franz Joseph's Star Fleet Technical Manual in 1975.
I tip my hat to you sir, for you tower over the common nerddome- truly i am exalted at your depth of knowledge 🤓
NCC-1701 was *always* a _Constitution_ class ship. (USS Constitution was NCC-1700.)
Steve ... just finished watching and I'm laughing out loud.... you balanced just the right amount of optimism and humor ..
Speaking as a geneticist, Star Trek and evolution sounds like a threshold we might not want to cross...
Ha! Hahaha! I see what you did there.
I GET IT :D
TOS episode with Khan is one of the hardest watches now. Starfleet and science officer betrays her crew and then gives up everything to go rot on some planet because big strong man say so... It's quaint, to say it nicely.
What about Regan's "star wars" missle defense system? Not as good as calling it the falcon, but close..
Yeah, that was an insult to point out how ridiculous the program was and funding should be cut (which it was). That's why movies like spies like us and real genius were so entertaining and better written then the majority of star wars movies. "Doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor" baahahha vs "I hate sand...".
SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon heavy rockets are named after the millennium falcon
@@ronniejdio9411
Didn't Dr. Evil do that?
According to The Wold Newton Society, the Eugenics Wars were about Xavier vs Magneto.
I like your Quantum Leap-esque explanation of the differences. *Imagining Archer, everytime transported in time saying, 'Damn it, call me SAM!'.*
OH BOY
I was hoping you would mention the two parter "Past Tense" from Deep Space Nine!
I just realized, uhh... that happened while the eugenics war was going on. ooops
Wellington Smith No. It happened (at least with the Bell riots) in 2024. And honestly if You-Know-Who wins another term, DS9 won’t be far off from the truth in my opinion. I don’t think we’ll send all homeless people to ghettos/concentration camps, but I do think the policies enacted in that hypothetical second term would be catastrophic. (Sorry if you’re a Trump supporter. I, obviously, am not.)
@@wellingtonsmith4998 that's the beauty of science fiction it can become science fact over time it's where the ethics of morality debate comes in versus big money that Star trek says no to if you take away the money aspect and just make it basically about science and ethics you have a pure purity debate of minds and intellectuals and exile in reality that's what's so sad about humans these days we're not involved like in Star trek yet because we still have money in the Star trek universe they evolved out of the eugenics debate because they learned a bad lesson all the irony of greed in science fighting each other sort of like religion and money fighting each other then religion and money fighting science again.
@@B_Squar3d well there is an idea that has been floating around Star trek fans online about the so-called trek movies before the rise of Star trek sort of like what happened before the movie alien made 1979 with a Prometheus trilogy I don't know if CBS parent announced studios will ever make the eugenics wars Star trek canon in movies like with Star wars before Star wars for a new hope movie in 1977 with The phantom menace the clone wars and the revenge of the sith here with the eugenics wars world war III and the interwar years in between it would really have to be compelling dark and would have to be strictly our rated in order to really sell to Star trek fans and those that are not into the original Star trek series of the 1960s or TNG that was made in the 80s and 90s because the revamps of the Star trek series that were made like into darkness really define the series into its dark age mentality meaning it has to go strictly into the dark the r-rated in order to really sell well and Gene Roddenberry would not like that I don't not know what Steve shy's thinks about the naturalization of Star trek and how mature it needs to become in its darkness in order to really appeal as a prequel trilogy in either TV or in movies in order to really understand and underline just how Star trek and star fleet came to be with the eugenics wars and then the interwar years that past tense covered and even q with the rise of the drugs being used in soldiers that were replaced pure ideological hatred leading to the third world war because TNG lightly touched on it and the first generation of Star trek TV series did cover it and so didn't first contact but nobody really knows what really happened during the interwar years in the third world war in the Star trek Cannon series or in the eugenics wars but looking at the eugenics wars in the 1990s it's very possible that the war was a scientific war that ultimately ended with these eugenics people expelled from the planet in cryogenic freezing tubes that were launched out in the space now of course Steve clarify that whole thing for me but what I'm saying is what I'm saying is if they were to make a real trilogy or any type of series of movies that were based before the Star trek TV series in the 1960s or the remakes that happened recently that CVS Paramount made it would have to be really dark meaning it would almost have to be extremely r-rated what you see in movies like saving Private Ryan Blackhawk down it would have to be in tears of the sun in order to really really appeal even it would the final ones would have to be extremely gut-wrenching almost like what you see in movies like threads and the day after and The testament to ultimately see how gene Roddenberry star trek post scarcity economic system really worked because there was no governments very few people in cities left because they were all nuked and what you see today in Chernobyl and in Fukushima daiichi the follower would not have lasted for a long time so in reality the first contact movie was more real than fantasy or science fiction made 1996.
