The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2, Episode 2, "Ad Astra per Aspera," now streaming on Paramount+.
Considering all the strikes against it early on, Star Trek has done an admirable job of maintaining continuity in its very complicated universe. Gene Roddenberry famously didn't ascribe to continuity, which caused huge problems once the franchise grew beyond the scope of a single TV show. Most of the time, Star Trek was able to explain away the worst of it -- including an epic storyline to justify the improved Klingon make-up between The Original Series and the first movie -- but problems still crop up.
One of the biggest is the Eugenics Wars: a conflict on Earth between genetically engineered rulers that almost resulted in the extinction of the planet. It caused the Federation to ban genetic augmentation, a major narrative point in the franchise that continues to support Star Trek storylines today. The problem is that the time period for the Eugenics Wars -- the 1990s -- has come and gone in real life. In its wake is a major continuity error that offers no easy resolution. Una Chin-Riley's recent dilemma on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds demonstrates its importance, as well as the way Star Trek continues to quietly ignore it.
The Eugenics Wars Are a Major Event in the Star Trek Timeline
Continuity can be troublesome in Star Trek largely because no one was especially worried about it when The Original Series aired. It was just another TV series on the schedule at the time -- no one had an inkling of just how popular it would become -- and writers proposed ideas with no thought beyond an interesting story that could fill an hour of primetime. That's bitten the franchise more than once, as the ensuing apparatus goes to great lengths to explain away seemingly throwaway decisions made in the early days.
Nowhere is that more true than in Season 1, Episode 22, "Space Seed," arguably the most important Original Series episode in terms of continuity. The Enterprise picks up an ancient Earth vessel containing Khan Noonien-Singh and his coterie in suspended animation: setting up the conflict in the game-changing Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in 1982. Khan makes for a colorful and engaging villain as he attempts to commandeer the Enterprise, and the episode goes into great detail about his past as a global warlord before fleeing the planet in his spacecraft.
Khan's background has proven compelling for reasons that extend far beyond "Space Seed." His genetically augmented status is banned for fear of creating another tyrannical madman and has touched everything from Doctor Bashir on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to the current season of Strange New Worlds, in which Number One stands trial for genetic augmentation. From one episode, it's become a core part of the timeline.
The Eugenics Wars Are a Victim of Continuity
And that's where the problem comes in. The Eugenics Wars -- triggered by Khan and other Augments -- specifically takes place in the 1990s. Spock spells it out in clear terms: "The mid-1990s was the era of your last so-called world war." The problem is obvious: the decade has come and gone with no such war, while the franchise itself has outlived the fanciful predictions of "Space Seed." Star Trek's official World War III has been moved up to the mid-21st century, distinct from the Eugenics Wars. Not only does real history contradict the timeline, but Star Trek itself has on multiple occasions: including a trip back to contemporary LA in Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard with no sign or mention of the wars.
The franchise has responded by quietly ignoring the continuity error. Strange New Worlds doesn't mention the exact date of the war, while the conclusion to Picard Season 2 suggests that Khan has not yet been created as of 2024. Regardless, the issue is too tightly woven into Star Trek's narrative fabric to be undone. Ignoring it is likely the best possible option, though it's ultimately just kicking the can down the road. The longer the franchise goes on, the more of its fictional history will be overtaken by the real thing.
New episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds stream every Thursday on Paramount+.