posted
I have a challenge for those of us primarily interested in the "historicity" of Star Trek.
I am primarily interested in the individual fan's interpretation of various key or turning points in Star Trek's fictional history.
Challenge #1: The Eugenics Wars-
We know from the episode "Space Seed" and Star Trek The Wrath of Khan that Eugenics Wars were fought between 1992 and 1996. Key figures in this conflict were possibly quite numerous, but only one figure has a resounding "choke-hold" on the historicity of this subject, Khan Noonien Singh.
We have prescious few on-screen statements regarding this global conflict. We know that from 1992-1996, Singh ruled one-quarter of planet Earth from Asia to the Middle East, and the he was the most powerful and influential of an unknown number of eugenically engineered supermen. We know from The Animated Series that a Stavos Keneclius played some part during this conflict but what exactly is open for speculation. We know that sometime during 1993, eugenics supermen siezed power seemingly at once on Earth in some forty nations. It was at this point, that what has become known as the Eugenics Wars began, and according to Spock's own words on the subject this was "the era of the last of your so-called world wars" with "whole populations being bombed out of existence" with Earth "on the verge of another Dark Ages"
Technologically, we know that during this period, the DY-100 Class spaceship was the most advanced space vessel of the time. We know that following the ceasation of hostilities during the war, Khan Singh either escaped aboard S.S. Botany Bay or was forcibly exiled from Earth orbit at least and recovered at least two centuries later by Enterprise (NCC-1701).
Onto the challenge. Come up with a speculative timeline detailing the events leading up the Eugenics Wars and their conclusion. You may use any reference materials at your disposal, but I would strongly urge you to limit these resources to Original Series-Era materials, as we have all clearly seen, the relevance of this fictional conflict has been virtually ignored by TNG-Era materials and beyond even into Enterprise.
You may as "long-winded" as you can possibly be or as exhaustive as you can get within a speculative timeline. My conditions are such that I am not overly concered with canonical issues. I simply want to the fan's interpretation of these events. Also, feel free to use my email provided here with any and all comments, arguments, orspeculations best covered outside of this forum.
That being said, let the timelines begin!
-------------------- All I ask is a tall ship, and a star to steer her by. . .
posted
March, 2003 - Mark Nguyen reads "The Eugenics Wars" novels. He finds them a little stale, but a worthwile read.
May, 2003 - Mark Nguyen finds this thread, and proposes that anyone wanting a fairly viable treatise on what the Eugenics Wars were to read these books.
posted
Do I take you people would rather take a "wait and see" attitude when it comes to trek chronology? Now I dont believe that and I know you don't either
Remember, the keyword in the opening thread was "speculation". and individual perspective on the subject.
So let's try this again shall we?
-------------------- All I ask is a tall ship, and a star to steer her by. . .
posted
Summer 2001 - Dan buys "Eugenics Wars, Part I," but never finishes it, found it interesting for weaving various old plot threads together, but ultimately pointless and unentertaining.
I'll have to think about my own speculative timeline.
Oh, and the Eugenics Wars *are* canon according to the TNG timeline, and even the ENT timeline -- to a limited extent, anyway. We saw the Botany Bay model in "Future's End" on Voyager, and a photo of the Botany Bay launching in ENT's "First Flight." So you can't argue it's been forgotten.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
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You think about that speculation MinutiaeMan. I am very anxious to read what you have to say!
I realize that various elements of The Eugenics Wars have been visually identified in the series' you have mentioned, but they have yet to officially acknowledge or even mention this conflict on screen (aside from the throwaway reference in DS9). Models and photos of models are nice tidbits, but the hounds are still starving for more, know what I mean?
I want to see chronologically-detailed campaign logs, interesting bits like that we will never see on screen. At this stage of fandom, it wouldn't hurt us to think about the way things could have been.
-------------------- All I ask is a tall ship, and a star to steer her by. . .
quote:Originally posted by MinutiaeMan: Summer 2001 - Dan buys "Eugenics Wars, Part I," but never finishes it, found it interesting for weaving various old plot threads together, but ultimately pointless and unentertaining.
I'll have to think about my own speculative timeline.
Oh, and the Eugenics Wars *are* canon according to the TNG timeline, and even the ENT timeline -- to a limited extent, anyway. We saw the Botany Bay model in "Future's End" on Voyager, and a photo of the Botany Bay launching in ENT's "First Flight." So you can't argue it's been forgotten.
Where in the opening ENT credits is a DY-100 seen launching?
-------------------- Fry- How will we get out of this? George Takei's head- Maybe we can use some kind of auto-destruct code like one-A, two-B, three-C... (Bender's head blows up) Bender- Now everybody knows! -Futurama's obligatory Star Trek episode
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capped
I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
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posted
quote:Originally posted by Jack_Crusher:
quote:Originally posted by MinutiaeMan: a photo of the Botany Bay launching in ENT's "First Flight."
