Eugenics Wars.

Discussion in 'Trek Literature' started by GalaxyClass1701, Dec 21, 2009.

  1. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    That wasn't specifically stated. All that was said is that they were "left over from the Eugenics Wars" and that they weren't destroyed after the Wars because it was too controversial. It could be that, in the wake of the Eugenics Wars, the governments of the world investigated what had led to those wars and discovered a hidden Chrysalis cache as a result, leading to a controversy over what to do with them. Thus, people looking back on history could easily blur that together with the Wars themselves. People rarely remember the precise details of everything they studied in history class.


    Well, as I've said before, I think it's possible to interpret the EW novels as consistent with an open conflict, because it doesn't go into detail about the coverups.

    And here's a thought: why do you suppose they were called the Eugenics WarS, plural? Maybe the 1993-96 conflict was only the first Eugenics War, and others came in the ensuing decades.
     
  2. Lieut. Arex

    Lieut. Arex Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    It's possible the plural describes both coups used by the genetic supermen to overthrow various governments as well as the subsequent battles they fought amongst themselves.
     
  3. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Well, yeah, but I'm saying that if we choose to interpret it to mean that there were later eugenics conflicts after the one that ended in '96, that can allow us to resolve some continuity questions. Seemingly inconsistent statements about the Eugenics Wars could be explained if they're referring to more than one war.
     
  4. David cgc

    David cgc Admiral Premium Member

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    It would also fit in with the other fan-rationalization that some (Vulcan) historians lump the Eugenics Wars in with World War III, much like some current historians regard World War I and II as the same conflict. If the Augments' fingers stretched throughout the wars of the 21st century, it'd be possible to make a case that the Eugenics Wars and WWIII were the same, extended conflict, even if the human convention is to refer to them separately.
     
  5. captcalhoun

    captcalhoun Admiral Admiral

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    my fanon article for my fan-fic was that the EW was several conflicts taking place across the planet at the same time: one in the Balkans, one in central Asia, one in Australia and one in Central America. and a couple of side-events in north and east Africa.
     
  6. SicOne

    SicOne Commodore Commodore

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    How many Eugenics Wars books were there? As far as I am aware of, there were the two Rise and Fall of KNS, followed by the To Reign In Hell book, so just the three, right?
     
  7. SicOne

    SicOne Commodore Commodore

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    Extremely well-spoken.
     
  8. Saquist

    Saquist Commodore

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    I doubt that. Greg Cox as not a very good writer the few books I tried from him. That Q series was BLAND. I hating reading books where the most interesting thing is the information tie ins.

    If someone is just dying to know about the period I guess he would be tolerable he's not as bad as the following authors under Trek.

    Dafydd ab Hugh: VOY: INVASION #4 Simply one of the worse books I've ever read. Unsuspenseful and extremely anticlimactic.

    Nathan Archer-VOY: Ragnarock- NEVER AGAIN
    Eric Kotani & Dean Wesley Smith: VOY: Death of a Neutron Star (I don't know which one of them was at fault but this was a snooze fest)

    S.D Perry: Avatar DS9: It's like I said...you're reading for the events but the story isn't well told at all. The events are oddly arrange and as a reader you can't feel where the plot is going.

    Andy Mangels & Michael A. Martin
    TITAN SERIES: Red King/ Taking Wing (Not a good launch. It was VERY hard to decipher all these alien characters, they really had no personality in their books. It wasn't until Christopher L. Bennett in the next book that these characters literally jumped off the page.

    And the Mediocre writers:
    John Vornholt
    J.M. Dillard
    David Mack


    If you care about reading a good story These are not the guys to read. They are filler authors. Instead go after ...

    A.C Crispin
    Diane Carey
    Peter David
    L.A. Graf "Let's. All. Get. Rich. and. Famous."
    Christie Golden
    Keith R.A. DeCandido
    Michael Jan Friedman
    Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
    Jean Lorrah
    Kristine Katherine Rusch
    Howard Wienstien
    Diane Duane
     
  9. SicOne

    SicOne Commodore Commodore

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    Gotta step up and defend the Mack-man. Anyone who can rub out sixty-five billion sentients off a Ships Of The Line calendar image is no one to be triffled with.
     