The Voyager episode was an alternate timeline where the 29th century tech of the timeship that crashed in the 60s or 70s drastically shifted technological advancement. Effectively stopping or at least delaying the Eugenics Wars
Best part of the renaming of the Shuttle was that the Enterprise was a Constitution class ship
Space Seed was written in '67, 25 years before the eugenics wars that it predicted. 2001 came out in '68, 33 years before its predicted future. Back to the Future 2 went off to the distant future of 2015 from 1989, only 26 years away. Transformers The Movie was set 19 years after it came out in the distant year of 2005 (although with cybertronian technology helping humanity along). What is with so many of these future stories lowballing massive societal and technological change?
I feel no need to reconcile dates from SF stories to present day realities. I watched Back to the Future Part II on Blue Ray several years ago and while I was aware it was supposed to have taken place 2 years earlier, I still enjoyed it for what it was - a product of its time.
Had to check when this video was made... that episode of DS9 is looking pretty plausible here in 2020.
It's _is_ a constituion _class_ spaceship
Thanks for bringing up Greg Cox! I really love what he did in those novels! If you haven't already done so, I'd suggest you also read "Assignment: Eternity", a sort of prequel to the Eugenics Wars books, and "To Reign in Hell", which mainly fills in the gap between TOS and TWOK.
Future's End was an alternate timeline and is actually extremely easy to explain. Obviously, Henry Starling bringing about the computing revolution with his reverse engineered timeship somehow prevented the Eugenics Wars in the StarlingVerse.
Nice video, man. Really enjoyed it!
I’ve always reconciled Voyager and the eugenics wars via a split in the time line caused by the time ship crashing. Then when causality is fixed they are taken to the Delta quadrant with out having to deal with the wars.
Can a timeline divergence be "fixed", can situations and records become identical to as if the divergence never occurred. Some of the suspected timeline divergences such as the homeless man vaporizing himself in the original Star Trek episode " City of Forever" would be difficult to compensate for, though in Deep Space 9, Sisko encountered a similar situation with the death of Bell and Sisko then had to impersonate Bell to repair the timeline enough to return to a reasonable approximation of the future he came from. Mind you the Quantum Erasure experiment suggests that divergent universes can be recombined if all evidence of the divergence could be removed.
I've got a bad feeling that DS9s 2024 will end up being pretty similar to our own 2024
The Star Trek timeline is what would have happened if NBC had rejected “The Cage” and DIDN’T order a second pilot episode. Thus Star Trek became fiction instead of fact.
Ta mate
I prefer the Eugenics Wars from the 1994 novel Star Trek: Federation. The augments were called the Optimum in that story. The invention of warp drive was a race against time to save humanity from annihilation and and Zefram Cochrane is on the run from the Optimum who know that once fast than light travel is a thing they will lose their power because man will be free of their control. Zefram Cochrane beats them by publishing his warp drive designs on thousands of websites simultaneously. Any undergraduate with a couple of interns are now capable of leaving Earth shifting the balance of power and making it impossible for mankind to go extinct.
The Eugenics Wars books were awesome. I think they covered the subject perfectly and would love to see them adapted to one or two cinematic events.
Theory:
Our timeline is the result of of the time wars (see series 3 Discovery).
We are in an offshoot of the mirror universe, in which the Eugenics wars never happened. Because of the interference of future forces, we will probably not end up with the Empire. However, our history from Shakespeare until 1970 is much more like that which formed the Empire than the prime universe.
I'm glad to finally see a new "Actually Trek Actually".
People seems to be under the misconception that we are living in the same timeline as the Prime Universe. That's always been a big assumption that can be disproved by the existence of the Eugenics Wars. So what if they happened in the 90s?...thanks to the concept of the multiverse, we are simply living in a different timeline from Star Trek.
1:37 Admiral Lefcourt? What are YOU doing here? I didn't know EarthForce was part of the Federation! [grin!]
So... revisiting this after Strange New Worlds has become fun. Unless you already have and I missed it, I won't be surprised if you do a new video on this subject now.
Haven't watched yet due to work, but I always imagined that it was like a secret proxy war in the 1990s, and that the true details of it didn't come to light until much later after WWIII.
@@jesuscastro8690
They technically happened years if not decades apart.
