SPOCK: In 1993, a group of these young supermen did seize power simultaneously in over 40 nations.
KIRK: Well, they were hardly supermen. They were aggressive, arrogant. They began to battle among themselves.
SPOCK: Because the scientists overlooked one fact— superior ability breeds superior ambition.
The Eugenics Wars: A Brief History is a collaborative and currently on-going work on AlternateHistory.com, attempting to chart the course of the titular Eugenics Wars, from Star Trek.
With a point of divergence from our own history in the early 1930s, the Eugenics Wars 20th Century features an accelerated rate of scientific development, in part due to the various alien and time-travel incursions featured throughout Trek canon. This leads to even more brutal versions of World War Two and the Vietnam War, a more advanced space programme and the creation of a caste of genetically engineered supermen and superwomen who try to take over the world. Things do get better, though...in the end.
Read it here.
Contains examples of:
- Ace Pilot: Greek Augment Alexander Pallas was one.
- The Alliance: The "Democratic Alliance", the "good guy" side in the 1990s Eugenics Wars.
- Alternate History: The timeline takes as its starting premise the idea that the Eugenics Wars as mentioned in the Star Trek episode "Space Seed" must have taken place in a Twentieth Century very different from our own...and runs with that.
- Anachronic Order: The timeline is made up of snippets set at numerous points between the beginning of the 20th Century and the early 22nd Century and tends to jump back and forth according to the whims and interests of the various contributors. The overall shape of the history emerges slowly as the timeline progresses.
- Apocalypse How: Nearly three or four times.
- Bad Boss: At least four of Hasan's people (Yemeni Augment Ali Rahman, Greek Augment Alexander Pallas, Palestinian Augment Malik Aziz, and even his chief lieutenant Shirin Azar) ended up working for Khan because of his failures at leadership.
- More specifically, Alexander Pallas was forced to flee because he failed to conquer his homeland, Malik Aziz fled because Hasan had his parent's executed, while Shirin Azar was banished for expressing concern about her boss's mental state.
- The Beautiful Elite: Khan's court.
- Bigfoot: "Ben", though he's actually a very odd Augment.
- Broken Ace: Augments in general; beautiful, brilliant, talented, violent megalomaniacs.
- Berserk Button: Do not, under any circumstances, refer to Hikaru Minsei by his Chinese name.
- Bodyguard Betrayal: The fate of Saddam Hussein in this history, as well as several other dictators who employed Augment soldiers.
- The Butcher: Russian Augment Otto Rozchenko, literally; his actions in Georgia earned him the nickname Mjasnik, which is Russian for "butcher".
- Meanwhile, Azerbaijani Augment Babak Jabrailov is "the Tiger of Baku", and East German Augment Kati Jacobi's leadership of the Khanate occupation of Spain earned her the nickname La Bella Bestia, "the Beautiful Beast".
- Cain and Abel: Heroic Augment Steve Austin's archenemy ultimately turns out to be his brother Paul.
- Child Soldiers: Many of the dictators who create their own Augments or obtain them from their Cold War superpower sponsors end up using them as this.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Superior ability does breed superior ambition, after all.
- Also how Colonel Green prefers to do business.
- Church of Happyology: Optimum began as a variation on the theme.
- Les Collaborateurs: In Australia, the supporters of Robert Green's regime, including the paramilitary Free Australian State Guard Force or "Green Guards".
- A parallel example is provided by the Whenua movement in New Zealand.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Quite a few of the in-universe documents featured in the timeline are written by people who could be considered this. The scary thing is that most of them seem to be right.
- Continuity Nod: Naturally, contains numerous references to Star Trek's canon and Expanded Universe.
- Cosmopolitan Council: The Khanate's leadership; Khan is Indian, Minsei is Chinese, Hasan is Iranian, Robow is Somali.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The GK invasion and conquest of Australia and New Zealand, especially the Battle of the Brisbane Line, seem like this from the p.o.v. of the overconfident Western militaries on the receiving end.
- Dark Action Girl: Several female Augments, such as Shirin Azar and Zuleika Walker
- Darker and Edgier: Sometimes the Eugenics Wars 20th Century seems like the darker and edgier version of the one we really got. Which is really saying something.
- Day of the Jackboot: Quite a number of sources discuss the brutal Khanate occupation of Australia.
- Decadent Court: Khan presides over one.
- Death from Above: The orbital Kinetic Energy Weapons used by the Democratic Alliance in the latter stages of the Eugenics Wars - essentially manmade meteorites.
- Depraved Bisexual: Norwegian Augment Geir Jonsson fits the bill.
- Designer Babies: All of the Augments, technically. However, a few in particular are the result of this or that extremely wealthy or powerful person having a super-baby custom made.
