Regarding the unlikelihood of somebody doing genetic engineering back in the 1960s or whenever, it's perhaps worth remembering that, in science fiction, mad scientists are often decades ahead of real-life scientists. Captain Nemo had a submarine. Dr. Cyclops had a shrinking ray. David Hedison built a working transporter in 1958 (but forgot to watch out for flies). So it's not too big a stretch to assume that some secret cabal of geniuses was doing top-secret genetic engineering experiments long before conventional science was capable of such things.
"The fools call me mad, but I'll show them my genetically-engineered superhumans are no fantasy!"
A few submarines were built before the time of Nemo. But Nemo's submarine Nautilus in the 1860s was not merely a decades earlier version of Holland's submarines around 1900, but a full century earlier version of atomic powered submarines. I'm sure that some modern submarines are more advanced in some ways than the Nautilus, but also sure that in some ways the Nautilus is more advanced than the most advanced submarines of today, 150 years later.
So you shouldn't say that pulp fiction and movie mad scientists have discoveries and inventions decades ahead of their time when actually in some cases they are centuries ahead of their time - if their creations are even possilbe at all.
And a group of people decades or centuries ahead of their time, such as the genetic scientists who created the supermen, but possibly a different group, could have been very important in Star Trek history..
As you may have noticed, I believe that the only way to make sense out of often conflicting Star Trek dates is to assume that dates are given in several different calendar eras in various Star Trek productions.
Back in the days when I still thought that all Star Trek dates were in the same calendar era, and that the calendar era used was
Anno Domini, I came up with a chronology for TOS.
In "Where No Man Has Gone Before":
DEHNER: Try this one.
MITCHELL: Yeah.
DEHNER: Page three eighty seven.
MITCHELL: My love has wings. Slender, feathered things with grace in upswept curve and tapered tip. The Nightingale Woman, written by Phineas Tarbolde on the Canopius planet back in 1996. It's funny you picked that one, Doctor.
DEHNER: Why?
MITCHELL: That's one of the most passionate love sonnets of the past couple of centuries. How do you feel, Doctor?
When a writer has a character mention important information about the background of a fictional setting which the reader or viewer has no other way of knowing, it is the writer's duty to make the character be precise enough not to be misleading, no matter how imprecise and naccurate the character in question would normally be. Unless the writer intends for the character to be lying or mistaken and for that to be discovered later in the story.
Since it was not shown in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" that Mitchell made an error in date, I assumed that Mitchell was being precise enough and that the date of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" was one to two centuries after Tarbolde wrote "Nightingale Woman" in 1996. And thus "Where No Man Has Gone Before" should happen sometime in the period of 2096 to 2196.
Note that the Valiant was lost 200 years earlier, about 1896 to 1896, and thus Earth apparently had FTL interstellar travel before the Valiant left Earth sometime in the period of 1896 to 1996.
If Tarbolde was an Earth human writing poetry on a planet of a distant star in 1996, Earth would probably have FTL interstellar travel by 1996.
"Tomorrow is Yesterday" is set in "the late 1960s" and thus sometime in 1965 to 1969. So Colonel Fellini's threat to lock Kirk for 200 years which Kirk said would be about right implies that TOS should happen about. 2165 to 2169, plus or minus several decades, if Kirk was being serious.
In "Space Seed" Kirk apparently believed that the Botany Bay left Earth in the early 1990s:
KIRK: What was the exact date of your lift off? We know it was sometime in the early 1990s, but
So Kirk believed the Botany Bay left Earth in the period of 1990 to 1994. when:
KHAN: How long?
KIRK: How long have you been sleeping? Two centuries we estimate. Landing party to Enterprise. Come in.
And when:
KHAN: I remember a voice. Did I hear it say I had been sleeping for two centuries?
MCCOY: That is correct.
