History ArtisticLicenseHistory / StarTrek

* In ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]:

** In "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E21PatternsOfForce Patteens of Force]]", Kirk repeatedly refers to the SS uniforms as "Gestapo," which was the plain-clothes secret police. Gestapo personnel did wear SS uniforms in occupied territory to avoid being mistaken for civilians, but this isn't occupied territory.

*** Also {{Lampshaded}} when Newton recounts the apple story and Data mentions that it's "generally considered apocryphal."

* ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]'':

** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E5LoudAsAWhisper Loud as a Whisper]]", Riva, talking about deafness in his family, says "it is similar to the House of Hanover of your planet Earth, all who had haemophilia". However:
*** The royal house status goes by male line only; haemophilia, being a recessive X chromosome gene, almost always goes only by female line (but only affects males), the exception being that a male haemophiliac who has children (which was rare until the mid 1900s) pass the gene to all his daughters and none of his sons. So haemophilia could not possibly go down a royal house.
*** There actually were several haemophiliacs in European royalty. The source was a mutated gene in Queen Victoria, who was from the House of Hanover. It did not affect her; however, it did affect one of her sons (even he wasn't a Hanover), one of the sons of his daughter, and 7 grandsons and great grandsons of Queen Victoria through 2 of her daughters. None of them were from the House of Hanover.

*** Queen Victoria wasn't even the first British monarch from the House of Hanover. She came after George I, George II, her grandfather George III, and her uncles George IV and William IV.

** In [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E16BarAssociation Bar Association]], O'Brien's description of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Clontarf Battle of Clontarf]] as the Irish fighting off Viking invaders is an oversimplification, as the Vikings had already established a kingdom in Ireland, and there were Gaelic Irish on their side as well.
** In [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS07E15BaddaBingBaddaBang Badda Bing Badda Bang]], Benjamin Sisko objects to Vic Fontaine's simulation as being too unrealistic for the time it's supposed to represent. However, Las Vegas was actually much more racially tolerant than Sisko believes. The Rat Pack helped desegregate casinos by refusing to play at any venue that wouldn't allow Sammy Davis Jr. to gamble in them, and thus got many casinos to repeal their policies regarding blacks. Segregation had effectively ended in Vegas by 1960, two years before the program is set. However, Sisko is likely correct that black people would still be treated differently than white people even in a desegregated Las Vegas and certainly much worse in most other corners of the country.

* In ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]:
** In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E20InTheHandsOfTheProphets In the Hands of the Prophets]], Keiko, in an obvious fit of pique and ego, changes her lesson plan to teach about Galileo striving to preach the truth of heliocentrism against the awful persecution of church doctrine (not-so-subtly drawing a comparison between the famous scientific martyr and herself). Except that Galileo 1) wasn't the first to venture the idea of heliocentrism, 2) actually denied really believing in heliocentrism when pressed by the church, and 3) the church largely treated him with kid gloves due to his age, infirmity, and the fact that he cooperated with them willingly the entire time. Additionally, the church wasn't dead set against heliocentrism (Copernicus, who developed the theory, was a Catholic priest after all), and a number of Galileo's detractors came from within the scientific establishment (heliocentrism would overturn 1,500 years of established science dating back to Claudius Ptolemy). Moreover, it was an attempt to reinterpret Literature/TheBible, as well as mockery of the Pope, that really got Galileo in hot water with the church. A better example would have been the Scopes trial.

** In [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E24S7E1Descent Descent]]:

** In [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E5Phantasms Phantasms]], Troi tells Data that even Freud said "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." This quote is now generally accepted to be apocryphal; Freud believed ''everything'' in dreams was symbolic, and almost certainly never would have said such a thing.

** In reality, Honorius was not in UsefulNotes/{{Rome}} when it was sacked by the Visigoths in 410. He was in Ravenna, which had been the capital city of the Western Roman Empire since 402. Furthermore, Picard's comment suggests that the Western Empire fell as a direct result of the Visigoth siege. Although the Empire's power was rapidly diminishing and its prestige was severely weakened by the sack, it did not collapse until 476, 66 years later, when Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus and proclaimed himself King of Italy.

** The royal house status goes by male line only; haemophilia, being a recessive X chromosome gene, almost always goes only by female line (but only affects males), the exception being that a male haemophiliac who has children (which was rare until the mid 1900s) pass the gene to all his daughters and none of his sons. So haemophilia could not possibly go down a royal house.

-->I wonder if the Emperor Honorious, watching the Visigoths coming over the seventh hill, could truly realize that UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire was about to fall. This is really just another page of history, isn't it? Will this be the end of our civilization?

** In [[Recap/StarTrekS1E7WhatAreLittleGirlsMadeOf What Are Little Girls Made Of?]], Louis Pasteur is referred to as a medical doctor. In the real world, Louis Pasteur was a chemist (although one who saved more lives with his work than many real doctors).
** In [[Recap/StarTrekS1E28TheCityOnTheEdgeOfForever The City on the Edge of Forever]]:

** In [[Recap/StarTrekS2E21PatternsOfForce Patteens of Force]], Kirk repeatedly refers to the SS uniforms as "Gestapo," which was the plain-clothes secret police. Gestapo personnel did wear SS uniforms in occupied territory to avoid being mistaken for civilians, but this isn't occupied territory.
** In [[Recap/StarTrekS2E25BreadAndCircuses Bread and Circuses]]:

** In [[Recap/StarTrekS3E22TheSavageCurtain The Savage Curtain]], the historical characters, most notably Lincoln, do not look or act much like their real counterparts. Justified, since they are based on Kirk's and Spock's images of these historic figures.
* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E26S4E1TheBestOfBothWorlds Best of Both Worlds, Part I]]", Captain Picard muses:

* In [[Recap/StarTrekS1E7WhatAreLittleGirlsMadeOf What Are Little Girls Made Of?]], Louis Pasteur is referred to as a medical doctor. In the real world, Louis Pasteur was a chemist (although one who saved more lives with his work than many real doctors).
* In [[Recap/StarTrekS1E28TheCityOnTheEdgeOfForever The City on the Edge of Forever]]:
** Edith's fate is pinned on the reveal that neither Kirk nor Bones know who Creator/ClarkGable is. The episode takes place in 1930, so in fact Edith shouldn't have known who he was, either - he was just a bit player in 1930; he didn't become a star for another two years. Reportedly at one point the script used the name of a lesser-known (to 1960s audiences) actor named Richard Dix, but by the time the episode was filmed it was decided to use the better-known Gable, despite the anachronism.
** It's insanely unlikely that one outspoken pacifist could have single-handed sabotaged the Allied cause so significantly. Regardless of her motives, Edith would have almost certainly been seen as just another isolationist like Lindbergh. After all, the America First Committee did attract its share of genuine pacifists. And how exactly is she supposed to have succeeded where Lindbergh failed? We know she gets popular in the alternate timeline, but does her fame really eclipse that of Lucky Lindy?
** Changing history by making USA enter war late or not enter it at all would have many, many consequences which could possibly help the Nazis win World War II[[note]] And it should be noted that "Hitler wins the war" does not necessarily mean "Hitler conquers the world," though even a negotiated nazi victory would undoubtedly still be a very unpleasant geopolitical condition[[/note]]. Britain could be deprived of vital supplies and eventually forced to surrender. Russians could be unable to launch their great 1943 counteroffensive without all those means of transport and communication they got from Americans, and without the US strategic bombing campaign sapping its frontline strength, the Luftwaffe could've been a ''much'' bigger problem on the Eastern Front. Japan could build its empire in Asia unopposed. However, the screenwriters decided to pick one factor on which USA not partaking in war would have little to no impact whatsoever. Contrary to popular belief, the Nazi nuclear program was not nearly as advanced as the Manhattan Project, and it was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_heavy_water_sabotage successfully derailed in 1943]] thanks to actions of British Special Operations Executive, without any American involvement.
** Spock claims that with V2 ballistic rockets at their disposal, Nazis would be able to deliver nuclear payload anywhere they want. In reality, V2's maximum range was only 380 kilometers -- not even close enough to endanger USA or other distant allied powers. In addition, the V-2 rocket had a payload that weighed about 2,000 pounds. That was pretty much the limit that it could carry, so it never would have been able to even get off the launch pad with a primitive nuclear weapon based on 1940's technology. Fat Man and Little Boy, the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, each weighed just over 10,000 pounds. The Germans ''did'' have some more advanced delivery systems, such as the long-range ''Amerikabomber'' project, the V-5 multistage ballistic missile, and the ''Silbervogel'' orbital bomber (whose concept was eventually developed into the Space Shuttle), but only the first of these ever made it into the prototype phase.
* In [[Recap/StarTrekS2E21PatternsOfForce Patteens of Force]], Kirk repeatedly refers to the SS uniforms as "Gestapo," which was the plain-clothes secret police. Gestapo personnel did wear SS uniforms in occupied territory to avoid being mistaken for civilians, but this isn't occupied territory.
* In [[Recap/StarTrekS2E25BreadAndCircuses Bread and Circuses]]:
** Bones keeps nagging at the idea of the "sun" faith, saying it doesn't make sense because "Rome had no sun worshipers". [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_(mythology) Actually, they did]], and the Sun god was pretty important. Spock claims later that solar worship was usually a "primitive superstition-religion"; believers in Surya, Shamash and the numerous Egyptian sun deities would have a great deal to say about that, but Creator/GeneRoddenberry was all about OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions.
** Spock claims that about six million people died in WWI and eleven million in WWII. Low-end estimates place the number of dead in the first at about fifteen million, and of the second at an astounding seventy million, with the Soviet Union and China each losing far more than eleven million by themselves. The ''lowest'' estimate for Soviet deaths is nearly double eleven million.
* In [[Recap/StarTrekS3E22TheSavageCurtain The Savage Curtain]], the historical characters, most notably Lincoln, do not look or act much like their real counterparts. Justified, since they are based on Kirk's and Spock's images of these historic figures.

* Louis Pasteur is referred to as a medical doctor. In the real world, Louis Pasteur was a chemist (although one who saved more lives with his work than many real doctors).

* An episode of ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'' features a [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi]]-like planet. The man who created the society was a historian who thought the Nazis were the embodiment of efficiency. [[DatedHistory The episode was written in the 1960s,]] when popular opinion held that Nazism exposed the worst aspects of GermanicEfficiency. In reality, the Nazis were FascistButInefficient.
* Another episode featured a Roman Empire with 20th Century technology (the only explanation being a handwave about a scientific law of parallel planetary development) They were threatened by an underground that turned out to be the equivalent of Christians. In fact, early Christians were never politically opposed to the Empire, a misapprehension probably caused by their scapegoating in Nero's reign.

* In reality, Honorius was not in UsefulNotes/{{Rome}} when it was sacked by the Visigoths in 410. He was in Ravenna, which had been the capital city of the Western Roman Empire since 402. Furthermore, Picard's comment suggests that the Western Empire fell as a direct result of the Visigoth siege. Although the Empire's power was rapidly diminishing and its prestige was severely weakened by the sack, it did not collapse until 476, 66 years later, when Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus and proclaimed himself King of Italy.