That doesn't account for the 90 million some odd casualties.
I always liked the explanation given in Federation: the first 150 years. It posits that at some point in trek history (I think it's actually around Search for Spock, but I'd have to go back and check) a conspiracy pulled a Kirk, stole a federation ship and went back in time to around 1992 for the express purpose of stopping the eugenics war and Kahn in particular. The book implies this created a second timeline, like the Kelvin timeline and that that's the one we're living in. It's a really good book altogether, written like an in universe history and does a really good job of bridging the canon of first contact, Enterprise and the original series.
Granted this doesn't entirely explain voyagers journey to 96 but it does try to explain it in that California was one of the place least touched by the wars and that this is also the reason San Fransisco ends up becoming so Central to the federation; it just happened to be one of the only major cities still in pretty good shape when the Vulcans show up in first contact, nicely tying the two facts together.
One answer, “MULTIVERSE”
Maybe the Eugenics Wars are like Fusion Power; always about 20 years away....
One of my favorite bits of Trek trivia is that the space shuttle Enterprise NEVER went to space. 😆
Anyway, I've always assumed that the Trek timeline split from our own around 1966 (when Trek first premiered).
And the shuttle that appears in the Enterprise opening credits isn't Enterprise--you can tell from the nose markings. It's one of the others, with the name altered. Maybe it's an alternate timeline in which Enterprise was an operational shuttle orbiter (NASA originally planned to make it one, but the data from Enterprise's approach and landing tests led to enough modifications to the design that it was cheaper to build new orbiters. They did make one of them by modifying an earlier test airframe--that was Challenger.)
I think Greg Cox's books about the Eugenics Wars IMO, helped people understand Khan and his goals of controlling the world.
I choose to think of it like this: our universe and the Star Trek universe broke apart the year Gary 7 went back in time and influenced earth's history.
The eugenics war happened in an alternate universe to ours. As is Star Trek. It's a temporal anomaly, Captain.
They said the early 90s so I'm sticking with that. Star trek takes place in an alternate universe than or own
That's one possible and very viable explanation of course
That 2024 prediction is looking pretty accurate
The Wold-Newton Society, which connects all fiction, had a theory that the Eugenics Wars were Professor Xavier vs Magneto.
What really should stand out even from the shows 1960s era perspective is that Kahn would have already been alive when Space Seed aired, if Kahn (in 1996 at the time of his stasis) was the same age as Montalban (during the filming of the show) then Kahin would have been born in the 1950s, so star trwk posits that in our own future eugenics had already created a race of supermen. Given the history of eugenics to date from their perspective its not hard to believe something like this could have been attempted.
This is assuming eugenics in the traditional meaning, modern takes on Kahn and crew suggest they were actively engineered rather than bred.
The idea that Kahn and the other augments were genetically engineered does open things up a bit, and I like the implication that Kahn may in fact have bee far younger than he appeared. A genetically engineered kid designed to age to adulthood rapidly and have superior mental and physical abilities would be a cool take on his origins. It's actually fitting that he might in truth have been functionally a child in the body of a man when we see him on the Enterprise. The intelligence and strength are obvious, but so is the hubris and lack of patience.
A wiser Kahn may have recognized the changed landscape, argued that any conviction the old governments may have imposed now lacked teeth. Gained freedom gor himself and his people. Then began any ambitions for conquest from a better position.
After all, even with a few of his people holding the keys to a decently strong starship he would be foolish to try and base any conquest from that position. There's a whole fleet that can easily take down the E, and entire empires of alien races he doesn't have the first clue how to approach. And a couple superhumans don't really amount to much compared to what we as the viewer know the galaxy has in store for him.
No, I think an older wiser Kahn would be happy to insert himself into existing federation society. Since there's no other enemies within that would force his hand towards violence a true conqueror would make use of a stable society that seems welcoming to others to gain a high position largely peacefully.
I agree. It seemed premature and ill-thought out to try to take the ship by force so quickly, not that that by itself wouldn't have been a simple task for them, but you're exactly right - unless the planet they chose to pursue was pre-warp or only in the very earliest stages of space exploration (which perhaps indeed was the agenda), one ship alone can't do much against a fleet. Also, if he did end up rashly taking the lives of any of the crew, SF would certainly pursue him aggressively, and unless Khan and his band were in hiding or staying on a planet with a culture possessed of extremely high technology, with enough time they would eventually be able to catch up to them. Seems to me for the true cunning warrior that is simply a complication that isn't worth risking. Would have been more powerful if one of his minions threatened or wanted to kill the bridge crew, as they only see them as strangers and don't value them as "ordinary" humans, but Khan steps in as says "we cannot- we cannot risk their SF coming after us- but we can ... (fill in the blanks)". (They then proceed to do the awesome thing, whatever that is, lol)
I get that the Khan character was a hard pro-tip giga Chad, but I would have preferred they chose not to show him as someone willing to kill innocent people and decent people so capriciously. Even if he feels he has the right as the "superior being", why take good life needlessly? Is he not able to have just a little more respect for life than that??