Therefore, their estimate of "two centuries" puts the date of "Space Seed" sometime between 2190 and 2194, plus or minus a few decades. For example, if a few decades could be as much as 30 years, "Tomorrow is Yesterday" could happen sometime between 2130 and 2199, and "Space Seed" could happen sometime between 2160 and 2224.
In"Wolf in the Fold" the dates of several future Jack the Ripper murders are given:
COMPUTER: Working. 1932. Shanghai, China, Earth. Seven women knifed to death. 1974, Kiev, USSR, Earth. Five women knifed to death. 2105. Martian colonies. Eight women knifed to death. 2156. Heliopolis, Alpha Eridani Two. Ten women knifed to death. There are additional examples.
So "Wolf in the Fold" should happen sometime after the latest date given, 2156.
When Kirk asks the computer about the names Kesla and Beratis:
COMPUTER: Working. Kesla. Name given to unidentified mass murderer of women on planet Deneb Two. Beratis. Name given to unidentified mass murderer of women on planet Rigel Four. Additional data. Murders on Rigel Four occurred one solar year ago.
And I suspect that the Rigel IV murders must have happened several years after the murders in 2156, or the computer would have mentioned that the 2156 murders were very recent.
in "The Savage Curtain" Scott says that the copy of Abraham Lincoln is obviously a fake:
SCOTT: Lincoln died three centuries ago on a planet hundreds of light years away.
That puts the date of "The Savage Curtain" in 2165, plus or minus a few decades.
So if all dates are in the
Anno Domini calendar era, the date of TOS should be sometime between 2156 and 2196.
So if TOS happens sometime in the period of 2156 to 2196, Zefraim Cochrane should have disappeared 150 years before "Metamorphosis" about 2006 to 2046, aged 87, and so was born about 1919 to 1949. And so he should have made his great discovery of the warp drive aged about 20 to 40 in about 1939 to 1989.
And the Valiant should have left Earth on a FTL interstellar voyage about 1956 to 1996.
However, that seems to conflict with Earth have STL space travel up to about 2018, and maybe longer, according to "Space Seed":
MARLA: Captain, it's a sleeper ship.
KIRK: Suspended animation.
MARLA: I've seen old photographs of this. Necessary because of the time involved in space travel until about the year 2018. It took years just to travel from one planet to another.
So if the Valiant left Earth in 2018 or possibly many years later, the date of TOS should be about 2218 or later.
Fortunately, I had read James Blish's Cities in Flight, and saw the solution to this contradiciton.
In Star Trek, Earth must have devolped FTL interstellar travel twice, independently. Tehefirst group of top secret cultists, government researchers, mad scientists, or whatever, kept their discovery secret, and left Earth with a group of people to explore and/or colonize the stars. So in 1996 Jhan didn't know of any faster than light drive, even though some people on Earth might have known about it insecret, and Khan had to use a sleeper ship. And in 2018, or possibly many years later, a FTL method of interstellar travel was independently developed on Earth. I don't kow if the warp drive was invent twice, or if two different methods of FTL travel were invented.
And eventually the two groups from Earth would have met and joined together, possibly shortly before "The Cage", or even during TOS.
I note that dialog in "Angel One" can be interpreted as indicating that Earth (or maybe a secret society on earth) was more advanced in the late 20th century than it actually was during the late 20th century when the episode was made.
And in "Haven" a Tarellian ship design is recognized, implying that the Tarellians were advanced enough to build FTL interstellar ships before diaster struck them.
And what era of Earth technology did they have at the time they built FTL ships?
CRUSHER: The Tarellians had reached Earth's late twentieth century level of knowledge. That's all you need if you're a damned fool. A deadly, infectious virus which at that modest level of knowledge is not difficult to grow.
Of course, now I believe that Star Trek dates are given in several different calendar eras.
But I think that either:
1) Star Trek dates are given in several different calendar eras.
or
2) a secret group of Earth humans invented interstellar FTL travel decades or centuries before the rest of the planet Earth did.
