Eugenics Wars

The Eugenics Wars are a backstory event in the Star Trek fictional universe. First mentioned in the TOS episode "Space Seed", in which it was stated that the Eugenics War was a global conflict that occurred during the mid to late 1990s. The progeny of a human genetic engineering project established themselves as supermen and attempted world domination. The most notable of them, Khan Noonien Singh, conquered a quarter of the planet, mostly Asia. They ended up fighting amongst themselves and were eventually overthrown due to their disunity. Khan, however, escaped into space with a group of his followers only to be encountered by the USS Enterprise after spending centuries in suspended animation aboard the pre-warp starship "Botany Bay".

The Eugenics Wars are a narrative explanation within Star Trek continuity as to why humanity has not enhanced itself or otherwise achieved superhuman levels despite the story taking place in a time and setting where technology exists which should obviously be capable of doing so. The use of a plural to describe "Eugenics Wars" has never been officially explained, suggesting that there was likely more than one conflict within a short period of time (similar to the real world enduring two Gulf Wars in a little over a decade).

The Eugenics Wars in Star Trek television episodes
In "Space Seed," Mr. Spock refers to the Eugenics Wars being Earth's third world war. It should be noted that Spock stated the Eugenics Wars as "the era of your last so-called world war." This could be interpreted that some optimistic contemporaries of the conflict thought it would be the last global war. Of course, if that were the case, Spock should have said "your so-called last world war" instead of "your last so-called world war." This statement has been quietly ignored, however, and in the Star Trek universe, World War III is said to have taken place in the mid 21st century, ending in 2053.

Further, Spock's dialogue in the episode "Bread and Circuses" establishes a figure of "37 million killed" during Earth's "World War III]." Clearly, however, we now know that this figure refers not to the death toll of the 2053 nuclear holocaust, but rather that of the Eugenics Wars; now differentiated from the mid-21st century conflict by the reconciliation with Enterprise's "Borderland" dialogue.

An episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ("Dr. Bashir, I Presume") suggested that the Eugenics Wars occurred not in the 1990s, but in the late 22nd Century. This was later dismissed as a continuity error on the behalf of the episode writers and not an official retconning of the event. A later episode, "Statistical Probabilities", also mentions the Eugenics Wars, where Julian Bashir uses the war as an example of why the Federation is wary of genetically engineered people. The character of Jack thought it was an old excuse. In the two-part Star Trek: Voyager episode "Future's End", the crew of USS Voyager were transported to Earth in 1996 Los Angeles; there seems to be no indication that the Eugenics Wars had even taken place. However, the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Borderland" reaffirmed in the filmed canon that 30 million people indeed perished in the conflict.

Contrary to rumor, Colonel Green was not involved in the Eugenics Wars. In the original series, Green is only said to have "led a genocidal war in the 21st century" (the Eugenics Wars had already been over by then). Subsequent episodes of Enterprise made it clear that Green's heyday was in the dark times after World War III, when Green ordered the deaths of hundreds of thousands of radiation-scarred victims in an attempt to keep the human race "pure." Also, these Enterprise episodes (specifically "In a Mirror, Darkly") reveal that the 37 million deaths which Spock mentioned, are in fact attributed directly to Green himself: he was a leader of a radical faction of environmental terrorists whose genocidal operations resulted in the loss of 37 million lives.

Captain Jonathan Archer's great-grandfather was in North Africa during the Eugenics Wars. His battalion was evacuating civilians from a war zone when they came under attack. There was a school full of children directly between them and the enemy. If his men had returned fire, they might have hit it. So he called the commander on the other side and got him to agree to hold his fire long enough to evacuate the school.

The Eugenics Wars in Star Trek novels
At the time "Space Seed" was written, the Eugenics Wars were inferred to be large-scale global conflicts. However, after the very different reality of the actual 1990s, the Eugenics Wars have been retconned in some of the non-canonical Star Trek novels that describe them as much more covert conflicts, secret wars that occurred mostly in the shadows of the major conflicts and events of that decade, with Gary Seven and his assistant being Khan's principal opponents.