I get the episode wanted it's dramatic sequence - and it still could have had a fight scene if it wanted- but a tense battle of wills and wits would have been even more effective then a brute force campaign imo.
I understand a gigachad like Big K is willing to back up his threats with force if he feels it necessary, but he's also not mindlessly or chaotically evil. He can be charming and civil and congenial. Kirk and Co had been good to him and his people; he can see they're good people; it's not very good form to turn on one's host in such a savage manner. It would have been interesting to see what other ways they could have gone about the same goal.
What about bargaining? Using brains over brawn??? Trying to make a deal with capt kirk before trying to kill the man that just saved you???
What about being curious about the space station and waiting until then to make his next move? A true chess player can plan many moves ahead and has the patience to wait until the time is right to make his significant move.
I thought what they showed was strong, but if the writers that week had taken a little extra time, and extended it to a two-parter, they could have added a truly fascinating and stupendous piece of lore to the show.
Funny enough the "Human Genome Project" started on October 1st, 1990.
That's what they want you to believe!
My head canon acknowledges that the original series was not structured to support a franchise and that the "Eugenics War" is always 30 years in the future.
My appreciation of the show is similar to yours in that the universe is developed by writers with the goal of making an entertaining show.
That said - Do I wish the franchise had a lore bible? You bet I do!
The first shuttle's name was changed from "Constitution" to "Enterprise" after Trek's Enterprise which was a Constitution-class ship. COINCIDENCE? I think NOT!
My head cannon has our timeline diverging from the main Star Trek timeline on the 8th September 1966 the first air date for TOS. That way Star Trek can actually exist in a separate timeline but our precognition of this has positively altered our timeline. The closer we get to the Star Trek continuity the more extreme these divergences will be. Additionally when they travel back in time they can also cross into our reality (as evidenced by the presence of Star Trek in our pop culture) hence when visiting those times where Star Trek is on TV or cinema it is consistent with our timeline not theirs.
2019: "hopefully 2024 wont crowded gettos where homeless and unemployed people are forced to live walled off from the rest of the world."
2020: starting to feel like the the star trek universe is being too optimistic in it's painting of 2024.
Note: the Italian word "ghetto" originally meant iron foundry, and it was originally an area walled off in Venice for Jews--a Christian Pope made that ghetto happen, and Jews later established banks in there: that Pope gave them a monopoly on the business of moneylending and he didn't want Christians involved in the practice. Another Jewish Ghetto was established in Rome near the Theater of Marcellus and the Temple of Jupiter. Visitors can visit it after seeing the ruins of the Theater of Pompey (where Caesar was assassinated) in the Largo del Argentaria area: walk past the fountain of turtles and through gates that were originally locked after dark to prevent Jews from mixing with Romans in the evening hours. There are bakeries, restaurants, cafes, and produce markets in the area, along with several synagogues. How do I know? Because I visited the Jewish Ghetto in Rome in the fall of '12 after my cruise ended at Civitavecchia and I stayed in Rome for 3 days.
Another great episode. Love your social commentary. 👍
I imagine if Trek tried to adopt a "rolling timeline" the way Marvel does the fans would riot.
That shuttle is the only thing listed under ‘real life’ on the TV Tropes page for the ‘I am my own grandpa’ trope. There’s a fun fact.
Well, we still can see Vulcans in Bozeman Montana in less than 50 years :) Live long and prosper :)
The Eugenics Wars would work a lot better in the Star Trek timeline if placed in the 2060s - 2090s, perhaps even as being the very same conflict as World War lll, rather than the 1990s. That would reconcile the contention in both Space Seed and Wrath Of Khan that the wars and subsequent launch of the Botany Bay occurred roughly two hundred years prior - with TOS taking place from 2265-2270, and Wrath Of Khan taking place in 2282.
I agree with this
I chalk up discrepancies in the the Timeline to an on-going Temporal Cold War.
