Everything you need to know about the wars that gave us Khaaaan!
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00:00The often mentioned but never depicted eugenics wars became an important part of Star Trek canon
00:05in the original series episode Space Seed. According to this episode, in the 1990s,
00:10the notorious Khan Noonien Singh and several other genetically engineered humans known as
00:14Augments rose to power as dictators over large portions of Earth. These tyrants were eventually
00:19overthrown after four years of bloody struggle. As important as they are, Star Trek writers have
00:24been vague about the exact nature of the conflict, such as when and where the wars took place and who
00:29was involved. However, the pilot episode of Strange New Worlds did provide a tantalising historical
00:34summary putting the eugenic wars into their proper context. Just as World War I set the stage for the
00:39even more devastating World War II, the eugenics wars served as a prelude to a series of ever-escalating
00:44conflicts culminating in World War III. They also shaped societies for many centuries afterward.
00:50With all that in mind, I'm Tom Roberts Finn for Trek Culture and here are 8 things you didn't know
00:55about the eugenics wars. Number 8. The Augments were created in the 1950s.
01:01Just as the first atomic bombs were created to bring a swift end to World War II, the Augments
01:06were created with the best of intentions. Geneticists created them during the Cold War era in the hope
01:11that the so-called supermen would lead humanity into an era of peace after centuries of war. But they
01:17were wrong. Along with their superior physical and mental capabilities, the Augments were arrogant and
01:22aggressive. Their creators were unable to correct these character flaws due to the limited capabilities
01:27of genetic science at the time. As one of their creators succinctly put it, superior ability breeds
01:32superior ambition. That scientist would pay for his own arrogance and ambition when he was killed by
01:37his own creations. By the time the Augments were fully grown, they were ready to put their superior
01:42abilities to use. However, they were more interested in conquering humanity than leading them into an era of
01:47peace. Khan came to power in 1992 and eventually conquered one quarter of the world's population.
01:53The next year, his fellow supermen took control of over 40 nations.
01:57Number 7. The Augments ruled as despots
02:01In Space Seed, Khan described the era of the eugenics wars in romantic terms, calling them a period of
02:06great dreams and aspirations. He countered Spock's argument that they were fought to end tyranny by
02:12saying that they were an effort to unite humanity under a single ruler much like Rome under the Caesars.
02:17He claimed that while there were many petty dictatorships in that era,
02:20eventually one Augment would prevail over the others, bringing peace and order to the world.
02:25Contrary to Khan's high-minded rhetoric, the Augments ruled their territories as authoritarian
02:30dictators who treated ordinary humans as little more than slaves. Khan, however, considered himself a
02:35prince who ruled as a benign dictator. Unlike his fellow despots, Khan didn't slaughter his own
02:40citizens and his regime was peaceful. He didn't engage in warfare until his territory was attacked.
02:45Because of this, he was still admired in the 23rd century as the best of the tyrants.
02:50Number 6. They may have been largely fought covertly rather than through open war
02:56In the Voyager episode Future's End, the USS Voyager travelled back in time to 1996. Although this
03:01was the year the eugenics wars ended, Voyager's crew didn't see any signs of warfare. In Venice Beach,
03:07people pursued leisure activities such as roller skating, bicycling and sunbathing. In the Hollywood Hills,
03:13Tuvok in Paris observed people enjoying the Griffith Observatory's exhibits and planetarium. In downtown,
03:19the crew witnessed well-dressed business people and shoppers. The only signs of social strife the
03:23crew witnessed included homelessness and an encounter with members of a right-wing militia. So, like now.
03:29A possible reason for this was explored in the novel series Star Trek The Eugenics Wars.
03:34These novels depicted the eugenics wars as a covert conflict similar to the earlier Cold War rather than
03:39open warfare. However, Star Trek Picard showrunner Terry Metallus has suggested that Spock might have
03:44been wrong about the date. Metallus and the showrunner's writers concluded that World War 3's nuclear
03:49exchanges generated electromagnetic pulses that erased many electronic records, a reason that the
03:55eugenics wars were later in the 21st century. Star Trek Podigy writer and story editor Aaron Waltke
04:00has also suggested that the Temporal Cold War may have shifted the timeline.
04:045. Captain Jonathan Archer
04:08Other regions of the world were not so lucky as the United States. One area devastated by open war was
04:13North Africa. One of the soldiers involved in the North African campaign was Captain Jonathan
04:17Archer's great-grandfather. As depicted in the Enterprise episode Hatchery, during the Enterprise's
04:22conflict with the Xindi, Enterprise encountered a disabled Xindi ship containing an insectoid hatchery.
