Topic: Question for debate #2: The Eugenics Wars

[Rat Boy]

Thanks to Enterprise's most recent block of episodes, we know a lot more about the Eugenics Wars first mentioned in the first series episode "Space Seed."  Here's a rundown on what we know about the conflict based on Trek canon (sorry, Greg Cox's pair of novels don't count anymore):


Sometime before 1992 - The Augments are created.  The person behind their birth is often quoted as saying, "Superior ability breeds superior ambition."  That person was killed by the Augments.

1992 - Augment Khan Noonien Singh assumes control of a quarter of the world, ranging from South East Asia to the Middle East.

1993 - Augments seize power in 40 other nations.  The Eugenics Wars formally break out as the Augments fight against the rest of humanity and themselves.

Between 1993 and 1996 - An ancestor of Captain Jonathan Archer led a squad of soldiers in North Africa, protecting a school in a battle related to the Eugenics Wars.

1996 - Eugenics Wars ends.  Khan and ninety-six of his followers flee Earth on the Botany Bay, a DY-100 ship regarded as state of the art in the day.  The final death toll is pegged at 30 million people.  Surviving the war are 1,800 Augment embryos.  They are spared and frozen by the Earth governments, who apparently didn't want to deal with the ethical controversy involved in possibly destroying them.

Post-1996 - Genetic engineering is banned by Earth.  The 1,800 Augment embryos are all taken to Cold Station 12 for storage.

2134 - Arik Soong steals nineteen embryos from C-12.  After further genetic enhancement, he gestates them in incubators.

2144 - While on a mission to gather supplies for the Augments, Arik Soong is captured by Starfleet.  He is imprisoned on Earth and apparently refuses to disclose where the Augments were.


And that's what we know up to the Soong trilogy.  Now, the question is, knowing all that we do, is it possible to reconsile the Eugenics Wars with real-life?  Greg Cox was on to something by making it a guerilla/terror war before both his novels were invalidated by the episodes, but can a covert war account for killing 30 million people?  Is it possible for a group of people to seize power over half the world without the general public finding out?

[Alidar Jarok]

I don't think its possible while accepting the dates given.  I have, in the past, tried to work around it by using less specific dates (Khan was told he had traveled for 200 years, it was described as the last World War, WWIII was said to have taken place in the 2050s in First Contact).  But, with Enterprise's additional info, I've decided just to give it up and ignore these dates.

I think the wars didn't take place in the United States (most info about the US shows a place that isn't too bad).  Its possible it took place in the real timeline, but it would mean that the quality of reporting in the world is horribly bad (the dialogue shows that the Eugenics Wars is something that could not have been a secret war, as entire populations were bombed out of existance).

[Rat Boy]

as entire populations were bombed out of existance).

"Populations" is kind of a vague term, though.  Saddam Hussein bombed "populations" out of existance after the end of the Gulf War.  The Serbs at least tried to bomb "populations" out of exsitance at around the same time as the Eugenics Wars.  You could, in theory, blow up a small town or a village and therefore bomb an entire population out of exstance.

As for the war not involving the US since there was no damage there, consider this.  Other than 9-11, there has been no major attacks on the United States since Pearl Harbor, and yet the US was involved in conflict after conflict between those two events.

[Sirgod]

RB, do you think that Gary 7 might have had something to do with The discrepencies between the two shows? I seem to Recall Khan was his Worst enemy in a few Novels. I'd have to dig them up agian, But It might warrent Further discusion.

actually, who was worse, Khan or Col. Green?

Stephen

[Rat Boy]

I left Gary Seven out only because the novels aren't considered canon and since certain events from the Eugenics Wars novels seem to be contradicted by the Augment trilogy.  However, there doesn't appear to be a lot of discrepancy between the Trek shows anymore thanks to this series of shows, since Manny Coto seemed determined to keep it exactly as "Space Seed" described it.

As for if Khan or Colonel Green were worse than the other, I leave that to future episodes to discuss, since Coto has hinted that he wants to address Green in some form.  In fact, before Brent Spiner was cast on ENT, this arc would have involved someone associated with Green rather than Arik Soong.

[Sirgod]

I left Gary Seven out only because the novels aren't considered canon and since certain events from the Eugenics Wars novels seem to be contradicted by the Augment trilogy.  However, there doesn't appear to be a lot of discrepancy between the Trek shows anymore thanks to this series of shows, since Manny Coto seemed determined to keep it exactly as "Space Seed" described it.

As for if Khan or Colonel Green were worse than the other, I leave that to future episodes to discuss, since Coto has hinted that he wants to address Green in some form.  In fact, before Brent Spiner was cast on ENT, this arc would have involved someone associated with Green rather than Arik Soong.

Understood. I always kinda liked both arcs in the Books though and was just Kinda Curious how you would have Joined them. Yes I knowthat's even harder to do then the Show stuff.

to be honest, along time ago, I argued there was at least 15 years w/ kirk on the Enterprise between his first 5 year mission... his admiralty, and then Between ST2 and ST 6.

Stephen

[Alidar Jarok]

actually, who was worse, Khan or Col. Green?

I'd have to say Colonel Green.  There were no massacres under Khan and no wars until he was attacked.  He was, in a way, admired in the 23rd Century (even if Eugenics was feared).  Colonel Green on the other hand, led a genocidal war and was notoriously untrustworthy (often negotiating as a diversion for another attack).

[Rat Boy]

Understood. I always kinda liked both arcs in the Books though and was just Kinda Curious how you would have Joined them.

Hey, now it's open season on the Eugenics Wars.  Anybody's version of it, even mine if I decide to draft one, could be as valid as the next.


By the by, anybody have the exact quote from Malik as to how he characterized the war in "The Augments?"  I think he said something like "the last Great War," but I want to be 100% sure.