I would like to see a revisit to this now that we have Picard season 2 and SNW, hinting at tying the sanctuaries to a second civil war to the Eugenics Wars to WWIII. Which to me makes a lot of sense.
I would also like to see this topic revisited because just two weeks ago an episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ("Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow") specifically dealt with events involving Khan near 2024-2039 (somewhere in there) and he was only about 11-14 years old, with a Romulan Temporal Agent thrown in the mix who somehow stopped the Eugenics Wars but Soong's Project Khan still caused history to proceed in a different way.
In TNG Data references the reunification of Ireland in 2024 (in an episode the BBC refused to air). It seems this one has a good chance of being on the money.
Thanks for another great video! From your previous offerings I know you have a dispassionate view of "canon" (and even less so for canon gatekeepers), so wasn't surprised that you presented the Eugenics Wars more as a way to explore the show's vision of current and future culture, rather than an essay of events and timelines. That did lead me to wonder about your thoughts of "canon" vs. "continuity" as storytelling devices, however. Where does one end and the other begin, where would they overlap, how important is each to a prolonged fiction, and what is the difference, if any? Whether as it applies to Star Trek directly or to narratives as a whole, would love your insight on the topic.
man, what if, the thing that changed our timeline from the star trek's timeline, is the series star trek?!
"Nothing like ending on a downer!!" Love ya Shives
I just watched "Cause and Effect" (with my daughter -- we are going in order from front to back) -- maybe Star Trek as a franchise is a message we leave ourselves to improve our history by manipulating the local dekyon field.
I'm not a big fan of DS9. but I seam to recall an episode to that retconned the eugenics war. to the mid 21 century. Either just before or just after world war 3.
4:04 wow, that almost makes up for pardoning Nixon
Almost
I wonder what that was like, having a government that listened to the people, even if it was only on things that didn't really matter.
Um, Ford pardoned Nixon, who was to be impeached and charged with tampering with the election.
We need a new Star Trek series set during the Eugenics Wars. Crew accidentally gets sent back in time, grew up hearing about these terrible times, then learns the "Eugenics Wars" was just the future's way of referring to systemic white supremacy tied to end-stage capitalism, both circling the drain and doing everything in their power to get people to fall in line. Border wars in former colonial nations, oppression against minority demographics, backed up by poorly understood pauedo-sciences and FBI crime statistics, both backed by white supremacists.
Or, the big shock could be that we are currently living through the Eugenics Wars. We're in an alternate universe where Kahn came back in time and explained that all-out war turned out to be disadvantageous to the cause of "creating superior humans". He explained that humans would willingly walk to the slaughterhouse if it was disguised well enough. If they could convince people that our outcomes are determined solely by individual merit and hard work, we will gladly let others die. Making more obedient and hardy generations, to be used as their overlords decide.
At which point the crew has to decide whether they should interfere or not. It isn't the past they know, they can't go back and stop it from happening now. So what do they do?
I think my favorite Star Trek vs evolution moment isn't from TNG but the ridiculous Xindi civilization. According to Phlox, the Xindi are more closely related to one another than humans are to chimps, and yet the Xindi are divided up between Arboreal Mammals, Primates, Reptiles, 'Aquatics', Insects and the extinct Avians. Figure that out.
It would have to be the case that those major, order-of-life altering differences were determined by an extremely small number of genes. I don't think that's theoretically impossible, but it certainly isn't what happened in the evolution of Earth life.
The speciation event that made them have different habitat adaptions happened more recently in thier evolutionary history than our split from chimps. Like if our other hominid relatives we out competed were still walking around as distinct populations.
the way san francisco`s going, that plot set 7 months from now might not be so fictional.
"I don't remember any..."
You don't remember the yearly actual raid on Area 51 either, same reason.
Great, as usual. Thanks again!
Let's hope Star Trek's WW3 doesnt happen either!
Love the Videos and LOVE The Ensign's Log!!!! #SaveSpot!!!!!
Wait I thought they didn't escape but were exiled on that ship. Hence the name on their ship USS Botany Bay.
1. The idea would be it was sort of a "joint decision"--they would leave on that ship, or they would be executed.
2. It was "SS" Botany Bay.
They were on a break! Thanks for reopening that wound, Steve.
The 1990's? I thought we were going through them right now? We have been taken over by a giant orange mutant of unknown origin, haven't we?
@@Fafnd No, he's not a genetically engineered superman. He's made out of the goo of the previous failed projects....still a mutant though.
@@Philbert-s2c I thought he was a Pakled experiment to try to create a super-Pakled.