10 Star Trek Episodes Based On Real-Life Events

the tagline based on a true story can sometimes be thrown around a bit willy-nilly in hollywood and the rest but in these cases it's actually pretty accurate with that in mind i am shown for trek culture and here are 10 star trek stories that were retellings of real life events 10. balance of terror balance of terror introduced the romulans to star trek with the enterprise hunting down the invisible romulan bird of prey this episode is an exercise in tension with frequent visits to the bridges of both ships the big reveal that the romulans are offshoots of the vulcans leads to an exploration of bigotry and racism in the star trek universe as well the episode is star trek's answer to the 1957 film the enemy below an adaptation of the 1956 novel of the same name both were based on the battle of the atlantic the longest continuous campaign during the second world war it began just after the declaration of war in 1939 and lasted until the surrender of nazi germany in 1945. it was a strategic victory for the allied forces with the german blockade of britain etc failing though it was a pyrrhic victory with thousands of lives lost in the episode the action is confined to two vessels with the romulans playing the part of the u-boats though the enterprise emerges victorious both commanders reflect on the pointlessness of the battles they are waging balance of terror is one of the most somber episodes in star trek frequently appearing on top 10 lists of the show [Music] 9. star trek vi the undiscovered country star trek 6 the undiscovered country is easily the most political film of the franchise detailing the attempts to join starfleet and the klingon empire in peace however along the way factions on both sides try to derail these efforts through assassinations and backhand events the opening shot of the film features the stunning praxis explosion which was the first real-life retelling in the film the entire backdrop to star trek six is the accident at chernobyl and the fall of the berlin wall the explosion of praxis is blamed on over mining and sub-par safety standards which is generally what resulted in the chernobyl explosion the breakdown of the klingon neutral zone was a parallel to the fall of the iron curtain and the eventual dissolution of the ussr after the critical disappointment that was star trek v a final film featuring the original series cast had to deliver leonard demoy and nicholas meyer chose to use this event to usher in a new era of the franchise one where the klingons were no longer the greatest enemies of the federation starter the next generation had already established that by the 24th century both powers would be at peace here the audience discovered how 8. a private little war this episode of star trek the original series is probably most well known for the introduction of the mogatu the white gorilla-like alien with a large horn on its head shown recently in the trailer for lower decks second season this alien is one of the most iconic villains of star trek's early years the episode itself centers on the struggle between the hill people and the villagers two native groups on the planet of neural captain kirk had previously visited the world befriending a local man named tyree when kirk returns to the world with mccoy and spock they're all shocked when spock is shot the bullet coming from a weapon that these people shouldn't have any access to the episode then shows the klingons and federations arming two sides of this conflict inspired directly by the united states involvement of the vietnam war in 1968 the war showed no signs of abating which led to the story here at the episode's end kirk ordered scotty to begin producing 100 flintlock rifles descend down to tyree and his people thus continuing the conflict in direct opposition to the prime directive when scottie questions this order kirk retorts that they are supplying serpents to the garden of eden 7. the enterprise incident the third season episode of the original series sees the enterprise assigned to steal a romulan cloaking device under orders from starfleet command kirk begins to act erratically eventually directing the ship to travel into the neutral zone in violation of treaty stipulations though the crew questioned this they carry out the order and are quickly surrounded by several romulan vessels including some adapting the klingon d7 design the episode was based loosely on the pueblo incident that took place in 1968. the american vessel uss pueblo was ordered to patrol the waters from japan to north korea remaining outside north korean nautical borders however while on patrol it was approached and challenged by several vessels the north koreans accused them of violating their territory alleging that their borders extended to 50 nautical miles into the ocean rather than the standard 12. despite several hours of a standoff the pueblo was finally boarded though they radioed for help none was forthcoming the actual uss enterprise patrolled the seas 510 nautical miles south of their location yet the aircraft they had aboard were not suitable for air-to-surface assault it would take 11 months of psychological and physical torture before the crew of the pueblo was allowed to return home a fight much worse than was imposed on their star trek counterparts 6. wolf in the fold wolf in the fold is one of the darkest episodes of star trek's original series depicting a series of brutal murders that are seemingly committed by none other than chief engineer montgomery scott the episode opens with the kirk says he is bringing scotty on shore leave to allow him some r r this is following an accident aboard ship caused by a female crew member the episode was written by robert block most famous for authoring psycho in another tale of grisly murders block draws on the story of jack the ripper for this episode in 19th century london five women were murdered by a killer whose identity remains unknown to this day the slayings were brutal and frenzied suggesting a person with a deep hatred toward women the episode plays into that theory with kirk's initial worry that scotty carries resentment towards all women because of the accident then after the engineer's frequent blackouts no one is able to confirm his innocence the killer is however revealed as an alien entity who's been possessing men for hundreds of years moving from planet to planet the chilling ending was designed to show that behind any smiling face a killer could lurk sometimes even without the person's own knowledge 5. little green men okay this one may lean a little heavy on the conspiracy theory side of things but star trek deep space nine's fourth season episode little green men is a slightly fictionalized retelling of the roswell new mexico incident of the forties now while it remains to be seen if that weather balloon really was quark's treasure the episode is wonderfully funny twist on the tail the roswell ufo incident is one of the most thoroughly researched