Where in the opening ENT credits is a DY-100 seen launching?
um.. nowhere. it's not in the opening credits. its in a photo. in "First Flight"
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posted
If ENT actually mentions the events of the Eugenics Wars or the DY-100 Class verbally on-screen, then I would be quite pleasantly surprised. Even still, TPTB, in my opinion, would be hard pressed to come up with a plausible explanation for such a drastic turning point in technological history from the launch of an interplanetary spaceship in the 1990s, only to use Apollo-style components for the Aries Program of the 2030s (Voyager Reckoning) to a hodge-podge of space shuttle and conjectural S.S. Valiant components in the NASA vessel Charybdis in 2037 (TNG Reckoning) to the warpship Phoenix of 2063 (First Contact reckoning) From there, we are WAAY beyond the scope of this timeline challenge.
-------------------- All I ask is a tall ship, and a star to steer her by. . .
quote:Originally posted by Ryan McReynolds: If they had any shred of common sense, they'd make the Eugenics Wars the same as World War III, the way they were always intended to be.
quote:From "Space Seed" SPOCK: The era of your last so-called world war.
MCCOY: The Eugenics Wars.
SPOCK: Of course--your attempt to improve the race through selective breeding.
Spock just misread the fragmentary records and said 1990s when he meant 2040-50s.
The way Berman and Braga intended it to be perhaps, but the fact is, thats NOT how it happend. TOS was the first on-screen evidence to suggest a last global conflict between 1992 and 1996 period. To alter the past in such a way to support a more "realistic" prediction for the future is simply giving lip service to the founding series and its information.
-------------------- All I ask is a tall ship, and a star to steer her by. . .
posted
In any case, it wasn't Berman and Braga (those evil, evil men that everyone trots out when they want to whine about modern Trek) who came up with a global conflict after the 1990s. "A Matter of Time" (TNG) established a nuclear holocaust in the mid-21st century. "Encounter at Farpoint" (TNG) established 2079 as being in the post-atomic horror. "The Savage Curtain" (TOS) referred to a genocidal war in the 21st century.
No, there was clearly a large-scale war in the mid-21st century, and there was nothing wrong with Dark Lord Berman and his Imperial Viceroy Braga running with that in First Contact. There are three ways to go with it. Either:
1.) The Eugenics Wars were just a regional conflict... that involved tyranny over a quarter of the planet, entire populations bombed out of existence, and the brink of a new dark ages for humanity.
2.) The nuclear holocaust was just a regional conflict... that created a planet-wide nuclear winter, threw nations into anarchy, and led humanity to the brink of a new dark ages just a few decades after recovering from the last brink.
3.) They were the same war.
I'm not sure which you support. Obviously, I support number 3. That just leaves the question of dates. The fact that TOS came first doesn't mean that it can't be superceded than anything later. In fact, Roddenberry routinely changed his premises, retconning older ideas throughout the original series. From lasers-phasers to UESPA-Starfleet to Earth-Federation, the man and his staff were never loathe to change their minds. And as we saw above, they had no problem adding a new global war after their previously established "last world war."
That said, there is far more support for a later date for the global conflcit than the earlier. Aside from the Roddenberry-approved references in my first paragraph, there was First Contact, in which it was said directly that the war was a decade before 2063. If the nuclear war was seventy years before the film, it makes Cochrane's situation a little less credible. There is the fact that every time we've seen contemporary Earth, from the 1960s to the 1990s, it has appeared virtually identical to the real world. Khan was genetically engineered by people with no obvious technological advantage over us in the 1950s or 60s... or he was engineered by people with a technological advantage over us in the 2000s or 10s. There is the DY-100 nuclear-powered cryogenic interplanetary vessel, first in a entire family of DY-ships, being more advanced than the Ares of 2032 in "One Small Step" (VGR). There was the space shuttle on many an Enterprise display, demonstating again the technological parity between the universes. Finally, there is all of Enterprise's references to the war, for whatever they're worth.
Or, we can go with Spock's uncertain reference from fragmentary records.
Tough one.
quote:Originally posted by coatlantis1745: to a hodge-podge of space shuttle and conjectural S.S. Valiant components in the NASA vessel Charybdis in 2037 (TNG Reckoning)
P.S. That wasn't an actual design on an actual Okudagram, that was drawn by one of your fellow posters...
posted
There's also the fact that, realistically, any reference to a big scary world wide war in the 90s that wiped out a whole lot of people is just going to confuse the casual viewer (for which read at least 80% of everyone watching).
So apart from oh-so-cute DS9 references (which placed them in the 2200s anyway, thanks to Mr Ronald "oh, he's soooo much better than Braga because he likes canon stuff" Moore fucking up), I doubt we're ever going to get any out and out comments along the lines of "there was a war in 1996 that was big and scary".
In fact, I would have personally removed the "1996" line from TWOK if I were in charge of the special edition, but I am evil like that.
Anyway, that doesn't stop people from having interesting and thoughtful opinions on the subject. I think they are ultimatly pointless, but I think the same thing about shiplists, so go ahead.
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