- Didn't See That Coming: Irish Augment Liam McPherson was well on his way to becoming the secret puppet-master of Europe...and then he gets hit by a paternity suit and outed as an Augment.
- Different World, Different Movies:
- Instead of Star Trek, we have Galaxy Quest.
- RWBY is live-action HBO series.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Khan appears to have had a a radio host who prank-called him murdered.
- Divided States of America: In the wake of World War 3, the US collapses.
- The Dragon: Joachim Mueller fulfills this role in Khan's inner circle.
- Li Quan is Hikaru Minsei's. Shirin Azar was Muhammad Hasan's.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: As grim as the history before, during and after the Eugenics Wars often gets, it's all building up to the essentially optimistic and utopian future for Earth portrayed in Star Trek
- The Empire: What the Great Khanate seems to be to its enemies. The reality is perhaps more complicated.
- The same seems to be true of the
Eastern Coalition of Nations.
- The same seems to be true of the
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: Khan's court includes not only quite a few of his fellow Indians, but also individuals from every corner of the globe
- Evil Is Petty: Apparently all over the place in the battle for influence over Khanate-occupied Australia between "normal" collaborator Bob Green, Australian Augment Tony Thomsen, and Indonesian Augment Suparman.
- Foregone Conclusion: This is a prequel of Star Trek. What do you expect?
- For Want Of A Nail: The Korean War ends earlier than IOTL, causing Bruce Lee to have a bigger career, be even more famous, and die later.
- Four-Star Badass: Naturally, quite a few of these show up.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: The later Lee Kwan went from history professor to dictator of half of Asia.
- Not a person, but the Optimum movement went from a fringe cult to an ideology than took over dozens of nations and caused World War III
- Aaron Leroy Jenkins a.k.a. "Colonel Amber" went from high school sports coach/sociology teacher to notorious terrorist/fugitive to eventual post-apocalyptic warlordship.
- General Ripper: Quite a few Augments, most notably Muhammad Hasan.
- Also, post-WWIII, what General Asa H. F. Ferris becomes.
- Genius Bruiser: Created to be both physically and mentally "superior", many Augments are this by default.
- The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: East German Augments Esti Jacobi and Kati Jacobi did NOT get along.
- A God Am I: Hasan feels he is.
- Historical Domain Character: A great many real life figures from 20th and early 21st Century history (or their alternate timeline identical twins, perhaps) turn up in the timeline.
- Imported Alien Phlebotinum: Nazi anti-matter.
- Inspired by…: Another thread on the same subject on the same forum. Many of the core characters and events have been carried over to the newer timeline, albeit considerably embellished by now.
- Irony: In an attempt to distance himself from his notorious father Robert Green, who led the brutal Eugenicist occupation of Australia, Brian Green joins the anti-Eugenicist Optimum movement... Which results in his son becoming the leader of Australia's brutal Optimal regime.
- The Men in Black: [REDACTED]'s memos to [REDACTED] seem to be from such an organization.
- The Mole: Quite a few Augments played this role in the lead-up to the Eugenics Wars.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: American Augment Fred Rosen may have been murdered by his wife Amy's lover, Israeli Augment Daniel Katzel, who subsequently married her himself.
- The Nondescript: Soviet/American Augment Amos Williams was a deliberate attempt to create one.
- Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Averted. The timeline's version of the Second World War sees multiple nuclear weapons used against Germany and Japan; the Americans use nukes to save the French army in Indochina; the Soviets retaliate by destroying Budapest. And then seven major cities around the world are nuked during the Eugenics Wars themselves. And as if that isn't enough, then World War III happens...
- One-Steve Limit: Averted by Eugenics Wars-era Augment general Li Quan and later Eastern Coalition leader Li Kwan. The latter did change his name, however, out of admiration for the former.
- The Peter Principle: One of the reasons cited for the failure of the Khanate invasion of Greece is that the Land and Sea operation was commanded by fighter jock Alexander Pallas.
- Playing with Syringes: In addition to the work that went into creating the Augments, East German/Chinese Augment Suzette Ling and Belorussian Augment Dmitri Blasko both engaged in some fairly heinous biowarfare experiments.
- Praetorian Guard: Several dictators used their Soviet-supplied Augments this way. Mistake.
- Iranian Augment leader Muhammad Hasan had his "Immortals", which worked out better.
- President Evil: 47th President of the United States Anton Chekov York is portrayed as this by his political opponents - considering his later career as a post-apocalyptic dictator/warlord in what was once the southwestern United States, they might be on to something.
- The Chief of State of the Optimal Republics of Earth, Colonel Phillip Green, possibly fits this trope.
