Hello all, Ric here with the first in a series of videos that
aims to basically create a timeline of the Star Trek Universe, but not one based on watch order or
just including all the shows into a single thing, but one that starts from the very beginning to the
furthest point we know of. Hopefully, breaking the series into parts will have several benefits. If
something happens to retcon an event, or add in a point, I can just make another video and slot it
into playlist rather than invalidating an hour long
video. The other reason is I am lazy. So with that out of the way, let’s start the
timeline before there even was a timeline.
Before the Universe is an unknown, and for all intense and purposes, we may never know what
came before. Within the Star Trek, there was an origin to the universe, around 16 to 13.7 Billion
years ago, the former figure was stated on screen while the latter figure is derived from modern
estimates. There are numerous theories and ideas as to what existed before, perhaps another
universe, dimension or reality, or my personal favourite, a tangled mass of
what would later become known as subspace.
What is certain is that a coalescence formed into a single point that then
expanded, bringing with it… everything. The cause of this is even unknown, although with the
tremendous levels of power involved, some speculate the inclusion of the Omega Molecule and
others like physicist Schlezholt would argue that there were multiple events like this, not a single
point. Another theory was that two already existing parallel
universes collided and created a new one from scratch. Megas-Tu, an alternate
universe where the laws of physics were moulded by thought (akin to magic) also may have been the
cause as it leaked created matter through a creation
point into what would become our universe. There would be numerous other creation theories and
myths that circulated among the intelligent life that would come.
This expansion was termed the Big bang and was accompanied by baryonic particles, light and
radiation. This was witnessed by the USS Voyager when it was displaced in time by the Q known as
Quinn, the ship itself seemingly placed outside of the point of the Big Bang, literally in whatever
there was before the edge of the Universe. Any readings taken, or images collected
are unfortunately still not great evidence to work off, as
Quinn likely had a hand in allowing the ship to survive
in such an environment before it was returned to its correct time and place. Evidently however,
entities such as the Q could exist even before the creation of the Universe, despite being created
within it. Additionally, the Q’s origin point is unknown but I’ll get to that.
Around 10 billion years ago, many galaxies have formed and among them are our local group in the
Laniakea supercluster including the Milky Way and Andromeda. This brings in the scope of this video
substantially. 9 billion years ago saw the collapse
of a cluster of protostars and the creation of an area known as Black Clusters, these areas absorbed
radiation and energy, posing severe navigational hazards.
About 5 billion years ago, the Star Sol forms out of nebular dust and gas and the beginnings of our
Solar system form. The Female Q is born in this epoch too, raising questions if the Q were some of
the first life in the galaxy to reach non-corporeal evolution,
or did they exist even before the universe, considering their ease of
travelling back to the point of its origin. Either way, despite
claiming to have always existed, they clearly do have a time of
birth and even a time of death, even if it is measured in the age of galaxies.
Whatever life was like in this time, some of it did exists as interstellar
powers and time travel was employed by some of them,
after all it may seem early on in this video, but we have already glossed
over 8.7 billion years, plenty of time for entire civilizations to be born,
go extinct or evolve into unknowable forms.
More has been lost to time than can ever be learned, and that goes true for the
Trek universe too. One of these primordial civilizations
constructed the Guardian of Forever, a sentient, time observing machine arch
that facilitated both time and interdimensional travel. It was
placed on a planet whose name is long lost, at a point where timelines converged, but was capable
of relocating itself. At this point in time, it likely saw its final use until 2267 and would
enter a stasis period.
At 4.5 billion years, our planet forms, from stardust and stone, cosmically displaced water and
violent impacts. Gravity moulds our rock into the burning orb that cools in time to give life to
millions of species and forms. And one of those forms would declare we name it after dirt.
At around this time,
the Ancient Humanoids, known occasionally as the progenitors and whom some speculate
are the preservers, were the first humanoid species to evolve, meaning that any life that came
before them was likely vastly different from theirs. They became an uncontested empire that
spanned the entire galaxy yet for all their achievements, they knew that
they would not last forever. Possibly learning from the
primordial civilizations that came before, seemingly none of which
survived to this time in any recognisable state, they made plans to preserve
their legacy. We will get back to them in a minute.
The planet Pollux IV forms around 4 billion years ago,
a planet that would go on to shape mankind’s history in the future as it would give rise
to humanoids of tremendous power and psionic abilities.
But again, we will catch up with this planet later. Their homeworld
was actually Olympus and may not be the same world as Pollux.
After persisting for 700 million years, The Ancient
Humanoids travelled across the Milky Way (and possibly other galaxies) and added their own DNA
to the oceans of many forming worlds, including Earth, Vulcan, Qo’Nos,
Ferenginar, Cardassia, presumably Pollux 4 and many, many others. This date
was worked out from the formation of Earth’s own oceans which was around this time, possibly
earlier, so as there had to be liquid water for the Precursors to dilute.
Their goal was twofold, firstly it was to make an impact that would last beyond
their civilization and secondly it was to create a common link between species that would come.
And in addition, a message was hidden in fragments of the DNA of these species, each with
a section of the code needed to decipher it, all in the hope of
fostering cooperation between the child races that would come after. Well… they were half right.
Life on Earth began to flourish at this time, after the brief
solving of an anti-time eruption that threatened to prevent this from ever happening,
an event again prevented partially by the Q continuum.
At 2 billion years before you hit play on this video,
Taguans evolved on the planet Tagus and their records began, making them one of the oldest
species in the galaxy, and amazingly still present by
the 24th century. This made their planet one of the most important sites to archaeologists for the
obvious reasons, not only the records it kept, but the observations they could conduct would
unearth the history of ancient civilisation. However,
they are very secretive and do not like frequent visitors so progress is slow for outside cultures.
The sights they may have recorded. Despite this ancient status, they are not miraculously
advanced, suggesting perhaps that although sentient life
on Tagus may be 2 billion years old, the current Taguan society might not be.
At 1 billion years ago, an Empire known as the slavers
came to prominence. This species spread its control over most discovered sentient life in the
galaxy and well… enslaved them. Their reach was vast and uncontested until, as with all slave
built empires, it was brought down by revolt. However,
the following war was devastating on a galactic scale with not only the Salvers being completely
wiped out, but most other species that they had brought into their Empire.
This was a potential and cataclysmic reset of
interstellar civilisations and details are scarce, with only a few remnants of their
technology left behind. Finally we break past the
Billion year barrier, and things begin to get a little clearer, if only just. The
civilisations of this time were so vastly different from what we see
in Trek, that they border on the magical, with relics such as the
Guardian of Forever, the psychic Olympians, the alternate universe
magic society of Megas-Tu, and the Q continuum bearing witness to this era. It seems to be a time
where thought-matter-time and energy were more interchangeable than now and the mastery of
such is what permitted societies to evolve. The only time we see
something similar is with, strange interactions with Subspace and beyond the edge
of the universe, which is where my theory comes from that Subspace is kind of what existed before
the big bang and is being overwritten by the laws of our universe, pushing those layers deeper.
In the earlier times, such magical feats were far more
common, although to any society, sufficiently advanced technology is
said to be indistinguishable from magic.
As the timeline moves closer to the shows, we begin to approach many more societies that have
long gone but are more recognisable. They too left their mark on the universe in clearer footprints
and as such events will slow down somewhat as we pass into the ancient civilisations of the Trek
Universe, including some of my favourite myths, but more on
that in the next part of this timeline. Thanks for watching this first part in
the entire history of Star Trek and I hope you enjoyed it. See
you back for the next part and until then, I’ve been Ric, thanks and goodbye!