Star Trek: 8 Things You Didn't Know About The Eugenics Wars

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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 eugenics 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 eight, the Augments were created in the 1950s. Just as the first atomic

01:03bombs were created to bring a swift end to World War II, the Augments were created with the best of

01:07intentions. Geneticists created them during the Cold War era in the hope that the so-called supermen

01:13would lead humanity into an era of peace after centuries of war. But they were wrong. Along with their

01:19superior physical and mental capabilities, the Augments were arrogant and aggressive. Their creators were

01:24unable to correct these character flaws due to the limited capabilities of genetic science at the

01:28time. As one of their creators succinctly put it, superior ability breeds superior ambition.

01:33That scientist would pay for his own arrogance and ambition when he was killed by his own creations.

01:38By the time the Augments were fully grown, they were ready to put their superior abilities to use.

01:43However, they were more interested in conquering humanity than leading them into an era of peace.

01:48Khan 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.

01:577. The Augments ruled as despots

02:01In Space Seed, Khan described the era of the Eugenic Wars in romantic terms,

02:05calling them a period of great dreams and aspirations. He countered Spock's argument that

02:10they were fought to end tyranny by saying that they were an effort to unite humanity under a single

02:14ruler much like Rome under the Caesars. He claimed that while there were many petty dictatorships in that

02:20era, eventually 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 territory as authoritarian

02:30dictators who treated ordinary humans as little more than slaves. Khan, however,

02:34considered himself a prince who ruled as a benign dictator. Unlike his fellow despots,

02:39Khan didn't slaughter his own citizens and his regime was peaceful. He didn't engage in warfare

02:44until his territory was attacked. Because of this, he was still admired in the 23rd century

02:48as the best of the tyrants.

02:506. 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

03:01this was 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 businesspeople and shoppers. The only signs of social strife

03:23the crew witnessed included homelessness and an encounter with members of a right-wing militia.

03:28So, like now. A possible reason for this was explored in the novel series Star Trek The Eugenics

03:33Wars. These novels depicted the Eugenics Wars as a covert conflict similar to the earlier Cold War

03:39rather than open warfare. However, Star Trek Picard showrunner Terry Metallus has suggested that Spock

03:44might have been wrong about the date. Metallus and the showrunner's writers concluded that World

03:48War 3's nuclear exchanges generated electromagnetic pulses that erased many electronic records,

03:54a reason that the Eugenics Wars were later in the 21st century. Star Trek Podigy writer and story

03:59editor Aaron Waltke has also suggested that the Temporal Cold War may have shifted the timeline.

04:05Number 5. Captain Jonathan Archer

04:08Other regions of the world were not so lucky as the United States. One area devastated by open war

04:13was North 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 Zindi, Enterprise encountered a disabled Zindi 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 when

04:46they came under attack from Augment. Wanting to limit collateral damage, Archer's great-grandfather

04:51contacted his Augment counterpart and successfully convinced the Augment commander to hold fire long

04:57enough to finish evacuating the school. Number 4. 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 begun

05:12fighting among themselves or ordinary humans may have risen up against them. However the wars started,

05:17governments around the world were soon drawn into the conflict. By the time the Tyrants were defeated,

05:22entire populations had been erased from existence through genocidal massacres and mass bombardments.

05:27The official death toll was 30 million. However, other estimates ranged between 35 and 37 million.

05:33Whatever the true total number of deaths was, another major but less obvious casualty was the

05:38human psyche. The human fear of genetically engineered beings lasted well into the 24th century.

05:44Bans on genetic engineering shaped everything from medical research to human interactions with other

05:48societies. They even jeopardised the careers of people associated with benign forms of genetic medicine.

05:54Number 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 general

06:12public. As it turned out, Khan and his followers had acquired a sleeper ship used for deep space missions in the

06:17days before warp drive. Khan christened the ship SS Botany Bay after the Australian penal colony.

06:22He 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.

06:29Kirk and his crew revived the hibernating supermen without fully realising the threat they posed.

06:34It wasn't long before the revived Khan led his supporters in an attempt to take control of the

06:38Enterprise. Kirk eventually thwarted Khan's efforts and exiled him and his supporters to the uninhabited

06:44planet Seti Alpha V. 2. They had far-reaching effects

06:49Following the Eugenics Wars, thousands of augmented embryos were secretly put into cold storage and

06:54the genetic engineering of humans was banned. This ban on genetic engineering made pariahs of those

06:59who had been treated with genetic therapy and led to conflicts with the Illyrians, a race known for

07:03genetic modifications. Illyrians were banned from Starfleet, the medical technology was banned in the

07:08Federation 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 Una Chin Riley.

07:20In the 22nd century, Arik Soong stole several Augment embryos from Cold Station 12 and attempted

07:26to raise 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 Past Tense

08:06included 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

08:15into World War 3. The cataclysmic nuclear exchanges during the war led to the death of 30% of the

08:21population and the extinction of 600,000 species of plants and animals. As depicted in the Next

08:27Generation pilot episode Encounter 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

08:37video and subscribe if you haven't already, and tap the notification bell to be alerted of future

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

08:50find us on Twitter at TrekCulture and on Instagram at TrekCultureYT. You can find myself on Twitter at

08:55Tom C Finn and on various other socials as well. Thanks for watching and until next time, buh-bye.

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