- The Quisling: Robert Green.
- Red Baron: "The Desert Wolf", is the name given to a particularly successful anti-Hasan resistance leader, to whom Hasan gave a particularly gruesome death. His real name: Osama bin Laden.
- Refuge in Audacity: The Khanate's early success was largely built on thinking so far outside of the box that the Democratic Alliance couldn't keep up.
- Renaissance Man: Quite a few Augments.
- La Résistance: The resistance fighters opposing the Great Khanate occupation of Australia are a textbook example.
- It is suggested that serious underground resistance to the GK takes place in Iraq, Spain and other occupied territories.
- Rewrite: Usually averted by the thread contributors, on the basis that once it's posted it becomes "true", but there have been occasions (usually by consensus among several of the contributors).
-
Science Marches On: A 1990s featuring genetically augmented superhumans and spacecraft capable of carrying them outside the Solar System might have seemed just about possible in 1967 when "Space Seed" aired. By the time the real 1990s rolled around it was alternate history. - Scrapbook Story: Told through bits and pieces of various fictional documents, from book reviews to TV interviews to magazine articles to secret government memos.
- Serial Killer: Thus far, two have been mentioned; Robert Kane, who's victims were all Augments, and Zuleika Walker, the Augment supermodel.
- Shout-Out: In addition to various references to Trek lore, other works of fiction are periodically referenced.
- An American Augment militia leader is named Nathan Holn.
- An American secret agent who is a rare heroic Augment is named Steve Austin
- A miniseries about the Pacific front of the E-Wars is based in part on a memoir by USMC Gunnery Sgt. Leroy Jethro Gibbs
- The names of the Sept are all references to characters from White Collar and the actors who play them.
- British Augment/Democratic Alliance informant Donovan Norten and his biographer Chuck Finley are references to Burn Notice.
- Similarly, the resistance fighters mentioned from Finley's other book are references to other USA Network shows.
- Single-Issue Psychology: Played With; In-Universe, the actions of the Augments are blamed on the principle that "superior ability breeds superior ambition". The reality, however, is far more complicated.
- Spell My Name With An S: Eastern Coalition leader Li Kwan. Or is that Lei Kuan? Or Li Kuan? Or possibly Lee Kwan? He rejects your Western imperialist transliteration systems, in any case.
- Spiritual Successor: The Eastern Coalition is in many ways this to the Great Khanate, even if its leaders might strenuously deny it.
- The Starscream: General Muhammad Hasan is strongly implied to be this in respect of Khan's Supreme Leadership.
- Stupid Jetpack Hitler: The Nazis in this timeline develop advanced jet aircraft, intercontinental rockets and the beginnings of genetic engineering, but still manage to lose World War 2
- Super Breeding Program: Many Augments resulted from state-sponsored ones.
- And upon taking power, launching "Revolutionary Eugenics" programs.
- Super-Soldier: Many of the Augments created by state-sponsored eugenics programs, especially those of the Soviet Union and its allies are intended to be this.
- Take Over the World: Apparently the ultimate aim of Khan Noonien Singh and the other leaders of the Great Khanate. Unfortunately, they seem to disagree on who should be the ruler of this taken-over world.
- Throw It In!: An occasional result of the collaborative nature of the timeline. One example is the "other USSR" featured at a couple of points.
- True Companions: The Sept.
- Chinese Augment leaders Hikaru Minsei and Li Quan are also considered to be genuine soul-mates, in so far as those with "superior ambition" can ever be.
- Turned Against Their Masters: The state-created Augments inevitably tried to seize power, sometimes successfully
- Twin Threesome Fantasy: Irish Augment Liam McPherson is believed to be romantically involved with American Augments Janet and Jessica Cooke.
- Übermensch: Many of those involved in creating the Augments, and many of the Augments themselves, certainly consider them to be this.
- Undying Loyalty: Joachim appears to have this to Khan.
- Unreliable Narrator: All of the story posts to the thread are written as newspaper articles, book extracts and other in-universe documents, some authored by people who are themselves characters in the timeline, so this trope creeps in quite a bit.
- Villainous Lineage: Colonel Philip Green, Optimalist dictator of Australia, is the grandson of Robert Green, Eugenicist dictator of Australia.
- World's Most Beautiful Woman: Indian Augment Parvati Rao is said to be.
- World War Whatever: Averted; though the Eugenics Wars were a third world war, it isn't referred to as such. Instead, the name is given to the nuclear war between NUN/ORE/ECON more than half a century later.
- Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Discussion between the thread contributors and other forum members, and contributors drawing inspiration from posts made by others, means that the overall "story" is a constantly evolving thing.
