A Few Times Star Trek got History (or Future History) Wrong

The Star Trek franchise has a complicated relationship with history. In particular, Star Trek has gotten its history and future history wrong in interesting ways.

An elaborate future history is an important part of the Star Trek universe. Predictably, reality has wreaked havoc with some of Star Trek’s future history. Yet the series gets a few things right and wrong.

Some Future History we Hope Star Trek gets wrong

Frighteningly, one prediction Star Trek gets right is a human-caused mass extinction of Earth’s species.

Such an extinction drives the plot of what I consider the best Trek movie, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. In the movie, Kirk and crew have to time travel to the 1980s in search of humpback whales, one of many species humans wiped in the 21st century.

More recently, in the series premier of Strange New Worlds, Captain Pike reveals that over 600,000 Earth species went extinct in the 21st century. Disturbingly, some scientists think Star Trek is right about mass extinction.