Video: Space Seed Review

[Samuel]

The danger of genetically engineered versions of these people is that they would identify as a group, which makes them much more likely to decide to work together against 'normals'.

Wasn't the Eugenics war the various supermen fighting each other?

[Skylon]

The danger of genetically engineered versions of these people is that they would identify as a group, which makes them much more likely to decide to work together against 'normals'.

Wasn't the Eugenics war the various supermen fighting each other?

I always got the impression some did. Why wouldn't they? Just because they are genetically enhanced doesn't mean they wouldn't disagree with others of the same breed...to the point of war.

[Lusankya]

The danger of genetically engineered versions of these people is that they would identify as a group, which makes them much more likely to decide to work together against 'normals'.

Wasn't the Eugenics war the various supermen fighting each other?

I have no idea. DS9 is the only one I've watched to any great extent.

[mr friendly guy]

The danger of genetically engineered versions of these people is that they would identify as a group, which makes them much more likely to decide to work together against 'normals'.

Wasn't the Eugenics war the various supermen fighting each other?

Without knowing whether Enterprise retconned the stuff from TOS, from memory the genetically engineered supermen such as Kahn fought among themselves as well as against us "normals".

[Stofsk]

The danger of genetically engineered versions of these people is that they would identify as a group, which makes them much more likely to decide to work together against 'normals'.

Wasn't the Eugenics war the various supermen fighting each other?

Without knowing whether Enterprise retconned the stuff from TOS, from memory the genetically engineered supermen such as Kahn fought among themselves as well as against us "normals".

Spock: "However, scanners make out a name-- S.S. Botany Bay. You can check the registry. No such vessel listed. Records of that period are fragmentary, however. The mid-1990s was the era of your last so-called world war."

McCoy: "The Eugenics Wars."
...
Kirk: "There are a great many unanswered questions about those years."

Spock: "A strange, violent period in your history.
...
"Your civilisation was on the verge of another dark ages. Whole populations were being bombed out of existence."

The TOS episode made it clear that the Eugenics Wars were a major international conflict. It was implied that the supermen fought themselves as well - superior ambition as well as superior ability.

[Themightytom]

My favorite part was when Kahn threw kirk into the drayer on Fluff.

[Bluewolf]

If I remember correctly, the Eugenics Wars were not the same as WW3, I am not sure if that has been changed but I swore WW3 took place a little while after the EW wars.

[Samuel]

If I remember correctly, the Eugenics Wars were not the same as WW3, I am not sure if that has been changed but I swore WW3 took place a little while after the EW wars.

2060s versus 1990s. This is what happens when you place major plot elements within the audiences lifetimes.

[Stofsk]

If I remember correctly, the Eugenics Wars were not the same as WW3, I am not sure if that has been changed but I swore WW3 took place a little while after the EW wars.

2060s versus 1990s. This is what happens when you place major plot elements within the audiences lifetimes.

That plus inconsistent writing. Spock says in "Space Seed" that the Eugenics Wars was the last World War, then in season three in the episode with Space Lincoln, we're introduced to Colonel Green who led a 'genocidal war in the 21st century', which appears to have been retconned into being WW3. (although to be fair on TOS, that war wasn't called or referred to as WW3, meaning Spock's statement can still be accurate if not for that retcon)

[Skylon]

If I remember correctly, the Eugenics Wars were not the same as WW3, I am not sure if that has been changed but I swore WW3 took place a little while after the EW wars.

2060s versus 1990s. This is what happens when you place major plot elements within the audiences lifetimes.

That plus inconsistent writing. Spock says in "Space Seed" that the Eugenics Wars was the last World War, then in season three in the episode with Space Lincoln, we're introduced to Colonel Green who led a 'genocidal war in the 21st century', which appears to have been retconned into being WW3. (although to be fair on TOS, that war wasn't called or referred to as WW3, meaning Spock's statement can still be accurate if not for that retcon)

I always thought the scene kind of played like this. If I remember the dialogue right Spock mentions the "era of your last World War". There's a big dramatic music note, then McCoy says "The Eugenics Wars." I always took that as McCoy slightly correcting Spock.

Perhaps also in the 23rd Century, The Eugenics Wars and WWIII were lumped into one conflict (similar to how 1939 is very debatable for the start of WWII, and you could throw the Spanish Civil War in there if you wanted).

One other explanation is that Spock notes that records on the period were sketchy. By TNG maybe new records had been discovered that put a firmer plant on when events occurred.

[Patrick Degan]

If you take the datelines provided/implied in TOS, the Eugenics Wars ended in 1996, just four years shy of the turn of the century. You already had a world which had been fragmented from that conflict, so it's easy to posit that another group of dictators (Col. Green, Ferris, LiQuan) attempted to take advantage of the post-EW chaos and thus the larger Third World War broke out just after the turn of the century. This, of course, before the bumbling attempts at retconning by later writers.

[Stofsk]

I always thought the scene kind of played like this. If I remember the dialogue right Spock mentions the "era of your last World War". There's a big dramatic music note, then McCoy says "The Eugenics Wars." I always took that as McCoy slightly correcting Spock.

Except Spock already knew about the Eugenics Wars enough to rub McCoy's nose in it: "Of course--your attempt to improve the race through selective breeding."

Why would Spock refer to it as the last 'so called world war' when its actually referred to as something else, when the actual WW3 was waged sometime in the 21st century according to the post-TOS retcon? Like I said above, the Eugenics War could be WW3 and the genocidal war led by Colonel Green could have been another conflict and there wouldn't necessarily be an inconsistency. There have been plenty of genocidal conflicts throughout recent history that haven't involved global scale warfare. Look at the Balkans, Rwanda and Somalia, and so on.

I know why the retcon was put in place, I just don't happen to agree with it because it undermines TOS to the benefit of TNG and so on.

Perhaps also in the 23rd Century, The Eugenics Wars and WWIII were lumped into one conflict (similar to how 1939 is very debatable for the start of WWII, and you could throw the Spanish Civil War in there if you wanted).

The difference between the Spanish Civil War and the onset of hostilities in 1939 between the Allies and Nazis can be measured in less than a decade. The difference between Spock's date of the Eugenics Wars (1990s) and the retcon for when WW3 was supposed to have taken place (2060s) is more than half a century. This alternative explanation doesn't sound convincing to me, sorry.

One other explanation is that Spock notes that records on the period were sketchy. By TNG maybe new records had been discovered that put a firmer plant on when events occurred.

Again, I have to say it isn't a very convincing argument. Spock was referring to the records of the SS Botany Bay DY-100 interplanetary transport, of which there were none - but its a hard sell to take that to mean 'all historical records of all kinds, for that period'.

As much as her existence seems incongruous onboard the Enterprise, Marla McGivers is a historian.