Although the Star Trek franchise is lauded for its optimism and inclusive messaging, the backstory for this so-called utopian future is ridiculously bleak. Hinted at in The Original Series — and made clear in The Next Generation, First Contact, and the debut episode of Strange New Worlds — a massive global conflict decimated a huge portion of Earth’s population before humanity rose from the ashes and reached for the stars. Chillingly, all the it-gets-worse-before-it-gets-better moments in Star Trek’s timeline are still in our future — with one notable exception.