and thoroughly debunked alien encounter stories of all time the 1947 incident featured a nuclear test surveillance balloon from project mogul crashing into a ranch in the town immediately leading to thousands of accounts tales and stories of alien invaders and government cover-ups on july 8th 1947 raaf public information officer walter houd issued a press release indicating that a flying disc had indeed been recovered from the crash site which was one of the catalysts to the theories that it was a flying saucer from another world while hout would regret his choice of words in the future the episode little green men sticks as close as possible to both the truth and various fictional accounts in fact it is through a nuclear blast the very event that the real balloon was monitoring that quark's treasure is able to return home of course who's to say this isn't the real story after all four past tense the third season two-part episode past tense see cisco bashir and dax accidentally transported back to 21st century in san francisco the situation they discover is grim thousands of people have been shunted into so-called sanctuary zones which are designed to house the homeless while they look for work the conditions are wretched and there is a huge amount of growing discontent muggings and attacks are frequent leaving the areas in a seemingly endless cycle of depression the story was based on the attica prison riot from 1971. this remains the largest prisoner uprising in american history caused by poor conditions and well-being in the prison system the death of george jackson a prisoner and activist two weeks before the riot led to the outbreak of violence this is loosely mirrored in the episode with the death of gabriel bell for whom the trek riot would later be named the article riot would result in several days of a standoff with quite a few of the prisoner's demands being met however governor nelson rockefeller ordered the police to storm the prison by the time the shooting stopped at least 43 people had died although few of them were attributed to the prisoners themselves it paved the way for prison reform in the united states much as the bell riots paved the way for better conditions for the poor and homeless of star trek's earth three rules of engagement rules of engagement sees warf being put on trial by the klingon empire for the accidental destruction of a civilian passenger ship while there is no question that a ship has been destroyed starfleet insists that it strayed into the line of fire therefore absolving warf of guilt the klingons assert that wharf had plenty of time to hold check that the ship was indeed an enemy fighter he believed it to be then act accordingly the lawsuit in the episode is based directly on the iran air flight 655 case from the 8th of july 1988. the uss vincennes under the command of william c rogers iii shot down an airbus a330 that was flying along its usual route from tehran to dubai killing all 290 passengers and crew aboard rogers insisted that they had attempted to contact the airplane 10 times falsely believing it to be an enemy controlled f-14 which the us had supplied to iran during the 80s receiving no reply they fired two missiles directly at the plane the iranian government on the other hand were adamant that the flight had been identifying itself using the iff squawks in mode 3 which clearly identified it as a civilian vessel rather than mode 2 which was used by the military though the u.s continued to state that they believed they were acting in self-defense it received huge backlash for the incident with president reagan issuing a statement of sympathy and regress to the iranian people 2. call to arms call to arms is the final episode of star trek deep space nine's fifth season depicting the station being overrun with dominion and cardassian forces starfleet retreating from the bajoran sector and the destruction of the taurus three dominion shipyards by the federation klingon task force this episode has several real world inspirations the starfleet retreat was inspired by the events of dunkirk in 1940 where thousands of british troops were evacuated as the enemy closed in around them the fall of the philippines to japan in 1942 also served as an inspiration yet it is perhaps most directly paralleled by napoleon bonaparte's pyrrhic victory at moscow on the 7th of september 1812. napoleon had begun his invasion of russia and aimed for the battle at moscow to be a decisive victory for the french though his side did indeed win the day it was nowhere near the crushing blow he had meant it to be the russian army withstood the onslaught and despite retreating they left 35 000 french dead wounded or captured in what has been described as the bloodiest day in history to that point napoleon is portrayed by the dominion here taking control of the station while losing 50 ships in the attack along with the shipyards the russians are the federation destroying the computer core of deep space nine before the dominion can take control of it one has to wonder that if general m i kudsov commander of the russian forces also left a baseball for bonaparte to find one stigma star trek's approach to the aids epidemic was unfortunately stilted with blood and fire the script by david gerald going through numerous rewrites before being tossed by gene roddenberry's lawyer leonard maizlish it would not be until the 21st century that the franchise would tackle the condition with enterprises second season episode stigma stepping up to the plate to paul is suffering from pannar syndrome a degenerative disease passed on by mind melding after she was forced into one on a previous episode mind melding is taboo on vulcan at this time with sufferers of the illness ostracized after contracting it dr flax has been able to manage the illness the time is running out and he must approach several vulcan doctors in search of a cure depaul's secret is outed which leads almost immediately to the threat of her being taken off the ship though the episode ends with the vulcans becoming aware she contracted pannar through non-consensual means for which they allow her to remain it's a stark depiction of the prejudice that many sufferers of hiv aids faced in the 80s 90s and indeed present day though star trek took its time in shedding light on how this would be depicted in the future it's both a grim and accurate portrayal of how prejudice can destroy successful people that's everything for our list today if you think there's any other huge historical events that star trek has portrayed please drop them into the comments below don't forget to like share and subscribe remember that you can catch us over on twitter at trek culture you can catch myself at sean ferrick on trick culture as well look after yourself make history and live long and prosper [Music] you

Channel: TrekCulture

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Id: BJO2oA3STn8

Length: 13min 24sec (804 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 03 2021