  10. 21Spike65

    21Spike65 Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    This makes me wonder...how many people DID die in the 90s during the various wars, genocide attempts, ethnic clashes, etc. that took place? Perhaps history views many of these incidents as symptoms of the larger Eugenics Wars, and groups them all into the larger death toll. I'm not sure if the figure would be quite what ENT quoted it to be, but I imagine it would easily get into the millions.
     
  11. kkozoriz1

    kkozoriz1 Fleet Captain

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    In Space Seed Spock does mention that some 80 or 90 of the Eugenic Supermen were missing after 1996. He doesn't say that they later resurfaced. The implication is that they were all aboard the Botany Bay. I would imagine that the wars started in various areas and it was later realized that they were all part of a larger program of eugenics.
     
  12. EJA

    EJA Fleet Captain

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    Of course, if Saddam had supported Khan, then he would have been overthrown too when Khan was. If he resisted Khan's offer, Khan would've had him and his Ba'ath party executed.
     
  13. David cgc

    David cgc Admiral Premium Member

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    Not necessarily. Cuba and North Korea outlasted the Soviet Union.
     
  14. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    And like I said, it's a historical fact that Saddam's reign was threatened by insurrections from within throughout the '90s. It would be easy to fit that into the "secret history" premise of the EW novels and assume that that was Khan attempting to punish Saddam for refusing to play along, by clandestinely supporting or organizing the insurrectionists.
     
  15. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    So far I've read only the preview on my Nook, but I really liked that little bit.
    I couldn't possibly disagree with you anymore at all. The Avatar duo and Taking Wing are two of my favorite books I have ever read.
    You're joking about that last one right.... you really have to be.[/QUOTE]
    Christie Golden? I think you're only like the second or third person I've ever heard say they actually like her books.
     
  16. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I gave up trying to make "best/worst author" lists when I realized that many of those who wrote my most-hated Trek novels also wrote some of all-time favourites:shrug:.
     
  17. Lieut. Arex

    Lieut. Arex Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    True. Since Colonel Green is described as leading a genocidal war in the early 21st century it might have been a related conflict included in the discussions with Green himself either one of the last eugenic supermen loose or a follower of the philosophy which created them.

    Of course, the inconsistent statements about the EW arise from GR's adding a war to the Trek universe with "Encounter at Farpoint" and its new World War III of the mid-21st century, which was elaborated upon by First Contact and blended with the EW by ENT's Augment episodes among others. Taking only Spock's comments from "Space Seed", the Eugenics Wars are unambiguously also World War III and confined to the late 1990's.
     
  18. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Yep. When TNG came along, the '90s were too close to be a credible setting for a future war. So Roddenberry's intent, I'm fairly certain, was to retcon the Eugenics Wars out of Trek history altogether. (And the whole WWIII/Post-Atomic Horror thing was basically the backstory from his Genesis II/Planet Earth pilots grafted onto the Trek universe.) His view was that new canon superseded old -- which, really, is pretty much the way it always works, but he seemed to take to it more aggressively than most creators. It was only later in DS9 and ENT that the Eugenics Wars were reasserted as part of Trek history, though they stayed vague about the timing (well, Ron Moore actually got the date wrong by 200 years in "Doctor Bashir, I Presume", an admitted error on his part).
     
  19. EJA

    EJA Fleet Captain

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    I recall an episode of TNG were Picard referenced Khan once. Don't remember which one it was though, or if Roddenberry was still around for that one.

    And to be honest, like other people on this forum, I have some difficulties with the notion of Khan working "behind the scenes." If he had nearly all of Asia and the Middle East in his hands, surely he wouldn't have to be clandestine in his operations?

    In ENT "The Augments", Malik states that the Botany Bay was launched at the end of the Great Wars. Just thought this might be worth considering to those who reckon Khan was only involved in the "first Eugenics War."
     
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2010
  20. EJA

    EJA Fleet Captain

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    The USSR wasn't brought down by a mass civilian uprising/civil war or a foreign invasion though.