04:27Much to the crew's confusion, Captain Archer became obsessed with protecting this hatchery from harm.
04:32To illustrate his point that even war has moral rules, he related a war story about his great-grandfather
04:38to trip Tucker. During the eugenics wars, his great-grandfather was in command of a battalion.
04:42The battalion was evacuating civilians from a school in the middle of a combat zone
04:46when they came under attack from Augment. Wanting to limit collateral damage,
04:50Archer's great-grandfather contacted his Augment counterpart and successfully convinced the Augment
04:55commander to hold fire long enough to finish evacuating the school.
04:594. Casualties were in the millions
05:02How the eugenic wars began is unknown. As Spock pointed out in Space Seed, by the 23rd century,
05:07records from the 20th century had been sketchy. The aggressive and ambitious Augments may have
05:12begun fighting among themselves, or ordinary humans may have risen up against them. However the wars
05:17started, governments around the world were soon drawn into the conflict. By the time the tyrants were
05:21defeated, entire populations had been erased from existence through genocidal massacres and mass
05:26bombardments. The official death toll was 30 million. However, other estimates ranged between
05:3135 and 37 million. Whatever the true total number of deaths was, another major but less obvious
05:37casualty was the human psyche. The human fear of genetically engineered beings lasted well into
05:42the 24th century. Bans on genetic engineering shaped everything from medical research to human
05:47interactions with other societies. They even jeopardised the careers of people associated with
05:52benign forms of genetic medicine. 3. Earth's governments hid Khan's escape from the public
05:58When the eugenics wars ended in 1996, the governments of the world sentenced Khan and more
06:03than 80 of his fellow supermen to death as war criminals. However, the Augments had disappeared before
06:08they could have been arrested. In order to prevent a panic, the governments hid the fact from the
06:11general public. As it turned out, Khan and his followers had acquired a sleeper ship used for deep
06:16space missions in the days before warp drive. Khan christened the ship SS Botany Bay after the
06:21Australian penal colony. He and his followers fled into space with no particular destination in mind.
06:26Two centuries later, the Botany Bay was encountered by the USS Enterprise. Kirk and his crew revived the
06:31hibernating supermen without fully realising the threat they posed. It wasn't long before the
06:35revived Khan led his supporters in an attempt to take control of the Enterprise. Kirk eventually thwarted
06:40Khan's efforts and exiled him and his supporters to the uninhabited planet Seti Alpha V.
06:462. They had far-reaching effects
06:49Following the eugenics wars, thousands of augmented embryos were secretly put into cold storage
06:54and the genetic engineering of humans was banned. This ban on genetic engineering made pariahs of
06:59those who had been treated with genetic therapy and led to conflicts with the Illyrians, a race known
07:03for genetic modifications. Illyrians were banned from Starfleet, the medical technology was banned in
07:08the Federation as was mixing of human and Illyrian blood. As depicted in the Strange New Worlds episode,
07:14this bias against Illyrians ultimately endangered the career of Enterprise First Officer Eunachin Riley.
07:20In the 22nd century, Arik Soong stole several augment embryos from Cold Station 12 and attempted to
07:26raise them himself. Their aggressive tendencies overcame Soong's attempts to temper their behaviour.
07:31These augments threatened to incite war and mass murder just as their brethren from the eugenics wars had.
07:36Klingon experiments with stolen augment DNA led to the release of a highly contagious virus that
07:41affected the appearance, biology and personality of a large number of Klingons.
07:461. The Eugenics wars were the first in an escalating series of wars
07:51As shown in Strange New Worlds, the eugenics wars turned out to be a part of an era of ever-increasing
07:56violence and civil unrest. It was followed by the Second Civil War, which grew out of a series of
08:01protests against the US government. Another factor depicted in the Deep Space Nine episode
08:05Past Tense included the civil unrest that followed the development of sanctuary districts as a response
08:11to homelessness. A second eugenics war followed the Second Civil War, which ultimately escalated into
08:16World War III. The cataclysmic nuclear exchanges during the war led to the death of 30% of the population
08:22and the extinction of 600,000 species of plants and animals. As depicted in the Next Generation pilot episode
08:28Encounter at Farpoint, the post-atomic horror that followed persisted into 2079.
08:33And that was 8 things you didn't know about the Eugenics wars. Make sure to like and share the
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08:42videos. If you can think of anything that we may have missed, or you just want to tell us that New
08:46Trek isn't canon over and over and over again, then let us know down in the comments. You can find us on
08:51Twitter at TrekCulture and on Instagram at TrekCultureYT. You can find myself on Twitter at Tom C Finn,
08:56and on various other socials as well. Thanks for watching, and until next time, buh-bye.