It does and they have.
Khan and the Eugenics War
- Thread starter SiddFinch1
- Start date
Because the only reason this is even being thought of is because there haven't been any "real" Eugenics Wars. And that's no reason to change Trek canon, because it was always an alternate timeline. Can't keep moving the goalposts because Trek events didn't happen in the real world...
I mean, we never had any orbital nuclear weapons platforms in 1968, did we?
That said, at least there's an easy out. I'm not denying there's story potential in having some of those wars happen in the 21st century. But the use of the plural form allows for both. The original 1992-96 dates are safe, and more can occur later on. Easy peasy.
And also it's important to point out that Pike's speech to the planetary leaders in the pilot episodes (where he mentions the "second civil war", the Eugenics thing, and WW3) may well have been embellished for their benefit....
I mean, we never had any orbital nuclear weapons platforms in 1968, did we?
That said, at least there's an easy out. I'm not denying there's story potential in having some of those wars happen in the 21st century. But the use of the plural form allows for both. The original 1992-96 dates are safe, and more can occur later on. Easy peasy.
And also it's important to point out that Pike's speech to the planetary leaders in the pilot episodes (where he mentions the "second civil war", the Eugenics thing, and WW3) may well have been embellished for their benefit....
Last edited:
Absolutely you can. And it's what Trek has done before.
No, it's an extrapolation of our future based on our present.
Exactly so.
No, Star Trek is not "an alternate timeline," which is just in-group fan gibberish. It's a TV show. It's a set of stories that take place in that same world as Magnum P.I. and E.R. and I Dream of Jeannie, where dramatic and preposterous things occur but which the mainstream audience seems delighted to accept as a version of the world we live in.
When you talk about the past, if you're going to get it wrong there ought to be a real good reason that's going to intrigue and draw the audience into the story they're presently watching. The attachment to the 1990s Eugenics War is none of that, it's just people getting obsessively fussy about Kirk Said This One Thing That Time Fifty Years Ago.
Honestly I don't particularly care when the Eugenics Wars happen as such. I just don't know anymore what I'm supposed to do when I watch "Space Seed" or TWOK and hear somebody mention 1996.
Relative references, like "200 years ago" and all that, are easy to handwave or even ignore. Specific calendar years are more definitive.
Relative references, like "200 years ago" and all that, are easy to handwave or even ignore. Specific calendar years are more definitive.
Nothing. Just enjoy the show,
Yeah, I suppose one mistake doesn't invalidate the whole thing.
Does tend to dampen my enthusiasm a bit, tho.
It would be easier to ignore the 1996 thing if Khan himself hadn't said it. If anyone knows for sure when the Eugenics Wars are supposed to happen, it would be Khan!
Roll with it.Yeah, I suppose one mistake doesn't invalidate the whole thing.
Does tend to dampen my enthusiasm a bit, tho.
It would be easier to ignore the 1996 thing if Khan himself hadn't said it. If anyone knows for sure when the Eugenics Wars are supposed to happen, it would be Khan!
I guess I can just hope for one thing:
Side note: Did I actually have to put that in spoilercode because the Fucking Lawyers(tm) would otherwise shoot it down for being a story idea?
Another Eugenics Wars novel that tackles THIS problem.
Side note: Did I actually have to put that in spoilercode because the Fucking Lawyers(tm) would otherwise shoot it down for being a story idea?
Three words: Not Trek's way.
Fiction is mutable. Solves all problems.
In a few decades they'll ditch a lot more than that. They'll have to. And "alternative history still won't mean shit.
Constantly shifting dates around because maintaining continuity is too arduous a task seems like an unnecessary amount of work that somehow also comes across as lazy.
Establishing something and then working with that in mind sure is a novel idea.
Nah. It's not lazy, it's a practical. Comics have been doing it for decades. Lazy is the way fans cling to these dates.
We can just headcanon what the existing Eugenics Wars novels already did for the 1990s Eugenics Wars. If there are new Eugenics Wars in the 21st century, those are just our current wars except in Trek's world there was one or more augments secretly involved in it. Strange New World's 2nd American Civil War is likely the upcoming vicious debate over a certain Supreme Court decision.I guess I can just hope for one thing:
Another Eugenics Wars novel that tackles THIS problem.
Side note: Did I actually have to put that in spoilercode because the Fucking Lawyers(tm) would otherwise shoot it down for being a story idea?
It all seems to fit well enough.
Nope.
Dignifying fannish obsession with trivia by equating it to some sort of creative principle or discipline is a nonstarter. It looks foolish.
These producers have demonstrated that they know what they're doing, and why, and good for them.
Similar threads
