It’s an exciting time to be a Star Trek fan, with new series Picard on the horizon as well as a new season of Star Trek: Discovery and short specials via Star Trek: Short Treks. However, one of the ongoing challenges of the franchise is nailing down a consistent timeline of the events, something that’s been complicated by the new rebooted movie series. The official Trek website has attempted to answer these questions though by posting a video showing the timeline of the universe.
The video, a preview of which you can see below, as well as a handy timeline image, goes from the Big Bang to the destruction of the planet Romulus in 2387. An ambitious effort, it takes in the multiple Star Trek series we’ve seen so far as well as both the older canon movies and the new, alternate universe films since 2009.
Traveling through space and time, part one 🖖 #StarTrek #StarTrekUniverse https://t.co/54ZiGtcJst pic.twitter.com/LcxedbIVff
— Star Trek (@StarTrek) November 15, 2019
Furthermore, the video references visits to the 20th century, including Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home‘s attempts to save Earth’s whales. Of course, Star Trek is no stranger to time travel, which has meant characters popping up at different times in Earth’s history, including the beginning of the universe billions of years ago.
We also get to see the placement of the Eugenics Wars, a pivotal event in the franchise’s version of the 1990s that revolved around Khan Noonien Singh. Other notable events include the creation of the warp drive in 2063, enabling the space transport that later allows the Federation to expand.
For fans of the franchise, it’s nice to see renewed acknowledgement of Star Trek: The Animated Series as canon, while the post teases a “to be continued….” ending that likely references the significant changes to Star Trek canon from 2020. In this context, we’ll be getting new timeline entries through Lower Decks‘ setting in 2280, Picard taking place after the end of Romulus and Discovery now following its crew in the far future of 3187. A lot to look forward, then, for those eager to piece together the series’ complex history.
